Richard Powers Fiction 2021 | 278 pages I am shocked to discover that there exist people who did not like this book! I think it is nothing short of brilliant. Â Theo Byrne is raising his neurodivergent, undiagnosed, nine-year-old son Robin, after his mother’s accidental death. Â This, all alone, is the making of a challenging story.…
Dave Eggers | Fiction, 2021 577 pages I think of satire as funny. And some reviewers found this book hilarious. Longtime Dusty Shelves blog readers know that I am not particularly adept at finding humor in the written word. And I found no humor at all in The Every. I was, well, “terrified” is perhaps too…
Madeline Miller Fiction, 2012 |377 pages The Song of Achilles inspires me to wonder … “Why do I read fiction?” At first blush: to learn something from a different perspective; to sink into characters and personalities that differ from my own; sometimes to activate my brain to solve a mystery; and finally, most important, to be…
Melissa Febos Nonfiction Biography, 2021 | 320 pages I certainly have earned my wings as a Feminist. About 50 years ago and ever since. However, some of you might want to banish them (or me!) when you read this post. I struggled to finish this book (though I enjoyed her use of the language). I…
Dina Gilio-Whitaker Nonfiction, 2019 | 210 pages This is perhaps the most poorly written and boring book I have ever navigated. She uses ridiculously obscure words when easy words would suffice. Her sentences run on, with numerous clauses. And there is very little feeling, virtually no emotional connection in her writing. It is facts, pure…
Hannah Rothschild Fiction 2015 | 406 pages If it were winter, I would recommend this book for a long, cold, winter weekend. It is a novel that you just want to lose yourself in. A cup of hot chocolate at your side, you will eagerly turn the next page. Rich with story, character development, and…
Brit Bennett Fiction 2020 | 352 pages “Brilliant, stunning, eloquent, gorgeous, thought-provoking, intricate, moving.” These are just some of the words reviewers have written, and for good reason. The Vanishing Half is a novel about identical twin sisters, Desiree and Stella, born in 1952, in a minuscule Louisiana town that prides itself on breeding light-skinned…
Talia Lavin Nonfiction, 2020 | 273 pages This is the most profound, most devastating book I have read. The author, a Jewish female journalist, uses various guises, disguises, names, personalities, and personas, to enter the “dark web of white supremacy.” I cannot begin to truly understand all I read. First, I thought anti-Semitism was only…
Ruth Reichl | Nonfiction Memoir, 2019 288 pages LA Times food critic Ruth Reichl catapults into the opulent, gastronomically eloquent, ostentatious world of billionaires, Gourmet magazine and its owner, Condé Nast. It is astounding to read of her experiences entering this whole new world and working to find her place. And then, as the book…
Layla F. Saad | Nonfiction, 2020 256 pages For 28 days, addressing 28 topics associated with white supremacy, such as power, relationships, and white silence, Me and White Supremacy follows this pattern: “What is <topic>? “How does it show up?” and “Why do you need to look at it?” Then she presents “Reflection time journal…