Liza Achilles - Literary/Autobiographical Author. The Blog for the Discerning Reader.
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Liza Achilles - Literary/Autobiographical Author. The Blog for the Discerning Reader.

Literary / Autobiographical Author

❤ Books to make you laugh, hope & ponder ❤


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Modern Shakespearean love sonnets

TWO NOVEMBERS by Liza Achilles - front cover - square transparentTwo Novembers: A Memoir of Love ’n’ Sex in Sonnets is available at Bookshop, Beltway Editions, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and wherever books are sold. This candid and humorous book chronicles my love life in Shakespearean sonnets. Learn more.

Events in Washington, DC, & beyond

Liza Achilles performing at a micAttend a memoir writing workshop. Learn about Shakespeare and his timeless love sonnets. Meet fabulous modern authors and hear them read from their books. Get involved in the literary community in 2025! View all upcoming events.

Welcome to the Blog for the Discerning Reader

This blog features the best books of modern times. Intellectually great nonfiction. Artistically great fiction and poetry.
What’s new in the literary book world? Find out here, every Monday. Scroll down to read the most recent posts.

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Guest Posts

How One Book Kick-Started My Healing Journey, and Could Do the Same for You!

May 29, 2024 by Liza Achilles No Comments
The following is a guest post by Maria Yahya, a writer and translator from Morocco. My childhood was normal, until it was proved otherwise!   How it all began I have been interested in self-help literature since I was a teenager. We all shared that interest at home, me and my siblings. I remember the day we first discovered a...
astronomy explosion big bang universe creation
Book Previews

How to Create a Universe From Nothing in Three Easy Steps

May 20, 2024 by Liza Achilles No Comments
Well look at me, I’ve set the bar pretty high for this blog post. Do you have a pocket of nothingness? Do you want to turn that pocket of nothingness into a universe? Look no further! This blog post will teach you how in three easy steps. Luckily, my job is simple, because local DC-area author Manil Suri has done...
circuit board forming human face to depict ai
Book Previews

How Big of a Threat Is AI?

May 13, 2024 by Liza Achilles 4 Comments
Let’s put it this way: I’m not worried about my career. Am I worried about the fate of human life on earth? Hmm. . . . I mean, not really. A robot takeover probably won’t happen, in my opinion. However, I’m not placing any bets. But the subject of this blog post will be the smaller of these scopes: How...
hand approaching a mirror black and white photo
Book Previews

Election Year Doubling/Mirroring

May 6, 2024 by Liza Achilles 2 Comments
The conceit of the book is a strange coincidence. Naomi Klein and Naomi Wolf have similar names. Additionally, both of them write and speak about political and societal issues. As a result, people often get the two of them confused. Naomi Klein recently wrote a genre-blending memoir and dive into political and popular culture called Doppelganger: A Trip Into the...
bookstore interior with people browsing books and a cashier at a computer
News & Events

What “Counts” as a Book Sale? BookScan and the Publishing Industry

April 29, 2024 by Liza Achilles No Comments
My debut book is now available for preorder! Two Novembers: A Memoir of Love ’n’ Sex in Sonnets chronicles my love life for one year, in Shakespearean sonnets. Eager readers like you have many purchasing options. In this post, I’ll share where you can buy Two Novembers and the pros and cons of each option. (Though, if you’re buying my...
Dr Martin Luther King Jr at March on Washington on August 28 1963
Book Previews

The Life of an American Hero, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

April 17, 2024 by Liza Achilles 2 Comments
I have come to appreciate the staid, fact-obsessed biographer. The one who would put you to sleep—were their subject not so interesting. You can usually trust such a biographer. The truth may be boring in its perpetual minutial onslaught, but never in its larger patterns that emerge over time. I recently attempted to read a biography that purported to be...
woman on coast of Ireland
Book Previews

Love and Money in Ireland

April 3, 2024 by Liza Achilles No Comments
Here’s a fun novel, published last year. The Rachel Incident, by Caroline O’Donoghue, is about a college student who works at a bookstore along with her best friend. It’s about them and their love interests—and there’s tons of drama where that’s concerned. Also, the book is set in Ireland, and some fun Irish slang is tossed around. And this novel...
dog water swimming branch
Book Previews

Flooded With Plot and Emotion

March 25, 2024 by Liza Achilles 2 Comments
My preferred type of novel both creates something stylistically new with language and enlightens my worldview by revealing a new perspective. But I recently read and loved a book that doesn’t really do either of those things. It’s almost purely plot and emotion. Sadness! Fear! Love! Hope! Guilt! Trauma! Contentment! It’s all there in the internationally bestselling 2016 German novel...
TWO NOVEMBERS by Liza Achilles - front cover
News & Events

Book Cover Reveal!!

March 13, 2024 by Liza Achilles 6 Comments
Big announcement. . . . The publication date of my debut book of poetry is July 1, 2024! Two Novembers: A Memoir of Love ’n’ Sex in Sonnets is a chronicle of my love life for one year, told in Shakespearean sonnets. The publisher is Beltway Editions. The front cover looks like this! ↑ The back cover looks like this!...
female podcaster at microphone
Incidental Musings

Best Podcasts 2024 & My Quest for Great Female Podcasters

February 26, 2024 by Liza Achilles No Comments
During the last holiday season, I started thinking, for no particular reason, about the podcasts I love. I especially enjoy podcasts that are ongoing, as opposed to podcasts that tell a single story and then end. I love podcasts whose hosts have irrepressible personalities. Who have that special ability to entertain and inform for hours—and years—on end. Whose voices fill...
money tree
Book Previews

Who Gets What in America?

February 21, 2024 by Liza Achilles 2 Comments
Book reviewers are calling it a “manifesto,” and even sometimes a “jeremiad.” That’s some strong language. I’m usually skeptical about inflammatory words—are such reviews overblown? Is the book itself overblown? In the case of the 2023 masterpiece of which I speak, the answer is no and no. And, yes, it’s a manifesto. It would be a jeremiad, too, if it...
two men near car and building
Book Previews

Rise

February 16, 2024 by Liza Achilles 2 Comments
You know how novels are sometimes split into sections? Part I, part II, part III? Or maybe the sections aren’t numbered, but have titles? And each section’s number or title appears on a page of its own? I just read a novel like that. Flipping through the opening pages, past the copyright page, the dedication page, the epigraph page, and...
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News & Events

Join My Street Team!

February 12, 2024 by Liza Achilles No Comments
This is all very exciting: I just finished reviewing the galleys for my upcoming book. The cover is designed. The inside pages are laid out properly and (hopefully, since I checked it a million times) without typos. Next step: the printer! Two Novembers: A Memoir of Love ’n’ Sex in Sonnets is being published in mid-2024 by Beltway Editions. It...
park in seattle
Book Previews

Democracy as Metaphor

February 5, 2024 by Liza Achilles No Comments
For the first time, I read an ebook in its entirety. Oh, yes, I do prefer physical books. Reading this ebook made me realize how often I flip around in physical books to remind myself what I have already read. And how often I rely on remembering visually where words lay on the physical page in helping me remember concepts....
church in mountains
Book Previews

That Sickening Feeling

January 29, 2024 by Liza Achilles 2 Comments
It’s a sickening feeling. That feeling that you don’t belong. That you exist precariously, on the edge of the world, always waiting to be called out as foreign, an imposter. That your existence is dependent on your ability to be a servant or slave, or is entirely called into question. Study for Obedience, by Sarah Bernstein, is a slim and...
mural of guy with sword in Manila Philippines with man on tricycle
Book Previews

The Perils of Democracy

January 22, 2024 by Liza Achilles No Comments
The book title comes from the words of a vigilante named Simon. “‘I’m really not a bad guy,’ said Simon. ‘I’m not all bad. Some people need killing.'” Some People Need Killing, by Philippine journalist Patricia Evangelista, is about the democratically elected presidency of Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines. He served from 2016 to 2022. Duterte campaigned on a controversial...
three monkeys in India
Incidental Musings

Not My Circus, Not My Monkeys

November 4, 2020 by Liza Achilles 26 Comments
I recently met a guy who disclosed to me that his personal motto is “Not my circus, not my monkeys.” Despite this expression having been popular for a number of years—it’s all over the Internet—I did not remember hearing it before. But I instantly took to it. What lovely imagery. And what lovely meaning: so metaphorical, yet so obvious. At...
windmills in Consuegra Spain
Book Previews

Don Quixote: What’s the Best Translation?

February 10, 2021 by Liza Achilles 6 Comments
I have read the masterpiece Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes, twice in my life. The two experiences were quite different. This was in large part due to the fact that I read two very different translations of the book. Don Quixote Reading #1: Bargain-Bin Translation The first time, I was in my early 30s. I had picked up the...
sunset over ocean, dark aesthetic.
Book Previews

Everyone’s Asking: Should I Read Huckleberry Finn Before James?

December 16, 2024 by Liza Achilles 8 Comments
A classic has been born. Yeah, I know—you’ve heard that before. It’s on the back cover of practically every book you pick up. But this time, it’s for real. The 2024 novel James, by Percival Everett, isn’t just destined to become a classic of American literature; it already is one. And now everyone’s asking me the same question: Should I...
riding a horse in front of the sun
Book Previews

Three Don Quixote Translations: Spanish to English

February 12, 2021 by Liza Achilles 16 Comments
Let’s take, as a sample, the first sentence of chapter IV of the first part of Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes. This great and classic novel was written and published in the early 1600s in Spanish. Part I was published first. Ten years later, part II was published. The two parts are now together known as Don Quixote and...
woman shocked with hands to head - for blog post on it's all in your head meaning
Incidental Musings

“It’s All in Your Head!” . . . Meaning . . . What?

September 9, 2024 by Liza Achilles 4 Comments
Is there someone in your life you’d like to insult, but can’t decide how? For maximal negative impact—if not maximal logic—I humbly suggest, to all jerks and bullies, “It’s all in your head!” For some reason, unkind people like to throw around “It’s all in your head,” meaning by this, “You’re imagining something with no basis in reality!” Or, more...
small room in winter as woman drinks hot beverage on a bed in a tiny house
Book Previews

The Psychological Effects of Living in a Small Space

February 3, 2021 by Liza Achilles 4 Comments
What’s it like to have your world confined to a small space? I think most of us know, having lived through the past year. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I read the book Solitary, by Albert Woodfox, out of curiosity as to whether there were any lessons to be learned in looking at the pandemic experience through...
sheep
Book Previews

Why Is It Called Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

August 4, 2021 by Liza Achilles 2 Comments
This is something of a convoluted story. The famous 1968 science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick has an unusual title. It’s quite long for a book title, and it ends with a question mark. What’s more, there are few clues within the book itself as to why it’s titled as it is. And so, the question of the hour...
deck of cards thrown randomly down
Incidental Musings

You Play Stupid Games, You Win Stupid Prizes

March 16, 2020 by Liza Achilles 8 Comments
Do you remember that card game called War? Was it only Gen X’ers like me who played this game as a kid? Do you older and younger folk also remember draggingly long afternoons when Mom was taking forever to start making dinner, and there was nothing on TV, and you had no one to play with except your staggeringly stupid...
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Hi! I’m Liza

selfie of Liza Achilles literary and autobiographical author writer blogger

About this blog

THE BLOG FOR THE DISCERNING READER: This blog will feed your mind and soul, plus the soles of your feet, if you're ticklish there. Read previews of intellectually and artistically great books, as well as insights on living life well, always with sprinkles of humor.

Categories of posts

  • Author Interviews (4)
  • Book Previews (334)
  • Guest Posts (5)
  • Incidental Musings (156)
  • News & Events (66)
  • Tales (78)

Featured books


candlestick with lit candle on round table with books in living roomNote that the link for the most recently added book(s)Ā will not work until I have published the corresponding blog post.

Unshrunk Laura Delano
The Vegetarian Han Kang
Viable Chloe Yelena Miller
Animal Liberation Now Peter Singer
A Little Life Hanya Yanagihara
Ghost Pains Jessi Jezewska Stevens
Hope for Cynics Jamil Zaki
Midnight in Chernobyl Adam Higginbotham
Cork Dork Bianca Bosker
The Scent of Bright Light Jean K. Dudek
Rejection Tony Tulathimutte
Intermezzo Sally Rooney
Do I Know You? Sadie Dingfelder
James Percival Everett
There Is No Ethan Anna Akbari
The Other Significant Others Rhaina Cohen
Slow Productivity Cal Newport
Blue Ruin Hari Kunzru
Get the Picture Bianca Bosker
Lawn Boy Jonathan Evison
Congratulations, The Best Is Over! R. Eric Thomas
Kairos Jenny Erpenbeck
Exhibit R.O. Kwon
All Fours Miranda July
The Year of Living Constitutionally A.J. Jacobs
Ghosted Jana Eisenstein
Disease Of Kings Anders Carlson-Wee
Why We’re Polarized Ezra Klein
Molly Blake Butler
The Big Bang of Numbers Manil Suri
Truth Is the Arrow, Mercy Is the Bow Steve Almond
Doppelganger Naomi Klein
King Jonathan Eig
The Rachel Incident Caroline O’Donoghue
The End of Loneliness Benedict Wells
Poverty, by America Matthew Desmond
The Trees Percival Everett
The Great Experiment Yascha Mounk
Study for Obedience Sarah Bernstein
Some People Need Killing Patricia Evangelista
The Words That Remain StĆŖnio Gardel
Pageboy Elliot Page
Post-Traumatic Chantal V. Johnson
Stuart: A Life Backwards Alexander Masters
The Girls / The Guest Emma Cline
Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs Kerry Howley
The Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol Nikolai Gogol
I’m Glad My Mom Died Jennette McCurdy
Unlearn Your Pain Howard Schubiner with Michael Betzold
The Way Out Alan Gordon with Alon Ziv
The Best Minds Jonathan Rosen
Monsters Claire Dederer
Spare Prince Harry
As I Lay Dying William Faulkner
Rebuilt Michael Chorost
Losing Music John Cotter
Kokoro Natsume Sōseki
Party Going / Living / Loving Henry Green
Chatter Ethan Kross
Tender Is the Night F. Scott Fitzgerald
Stay True Hua Hsu
The Invisible Kingdom Meghan O’Rourke
How to Be Perfect Michael Schur
Orfeo Richard Powers
Unwinding Anxiety Judson Brewer
The Confidence Men Margalit Fox
Liberation Day George Saunders
Pandora’s Jar Natalie Haynes
Night of the Living Rez Morgan Talty
The Journalist and the Murderer Janet Malcolm
Mislaid Nell Zink
Exercised Daniel E. Lieberman
Lapvona Ottessa Moshfegh
Empire of Pain Patrick Radden Keefe
Furious Hours Casey Cep
First Person Singular Haruki Murakami
Klara and the Sun Kazuo Ishiguro
Dead Souls Sam Riviere
The Pale King David Foster Wallace
Lightning Flowers Katherine E. Standefer
Beautiful World, Where Are You / Normal People / Conversations With Friends Sally Rooney
Swan Dive Georgina Pazcoguin
A Passage North Anuk Arudpragasam
Lucky Jim Kingsley Amis
Projections Karl Deisseroth
The Indian Lawyer James Welch
Atomic Habits James Clear
The History of Philosophy A. C. Grayling
Dusk, Night, Dawn Anne Lamott
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Philip K. Dick
Nothing to See Here Kevin Wilson
Change Damon Centola
Homeland Elegies Ayad Akhtar
Becoming Attached Robert Karen
Piranesi Susanna Clarke
Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes
Solitary Albert Woodfox
Girl, Woman, Other Bernardine Evaristo
Enlightenment by Trial and Error Jay Michaelson
Death in Her Hands Ottessa Moshfegh
The Cooking Gene Michael W. Twitty
The First Bad Man Miranda July
Upheaval Jared Diamond
A Journal of the Plague Year Daniel Defoe
Creatures Crissy Van Meter
Indelicacy Amina Cain
Say What You Mean Oren Jay Sofer
Habits of a Happy Brain Loretta Graziano Breuning
Bad Behavior, This Is Pleasure Mary Gaitskill
The Brother Gardeners Andrea Wulf
Severance Ling Ma
How to Be an Antiracist Ibram X. Kendi
The Museum of Modern Love Heather Rose
Why I Write George Orwell
The Woman Destroyed Simone de Beauvoir
Educated Tara Westover
The Gift Hafiz
The Collected Schizophrenias EsmƩ Weijun Wang
Your Duck Is My Duck Deborah Eisenberg
Sapiens Yuval Noah Harari
Milkman Anna Burns
Under the Banner of Heaven Jon Krakauer
Waiting for Bojangles Olivier Bourdeaut
A Mind Unraveled Kurt Eichenwald
EugƩnie Grandet HonorƩ de Balzac
The Body Keeps the Score Bessel van der Kolk, M.D.
The Bookshop Penelope Fitzgerald
Digital Minimalism Cal Newport
The Sisters Brothers Patrick deWitt
Dare to Lead BrenƩ Brown
My Year of Rest and Relaxation Ottessa Moshfegh
Almost Everything Anne Lamott
Born to Run Christopher McDougall, Bruce Springsteen
The Ladies’ Paradise Ɖmile Zola
The World Beyond Your Head Matthew B. Crawford
All the Birds, Singing Evie Wyld
Barracoon Zora Neale Hurston
Dandelion Wine Ray Bradbury
JavaScript & jQuery Jon Duckett
Home Fire Kamila Shamsie
The Weather Detective Peter Wohlleben
Play It As It Lays Joan Didion
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck Mark Manson
Convenience Store Woman Sayaka Murata
Perfect Me Heather Widdows
Sorry to Disrupt the Peace Patty Yumi Cottrell
Why Buddhism Is True Robert Wright
What Is Real? Adam Becker
Kudos Rachel Cusk
The Days of Abandonment Elena Ferrante
F*cked Corinne Fisher & Krystyna Hutchinson
Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine Alan Lightman
Wide Sargasso SeaĀ Jean Rhys
Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace
A Room of One’s Own Virginia Woolf

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Author links

     šŸ›’  Buy my debut book Two Novembers at Politics & Prose, The Ivy Bookshop, Bookshop, Beltway Editions, Amazon, or Barnes & Noble.
     šŸšš  Review Two Novembers on Amazon. This helps more than you know. Thank you.
     šŸ“£  Join my street team to help promote my next book, a literary/autobiographical novel.

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     šŸ“©  Subscribe to The Blog for the Discerning Reader to receive it in your inbox on Mondays.
     šŸŽ  Join Patreon to support the blog and get bonus articles, sneak peeks, and postcards.
     āœļø  I'm always looking for writers who wish to write a guest blog post. Here are my guidelines.
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Best. Modern. Books.

Intellectually great nonfiction. Artistically great fiction and poetry. Get the inside scoop on the best 21st-century books, every Monday!
 
Your free gift: 20 Best Books in the Last 10 Years