This list makes no claim to comprehensiveness, even as far as I, the reviewer, am concerned. It’s just a list of books I liked and wanted to talk about at the end of the year. Most have been perhaps a little overlooked. “I think these books are good and that you should read them” is …

Fairy tales are a double edged sword. I think all of us have been inclined toward reboots not because we’re Hollywood dupes or whatever the alarmist discourse is now, but because the familiar is comforting—and after these past few years, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with wanting comfort. But it puts authors in a bind, because …