Our perennial regret entering the New Year is not fitting in all the reading we hoped to. Some of these 2014 releases we got to and greatly enjoyed, others sit on our bedside table awaiting an imminent spine-crack, all are worthy additions to winter reading lists.
10:04 by Ben Lerner: A novel flickering on the meta-brink between fiction and a reality that’s acting very much like it, 10:04 presents an achingly familiar world facing a looming unknown as its young poet protagonist fathers a child (and fears climate-induced doom).
Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham: Though perhaps more of the same for Girls fans, Dunham’s memoir serves up laugh-out-loud one-liners and quippy snippets of wisdom gleaned from parents, friends and personal experience (e.g., the least pleasant way to disengage from water skies).
Adultery by Paulo Coelho: Brazilian author Coelhoexplores the complex sadness of a successful, comfortable, "perfect life" unenjoyed in smooth, conversational prose that reads like drinking water.
Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay: Gay’s exploration of feminism spans the gamut from pop-culture critiques (essays on films and her love of The Hunger Games) to steadily held gazes at the biases and arbitrary judgements that hold us all back.
Bark by Lorrie Moore: Compared with a "poppier Alice Munro," Moore’s short stories deftly capture the humour and poignance inherent to the human experience of trauma, be it from chronic illness or just cripplingly awkward small talk.
All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews: Toews has a gift for capturing the unique complications and pains of family life. In sweet and sad All My Puny Sorrows, sisters in a melancholic present brim over with warmth for a heartbreakingly golden past.
Just click on each book image above to purchase your own copy. Happy reading. —Adrienne Matei
share:
Be the first to comment