John Darnielle is a musician and writer, probably best known for his (mostly one-man) band The Mountain Goats. I honestly thought I had never heard of him until my friend sj asked me to read Wolf in White Van with her. So I looked him up (as I do with new-to-me authors), found out about … Continue reading Author Highlight: John Darnielle

I can't adequately summarize Eleanor Catton's The Luminaries in just a few sentences, so bear with me. The novel starts at the beginning of 1866 in a gold rush town named Hokitika on the West Coast of New Zealand. Walter Moody has just arrived after a long and disturbing ship ride. All he wants to … Continue reading The Luminaries – Eleanor Catton

Short stories are hard to write. That might sound weird or wrong to people who don't know better or have never thought too deeply about it before, but it's true. Just because it's short, doesn't mean it's easy. Think about it: with a novel, you have at least 200 pages with which to begin the … Continue reading Everything’s Eventual – Stephen King

Formation: A Woman's Memoir of Stepping Out of Line, by Ryan Leigh Dostie While Formation covers a large swath of Ryan Leigh Dostie's life, I think the most important subjects it covers are Dostie's rape by a fellow soldier while she was in the Army, her silencing by Army commanders, and the resulting PTSD she … Continue reading First Four Books of 2019

I have never been a supporter of the death penalty. I don't remember when I had my first conscious thought about capital punishment--I think it was in high school when I took a Government class--but I've always held the belief that it's barbaric. It never made sense to me that killing someone was a logical … Continue reading The Sun Does Shine – Anthony Ray Hinton