Two niche books I couldn't put down

Plus a podcast that's making me smarter and romantasy authors to read now

Hey, readers!

One of my professional goals for 2024 is to get more serious about criticism. Inspired by my ongoing frustration with internet review culture and a wonderful conversation with Traci Thomas, I’ve been thinking a lot about the difference between book reviews and book criticism, all while considering how I want to deepen my offerings in this space. This has been quite a journey for me because while I’ve been sharing books I love online for a decade, my literary training is heavily academic—a world in which whether or not you like what you’re reading hardly matters.

I’m planning to explore and document my journey towards understanding and performing criticism in my Tuesday Reading in Public series, while continuing to share short reviews every Sunday. More to come on this, but I’m mentioning it here today because this week I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the first episode of a limited edition podcast series that, I think, is going to be quite helpful to my own understanding of criticism as a genre. If you’re also interested in cultural criticism, I highly recommend checking out The Critic and Her Publics. In each episode book critic Merve Emre interviews another critic about what criticism is and why it matters, as well on-the-spot criticism. I will warn you that while it’s very thought-provoking, it’s also rather annoying and will give you grad school flashbacks if you have grad school experience. Still, I’m excited to learn more and get a peek behind the curtain from some of today’s most highly regarded practicing critics.

Louise’s first library ladder.

This week in books.

This week I read…

• Outofshapeworthlessloser: A Memoir of Figure Skating, F*cking Up, and Figuringing It Out by Gracie Gold. As a former competitive figure skater, this has been one of my most highly anticipated books of the year. Figure skating memoirs tend to be very nice and I’ve long been ready for a detailed first-hand account that gets at the darker side of the sport. Gold, a national champion and Olympian, certainly does not hold back when it comes to skewering the both the foreign and domestic governing bodies of figure skating, examining how the sport deprioritizes mental health, forces athletes into tidy narratives, and turns a blind eye to traumas such as eating disorders and sexual assaults. While I applaud her vulnerability and think this is a generally strong sports memoir, some aspects of the book fell a bit flat. I think the biggest critique is just that Gold doesn’t have much distance from the events she’s writing about. She has pretty remarkable self-awareness when writing about the earlier parts of her life and career, but the closer she got to the present the messier the writing felt. The second half seemed to lack a cohesive through-line to really hammer home her points and give her story closure. Additionally, while this is a memoir, I think her story would be even stronger if she’d turned her eye outward, even slightly, to consider the ways other athletes are being harmed by the same systems that hurt her. If you’re a fan of Gracie Gold, figure skating, or sports memoirs, I do recommend picking this up. If you’re looking for a more expansive exploration of the world of skating, try Little Girls in Pretty Boxes. Please note, content warnings abound for this book. Amazon | Bookshop | Libro.fm

• The Perils of Lady Catherine de Bourgh by Claudia Gray (out June 19th). This is the third book in the Mr. Darcy & Miss Tilney cozy mystery series—my favorite in fluffy reading. The premise of the series brings all of Austen’s characters into the same world and then has the children of Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy and Catherine Morland and Henry Tilney solve murders. It is utterly ridiculous and so much fun. Claudia Gray writes great Austen pastiche with a well-done, but not overdone mimicked style and an astute insight into Austen’s characters. One of my favorite components of each book is the issues she imagines might arise in the marriages of various Austen couples. In this particular book, Miss Tilney and Mr. Darcy are summoned by Lady Catherine de Bourgh because someone is attempting to take her life. While a little long, it’s a fun ride and I’m just so glad that Gray is keeping up with the series. These books are best read in order as the novels very much build on each other. Amazon | Bookshop | Libro.fm

Now I’m reading…

• I’m still reading Real Americans by Rachel Khong (out 4/30) and Ours by Phillip B. Williams (out 2/20).

If you are an international reader or just prefer UK covers, you can also order books through my Blackwell’s affiliate page!

Links I love.

Who wants to go in on this bookstore with me?!

Bustle’s 6 Books to Read this Month. I really love this format!

12 romantasy authors you should know.

Spoilers abound in this essay about Sarah J. Maas (including in the very first sentence!), but I really enjoyed this exploration of why her work strikes a chord.

Football fiction for Super Bowl weekend.

Lit Hub’s toddler book tolerability index rings mostly true for our household.

On falling out of love with lyric poetry.

End notes.

This week in views, listens, eats, and moments of joy.

• My mom, Louise, and I had a mini vacation in Colorado Springs and it was so fun. We fed giraffes at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, went bowling (Lou’s first time!), and visiting my former skating rink. I also randomly met Nic Stone at our hotel so overall…great week!

• I had the pleasure of interviewing Rebecca Makkai and Isabella Hammad to celebrate their Aspen Lit Prize longlisted books. You can watch both of those on my Instagram.

• I’m obsessed with this close reading of Taylor Swift’s new album title.

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Happy reading!

Sara