July 22, 2026 · 10:17 pm

The Audition: Pretty weird

Katie Kitamura’s The Audition reminded me a bit of Elizabeth Strout in style – declarative, descriptive sentences with little flash or flair – and a bit of Sally Rooney in the weird plot presented as just normal things.

In this case there are two versions of the plot with two different connections among the same characters all exploring the same themes: living with the consequences of our choices, finding (and becoming) the person we want to be amid the person we think we are supposed to be; how and why we perform particular roles in our lives and relationships – and to what effect.

Exploring these themes through two mirrored – and yet significantly differently – plots offers the reader a way to see how their own lives might fracture and follow very different trajectories based on one choice.

And while that one (or several) choices might lend to a different outcome the persistent qualities of ‘character’ – that is the values, beliefs, qualities – are both consistent and reasonably changed by circumstance – asking the question of whether we are who we are because of some intrinsic character trait or because of circumstance (leaning heavily on circumstance).

In the end I found the form interesting and the writing weird enough to be engaging. But I wasn’t particularly moved or changed by the reading and don’t see myself finding it memorable. So maybe read it for the experiment in form and character? Or not.

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July 22, 2026 · 3:35 pm

The Favorites: Get it on audiobook!

I have no idea if Layne Fargo’s The Favorites would be any good as a book-book that you read, but it is a delight as an audiobook. With a cast of character voices to bring distinction to the… cast of characters that open each chapter, the audio version is particularly delightful.

Following skating dance partners through their years competing for Olympic glory the book is mostly one of romance and plot-ty moments around competition and the lengths the Russians will go to sabtoage the Americans or maybe its someone else but who cares because it’s all plot and delightful.

There are some moments where the book tries to be More Serious about the economics of figure skating or gender dynamics of figure skating/dance or the influence of media on sport/celebrity, but these moments feel like they are trying very hard to be serious amid a book that does it best just being fun and silly.

Anyway, it’s a great choice if you have a long car ride coming or several drawers that need organizing and a good audiobook to keep you entertained along the way.

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July 12, 2026 · 3:37 pm

The Drowned: Skip it

Sean O’Brien won the Booker and now any book you pick up of his is like “this guy won the Booker,” and so you think you’re going to be getting an absolute gem. And sure, The Drowned was well written in that its atmospheric and well paced and writing that is good enough not to be noticed, but also it was about too many things and with characters that (I guess because it’s part of a series?) have too little and too much character development going on.

Ostensibly about the disappearance of a woman, Dee, under suspicious circumstances – the husband Armitage reports her as having ‘run off’ the book is more about the relationship between Stafford, the detective, and the others in his life (girlfriend, boss, partner) but without knowing Stafford from other books I was a little lost for why I ought to care about him.

And also a little unsure about the Irish politics (like the Catholics are bad?) and the time period – when are we? Why is everyone smoking so much?

Anyway, all this to say I wouldn’t throw it out a train window, but I also wouldn’t seek it out, and will absolutely for sure forget I read it.

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July 12, 2026 · 3:31 pm

Heart the Lover: Unexpected

I expected Lily King’s Heart the Lover to be a light romance. Following the college romance of Jordan and Sam and then Jordan and Yash, the book offers up a reading that is on its face that of falling in love, being in love, and heartbreak. With scenes of staying up late to play ridiculous card games, it brought this reader back to my own years of many (many) hours of Settlers of Catan, or nights of drinking wine and pretending we knew enough to debate X philosophical topic before dragging ourselves to brunch the next day.

And while it is that story – the one you expect of life altering, too-big-for-feeling-these-feelings youth on the cusp of adult – it is also one of how we live with the One Decision that Changes Our Lives over many years and into the end of our lives. Realizing – always and again – that we only live once, only one wild and precious life etc, the book asks of Jordan to confront again (and again) her decisions around Yash (which for the sake of spoilers I won’t go into here).

And while it’s true that Jordan has to make one choice in the moment and it’s one choice that she then has to live with, the book offers the perspective that there may, actually, be many right choices to a life well lived and a life full of love. That rather than an option where there is the one decision that could lead you to the one right outcome for life, there are instead choices that lend to happier/harder paths, but also that happier/harder paths present themselves over and over again – that life, unlike a final exam, doesn’t have one right answer.

And for those of us who want nothing but straight As and gold stars and proof that we are doing it Right, this is an excellent book for remembering that we can find/choose/decide again and again love, friendship and joy, but that as much as many of these are our choices to make, we are also subject to the whims of disease, death, surprise and chance. And so yes we should carefully choose what we most want of this wild and precious life, but we should also hold with gentle gratitude those moments and people where we find love, friendship and joy because it is all a choice and it is all random.

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