the governesses by anne serre
parkdale in the pandemic
Category: Book Review
Area X: The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer
distracting the self with heady genre fiction
the cléo reader: 2013-2019
commencing unemployment and panicking about expertise
If All The World and Love Were Young by Stephen Sexton
top prize-winning poetry and emotional toll of lockdown ekes in
We Are Made of Diamond Stuff by Isabel Waidner
it’s the pandemic and it’s now
The Triple Echo by H. E. Bates
a surprisingly great short novel that might be hateful
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin
i read escapist fiction and attempt escapist walking
Dark Days by James Baldwin
the strangeness of lockdown becomes the new normal
The Years by Annie Ernaux
cracking under lockdown and stunning books
Look Back In Anger by John Osborne
further disintegration as i read a play that hasn’t aged well
Faustine by Emma Tennant
sense begins to disperse as unemployment looms
Wormholes by John Fowles
a collection of essays
Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq
great prose-verse novel about nunavut in the 70s
Dinosaur by Adam Lock
an intriguing text, tho a last chapter I hated
Little Blue Encyclopedia (for Vivian) by Hazel Jane Plante
a truly phenomenal novel but Scotty still depressed
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
i, basic, enjoy some popular fiction
In the House of My Father by Hiwot Adilow
another kooky blog post
Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell
Who the f*ck is Malcolm Gladwell?
The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi
essentially a review of my new meds
Colorless [sic] Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami
i enjoy a haruki murakami for the first time in years!
the red and the black by stendhal
a stream of blogsciousness
The Book of Newcastle, edited by Angela Readman & Zoe Turner
lovely anthology from Comma Press
Winter in the Blood by James Welch
Maybe I’ve grown out of peripatetic flaneur type novels?
The Beauty of the Husband by Anne Carson
i’m distracted
Obasan by Joy Kogawa
very “literary fiction” literary fiction about WW2 non-Nazi racism
An Underground Guide To Sewers by Stephen Halliday
great book on the history of subterranean poo tubes
Decreation by Anne Carson
was almost sectioned today; read a book that was difficult but perfect
A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies by Bartolomé de las Casas
very early protest against colonialism
The Lonely Hearts Hotel by Heather O’Neill
a great novel but mainly me whinging about winter
The Final Voicemails by Max Ritvo
poetry by a then dying, now dead, young poet
fledging by Octavia E. Butler
vampires yes please and too long sentences
NDN Coping Mechanisms by Billy-Ray Belcourt
strong canadian poems
Baby, I Don’t Care by Chelsey Minnis
great book of pomes
New Model Island by Alex Niven
england is dead and it owes u no living
Joan Didion: the 1960s and 70s
didion didion didion didion didion didion didion
MY WORST READS OF 2019
the worst books I read in 2019: is your favourite here? probably u loser
New-Generation African Poets: A Chapbook Boxset (SITA), ed. Kwame Dawes & Chris Abani
a boxset of ten powerful chapbooks
Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom by Sylvia Plath
terrible plath juvenilia published nicely for profit
The Irish by Sean O’Faolain
self-hating, self-erasing history of Ireland
Lift Every Voice, edited by Christine Taylor
little review of a strong anthology
The Man Within by Graham Greene
greene’s messy horny debut
of is by Aisha Sasha John
i read some local poetry
Native Son by Richard Wright
surprisingly good protest novel; thoughts on UK election result
Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan
still working too much; brief notes on celibacy as sexual practice
Story of O by Pauline Réage
a real dirty french novel
The Counterfeiters by André Gide
a not-dirty-enough-to-be-dirty french novel
Triumph Of The Now 