I heard a reader say on a podcast recently that they were going to spend the semi-bicentennial year reading a book from each of the 50 states. The idea appealed to me, even though I will not be doing that this year. My TBR (to-be-read) is more than full, actually. But I could spend some…
When I received my requested ARC for Land by Maggie O’Farrell, I knew I had arrived in the big leagues of ARC-ing. (That doesn’t mean I always get what I ask for, but still.) And I was thrilled. I have now read three O’Farrell books and have two more on my shelf. I imagine I…
We’ll begin with a list that you’ll find nowhere else: My Best Reads of 2025. It’s possible that not a single book on this list was published in 2025, just that I read it in 2025. (Turns out a few of them were published this year. See asterisks.) Some of them were published hundreds of…
I like to pay attention to the literary prize winners. To a certain extent, you can trust that they’ll sift through a whole lot of books (though not even close to all the books) and come up with some good reads. Not all of them will jive with you, sure, but it’s a good place…
You have found the Starving Artist blog about books, writing, and publishing. Please follow the drop-down menus to navigate around the page (lots of reviews! some news) or just scroll down to read the blog. And why the moniker? See the first two blog posts from 2012.
Once the Heartstopper graphic novel series by Alice Oseman had concluded (just a month or two ago) with Volume 6, it was time for me to watch the streaming series and cap it with the movie (which came out shortly after book 6 and concludes the streaming series). It’s always fun to join in the…
I am going to make comparisons of The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai to two other books. The first is Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie. Sure, it also takes place (partly) in India and is long and literary, but it’s more than that: it’s an epic, unfolds over time, and is beautifully…
I’ve heard a lot of good things about the nonfiction book (“that reads like fiction”), A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst. It’s a Ten Best Books of 2025 with The New York Times Book Review and a best book according to NPR, Time, The Guardian, The New Yorker, Fresh Air, USA Today, and more.…
I have joined another book club. (What? You don’t say?) Partly I have joined because it is at the bookstore where I work. Partly I love the premise—a type of book club that I have been considering starting myself, the type of book club where people read books of their choosing, given certain parameters. This…
I requested the ARC of Grim Tidings by B. K. Borison because I read Good Spirits last holiday time and really enjoyed it (for what it is, which is tropey contemporary romance). I’ve been waiting all year for #2 of the Ghosted series (episodic), and was disappointed just a little right off the bat because…
I read In the Woods by Tana French last year, my only other experience with French. Apparently, I have not yet reviewed it. (I have a couple dozen books on my backlist from 2025.) I read mysteries and crime thrillers largely because I’m forced to or they overlap with another genre, so I was happy…
Perhaps it’s a waste of your time, but I want to first say that I don’t enjoy giving negative book reviews (not that this review is ALL negative). I would love it if all reading experiences were four-plus stars and I could just rave about everything I read (especially ARCs). However, I am honest to…
My takeaway of Gwen & Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher: I started out a little annoyed because it wasn’t quite what I expected or wanted, writing-caliber and Arthurian-wise. Then I took a deep breath and told myself to read the book on its own terms, which sometimes works. For this one, it…
A Tender Age by Chang-rae Lee is best read with a buddy. Not like while you’re reading it, but it’s the kind of book you want to discuss after (and while) you read. I guess that makes it a good book club read. But since it’s being published today, it might be awhile before it…
I was excited to see Project Hail Mary for two reasons. 1) It’s a book to movie, and that almost always piques my interest, and 2) it was getting great reviews, at least word-of-mouth. But then I ended up at the theater to see it before I could read the book, even though I try…
I normally do a separate book review for the books we read in the bookshop’s club (since I will be leading discussion and it helps me think through my impressions and opinions of a book), but I didn’t get around to this one—There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak—in March. (I have already…
I might have had three different sources for The Romance Revival ARC (which is atypical), which means that possibly the publisher is really pushing this one out there. But I had already heard good things about it from some of the podcasts and blogs I listen to/read that tend to read well ahead of publication,…
April was not a great reading month for me. I guess we can understand why it’s taken me so long to review this gaggle of titles. Dear Mothman by Robin Gow was on my radar before it showed up as a YA-for-Adults book club read. (For the record, it’s more Middle Grades.) This is partly…
***Early copy as a bookseller*** I’ll probably do a longer review later, but this drops in the UK today and Americans have only a week to wait! So, I’ll give my two cents now. I’m a middle-aged lady who reads many, many things including YA and graphic novels and I was swept up into this…
There is a part of me that was fighting liking Claire Keegan’s So Late in the Day. I already had a beef with her because her books are all hardcover, thin, and overpriced, making them all but inaccessible to many people. Perhaps this is more a beef with her publisher. But then the issues deepened…
I was looking forward to reading The God of the Woods by Liz Moore because everyone kept reading it and then telling me how great it was. I am not a huge crime-thriller reader, but I am going to rank this one up there with some of the crime-thriller greats that also have a distinct…
My main beef with Orbital by Samantha Harvey? It’s not a novel. And I don’t mean it’s a novella, either, though it’s definitely short enough to be that. No, it is a book of vignettes, so maybe a book of connected short stories? Not really even that. Also, it’s something akin to creative nonfiction—the characters…
I started dabbling with reading in the romance genre maybe half a dozen years ago. Mostly, I tolerated adequate writing so that I could have an easy, breezy book that was fun and low commitment. I enjoyed many that I read. But then I came across India Holton last year. Now, I’m not going to…
I fully expected to like Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout. I expected it to be an easy read. It would have been an easy read, except I was pretty bored (so it was difficult to want to pick it back up). I liked (and more-so respected) Olive Kitteridge back in the day. And then…
I was in a mood. I’ve read a lot of “serious” literature this year and had been on a literary fiction streak. Which is fine. It’s great! I love literary fiction. But I just wanted to read something that I could fly through and would take me no time at all—right in the middle of…
the starving artist 