Jacqueline Woodson. Riverhead Books. 2019 ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Heroin happened to him. Heroin made your daddy king of every party we went to. He had a place in Philadelphia somewhere. I’d call and call and call and no one answered. Few months later, I was doing some research and decided to see what I could find out …
Author Archives: MáirtínTaidhgJack
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
Ocean Vuong, Penguin Press, 2019 —————————————————————————————————— Ba mhaith liom an fhírinne a insint duit, agus tá sé inste agam cheana féin faoi na habhainn fhairsinge. Joan Didion What is a country but a borderless sentence, a life? That time at the Chinese butcher, you pointed to the roasted pig hanging from its hook. “The ribs …
Revolutionary
Alex Myers, Simon & Schuster, 2014 ================================================= They brought their buckets to a cook and joined the group. As the men exchanged information about hometowns and potential family ties, some part of her wished to stay aloof, on the margins; this part counseled: Don’t draw attention to yourself, that is the safest course. But another …
Educated
Tara Westover, Random House, 2018 ============================================= An hour later the saddle was cinched. Shawn said it was time to mount, and I climbed onto the barn roof, sure that the corral would descend into violence. But when Shawn hoisted himself into the saddle, the Yearling merely skittered. His front hooves raised a few inches off …
The Bastard of Istanbul
Elif SHAFAK, Viking Books, 2007 ============================================== When you didn’t tell anyone the extraordinary, everyone assumed the ordinary . . . Imagination was a dangerously captivating magic for those compelled to be realistic in life, and words could be poisonous for those always destined to be silenced . . . If you couldn’t help harboring higher …
Say Nothing
Patrick Radden KEEFE, Doubleday, 2019 ============================================= “Why did you not fight back?” I’ve done finished “Say Nothing”. I didn’t want to read it, but now I’m glad I did. I think we should have read this before “Milkman”, not after. Oh well. Máirtín “Religion’s never mentioned here”, of course.”You know them by their eyes,” and …
A Lucky Man
Jamel Brinkley, Graywolf Press, 2018 She constantly reread books from her high school English classes, and invited folks over to listen to the same old Miles and Billie records. These made up the entire soundtrack of her existence. I always recommended volumes of poetry and novels, offering to let her borrow my own copies, but …
Cití na gCártaí
Réaltán Ní Leannáin, Cois Life, 2019 ============================================ Kliem ix-xiħ zomm fih.(Éist le gaois na seandaoine) Luigh sí sa dorchadas, ag smaoineamh. Bhí Nanna bhocht imithe. Ghoill sé go mór ar Chití nach raibh sí ann dá muintir, nach raibh sí i láthair do na deasghnátha. Má bhí brón uirthi bhí cumha uirthi fosta go raibh …
Exit West
Mohsin HAMID, RIVERHEAD PRESS, 2017 “The heat was superb too, and she turned it up as high as she could stand, the heat going all the way into her bones, chilled from months of outdoor cold, and the bathroom filled up with steam like a forest in the mountains, scented with pine and lavender from …
There, There
Tommy ORANGE, Vintage Books, 2018 “And so what we could do had everything to do with being able to understand where we came from, what happened to our people, and how to honor them by living right, by telling our stories. She told me the world was made of stories, nothing else, just stories, and …
the Books that Bind 