Anthony > Recent Status Updates

Finished Part II. It’s just magnificent in its scope, humanity, heart, and clarity.

Just read a devastatingly powerful sequence taking place on the Great Plains. So glad to have decided to revisit this wonderfully captivating book.

Finished Part 1. What a book. Gus and Call are indelible, their relationship hilarious and fascinating.

I’m loving every moment of it. It’s packed to the brim with some of the most authentically rendered, vividly human characters I’ve ever encountered in my reading journey. And McMurtry’s ease with omniscient third-person narration, with which he often shifts points of view several times a chapter — usually an approach that I find clumsy if not a bit irritating — is unparalleled.

I was in the mood to reread this, an old favorite I read 35 years ago, because I wanted to be guaranteed a pleasurable reading experience. It finally became available at the library so I dove in. I’m happy to say that the first four chapters have proven themselves to be totally enjoyable. I don’t remember anything about the plot, just the feelings I had reading it, so I’ll be surprised along the way.

Read the perfectly constructed, disturbing, darkly funny “Good Country People”

Read “A Late Encounter with the Enemy,” which features an interesting portrait of an addled 104-year-old, but didn’t quite come together as well as other stories in this collection.

Read the excellent “A Circle in the Fire”

The writing is dense, vivid, and sort of incantatory, but it’s keeping me a bit at arm’s length. Curious if I’ll be drawn in emotionally as it continues.

Read Chapter One. It’s quite brutal, with fantastic art. Feels innovative as well.

It’s very enjoyable. There are moments that are surprisingly farcical, and other moments that are nicely layered. A nice blend.

This is my first encounter with the multi-award-winning James McBride’s work, and I’m finding it very entertaining in the early going.

It’s just brilliant. Loving it so much.

It’s completely delightful. And Chiwetel Etiofor is doing a phenomenal job in the audiobook.

It’s a strong beginning. Fascinating and disturbing and keenly observed.

This is my first Mark Lawrence book. I’m aware that he’s very popular. And his writing is nicely muscular and clean and sharp and — happily — free from signposting, the latter of which is such a fault of many modern fantasy authors. This is also, in the early going, the *epitome* of Grimdark. It is DARK.

Finished Part One. It is often laugh-out-loud funny. I don’t remember many details about Offill’s other novel I’ve read, Dept. of Speculation, other than that I really enjoyed it. This delightfully quirky and wise book is the perfect chaser to the lengthy, dense, violent, darkly funny novel I just finished.

Finished Part 3. I haven’t read something this immersive in quite some time. It’s inventive, funny, bold, violent, poetic, and disturbing in the most thrilling ways.

Finished Part 2. It’s excellent. I’m alternating between eye reading and listening to the audiobook, which is wonderfully performed by an ensemble of fantastic actors.

This is my second Marlon James book, and once again I’m mesmerized by his energetic, vibrant, bold, violent, and darkly witty style.

This book is pretty relentlessly grim and brutal. And also feels quite authentic in its depiction of the effects of war on refugees.

It’s a grim and compelling beginning.

This is my first venture into the work of the enormously popular Taylor Jenkins Reid. I’m always curious to experience the appeal of these sorts of megabestsellers, and in the early going, her writing is clean, crisp, and pretty compelling. I hope her depiction of showbiz lives feels authentic to me as the narrative unfolds.

A fine, solid beginning. I know this is a very popular series and that V.E. Schwab is a very popular author, and so far I’m intrigued.

The writing is evocative, contemplative, poetic, and striking. A part of me has resisted reading this famous, beloved book, worried that it might have been overhyped. And I do wonder if it will really fully land for me, but so far I’m quite mesmerized by its dreamlike approach.

I don’t consider myself an expert plotter by any means, but I recognize when big dramatic moments feel earned and impactful and when they don’t, and again and again Lynch hasn’t found a way to make his feel earned. They’re fairly well depicted as scenes go, but the weave of the whole thing just doesn’t feel like it’s building to something.

All of the characters speak in the same voice, which is growing somewhat wearying, even though that voice is, for the most part, clever and spirited.

While I’m finding it to be pretty enjoyable, I’m a bit confused by aspects of Lynch’s approach. I’m not sure why he’s scrambling time and parceling out some of the backstory information in the way he’s choosing to; it’s hard to feel like it’s earning him much, and feels like it’s being done for its own sake.

It’s pretty enjoyable in the early going. I was in the mood for a popcorn read, and this is satisfying that urge, with a bit more wit than I’d anticipated.

Read “The Artificial N*****”, a searing portrait of how a self-righteous, racist grandfather poisons the mind and spirit of his grandson.