Some Books I Loved

 **Calling him one of the greatest short story writers ever is damning him with faint praise.  One of the greatest artists to ever put pen to paper, period** If you put a gun to my head and forced me to choose a favorite author, there's a very real chance I'd select Jorge Luis Borges.  Erm, or William Gibson.  Oh, Ursula K. Le Guin, obviously.  Or modern torchbearers like Ken Liu and Ted Chiang.  Or obviously Nghi Vo, can't forget her, wow she's amazing.  Or . . . I mean, if you're actually putting a gun to my head, you'd better be prepared to either pull the trigger or have patience for a long debate.  Bring a snack, or something But yes, if there were a shortlist of authors I consider my absolute favorites, Borges would be very near the top What do I love about Borges?  Other than everything, of course.  Well to start, Borges truly mastered the art of the short story.  His entire writing philosophy was basically, "if you can't say...

 **What is there to say about basically one of the most perfect novellas ever written?** (note:  I read the first English-language translation, by Gregory Rabassa.  I don't know if there are more contemporary translations out there, if anyone has a rec of a particularly good one I'd be interested) I actually studied this book in my high school English class (my teacher was Alec Duxbury, great teacher and pretty solid electric guitar player too).  It was senior year, so first semester was obviously spent working on college essays.  But by second semester, most of us were done with college applications and pretty checked out, so we just read a bunch of fun books and talked about them in class (others included "The Alchemist", "Equus", and "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead") On the first day we were supposed to be talking about "Chronicle of a Death Foretold", we arrived at class to find that Dux wasn't there.  Confused, we took our...

*A wonderful and personal novel about returning to your childhood home and maybe searching for some of the magic that was once there* Mexico City, 1988: Long before iTunes or MP3s, you said “I love you” with a mixtape Moreno-Garcia is the current darling of the Hispanic specfic scene, and for good reason. Her world-building is great, she does an amazing job of drawing on Latin American culture and bringing it to Western audiences. For me personally she’s a bit hit and miss, I actually thought that “Mexican Gothic” didn’t quite click for me, whereas “Certain Dark Things” I absolutely adored. As for “Signal to Noise”? Easily my favorite work of hers so far (amusingly, it's her first novel--more on that later) This is the story of Meche, a woman who left her hometown of Mexico City basically as soon as she was old enough to do so.  She's back in town for her father's funeral, and in a series of flashbacks we learn the story of exactly why she left town (I'm a sucker for a ...

Hispanic Heritage Month starts today!  This one was tough to pare down, I tried to get not only a range of themes and types of books, but also a range in every other sense.  Some of these were written in English, some were translated from Spanish.  Some are classics of the genre, others are modern works dealing with issues like ICE in the United States.  I'm looking forward to this month, hope I learn something * * * "Tender is the Flesh" by Agustina Bazterrica (trans. Sarah Moss), 2017 (2020) I know, I know, everyone has read this one except for me.  I'm on it!  Visceral horror and terrible dystopia, really I should have read this long long ago "The Savage Detectives" by Roberto Bolaño (trans. Natasha Wimmer), 1998 (2007) A modern classic (let . . . let me pretend that 1998 still counts as "modern".  Please.  Let me have this), one that's been near the top of my to-read for ages.  A book about the beautify of Latin American literat...

 **Not just one of the most heart-rendingly good queer coming-of-age books I've ever read, but one of the best coming-of-age books I've ever read, period** This post will be short, because I don't want to spoil anything.  Let me just say that this book has my very highest of recommendations This book is fascinating, because it's firmly in the Young Adult category.  It's a story about a 16-year-old, growing up and grappling with the pressures of school and family and just trying to grow up.  Solidly Young Adult It's also one of the most soul-crushing, depressing, dark novels I've read recently.  I would absolutely recommend this book to a 13-year-old . . . but I'd also make sure to add, "and hey, I'll be around if there's anything you want to talk about".  And while I don't, for this blog, give specific content warnings, just rest assured that it has just about everything that can possibly be included while still being rated "Gr...