what I’ve been reading lately:
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She Is Not Invisible by Marcus SedgwickRoaring Brook Press, 2013 (Originally Indigo, 2013)
“One final time I told myself I wasn’t abducting my little brother”: this is the start of She Is Not Invisible, and it certainly made me want to keep reading. The narrator is Laureth Peak, who’s sixteen; her brother, Benjamin, is seven. They’re at the airport, about to check in for a flight from London…
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Plagued by the Nightingale by Kay BoyleVirago Modern Classics, 1981
In her preface to this reprint of her first novel, which was originally published in 1930, Kay Boyle writes that “the meaning of the book may perhaps be that there is always in life the necessity to choose,” which isn’t my favorite moral: I mean, yes, but sometimes the choice you get to make is…
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Villa Bunker by Sébastien BrebelTranslated by Andrew WilsonDalkey Archive Press, 2013
Villa Bunker, a novella made of 133 numbered sections (ranging in length from a sentence to several pages each) is weird and interesting and pretty great to have read right after Martha Ronk’s Transfer of Qualities—I felt there were moments when these two books complemented one another interestingly. Ronk’s book was concerned, in large part,…
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Transfer of Qualities by Martha RonkOmnidawn Publishing, 2013
This book takes its title from a phrase from Henry James, which features as the book’s epigraph: James wrote, in The Sacred Fount, about “the liaison that betrays itself by the transfer of qualities” from one person to another. Ronk writes about this idea more broadly, applying it to things as well as people: what…
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Every Day Is for the Thief by Teju ColeRandom House, 2014
If you’re looking for a novel that’s plot-driven or character driven, Every Day Is for the Thief (which was originally published in Nigeria in 2007, by Cassava Republic Press) is probably not the book for you. This is an episodic novel, a novel of vignettes and moments, a novel where the city of Lagos (which…
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The System of Vienna: From Heaven Street to Earth Mound Square by Gert JonkeTranslated by Vincent KlingDalkey Archive Press, 2009
In his Translator’s Afterword, Vincent Kling describes The System of Vienna as a “parody-tribute to the art of autobiography as construct,” which is a good way of putting it (109). The book starts with the story of the narrator’s birth, as told to him by his mother: the language of it makes you aware of…
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Rookie Yearbook One, edited by Tavi GevinsonDrawn & Quarterly, 2012
Rookie Yearbook One features highlights from Rookie’s first school year of existence, September 2011 to May 2012. Though I am definitely older than the intended audience (it’s for teenagers; I’m 32) it was still a satisfying read. It’s a mixture of advice pieces, personal essays, and other stuff from a mixture of teen and adult…
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The Pinhoe Egg by Diana Wynne JonesGreenwillow (HarperCollins), 2006
This is the last of the Chrestomanci books, chronologically, and it’s really satisfying: it’s set in and around Chrestomanci Castle and features Cat Chant as one of the central characters, with Chrestomanci and the rest of his family making appearances, too, and it also features a new character, Marianne Pinhoe, and her large magical family,…
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Mixed Magics: Four Tales of Chrestomanci by Diana Wynne JonesGreenwillow (HarperCollins), 2001 (Originally Collins, 2000)
Mixed Magics consists of four stories set in the same worlds as the Chrestomanci books, all during the time when Christopher Chant is Chrestomanci, the enchanter in charge of overseeing the use of magic. The longest story is almost sixty pages; the shortest is twenty pages; they’re all pretty fun. The book starts with humor,…
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Conrad’s Fate by Diana Wynne JonesGreenwillow (Harper Collins), 2005
When he’s around eight, Conrad Tesdinic’s Uncle Alfred tells him he has a lot of bad karma and needs to be careful. When he’s twelve and it’s time either to continue his education or to leave school and get a job, Uncle Alfred gives him very bad news: “I’ve been doing a lot of divining…