There’s been a lot of stuff lately that I’ve wanted to share, but that doesn’t necessarily fit in with my around-the-world reading project. So I’m introducing a new, (approximately) weekly post, the Monday Miscellany, wherein I pass on whatever I’ve been reading or researching or thinking about. Here are a bunch of very short reviews of the books I’ve read this year that fall outside of the scope of the project (with links to goodreads just in case you want to know more about them than can be gleaned from a three-word blurb).

• Blood and Water, Eílís Ní Duibhne: Good. Dark. Irish.
• Parable of the Talents, Octavia Butler: Sadly, eerily prescient.
• Modern Romance, Aziz Ansari: Kind of meh.
• Burning Your Boats: The Collected Short Stories, Angela Carter: JUST SO AMAZING.
• Men Explain Things to Me, Rebecca Solnit: Eye-opening  and harrowing.
• Death on the Cherwell, Mavis Doriel Hay: Not Dorothy Sayers.
• The Nine Tailors, Dorothy L. Sayers: Better than remembered.
• Beside Myself, Ann Morgan: A nice page-turner.
• Murder Must Advertise, Five Red Herrings, and Have His Carcase, Dorothy L. Sayers: Good old favorites.
• Strong Poison, Dorothy L. Sayers: Harriet Vane 4ever!
• Quarantine in the Grand Hotel, Jenő Retjő: Delightfully, manically silly.
• The Bright Side of Disaster, Katherine Center: Fluffy but ok.