the last book i loved
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The Last Book I Loved: We’re Getting On
Is this the apocalypse? Maybe. It could just be a personal problem. James Kaelan’s We’re Getting On was the last book to remind me why I love books so much. A collection of 2 long and 2 short interconnected stories,…
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The Last Book I Loved: Just Kids
I finished reading Just Kids by Patti Smith at Four Barrel on Valencia Street in San Francisco and although I tried my hardest to blink them back, tears kept falling out of the corners of my eyes onto my cheeks…
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Ann Gelder: The Last Book I Loved, Beautiful Children
As soon as I started reading Beautiful Children, I disliked it. This reaction was gratifying. I went to graduate school in the late 80s and early 90s, where I learned to approach all literature (except the effusions of a few…
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Hannah Edber: The Last Book I Loved, Asterios Polyp
Art and life seem to intersect at my alarming weakness for the archetypal dissatisfied middle-aged American male. In countless viewings, I’ve watched reverently as Annie Hall’s Alvie Singer mutters and paces in neurotic self-absorbed circles, and I adore Rabbit Angstrom…
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Inney Prakash: The Last Book I Loved, The Art Fair
There’s something romantic about aged books; out-of-print texts that taunt existence, ready to fall from the public conscious without a single clap or salute. The Art Fair is David Lipsky’s first and only novel to date, an early precursor to…
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Bonnie B. Lee: The Last Book I Loved, Shadow Country
People get sick of hearing the same story over and over again. I assume it’s why healthy couples split off from each other at cocktail parties. Peter Matthiessen has not only told the story of Edgar Watson at least four…
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Erin Teresa Devlin: The Last Book I Loved, The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears
The last book that I truly loved was The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu. Sometimes I will pick up a few books at a time and see which one is the hardest to stop reading. I finish…
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Nancy Smith: The Last Book I Loved, Willful Creatures
When I was a kid I would wander down the block, four houses over, to visit our neighborhood “grandma,” Mrs. Koski. At her house I was treated to Cheetos and stories. There wasn’t any junk food in my house so…
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Kevin Nolan: The Last Book I Loved, Short Letter, Long Farewell
Austrian writer Peter Handke begins his 1972 novel Short Letter, Long Farewell with the following: “Jefferson Street is a quiet thoroughfare in Providence. It circles around the business section, changes its name to Norwich Street in the South End, and…
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Ryan Clark: The Last Book I Loved, Where I Was From
One of the best things about reading Joan Didion is her honesty, the fact that she hasn’t forgotten the uncertainty that comes from being young, or just how hard it can be to part truths from myth. Didion once wrote…
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Sean Carman: The Last Book I Loved, The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them
The great thing about Russian literature is how strange it is. The characters in Dostoevsky are always breaking out in histrionics. They bustle about, shake their fists, and call each other scoundrels. They “fly” to wherever they are going and…
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Elizabeth Bastos: The Last Book I Loved, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Editor’s alert: Key plot points of this book are discussed below. Junot Diaz won the Pulitzer Prize for The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. The plot trajectory of the book: kind of expected, to tell the truth, but Oscar…