Adrian Astur Alvarez
@adrianasturalvarez
Writer of literary fiction & poetry. Work in JMWW, Soundings Review, Hot Metal Bridge.
"But was young Boasthard's fear vanquished by Calmer's words? No, for he had in his bosom a spike named Bitterness which could not by words be done away." -- Ulysses, James Joyce #reading
"What is an evil man? The man is evil who coerces obedience to his private ends, destroys beauty, produces pain, extinguishes life." -- The Star King, Jack Vance #reading
My best pie yet. Blueberry lemon with toasted merengue and a vanilla nutmeg crust.
"Universally that person's acumen is esteemed very little perceptive concerning whatsoever matters are being held as most profitable by mortals with sapience endowed to be studied who is ignorant of that which the most in doctrine erudite and certainly by..." -- Ulysses, James Joyce #reading
"Perhaps he longed to see his father after so many years of separation; perhaps a thousand times before then, recalling his childhood as if in sleep, he had driven away the loathsome ghosts of his childhood dreams, and longed with all..." -- The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky #reading
"Her secrets: old feather fans, tasselled dancecards, powdered with musk, a gaud of amber beads in her locked drawer. A birdcage hung in the sunny window of her house when she was a girl." -- Ulysses, James Joyce #reading
How it went in June. I finished only one book in June but read many pages of The Brothers Karamazov. July is devoted to Ulysses. That's right, my time has come. This year's Summer Reading Project 2026 is Joyce's mostly unread masterpiece. You'll be seeing my highlighted quotes soon.
"If Shakespeare had never existed, he asked, would the world have differed much from what it is today? Does the progress of civilization depend upon great men? Is the lot of the average human being better now than in the time of the Pharaohs?" -- To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf #reading
Is anyone else watching Widow's Bay? I really hope so. It is far and away my favorite show right now.
I pass by this dentist office every week and I still can't believe it's real. Don't change your name. Stay true to your Poo!
"What Tyler really thought was that the dead were so absolutely beyond anything the living might do for them it was almost past comprehension and he had no commitment to meet anyone anywhere." -- Twilight, William Gay #reading
"Before he knew it blue dawn light was fading out and the day began to gather itself out of the darkness. In the east a reef of salmoncolored clouds was rimlit by a bright metallic color he had no name for." -- Provinces of Night: A Novel, William Gay #reading
It's Bolaño's 13th birthday today! The Cake: egg, peanut butter, apples, baking soda.
How it's going so far in April (to the surprise of absolutely no one who follows me). Expect a newsletter post about Provinces of Night next week.
"The wind was at the trees like something alive and faint light quaked and died, flared and diminished far to the west and he held his breath waiting for the thunder. It finally came, so faint it was like a dream of thunder, a hoarse incoh..." -- Provinces of Night: A Novel, William Gay #reading
"Chattering away in that cab—about astrology, British punk music, jungle cats, Greek gods—this is what she was like: a pinwheel of stars. Lightning under a fingernail. I was watching her, nodding, watching, watching, starting to feel light-headed. Her black s..." -- Martyr!, Kaveh Akbar #reading
"Were there darker provinces of night he would have found them." — Cormac McCarthy, Child of God #reading
"He wanted to memorize her taste, the shape of her body, that little catch in her breath when he touched her just right. Something pulled deep inside him—a hard, tight ache that was more than physical: a craving to be a part of all that was Viole..." -- Reckless in Texas, Kari Lynn Dell #reading
"Gabe looked like an oak tree in a denim jacket, his face all jaw, big white mustache, big hands perpetually cracked from working on this or that project." -- Martyr!, Kaveh Akbar #reading
"It is June. This is what I have decided to do with my life just now. I will do this work of transformed and even distorted memory and lead this life, the one I am leading today." -- Sleepless Nights, Elizabeth Hardwick #reading
I'm reading In A Lonely Place and it's just amazing how Dorothy B. Hughes' prose can suddenly lift off into pure poetry as soon as the rational stops being useful then come back down again in an instant. Such a well written novel.