Sep 11, 2019 | Current Ned Note, On Books, Past Notes
“The Testaments” by Margaret Atwood feels both more prescient and more hopeful than “The Handmaid’s Tale“. In 1985, women’s rights seemed assured and the world described in Gilead was a strange dystopia. Sadly, Gilead seems like a real possibility...
Jul 22, 2019 | Current Ned Note, On Books, On Writing, Past Notes
I had the pleasure of getting a preview of Katie Grindeland’s debut novel The Gifts We Keep, published by the student cooperative at Ooligan Press. Grindeland’s book was the winner of the 2016 Multnomah County Library Writers Project, and richly deserved...
Jan 9, 2019 | Current Ned Note, On Books, Past Notes
The wonderful fantasy writer V.S. Schwab recently asked for recommendations on books from her readers. I was surprised to see a new book I’d never heard of mentioned by many — If We Were Villains, by M.L. Rio. I promptly purchased the book and it’s...
Nov 1, 2018 | Current Ned Note, On Books, On Writing
Tana French is one of the most talented writers I’ve ever read in the mystery and detective genre. In this most recent book, she really surpasses the genre entirely, and breaks new ground with a lyrical, heartbreaking and soul-bending literary novel that focuses...
Jun 3, 2018 | Current Ned Note, On Books, Past Notes
(received this for Christmas — a couple spoilers inline here) Neil Gaiman’s Marvel 1602 re-creates the Marvel universe as it might have been if it wasn’t born in 1950s America, but instead in Elizabethan England. I found 1602 to embody all the...
