​Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott is a book focusing on the craft of writing, how to approach writing, and some nuggets of wisdom gathered in her career. Lamott provides some of the tools that she uses and reassures the reader that writing is an arduous but rewarding process. I thought her anecdote about her brother’s bird project was poignant and compelling, when her father told him to complete the project bird by bird. As with other craft books I’ve read recently (On Writing by Stephen King), one of the tenets that keeps coming up is to tell the truth and be truthful to the reader, the characters, and the story. And as I am beginning in my writing career, I will hold this close to me because if the emotions and moments aren’t true, then why even write them in the first place? Other practical pieces of advice discuss being okay with imperfect prose, to gather in writing groups, and to break the writing into easier to complete portions. The writing is beautiful with moments of Lamott’s life sprinkled in throughout to give context and support to her advice. I liked the breadth and depth is goes into on being a writer, though its advice didn’t seem particularly different than other craft books I’ve read. Lamott does discuss writing in a unique way, and overall, I enjoyed its tenderness, love, and dedication to the craft.
 
Final Rating: 4/5

​Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is a dystopian novel about a society that creates genetically bred castes of citizens, dulls them with drugs, and controls them with hypnotic messaging. The novel follows three characters: Lenina, Bernard, and John (the Savage) as they meet. Bernard and Lenina are of the highest class of society and decide to take a trip from London to New Mexico where there is an area that hasn’t been civilized. To Lenina and Bernard, being civilized entailed being genetically altered, with the world around them sterile, no relationships to hold them to a single person, and no parents. They meet John after a ceremony done by the “savages” and decide to bring him back to London after realizing the mother and son are related to the Controller (one of the top leaders). They parade John around their society, give his mother drugs which eventually kills her, and are sent off from society because they have become too independent.
 
There are a few parts about this novel which I felt were either technically sound or gave depth to the different references created. First, near the end of chapter three, Huxley takes three/four different concurrent narratives, and threads them together with single lines of dialogue. I found his approach to work seamless in how he slowly introduced the method with only two threads with longer passages, and then worked to shorten them until they were beautifully woven. The other part I found interesting was how the only book John read was Shakespeare which not only influenced what he said but how he thought.
 
There is a somewhat longer section of dialogue between John and the Controller discussing why a society like the one in the novel exists and why it must stay that way. The kernel of the argument was that a society must be happy to be productive, and the only way to be happy is for an authoritative government to control every aspect of a person’s life down to their DNA. I was particularly drawn to the line spoken by John in that conversation, “’But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.’” The only thing I am hesitant on is the way the “savages” are meant to be Native Americans, which seems slightly racist (though perhaps that’s what Huxley was trying to convey). It’s a strong novel to discuss social hierarchy, what a utopia in reality would be, and how one fits in the world.
 
Final Rating: 4/5

​Out by Natsuo Kirino is a crime/thriller novel about a group of women factory workers who must dispose of a body because one of them killed her husband. The group consists of four women: Masako (the calculated leader), Yayoi (the one who killed her husband and is guiltless), Yoshie (the obedient one), and Kuniko (the debt ridden and arrogant one). After Yayoi kills her husband, she asks Masako to help her, where the rest of the group is employed to cut up the body and throw the pieces away in trashcans. They’re able to keep what they did under wraps until the body gets found in a park and a local club owner is accused of the killing. The club owner, Satake, subsequently loses his business and decides to go after the four women. For Satake, it draws up a moment in his past he wants to relive, torturing/raping/killing a woman decades ago. All the while, the four women begin to crumble where Kuniko continues to rack up loans and debt, Masako’s crumbling marriage is finally unearthed, Yoshie’s caretaking responsibilities increase, and Yayoi is constantly accused and questioned. Though, Masako is employed by one of Kuniko’s debt collectors, who has connections to the Yakuza, to cut up bodies for them to dispose of. It goes well until Satake kills Kuniko and sends the body to Masako to cut up. Satake continues to terrorize the group by robbing Yayoi of all her life insurance money and following the rest of the group. Satake finally is able to entrap Masako, rape her, and is about to kill her when she slashes his face with a scalpel, where he bleeds out and dies. Though, near the end, Masako begins to understand Satake’s feral violence and passion and feels sad about the death.
 
The novel is told from the viewpoint of each main character: Masako, Yayoi, Yoshie, Kuniko, the debt collector, and Satake. With this type of story, the POV switching helped to keep the tension high. I also enjoyed the way the story went into the mindset of Masako and Satake, particularly how they see themselves as different and then finally as more similar than initially. Kirino is an expert in pacing, and while I don’t usually read crime fiction, I was enraptured in the narrative. It made me question why I was rooting for one main character, while all of them had done morally questionable things—and that nuance is what I felt made the novel that much better.
 
Final Rating: 4/5

​After the Banquet by Yukio Mishima is a novel about Kazu, a business owner of a restaurant in Japan, trying to get her husband, Noguchi, a retired politician, back into politics. Kazu meets Noguchi when one of Noguchi’s close friends collapses in her restaurant. The two seem unlikely, since Kazu is described as a more outgoing and talkative type, while Noguchi is a quiet older man. Kazu falls in love with Noguchi partially because of his demeanor and partially because she wants to be in a respectable grave like his family’s when she dies. Kazu, throughout Noguchi’s campaign, is seen as the mastermind and the one to sway people’s votes. Though, once the opposing party distributes pamphlets describing Kazu’s scandalous and predatory actions, Noguchi’s campaign loses. Arguments, and divorce ensue, with the final part of the novel ending where each character started: Kazu tending to her restaurant and Noguchi living in obscurity.
 
I loved how the novel worked to show the dynamic between not only Kazu and Noguchi, but also Kazu and her campaign partner, and finally Kazu and her old friend. As the novel went on, Kazu not only got more and more desperate, but also her endearing façade quickly crumbled. From the news of her early illegal campaigning to her past lovers, Kazu was always in a stew of controversy. Overall, the politics and the character dynamics were entertaining to watch unfold.
 
Final Rating: 4/5

​Nobody by Marc Lamont Hill is a book focusing on the injustices Black Americans face with regards to police, the incarceration system, and Capitalism. It focuses on the lives of a few particular people, namely Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, Freddie Gray, Eric Garner, and Trayvon Martin. It also looks at whole communities, such as Flint, Michigan and Pruitt-Igoe. The whole thesis of the book, which I agree with, is that there are systems set in place to disenfranchise black and brown people. This can be seen, Hill explains, in the privatization of prisons, the neglect of government programs for the poor, the militarization of the police, and the prioritization of capitalistic profits over the welfare of the people. It is heartbreaking and frustrating to find that whether through willful ignorance, classism, or racism, Black families and communities take the brunt of the consequences. And in one instance, it was surprising to read that, “…the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Department of Agriculture, and the US Railroad Retirement Board have their own SWAT teams…” There are so many injustices and wrongdoings by individuals and the government that Hill highlights, it’s disheartening to think how many other injustices have gone on without being documented.
 
Final Rating: 4/5

​Filthy Animals by Brandon Taylor is a novel consisting of stories, some interlinked and some roughly sewn together, which mainly follows Lionel in his encounters with a sexually adventurous couple. Lionel is a proctor who is stalling in his career in mathematics, and so finds himself at a university party where he is out of his depths. There, he meets Charles, a dancer, who pursues him, and they hook up that night. Throughout the stories, Lionel becomes slightly enchanted and slightly put off by the couple’s dynamic, which draws up raw emotions from his childhood.
 
My favorite part of the book, which was not related to the main plot line, was the story, ‘Filthy Animals’, in which two friends, Nolan and Milton, go to a party for Milton’s birthday. The whole time, Milton questions whether he should tell Nolan his parents are sending him to Idaho in a few months. Though, when they encounter Abe, a notorious jerk, at the party, they get in a mess when Nolan smashes Abe’s head in with a rock. The novel and stories are brilliantly written, with a strong eye for contentious relationships. Its language was accommodating and, at the end of it, I wanted to know more about Lionel and his past.
 
Final Rating: 4/5

​The Kenyon Review Sept/Oct 2022 is a collection of poems, short stories, and essays, some of which by young writers. The poetry in this issue is strong and I enjoyed ‘Diptych on Getting from Point A to Point B’ by Myra Kamal, ‘Blue Peony’ by Peter LaBerge, ‘Pandemic Dog’ by Alison Powell, ‘Splinter’ by Marney Rathbun, and ‘This Is Just To Say’ by Laura Cresté. Though, I was particularly drawn to the short story ‘Porn Star’ by Sena Moon which focuses on a girl who sees her neighbor masturbate and tells the rest of her class. The dynamic between the two characters was interesting to watch unfold. Overall, its poetry stood out as something to return to.
 
Final Rating: 4/5

​frank: sonnets by Dianne Suess is a collection of poetry which contemplates poverty, relationships, illness, drug abuse, womanhood, and death. The largest focus of the sonnets is Suess’ friend Mikel, who died from HIV/AIDS. It is a heartbreaking and moving collection with poems that aren’t afraid to be themselves. Suess discusses her son’s addiction, Mikel’s pustules, being working class, all in succent and relatable ways. The collection is obsessed with death, seen here, “The problem with sweetness is death. The problem/with everything is death.” To Suess, it is all consuming, through the lens of a friend, a mother, and a daughter. In the final poem of the collection, Suess aches to be loved, and to find meaning in the loss. The poems are lyrical, strong, and deeply personal.
 
Final Rating: 4/5

​Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith is a poetry collection which contemplates gun violence, existence, torture, pain, isolation, and truth all loosely framed under the context of outer space. Its universe and planet metaphors work to invigorate and deepen the understanding of the moments Smith curates. And in the poems, ‘The Speed of Belief’ and ‘Life on Mars’, the themes are imbued into lines such as, “Tina says what if dark matter is the space between people”. Space as a metaphor contextualizes the distance of the people within the poem who have been locked in basements, sexually assaulted, and were prisoners in Iraq. For these people, there is no grounding because all they have experienced is torture of another world. Smith pulls together moments, ideas, and feelings vividly and extraordinarily well in this collection.
 
Final Rating: 4/5

​Passion by June Jordan is a collection of poetry which focuses on the violence, police brutality, racism, and sexism targeted toward the black community. Jordan’s anger bleeds through the poems and is found in their repetition and rhythm. More specifically, I was drawn to the poem ‘The Rational, or “She Drove Me Crazy”’, which is in the voice of a rapist who is trying to justify his actions to a judge. Jordan is able to capture the sexism/misogyny and use it in horrifying and powerful ways. Poems such as ‘Poem about My Rights’ and ‘En Passant’ are bold and unafraid to discuss ideas that were controversial at the time. This collection is a rallying cry and a way for Jordan to say that these things need to end. And I think, in a way, she is trying to comfort herself/others when she writes, “We are the ones we have been waiting for”.
 
Final Rating: 4/5