HeyJaredThe gem review
Close readings of literature, philosophy and contemporary discourse.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 14
- Latest publication
- Sep 29, 2026
- Audience
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- Earliest in this view
- Aug 11, 2026
Latest issues
Notes from Nora Ephron’s Heartburn (opens the original)
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Notes from novels are my personal approach to book reviews, based on close reading of quotes and critical articles. I pull out the lines I underlined while reading and use them as jumping-off points to explore what made a book stick with me. Sometimes there’s a clear theme; other times I just follow where the quotes take me.<div
Close Reading of Sartre’s Situation of the Writer in 1947 (opens the original)
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As part of my close reading series, I am working through Jean-Paul Sartre’s What Is Literature? I am surprised I have never read it before, given how much time I spent on literary theory at university, though perhaps I encountered a passage or two along the way. Either way, the time has come. I plan to read one chapter a week. The four chapters are:What is Writing?Why Write?For Whom Does One Write?Situation of the Writer in 1947You can read part one, two and threebelow:<a href="htt
Notes from Clarice Lispector’s Daydream and Drunkenness of a Daughter (opens the original)
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Notes from novels are my personal approach to book reviews, based on close reading of quotes and critical articles. I pull out the lines I underlined while reading and use them as jumping-off points to explore what made a book stick with me. Sometimes there’s a clear theme; other times I just follow where the quotes take me.<div
Close Reading of Sartre’s For Whom Does One Write? (opens the original)
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As part of my close reading series, I am working through Jean-Paul Sartre’s What Is Literature? I am surprised I have never read it before, given how much time I spent on literary theory at university, though perhaps I encountered a passage or two along the way. Either way, the time has come. I plan to read one chapter a week. The four chapters are:What is Writing?Why Write?For Whom Does One Write?Situation of the Writer in 1947You can read part one and two below:<div class="digest-post-embed
Notes from Tove Jansson’s The Summer Book (opens the original)
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Notes from novels are my personal approach to book reviews, based on close reading of quotes and critical articles. I pull out the lines I underlined while reading and use them as jumping-off points to explore what made a book stick with me. Sometimes there’s a clear theme; other times I just follow where the quotes take me.<div
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