From @shelf-awareness.com my review of Stewart O’Nan’s new novel, EVENSONG: www.shelf-awareness.com/theshelf/202...

“It was one of those rare evenings one dreams about in winter, when the air seems viscous with warmth, scents and fading light together melting onto the skin as a balm and soaking into the senses.” Ian McEwan WHAT WE CAN KNOW (2025) #sundaysentence

From @shelf-awareness.com my review of HISTORY MATTERS, a posthumous collection of pieces from David McCullough, some of them never before published: www.bookreporter.com/reviews/hist...

This is a massive, history making abuse of your power. It will define your legacy and one day you will come to regret punishing free speech and trying to destroy democracy.

The US has had wise presidents and stupid presidents, strong presidents and weak presidents. But we've never had a gangster president. Until now.

From @shelf-awareness.com my review of John Irving’s novel QUEEN ESTHER: www.shelf-awareness.com/theshelf/202... @simonandschuster.bsky.social

“A writer must see with the painter’s eye; a writer must have an ear for the music of words; a writer must have the actor’s gift for mimicry, the capacity to take any part.” David McCullough, HISTORY MATTERS (2025) #sundaysentence

“She was like a powerful atmospheric depression that squeezes every puff of smoke out of chimneys and casts winter smog over cities.” Olga Tokarczuk, HOUSE OF DAY, HOUSE OF NIGHT (coming 12/2/25) #sundaysentence

“But in fact the most important thing is what’s actually going on here and now, right before your eyes, and questions about the beginning and end tell you nothing worth knowing.” Olga Tokarczuk, HOUSE OF DAY, HOUSE OF NIGHT (pub 12/2/25). #sundaysentence

This woman’s spurious, and often utterly ridiculous, claims about the 2020 election have been discredited time and time again by multiple courts and election officials. She doesn’t care about election integrity; her sole job is to make sure Republicans win.

Trump appoints a prominent election liar to help oversee election security in '26. If you are not worried about the integrity of that election, you should be, because Republicans only view one outcome as legitimate--when they win. stocks.apple.com/AgrgS-2vERZW...

I hope Lisa Cook defies Trump and shows up to work today. Because if her illegal firing is allowed to stand, we’re no longer living in the United States. We’ve become Hungary.

Dear Trump Voters: He said this in 1998. He doesn’t feel differently today.

No one cares what he thinks. Why does every stupid opinion he vomits out become a news story?

A pardon. @wutangforchildren.bsky.social

Not too shabby. . . Wordle 1,527 2/6 🟨⬜⬜⬜🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

If you go around wearing a cap that says what Trump’s says, you’re definitely not. . .

It’s not enough to watch and complain. Resolve to do something about it.

Are you part of the 16%?

“He said many things that sounded intolerable, but when I thought about them sometime later it seemed to me he just said what most people think but wouldn’t dream of expressing.” Claire-Louise Bennett, BIG KISS, BYE-BYE (coming 10/9/25) #sundaysentence

From @bookreporter.bsky.social my review of Natalie Bakopoulos’s novel ARCHIPELAGO: www.bookreporter.com/reviews/arch...

“Nothing sustains the illusion of intelligence like association with large sums of money.” Mark Twain

From @shelf-awareness.com my review of @susanorlean.bsky.social's memoir, JOYRIDE: www.shelf-awareness.com/theshelf/202... @avidreaderpress.bsky.social

If you can't see that Trump wants to lead here the way Putin does in Russia, it's only for one of two reasons: (1) you intentionally have blinded yourself to that reality because you are fine with it or (2) you are not paying attention.

“I know it, that all the nights, all the forgettable nights make up whatever time we’re granted, and if you think this is nothing, then life itself isn’t anything.” Peter Orner, THE GOSSIP COLUMNIST’S DAUGHTER #sundaysentence

Occasionally a novel breaks the mold, and Peter Orner’s THE GOSSIP COLUMNIST’S DAUGHTER does. Here’s my review from @bookreporter.bsky.social. And when you have finished this novel, go read anything else he’s written. He’s terrific: www.bookreporter.com/reviews/the-... @littlebrown.bsky.social

A fascinating essay by @jfkane.bsky.social. I reviewed her excellent novel FONSECA here: www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?i...

“They all had their losses, and if time made them easier to bear, the dead were also more remote and harder to recall, a silent slideshow of old memories unchanging as the past.” Stewart O’Nan, EVENSONG. #sundaysentence

From @readbookpage.bsky.social my review of Robbie Arnott's novel DUSK: www.bookpage.com/reviews/dusk...

“As he learned from the novel he was writing, a novelist’s job was imagining the future.” John Irving, QUEEN ESTHER (pub date 11/4/25) #sundaysentence

From @bookreporter.bsky.social my review of Ed Park’s excellent short story collection, AN ORAL HISTORY OF ATLANTIS: www.bookreporter.com/reviews/an-o...

@matthunte.bsky.social Nice to see you. It's been a while.

US taxpayers just paid $10M for Trump’s trip to Scotland so he could cut a ribbon on his new golf course, but we “can’t afford” pediatric cancer research.

From @shelf-awareness.com my review of Ian McEwan’s fine new novel, WHAT WE CAN KNOW: www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?i... @aaknopf.bsky.social

“He didn’t like that books started on the first page and ended on the last.” Ed Park, “Eat Pray Click,” AN ORAL HISTORY OF ATLANTIS: Stories #sundaysentence

From @shelf-awareness.com my review of @maryroach.bsky.social’s REPLACEABLE YOU: Adventures in Human Anatomy: www.shelf-awareness.com/theshelf/202... @wwnorton.com

If you understand that Blanche means exactly the opposite of what he says, you get it.

It’s very clear how this all will play out.

From @readbookpage.bsky.social my review of @aidenarata.bsky.social’s YOU HAVE A NEW MEMORY: #Essays: www.bookpage.com/reviews/you-...

“Children, with their vast imaginations, can conjure a monster in the closet, but their imaginations fail when they think about their parents.” Susan Orlean, JOYRIDE: A Memoir #sundaysentence

"Silence was an uneven paving stone, deliberately put there to trip him up, to send him windmilling down the street, careening into a bobby on the beat, or tumbling into a passing pram occupied by a pair of tomato-faced little squallers." Edward St. Aubyn, PARALLEL LINES #sundaysentence

It will be nice if the 62% who disapprove of Trump’s immigration policy and the 79% who think Immigration is a “good thing” for the US actually bother to vote next year. If they do, we have a chance to start taking this country back from those trying to destroy it.

From @shelf-awareness.com, my review of Ilana Kurshin’s wise and beautiful CHILDREN OF THE BOOK: A Memoir of Reading Together: www.shelf-awareness.com/theshelf/202...

Their only hope of selling this abominable law is to pile lie upon lie and hope there are enough people who will buy the lies.

When @susanorlean.bsky.social entitled her memoir JOYRIDE (coming in October), she nailed it. Whether you’re an avid reader of her work or new to it, if you enjoy great writing and fascinating stories about how compelling nonfiction is fashioned, you will love this book.

“Style is a very simple matter; it is all rhythm.” Virginia Woolf #sundaysentence

👇!

“The mighty past wears hard against the present, like oceans, wind and rain on limestone cliffs.” Ian McEwan, WHAT WE CAN KNOW #sundaysentence

From @bookreporter.bsky.social my review of Edward St. Aubyn's novel PARALLEL LINES: www.bookreporter.com/reviews/para...