Senkay’s Lists

Born from the theater production of HEX, this book of high poetry and incantations follows the Nordic witch trials of the early 1600s under Christian IV in Copenhagen. The spells in the black book stem from real grimoires and Cyprianus, Nordic manuals of medicine and spells. Having read Solvej Balle’s On the Calculation of Volume, this book and Employees: A Workplace Novel of the 22nd Century are pinnacles of the high art of literature in Denmark happening right now. If you love the black arts and nature-filled Scandinavia, this book is for you. It’s told from the perspective of a wax doll, the totem and narrator of this otherworldly tome.

Life doesn't fit into a story. Decay is everywhere and hope is causing hopelessness. The Nietzschean idea of the Eternal Recurrence

Follow up to his Pulitzer the Overstory, not as good

Sayings, verses attributed to Buddha, probably written in the 5th century

Vietnamese monk who I've meditated with at their monastery in Escondido, did a meditation walk in the hills

Super wordy, deep character development

Deep complex emptiness study

Chogyam Trungpa woman disciple

Great storytelling

Vietnamese spirits and folk tales, long winded

Second time read, tonglen

Naropa founder's first talks, spiritual materialism

Pulp

Mexico City 1971, Corpus Christi massacre

Art critic, father's death, forgiveness, do nothing

Jail, drugs, literature

US history from a marginalized view

Pulitzer, super writing, music, bands, tech

Awesomeness, fun, fast, Chinese Americans

Hardcore darkness, nothing is all, is worse than false

Fun, fast, time and place piece

About fleshing out characters, seeing people deeply

Conroe, black codes, Texas history

National Book Award long list

Musician

Book on tape lectures

God in a liferaft

Wow, insane good

The Hague court

Mexico youth angst

Japanese soldier in the Philippines thought the war still went on in the jungle

Fun pulp, China gangsters

Whistleblower spy

Son finished the book

Seattle heroin and music

Monsters in the arctic, science exploration

Young adults trying to figure Dublin

Trying to be Castaneda

Argentinian beauty

Glasgow poverty, gay oppression

Modern light read, fast

Short teachings by subject

So long, important immersion but so long

Mom dying, Korean American food, music

Graphic novel, coming out story/immigrants, Vietnamese

Women's empowerment, art, travel, two main characters

Trauma in the body, exercises and exorcisms

Damnation of war, science and killing in France

Jews in concentration camps - horrible, Nobel Peace Prize winner keeping the memory fresh so as not to repeat it

Crack, racism, South African Americans, crack is a character

End of life, loneliness, suffering, dreams

Sri Lanka civil war, gay, photos, art, afterlife

Trans/sex/kids, really good explanation of things hard to understand in the realm of trans relationships

First book, kind of scripted but really heart warming in a predictable kind of way

Novella, eh

Fantastic, way better than her Pulitzer Goon Squad

Booker winner for Remains of the Day, wrote Klara and the Sun

Korean American author, psychedelic, awesome

Mind control and space as mind, buddhist

I really liked it

Excellent dystopia, kids, parents

Greece, failed marriage, murder

Meaning of life, math

Couldn't get the part of the young boy right, as it's written by a woman

Loved it, action, adventure, solitude, quiet

Rich good guy, love, walked 1500 miles NY to Phoenix

Hard read but some great subtle understanding by me from it

Dissociation, Harvard kids

Different perspectives of the same story, super great

Fun fast read except for the whole child dying thing, interesting main character

Failed relationship, loner, Japanese

Video game development, non-consummated love

Non fiction essays about Veracruz, Mexico, interesting second half

Non fiction, doctor with cancer, super good

YA for class, about a cop killing an unarmed Black kid

Goth horror, Argentina, fantastic!

Trauma non fiction

Supernatural heist, Mexico, gangs

Anorexia, nature, existential, sex, suicide

Political correctness from a Buddhist monk kid, Asian perspective

Cairo thriller, couple, power

Reflections on being a writer at 50

Fun graphics, good story but I knew it

N Korea spy, awesome, Stanford professor of creative writing

Sci fi, meat is poison, future dystopia

Short stories

Traditional, classic, great story, WW2 gangsters, women war workers, divers, prelude to her Pulitzer

Classic Aira - nothing but some amazing insights about friends and conversations, retired dude

Non fiction account of oil fields in Oklahoma and the Osage Indians

Memoir, Berkeley, friend killed

Lovecraft-like, different time periods

Model, loneliness, dreams, broken faces, metaphors

Dreamy vignettes of feminism, writing, and poverty

Great story - culture, history, customs, ancient worlds

Too long - corruption, eco warriors, murder

Early short stories, some good

If you like reading Murakami you will love this one, non fiction about his writing process

Black sheriff in a modern VA town dealing with racism and Uncle Tom, 3rd book of his I've read, pulpy but fun/fast

Non fiction, psycho-therapy cult 60's-80's upper west side, new therapy about the family

Young writer/reader figuring out reading and writing

Classic reread, just as good the fifth time

Dreamy, death, memory, names, words, Booker finalist

Jamaica immigrant stories of poverty and assimilation, poor house, dad homeless, sinking house

Best part was how the protagonist thought about relationships, imagining and her ability to be unattached

Non fiction story of slave escape, abolition, and US history in the late 1840's and 1850's

Young Netanyahu, good for politics, end was great, hard read, so full of Jewish vocab

Comfort food, love her as an author

So gentle - dystopia, things disappear, thought police

Dystopia, anti-jail Hunger Games, the influencer

Later short stories that make you excited to read

Amazing detail of the railroad built by POW's, Australian, so brutal

Country boy criminal, awesome

Fantastic graphic novel of an American icon

Private's account of taking Okinawa, first-hand marine

Fantastic meaning of life, love and fishing in Oregon, great spirituality

Excellent graphic novel of the march on Washington

Fairy tale, cannibalism, Wicca, god, tweakers

Reversing the arrow of attention to realize there is no you in there

Literature intertwined with life, writer researching

Dreamy Mexico ghosts

Long Irish family drama, car dealership, gender, money

Dreamy story of Korean history, fiction, modern

Super cool Lovecraft but not too much, Moctezuma and Cortés on mushrooms in the great pyramids

Great spy stuff by the Slow Horses writer

Ireland, the Troubles, Belfast, cool book, young woman/older man

Memoir of a KC priest's daughter, poetic, funny, but not much narrative

Great Taoist workbook

South African, religion, loneliness, and materialism

Wife turns lesbian, leaves it all

James is Huck's dad!

Amazing, CIA Vietnam anti-war book

Short stories

My kind of tome

All the hubbub, nice but straight and kinda boring

Refugees, dystopia, hoped for more

You know

Interesting but light novella, will read Boathouse next

#1 on the list but not in my mind, Naples coming of age

Better than her other one

Iranian American, mom killed by Vincennes, Brooklyn artist, death speak

So happy, story drifted but the aging elements were so fantastic, last book of his

Underwhelmed, supposed to be great but was kinda boring

Pretty fantastic

Master storyteller, a little too many ocean lists

Disappointing, fantasy, consciousness exploration

One day in the space station, poetic Booker winner

Third of Lewis's excellent series

Short stories, masterful

Interesting format - just a lot of chapters about Berlin and no dialogue or much plot, more like lists and such

College professor couple, authors and infidelity

So slow, nuns, mice, dead nun returning - not as good as everyone else liked it, tried to be something, but nothing happened for plot

Fantastic S. Korean fictional history from the 1920s - 1940s from the worker perspective, trains, Japanese brutal rule, communism and USA MacArthur ruthlessness, really great, reminded me of Zola's Germinal, that epic!

Great read about friends and Sweden, short read, four sections about friends who shaped her ideas about life, the last one about her mom

Like Septology before Septology and Catholicism

Great short stories about masks and organs and the fakeness

OK, best parts about the cave, commune spy

Loved it, modern love story

Hard read but interesting - East Germany before and during the fall of the wall

Great beginning, ended like a Sally Rooney love story

Black swans, Eve babies

Epic philosophy, long paper at the end nearly killed it

Won some sci fi awards, am I just not there anymore?

Guess I'll try one more - gritty stripper SF Oakland

Short stories - some are great

Fantastic pornographic gender identity Asian, best of the year so far

Fjords, isolation, mental health, water, fish, spirit, guitar, dances cuck

Loved his Tree of Smoke, this was silly, but the dialogue was impressive

Loved the old character in this story, pretty good

Second Beartown book, my guilty pleasure

Interesting, slow, fun to read Japanese story, quick read

Nobel Prize winner

Good old fashioned northern European search for meaning, 7-part book - usually hate the groundhog day thing but this is great

Most excellent - gay murder sex party, Nigerian

So long and well written, Manhattan young boy actor and love

Super trippy - two parts to the same story, totally different - asks is art the space between words and audience and how they perceive

Pulpy but fun, good construction of timelines and characters

Sci fi future sex and anime

Architect, language, prison, social justice

Gay Nigeria, Indians, and coming of age, gay

Short stories, tech and AI

Play - bunch of Catholic rednecks getting drunk and rambling on

Dreamy Swiss money, Nazis, guilt, gay mom, rich trash

Korean massacres, artist, Jeju - super interesting concept, kind of slow

Moving story of a woman losing her kid due to becoming lesbian and wanting to live freely

Pretty great short stories, drugs, poverty

Neurotic but great inner dialogue about art and nature, painting and writing

Super great - sex, disability, Twitter, Japan culture

Just kind of boring - rips Florida though so that was fun, multiverse

Great writing, just a little too girlie and boring

African divorce, values, marriage, divorce, dreamy, heavy, mental health, patriarchy, pretty awesome, sex, rape

Amazing short stories, super challenging read to keep up with - characters and puppets and keys

Quite good - a lifetime of friends who left Libya and Qaddafi to live in London and then fight to take the country back

Interlinked future dystopia of the world broken down into little communes where people have roles and clones

Like autofiction, teacher/writer, whole book is a first draft, genius, dreams, journals, existential avant garde

Best book ever for sexual abusers to read - deeply profound and kind and lancing

Japanese story of two kids in the 70's with a pygmy hippo and volleyball and the '72 Munich Olympics

Really great - trans, sworn virgin choice, murder, blood feud

Super funny, kinda loses it as it goes, but some of the sex/marriage stuff from a young woman are awesome - her first book

Great short stories about growing up female in Mexico - femicide, drugs, drinking, witches, sex, fast read

Super interesting - German director making films in Nazi war time

Woman's perspective of living in Iran amongst the misogynistic and cultural limitations imposed

Venezuelan story about the corruption and failed state through a family story about generals and dogs

Trans masc 1700's conquistador from Spain living in the jungle as the Spanish burn the forest and kill, looking for gold

Just amazing - black metal, Aksel Sandemose, mental health and hearing voices, cops, artists, comet in the sky - one of the series of 4

Such a hard read - missives from a spaceship full of humans, androids, and aliens found in space, treating workers like robots

A giant mosquito in the future of climate change, video games, and intertwining multiplexes

Had potential, too much woke spoof - magazine article, Davos summit interview, gold bar killer

This is like the 5th book of hers I've read, liked most of them, hated one - interesting piece on aging and memory, short and moving, dreamy

Booker International winner 2023, some of the most memorable lines ever, pretty genius piece on Alzheimer's and memory in general, made my mind drift through my past like no other - it got really slow and bogged down in the middle on the referendum stuff, overall it lagged

Ukraine russia war, snails, bridal industry mail order brides interesting about ukraine russia not so much the snails

Philly cop heroin, mystery pretty great standard loved God in the Woods

Albanian interpreter, odd relationship, bad guy following her friend around, she connects with him

Best short story collection of the year. Amazing short stories, super creative, mocking himself, thread line through all stories - dude's a genius

Wow, two 9's in a row - epic, Polynesian, author of Orphan Master's Son, epic tale, adventure, love, islands, the sky and sea - so fun to read, long

Just saw him speak so wanted to jump in with another one. Not my thing at all - in the voice of a fox, so stupid, waste of time

Molest, child, murder, dreams, memory - fantastic, hard read, really made me think

Trans-Siberian railroad, helping a Russian army conscript escape - some nice lines but kind of like taking a long train, kind of boring, not much happens

Very Kafka, reminded me of Murakami's last book - dream world in the mountains, French man loses his wife and settles into a mountain rainy town after summer passes and the rains start

Dude is just all that - love it, one day in the life of his new daughter, love this author and book

Gay sushi chef in a coma for two years comes out and restarts

Connected short stories about Mexico and an auctioneer, Borges-like

Pulitzer-winning play about factory workers and class issues

Comet mystery, suicide pact, drunk driver, Australia

Book of the year? Beirut, so good, lots of gay sex, history about the city and the wars, son and mom story

Dutch WW1 soldier is found with amnesia at an asylum by his wife, and the life after in the photography studio with kids

Brazilian prison camp for those to be killed, crazy commandant, futuristic, short, fun

Death, Satan, and 14 saints accompany the lead character in SF through the AIDS epidemic - some crazy gay BDSM poetry, this guy's a genius writer, I'll probably read all of these

So boring, compared to Alameddine it doesn't come close

London photographer struggling with who he is, and homeless murder art loneliness - interesting anti-hero character

Meta meta colonialism, Japan and Taiwan, so good

Sprawling epic in India surrounding victims and perpetrators of bombings by Muslims, pretty dark and dirty

Just an amazing author - Syrian refugees in Greece on Lesbos island, funny and not funny, assisted suicide

Mexico City baby born with defects and her friend who doesn't want babies - fun Mexico City stuff, neighborhoods

Cultural revolution stories from the 60's - brutal murder and repression