Welcome to my book review page. I’m Karen Kao, author of The Dancing Girl and the Turtle, essays, and other works. The title of this book review page comes from a lovely, generous book by Anne Lamott called Bird by Bird which, in turn, comes from this scene.

[T]hirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write, which was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulders, and said, “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.”

This is how I tackle my monstrous to-be-read pile of reading material, book by book.

Cold hard facts

Writing is like getting into a cold swimming pool. You can try to inch in, hoping the water will warm if you can wait long enough. You can jump in, feet first and nose held tight and hope you don’t hit rock bottom. Or you can dive to the floor of that pool, now alarming close to your bulging eyes. However it is you write, you’re going to get wet.

All writers are readers. Reading may very well be the only way to learn how to write, other than to just do it. Now that I write professionally, it’s sometimes hard to remember what reading for pleasure is. I’m always looking for the stray comma or the hackneyed phrase. Does the character arc seem a bit too fantastic? (Unless I’m reading fantasy, in which case does the character remain earthbound?)

Yes, I read to learn but I want to read for pleasure too. For me, pleasure comes at that moment when a book ceases to be a book and becomes a journey. Maybe I’m sitting on a bus with Lydia Davis, who’s staring out the window, dreading the class she’s about to teach. Or, I’ve become the character in the story, hurtling down a rocky road in a pickup truck whose brakes are indifferent to time and speed. I want to feel what the characters feel however painful or silly or gross that might be.

It doesn’t always happen, I’m sorry to say. Some stories just don’t move me. In which case, you won’t find a review of that book here. I won’t waste your time on a book I didn’t care enough about to finish. These are reviews of the best I’ve read. Check it out.

fiction (long)

fiction (short)

nonfiction

poetry & plays

literary journals

As of November 2024, I will be publishing my book reviews of lyric essay collections and lyric essay craft works at my new Substack, Swimming Upside Down. Please subscribe!