Anthony > Recent Status Updates

Finished Section I. Having read a couple of Russell’s fascinating and inventive short stories, I was very much looking forward to starting this, and I’m happy to say that I’m quite drawn in so far.

Finished Part Two. As always, I’m impressed by Ishiguro’s subtlety and clarity. Klara is a fascinating character, well-drawn and intriguing.

This is quiet and rich and Le Guin is taking her time with it and I’m so drawn in.

The jokes and the bitingly satirical situations come fast and furious, which can be a little overwhelming at times. But it’s all quite impressive.

This is really sharply written satire.

Read Chapter One. Not sure what I expected, but this is a bit more gothic and fanciful than I would have thought.

Finished Part II. The mounting tension in the last few sections was incredibly wrought.

Finished Part One. It’s a decidedly grimmer book than Lonesome Dove, but still excellent. I marvel at McMurtry’s fluidity with shifting frequently into different characters’ third-person POVs.

Glad to be back in the sure-footed company of the master storyteller Larry McMurtry. There are some surprising developments in the lives of some of the Lonesome Dove characters in the early going, and there are a couple of wonderfully intriguing new characters he’s introduced.

I’ve been listening to the audiobook for this, which is delightfully performed by Colin Morgan. I know I’m incredibly late to the party in reading a Discworld novel, and I’m enjoying the early going very much.

It’s feeling like more and more of a slog to get through this. I do like aspects of the characters and the world, but Wang’s tendency to over explain things, and her failure to create momentum in her sprawling narrative are becoming quite wearying.

It’s all fine, serviceable, and set in a mostly interesting culture and world. But there’s something about the pacing and overall structure that’s not quite grabbing me.

Kang sure loves her exposition dumps, but at least they’re not all as dry and dense as those sorts of things can be. There’s some fun worldbuilding and the characters feel pretty authentically alive in the early going. So I’m having a pretty good time so far.

Read “Omakase” by Weike Wang, a phenomenally strong final entry in what was a very strong collection of stories.

Read Jenn Alandy Trahan’s excellent “They Told Us Not to Say This”

Read Mona Simpson’s phenomenal “Wrong Object”

Read Jim Shepard’s “Our Day of Grace.” I’ve always enjoyed epistolary works, especially when the letter writers’ voices feel authentic, and Shepard does a good job of that here.

Read Alexis Schaitkin’s “Natural Disasters,” the first story in this anthology that didn’t really work for me. There were some nice moments, but overall the whole thing felt like a big reach for profundity without much to back it up.

Read Saĩd Sayrafiezadeh’s excellent “Audition”.

Read the fantastically imaginative, creepy, and incisive “Black Corfu” by Karen Russell.

Read Maria Reva’s fantastic, darkly funny “Letter of Apology”

Read Sigrid Nunez’s disturbing, vivid “The Plan”

Read Manuel Muñoz’s devastating “Anyone Can Do It”

Read the late, great Ursula K. Le Guin’s “Pity and Shame,” lovely, intimate portrait of two lonely souls.

Read Nicole Krauss’s “Seeing Ershadi,” the prose of which is quite lovely, but I’m not sure of how it all ties together.

Read Ella Martinsen Gorham’s “Protozoa,” and incisive and disturbing glimpse into the Social Media-driven life of an adolescent girl.

Read Jeffrey Eugenides’ “Bronze,” which definitely went in some effectively surprising directions.

Read Julia Elliott’s excellent “Hellion”

Read Deborah Eisenberg’s fascinating “The Third Tower.”

Read Jamel Brinkley’s touching, disturbingly sexy, keenly observed “No More Than a Bubble.”