2017-05-07 18:15
“Spelling is the clothing of words, their outward visible sign, and even those who favor sweatpants in everyday life like to make a bella figura, as the Italians say – a good imp… Read More
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Chronic Bibliophilia Blog
chronicbibliophilia.wordpress.com
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book
mother
acircthe lesser
george saunders
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mary norris
feminist
nadia
viet thanh nguyen
joslyn
Chronic Bibliophilia chronicles my journey as I endeavor to become a ridiculously well-read human being. Part of that journey includes probing what I mean by “well-readâ€. Having reviewed countless lists, books about books, awards lists, and literary prescriptions, I am disappointed but not surprised by the lack of diversity represented among the “must-read†lists.
When we, as bookworms and consumers of words, embark upon a book, we are listening to an other’s voice. We are learning an other’s point of view. We are expanding our minds, embracing our world, and acknowledging our differences. We need to push our boundaries and seek broader voices.
Through 2 to 3 posts each week, this blog provides reflections, reviews, and recommendations from a reading list focused on supporting and highlighting the voices that continue to face suppression. I believe that this project has changed not just what I read, but how I read and how I think. I hope you’ll join me on my literary odyssey.
2017-05-06 18:13
“Salt Houses” is a beautiful, sprawling debut which tells the multigenerational story of a Palestinian family in exile, a family whose own diaspora reflects the wider moveme… Read More
2017-05-01 11:50
So fortunate to be featured on Cathy’s 746 Books blog today. Enjoy!
746 Books
This week on The Books that Built The Blogger, I am delighted to welcome Joslyn from Chronic Bibliophilia… Read More
2017-04-30 15:59
He is just one. And the weight of it about to kills me. Have exported this grief. Some… Read More
2017-04-29 21:21
“What is a father? The notion of fatherhood is beyond the child. And how could it not be? Fathers, these days, are pretty thin on the ground. There was the Levy chi… Read More
2017-04-23 18:37
“The news in those days was full of war and migrants and nativists, and it was full of fracturing too, of regions pulling away from nations, and cities pulling away from hinterlands, a… Read More
2017-04-18 18:15
“She loved the weightless lift of takeoff, the earth dropping away and spreading out below, the bunting of clouds, the sun appearing like a gift. She misses it that lightness she once… Read More
2017-04-17 19:24
“As a nonwhite person, the General, like myself, knew he must be patient with white people, who were easily scared by the nonwhite. Even with liberal white people, one could go only so… Read More
2017-04-13 00:16
“Being a feminist is like being pregnant. You either are or you are not. You either believe fully in the equality of men and women or you do not.”
Despite her recent regretful mi… Read More
2017-04-10 16:24
“At least I reek of new less and less. Now at night, uncurling stretch-sore self, I conjure farther futures from the ceiling cracks – in glorious technicolor – what this pl… Read More
2017-04-08 15:18
“‘Real knowledge begins with knowing your place in the world. Now, you are neither nigger, nor woman, nor stupid. You are a young man born into a very long, distinguished line. T… Read More
2017-04-03 19:43
It’s official! The Baileys committee has announced the six nominees featured on its short list (and still in the running for the prize, announced June 7).
Overall, I am pleased w… Read More
2017-04-03 15:53
He knew nothing about leaving your kids home alone or with a teenage sitter while you went out to work eight hours on your feet in a pair of heels that rub… Read More
2017-04-02 15:37
Tomorrow, April 3rd, marks the announcement of the 2017 Baileys Women’s Prize Shortlist. A mere 26 days after the longlist of 16 acclaimed works by women was announced, the nomine… Read More
2017-03-30 18:50
“That devious, twisted bastard, Tony, is Felix’s own fault. Or mostly his fault. Over the past twelve years, he’s often blamed himself. He gave Tony too much scope, he didn… Read More
2017-03-27 18:45
Linda Grant, winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction for her novel “When I Lived in Modern Times”, is once again among those nominated for this esteemed prize, this ti… Read More
2017-03-25 17:49
“There is no love without fury. There is no beauty without ugliness.”
Pierrot and Rose are tragic, star-crossed lovers, abandoned as infants at the same Montreal orphanage in 191… Read More
2017-03-24 18:55
Fiona Melrose’s debut novel “Midwinter”, longlisted for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction, is aptly named. The titular characters are Landyn and Vale Midwinter, a… Read More
2017-03-22 11:54
I’ve never met Karen except through her blog BookerTalk. Her home is in Wales, UK. Mine is in Massachusetts, USA. Thousands of miles separate us physically but we are united by on… Read More
2017-03-20 14:06
“I had expected them to talk about my childlessness. I was armed with millions of smiles. Apologetic smiles, pity-me smiles, I-look-unto-God smiles – name all the fake smiles nee… Read More
2017-03-19 16:58
“The shape of power is always the same; it is the shape of a tree. Root to tip, central trunk branching and re-branching, spreading wider in ever-thinner, searching fingers. The shape… Read More
2017-03-17 21:50
“To be an emperor, then, was to drink even your simplest refreshments from weighty gold goblets. It was to see the chariot races whenever you pleased from the privacy of your dwelling… Read More
2017-03-16 23:22
“Considering one’s life requires a horribly delicate determination, doesn’t it? To get to the truth, to the heart of the trouble. You wake and your dreams disband, in a mid… Read More
2017-03-14 19:47
Gustav Perle is the only child of Emilie Perle, an embittered widow full of resentment for her past and scorn for her present. Gustav is raised to be stoic and content, never allowed to show… Read More
2017-03-12 19:01
Women’s Prize longlist nominee “The Mare” by Mary Gaitskill is the allegorical story of Velvet, a Dominican girl from Brooklyn, and “her” mare, a horse seen as… Read More
2017-03-11 18:14
“Consent is a downward motion, I think – a leap or a fall – and whether they’ll admit it or not, even the most decisive people can find themselves unable to tell whet… Read More
2017-03-08 01:16
This is Selection Sunday for the bookish, one of my favorite nights of the year. The results are in, and the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction has selected 16 books for the… Read More
2017-03-07 16:59
Photo by Raya, courtesy of Akashic BooksBernice L. McFadden is an amazingly talented and hardworking writer. In a relatively short but breathtakingly prolific career, she has published… Read More
2017-03-06 17:21
“[B]efore a computer became an inanimate object, and before Mission Control landed in Houston; before Sputnik changed the course of history, and before the NACA became NASA; before the… Read More
2017-03-04 16:14
Next week’s International Women’s Day (Wednesday, March 8th) marks the release of this year’s longlist for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction. Followers of this bl… Read More
2017-03-02 19:43
“List upon list crowded the ledger of slavery. The names gathered first on the African coast in tens of thousands of manifests. That human cargo. The names of the dead were as importan… Read More
2017-02-28 19:03
Octavia Butler was one of the mothers of Science Fiction. The rare black woman in a predominantly white male world, she forged a sacred place for herself in the genre that remains… Read More
2017-02-25 18:13
“This may be hard to believe, coming from a black man, but I’ve never stolen anything. Never cheated on my taxes or at cards. Never snuck into the movies or failed to give back t… Read More
2017-02-22 02:35
“…[T]he terms ‘civilized’ and ‘Christian’ begin to have a very strange ring, particularly in the ears of those who have been judged to be neither civiliz… Read More
2017-02-20 21:39
It’s funny, she says, how many people are shocked by this shooting and the next and next and the next.
She doesn’t mean funny as in funny, but funny as in blood soup tastes funn… Read More
2017-02-19 17:18
“On the outside, Emma didn’t seem to want for anything, but let’s be clear – she was starving on the inside. Not the coal-burning-belly type of hunger of the destitut… Read More
2017-02-15 19:31
“Why can’t they realize that when they dull their senses to the killing of one group of men they dull themselves to the preciousness of all human life? Yes, and why can’t t… Read More
2017-02-14 18:16
“Who hasn’t walked through a life of small tragedies? Sister Sonja often asked me, as though to understand the depth and breadth of human suffering would be enough to pull me out… Read More
2017-02-11 00:03
Brit Bennett debuted in the literary world with as much flare and color as her book’s cover denotes. In “The Mothers”, Bennett tells the story of Nadia Turner, a high schoo… Read More
2017-02-08 16:42
It’s here again, that somber, dark, short month where the world outside is dismal. As usual, I plan to use this month’s reading to keep the fires burning in my mind and heart by… Read More
2017-02-07 23:35
Work, life, and the world seemingly crumbling around my ears have certainly amplified my anxiety and nearly stifled my ability to write thoughtful reviews. Alas, the books I’ve been re… Read More
2017-02-04 15:45
“I knew I had no one to blame but myself. If my mother told me not to do something, I didn’t do it. Everyone’s mother told them not to do things, but I was the only on… Read More
2017-01-31 13:41
“He was thinking that the moon was the most beautiful he had ever seen when he hit the man. For the first moment after he hit him, he was still thinking about the moon, and then he sud… Read More
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