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Extra points for a reference to Walter Raleigh's search for El Dorado.**

“It’s no great trick to discover an Englishman in the forest, Will. And it’s easy for a person to believe he is alone in a tree when in fact he is not. Do you understand?”

The memory of flight remained—the ecstasy of swimming weightless through the air—but the secret of how it was done escaped him as quickly and completely as water sinking into sand.

She doesn’t want to know what he knows, what makes him look that way. She doesn’t want to join him in that place, and if she could put him on a raft and shove him out to sea to be sure she never would, she feels in that moment that she’d do it without hesitation.

Chapters begin with a paragraph of dense, poetic imagery that sets up the action that inevitably begins just a few paragraphs later. Godfrey makes great use of the space.

Liam pauses a beat, watches a flock of blackbirds peel away and settle down again. The startled mass looks like a bedsheet lifted, turned back across the earth.

Read this book for this line, if nothing else:

"What kind of batshittery have you experienced?"

The prose here is transporting and immersive. Godfrey may be one to watch. Good pacing despite the short format, too:

"The stone cathedral sings a song of echoes, every drip and breath and step a note that plays a dozen times across the void and melds into the next in anxious harmony."

"The world is run by money," the cynical and melodramatic motto of this story.

You've only shot a gun once since you were child. You missed that time. Now you're going to take a second shot decades later, while the target wrestles a family member to the ground. Sure, that'll go well.

I was curious why a story about people stranded in a national park, evading wild animals and criminals would be labeled women's fiction, but I got my answer: two characters break from searching for potable water to argue about selling a house. Then, they pause to reflect on the antiquated gender stereotypes of safari guides.

Oh, is someone shooting at us? We're in the middle of an important discussion.

You're in a vast, uninhabited wilderness and a suspicious car was following you yesterday. One of your party has since been murdered and when you encounter a group of people, they fire a rifle at you. Your first thought is that they think you're following them and it's all a big mixup? At this point, the reader just wants the protagonist to die to maintain some sense of logical consistency.

This is a safari book for people who know nothing about safaris, camping, or the outdoors.

The suspense is building, but some of the timeline seems pretty far off--a toddler ran away from home?

Immediate recognition, a spinning embrace, and an intimate conversation. Then, she thinks to ask, "you two know each other??"

Some repetitive language, showing signs of a debut.

What an opening. Short chapters, should maximize the tension if done well. Good signs so far.

"Thoughts on the Passing of Muhammad Ali": 4/5 - trivializing his legacy was clearly not the intent, but saying Jordan was replaced by Kobe and LeBron might be the most interesting part of this. Maybe that was the thinking in 2016, but not in 2025. In any case, Hauser nails the denouement, as you might expect:


“I am youth,” the eternal boy answers. “I am joy. I am freedom.”

"Howard Bingham: A Remembrance": 4/5 - JFC. Read this if Ali is meaningful to you and you want to ruin your day.

"A Letter from Angelo Dundee": 4/5 - ostensibly from heaven on the subject of Ali's arrival through the pearly gates. There's something sacrilegious about it--writing what Ali's mother would say when reunited with her son, speculating about Liston's final resting place, depicting Ali graciously accepting Joe Frazier's forgiveness? I did not agree with a single word, but it was pretty powerful.

"A Note on Arnold Palmer": 3/5 - Palmer didn't like Ali, then he met him and said he seemed nice, but asked if his Parkinson's affected his intellect. Innocent curiosity or bad person?

"With the possible exception of Babe Ruth, no athlete ever did as much for a sport as Palmer did for golf. He had a reverence for the game, a remarkable camaraderie with his fellow golfers, and a generous spirit toward the public."

"Andrew Cuomo and.." you guessed it, "The New York State Athletic Commission": 0/5 - didn't read it. Can't make me.

"Turmoil Grows at the New York State Athletic Commission": 0/5 - was Hauser getting paid by the word? And by "the word," I mean, specifically, "Commission"?

"The New York State Athletic Commission Under Fire": 1/5 - the only thing longer than the title is the essay, an addendum to the 50 pages we read earlier that was summed up in one sentence by Teddy Atlas.

"Literary Notes": 4/5 - some good ones in this collection of short reviews.

"The Murder of Sonny Liston": 3/5 - apparently not a great book by Shaun Assayel, Hauser does a good job constructively dismantling it, but it's still pretty much just "Maybe Liston was murdered, maybe not--you won't figure it out reading this book."