READ AND BOOKMARKED

Category: Book Review

  • The Bro Notes

    The Bro Notes, Reading The Brothers Karamazov: The Bro-ening, A Woman’s Journey is a year long journey to complete this classic novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky.

    The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky was an amazing reading experience. IT falls under the category of books that I love the best, weird with moments that provoke eyebrow lifting, laughing out loud, and blood rushing to my head after reading sentences so well put together that I kind of die a little inside.

    Sigmund Freud was right about this and only this (His quote “The most magnificent novel ever written.” is the only review on the back of the Penguin Classic edition).

    This has become third on my list of the best books that I’ve ever read, falling hairs short after Carpentaria and Praiseworthy by Alexis Wright (who again, again, and every chance I get to say this, are books that everyone must read).

    I didn’t go into this book to learn anything, but to be entertained. Entertained I was. These characters were the drama. Mitya might ask ‘Am I the drama?’ with a vacant and unaware stare, but after reading you would want to stare back with a vacant and fiercely intent stare.

    A part of me always thinks a little poorly on myself for not trying to dissect some intelligent and thought provoking commentary but it was not as if the point didn’t get across. The lessons glide into your head without much effort. If I didn’t fully grasp a chapter, I would listen to it. If I still didn’t get it, I would read it again. I think if you’re weary of feeling like an idiot reading it (like I did), put those reservations away. Dostovesky’s got you.

    The book is chunky, but I both read and listened to the audiobook (narrated by Luke Thompson, who is an ACTOR in the way he brings flavor to every single character that makes you think there’s more than one narrator) and I separated the pages with tabs to make mileage markers, so to speak. These small details helped me from becoming overwhelmed.

    What also helps is that the text is highly readable. It’s funny. It’s thoughtful. Dostovesky makes you both hate and love his characters with just a couple of well placed words. My copy is cracked (broken spines are my personal bane), but I like seeing the dents and flipped corners of the pages. There are a dozens of tabs marking my favorite sentences.

    There is an outright joy in finishing something that I didn’t think I would finish and didn’t think I would understand.

  • Nothing at All by Olivia Tapiero, translated by Kit Schluter

    “It wasn’t a hatred of the other but a shame of oneself, and there’s nothing more dangerous than people who choke down their wounds.”

    Excerpt rom Penguin Website: “An atmospheric rumination on gendered violence, cosmic collapse, and colonialism, from acclaimed author Olivia Tapiero, finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Lambda Literary Awards, and the Grand Prix du livre de Montréal. Available for the first time in English, with an all-new foreword by Anne Boyer.”

    I’m a fan of the Strange Light books in general (they publish one of my favorite authors, Eugene Martin), so I tend to trust the books they publish or at least give them a chance.

    Happy to report that my trust remains intact.

    The author is really good at blending a feeling of starkness with luscious and smart wording that doesn’t cushion the reading experience. That little extra grime and/or edge, depending on the context rounds out the book quite well. Words like ‘fuckable fool’ or sentences like “I desired you to the point of contempt, cherished your flippancy to the point of eating the moldy compost that enables it.” were just real pleasures to read.

    The fragments of paragraphs made me feel like like I too was going to collapse in some black hole, with a cloying feeling that made me think I should start crawling to get out of the dark.

    The cover design, with art by the translator, is really beautiful and reflects the book tone perfectly. I also appreciate (love, very much love) a black page to divide chapters. I think it’s a great design choice, especially with the quotes that appear behind the chapter title pages with the same black paper/white font combo.

    The book published March 17, 2026 and I hope it gets as much traction as it can.