Literal Neighbors

This week, we're digesting Herman Koch's The Dinner, and we're just wondering exactly how long a Dutch dinner is. Long enough for some field trips, flashbacks, and lots of pinky-pointing, and after all that, we aren't entirely sure what we ate.

This week, we read Esi Edugyan's Washington Black, and if you've ever thought that stories about enslaved boys in the 1800s really needed some more scenes of the Arctic circle, we have great news for you. We're diving (see what we did there?) into some of the emotions and growth our main character experiences, debating some choices some characters make, and wondering what can be in store for this guy since we leave him at the ripe old age of (checks notes)...18.

Listen, some people can get a burger when they were expecting pizza and still really, really enjoy the burger. Some people will have pizza or nothing. So if you pick up this 'lesbian vampire drama' and expect to have something extra spicy delivered, but instead you end up with a juicy, pg-13 burger -- you should give it a shot. And by burger, we mean this week's read, V.E. Schwab's Bury Our Bones In The Midnight Soil. And by PG-13, we mean 'scenes that you'll be terribly embarrassed by if your kids accidentally hear'.