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willchance

willchanceVerified

Joined February 2016

review
willchance
Moonglow | Michael Chabon
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Pickpick

Tune in to the Tournament of Books tomorrow (themorningnews.org/tob) to see how I decide between an autofictional romp and a novel/poem/play...one thing's certain, someone in the commentariat is going to call me an idiot and say my reading privileges need to be revoked!

7 likes1 stack add
blurb
willchance
Mischling: A novel | Affinity Konar
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It's funny, I was going to compare the energy of Konnar's writing to Karen Russell's. And who's on the back cover blurbing but Karen Russell..."With incantatory magic, [Konar] marches through the most nightmarish of landscapes, swinging her light."

LeahBergen I have this waiting for me on my shelf. 👍🏼 7y
14 likes1 comment
quote
willchance
Imagine Me Gone | Adam Haslett
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"The light in that room was a kind of malpractice."

review
willchance
Swamplandia! | Karen Russell
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Pickpick

Russell's textural imagery and metaphorical gifts are astonishing. And since precise, unique, surprising, beautiful imagery is what I love most, I'm going to put Swamplandia! on the top shelf with the other two dozen of my favorite novels ever.

*I found this to be a very demanding book--seeing all the imagery she called to mind meant slowing down and giving the prose the rapt attention that a visual poet, like Walcott, demands--but I love that!

she_barks I've read this, but I've never seen that cover. It's beautiful! 8y
17 likes5 stack adds1 comment
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willchance
Ways to Disappear | Idra Novey
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Ways to Disappear belongs in my favorite corner of contemporary fiction with Heidi Julavits' The Vanishers, Rivka Galchen's Atmospheric Disturbances, Nicole Krauss' History of Love, anything by Jesse Ball, and the first two parts of 2666. So good!

brittnaypozen Loved this one! 8y
willchance @brittnaypozen Best I've read this year. Do you like any of the others I listed? If I had more characters, I would have added Valeria Luiselli to that sub sub genre of hyper literate intuitive transcontinental adventure (HLITA) that I love so much 8y
brittnaypozen Yes! I loved The History of Love as well! & I definitely agree with you, it was one of the best I've read so far this year (which is funny b.c I picked it up on a whim). Have you read any Haruki Murakami novels? He's my absolute favorite & a lot of parts in Ways to Disappear reminded me of him 8y
A.Shari.A Yes! 8y
25 likes3 stack adds4 comments
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willchance
Gilead | Marilynne Robinson
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Not the Pulitzer, but Gilead just won my Best Novel written by a Living Person (BNLP) award!

willchance Are there any other novels with this much light? Samantha Harvey's Dear Thief was close. If any come to mind, please list 8y
SurlyBooks This is one of maybe three books on my bookshelves at home that I always have to sort of pet when I walk by them, because they impacted me so profoundly when I read them that they still speak to me. 8y
hobnob Absolutely one of my favourites... 8y
See All 13 Comments
willchance @SurlyBooks what are the other two? 8y
SurlyBooks To Dance With the White Dog (Terry Kay) and A Lesson Before Dying (Ernest Gaines). And gosh, add Last Days of Summer (Steve Kluger) to that list. 8y
A.Shari.A Total favorite. 8y
momadvice I still need to read that one!! 8y
Reader Terrific book. Strout is one of my favorite living authors. 8y
Spudrph An amazing, amazing book. Hard to forget. Strongly recommend. 8y
Joanne1 A much divided book club discussion on this one. I was in the thumbs up club, others were not. 8y
Kdbybee In my top ten of all time. Lovely book 8y
Flowerbomb Fabulous book 8y
RachM A beautiful, lyrical book - one of my faves 8y
116 likes179 stack adds13 comments
quote
willchance
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"I was an afterlife for the images I had destroyed."

BkClubCare Following the tournament, I hope? This is my favorite. 8y
willchance @BkClubCare I'm going on the So many damn books podcast in a few weeks to talk all things tourney. There are a handful I still haven't read, but I've got The Sellout and Fates in the final. That said, Marra is a great writer. Who knows. 8y
BkClubCare I am really enjoying the tourney this year. Need to explore that podcast! (Tsar has been my favorite of the 9 I managed to read.) 8y
13 likes2 stack adds3 comments
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willchance
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My runner up for Best book by a living writer

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willchance
Omeros | Derek Walcott
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My nomination for best book by a living writer.

review
willchance
On Writing | A. L. Kennedy
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Pickpick

AL Kennedy might be the clearest novelist writing today. Looking forward to today's tour of the control room.

4 likes1 stack add
review
willchance
1984 | George Orwell
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Pickpick

Well. If we're going to nuke our political future, we may as well make like Major Kong from Dr Strangelove and ride it all the way down, maybe that means binge-reading dystopian lit from now til November. Anyway. This is maybe my favorite cover ever.

9 likes2 stack adds
blurb
willchance
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If this book didn't exist, I'd try to write it: a close look at the images, both sunken and explicit, in Shakespeare. This is the kind of book I want to keep secret and steal wildly from, which is why I'm posting here, to keep myself honest.

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quote
willchance
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Pithy: "Most movies use music the way athletes use steroids." Wise: "Even with a strong script about such deeply flawed characters, you as an editor have to present them emotionally and intellectually in some fair way...you'd need a real empathy."

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