Thank you to NetGalley and Algonquin Books for the chance to read these essays and excerpts.

I probably should have been tipped off by the unsettling cover, but I found much of this collection unsettling. Kelly Barnhill in her essay and book, for example, talks about taxidermy at great length. Jonathan Evison tells a story of growing up poor and channels that into a story of growing up even poorer, where a trip to Disneyworld is really a trip to an abandoned warehouse. Brock Clarke's essay and excerpt are about race riots and using a barber as an odd metaphor to shift blame from societal power structures to the individual. Joanna Luloff talks about real and fictional people whose sudden illnesses leave them with permanent memory loss. Everything seems to shift under your feet.

All of the above may be exciting for adventurous readers, but I have boring taste and prefer my books a little more straightforward.

I received a complimentary review copy of The Algonquin Reader: Spring 2018 from NetGalley.

The first page describes what's in this issue, with a brief paragraph introducing each author and what their content is about. There is a total of 6 book exceprts and 6 essays included. I really enjoyed being able to preview enough of the book to know whether I'd be interested enough to read the whole thing. What makes this sampler really unique is that there is an essay before each novel excerpt.

After I saw them here I searched and read some of the books you published (although I did not see them all at Netgalley).

My Recommendation

I appreciate publishers giving us these previews so much (even at this point when the books have been published). It helps voracious readers like me, with more TBR books than time, focus on authors and titles that appeal to me and I should be spending my limited time with.

I am always looking forward to these readers. In this selection, Lawn Boy stands out to me, but I am looking forward to discover all the samples.

The Algonquin Reader is an essential resource for anyone looking for new material, who are also interested in getting to know the Writer.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Algonquin Reader Spring 2018 is an exceptional sampler, highly recommended for the selected books, excerpts and author essays. 5/5

Thanks to Algonquin Books and NetGalley for this fun read. Opinions are mine.

#TheAlgonquinReader #NetGalley

Let me start by mentioning the cute cover on this. There is a cute cover on this.
I used to read publications in a very similar format to this Algonquin Reader when I was younger, in Portuguese. Therefore, this unexpectedly happened to become quite the nostalgic read.

I cannot say I loved all the stories in this, I actually must admit I found most of them very boring. So, although being quite a short read, it was tough to get through this. But, I enjoyed the format and will likely gravitate towards it again in the future, just with the hopes it will carry more intriguing and exciting stories than this one did.

There were 3 really stand out extracts in this for me. My top pick was "Lawn Boy" by Jonathan Evison, which was one of the shortest extracts but which had by far the greatest impact. Also leaving me wanting a lot more were "Southernmost" by Silas House (I'm a big Ron Rash fan) and Brock Clarke's "The Price of a Haircut" - a wonderful taster for his short story collection.
Even better were the original essays by all the featured authors, which added a much deeper context to all the extracts. I'll definitely be adding several of these to my "to read" list!

I'm really looking forward to reading The Optimistic Decade as soon as it is published. I love the excerpt included in this edition of the Reader! This sample promises a very engaging narrative packed with details and vivid characters. Delightful! Thank you for the excerpts! I always love the Algonquin Reader.

The newest Algonquin catalogue is a welcome addition to my other issues of the same name. I download Buzz Books every month and this is similar but only has excerpts from upcoming Algonquin books whereas Buzz Books is not restricted to any particular publisher. I enjoy them both though. Fab!