Here’s an assortment of our favourite reads over the holiday break.
Ben Recommends
Bag Man by Rachel Maddow
Bag Man expands and deepens the story of Spiro Agnew’s scandal and its lasting influence on our politics, our media, and our understanding of what it takes to confront a criminal in the White House.
The Book of Eels by Patrik Svensson
Winner of the National Outdoor Book Award
Blending memoir and nature writing at its best, Svensson’s journey to understand the eel becomes an exploration of the human condition.
Rupert Recommends
Children of Ash and Elm by Neil Price
Based on the latest archaeological and textual evidence, Children of Ash and Elm tells the story of the Vikings on their own terms: their politics, their cosmology and religion, their material world
The Liar’s Dictionary by Eley Williams
An exhilarating, funny debut novel, chronicling the misadventures of a lovelorn Victorian lexicographer and the young woman who decodes his trail of made-up words a century later.
Danielle Recommends
The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr.
The Prophets masterfully reveals the pain and suffering of inheritance, but is also shot through with hope, beauty, and truth, portraying the enormous, heroic power of love.
The Appointment by Katharina Volckmer
The Appointment is an audacious debut novel by an explosive literary voice, challenging our notions of what is fluid and what is fixed, and the myriad ways we seek to make peace with others and ourselves in the 21st century.
Olivia Recommends
Suppose a Sentence by Brian Dillon
Both an exercise in practical criticism and a set of experiments or challenges, Suppose a Sentence is a polemical and personal reflection on the art of the sentence in literature.
Patti Recommends
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain is a deep exploration not just of how great writing works but of how the mind itself works while reading, and of how the reading and writing of stories make genuine connection possible.
No Heaven for Good Boys by Keisha Bush
Drawn from real incidents and transporting readers between rural and urban Senegal, No Heaven for Good Boys is a tale of hope, resilience, and the affirming power of love.
