Boy w book and cat
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
Issue 7:4 is live! Check it out here.
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Boy with book and cat
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
Boy with book and cat
It’s about Claudia Jones, a Black woman in the CPUSA who the US gov deported in the Smith/McCarran days. The librarian in me loves how the author details her research process. I wished it was more theory friendly; she gets points wrong on Workers Super Democracy. But ultimately it's sympathetic 9/10
Boy w book and cat
Someone jumps off a ship & stays w/ a family & their help on a Caribbean island. I couldn’t get enough of the interactions btw the family & their fights. A face "as tight & mean as broccoli” killed me. Tragedies felt real & often came out of nowhere as revelations that shook the whole book 10/10
Boy w book and cat
A young man gets pulled, via school research, into what could be a murder plot with possession & doubling going through the centuries. I liked it a lot - it's my 2nd Evenson novel. The echoes and transformations thrilled me less but I was engrossed enough to keep reading on 7.9/10
Sojourned to the Public Library Association conference in Minneapolis to present on 10 Years of Lending Musical Instruments. I also fit in some Replacements tourism
Pantry Prose: Taking Food into Other Rooms by Perry Genovesi
inkpantry.com/pantry-prose...
Hi I’ve got a new spooky story in Wales’s @inkpantry.bsky.social ! Read at your own risk 👻especially if you’re a Philadelphian
inkpantry.com/pantry-prose...
Boy w book and cat
I think it's about multiple realities? There’s an assassination & metamorphosing. Rogue actors, directors, & a border separating worlds. I got lost in the sauce & wanted to put it down. The ending was good. I wanted to like it more. The audio messages & different voices were cool 5.5/10
Boy w book and cat
It’s about Italian immigrants bringing food to the US. Ingredients like garlic were at 1st alienating but became powerhouses. It deals w/ how marketing & an authenticity quest busted the red sauce trend. It talks about celeb chefs, & the history of penne alle vodka & other dishes I grew up w/ 8/10
Thrilled to see my story published in the latest issue of Gone Lawn. Big thanks to editors @amygcb.bsky.social and @owenwyke.bsky.social.
gonelawn.net/journal/issu...
Proud to have two dreamy micros in this edition!
Header for Gone Lawn
Hi I have a new story published today in @gonelawn.bsky.social
Thank you for reading!
Link: tinyurl.com/GoneLawn
certainly lifts my mood to see 2 excerpts celebrating trees and other life of Taiwan in the newest Gone Lawn, alongside work from @emilyrinkema.bsky.social @beerdistributor.bsky.social @brettpribble.bsky.social @patriciaqbidar.bsky.social @woodenmormyrid.bsky.social etc
gonelawn.net/journal/issu...
Boy w book and cat
It’s about an upper class Italian Jewish family & their lives together and what happens when fascism descends. The fact that it felt like memoir and not fiction bored me, but I forgot all about that when Mussolini’s campaign closed in. I was pretty hooked from there on out 8/10
Boy w book and cat
It’s essays about fiction: Donald Barthelme, the idea of melodrama, epiphany, stillness. Often I thought he said things in the weirdest way, like I could’ve done a better job writing about this stuff lol. But I liked the idea of zeroing in one concept. School read 8/10
Boy w book and cat
An orphan shows up on a guy’s doorstep. He gets into trouble especially w/ women & eventually a solid relationship ensues albeit w/ scandals. Some of the twists worked spectacularly, especially for a 200 year old novel. I couldn’t sum all the birth dramas and resolutions if you asked lol 8.6/10
Boy w book and cat
It's 4 essays about DEI work, humor, being what the author calls a feminist killjoy, and how patriachy conditions men. The author loves language. There’s almost a Gertrude Stein-esque syntax flair in every other paragraph: ‘Society's hold on women hold women to society.’ Recommended. 9/10
Boy w book and cat
A woman remembers her life in different cities. Plotless & short – scenes deal with Marxism, art, drugs. A lot of it washed over me. I didn’t hate it. Sold to me as a Sad Girl novel, which I guess it is lol 6/10
Hand w book and cat
It’s about the Labor, Civil, & Welfare Rights movements. The welfare chapter was a deep dive into an org’s collapse. It compares legislative and lobbying tactics with the disruptive, mass force events our class is capable of. A useful book 9.1/10
Boy with book and cat
It’s essays from the ‘60’s-‘80s by the former CP leader on theoretical issues, current events, & racism. His Lenin paraphrase that bringing a racist around to a point of non-racism (before even anti-racism) is a victory stuck in my head. A lot of quotables for sure. & peep that cover! 10/10
Booth award
Scaffold magazine has honored my story “5 Metaphors for Greg Ginn’s Guitar Tone on Black Flag’s Damaged (1981)” with inclusion into their Best 50 Micro Writings of 2025! Thanks to Booth for publishing & @mattjakubowski.bsky.social for letting me know I’d made this list or I would’ve missed it lol
Boy with book and cat
A young queer woman deals w/ lovers. It’s intercut w/ news stories of crocodiles, some in human suits, living in Taiwan under scrutiny. It was angsty, reminded me of Catcher & Wallflower where feelings get excavated in clumsy but passionate words. I confused the characters sometimes 6/10
Boy with book and cat
It compares socialism to the anarchy & planlessness of capitalism. Diagrams abound. Takedowns of economic philosophers of the day (written in 1912). I wasn’t sure if she was agreeing or disagreeing w/ Marx half the time lol. Later chapters that told the story of imperialism were my fav 8/10
Boy w book and cat
It's about creatures that feed on ideas & the gov agency in charge of containing them. Guns & gore. The writing about thought-eating had me glued. I liked characters forgetting their husbands & wives & where doors were located. Events like a planet-destroying explosions felt low-stakes tho 8.2/10
Books
Over COVID lockdown I began this ridiculous art project of posting reviews of everything I read. As we all side eye this so called ceasefire, here’s another year of sharing my fav first-time (fiction) reads of 2025
Books
Over COVID lockdown I began this ridiculous art project of posting reviews of everything I read. As we all side eye this so called ceasefire, here’s another year of sharing my fav first-time (nonfiction) reads of 2025
