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I heard John Keane interviewed about this book of poetry and ordered it right away. In the interview he read his remarkable poem Beatitudes which begins benignly:

Love Everything

And then proceeds to take this line seriously. It is a bold poem, and you will nod, scowl, and wonder.

Love the monster breeding inside you and slaughter him with love.
Love the shipwreck of your body, your mind’s salted garden.

Punks is large, powerful, and ambitious collection—the kind of book you can open to a random page, read, and be effected.

Augustus is a perfectly written, surprisingly moving epistolary novel about the life of Caesar Augustus. Williams pulls off a magic trick here, telling an engrossing and compelling story of the first Emperor of Rome through personal drama. The world-altering historical events are a backdrop here. This is a book about the man and, to a lesser extent, his daughter.

The phrase “It does not matter” is a recurring motif. It reduces the events of the story to footnotes, and in the process the characters are elevated.

The despair that I have voiced seems to me now unworthy of what I have done. Rome is not eternal; it does not matter. Rome will fall; it does not matter. The barbarian will conquer; it does not matter. There was a moment of Rome.

Williams is a masterful writer. Each character writes with a distinctive voice, and you find youself feeling who is …

This book is every bit as good as you’ve probably heard. Original, engaging, and deeply moving in parts. It is full of longing in every form, and ultimately a thoughtful take on privilege and purpose.

You should have told Jija, before you ever married him, before you slept with him, before you even looked at him and thought maybe, which you had no right to ever think.

It will break your heart, which is a feat for a book set in such a foreign fantastic universe.

My child Isabel was obsessed with these books as a pre-teen. But at the age where they wanted to read on their own. So I didn’t get to enjoy them with them. And I’d never read them myself. I can see why they loved them so much. Sweet feminist historical fiction. What’s not to love?

Kratzer posted to twitter about this labor of love. A self-published encyclopedia of such a wonderfully minutely massive subject. I’m such a sucker for this kind of thing. I mean Kratzer loves wasps! And it shows on every page! I can assure you there was lots here I did not, starting with “What is a ‘social’ wasp?” and, if I’m being honest, “What exactly is a wasp really?”

This book reminds me of the old web. Someone pouring their love, enthusiasm, and sweat into something very few people will read because the act of creating, organizing, and putting it out there is a compulsion. It sparks joy.

This is also a beautifully produced book and I’m so glad I found it.