Books You Should Know About That I Haven't Been Able to Review
A public service, or at least I'd like to think so.
I sometimes find it hard to fathom how many books are vying for my attention over the course of the year. On a typical day I receive 8-10 emails from publicists touting between one and five books per message. I request advance copies of somewhere around 150 books a year.
I also buy books, probably too many.
Between my Chicago Tribune column and this newsletter I may have space to not necessarily review, but merely acknowledge, maybe 50 new books a year, and that estimate is probably high because I don’t want to confront the reality of how many titles slip past me. This means there’s lots of books I intend to read and cover that I don’t get to. It also means that there’s a decent number of books I read that I just don’t have a spot or occasion to review or acknowledge even though I’ve read them.
To mitigate this shortcoming at least a bit, I’m going to briefly discuss some books that have come across my radar this year, some of which I’ve read, some of which I haven’t but still might, and some of which I’ll probably never get to, but are undoubtedly worth readers’ time.
This also maybe serves as some insight into the true vagaries of how the books that get published get attention from people like me who have the privilege of doing this kind of work. Everyone’s doing the best they can, but there’s so many books, not enough time, and sometimes people like me do dumb things like lose a book under their office couch.
Great Black Hope Rob Franklin got my attention because of the marketing copy positioning it as a literary mystery/thriller, which is my kind of thing, but I misread the publication date (June 10) and had it in the wrong order in my TBR pile, which meant by the time it was released I still hadn’t cracked it. It’s not like I can’t review a book after the publication date, but this is the kind of book that gets a spike of attention at its release so if a reviewer wants their piece to be read, you have to be on top of things. I wasn’t. This is a book I’m hoping makes the Tournament of Books so I can have a good reason to go back and choose it over others.
All Trap No Bait by Joseph Worthen is published by Chicago indie publisher, Tortoise Books, which does great work bringing off-the-beaten-path voices into the world. All Trap No Bait is the story of Beverly (Bev) who is marinating in the Alabama summer and also online as she escapes the desperation of her present circumstances, joblessness and a crappy apartment she can’t afford. But suddenly someone seems to be coming after her and she has to leap (to the extent she’s capable) into action.
Curious to get a taste I read the first 25 pages on this laying on my office couch the day before I had to leave on a work trip where I would be bringing a different book that I was obligated to read for a possible blurb/endorsement. I dug the laconic/sardonic style that gave off a Confederacy of Dunces vibe. I told myself I’d get back to the book prior to its August pub date, but didn’t because after putting the book on the floor of my office it slipped under my couch: out of sight, out of mind.
Recently, when cleaning my office (something I do every quarter, whether it needs it or not) I reconnected with my copy and felt shame. I was tempted to keep my shame a permanent secret by not mentioning this book, but it’s a book that deserves mention, so I’ll have to deal with the shame.
Last Night at the Disco by Lisa Borders just had its publication date (Oct. 7th) so I’m not tardy on it, but I had books scheduled for review through the first week of November before I even received a copy, so I want to note this book when it’s fresh on the market because Lisa Borders is a genuinely hilarious writer and frequent contributor to the McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. I’ll definitely be reading this at some point, and lucky you, you can read an excerpt published at McSweeney’s.
I’ve read the first three stories in Atavists by Lydia Millet, and they are terrific because she is just the best. I can’t review a book unless I’ve read the whole thing, and it may be another six months before I’m done with it because when it comes to stories, I like to savor, rather than gulp.
Sacred Rage by Stephen Heighton is a another collection of stories that I will eventually read to completion, but I want to alert people to now because this is a writer I hadn’t previously known, and if you’d read any of his work, you’d realize that this was a bad thing. Sacred Rage is a posthumous selected collection following Heighton’s unexpected passing at the too young age of 60 in 2022. Well known in his native Canada, not as well known in America, this is just genius stuff, well-presented by Biblioasis, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite independent publishers. Another Biblioasis release will be getting a fuller treatment from me when it comes out in November.
Ed Park was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for this polymathic, challenging Same Bed Different Dreams, a novel that read like a blend of Haruki Murakami and David Mitchell. The stories of An Oral History of Atlantis are fun, odd, funny, and often reminiscent of the playful spirit of the postmodernists I love (Bartheleme, Barth, et al). I’m not reviewing this because in my mind our mutual association with McSweeney’s (Park is one of the founding editors of The Believer) is too close, even though I don’t think we’ve ever met. I don’t know why I hold to these ethics when I see people who I know are actual friends reviewing each other in much more prominent places, but maybe it’s so I can continue to feel morally superior to those people. Anyway…I’ve read all of Ed Park’s books and they’re all worth your time.
I’m a sucker for oral histories and liked Superbad when it came out, so I thought this might be a fun book to read and review, but the truth is that oral histories are not great fodder for interesting reviews. Still, there’s gotta be some of you out there who might be glad to know that I Am McLovin: How Superbad Became the Biggest Comedy of Its Generation by Andrew Buss is in the world for you to check out.
This is another book I read with great interest (as I do everything by
), but I decided I couldn’t review it because Phil had just reviewed my book, and even though all of my praise is utterly sincere, I worry about the appearances…blah blah blah.Anyway, Why Christians Should Be Leftists by Phil Christman is a book that should be read by people whether or not they are christian, and even whether or not they are leftists. I am the latter, not the former, but what we’re looking at here is not just a testament directed at fellow believers, but a kind of origin story and manifesto for a world view rooted in human dignity, moral clarity, and inclusivity. It’s entertaining and inspiring and those of us who despair about the present state of things may even feel a bit more hopeful after reading it. I did.
There’s another dozen or more books I could add, but I don’t want to offload my problem of “too many books, not enough time” on everyone else. These are enough to get you started.
Links
This week at the Chicago Tribune I reviewed Taylor’s marvelous new novel, Minor Black Figures, which comes out Tuesday.
I also blew the dust off my
newsletter in order to direct people towards an important piece from on the necessity of steering clear of AI grading of student writing.
The Nobel Prize for literature was awarded this week to Hungarian writer, László Krasznahorkai. Colm Tóibín shares why he established a publisher in order to share Krasznahorkai’s work with the world.
An older piece from
that washed up on my Substack notes: “How to have good taste.”Great stuff from
on “Shirley Jackson and the Eerie Omniscient Narrator.”Via my friends
“Danny Zuko’s Internal Monologue as He Heads to Rydell High’s Thirtieth Reunion” by Kevin Lutz.Recommendations
1. Inside Peyton Place by Emily Toth
2. The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu
3. A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra
4. The Skunks by Fiona Warnick
5. Grief Is for People by Sloane Crosley
Karen R. - Beverly Hills CA
For Karen, how about Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe?
It’s not like I need any more books on my plate, but having done this exercise for myself, I’m curious to hear what books are on your radars that you haven’t read, but you think may deserve noticing by others. Share them in the comments, if you’re so inclined.
See y’all next week.
JW
The Biblioracle
Thanks for adding to my TBR pile. Books I hope to get to before the year is out: Mother Doll by Katya Apekina (a chorus of the dead, a psychic channeling the main character’s great grandmother, Russian intrigue - my kind of quirky read); Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy because a half dozen or more friends have reco’d it; Heart the Lover by Lily King because, well, Lily King; and A Complete Fiction by R.L. Maizes about social media, cancel culture and who has the right to tell our stories.