Winston Churchill: His Times, His Crimes by Tariq Ali
read a great book about a very bad person and a very bad place
Category: Book Review
Zone One by Colson Whitehead
a literary zombie novel. does it work? oh yes it works!
Bloodchild by Octavia E Butler
exceptionally good short story collection
Another Country by James Baldwin
another hagiography on Baldwin as scott packs up his north american life
MICROPOST: Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
tiny review of a space opera that’s perfect for a holiday read
Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
vampires don’t count as supernatural horror because they’re too sexy aha
Jarett Kobek & the Zodiac Killer (Motor Spirit & The Hunt for Zodiac)
two new books from Jarett Kobek about CRIME CRIME CRIME
Ambergris by Jeff VanderMeer
a big book about mushrooms that are magic (not magic mushrooms)
The Blood of Others by Simone de Beauvoir
some things are worth dying for – what is worth killing for?
Internet Crusader by George Wylesol
a very millennial internet-set graphic novel – i enjoyed a lot
Black Blizzard by Yoshihiro Tatsumi
a manga from the 1950s
Beasts of No Nation by Uzodinma Iweala
fiction about child soldiers that felt a little underdone
On The Beach by Nevil Shute
repression at the end of the world
Canopus by Dave Chisholm
quick read, a fun sci-fi psychological thriller!
The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda by Ishmael Reed
during a brief solo trip to Montreal, scott reads a blistering take-down of the musical Hamilton and makes a personal announcement
Sula by Toni Morrison
a beautiful novel about the emptiness at the heart of life
Passing by Nella Larsen (Norton Critical Edition)
a stunning harlem renaissance novel; scott muses on the hangover of growing up in a cultural desert
Guyana by Élise Turcotte
a powerful quebecois novel about grief
Wind Pinball (that’s what it says on the spine) by Haruki Murakami
not a great book, not a great time (post from the winter)
How to Blow Up A Pipeline by Andreas Malm
it’s self-evidently time for eco-terrorism. This book asks, “is it time for eco-terrorism?”
The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji
mediocre mystery that solves its mystery in chapter one
Red X by David Demchuk
reality is evil enough… i do not *get* supernatural horror
Dear Senthuran by Akwaeke Emezi
a very american-feeling memoir about being rich and successful and a literal god?
The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist by Adrian Tomine
a bland book for my bland life
Fear of Flying by Erica Jong
in early Jan I was quoted in the New Yorker and read a perfect novel
Bluebeard’s Chamber by Michael Maar
i crit lit + this lit’s lit crit; MANNSLAUGHTER???
The Invention of Sicily: A Mediterranean History by Jamie Mackay
in the middle of another canadian winter, i depressingly read about a warm, interesting, place
Tired by Joe Bielecki
dreamlike, dystopian, prose-poetry adjacent fiction
A Country of Ghosts by Margaret Killjoy
anarchist propaganda makes perfect sense!
The Letters of Mina Harker by Dodie Bellamy
an excellent – near flawless – novel
The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain
struck down by covid, scott crawls into a classic novel
The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin
a hyper-cautious novel about archetypes avoids offence but also characterisation
Trauma??? of intent??? or something like that by Anthony Burgess 
not a witty pastiche so much as a dull echo
A Dog’s Ransom by Patricia Highsmith
six weeks late, it’s the TotN CHRISTMAS SPECIAL 2021!
James Baldwin: Collected Essays (Library of America, 1998)
james baldwin is great; vaccines are also great
voice to text fragment: The power by Naomi alderman
voice to text fragment from summer/autumn 2021
Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert
scott visits canada’s “museum of immigration” and gets reflective. Dune Messiah is barely mentioned.
Just Us: An American Conversation by Claudia Rankine
while we seek relief in schadenfreude over self-esteem, the world will never be fixed
The Memoirs of a Survivor by Doris Lessing
a doris lessing dystopia
Grievers by adrienne maree brown
great speculative fiction; scott visits quebec city
Apocalypse by DH Lawrence
my domestic holiday begins with unexpected news; Lawrence eviscerates Xianity
Boy Parts by Eliza Clark (Influx Press, 2020)
a week off work begins with a great contemporary novel
Showa: A History of Japan 1926 – 1939 by Shigeru Mizuki
interesting entry-level text about modern Japanese history
Dune by Frank Herbert
yes it’s a book for incels, but it’s not bad!!!
Clotel or, the President’s Daughter by William Wells Brown
excellent, significant, 19th century anti-slavery novel
Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson
an excellent novel; in footnotes my concluding thoughts on the TV series The Affair
Vagaries Malicieux by Djuna Barnes
thoughts on a 1922 essay on travel
Two x Pierre Senges
didn’t like these tbh
Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore
digression-free thoughts on a dull novel
Triumph Of The Now 