Tag: reading
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The Correspondent, An Epistolary Novel
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans is an epistolary novel (written in letters and documents [newspaper articles, journal entries, email, etc.] and today includes social media and other documentation.) Think Bram Stoker’s Dracula, or Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, or more recently Bridgette Jones’ Diary by Helen Fielding or The Color Purple by Alice Walker (a girl’s…
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Transcription, a novel by Ben Lerner
I just finished this short novel (maybe 40,000 words in 130 pages) that’s been hailed as one of the first books to take on the issue of dependence on our phones. But it also addresses relationships and provides “dreamlike” narratives. From the Amazon introduction: “The narrator of Ben Lerner’s new novel has traveled to Providence,…
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This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger
Krueger has, over a long career, brought the Midwest, or maybe more directly, Minnesota into the literary mainstream. His novels include his 2014 Ordinary Grace, the story of a small town and the people in it, all with larger implications for the human condition. Read it! But now, I’ve just finished his 2019 novel This…
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About Grace, A Novel by Anthony Doerr
Doerr is most recently known for his novel All the Light We Cannot See, which I’ve read and agree with the critics that it’s phenomenal accomplishment (also made into a short series for TV.) Literary, lyrical, and heartbreaking for much of the plot, a blind girl with only street memory has to overcome attacks from…
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Rabih Alamenddine and the “True, True” truth about his National Book Award novel.
“The True, True, Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) won the National Book Award for fiction in 2025. Written in English, billed as a dark comedy, the novel, like so many others I’ve read from award winning authors with different ideas, jumps all over the place – although the cover blurb says “the…
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The Evolving Nature of Artistic Growth
Many years ago I read Richard Russo’s Pulitzer Prize winning book Empire Falls. It takes place in a small New England town that is well worn and probably going to continue deteriorating. Lots of blue collar class issues and pitiable characters. But the writing is rich and one can’t help but care for the characters.…
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Martyr, by Kaveh Akbar
I just finished reading Kaveh Akbar’s novel Martyr. My copy of book has more than 25 effusive praises from mostly (but not entirely) east or west coast reviewers. So here again I find the number a bit overstated and feel like the inclusion of all this “doth protest too much.” And yet, not all the…
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Some Links
Here are some links to my books, reviews, and to a couple of literary accounts. You can also download from Apple Books to the app on your Apple device: https://bookfinity.com/reader-type-results-share/Bookworm/Time%20Traveler/Lifelong%20Learner/ https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/rodney%20nelsestuen/_/N-8q8 Rodney Nelsestuen on Amazon Too Many Stones, A Novel Neighbors, A Novel Quiet Desperation, A Novella Why Belize? A Novel Kirkus Books – Reviews…
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With Caution, Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer
Over the past year and a half, I have been reading, and finally finished, Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer. This is a book I do not take lightly. Nor do I take writing about it lightly. Originally published in Paris in 1934, the book was banned in the US. The life of the narrator (presumably…
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Review of The Overstory (sort of) by Richard Powers
First, I need to thank poet Janice Northerns for urging me to read The Overstory. While it had been on my radar for some time, and it was a Pulitzer Prize winner, I hadn’t really taken the time to slot it into my reading calendar. Janice asked if I had read it and when I…
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