Joyce Carol Oates, Beasts. B/B- 21st-c. Oates novella w/ standard equipment: New England academic setting, sexual power dynamics w/ violent climax, overt literary signposting (here, Ovid & Lawrence). Less hallucinatory and more calmly paced than her better work in this vein; pat ending. #readin26
September 26, 2026 at 3:56 AM
Joyce Carol Oates, Beasts. B/B- 21st-c. Oates novella w/ standard equipment: New England academic setting, sexual power dynamics w/ violent climax, overt literary signposting (here, Ovid & Lawrence). Less hallucinatory and more calmly paced than her better work in this vein; pat ending. #readin26
Frank Kofsky, Black Music, White Business: Illuminating the History and Political Economy of Jazz. Posthumous sequel to his '71 book on Black nat'lism & jazz. Frequently plausible Marxist analysis, buried in reams of aggrieved score-settling w/ white critics. Sorry, -other- white critics. #readin26
September 25, 2026 at 4:38 PM
Frank Kofsky, Black Music, White Business: Illuminating the History and Political Economy of Jazz. Posthumous sequel to his '71 book on Black nat'lism & jazz. Frequently plausible Marxist analysis, buried in reams of aggrieved score-settling w/ white critics. Sorry, -other- white critics. #readin26
Franz Nicolay, Band People: Life and Work in Popular Music. Pro keyboardist's interview-based acct of sidepersons like himself. It takes related skills to write such a well-organized, theory-informed 3rd-person book instead of a memoir. Gave me insight into my own "career"; can recommend. #readin26
August 4, 2026 at 9:52 AM
Franz Nicolay, Band People: Life and Work in Popular Music. Pro keyboardist's interview-based acct of sidepersons like himself. It takes related skills to write such a well-organized, theory-informed 3rd-person book instead of a memoir. Gave me insight into my own "career"; can recommend. #readin26
Frank J. Bruno, The Story of Psychology. My late father's first book (1971), a short history of the field and its philosophical antecedents (Plato thru Kant on the soul/mind); Freud & co come late, after a few chs. on experimental psych. Clear prose, but w/ some nuance: sounds like my dad. #readin26
May 19, 2026 at 11:37 AM
Frank J. Bruno, The Story of Psychology. My late father's first book (1971), a short history of the field and its philosophical antecedents (Plato thru Kant on the soul/mind); Freud & co come late, after a few chs. on experimental psych. Clear prose, but w/ some nuance: sounds like my dad. #readin26
Arthur Taylor, Notes and Tones: Musician-to-Musician Interviews. 29 sit-downs, '68-'71, w/ jazz heavy hitters by expat drummer Taylor. Recurring topics include U.S. racism, white economic control of the music, and older players' distaste for free jazz & "electronics." Few punches pulled. #readin26.
September 4, 2026 at 1:36 PM
Arthur Taylor, Notes and Tones: Musician-to-Musician Interviews. 29 sit-downs, '68-'71, w/ jazz heavy hitters by expat drummer Taylor. Recurring topics include U.S. racism, white economic control of the music, and older players' distaste for free jazz & "electronics." Few punches pulled. #readin26.
John Corbett, A Listener's Guide to Free Improvisation. What it says on the tin: Chicago impresario/label head's defense of the genre & intro to what to listen for (interaction)/what not to (songs, a beat), esp. live. Not technical; unsure it'd sway doubters, but that's hard for any music. #readin26
March 11, 2026 at 4:44 AM
John Corbett, A Listener's Guide to Free Improvisation. What it says on the tin: Chicago impresario/label head's defense of the genre & intro to what to listen for (interaction)/what not to (songs, a beat), esp. live. Not technical; unsure it'd sway doubters, but that's hard for any music. #readin26
Muriel Spark, The Abbess of Crewe. Watergate in a convent, w/ buggings, break-ins, stand-ins for Haldeman, Dean, et al, & Kissinger. The title character is a version of Nixon, but also of Jean Brodie. 13 books in, I read Spark more for prose technique than her often baffling moral sense. #readin26
January 11, 2026 at 9:34 PM
Muriel Spark, The Abbess of Crewe. Watergate in a convent, w/ buggings, break-ins, stand-ins for Haldeman, Dean, et al, & Kissinger. The title character is a version of Nixon, but also of Jean Brodie. 13 books in, I read Spark more for prose technique than her often baffling moral sense. #readin26
Muriel Spark, Reality and Dreams. A filmmaker replaces the writer-protagonists of other late novels; comic plot involves infidelities, disappearances, disguises, but ends w/ a pointedly pointless death. By 1997, aged 79, Spark is less concerned w/ novelistic furniture than odd sidebars. #readin26
March 24, 2026 at 3:36 PM
Muriel Spark, Reality and Dreams. A filmmaker replaces the writer-protagonists of other late novels; comic plot involves infidelities, disappearances, disguises, but ends w/ a pointedly pointless death. By 1997, aged 79, Spark is less concerned w/ novelistic furniture than odd sidebars. #readin26
Iain Anderson, This Is Our Music; Free Jazz, the Sixties and American Culture. Narrates how post-Coltrane jazz used grants and academia to survive outside the market, at the cost of defusing some of its claims to political/racial radicalism. Flatly written, heavy on well-known background. #readin26
September 17, 2026 at 12:14 PM
Iain Anderson, This Is Our Music; Free Jazz, the Sixties and American Culture. Narrates how post-Coltrane jazz used grants and academia to survive outside the market, at the cost of defusing some of its claims to political/racial radicalism. Flatly written, heavy on well-known background. #readin26
Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground, trans. R. Pevear & L. Volokhonsky. Reread after 20+ years b/c of an LRB podcast, and to compare w/ Magazine's "Song from Under the Floorboards." Appreciated, even in translation, the artfully disordered style and overall inconclusiveness. A good wallow. #readin26
March 19, 2026 at 4:05 AM
Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground, trans. R. Pevear & L. Volokhonsky. Reread after 20+ years b/c of an LRB podcast, and to compare w/ Magazine's "Song from Under the Floorboards." Appreciated, even in translation, the artfully disordered style and overall inconclusiveness. A good wallow. #readin26
Fleur Jaeggy, Last Vanities, trans. Tim Parks. 7 concentrated tales of birth, death, shame, and spite. "Aside from rotting, there's little flowers can do, and in this they are not unlike human beings." Even less levity than her boarding school novel; makes R. Cusk look warm and maternal. #readin26.
April 7, 2026 at 7:15 PM
Fleur Jaeggy, Last Vanities, trans. Tim Parks. 7 concentrated tales of birth, death, shame, and spite. "Aside from rotting, there's little flowers can do, and in this they are not unlike human beings." Even less levity than her boarding school novel; makes R. Cusk look warm and maternal. #readin26.
Colin Bramwell, Fetch. Poems in English and in Scots, glossed like an edition of Burns, many in rec'd forms, inc. a crown of sonnets; themes of death, nature, impermanence are also traditional. Refreshing colloquial passages don't fully overcome an air of stiffness, too common in UK poets. #readin26
September 21, 2026 at 9:37 PM
Colin Bramwell, Fetch. Poems in English and in Scots, glossed like an edition of Burns, many in rec'd forms, inc. a crown of sonnets; themes of death, nature, impermanence are also traditional. Refreshing colloquial passages don't fully overcome an air of stiffness, too common in UK poets. #readin26
Gerald Murnane, The Plains. His most-lauded book, but not the one I get the most out of. Marvelous, mood-altering prose, like Ashbery's 3 Poems at times, but I sense the effort it cost to create his "Inner Australia." Lacks the inevitability of some later, just as imaginative, work. [re] #readin26
June 24, 2026 at 4:07 AM
Gerald Murnane, The Plains. His most-lauded book, but not the one I get the most out of. Marvelous, mood-altering prose, like Ashbery's 3 Poems at times, but I sense the effort it cost to create his "Inner Australia." Lacks the inevitability of some later, just as imaginative, work. [re] #readin26
Thomas A. Clark, Thrum. Scottish poet rooted in the local landscape, as one says; kindred to Ian Hamilton Finlay in botanical nominalism, and implicit politics: "a sustainable/ economy/is to pay/attention." Terse, at 3-12 lines/page; but at 102 pp., the effect isn't minimalist: it adds up. #readin26
January 24, 2026 at 3:34 AM
Thomas A. Clark, Thrum. Scottish poet rooted in the local landscape, as one says; kindred to Ian Hamilton Finlay in botanical nominalism, and implicit politics: "a sustainable/ economy/is to pay/attention." Terse, at 3-12 lines/page; but at 102 pp., the effect isn't minimalist: it adds up. #readin26
Missouri Williams, The Vivisectionists. Touted young UK writer's campus novel, w/ (anti?)-woke elements, a gothy mise en scene, and a hard-hearted narrator whose language gets richer as she softens - nice trick. Still, vague and underdramatized overall. Uneven and, to me, overhyped. #readin26
August 6, 2026 at 11:01 PM
Missouri Williams, The Vivisectionists. Touted young UK writer's campus novel, w/ (anti?)-woke elements, a gothy mise en scene, and a hard-hearted narrator whose language gets richer as she softens - nice trick. Still, vague and underdramatized overall. Uneven and, to me, overhyped. #readin26
There may only be three to six people who miss my
#readin26 notes, but for their sake: throughout April, I had responsibilities that cut my time and concentration to nothing, as far as serious reading went. I'm over the hump, and partway through 3 or 4 books, so the steady drip will resume soon.
#readin26 notes, but for their sake: throughout April, I had responsibilities that cut my time and concentration to nothing, as far as serious reading went. I'm over the hump, and partway through 3 or 4 books, so the steady drip will resume soon.
April 25, 2026 at 9:56 PM
There may only be three to six people who miss my
#readin26 notes, but for their sake: throughout April, I had responsibilities that cut my time and concentration to nothing, as far as serious reading went. I'm over the hump, and partway through 3 or 4 books, so the steady drip will resume soon.
#readin26 notes, but for their sake: throughout April, I had responsibilities that cut my time and concentration to nothing, as far as serious reading went. I'm over the hump, and partway through 3 or 4 books, so the steady drip will resume soon.
Jim Thompson, Recoil. Needed a change of pace. A patsy ex-con, multiple femmes fatale, moral rot in City Hall. Violence. Doesn't transcend the noir recipe w/ the fateful dread of Killer Inside Me or Pop. 1280. Polito's bio confirms that the denouement was atypically upbeat for Thompson. #readin26
April 4, 2026 at 4:59 AM
Jim Thompson, Recoil. Needed a change of pace. A patsy ex-con, multiple femmes fatale, moral rot in City Hall. Violence. Doesn't transcend the noir recipe w/ the fateful dread of Killer Inside Me or Pop. 1280. Polito's bio confirms that the denouement was atypically upbeat for Thompson. #readin26
Dag Solstad, Shyness & Dignity, trans. Sverre Lyngstad. Oslo h.s. teacher's marriage and career fall apart; a long flashback explains how/why, sort of. Narrative voice can recall Bernhard, but in close 3rd person, and more glum than furious. Won't change your notions of Nordic literature. #readin26.
June 20, 2026 at 2:28 PM
Dag Solstad, Shyness & Dignity, trans. Sverre Lyngstad. Oslo h.s. teacher's marriage and career fall apart; a long flashback explains how/why, sort of. Narrative voice can recall Bernhard, but in close 3rd person, and more glum than furious. Won't change your notions of Nordic literature. #readin26.
Muriel Spark, Loitering with Intent. A return to form (a phrase I avoid), w/ metafictional elements. It's real strength is Spark's 1st-person narrator, whose brio is her own. "The story of a life is a very informal party; there are no rules of precedence and hospitality, no invitations." #readin26.
February 15, 2026 at 4:49 AM
Muriel Spark, Loitering with Intent. A return to form (a phrase I avoid), w/ metafictional elements. It's real strength is Spark's 1st-person narrator, whose brio is her own. "The story of a life is a very informal party; there are no rules of precedence and hospitality, no invitations." #readin26.
Sebastian Castillo, 49 Venezuelan Novels. Not fake reviews of fake books, but micro-narratives that read as capsule novels; i.e., less Calvino/Bolaño, more Edson/late Tate. However Venezuelan it all is, it was more my bag than his recent, well-rec'd novel. "I voted for a bat, and it won." #readin26
April 4, 2026 at 4:42 AM
Sebastian Castillo, 49 Venezuelan Novels. Not fake reviews of fake books, but micro-narratives that read as capsule novels; i.e., less Calvino/Bolaño, more Edson/late Tate. However Venezuelan it all is, it was more my bag than his recent, well-rec'd novel. "I voted for a bat, and it won." #readin26
Muriel Spark, Symposium. Includes dialogues on love, yes, but also crime, madness, wills, plus satire on a Marxist convent (C of E, not RC, which concerns Stark more than politics). Witty, w/ a dark ending, but diffuse; her signature prolepses and flashbacks may not add much this time out. #readin26
March 14, 2026 at 12:50 AM
Muriel Spark, Symposium. Includes dialogues on love, yes, but also crime, madness, wills, plus satire on a Marxist convent (C of E, not RC, which concerns Stark more than politics). Witty, w/ a dark ending, but diffuse; her signature prolepses and flashbacks may not add much this time out. #readin26
Ann Beattie, Secrets and Surprises. 1978 collection of sad realist tales, most from p.o.v. of a couple's weaker, more passive half. Didn't expect the post-hippie milieu, w/ refs to "tokes," "screwing," & Michael Hurley. Favors dialogue, detail over metaphor; can be moving despite flatness. #readin26
July 2, 2026 at 2:32 PM
Ann Beattie, Secrets and Surprises. 1978 collection of sad realist tales, most from p.o.v. of a couple's weaker, more passive half. Didn't expect the post-hippie milieu, w/ refs to "tokes," "screwing," & Michael Hurley. Favors dialogue, detail over metaphor; can be moving despite flatness. #readin26
Ben Marcus, Notes from the Fog. "Cold Little Bird," about an emotionally stunted child, might be the best, least show-offy story he's written. Some others still overrely on stylized anomie: people described as "need machines," mouths as "omen holes," etc. 2018 collection; no books since. #readin26
May 11, 2026 at 1:46 PM
Ben Marcus, Notes from the Fog. "Cold Little Bird," about an emotionally stunted child, might be the best, least show-offy story he's written. Some others still overrely on stylized anomie: people described as "need machines," mouths as "omen holes," etc. 2018 collection; no books since. #readin26
Guillevic, Geometries, trans. Richard Sieburth. "Euclidiennes" (1967) in French; 40 short poems voiced (?) by various plane and solid figures (scalene triangle, cone, parabola). Charmingly idealist; so, at odds w/ the militant CP sonnets I'm familiar with. These could make good art songs! #readin26
August 3, 2026 at 11:48 PM
Guillevic, Geometries, trans. Richard Sieburth. "Euclidiennes" (1967) in French; 40 short poems voiced (?) by various plane and solid figures (scalene triangle, cone, parabola). Charmingly idealist; so, at odds w/ the militant CP sonnets I'm familiar with. These could make good art songs! #readin26
Gerald Murnane, A Season on Earth. Second novel, pub'd in truncated form in 1976, restored to full length in 2019. Portrait of the young Australian Catholic as an earnest but deluded spiritual seeker and chronic masturbator. Less narratively involuted than later books, but still a bit mad. #readin26
May 13, 2026 at 6:47 PM
Gerald Murnane, A Season on Earth. Second novel, pub'd in truncated form in 1976, restored to full length in 2019. Portrait of the young Australian Catholic as an earnest but deluded spiritual seeker and chronic masturbator. Less narratively involuted than later books, but still a bit mad. #readin26