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 …
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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 …
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 …
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 …
Giovanni’s Room
James Baldwin, 1956 “Look”, said Giovanni, as we crossed the river. “This old whore, Paris, as she turns in bed, is very moving.” “I ached abruptly, intolerably, with a longing to go home, not to that hotel, in one of the alleys of Paris, where the concierge barred the way with my unpaid bill; but …
If Beale Street Could Talk
James Baldwin, Vintage Books, 1974 “It says a lot about this country, because, of course, if all you want to do is make money, the very last thing you need is imagination.” ” . . . in the evening, just before everyone is locked up again, he looks at the others, he listens: what have …
Days Without End
Sebastian BARRY, Penguin Books, 2016 Time was not something then we thought of as an item that possessed an ending, but something that would go on forever, all rested and stopped in that moment. Hard to say what I mean by that. You look back at all the endless years when you never had that …
the Books that Bind 