Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino

3/5 stars

What's it about? Adina Giorno is an alien, sent to experience life on Earth and fax everything she learns to her superiors. Along with that mission comes the mystery and joy of a human existence. A page-turner that entertains to the end.

How’d I find it? I read Bertino’s short story collection Exit Zero, and a friend recommended I try this next.

Who will enjoy this book? Fans of the excellent It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over by Anne de Marcken should get a kick out of Beautyland, as will most readers of popular fiction.

What stood out? Adina provides a charming point of view for the duration of this novel, which marvels at human life on Earth in all its strangeness. Several passages made me chuckle, and the specificity with which Adina’s Gen X childhood is rendered makes the world perfectly engrossing. I heightened the reading experience by bringing this book with me on a trip to New York and Philadelphia, the two cities where the action is set.

Which line made me feel something? Some of Adina’s observations are zingers. “Adulthood seems like a yearslong equation to beat traffic.” “When it was time to decide the official food of movie-watching, human beings did not go for Fig Newtons or caramel, foods that are silent, but popcorn, the loudest sound on Earth.”

The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

5/5 stars

What's it about? In this second book of the MaddAddam trilogy, we follow Toby and Ren, two members of the God’s Gardeners, a pacifist religious sect that celebrates all life as sacred—and warns of a cataclysmic species-ending event that occurs in this book (and that I wouldn’t dare spoil here). A violent, profound, and prescient work.

How’d I find it? I collect Atwood’s US first editions, and this particular copy was salvaged from the donations bin at a DC library.

Who will enjoy this book? If you like dystopian fiction à la Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, the MaddAddam trilogy will speak to you. Start with Oryx and Crake.

What stood out? Aside from Atwood’s writing, which impresses me every time I read her work, the expansion of the world she laid out in Oryx and Crake contains depth, creativity, and character building that distinguishes outstanding fiction. The reality in The Year of the Flood resonates in 2026, with its corporatization of society, highly policed citizenry focused on consumption and image, and the reckless God complex of Big Tech. At first I struggled to keep Toby and Ren’s stories separate, since their journeys have similar stops, but once they diverge and connect with the events of Oryx and Crake, the toggling between perspectives and timelines was less disorienting.

Which line made me feel something? This speech from Glenn/Crake: “…that’s how people got the idea of the immortality of the soul — it was a consequence of grammar. And so was God, because as soon as there’s a past tense, there has to be a past before the past, and you keep going back in time until you get to I don’t know, and that’s what God is.”

The Stalker by Paula Bomer

2/5 stars

How’d I find it? This was one of Lit Hub’s most anticipated books of 2025, and any character marketed as “an Untalented Mr. Ripley” has my interest.

Why not 3 or more stars? Our titular stalker is as cruel and power-hungry as any Patrick Bateman, but without the resources and status to take his sadism to the next level. Doughty evolves not a bit over the course of the novel, so we spend 200+ uncomfortable pages in his self-aggrandizing brain, penis praise and all, as he manipulates, abuses, and exploits everyone around him. I couldn’t bear it.

The Erotic Potential of My Wife by David Foenkinos

3/5 stars

What's it about? To overcome his obsession with collecting, Hector decides to fall in love. His new wife Brigitte unwittingly offers him the possibility of his greatest collection yet: moments of her washing the windows. Absurd and lighthearded.

How’d I find it? I loved Charlotte and have been looking forward to reading more Foenkinos ever since. This copy came from the French language section at Powell’s, which often harbors a treasure or two.

Who will enjoy this book? The Erotic Potential of My Wife is a more mature yet equally zany love story for fans of Boris Vian’s classic L’écume des jours (curiously titled Mood Indigo in translation).

What stood out? This silly novel offered chuckles throughout, even when Hector exposes himself at a dinner party. Foenkinos gives his supporting characters their moments; Laurence, the wife of Hector’s best friend Marcel, doesn’t disappoint. One bête noire: a latent misogyny that feels so French lurks in the prose. I noticed it, found it disappointing, and was able to enjoy myself regardless.

Which line made me feel something? Sick burn (translation my own): “Brigitte no longer washed the windows to satisfy her husband’s desires (they used an American technique that consisted of spacing out cleans longer and longer (the Americans had a knack for calling obvious techniques American)).”

Loop by Brenda Lozano, translated by Annie McDermott

2/5 stars

How’d I find it? Lost Avenue Books read this for its April book club pick.

Why not 3 or more stars? I loved the idea of Loop, how the speaker chronicles the experience of her lover being away in an unraveling à la Penelope’s shroud. The allusions to myth, the diary-like setup—there is much to admire here. For this reader, the patterns and repetitions were tenuous, and many of the recurring questions too precious in style for my taste.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

2/5 stars

How’d I find it? Multiple pals have recommended this to me, and hey, you gotta love that cover art.

Why not 3 or more stars? I offer my biggest gripe in the form of an alternate title: “Telling, and Telling, and Telling.” Indeed, the nod to Shakespeare’s famous soliloquy from Macbeth doesn’t quite work for this novel, which aims for the stars with a bazooka full of plot. As a reader, I struggled spending page time with Sam, a sniveling Jude St. Francis type who happens to be one of our protagonists. If you ignore the dialogue, the chapters that detail the creative process behind the games that Sam and Sadie build together make for some good reading.

Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry

5/5 stars

What's it about? On the Day of the Dead in 1938, former British consul Geoffrey Firmin embarks on the last bender of his life upon the return of his ex-wife Yvonne to their home in Quauhnahuac, Mexico. A masterpiece.

How’d I find it? The Lost Avenue Book Club picked this read.

Who will enjoy this book? For another book about someone’s last day alive, check out A Simple Man by Christopher Isherwood.

What stood out? Geoffrey’s hopeless self-destruction hangs over the novel as he drinks himself into oblivion to forget his personal grief and the world’s descent into violence, the specter of World War II already on the horizon. Among the many achievements of the book is its precision in place and time; this work could have no other title. Under the Volcano is rife with symbolism, the depth of which I only grasped after reading the letter, included in my edition, from Lowry to his publisher defending the manuscript’s structure and length. Lowry had a reason for everything: the number of chapters, the Joycean ride that is chapter 11, and even the opening of the book, which takes place a year after the story’s events.

Which line made me feel something? I wouldn’t dare rob you of the book’s prettiest passages, so I’ll focus on its humor instead. Take this quip from Geoffrey to a bartender: “I love hell. I can’t wait to get back there. In fact I’m running. I’m almost back there already.”

On Earth As It Is Beneath by Ana Paula Maia, translated by Padma Viswanathan

2/5 stars

How’d I find it? My quest for contemporary Portuguese literature continues! When I learned this was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, I put a hold on a copy from Multnomah County Library.

Why not 3 or more stars? In an isolated penal colony, the rules change when a warden loses his humanity. A book of few surprises in language or plot until the final pages, when a supernatural flourish vanishes as suddenly as it appears.

The Living and the Rest by José Eduardo Agualusa, translated by Daniel Hahn

2/5 stars

How’d I find it? In preparation for a trip to Portugal, I’ve been seeking out contemporary fiction in the language. I don’t remember how I became aware of this title, but I borrowed a copy from Multnomah County Library.

Why not 3 or more stars? Writers convene on the Ilha de Moçambique for a conference, then find themselves cut off from the rest of the world during a storm that seems to annihilate everything beyond the island. This strange, open-ended book embraces metafiction and thoughts on the creative process while navigating its apocalyptic subplot. While dreamy, its mysteries aren’t cohesive, and the disjointed ideas don’t quite add up to a satisfying read.

Cannery Row by John Steinbeck

4/5 stars

What's it about? I can do no better than Steinbeck himself in the book’s opening line: “Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream.” A snapshot of a neighborhood, its humanity, its dramas.

How’d I find it? This novel was part of the preparation for a family trip to Monterey. Yes, we made sure to walk past the building that inspired Doc’s lab. My particular copy came from Powell’s.

Who will enjoy this book? For another read that focuses on a single community and its lovable yet flawed inhabitants, try Local Souls by Allan Gurganus.

What stood out? I will never get over how deeply Steinbeck writes characters, how he depicts desperation and misery with a smirk. Cannery Row is as brilliant and vivid as any of his other work, but steeped in winsome levity. The frog hunt with Mack and the boys offers sure entertainment.

Which line made me feel something? Just imagine hosting Steinbeck: “These are not parties at all but acts and demonstrations, about as spontaneous as peristalsis and as interesting as its end product.”