Books of the Month: May 2023 Edition

May 2023 Books

How, exactly, did we get to May already? Normally, we’d make a joke here about the collapse of time and space or something similarly esoteric, but the hour is at hand when we should get to the recommending of books. And so here are some book recommendations for the month we’re in — and, if you’re behind on your reading, these books aren’t going anywhere.

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#tobyreads: Playing Catch-Up With Literary 2013

James McBride

Usually, this is the kind of thing I do when the Tournament of Books is announced: a frantic flailing to try to read as many acclaimed books from a given year as humanly possible. This year,I decided to get things underway a little early. Maybe James McBride is the reason: his The Good Lord Bird seems to be racking up award nominations right and left; given that Jason also had kind things to say about it over at Flavorwire, I figured […]

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Afternoon Bites: Frank Bill’s Playlist, Washington Irving, New Bleached, Paul Kneale, and More

Frank Bill’s Donnybrook playlist is up. Iggy Pop digs Iceage and Jazuzzi Boys. We can relate. “I think London’s iconography is really interesting because it’s so removed from the experience of the city.  In places like New York or Paris you always have the feeling that you’re participating in the filmic experience of the place you have logged in your memory. London’s pop images feel like a flaky concession to that.” Paul Kneale talked with Rhizome. Ed Champion made his way to  the […]

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