The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix Harrow

I loved everything about this book.

Portals, stories, the story of the self, self-determination and self-discovery, the crafting of a life of meaning.

It’s beautifully written and, as El-Motar said, “unbearably beautiful.”

I love stories about the power of stories, and I think story is somehow inherently linked to the idea of freedom, and how we write the stories of ourselves, and how we reclaim that space and power when we have let others write that story, and why and how that matters.

Tinkers by Paul Harding

Paul Harding takes on an exploration of the interior workings life in this short, brilliant novel. Overlaid on the workings of a clock, we see a landscape of gears that create, propel, shudder, chime, and escape. 

The language of Tinkers is brilliant; Harding has paragraph-long sentences that feel like a journey and at the end of the action, I felt as though I should have gotten a stamp for my passport. He deftly handles the musings and broken timelines, returning us to where we left off in just the right moment and with just the right tone. 

As I turned the last page, I felt as though I had been imprinted with mechanisms of George and the various springs that propelled his life.

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

2025

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

Published by Penguin, 2014

I fell in love with Ng when I read Little Fires Everywhere, and I adored Our Missing Hearts, so when I learned that her debut novel had somehow missed me, I picked up a copy straight away.

This exploration of family, parental expectations, racism, and society is a brilliant and beautiful work. Ng really sets us up with the first sentence and never lets us go after that. 

Brilliant, deeply moving, and powerful. 

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells

Published by Tor, 2018

The second in the Murderbot series, Artificial Condition brings us more deeply into the issues of identity, autonomy, and friendship. 

These novels are jaunty and light, and yet they deal with some of the most important, and timely, themes of our day. Each of the volumes I’ve read so far has been the perfect book to take with me on a vacation, and the situations and mishaps—and personalities—that populate each offering have stayed with me in a meaningful way. 

Pack this in your suitcase and enjoy the ride.

The series has been brought to the small screen by Apple TV+, and I hear that’s delightful too. 

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

Published by Faber and Faber, 2020.

This small volume is stark, easily overlooked in its simplicity, and compelling. I felt the pages and the narrative deeply and felt my heart in my teeth as the characters made the small decisions that would change their lives, and the lives of others. 

There’s an ethics in daily life discussion to be had here a la “If not now, when? If not you, who?”, but don’t let that dissuade you. The lyrical simplicity of this tale is worth reading just for the sheer beauty of it.