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lubellwoo's reviews
71 reviews
How to Write an Autobiographical Novel: Essays by Alexander Chee
5.0
I first encountered Chee's work as an essayist in [b: Scratch|20257114|Scratch|Rhonda Helms|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1391710876s/20257114.jpg|28068926], [a: Manjula Martin|15061370|Manjula Martin|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1469360800p2/15061370.jpg]'s incredible collection of writers talking about money. When I learned he had a whole book of nonfiction coming out, I couldn't wait. Reading these pieces was such an intimate, powerful reminder of so many things—the closeness of death, the power of story, the need to keep going. I read the whole thing cover to cover on a long flight, but will doubtless crack it open again before the week is out. These pieces are each so distinct, and yet, side by side, they show us how Chee returns to similar themes from different angles. It feels like the closest one can come to seeing how another person thinks. He paints such a clear portrait of writing, teaching, and living—and how the three inform one another. I have yet to read another volume that speaks so truthfully to the experience of being a creator and straddling the line between performance and authenticity all at the same time.
Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process by John McPhee
5.0
I've had Annals of the Former World sitting on my bedside table for the longest time, but when I found out McPhee's essays on writing were coming out in a single volume I couldn't resist taking a detour to start with them. These pieces are so well-considered. Each one is an education both in form and content. McPhee takes such obvious delight in crafting narratives and arguments—it's a pleasure to move through his words. And such WORDS! Odobene and horripilation and bibulation! I was scrawling notes all over the place. This is less a how-to text and more an exploration of writing as a craft and a way of life. Definitely starting Annals next.
The Magician's Book: A Skeptic's Adventures in Narnia by Laura Miller
5.0
I fell in love with the beautiful, clothbound Narnia books in our house when I was very young. My mother used to read them to me before bed. (I’m even named, in part, after Lucy Pevensie.) Like Miller, I didn’t encounter the books’ Christian themes until I was a teenager, and felt deeply betrayed once I had. Returning to Narnia through Miller’s criticism rekindled all the things I loved about the series as a child, but with an insight and breadth I couldn’t lay my hands on in high school. There’s a compassion and curiosity to her analysis of Lewis’s life and influences that I really loved. This isn’t a map of how Christian themes permeate the text, but rather a broadening web of literary theory, personal anecdotes, and biographical detail. I’m so, so glad I picked it up.
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
5.0
To an erstwhile Classics student and Greek Mythology enthusiast like me, Madeline Miller's debut novel is a total delight. She brings peripheral characters and details of The Iliad to the forefront of her story, fleshing out the rise and fall of the titular hero with unflinching honesty. Patroclus, in his role as narrator, is an unassuming everyman threading his way through all these titans of myth. His voice is so moving and specific. Miller approaches the source text with reverence, and the result of her expansion is a version of the epic saga that grounds itself in the modern understandings of love, pride, family, and society.
All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
5.0
A compelling, suspenseful, enjoyable read. Reminded me of [b:Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore|13538873|Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore (Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, #1)|Robin Sloan|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1345089845s/13538873.jpg|6736543] for its deft mix of technology and magic. This feels like present-day fantasy at its best, drawing on the specters that haunt our experience of the world while offering points of optimism for the future.