Author Archives: Teresa

Telephone

Posted on March 5, 2021 by Teresa

After reading Telephone, I’ve found myself wondering why I don’t hear more about Percival Everett’s writing. I was introduced to his work through the 2018 Tournament of Books, where So Much Blue competed, and then I heard nothing more about him until Telephone was selected for … Continue reading →

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Memorial

Posted on March 1, 2021 by Teresa

The relationship between Mike and Ben, the main characters in Bryan Washington’s Memorial, seems to have come to a turning point. They’ve lived together for years, and they love each other, but do they really get each other? Is their relationship … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction | 2 Comments

Shuggie Bain

Posted on February 24, 2021 by Teresa

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart won the Booker Prize last year and is one of the contenders for the Tournament of Books. And it is bleak. A lot of the TOB books are bleak this year, but this one is … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction | 6 Comments

Her Body and Other Parties

Posted on February 18, 2021 by Teresa

I have a much higher tolerance for weirdness and experimentation in short stories than in novels. In fact, I tend to prefer my short stories to be a little weird, whether in the story itself or in the way the … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Short Stories/Essays | 2 Comments

Breasts and Eggs

Posted on February 15, 2021 by Teresa

My TOB reading continues with Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami and translated from the Japanese by Sam Bett and David Boyd. It’s a long book, maybe the longest on the list this year, and I think it could have done … Continue reading →

Posted in Contemporary, Fiction | 8 Comments

The Tortoise and the Hare

Posted on February 11, 2021 by Teresa

This 1954 novel by Elizabeth Jenkins focuses on the disastrous marriage of Imogen and Evelyn Gresham. Imogen is beautiful and amiable, but, it appears, kind of useless to everyone in her household. She tries, but when she does, she ends … Continue reading →

Posted in Classics, Fiction | 6 Comments

A Children’s Bible

Posted on February 6, 2021 by Teresa

The last book I read by Lydia Millet, Sweet Lamb of Heaven, was a sort-of thriller that never quite gave in to actually being a thriller (and was therefore not quite as good as it should have been). A Children’s Bible is … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments

Braiding Sweetgrass

Posted on February 2, 2021 by Teresa

A lot of the conversation about people and the planet centers on how we’ve done the Earth wrong, how nature would be better off without humanity wrecking everything. And indeed we’ve done a lot of wrecking. But in Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin … Continue reading →

Posted in Nonfiction | 8 Comments

Sharks in the Time of Saviors

Posted on January 28, 2021 by Teresa

This novel by Kawai Strong Washburn is another solid entry in the 2021 Tournament of Books. It’s not one I’d put at the top of my list when Piranesi, Transcendent Kingdom, and The Vanishing Half are in the running, but it’s also … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction | 2 Comments

Earthlings

Posted on January 24, 2021 by Teresa

As a child, Natsuki felt so out of place with her family that she escaped in a world of fantasy in which she had magical powers given to her by a stuffed hedgehog from the planet Popinpobopia. Her cousin, Yuu, … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction | 8 Comments