Harvey Freedenberg

Review: The Ballad of the Last Guest Controversial Nobel laureate Peter Handke's novel The Ballad of the Last Guest is a slim, elegant mood piece, intended more to evoke feelings

From @shelf-awareness.com my review of Peter Handke’s novel, THE BALLAD OF THE LAST GUEST: www.shelf-awareness.com/theshelf/202...

“In America, pessimists are more likely to be right, optimists more likely to succeed.” Richard Russo #sundaysentence

Review: House of Day, House of Night Polish Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk (Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead) has described her literary works as "constellation novels

From @shelf-awareness.com my review of Nobel Laureate Olga Tokarczuk’s novel, HOUSE OF DAY, HOUSE OF NIGHT: www.shelf-awareness.com/theshelf/202...

"Childhood is a darkened, fantasy-filled theater in which, after a long or short while, the houselights are turned on, and the brightness makes you blink, and then you see the candy wrappers under the seats and the lines for the bathrooms." Ian Frazier, THE SNAKES THAT ATE FLORIDA #sundaysentence

Will There Ever Be Another You | Bookreporter.com Amid a global pandemic, one young woman is trying to keep the pieces together --- of her family, stunned by a devastating loss, and of her mind, left mangled and misfiring from a mystifying disease. S...

From @bookreporter.bsky.social my review of Patricia Lockwood's WILL THERE EVER BE ANOTHER YOU:

www.bookreporter.com/reviews/will...

Sorry, Donny, you don’t get a Nobel Peace Prize when you’re busily working to destroy democracy and undermine the rule of law in your own country.

My #sundaysentence a day late (I was out of town yesterday.)

“Light came right down the middle of the street like a delivery.” Ian Frazier, THE SNAKES THAT ATE FLORIDA (coming January 2026)

This sentence, from a recent profile of Lockwood in the New Yorker, describes where I am right now: “If the book’s prismatic structure and subjective immediacy feel baffling to encounter, that is because bafflement is the point.“

Yes. Could be tricky.

I'm reading her new novel. Not easy so far.

The Book of Alchemy: A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life | Bookreporter.com From the time she was young, Suleika Jaouad has kept a journal. She’s used it to mark life's biggest occasions and to weather its most ferocious storms. Journaling has buoyed her through illness, hear...

A beautiful book. I reviewed it here: www.bookreporter.com/reviews/the-...

One of Us | Bookreporter.com It’s 1915, and life is falling apart for 13-year-old twins Bolt and Eleanor. When their mother dies, they are forced to leave home under the care of a vicious con man who claims to be their long-lost ...

I think you will love it. My review below. I also highly recommend Hamilton Cain‘s review in the New York Times this week: www.bookreporter.com/reviews/one-...

“Suddenly she is fluttering near the wood-and-mud root cellar ceiling above her—not like a butterfly but more like a bit of ash or ember, carried off on the night breeze, pulled upward like a spark in the narrow trail that leads from a campfire to the dark sky.” D. Chaon, One of Us, #sundaysentence

One of Us | Bookreporter.com It’s 1915, and life is falling apart for 13-year-old twins Bolt and Eleanor. When their mother dies, they are forced to leave home under the care of a vicious con man who claims to be their long-lost ...

From @bookreporter.bsky.social my review of Dan Chaon’s new novel, ONE OF US: www.bookreporter.com/reviews/one-...

Review: Evensong Stewart O'Nan's body of work is noteworthy for its diversity across 18 works of fiction, with settings that include post-Civil War Wisconsin

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

Shelf Awareness for Monday, August 21, 2023 Welcome to the Web site for Shelf Awareness: Daily Enlightenment for the Book Trade, the free e-mail newsletter dedicated to helping the people in stores, ...

Loved that novel. I reviewed it here: www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?i...

“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

History Matters | Bookreporter.com HISTORY MATTERS brings together selected essays by beloved historian David McCullough, some published here for the first time, written at different points over the course of his long career, but all f...

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.

Review: Queen Esther For anyone who's followed John Irving's nearly six-decades-long literary career, settling into another of his novels feels like stepping into

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

Thank you, Matthew. Please keep speaking your truth.

I only know you from your words on TV and on social media, but I believe you are a man of integrity and decency. I hope this event will not cause you to go silent. We need your voice in these perilous times, and our public discourse would be diminished if it were to disappear.

“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

The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels | Bookreporter.com Our current climate of partisan fury is not new, and in THE SOUL OF AMERICA, Jon Meacham shows us how what Abraham Lincoln called the “better angels of our nature” have repeatedly won the day. Paintin...

Excellent book. I reviewed it here: www.bookreporter.com/reviews/the-...

“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.

She Pushed to Overturn Trump’s Loss in the 2020 Election. Now She’ll Help Oversee U.S. Election Security. — ProPublica Heather Honey has been appointed to a senior position in the Department of Homeland Security. State election officials and voting experts are concerned.

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.