I picked up Natural Enemies of Books from the excellent independent book and magazine shop Rare Mags. I’m interested in the history of printing and typography and wanted to know more about women’s roles in a male-dominated industry. Natural Enemies of Books is a response to the 1937 publication Bookmaking on the Distaff Side, which […]| What I Think About When I Think About Reading
In Manya Wilkinson’s tragicomedy Lublin, three teenage boys walk from Medritsch (Międzyrzec Podlaski) to Lublin along a road none of them have traversed before, in more ways than one. It is August 1907. Elya, Kiva and Ziv are taking brushes manufactured by Kiva’s uncle to market. Elya has made himself leader of the expedition. He […]| What I Think About When I Think About Reading
Don Mee Choi’s Hardly War arrived earlier this year as part of my And Other Stories subscription. It is categorised by the publisher as poetry, but it is more than a down the line collection …| What I Think About When I Think About Reading
Jessi Jezewska Stevens’ novel The Visitors follows a former textile artist turned art supply seller, known only as C, as she navigates keeping her business afloat, repaying her medical debt, …| What I Think About When I Think About Reading
It is 1982 and Swanna Swain is 14 years old. Her parents, both academics in their forties, both having a midlife crisis, have separated. They send Swanna and her younger brother Madding to summer c…| What I Think About When I Think About Reading
Death Comes for the Archbishop is a retelling of the story of Catholic priests Jean-Baptiste Lamy and Joseph Projectus Machebeuf and their mission to New Mexico. Set in the period shortly after New…| What I Think About When I Think About Reading
The Flame Alphabet is the second novel by Ben Marcus. Published in 2012, it depicts the impact of an epidemic that turns first children’s and then everyone’s speech toxic. At the start …| What I Think About When I Think About Reading