Billy Lennon
@podracingchamp.bsky.social
@clereviewbooks.bsky.social publisher + founder / clereviewofbooks.com
Reposted by Billy Lennon
"Rage can be just as much a lifeforce as pleasure".
Alyse Burnside On David Wojnarowicz’s “Memories that Smell Like Gasoline”
clereviewofbooks.com/david-wojnar...
Alyse Burnside On David Wojnarowicz’s “Memories that Smell Like Gasoline”
clereviewofbooks.com/david-wojnar...
A Ticking Clock: On David Wojnarowicz’s “Memories that Smell Like Gasoline” - Cleveland Review of Books
It is a drive David identifies with, one that draws him towards those who do not understand or adhere to the manufactured code of conduct of society.
clereviewofbooks.com
November 25, 2025 at 1:03 PM
"Rage can be just as much a lifeforce as pleasure".
Alyse Burnside On David Wojnarowicz’s “Memories that Smell Like Gasoline”
clereviewofbooks.com/david-wojnar...
Alyse Burnside On David Wojnarowicz’s “Memories that Smell Like Gasoline”
clereviewofbooks.com/david-wojnar...
Reposted by Billy Lennon
"In fact, once he knows he has Mare and Bern completely under his spell, he sends them on errands. For a serial killer, he is incredibly lazy about the necessities of everyday life, like money and food."
from "Their Many Names" by Jess Richardson
clereviewofbooks.com/their-many-n...
from "Their Many Names" by Jess Richardson
clereviewofbooks.com/their-many-n...
Their Many Names - Cleveland Review of Books
She did not know her future husband owned a gun, but he briefly served and so it makes a sudden kind of sense.
clereviewofbooks.com
November 19, 2025 at 4:47 PM
"In fact, once he knows he has Mare and Bern completely under his spell, he sends them on errands. For a serial killer, he is incredibly lazy about the necessities of everyday life, like money and food."
from "Their Many Names" by Jess Richardson
clereviewofbooks.com/their-many-n...
from "Their Many Names" by Jess Richardson
clereviewofbooks.com/their-many-n...
Reposted by Billy Lennon
"The poets grapple with what it means to create a purpose-built archive and the ways in which this impulse counters the traditional principle of the archive."
Megan McKenzie on "Permanent Record"
clereviewofbooks.com/read-backwar...
Megan McKenzie on "Permanent Record"
clereviewofbooks.com/read-backwar...
Read Backwards: on “Permanent Record” - Cleveland Review of Books
The human impulse towards self-documentation is everywhere once you start looking for it.
clereviewofbooks.com
November 6, 2025 at 8:45 PM
"The poets grapple with what it means to create a purpose-built archive and the ways in which this impulse counters the traditional principle of the archive."
Megan McKenzie on "Permanent Record"
clereviewofbooks.com/read-backwar...
Megan McKenzie on "Permanent Record"
clereviewofbooks.com/read-backwar...
Reposted by Billy Lennon
"[One could take] its aesthetic limitations as formal affordances... "Shadow Ticket" perhaps traces the attitudes and semiotics of pre-emergent fascism, [like a] historiographical broadcast from State fascism’s inchoate moment."
Cobi Chiodo Powell on Pynchon
clereviewofbooks.com/thomas-pynch...
Cobi Chiodo Powell on Pynchon
clereviewofbooks.com/thomas-pynch...
Intransigent Delay: On Thomas Pynchon’s "Shadow Ticket" - Cleveland Review of Books
Shadow Ticket perhaps traces, through the suppleness of form, the attitudes and semiotics of pre-emergent fascism.
clereviewofbooks.com
September 30, 2025 at 2:20 PM
"[One could take] its aesthetic limitations as formal affordances... "Shadow Ticket" perhaps traces the attitudes and semiotics of pre-emergent fascism, [like a] historiographical broadcast from State fascism’s inchoate moment."
Cobi Chiodo Powell on Pynchon
clereviewofbooks.com/thomas-pynch...
Cobi Chiodo Powell on Pynchon
clereviewofbooks.com/thomas-pynch...
Reposted by Billy Lennon
A really interesting essay at @clereviewbooks.bsky.social
about one writer's history of Big Five rejections since the 1990s & the effects of publishing's conglomeration even when one doesn't know conglomeration is the force at work.
about one writer's history of Big Five rejections since the 1990s & the effects of publishing's conglomeration even when one doesn't know conglomeration is the force at work.
"I now realized that for thirty years I’d had an imaginary Pietsch perched on my shoulder, and as I reworked sentences I kept (unconsciously) turning to him and asking, 'How about now? Would you take it now?'"
Vince Czyz on publishing & conglomeration
clereviewofbooks.com/the-age-of-c...
Vince Czyz on publishing & conglomeration
clereviewofbooks.com/the-age-of-c...
Portrait of the Author in the Age of Conglomeration - Cleveland Review of Books
I now realized that for thirty years I'd had an imaginary Pietsch perched on my shoulder, and as I reworked sentences I kept (unconsciously) turning to him and asking, "How about now? Would you take i...
clereviewofbooks.com
September 26, 2025 at 2:43 PM
A really interesting essay at @clereviewbooks.bsky.social
about one writer's history of Big Five rejections since the 1990s & the effects of publishing's conglomeration even when one doesn't know conglomeration is the force at work.
about one writer's history of Big Five rejections since the 1990s & the effects of publishing's conglomeration even when one doesn't know conglomeration is the force at work.
Reposted by Billy Lennon
"I now realized that for thirty years I’d had an imaginary Pietsch perched on my shoulder, and as I reworked sentences I kept (unconsciously) turning to him and asking, 'How about now? Would you take it now?'"
Vince Czyz on publishing & conglomeration
clereviewofbooks.com/the-age-of-c...
Vince Czyz on publishing & conglomeration
clereviewofbooks.com/the-age-of-c...
Portrait of the Author in the Age of Conglomeration - Cleveland Review of Books
I now realized that for thirty years I'd had an imaginary Pietsch perched on my shoulder, and as I reworked sentences I kept (unconsciously) turning to him and asking, "How about now? Would you take i...
clereviewofbooks.com
September 25, 2025 at 3:19 PM
"I now realized that for thirty years I’d had an imaginary Pietsch perched on my shoulder, and as I reworked sentences I kept (unconsciously) turning to him and asking, 'How about now? Would you take it now?'"
Vince Czyz on publishing & conglomeration
clereviewofbooks.com/the-age-of-c...
Vince Czyz on publishing & conglomeration
clereviewofbooks.com/the-age-of-c...
Reposted by Billy Lennon
"While a fantastic beat reporter and astute ball-knower, MacMahon both perpetuates and falls victim to Publishing's hastily-written-athlete-biography-industrial complex.
@podracingchamp.bsky.social on @bannedmacmahon.bsky.social's "The Wonder Boy"
clereviewofbooks.com/i-think-its-...
@podracingchamp.bsky.social on @bannedmacmahon.bsky.social's "The Wonder Boy"
clereviewofbooks.com/i-think-its-...
“I think it’s going to be fine”: On Tim MacMahon’s “The Wonder Boy: Luka Dončić and the Curse of Greatness” - Cleveland Review of Books
I was very disappointed to find that the book read as if the contents of MacMahon’s collected ESPN articles were dumped into a large language model, and directed to write a 300-plus page book about Lu...
clereviewofbooks.com
July 13, 2025 at 1:57 PM
"While a fantastic beat reporter and astute ball-knower, MacMahon both perpetuates and falls victim to Publishing's hastily-written-athlete-biography-industrial complex.
@podracingchamp.bsky.social on @bannedmacmahon.bsky.social's "The Wonder Boy"
clereviewofbooks.com/i-think-its-...
@podracingchamp.bsky.social on @bannedmacmahon.bsky.social's "The Wonder Boy"
clereviewofbooks.com/i-think-its-...
Reposted by Billy Lennon
It's important to rid ourselves of the idea that this kind of work should be free to all by default, at least until there's some new mechanism of supporting it.
May 28, 2025 at 2:12 PM
It's important to rid ourselves of the idea that this kind of work should be free to all by default, at least until there's some new mechanism of supporting it.
Reposted by Billy Lennon
We are introducing a small paywall. 3 articles free per month, then it kicks in. We didn’t make this decision lightly, and hope that you’ll join us in this new phase after publishing almost 1000 pieces for free over the last 7 years.
May 28, 2025 at 2:12 PM
We are introducing a small paywall. 3 articles free per month, then it kicks in. We didn’t make this decision lightly, and hope that you’ll join us in this new phase after publishing almost 1000 pieces for free over the last 7 years.
We are introducing a small paywall. 3 articles free per month, then it kicks in. We didn’t make this decision lightly, and hope that you’ll join us in this new phase after publishing almost 1000 pieces for free over the last 7 years.
May 28, 2025 at 2:12 PM
We are introducing a small paywall. 3 articles free per month, then it kicks in. We didn’t make this decision lightly, and hope that you’ll join us in this new phase after publishing almost 1000 pieces for free over the last 7 years.
Reposted by Billy Lennon
An excerpt from Ahmad Almallah's Wrong Winds courtesy @clereviewbooks.bsky.social www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/from...
from "Wrong Winds" by Ahmad Almallah — Cleveland Review of Books
Stealth is the first step into progress.
www.clereviewofbooks.com
April 2, 2025 at 7:41 PM
An excerpt from Ahmad Almallah's Wrong Winds courtesy @clereviewbooks.bsky.social www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/from...
Reposted by Billy Lennon
"Me, I am Goodness and Justice, and I want to kill the radish because he’s rich and the peasants are dying of hunger."
from Sylvain Trudel's "The Harmattan Winds" (trans. Donald Winkler) @archipelagobooks.bsky.social
www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/from...
from Sylvain Trudel's "The Harmattan Winds" (trans. Donald Winkler) @archipelagobooks.bsky.social
www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/from...
from "The Harmattan Winds" by Sylvain Trudel — Cleveland Review of Books
And he’s impure and I hate him and I blast him with
peas from my catapult-spoon.
www.clereviewofbooks.com
March 31, 2025 at 5:24 PM
"Me, I am Goodness and Justice, and I want to kill the radish because he’s rich and the peasants are dying of hunger."
from Sylvain Trudel's "The Harmattan Winds" (trans. Donald Winkler) @archipelagobooks.bsky.social
www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/from...
from Sylvain Trudel's "The Harmattan Winds" (trans. Donald Winkler) @archipelagobooks.bsky.social
www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/from...
march 2025 new books newbookrecon.substack.com/p/march-2025...
March 2025 Recon
Baglin, Dean, Barkan, Mahdavi
newbookrecon.substack.com
March 28, 2025 at 4:40 PM
march 2025 new books newbookrecon.substack.com/p/march-2025...
Reposted by Billy Lennon
"You can wake up to someone day after day and still they’ll appear disfigured somehow, pummeled by the early light."
from Sam Eichman's story "A Little Too Much Sun".
www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/sam-...
from Sam Eichman's story "A Little Too Much Sun".
www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/sam-...
A Little Too Much Sun — Cleveland Review of Books
You can wake up to someone day after day and still they’ll appear disfigured somehow.
www.clereviewofbooks.com
February 19, 2025 at 4:46 PM
"You can wake up to someone day after day and still they’ll appear disfigured somehow, pummeled by the early light."
from Sam Eichman's story "A Little Too Much Sun".
www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/sam-...
from Sam Eichman's story "A Little Too Much Sun".
www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/sam-...
Reposted by Billy Lennon
"Compared to Stoker’s belief in the positive influence of the Enlightenment and traditional Christian faith, Eggers’s narrative is a darker meditation on modernity’s spiritual blindness."
CRB's very own Bri Di Monda on Robert Eggers's "Nosferatu"
www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/robe...
CRB's very own Bri Di Monda on Robert Eggers's "Nosferatu"
www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/robe...
The Night Side of Nature: On Robert Eggers's "Nosferatu" — Cleveland Review of Books
Early folklore said vampires could attack victims through dream visitation.
www.clereviewofbooks.com
February 18, 2025 at 5:13 PM
"Compared to Stoker’s belief in the positive influence of the Enlightenment and traditional Christian faith, Eggers’s narrative is a darker meditation on modernity’s spiritual blindness."
CRB's very own Bri Di Monda on Robert Eggers's "Nosferatu"
www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/robe...
CRB's very own Bri Di Monda on Robert Eggers's "Nosferatu"
www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/robe...
Reposted by Billy Lennon
"If a shared appreciation of culture is a means of expressing these desires covertly, 'Our Evenings' suggests that it can also prove treacherous."
Peter Huhne on Alan Hollinghurst's "Our Evenings"
www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/alan...
Peter Huhne on Alan Hollinghurst's "Our Evenings"
www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/alan...
Back to Normal: Hollinghurst's Late Style — Cleveland Review of Books
If a shared appreciation of culture is a means of expressing these desires covertly, Our Evenings suggests that it can also prove treacherous.
www.clereviewofbooks.com
February 14, 2025 at 11:43 PM
"If a shared appreciation of culture is a means of expressing these desires covertly, 'Our Evenings' suggests that it can also prove treacherous."
Peter Huhne on Alan Hollinghurst's "Our Evenings"
www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/alan...
Peter Huhne on Alan Hollinghurst's "Our Evenings"
www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/alan...
Reposted by Billy Lennon
"Introspection is a natural recourse for those of us who haven't been struck by a primal yen to be mothers. It’s also lonely and yields diminishing returns."
@sophiastewart.bsky.social on Anastasia Berg's and Rachel Wiseman's "What are Children For?"
www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/anas...
@sophiastewart.bsky.social on Anastasia Berg's and Rachel Wiseman's "What are Children For?"
www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/anas...
Decisions, Decisions: on Anastasia Berg and Rachel Wiseman's "What Are Children For?" — Cleveland Review of Books
Logic doesn’t govern the decision to procreate. Nor does it necessarily govern the decision not to procreate.
www.clereviewofbooks.com
February 11, 2025 at 9:13 PM
"Introspection is a natural recourse for those of us who haven't been struck by a primal yen to be mothers. It’s also lonely and yields diminishing returns."
@sophiastewart.bsky.social on Anastasia Berg's and Rachel Wiseman's "What are Children For?"
www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/anas...
@sophiastewart.bsky.social on Anastasia Berg's and Rachel Wiseman's "What are Children For?"
www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/anas...
Reposted by Billy Lennon
"Labatut and Best both fear this outcome. But Labatut does not realize we already live in a world governed by an alien intelligence."
Jordan Ecker on "The Automatic Fetish" and "The MANIAC" @versobooks.bsky.social @penguinpress.bsky.social
www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/beve...
Jordan Ecker on "The Automatic Fetish" and "The MANIAC" @versobooks.bsky.social @penguinpress.bsky.social
www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/beve...
Inhuman Intelligence: on “The Automatic Fetish” and “The MANIAC” — Cleveland Review of Books
Will the end of humanity be the human invention of an intelligence greater than itself?
www.clereviewofbooks.com
February 11, 2025 at 9:11 PM
"Labatut and Best both fear this outcome. But Labatut does not realize we already live in a world governed by an alien intelligence."
Jordan Ecker on "The Automatic Fetish" and "The MANIAC" @versobooks.bsky.social @penguinpress.bsky.social
www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/beve...
Jordan Ecker on "The Automatic Fetish" and "The MANIAC" @versobooks.bsky.social @penguinpress.bsky.social
www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/beve...
Reposted by Billy Lennon
"I thought eventually Jo-Ann Fabrics would stop feeling like a translated Jo-Ann Fabrics, parallel to but separate from the source." @uawilk.bsky.social, from "The Keeper"
www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/from...
www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/from...
from “The Keeper” — Cleveland Review of Books
I thought eventually Jo-Ann Fabrics would stop feeling like a translated Jo-Ann Fabrics, parallel to but separate from the source.
www.clereviewofbooks.com
February 11, 2025 at 9:10 PM
"I thought eventually Jo-Ann Fabrics would stop feeling like a translated Jo-Ann Fabrics, parallel to but separate from the source." @uawilk.bsky.social, from "The Keeper"
www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/from...
www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/from...
Reposted by Billy Lennon
"Laughner...a tragic poet amidst the end of the industrial empire of which Cleveland and Northeast Ohio were a microcosm."
Andrew Worthington interviews @aaronlange.bsky.social about "Ain't It Fun" and Cleveland's 70s punk scene:
www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/aaro...
Andrew Worthington interviews @aaronlange.bsky.social about "Ain't It Fun" and Cleveland's 70s punk scene:
www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/aaro...
The Secret City: Aaron Lange on the 1970s Cleveland Punk Scene — Cleveland Review of Books
A beautiful and moving depiction of Laughner as a tragic poet amidst the end of the industrial empire of which Cleveland and Northeast Ohio were a microcosm.
www.clereviewofbooks.com
February 11, 2025 at 9:06 PM
"Laughner...a tragic poet amidst the end of the industrial empire of which Cleveland and Northeast Ohio were a microcosm."
Andrew Worthington interviews @aaronlange.bsky.social about "Ain't It Fun" and Cleveland's 70s punk scene:
www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/aaro...
Andrew Worthington interviews @aaronlange.bsky.social about "Ain't It Fun" and Cleveland's 70s punk scene:
www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/aaro...
Reposted by Billy Lennon
"To really diagnose a sick culture, you have to be actually curious about it. You can’t just reflexively disdain it."
@mitchtherieau.bsky.social reviews Becca Rothfeld's "All Things Are Too Small"
www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/becc...
@mitchtherieau.bsky.social reviews Becca Rothfeld's "All Things Are Too Small"
www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/becc...
A Business Doing Pleasure With You: On Becca Rothfeld's "All Things Are Too Small" — Cleveland Review of Books
There are nefarious forces at work in the sphere of taste.
www.clereviewofbooks.com
December 11, 2024 at 4:13 PM
"To really diagnose a sick culture, you have to be actually curious about it. You can’t just reflexively disdain it."
@mitchtherieau.bsky.social reviews Becca Rothfeld's "All Things Are Too Small"
www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/becc...
@mitchtherieau.bsky.social reviews Becca Rothfeld's "All Things Are Too Small"
www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/becc...
Reposted by Billy Lennon
Ain't no fuckin way
November 30, 2024 at 3:35 AM
Ain't no fuckin way
Reposted by Billy Lennon
"But more and more Robinson’s public statements have tended to emphasize a broadminded civic rhetoric and a wishy-washy liberalism that seem a far cry from the radicalism evinced in early works."
Bailey Trela on Marilynne Robinson, from Vol 2.2.
www.clereviewofbooks.com/subscriber-c...
Bailey Trela on Marilynne Robinson, from Vol 2.2.
www.clereviewofbooks.com/subscriber-c...
November 29, 2024 at 5:41 PM
"But more and more Robinson’s public statements have tended to emphasize a broadminded civic rhetoric and a wishy-washy liberalism that seem a far cry from the radicalism evinced in early works."
Bailey Trela on Marilynne Robinson, from Vol 2.2.
www.clereviewofbooks.com/subscriber-c...
Bailey Trela on Marilynne Robinson, from Vol 2.2.
www.clereviewofbooks.com/subscriber-c...
Reposted by Billy Lennon
Good. It’s horrific how other platforms abused their reach to strangle local, independent, and national outlets alike.
I WANT to see news and actual vetted work and I WANT journalists to get rewarded for it.
Because I want to live in a thinking human world over some AI generated slop dystopia
I WANT to see news and actual vetted work and I WANT journalists to get rewarded for it.
Because I want to live in a thinking human world over some AI generated slop dystopia
November 27, 2024 at 1:38 AM
Good. It’s horrific how other platforms abused their reach to strangle local, independent, and national outlets alike.
I WANT to see news and actual vetted work and I WANT journalists to get rewarded for it.
Because I want to live in a thinking human world over some AI generated slop dystopia
I WANT to see news and actual vetted work and I WANT journalists to get rewarded for it.
Because I want to live in a thinking human world over some AI generated slop dystopia