Shared Pages

Well, it's October and that means it's time for another episode of Shared Pages. For September, with the Midterm elections coming, Ian thought it would be interesting to read Zsuzsanna Szelényi's: Tainted Democracy: Viktor Orbán and the Subversion of Hungary. This book details the changes in Hungary starting in the 90s as the Soviet Union ended, all the way to the early 2020s. As it progresses, it details the ways that Orbán was voted into power and then used that power to change the structure of the government to make it all but impossible to remove him as Prime Minister. With that in mind, it was an interesting read, especially looking at how the United States Government has been functioning lately. This was a difficult text to summarize as it is very thorough, but we hope you enjoy our discussion! Next month, Ronnie and I will be reading No Gods Only Chaos by L.P. Hernandez and we hope that you'll join us!

Well, it's already September! Spooky season is just around the corner, and while not outright horror, Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind by Molly McGhee is a great novel to start off with. The story follows Jonathan Abernathy, a down on his luck, deeply in debt, twenty-something year old, who is recruited via his dreams to work for the Archive of Dreams. While working here, he enters the dreams of the working class, diagnoses their nightmares, and then cleans up their minds. In theory, helping them become more productive. The novel has a lot to say about Late-Stage Capitalism and alienation. We both highly enjoyed this novel and we hope you enjoy our conversation!   Next month's pick is Ian's and we're reading: Tainted Democracy: Viktor Orbán and the Subversion of Hungary by Zsuzsanna Szelény.

The Antidote by Karen Russell was a National Book Award Finalist, as well as Ian's choice for our July read! He seems to have accidentally picked a theme this summer for historical texts set in the west that have to do with land use. The Antidote follows Harp and Asphodel, an uncle and niece who inexplicably have a crop of wheat growing during the dust bowl. Harp took in Asphodel after her mother's murder. There is also The Antidote, a prairie witch who can take and store people's memories, unburdening them of their past sins. Cleo Allfrey is a black photographer from the Resettlement Administration who finds a camera capable of taking photographs of the past and future. All of this adds up to explore the history of North America, the United States acts of violence against its native inhabitants, the role of memory and forgetting, and what it means to move forward toward a better future.   We hope you enjoy our conversation! Next month's choice is Ronnie's and she chose Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind by Molly McGhee.    

For June and Pride, Ronnie chose a modern retelling of Icarus by K. Ancrum! We'll spoil the discussion a little bit and let you know here that we loved the novel! Still, there's a lot to discuss. Icarus retells the classic myth, but instead, Icarus is an art thief, his father is a man seeking revenge, and Helios is a boy trapped in a mansion with an abusive father. There's a lot to unpack in this short novel, and we had a great discussion. We hope you enjoyed reading Icarus, or this inspired you to pick it up! Icarus made both of want to look at more art, and it's powerful story of young, tragic love.    For July, Ian picked The Antidote by Karen Russell. A magical realism novel that came out in 2025. The story takes place in a fictional town in Nebraska where a prairie witch stores people's memories! We hope you get a chance to check it out before our next episode on August first. 

The Great Work by Sheldon Costa is a debut novel, and it was also Ian's pick for the month of May. The novel follows a man named Gentle Montgomery who is a self styled alchemist living in the American west just before Washington became a state. A salamander or dragon has been seen in the countryside and is driving animals to act strange, causing hallucinations, and water to go bad. Gentle also believes this salamander has killed his friend Liam, and so he sets off with Liam's body, his nephew, Kitt, and their donkey, Abe, in search of the salamander. Gentle believes this creature to be "prima material" which can be used to complete The Great Work and create the Philosophers Stone which can then resurrect Liam. Along the way the encounter a frontier warlord, a town of progressives called the Harmonites, and many other strange things. This novel has a very original plot and we enjoyed reading and discussing it!    Next month's pick is Ronnie's, and she choose: Icarus by K. Ancrum.