Tag: Dystopia

• Now’s a Good Time for a Dystopia

  Today’s reading list features that stalwart genre of anxious times: the dystopia. I’ve tried to collect some newer and more unusual examples for this list, rather than the old standards that you see on every list. Not only are these novels prime escapist fare, but they serve as a helpful reminder that things could always […]

  Shannon Turlington

  April 9, 2020

  Notebook, Reading

  Books, Cherie Priest, China Mieville, Claire Vaye Watkins, Dave Eggers, David Mitchell, Dexter Palmer, Dystopia, Hanya Yanagihara, Margaret Atwood, Michel Faber, Paolo Bacigalupi, PD James, Reading list, Science fiction

• Favorite Books of the 2010s: Quick Takes of 2019 Novels

  This is a series of reviews of my favorite books published between 2010 and 2019. These are shorter reviews of good reads published in 2019.  The Institute by Stephen King (2019) Solid King entertainment. True to form, once I was hooked I couldn’t put it down. King gives his characters heart in a way that so […]

  Shannon Turlington

  January 6, 2020

  Best Books of 2010s

  2010s, Ben H Winters, Carmen Maria Machado, Dystopia, Golden State, Horror, In the Dream House, Memoir, Stephen King, The Institute

• Favorite Books of the 2010s: Quick Takes of 2018 Novels

  This is a series of reviews of my favorite books published between 2010 and 2019. These are shorter reviews of good reads published in 2018.  The Only Harmless Great Thing by Brooke Bolander (2018) I thought this was a lovely short book with a strong message of empowerment. The narrative weaves together the perspectives from prehistory, […]

  Shannon Turlington

  January 5, 2020

  Best Books of 2010s

  Alyson Hagy, An Ocean of Minutes, Apocalyptic literature, Brooke Bolander, Christine Mangan, Contemporary fiction, Domestic suspense, Dystopia, Elevation, Ghost stories, Horror, Laura Purcell, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Novellas, Ottessa Moshfegh, Reading women, Science fiction, Scribe, Semiosis, Stephen King, Sue Burke, Tangerine, The Gone World, The Only Harmless Great Thing, The Outsider, The Silent Companions, Thea Lim, Time travel, Tom Sweterlitsch

• Favorite Books of the 2010s: Red Clocks by Leni Zumas

  This is a series of reviews of my favorite books published between 2010 and 2019. Red Clocks by Leni Zumas (2018) This takes place in an alternate United States (or in the near future?), when a Personhood Amendment to the Constitution has made abortion and in vitro fertilization illegal. It alternates among four women, who are […]

  Shannon Turlington

  January 3, 2020

  Best Books of 2010s

  2010s, Dystopia, Feminist fiction, Leni Zumas, Red Clocks

• Favorite Books of the 2010s: Quick Takes of 2017 Novels

  This is a series of reviews of my favorite books published between 2010 and 2019. These are shorter reviews of good reads published in 2017.  The River at Night by Erica Ferencik (2017) Four women friends go on a whitewater-rafting adventure trip, but an accident leaves them lost in the Maine backwoods, where they run into […]

  Shannon Turlington

  January 2, 2020

  Best Books of 2010s

  2010s, 2017, All Our Wrong Todays, Alternate history, Apocalyptic literature, Carmen Maria Machado, Caroline Leavitt, Contemporary fiction, Cruel Beautiful World, David Williams, Dystopia, Elan Mastai, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, Erica Ferencik, Essays, Fairy tales, Feminist fiction, Gail Honeyman, Gay and Lesbian, Ghost stories, Gwendy’s Button Box, Her Body and Other Parties, Historical fiction, Holly Goddard Jones, Horror, Hunger, Mapping the Interior, Megan Hunter, Memoir, News of the World, No Time to Spare, Paulette Jiles, Richard Chizmar, Roxane Gay, Sarah Lotz, Science fiction, Short stories, Slipstream, Stephen Graham Jones, Stephen King, Tade Thompson, The Changeling, The End We Start From, The Murders of Molly Southbourne, The River at Night, The Salt Line, The White Road, Thriller, Time travel, Ursula K Le Guin, Victor LaValle, When the English Fall

• Favorite Books of the 2010s: American War by Omar El Akkad

  This is a series of reviews of my favorite books published between 2010 and 2019. American War by Omar El Akkad (2017) There are two things that books can do that as a reader I live for: one is to create a world that I can completely inhabit in my imagination, and the other is to […]

  Shannon Turlington

  January 1, 2020

  Best Books of 2010s

  2010s, American War, Dystopia, Omar El Akkad

• Favorite Books of the 2010s: Borne by Jeff VanderMeer

  This is a series of reviews of my favorite books published between 2010 and 2019. Borne by Jeff VanderMeer (2017) A fable disguised as a dystopia, set in a ruined City on an unnamed Earth, where Rachel scavenges for supplies to give her lover, Wick, who makes biotech to sell to other survivors. The City is […]

  Shannon Turlington

  December 31, 2019

  Best Books of 2010s

  2010s, Borne, Dystopia, Jeff VanderMeer

• Favorite Books of the 2010s: Quick Takes of 2016 Novels

  This is a series of reviews of my favorite books published between 2010 and 2019. These are shorter reviews of good reads published in 2016. The Power by Naomi Alderman (2016) What can I say about this book? I know it will be very divisive–some people will love it, some will hate it. I loved […]

  Shannon Turlington

  December 29, 2019

  Best Books of 2010s

  2010s, 2016, Born a Crime, Dystopia, Emma Donoghue, Feminist fiction, Good Morning Midnight, Greener Pastures, Historical fiction, Horror, John Langan, Joshua Gaylord, Justin Cronin, Kij Johnson, Lily Brooks-Dalton, Memoir, Michael Wehunt, Naomi Alderman, Post-apocalyptic fiction, Short stories, The City of Mirrors, The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe, The Fisherman, The Passage, The Power, The Wonder, Trevor Noah, Vampires, When We Were Animals

• Favorite Books of the 2010s: Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters

  This is a series of reviews of my favorite books published between 2010 and 2019. Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters (2016) I highly enjoyed and appreciated this gripping book on three levels. First, it presents a fascinating what-if scenario. In this alternate America, instead of having a civil war, the states came to a compromise […]

  Shannon Turlington

  December 28, 2019

  Best Books of 2010s

  2010s, Alternate history, Ben H Winters, Dystopia, Underground Airlines

• Favorite Books of the 2010s: Quick Takes of 2015 Novels

  This is a series of reviews of my favorite books published between 2010 and 2019. These are shorter reviews of good reads published in 2015. The Long and Faraway Gone by Lou Berney (2015) This novel follows two characters–only slightly connected–who are both from Oklahoma City and are both struggling to get past unresolved mysteries from […]

  Shannon Turlington

  December 27, 2019

  Best Books of 2010s

  2010s, 2015, Alternate history, Charlotte Wood, David Wellington, Descent, Dystopia, Fantasy, Feminist fiction, Finders Keepers, Horror, Lou Berney, Molly Tanzer, Mystery, Positive, Short stories, Stephen King, The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, The Long and Faraway Gone, The Natural Way of Things, Thriller, Tim Johnston, Vermilion, zombies