Category Archives: Culture

Reading Well: Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel

Posted on June 11, 2020 by Daniel (@MKNN)

Reading Half Brother (2010) was somewhat surreal. I kept having this memory of reading not this book, but another book, quite similar to this book, but somehow darker, but maybe the same book? Turns out I was remembering Karen Joy … Continue reading →

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Reading Well: House of Names by Colm Tóibín

Posted on June 2, 2020 by Daniel (@MKNN)

Sitting in a long tradition of revisiting the Greek classics, Colm Tóibín‘s House of Names (2017) tells of the House of Agamemnon. Agamemnon fought in the Trojan War and, when things weren’t going so well, agreed to sacrifice one of … Continue reading →

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Reading Well: The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

Posted on May 25, 2020 by Daniel (@MKNN)

I had never read Carson McCullers‘ The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter (1940), which is sort of a shameful admission, right? Now, I have; and if you haven’t read it yet, you should, too. There are a few things to … Continue reading →

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Reading Well: Educated by Tara Westover

Posted on May 13, 2020 by Daniel (@MKNN)

Educated (2018) is in the same broad genre as Hillbilly Elegy, a tale of an individual’s struggle to move beyond the context and control of their family of origin. It shares many of the same strengths and weaknesses. On the … Continue reading →

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Reading Well: The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie

Posted on May 1, 2020 by Daniel (@MKNN)

I’ve written about Ann Leckie‘s science fiction before on Reading Well. Her initial trilogy was a lovely surprise, and a fresh take on the space opera genre, and her follow-up was quite strong, hinting at her staying power as an … Continue reading →

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Reading Well: Lot by Bryan Washington

Posted on April 18, 2020 by Daniel (@MKNN)

I first read a chapter of Lot (2019) in the New Yorker, and was struck by the way it portrayed dimensions of Houston that are neither commonly represented nor part of the emergent picture of Houston as a 21st century … Continue reading →

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Reading Well: Serpent Songs – An Anthology of Traditional Craft curated by Nicholaj de Mattos Frisvold

Posted on April 3, 2020 by Daniel (@MKNN)

This is a little bit of a departure, as it marks a return to my reading in and around my academic (and other) interests. Serpents Song (2014) is a compilation of essays by Scarlet Imprint, an esoteric publishing house in … Continue reading →

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Reading Well: Washington Black by Esi Edugyan

Posted on March 24, 2020 by Daniel (@MKNN)

The attention around Washington Black (2019) was really the impetus for my reading of Esi Edugyan‘s earlier output (see Half-Blood Blues and The Second Life of Samuel Tyne). Overall, Washington Black is as good as Half-Blood Blues (which I loved) … Continue reading →

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Reading Well: The Parking Lot Attendant by Nafkofte Tamirat

Posted on March 10, 2020 by Daniel (@MKNN)

The Parking Lot Attendant (2019) is Nafkofte Tamirat‘s debut novel. Book-ended by more fantastical sections set on an unnamed island, the majority of the novel is set in Boston, focused on the relationship between a young Ethiopian woman in her … Continue reading →

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Reading Well: Cecilia Valdés by Cirilo Villaverde

Posted on February 27, 2020 by Daniel (@MKNN)

Hailed as perhaps the first great Cuba novel, Cecilia Valdés was first published in full 1882, when Cirilo Villaverde (then living in exile in New York City) returned to a story he had begun some forty years prior. There is … Continue reading →

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