"The truth is: I do not know... I seek... I have not yet found. Only with this in mind can I feel alive and look at you without shame." Federico Fellini, 8 1/2
These sleek, disturbing, abstract verses from the man play your mind with delicate experimental theater. "All I want/is the word/to reveal the day," Gizzi says, and it does, but only as the poet sheds the veil. An experience like breathing in water. ~ Reviewed by Alex Bell
If more Sci-Fi novels were like this one, I'd read them more often. Dhalgren is a sun slowly burning into madness, beauty, and love. For those who prefer James Joyce to Michael Crichton, you might find your pathway into the genre through this book. ~ Reviewed by Alex Bell
A psychosexual phantasm of lies deteriorates a young, nameless narrator into pain, loneliness, and sober reality. Written in luminous prose, Megan Nolan tells a story of a couple's lewd and subtly toxic intricacies, creeping obsessions with love, sex, and flirtations with alcoholism. If Sally Rooney wrote Conversations with Friends into a thriller, it would read something like this. Superb! ~ Reviewed by Alex Bell
Revolutionary and inspiring. Graeber and Wengrow restate the evolution of human history, calling out past speculations masquerading as fact for upwards of centuries. The Dawn of Everything paints ancient and prehistoric humanity in a brighter, more benevolent light. ~ Reviewed by Alex Bell
By the end of the book I was in tears. There is something small, yet profound in this text. The characters are vibrant, yes; over time you feel for them, yes; beyond that, beyond the glitter and champagne there's a genuine understanding of what it's like to be alive today.
There's a loneliness the book gets at from the start, that thing attracting both Cleo and Frank to one another; being lost and in love. I found something to love about all of the characters, and what I enjoyed most about them is they're not great people, but they're redeemable, and by the end most of them are. ~ Reviewed by Alex Bell
