The Stolen Bicycle - Wu Ming-Yi (translated from Mandarin by Darryl Sterk) (Text Publishing, 2017) This was such an unexpected, playful, thoughtful, and informative book. It reads more like a non-fiction story rather than a novel, perhaps because it’s hard to tell at times how much is based on the author’s actual life. And perhaps… Continue reading Book Review: The Stolen Bicycle by Wu Ming-Yi
South African author, winner of the Booker Prize follows one family over several years When their mother dies, she makes their father promise that he will give their servant, Salome, her house to own Apartheid South Africa, the family is white, Salome is Black...we see where this is going, right? Father does not honour the… Continue reading (Point Form) Book Review: The Promise by Damon Galgut
Shuggie Bain - Douglas Stuart (Grove Press, 2020) Oof. This book. Let me start by saying that it is worthy of the high praise and the awards it has received. But it's really hard to read. I started slow and came close to giving up after one particularly brutal chapter but pushed through and am… Continue reading Book Review: Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
When I first saw Ducks, Newburyport on the shelf at the bookstore and when I first read about it, I thought, "Well, there's a book I'll never read." The story clocks in at 988 pages. It's a stream-of-consciousness novel, told mostly in one rambling sentence. The parts that aren't this stream-of-conscious are told from the… Continue reading Book Review: Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann
Everything Under - Daisy Johnson (Jonathan Cape, 2018) It's no coincidence that the main character and narrator of Everything Under is named Gretel. The name instantly conjures up a picture of a lost little girl. One stumbling through the forest, abandoned by her parents, in the clutches of a witch. But also the little girl… Continue reading Book Review: Everything Under by Daisy Johnson
Karissa Reads Books 