Kat's Reviews

During his time on the International Space Station, Chris Hadfield became the first-ever Canadian commander of the ISS, oversaw a record-breaking number of science experiments, and filmed a music video of himself singing David Bowie in zero gravity. He also took thousands of pictures of our little blue planet and shared them on Twitter. Collected here are the best of those shots, organized by continent, and guaranteed to give you a truly unique perspective on where you are now.

I’ve never read anything quite like Internal Medicine. Terrence Holt is a practicing physician and a fine writer, and his essays describe critical moments of his residency, underscoring the vulnerable relationship between doctor and patient. From a dying artist who painted brilliant pictures of birds, to a man who seems incapable of remembering his own diagnosis, Holt leads us through a strange and fascinating landscape of suffering and healing. I can’t wait to read anything and everything else Terrence Holt ever writes.

I am a huge fan of Gabrielle Hamilton. I inhaled Blood, Bones & Butter, her stunning 2011 memoir about her life as a chef, but the whole time I read it I found myself craving a cookbook to go along with it (I’m a greedy reader). Now my wish has been granted in the form of Prune, which features dazzling photography and recipes for the sophisticated-but-completely-unpretentious appetizers, cocktails and entrees that Hamilton has become deservedly famous for.

When I realized that this book is entirely written in emails from one character to another, I almost put it right back down. But this strange structure works so well that I found myself reading it late into the night. God is an Astronaut is a page turner that features a strong, smart, and acerbic female protagonist. This one stuck with me for a long time.

Houdini Girl is in many ways a precursor to Tana French and Adrian McKinty. This moody, captivating crime novel is about a professional magician bent on discovering who murdered his girlfriend, a sexy, enigmatic woman who was very good at keeping secrets. Bedford uses his protagonist’s tricks to distract, deflect and enchant his readers. Houdini Girl is simply irresistible.

This beautiful literary novel has the bones of a thriller. From the first line on I found myself clutching at the pages, as though to save myself from what I knew was coming. Robin Black is simply a master (her short story collection If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This is a huge staff favorite) and her writing deserves a wide, adoring audience. Don’t miss Life Drawing.

The marketing for The Children Act will rightfully focus on religion; it is a novel that asks provocative questions about faith, freedom, and ethics. But I would argue that at its heart, The Children Act is a book about choices, and the way a single decision can ricochet into the world with startling, unpredictable consequences. The Children Act is also pure Ian McEwan all the way through—elegant, haunting, and arresting, the kind of book you find yourself returning to over and over again. I couldn’t ask for anything more in a novel.

It is a rare, sweet thing to find an author you adore and then discover how very prolific they’ve been. Adrian McKinty has written fourteen books, and The Sun is God is his newest, and perhaps his biggest departure. Set on a far-flung island in New Guinea in 1906, the site of a nudist colony who worships the sun, The Sun is God promises to be the kind of cracking historical crime novel that only McKinty can deliver. I can’t wait!

Nick Hornby is perfect bookseller material. He reads everything, his curiosity knows no limits, and he cannot resist the impulse to bring home yet another book. For many years he has written a fabulous column for The Believer, where he tracks the books he’s bought and the books he’s read every month. Believe me when I say you will want to read everything Hornby even glancingly mentions in this book, which is what makes him such a fantastic (and dangerous) influence.

Andre Dubus III writes my kind of summer reads. His latest, a collection of linked novellas, delves into the vulnerability that shadows love and desire. As always, Dubus has crafted characters who feel like people we know intimately, and in Dirty Love they wander in and out of each other's stories, lending perspective and nuance to a larger narrative. Dirty Love is an assertive, addictive read that is reminiscent of his earlier work, House of Sand and Fog.