finishing up The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk. very long, and I struggled for the first half of it with keeping track of the dizzying array of characters, but overall pretty good. I enjoyed Primeval and Other Tales by her much more, however.

next up will be Soldiers and Kings by Jason DeLeon (Land of Open Graves, his previous book, was a goddamn gut punch, and expecting the same from this one - both deal with migration at the southern US border). also looking forward to James by Percival Everett.

I really enjoyed the first third of that book. the last third was OK. the middle third was so dreadful that I almost stopped reading. it just abruptly shifted to sitcom style/ depth plot and character development, it was bizarre.

‘glyph’ by Percival Everett (who has rapidly become one of my favorite authors).

I read ‘the book of form and emptiness’ by her a few weeks back and absolutely loved it. also looking forward to reading more of her.

yes, but not as much as I read novels. every once in a while I’ll come across a book of short stories that piques my interest, and I’ll give it a go. if I like it, I’ll read more by that author. most recently that was Jason Ockert, I loved all 3 collections of his. last year I read a bunch of Lauren Groff.

I feel like it’s harder for an author to pull me into short stories than it is to pull me into a novel, but I think the payoff for me is the same either way. they require some different skills, but good writing is good writing.

I live in Maine, and didn’t know about pine and roses. thanks for the heads up.

The Archive of Alternate Endings by Lindsey Drager is my absolute favorite.

honorable mentions:

• Slumberland by Paul Beatty
• A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
• Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
• Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
• The Thought Gang by Tibor Fischer
• The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
• The Cider House Rules by John Irving