Second Star: And Other Reasons for Lingering – Philippe Delerm
Delerm calls on the body, mind, and visual field to preserve the essence of a moment. . . . [His] direct, humorous observations are both relatable and attentive to the largely unnoticed aspects of daily life.
Litt reveals himself to be more than just a writer, just as his diary is more than just a diary. In the end, we get everything, as promised: a life in a year and a year in a life—an everything diary.
As often happens when you have nothing left to lose, everything just clicked, the voice she had been honing throughout her artistic career was now razor-sharp, as was her sense of humor, righteous indignation, and impatience with classical, “proper” style . . .
Decolonize Museums – Shimrit Lee
While public funding continues to be slashed and institutions turn to private and corporate funders for capital, Lee reminds us that the need to “decolonize” has ethical implications that extend far into the future.
Unbound: A Book of AIDS – Aaron Shurin
Intimate and rangy, Unbound’s sixteen essays offer not only a nuanced portrait of the AIDS era but also a priceless guide for how to write about catastrophic collective and personal loss.
The goblin arrives through people, not in front of them. More poltergeist than monster. We can’t know its specific form, but we see it appear—fluidly, over and over again—in what we fear, and where that fear ignites into inspiration.
I grew up always wanting to be at Disneyland. It was a pilgrimage that you made as a kid. But . . . its myths worm into your consciousness.
Tomas Nevinson – Javier Marías
Reality may be unruly and even illegible, and though we may want and even need to forget that at times, our escape is not without its consequences. Someone always pays.
One of [the book’s] chief accomplishments . . . is its depiction of the relationship between the “actual” longing for lost homeland and the “metaphysical” hunger that becomes a state of being.
I feel very deeply that I am a child of Haïfa, this mountain place facing the sea, on the shores of the Mediterranean, while being at the same time a citizen of the world.