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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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Book Previews

Art and Family

July 21, 2023 by Liza Achilles 1 Comment
Claire Dederer points out an unavoidable artist’s problem in her book Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma. Talking about this is a bit controversial in today’s social climate, but bear with me. Here’s what she writes: “What the artist or writer or musician needs desperately is time. And what the family needs is time. This conflict is not necessarily solvable. . ....
paintbrushes in a jar
Book Previews

Monsters by Claire Dederer

July 17, 2023 by Liza Achilles 1 Comment
Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma, a recent nonfiction book by Claire Dederer, is a rumination on the problem of bad people making great art. But I should not write “bad people.” What I mean is “people who have done bad things.” Moreover, Dederer, throughout her book, expands this idea to “people who might or might not have done questionable things, depending...
fire flames
Incidental Musings

Final Orders for Art

April 17, 2023 by Liza Achilles 3 Comments
“Virgil left instructions at his death that the Aeneid, still unfinished, be destroyed. For he thought it needed three more years of licking into shape, time spent, perhaps, in harmonizing the voices he had sounded out. Or was he simply driven by his perfectionism as a poet? It is impossible to say, but fortunately, as we know, Augustus countermanded Virgil’s...
Grand Canyon
Book Previews

The Awesome Power of Awe

April 10, 2023 by Liza Achilles No Comments
Ethan Kross describes dozens of chatter-reducing methods in his book Chatter, and while they are all interesting and helpful, I won’t be explicating all of them on this blog. However, here in this post I want to mention one more of them: awe. Awesomely enough, experiencing the feeling of awe can give us badly needed distance from our problems and...
Èze, France and Mediterranean Sea
Book Previews

Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald

March 27, 2023 by Liza Achilles 2 Comments
What a vivid, unique, and not altogether felicitous book. Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald stopped me dead in my tracks many times . . . often in good ways . . . but also in bad ways. The Good Aspects of Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald As expected for a classic Fitzgerald novel, there...
cello leaning on a chair in a field
Book Previews

Orfeo by Richard Powers

February 15, 2023 by Liza Achilles 2 Comments
Five stars for virtuosity in this novel about music and science—but mostly music. In Orfeo, Richard Powers uses language to describe music with such dexterity, it is as if you are listening, not reading. This novel is beautiful, and it has an interesting plot as well. But mainly its uncanny beauty strikes me. Also, its uncanny ability to describe undescribables....
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Book Previews

The Discontinuous Present

December 13, 2021 by Liza Achilles 2 Comments
It’s hard not to notice that the pace of media has been increasing over our lifetimes. Does anyone out there remember when the news came at certain designated times of day, and could not be accessed at any other time? TV news had certain timeslots. Newspapers came out one a day, or once a week. Internet was not a thing....
dancer body
Book Previews

The Dancer’s Body

December 1, 2021 by Liza Achilles No Comments
I was deeply disturbed by one theme that ran throughout the memoir Swan Dive, by Georgina Pazcoguin. I was so disturbed that I had to talk it over with a friend just to get my bearings; and I debated whether or not to feature the book on this blog at all. Ultimately I decided to feature the book because (1)...
Indian woman walking on concrete steps
Book Previews

Profound Coincidence

November 15, 2021 by Liza Achilles No Comments
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize—a prize I deeply respect—is a book of great beauty, absolutely Proustian in language. A Passage North, by Anuk Arudpragasam, did not win (the winner was announced here), but is a powerful read that I recommend to all who love psychologically deep, beautifully crafted language. The novel is packed with extremely long sentences that wind in...
full moon surrounded by clouds
Book Previews

Surely the Scientific Method Is as Rock Solid as the Moon

March 3, 2021 by Liza Achilles 4 Comments
Do you remember being introduced to the scientific method in school? For me, it was a confounding experience. Science, in my head, was this amazing, powerful schema that could build skyscrapers, eradicate diseases, and create video games from mere code. Surely the scientific method, the foundation of science, is as rock solid as the moon it actually got us to?...
The Triumph of Death by Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Book Previews

I Read This Book So You Don’t Have To

September 16, 2020 by Liza Achilles 4 Comments
As a rule, I do not feature books on this blog unless I enthusiastically recommend them. I have read (in their entirety) all the books I feature on this blog, but the opposite is not true; I do not feature on this blog all the books I finish reading. (To learn which books I read but didn’t feature, and why...
mops on red wall
Book Previews

Angry, Angry, Angry!

August 21, 2020 by Liza Achilles 10 Comments
WOW, there’s a lot of anger out there. And in here. And everywhere. It’s nearly impossible to go on the Internet, join a Zoom call, or chat with a friend without someone—maybe even you or me!—bursting out in a diatribe of some sort. Yep, we’re all angry, . . . but what is the root cause of this anger? And...
statue of woman against gray sky
Book Previews

We Are Here in the Unseen

January 24, 2020 by Liza Achilles 2 Comments
In a previous blog post about Heather Rose’s astonishing novel The Museum of Modern Love, I wrote about how what seems commonplace can actually hold the deepest truth and wisdom. And then, in another post, I wrote about how pain inspires art, while engaging in art exposes one to pain. These two concepts are intertwined with a third concept vital...
woman behind bars modern art Prague Lusi Lu
Book Previews

The Art of Art Appreciation

January 22, 2020 by Liza Achilles 2 Comments
English Class As Art Appreciation One year when I was in high school, my English teachers (the same ones who inducted me into the magic writing cult) organized a class trip to New York City. They believed that the best way to teach literature was to expose students simultaneously to other forms of art (such as fine art, film, and...
tall solo microphone with stage lights at a performance
News & Events

One Week From Today: See Me Perform Live!

January 20, 2020 by Liza Achilles 8 Comments
Poetry of Love, Performed Live Curious about my love poetry? Since my book of sonnets is unpublished, the only way you have access to it is at my live performances! I’m excited to share that I’ve been invited to be a featured poet at an event one week from today. Come out and watch me perform poems from my sonnet...
white art museum
Book Previews

Performance Art: the Beauty, the Pain, the Reality

January 17, 2020 by Liza Achilles No Comments
Performance Art, Life as Performance I want to tell you about one of the most unique and powerful books I have ever read. Paradoxically, its uniqueness and power arise not from something exotic, but from what’s literally everywhere, all around us. A lot of books lift you out of your ordinary, blah life and drop you into a fantastical or...
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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 (5)
  • Book Previews (337)
  • Guest Posts (6)
  • Incidental Musings (157)
  • News & Events (66)
  • Tales (79)

Featured books


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

Dreaming Reality Steven Jay Lynn & Vladimir Miskovic
Audition Katie Kitamura
Free Amanda Knox
The Pleasure Plan Laura Zam
Shakespeare’s Sisters Ramie Targoff
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 Stênio 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 Esmé 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
Eugénie Grandet Honoré 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 Brené Brown
My Year of Rest and Relaxation Ottessa Moshfegh
Almost Everything Anne Lamott
Born to Run Christopher McDougall, Bruce Springsteen
The Ladies’ Paradise Émile 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 Sea Jean Rhys
Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace
A Room of One’s Own Virginia Woolf

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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