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New Review: The Long Version by Petra Hulova
I’ve got a new review up at Reading in Translation this morning. I do highly recommend The Long Version by Petra Hulova, translated by Alex Zucker—so much so that I sent a link to this review to the group text with my high school friends. So, like, a real recommendation.
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Readings for October 2026
I finished quite a few books this month; most of them were short, but one was very long and dense. One was not great, two were rereads of books I love. Two were for review, none are going to be popular with people who like crime fiction or romantasy. Let’s go!
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Review: Montaigne by Stefan Zweig
I grabbed a review copy of Montaigne by Stefan Zweig, published by Pushkin Press Classics, with barely a thought for my choice. I’d not read anything by Zweig, though he was prolific before his death by suicide in 1942 and his body of work seems like the kind of literature I would like. I’ve only…
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New Essay at the Pittsburgh Review of Books
This summer, I took up the call from the Pittsburgh Review of Books to comb through the digital stacks of the Posner Collection at Carnegie-Mellon University to see if there was something interesting to write about. I found what I thought was little medieval manuscript, which is one of my many areas of interest, so…
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New Review in Necessary Fiction
A quick little post this morning to let you all know that I have a new book review published in Necessary Fiction this morning. I read–and surprisingly liked–Book of Hours by Ellen O’Connell Whittet. Why surprisingly? Because it is a book about infertility, pregnancy, and childbirth, none of which I have experienced or am even…
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Review: The Book of I, by David Grieg
But I did really like The Book of I by David Grieg. It’s set in the far north of England during the Middle Ages, which is a longtime interest of mine. These are the years when the Vikings were viking, and they come for this abbey. There is a slaughter (c.f.: Vikings), but young Martin…
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My 2024 Reading Roundup
I was surprised to learn, thanks to the StoryGraph, that I had read 64 books this year. That’s about 10 more than usual. I figured it was because I spent this year writing my master’s thesis, which required me to read about 60 sources, both books and journal articles. But no! I only entered two…
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Tools for Reading
If you’re thinking about becoming a more serious reader, either by putting in more time or by more carefully considering whatever you read, there are a few tools that can help. Luckily, you probably have almost all of these already!
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Etymology: Jizz (It’s about Birds)
Of course I looked it up. The Oxford English Dictionary has it as “the characteristic impression given by an animal or plant,” which is basically what she had said. However, the first usage entry is from Bird Haunts & Nature Memories by T. A. Coward published in 1922.