literary criticism

  • Favorite Books of 2023

    This year I completed a whopping 180 books! (A breakdown of genres and author demographics will come separately, along with recommendations for broadening your reading in 2024). In the meantime, here are my favorites: 10 nonfiction and 10 fiction. Grab them from your local library or favorite indie! Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning (2020)

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  • December is the time when I look back at all I’ve read the past year… and think about all the books I really wanted to get to but didn’t! I’ve also realized I now have so many unread books on my shelf, I could go all of 2024 without buying a single book. It won’t

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  • November was a non-fiction heavy reading month, as 9 of 13 books I read fell into the nonfiction category, while two more (Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar (1963), marvelously read by the actress Maggie Gyllenhaal; and Percival Everett’s The Book of Training (2019)) were based heavily in fact.  It was my second reading of The

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  • August 2023 Reading Recap

    Earlier this summer I had the opportunity to attend a lecture given by Alex Marzano Lesnovich, a brilliant author of creative nonfiction, who discussed the importance of an archive of one’s life. I am neither a faithful blogger nor journaler. I am, however, a faithful reader. So often I find looking back on what I

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  • I had the pleasure of traveling twice in the month of July and, in so doing, visiting bookstores in cities that are not my own. This is one of my favorite things to do when visiting a new city, and also offers a great opportunity to discover new authors. I spent time in Portland, Oregon,

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  • Closing out the first half of 2023, I completed 85 books across 17 genres and sub-genres. 58% of these books have been non-fiction. Across genres, I have read the most Popular and Literary Fiction (18%) and Poetry / Hybrid (18%). This is followed by U.S. and World History (12%) and Writing Craft & Theory (11%).

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