The Slice: Claire Fallon
Decrying mediocre kids books + what to read right now
I read a great deal this week (lots of time on the train, waiting for buses, etc), but the real highlight was putting together this edition of The Slice with the brilliant and kind Claire Fallon!
Claire is a podcaster and writer, and I have long wanted to feature her on Bookpeach. I’ve followed her work for years now, and I love her snarky but illuminating takes on the Bachelor Franchise alongside co-host Emma Gray. And although I fell off the reality TV wagon a few years ago, I remain a huge fan of the pair’s excellent Substack.
I always look out for Claire’s book recommendations, and as a super busy mom of two, I know she doesn’t waste time on “meh” reads.
Be sure and subscribe to
and check out her great podcast Love To See It for more ✨
What is your #1 book recommendation right now?
"Doppelganger" by Naomi Klein is the last book I finished and loved -- a relatively rare nonfiction pick from me! For fiction, I'm in the middle of reading "Enter Ghost" by Isabella Hammad, a 2023 novel about a Palestinian-British actress who returns to Haifa to visit her sister and winds up reluctantly joining a production of "Hamlet" in the West Bank. Hammad is a brilliant writer, and it's also a striking portrayal of life and art in the West Bank prior to the current, horrific conflict.
You have two young kids. How do you find time to read?
I don't! Genuinely, I don't. My reading has been way, way down this year, since my one-year-old's arrival. Maternity leave can actually be a great time to read, if your baby doesn't torture you too much; my second was a sleepy little angel, so I blazed through a stack of books while he napped on my chest or in his bassinet. (It's a terrible time to read if you have a baby like my first, who did not understand the concept of naps.) I tell myself often that this is a temporary situation. My parents had three kids, and they both read extensively for work and pleasure -- but I'm not sure they read as much when we were under the age of 3. However, when things are going smoothly, no one is home sick from school, and we have our routines under control, I make time to read on the weekends during the kids' nap/quiet time hour, or after they go to bed. If I'm really on top of work, I sometimes catch up on reading while they're at daycare/school. It's easier said than done, but being disciplined about my phone usage helps a lot. There is time in the day, most days, but it's easy to lose my whole post-bedtime hour to cycling between social media apps and online shopping tabs without even noticing the time slipping by.
Speaking of your sons... do you have a favorite kid's book recommendation?
Yes! I also have a rant about how kids' book sections have been overtaken with mediocre celebrity-authored books, but I'll try to keep my cool about that. Arnold Lobel's "Frog and Toad" anthology was the first book I really enjoyed reading with my older son; the stories are simple and approachable but often weird, and I personally believe the even-keeled Frog and his grouchy friend Toad are amusingly apt analogs for a parent and a small child. Reading the stories helped my son think about and express his feelings, and I really believed they helped me do the same. But it's not as literal and didactic as so many kids' books about feelings are, which I really appreciate.
Now that my son is almost five, we're starting to read chapter books to him. Roald Dahl's vivid wordplay and creative insults have been a big hit (though you have to be careful about handling the fatphobia and other offensive ideas baked into his books), while Beverly Clearly's “Beezus and Ramona” books are incredible for her gentle humor and gift for capturing a small child's perspective on the myriad injustices of being a kid.
You've written many book reviews and guides over the years. Is there one that really stands out?
I have two very different book reviews that come to mind immediately: one was a pretty harsh pan of Sean Penn's novel "Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff," which was probably my most-read review ever, and one was an omnibus review of five books about motherhood, which I wrote right before I started trying to conceive for the first time. I think it's uncommon for a literary fiction book as overtly bad as “Bob Honey” to get a major push from a publisher, and his celebrity clearly played into that. Admittedly, it was low-hanging fruit for a pan. But the book also really annoyed me on principle; while I understand that celebrity books make tons of money and help sustain the whole industry, I don't think that justifies grading them on a curve or publishing really egregiously bad books. I had fun writing the review, and it remains my only experience of having a genuinely viral piece.
The essay on motherhood books was a more serious and personal piece, in which I explored my own desire for children and expectations of the experience while interweaving reviews of Sheila Heti's "Motherhood," Angela Garbes' "Like a Mother," and other fiction and nonfiction accounts of motherhood and maternal ambivalence. It was probably too long and too self-indulgent, but reading all those books and wrestling with what they had to say about maternal choice, the politics of motherhood, and the physical and emotional effects of pregnancy and child-rearing was a really meaningful experience. I always look back on it fondly.
How do you pick your next read?
Back when I worked at HuffPost, my team would receive a constant deluge of galleys, and we'd sort and divide them. I am still figuring out how to make these decisions now that I'm not in this situation! I do still follow authors and people in the book world, like
, Brandon Taylor (of ), and , to try to remain aware of upcoming titles. Sometimes I get press releases from my remaining PR contacts. I go to my local Word bookstores and leaf through things, and I read reviews in Bookforum, the New York Review of Books, and the New Yorker. And yes, I get recommendations from people I trust -- my dad recommended the Isabella Hammad book to me.What is the best bookstore in NYC?
Ooh, this feels like a trap! The Strand is obviously undefeated for its sheer size and selection, though my affection for it has been dimmed by the store's widely publicized union-busting efforts and the ongoing struggles of its workers. I always have a soft spot for McNally Jackson. My current favorite is technically not in NYC, but it's my neighborhood spot: the Jersey City Word Bookstore. Sadly it's quite small, so you often have to special-order the book you want if it's not a bestseller, but the staff is always helpful and there's a sizable kids' section.
Who is your most favorite author?
I've never had a favorite book or author! I'm a Jane Austen and Brontë sisters completist. I wrote my undergrad thesis on Virginia Woolf, and I absolutely love "To the Lighthouse," "Mrs. Dalloway," and "The Waves." There are a number of contemporary authors I really enjoy and will always read, such as Catherine Lacey, Marilynne Robinson, Brandon Taylor, and Jesmyn Ward.
What do you usually gravitate towards in a book?
Different things, depending on the day or year or phase of life I'm in! I grew up reading the classics -- my parents both had post-graduate degrees in English, and my dad taught literature at a university, so our house was full of Penguin classics. If I was bored, there was always a Jane Austen or Charles Dickens novel around that I could pick up. I think this cultivated a love for fiction, and specifically fiction that has the qualities most of the great English novels possess: observant humor, complex psychological and social portraits of their characters, and prose with some meat on the bones. I still read a lot of literary fiction, and while I've come to love some of the more spare stylists (Rachel Cusk, Sally Rooney), I also love writing that is a bit more dense.
After the 2016 election, I took refuge in historical romances (Tessa Dare was a favorite). I'm definitely not immune to the allure of sentiment and escapism. As I'm getting older, like a real cliché, I'm getting more interested in nonfiction that shares some of the qualities of great fiction: well-crafted prose, absorbing storytelling, and something worthwhile to say about humanity and society as a whole.
Huge thanks to Claire for being so generous with her answers. Be sure and follow her on Insta for links, shopping ideas, and of course, the latest from the Bachelor world.
Do you have a book lover you think I should interview? Do you want to be featured? Send me an email and I’ll be in touch! 💌
📚 On my shelf
I finished “Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” and I can see why this Swedish thriller was such a sensation back in the aughts. Not only is it well-written, but the twists and turns all really deliver. I was reading with bated breath the whole time.
Following a recommendation from my friend Grace (who knows about my Fulbright research), I picked up “Cold Crematorium” by József Debreczeni. Following Debreczeni’s life between three sub-camps in the “planet of Auschwitz,” this book is an unflinching account through the eyes of a keen journalist. Although published in 1950, it was never translated from Hungarian due to the strictures of communism and pervasive antisemitism in Europe. Menachem Kaiser puts it perfectly in the NYT: The finest examples of Holocaust literature — and “Cold Crematorium” is so fine it transcends its category — aren’t merely bulwarks against obscurity; they do more than allow us to never forget. They offer a glimpse, one that is unyielding and unsoftened by sentimentality, one that is brutally, unbearably close. This book feels like mandatory reading.
Clearly, I needed a fun book to balance out all of this heaviness, and I’m about halfway through “The Wedding People” by Alison Espach. I’ve been wanting to read this novel for a while, and so far, I’ve found it satisfying and surprisingly sharp-witted.
📚 Links and Things
Dying to make these lemon turmeric crinkle cookies!
I’m intrigued by Aphilia, an “elevated book subscription service for the modern reader.” I neither have the money nor live on the correct continent for this, but I love the curation of books from independent publishers 📚
🎧 An update for the Normal Gossip fans!
Paul and I are headed to Paris at the end of the month, and I have to share my friend Sea Jay’s beautiful guide to the city 🥐
Happy reading! 💛
XOX
Alli
Aw, hi Claire!!!