Best Fiction: The Fifth Annual Karissa Reads Books Literary Awards

Hello and Welcome Back to the final installment of the Fifth Annual Karissa Reads Books Literary Awards! Undoubtedly, most of what I read is fiction so this final category is the Big One. I have my top 5 below but some other titles I greatly enjoyed reading in the past year are (in no particular… Continue reading Best Fiction: The Fifth Annual Karissa Reads Books Literary Awards

The Fifth Annual Karissa Reads Books Literary Awards

Hello and Welcome to the Fifth (yes, fifth!) Annual Karissa Reads Books Literary Awards! This is my annual, very rigorous, very competitive, highly esteemed way of looking back at what I've read over the past year and rating it by a merit system known only to myself. Eligible books must have been read by me… Continue reading The Fifth Annual Karissa Reads Books Literary Awards

Book Review: The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk

The Books of Jacob - Olga Tokarczuk (Riverhead Books, 2022) It is, I think, a testament to Olga Tokarczuk's writing that I undertook to read The Books of Jacob at all. I loved her novel Drive Your Plough Over the Bones of the Dead and she won the Nobel Prize for Literature shortly after I… Continue reading Book Review: The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk

What I Read – April 2022

READ: Women Talking - Miriam Toews (Alfred A. Knopf, 2018) The Pull of the Moon - Julie Paul (Brindle & Glass, 2014) The Books of Jacob - Olga Tokarczuk (Riverhead Books, 2022) (translated from the Polish by Jennifer Croft) Darling Girl - Liz Michalski (Dutton Books, 2022) The Further Adventures of Miss Petitfour - Anne… Continue reading What I Read – April 2022

Book Review: The Mothers by Brit Bennett

The Mothers - Brit Bennett (Riverhead Books, 2016) When Nadia Turner loses her mother to suicide, her grief and anger turn into rebellion, culminating in a relationship with the son of the pastor at her father's church. Nadia is seventeen, almost finished high school, while Luke is twenty-one, floundering after an injury ended his promising… Continue reading Book Review: The Mothers by Brit Bennett

What I Read – January 2022

Read: Starling - Kirsten Cram (Highway Six Press, 2021) Bibliolepsy - Gina Apostol (Soho Press, 2022) Defenestrate - Renee Branum (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022) Seeking Fortunate Elsewhere - Sindya Bhanoo (Catapult, 2022) The Chosen and the Beautiful - Nghi Vo (Tom Doherty Associates, 2021) None But the Righteous - Chantal James (Counterpoint, 2022) New From Here… Continue reading What I Read – January 2022

The Third Annual Karissa Reads Books Literary Awards

Hello and welcome! This is the Third Annual Karissa Reads Books Literary Awards. It's a literary award that I made up and means essentially nothing. I choose the categories and assign the winner. The winner receives nothing. As I said, essentially meaningless, but I have fun doing it and it's a way to look back… Continue reading The Third Annual Karissa Reads Books Literary Awards

Book Review: Real Life by Brandon Taylor

Real Life - Brandon Taylor (Riverhead Books, 2020) Real Life takes place primarily over a single weekend in the life of Wallace, a grad student in the Midwest and a young, gay, Black man. He's an introvert and someone who always feels on the outside, no matter who he is with. Over the course of… Continue reading Book Review: Real Life by Brandon Taylor

What I Read – October 2020

Read: Mother Mother - Jessica O'Dwyer (Apprentice House Press, 2020) The Bird King - G. Willow Wilson (Grove Press, 2019) The Party Upstairs - Lee Conell (Penguin Press, 2020) Bunny - Mona Awad (Hamish Hamilton, 2019) It Would Be Night in Caracas - Karina Sainz Borgo (translated from the Spanish by Elizabeth Bryer) (HarperVia, 2019)… Continue reading What I Read – October 2020

What I Read – September 2020

Read: Family in Six Tones - Lan Cao and Harlan Margaret Van Cao (Putnam, 2020) God in My Everything - Ken Shigematsu (Zondervan, 2013) Hamnet & Judith - Maggie O'Farrell (Knopf Canada, 2020) The Nickel Boys - Colson Whitehead (Bond Street Books, 2020) The Apothecary - Maile Meloy (Puffin Books, 2011) How Much of These… Continue reading What I Read – September 2020