Lucy Jane Bledsoe

Atwood, Margaret. The Year of the Flood. This woman is always brilliant. I just love her work. I really want to reread Oryx and Crake now, though. To see how the two books fit together. Her insights and imagination and feminism are all thrilling in this novel. I (more…)

Nunez, Elizabeth. Anna-in-Between and Chin, Staceyann. The Other Side of Paradise. I can't stop thinking about Anna-in-Between. It's one of those amazing stories that creeps into your consciousness and takes up residence. Takes place in Trinidad, about a middle-class family. Seems kinda of slow and written in an almost pedestrian style, and yet Nunez's storytelling gripped me. (more…)

Ackerman, Diane. The Zookeeper's Wife. An incredible story and beautifully written. Ackerman uses her vast knowledge of natural history to write about Warsaw during the Holocaust, almost as a thematic metaphor for how life endures even in the most devastating circumstances. Two Polish zookeepers saved over 300 Jews by hiding them (more…)

Kingsolver, Barbara. The Lacuna. I admire writers who push themselves to try new things, to use different styles or delve into completely new content, and Barbara Kingsolver is definitely one of these writers. In her new novel, she basically writes a history of the U.S. (and some history of (more…)

Guess, Carol. Switch. I just reread this 1998 classic. This is a dreamy and seductive novel. The language is lyrical, even languid, and there’s so much heart in the characters that you want to squeeze them. Reading Switch is as pleasurable and complex as floating down a river (more…)

Li, Yiyun. The Vagrants. Set in the late 1970s, after the Cultural Revolution and during Beijing’s Democratic Wall Movement, this amazing novel tells the story of several women activists. Takes place in a small town called Muddy River and follows several different characters, their actions and reactions to the (more…)

Fitten, Marc. Valeria’s Last Stand. I love Marc Fitten’s voice. It’s quirky, authentic, goes down like mountain water. This story is nutty, unique, sexy, and fun. Takes place in a small town in Hungary and involves the lives of a chimney sweep, a potter, the potter’s (more…)

McCullers, Carson. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. All I can say is, oh my god. This novel is brilliant. And she wrote it when she was 23 years old. Where did she get the wisdom? There are hundreds of sentences that made me laugh at loud at their simple perfection. (more…)