writer
The Sea Gives Up the Dead: Stories by Molly Olguín
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
THE SEA GIVES UP THE DEAD sings across the water with a startling voice, rich with haunted children, final chances, cursed dilemmas, and full-blooded enchantment. Molly Olguín’s stories feel very new and very old at the same time: delicate, deft, disruptive. Prepare to be sad. Also, prepare to be wowed.
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Reef Mind by Hazel Zorn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Had to bust out my dive watch for the decadently creepy REEF MIND from Hazel Zorn. This book is a climate anxiety-fueled nightmare: immediate, skin-crawling, and amorphic. Standing ovation for this brand new indie banger–Zorn packs a beautiful death punch into a slim, devourable novella.
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A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck by Sophie Elmhirst
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I really respect nonfiction that is both unflinching in fidelity to the truth of its subjects’ lives, but also demonstrates a tenderness for their humanity. In A MARRIAGE AT SEA, Sophie Elmhirst creates a faithful portrait of a relationship that not only survived an ordeal of incomprehensible danger, but which was built around it. The survival story itself is riveting, but I also appreciate how the book ponders the unique love between these two flawed but fearless people who craved escape more than anything and found it in each other.
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The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World by Steve Brusatte
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Steve Brusatte’s THE RISE AND FALL OF THE DINOSAURS is an exciting, addictive read. When you’re someone with an interest in dinosaurs, it’s easy to dismiss any dino-related content as “stuff I already know,” but this survey of recent dinosaur science, combined with Brusatte’s personal behind-the-scenes backstories of the scientists and stakes involved, holds many surprises. It’s amazing that a field devoted to understanding the long-dead creatures of the world can still feel so fresh. An enjoyable, toothy read for all of us who are enthusiastic fans of the Jurassic Park franchise, real-life paleontology, or (in my case) both.
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Written on the Dark by Guy Gavriel Kay
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
It is always such a pleasure to read Guy Gavriel Kay. He does this magic trick in all his writing, in contextualizing well-known footnotes of history within a narrative style that uses the smaller moments of being alive as the palette for painting characters. And he so clearly loves these characters. Kay’s voice is distinct, and I think that might be his signature at heart-even in a literary landscape where it’s not always considered cool to do so, he does love his characters, and the world, despite all the things it does and has been doing for all these centuries. Kay’s generous humor, his romance, and his optimism are all on unabashed display in WRITTEN ON THE DARK, which I found deeply enjoyable and more than that… also quite fun.
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The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Ursula is beyond time, and will keep teaching us indefinitely, it seems.
THE LATHE OF HEAVEN is spooky and superb, an exploration of human ethics and fault, a playful but nightmarish interrogation of the power of the unconscious mind to shape our thoughts, our plans, and therefore the world. It will have you looking around at your reality, disoriented and asking “Who dreamed this one? Was it the best they could do?”
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In. by Will McPhail
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
IN by Will McPhail came up and punched me directly in the heart. Never met a waterslide metaphor I didn’t like, and this story starts there and stays slippery all the way down. Hilarious, poignant, and taking turns with despair and euphoria, McPhail serves his sarcasm with a side of earnesty. Visual argument using the graphic novel medium to the fullest. Also, materiality note: the size of this book is absolutely perfect.
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Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
WILD DARK SHORE by Charlotte McConaghy kept me up late reading, lost in its churning waves. Tender character studies and a tense, gratifying plot play out on a wilderness stage, all set to the ticking time bomb of our warming world. I deeply felt the pulse of this book, with its seals and kelp, tears and blood, whales and albatrosses. We can’t save it all, but some things we can. Some wounds can’t be repaired, but some can. Some things die. Some things live. Some voices we never stop hearing.
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The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A transportative fable (and bonus short story!) from a magical mind. Amal El-Mohtar’s novelette THE RIVER HAS ROOTS reads like something both from the past and the future, where fairy realms are taken as one of life’s facts and the physical forms people take are up for grabs, depending on which side of the fae boundary they happen to be on. Plus, it acknowledges the deep power of willow trees, something that anyone who has gone behind a willow’s curtained branches, especially as a child, can attest to. A folktale for any era, this book is as comforting as a dog-eared old fairy tale, read aloud to wide-eyed listeners learning of dangerous promises and healing spells for the very first time.
Also, the short story at the end was so fantastic! I am eager for El-Mohtar’s next collection!
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We Are Dreams in the Eternal Machine by Deni Ellis Béchard
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
WE ARE DREAMS IN THE ETERNAL MACHINE by Deni Ellis Béchard is a grieving. It’s a labyrinth, it’s a lullaby, it’s a night terror. The way this novel looks at the explosive potential of technological innovation, political violence, censorship, and human ingenuity is a lasting, stalking presence. I love the way this book asks what we as human beings might one day build, break, or think we deserve, and what the thing we built might decide to do instead. Left me uneasy, but in awe.
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