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Departure[s] by Julian Barnes (2026): A Review

Title : Departure[s] Author : Julian Barnes Publication Yea r: 2025 Rating : ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Pages : 165 Source : ebook Genre : literary fiction, essay, memoir First, please do not judge me for saying this is my first 2026 release. I will not be taking questions about why. Let’s just say it feels very ironic that my first 2026 book is Departure[s] and that by the time I read the last word, I was emotionally very far from where I started. How did I choose it? Simple rule: if Julian Barnes writes, I read even if I arrive late. This round, Barnes beat out Winterson, Mary Costello, Douglas Stuart, Caro Claire Burke, and Ann Patchett. They will cope. I picked up the book (well, tablet), saw "Julian Barnes," and, in my usual responsible fashion, did not bother to check the genre, topic, or anything resembling context. A few pages in, I started thinking: this doesn’t feel like a novel; this feels like an essay or a lecture on memory, illness, and Proust. Which, to be clear, I love. ...
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Today in Bookish and Literary History, July 22

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1997 The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman | UK | 370 | 🏆🏆 | 2019 Marzahn, Mon Amour by Katja Oskamp | Germany | 122 | 🏆 2021 The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell | United Kingdom | 416 | 🏆🏆 2021 12 Bytes: How We Got Here. Where We Might Go Next by Jeanette Winterson | United Kingdom | 336 | 2025 Hunting in America by Tehila Hakimi | Israel / United States | 208 | 2025 Maggie; Or, a Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar by Katie Yee | United States | 200 | 🏆 💡 Did you know? ⭕ In Philip Pullman’s masterful fantasy sequel The Subtle Knife, the narrative introduces the iconic Telemonic blade, a tool so sharp it can slice through the fabric between parallel universes, bridging Lyra Belacqua’s world with modern Oxford. ⭕ Katja Oskamp’s quietly brilliant German masterpiece Marzahn, Mon Amour subverts traditional coming-of-age templates by tracking a middle-aged writer who becomes a manicurist in a Berlin suburb. ⭕ Interrogation of human curiosity and architecture flows seamlessly into Jean...
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Today in Bookish and Literary History, July 21

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2007 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling | United Kingdom | 784 | 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 2022 The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty | United States | 339 |🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 2026 Cool Machine by Colson Whitehead | United States | 368 | 2026 Yellow Pine by Claire Vaye Watkins | United States | 256 | 2026 Capital From Zero: Reading Marx in the Age of Climate Catastrophe by Kohei Saito | Japan | 240 | 2026 The Lord of the Wood by E.M. Anderson | United States | 320 | 2026 With Friends Like You by Amy Chozick | United States | 336 | 2026 Give Me Everything You've Got by Imogen Crimp | United Kingdom | 304 | 2026 Our Marriage Is Murder by Carol Goodman | United States | 320 | 2026 Just a Highland Fling by Naina Kumar | United States | 352 | 2026 The Mortons by Justine Larbalestier | Australia | 384 | 2026 I Know the Ants by Lang Leav | Australia / New Zealand | 288 | 2026 How to Kill a Crime Writer by Sarah Lotz | United Kingdom / South Africa | 336 | 2026 Three Reasons for Revenge by...
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Today in Bookish and Literary History, July 20

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2017 Oh Honey by Emily R. Austin | CA | 140 | 2021 Intimacies by Katie Kitamura | United States | 225 | 🏆🏆 2021 Linked by Gordon Korman | Canada | 320 |🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 2021 She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan | United Kingdom | 416 |🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 2021 The Thin Line Between Everything and Nothing by Hannah Storm | United Kingdom | 160 | 2021 Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder | United States | 256 |🏆🏆🏆 2021 Virtue by Hermione Hoby | United Kingdom | 320 | 2023 The Green Lady: A Spirit, A Story, A Place by Sally Bayley | United Kingdom | 193 | 💡 Did you know? ⭕ In Rachel Yoder’s visceral and sharply satirical debut novel Nightbitch, the narrative functions as a ferocious, surrealist look at the isolating realities of stay-at-home motherhood, tracking an artist who becomes increasingly convinced she is physically transforming into a canine. ⭕ Katie Kitamura’s brilliant contemporary fiction piece Intimacies uses sparse, hyper-focused prose to examine a court interpreter at The Hag...
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Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn (2001): A Review

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Title : Ella Minnow Pea Author : Mark Dunn Publication Yea r: 2001 Rating : ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Pages : 208 Source : ebook Genre : Dystopia, YA, Humor, Literary Fiction Awards : Borders Original Voices Award for Fiction (2001) Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn is marketed as a cute little dystopian novel about a linguistically sophisticated island that worships some alleged language saint and then, thanks to “divine” nonsense and authoritarian ego, slowly bans its own alphabet. Letters literally fall from a monument, and every time one falls, that letter is outlawed from speech and writing. Yes, in a society built on language, they decide to legally strangle language. Genius. Flawless satire. It’s told entirely through letters (of the postal kind, not just the alphabet), as citizens write to each other while their vocabulary is gradually murdered. The premise? Fantastic. The idea of watching communication collapse in real time? Brilliant. The ending? Honestly, great. On paper, this is a solid ⭐...
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