It’s about fiction & pessimism. It argues that humans should go extinct. Might be the greatest deadpan bonkers essay ever. I disagreed w/ it but the show was too good. It studies death in horror fiction, death in life, pessimism in philosophy. I ❤️Ligotti’s fiction. This boosted his work for me 10/10

3 families intertwine starting w/ a car breakdown. Felt like too many characters even though there were only like 6. I didn’t expect it to end abruptly (blame the ebook). Some major events never dovetail. Yates is a relationship & feeling master. Gives you a tiny misogynistic hangover tho 8/10

A young queer woman in the WW1 era grows up, loses people she cares about to death & sometimes they ostracize her. She moves to Paris. I found this via the McCarthy song. It's too long: every feeling is described, melodramatically so. But its social value is crucial 6.3/10

A gentleman has an affair w/ a lady who shows up at the town where he’s getting engaged. It’s set in the Victorian era but uses words like computer, & comments on the story that’s happening. I loved The Magus. Characters make cool decisions. The hard-to-read confrontation scenes are great 8.4/10

This kicked my ass. 95 chapters of making me wonder if I’m placing my commas & clauses wrong. Lutz is one of my fav writers. I’ve wanted to see for a while how she treats non-fiction. I didn’t expect it to be so dense. I was fearful to keep going back to learn what else I need help with lol 9.3/10

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I finished The Transitive Vampire last night. It’s a style/grammar/ sentence book with cool gothic illustrations. Its politics around they/them pronouns feel dated. It analyzes comma splices, phrases, verbs, adverb, and more. School read 8/10

A pizza chef's friend robs people. Something goes wrong with a robbery. It’s a clumsy, sloppy book. Feels like a Nancy cartoon where people are neither grotesques nor real. But it’s a page turner. Published in the ‘70s but feels more like the ‘50s - characters gripe about potsmoking longhairs 6.1/10

It’s an audit of family structure & reproductive labor, claiming to be along Marx & Engels’s historical materialist line. I disagreed w/ a lot. Classic 2nd wave feminism where it seldom throws trans folks a bone. 1st leftist book I’ve read to analyze a kibbutz. It’s entertaining & bonkers 8/10

It’s a history of post-punk starting w/ Lydon leaving the Pistols. MTV, PIL, No Wave, mutant disco, emphases on bass & angularity. When I was 16 I discovered Joy Division, Wire, Go4, this helped me rediscover the Birthday Party, Pinback, Pulsallama. The chapter on Ohio & Ubu & Devo was tops 10/10

A 30 year old schemes up a love triangle. He escapes to the country & meets family. Fun language & Monty Python-esque madcap vibes where everyone gets punched in the face. I’d read a feminist critique on some character thoughts/behaviors 7.2/10

As the preface told me, it’s Wright’s first book. My edition was 5 stories. Each 1 boasted a severe drama. Characters face and often receive death. High stakes. Many “oh, shit!” moments. I’d be lying if I said I didn't feel some kinship with my 1st book of 5 stories, due out soon lol 10/10

It’s about shapes in narrative beyond the wave/3 act rising structure. Talks of adapting spirals, fractals, etc from nature. Reminds me of “Making Shapely Fiction.” It’s the 1st writing book I read citing BS Johnson. Part of me thinks u can claim to apply any shape to narrative 8/10

It’s an upstairs-downstairs novel about a grotesque dad & his family. Like the other novel of hers I love, it’s all dialogue, which made me work more. I don't think I caught everything, but the raw/high tension moments are fun because all you have is peoples' speech, & a lot happens offscreen 8.3/10

It’s about gender and philosophy. Talks about biology, the perils of forced heterosexuality, and the difference betwteen sex and gender. I had to pause a few times to look up words I forgot. I’ve wanted to read this for years 9/10

A sex worker relates copulation to language & acts in a bawdy version of Gogol’s “Nose”. There were ~10 different fonts + as many ways to read it. Dated regarding gender & women's bodies. I thought, “What’s the use of this beautiful sentence if it doesn't relate to a big picture?" 7.2/10

It’s about trauma & how it manifests in veterans, kids, car accident victims, etc. How folks fall into detachment & permanent flight or fight. I read that this book is controversial, but it didn’t seem so. It critiques US Rx drug culture & our long delay adopting single payer healthcare 8/10

A guy gets questioned in a Soviet interrogation room & talks for the whole book: about life before birth, 2 lost loves, his cats, a beer company. I liked it but was ready to stop b4 the end. IDK why the CP banned this, maybe for the sex & expletives- I only caught a handful of anti-CP stuff 6.6/10

A woman gets subjected to all kinds of s3xual violence by everyone she meets. Vibes of "Girl Next Door" & "House of Holes" in its language. I wondered what the point was after tragedy after tragedy, but I wanted to read this since college & stuck with it. It must've said "libertine" 500 times 2/10

It's about the overbuilding of Chicago & demolition of its historic buildings. It made me compare Chicago to Philly, esp. in how both cities dealt w/ White Flight. I appreciated the David Harvey citing, & the proposals to reign in profit motives & the practice of developers selling & fleeing 7/10

Cool news, @hfr.bsky.social publishes my story “Storn Williams Goes West” today. It’s 1 of my more Twilight Zoney pieces - read the 1st paragraph to see if you want to read on. This is the 2nd fiction of mine that this fine magazine has featured! heavyfeatherreview.org/2026/05/28/s...

A writer in Tunisia meets people. Eventually his fiancé visits him. Bad things happen. What makes this book weird is how much is left open-ended, what gets pursued & what doesn’t. Are murderous double dealings happening under the surface? I waited for things to wrap up but they didn’t 7.9/10

3 adults bring some mortally-ill UK kids to Disney World. Haha. I’m surprised Disney didn't sue. The writing's top notch. Whole sections are written in different styles. There's chapters of only dialogue, metaphor, epistolary, etc. I love his short stories but this is the longest I’ve read 8.5/10

So last night I finished Emergent Strategy. It’s about dialectics and meeting facilitation. It was good. A lot of the nature writing sounds like dialectical materialism to my ear. I wonder if the groups she mentioned are still around - Ruckus & others. I guess a revolution has to be facilitated 8/10

It’s some idioms & philosophies of writing, how it’s unfun & obsessive behavior lol. The end, where she focuses on a pilot, bored me. The rest is great: dividing writing & painting, & extended metaphors that gel. I like her point to use an idea now rather than save it for later. School read 8/10

4 French friends get into relationships. The plot's just there to let jokes, weird ailments & a talking mouse to come through. Someone sleeps on rifle muzzles to make them grow. I’ve wanted to read him forever. Reminds me of Queneau & Roussel. Still I was ready to be done w/ it before the end 9.2/10

An anthropologist time travels- found it in a romance guidebook. Felt like it wanted to be a movie. The s3x scenes were long. The violence surprised me. The characters were interesting; I wasn’t sure if some were stereotypes or what. The end wrapped things up…tidily, but I'm not complaining 6.1/10

It’s a language-heavy novel about a guy in Dublin going to the dentist, a funeral (or maybe not), drinking wine out of coffins. The 1st page hooked me but it was a lil uneven after that. I thought I wanted to put it down at 1 point but stuck w/ it – I’m glad I did- Dalkey doesn't disappoint! 8.1/10

A doctor gets banished to Italy's south during fascism's rise. He deals w/ townspeople's superstitions in a way that reminded me of Russian revolutionary campaigns. There’s a pig operation that felt climactic. Levi's a painter & that carries into stellar language. But I got bored near the end 5.2/10

A twentysomething returns from jail after refusing to serve the US in WWII. It’s structured as him meeting people who have different ideas, Waking Life-like. The drama of being Japanese-Am & refusing serving the US War machine was poignant. I’ve wanted to read this for years. It was good 7.8/10