Deedi Brown 9/28/25 Deedi Brown 9/28/25

The Pelican Child

Deedi Brown 9/28/25 Deedi Brown 9/28/25

The Wilderness

Deedi Brown 9/22/25 Deedi Brown 9/22/25

The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother)

Deedi Brown 9/21/25 Deedi Brown 9/21/25

Flashlight

Deedi Brown 9/8/25 Deedi Brown 9/8/25

Telephone

Deedi Brown 8/9/25 Deedi Brown 8/9/25

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny

This is masterful writing and an epic; beautiful story. It’s a slow-paced, aching, intimate, sweeping 700-page book that takes its time, and so must you.

Deedi Brown 7/27/25 Deedi Brown 7/27/25

The Lesser Bohemians

What a moving exploration of youth, love, desire, and recovery from trauma. I’m intrigued to see what the sequel holds for these characters!

Deedi Brown 7/27/25 Deedi Brown 7/27/25

Unworld

Ultimately, it’s like this book aaaaaalmost became what it was trying to be. A bit of a bummer, tbh.

Deedi Brown 7/21/25 Deedi Brown 7/21/25

Audition

Deedi Brown 7/20/25 Deedi Brown 7/20/25

Wild Houses

Maybe I’ve read too many books with a similar setting, character archetype, and mood, but I didn’t feel like this one did anything compellingly new for me; it was just another well-written book in its subgenre.

Deedi Brown 6/24/25 Deedi Brown 6/24/25

Enlightenment

I enjoyed my time with this deliberately, consciously slow-paced book about lives in orbit, love in all its forms, and what haunts us.

Deedi Brown 5/13/25 Deedi Brown 5/13/25

The Antidote

Karen Russell writes exactly my flavor of weird literary magical realism, so it’s no surprise that I loved The Antidote. But it’s not the presence of those elements that does it here — it’s the way she weaves them together.

Deedi Brown 5/6/25 Deedi Brown 5/6/25

Headshot

This book’s standout is a style that’s masterfully pared back; it feels simple in a way that’s obviously anything but. Truly expert stuff here, and more than worth your time. Read it!

Deedi Brown 4/20/25 Deedi Brown 4/20/25

Playground

A bold statement: I think Playground is my favorite Richard Powers so far. I know he won the Pulitzer for The Overstory (which I definitely enjoyed!), but I said what I said.

Deedi Brown 3/31/25 Deedi Brown 3/31/25

Black Woods Blue Sky

I’m a sucker for literary fiction with speculative elements, so when I heard about Black Woods Blue Sky, which blends the dreaminess and darkness of fairy tales with the beauty and danger of the Alaskan wilderness, I knew it was going to be exactly my kind of book. And I was not wrong!

Deedi Brown 3/30/25 Deedi Brown 3/30/25

This Strange Eventful History

This Strange Eventful History was longlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize. Parts of it were more engaging for me than others, but overall, I enjoyed it. Audio is definitely the way to go here, IMO!

Deedi Brown 2/1/25 Deedi Brown 2/1/25

Three Days in June

This book was a bit of a miss for me. It has emotional impact and fantastic characters, but the execution felt old-fashioned and strangely out of touch. It’s short, though, so you still might enjoy this heartwarming little story.

Deedi Brown 1/22/25 Deedi Brown 1/22/25

We Do Not Part

This book is surreal and disorienting (in a good way), deeply affecting, and the kind of book that’s so good and readable you have to stop yourself from inhaling it

Deedi Brown 12/30/24 Deedi Brown 12/30/24

Our Evenings

Our Evenings has a lot of things going for it, in terms of being a winner for me: It follows a character across their entire life, it depicts that life with tenderness and care, it has a strong first-person voice. And while it didn’t land with me 100%, I netted out on liking it.

Deedi Brown 12/18/24 Deedi Brown 12/18/24

Held

Held was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and if I’m being honest, I’m a little surprised that it didn’t win. I read it twice in three months. And WOW am I glad I did.