fiction and creative non-fiction from Brennan Quenneville
Much of 2020 was awful but the new music released in this Year of Endless Sorrows™ wasn't. To celebrate, rather than posting one single article about the year in music, I'm going to post a new piece each day this week. Monday through Thursday will cover my four favorite albums of the year and Friday [...]
Much of 2020 was awful but the new music released in this Year of Endless Sorrows™ wasn't. To celebrate, rather than posting one single article about the year in music, I'm going to post a new piece each day this week. Monday through Thursday will cover my four favorite albums of the year and Friday [...]
I've never met Susanna Clarke, the reclusive British author best known for her massive and wonderful 2004 historical fantasy novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, and so she can't knowingly have written her most recent novel, Piranesi, just for me. But it sure feels like she did. Piranesi is an epistolary novel told through the [...]
"I did something bad," she said. Inspired by a workplace speaker, Caitlin had been browsing rescue sites before I got home from work. For months we had been talking about getting a dog but we worried that we weren't ready. Now the search had begun and there were three pups pulling on her heartstrings. She [...]
2020 has been a, um, challenging year. There was the massive wildfire that destroyed lives, reshaped entire biospheres and underscored the urgency of addressing climate change at every level, as soon as possible. No, not that wildfire, the other one. There were protests against the racial injustice that is baked into American life, a widespread [...]
When I stumbled across The Aces earlier this year, they felt like HAIM, if the HAIM sisters had spent less time listening to Wilson Phillips and more time listening to New Found Glory. Their songs are undeniably summery and their hooks are undeniably catchy. The short version: If you care about pop music, you should [...]
Malcolm Gladwell's Talking to Strangers introduced me to "Hell You Talmbout," a magnificent piece of social activism by Janelle Monae and Wondaland Records from 2015. The song is primarily a roll call of Black Americans that have been murdered by the police and that it feels even more prescient right now than it did in [...]
I want to like Sideways, I really do. Alexander Payne's 2004 film, which tracks Paul Giamatti's Miles and Thomas Haden Church's Jack across a bachelor party tour of California wine country, spends much of its runtime celebrating writing and creation. It's just the kind of movie someone who writes a blog that is partially about [...]
The Queue is a recurring excuse for me to talk about songs or albums in short form. This week I examine a catchy Head Automatica track, my slow-growing love for Canadian pop star Lights and a great finale from Michelle Branch. Let’s investigate. Head Automatica – "Laughing at You" Head Automatica's 2004 debut Decadence is, [...]
The ambassador’s richly tailored white suit glowed. A dozen marines spread around the perimeter of the restaurant and wedged themselves into tiny booths. The room’s windows had been bolted shut to keep out the sunlight and heat. Madelyn stood waiting, her linen blazer cleanly pressed. The ambassador dabbed his pink brow with an ornate handkerchief, [...]
Songs & Stories 