_The Executioner’s Song_ by Norman Mailer, 1979

Winner of the Pulitizer Prize, this book has been on my TBR pile for quite some time. Over the years, I’ve enjoyed a couple other Norman Mailer works for his modern post WWII style. Mailer is gritty and extreme. His works are often detailed and meticulous, but the depth of insight he achieves into the

_Happy-Go-Lucky_ by David Sedaris, 2022

I surely would’ve read this sooner, had I realized that it was out! David Sedaris remains my all time favorite humorist. His writing and prose is witty with a cynical gaze that points out the crazy social world we live in. No one is safe from his analysis, not even himself or his family who

_My Heart is a Chainsaw_ by Stephen Graham Jones, 2021

I read The Only Good Indian a year or so ago and was surprised at how much of it stayed with me. Stephen Graham Jones is one of the more interesting developments in the genre of Horror in the last few years. His perspective and characters are uniquely native American which is a complex realm

_The Field of Blood_ by Joanne B. Freeman, 2018

As it often happens the spring has been a super busy time for me, so while I continue to read regularly I am a little behind on blog posts. Here’s a quick weekly recommendation with more to come in the coming weeks! Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War is

A Deep Dive into _Where the Crawdads Sing_ by Delia Owens, 2018

This is one of those books that is surprisingly underappreciated. Sure, there’s a movie, but for the book there are few accolades… and there should be. Where the Crawdads Sing is a hauntingly beautiful coming-of-age narrative. Dalia Owens is a zoologist and her mastery of local flora and fauna introduce an element of natural awe.

_A Master of Djinn_ by P. Djèlí Clark, 2021

Winner of the 2022 Nebula Award, P. Djèlí Clark’s A Master of Djinn is an original take on the genre of Steampunk. Clark is the pen name for Dexter Gabriel a professor at the University of Connecticut, who needed something to differentiate his fictional work from professional publications. (Best excuse for a pen name I’ve

_Trust_ by Hernan Diaz, 2022

I started this 2023 Pulitzer Prize winning novel with a bit of skepticism.  If you’ve followed this blog then it’s clear that Cormac McCarthy’s dual volume The Passenger/Stella Maris was a high contender for me last year. Those two books were so well constructed, so well written, and such a pinnacle of work by a

_A Memory Called Empire_ by Arkady Martine, 2019

A Memory Called Empire follows an ambassador from a small space station as she travels to the capital of a galactic empire, Teixcalaan. Mahit Dzmere finds herself in the unique culture and a stranger in a strange land. Her assignment to Teixcalaan is immediately perilous, as it becomes apparent that the previous ambassador from her

_The Wager_ by David Grann, 2023

For lovers of nautical lore and from the critically acclaimed author of Killers of the Flower Moon, comes a gripping historical account of the HMS Wager and her crew ship wrecked off the coast of South America in the year 1714. It is a story of death and human nature as the sailors are faced

_Temporary Kings_ by Anthony Powell, 1973

Temporary Kings is the 11th installment in the A Dance to the Music of Time series. The 12-book masterpiece by Anthony Powell is a unique look at 20th century British society and culture. The novels are narrated by Nick Jenkins who passively records the social on-goings of several hundred characters over the course of his