"A simultaneously serious and entertaining meditation on physical and intellectual appetites . [and] about the art of reading and engaging with a text, body and soul." --Heller McAlpin, NPR (Best Book of the Year) "If you''ve ever been a literature student in a small room trying to figure out how exactly to become a floating brain instead of this messing, wanting thing (and if you''re reading this, there is a fair chance of it), it will speak very loudly." --Emily Temple, Literary Hub (Best Book of the Year) "In Brown''s precise, elegant prose, we watch Annabel go through the carefully plotted rituals of her day . Most impressive is Brown''s depiction of having an ongoing fantasy that stretches out for years and that you slip into and out of at odd moments of the day . It rings deeply true to life, in a way I have never quite seen an author conjure before ." --Constance Grady, Vox (Best Book of the Year So Far) "Absorbing . [Brown] is such a vivid writer .
Practice offers a refreshing midsummer''s break." --Maureen Corrigan, NPR "Rosalind Brown''s tight, sly debut, Practice , [is] a welcome gift for those who dither about their dithering. It presents procrastination as a vital, life-affirming antidote to the cult of self-discipline, while also giving the reader a delicious text with which to while away her leisure time . What Annabel senses, and Brown beautifully drives home, is that it''s the strange mental collisions between the thinking mind and the wandering mind that yield the most interesting results." --Hillary Kelly, The Atlantic "Brown renders what she does do with such rigor and lucidity that the rhythm of her actions become a reflection of Shakespeare''s poems themselves, as well as the sort of fine-grained textual analysis she aspires toward . Many of the book''s most beautiful passages speak to the subtle, mysterious alchemy of scholarship . Practice beautifully illustrates a tension at the heart of not just loving reading but loving writ large." --Meara Sharma, Los Angeles Review of Books "There''s a genius in the idea of using Shakespeare''s sonnets, which form an exploration of desire deeply and messily concerned with questions of gender and selfhood, to illustrate the complicated process of a young woman figuring out who and what she is .
A novel written for readers , which may seem a silly distinction to draw; all novels are written to be read. But Brown appeals specifically to those who have found themselves shaping their own identities around the words of others , and then coming to wonder whether that process has honed their individuality or lessened it . By reading, we practice being alive." --Talya Zax, The Washington Post "It is hard to think, however, of a novel that describes as precisely as Rosalind Brown''s Practice does what happens when an ardent young person sits down to read and learn and write . Exquisitely attuned to the thrill and boredom of academic reading . Practice conveys the hesitancy, extravagance and naiveté of a young mind discovering what writing can do ." --Brian Dillon, The New York Times "Brown has delicately articulated one of the less-discussed pleasures of reading: a kind of anti-reading, a momentum that gathers not in spite of distraction but because of it." --Dan Piepenbring, Harper''s " Practice is one of those surprise charmers that initially appears to be microscopically focused yet encompasses its main character''s startlingly intimate, wide-ranging thoughts and feelings--both scholarly and libidinous--about life, love, literature, solitude, self-discipline, physical and intellectual appetites, and more .
Ms. Brown''s novel contains a kingdom in its pages, probing nothing less than a reader''s relationship with a text and how to satisfyingly reconcile one''s mind and body." --Heller McAlpin, Wall Street Journal "[ Practice br>"There''s a genius in the idea of using Shakespeare''s sonnets, which form an exploration of desire deeply and messily concerned with questions of gender and selfhood, to illustrate the complicated process of a young woman figuring out who and what she is . A novel written for readers , which may seem a silly distinction to draw; all novels are written to be read. But Brown appeals specifically to those who have found themselves shaping their own identities around the words of others , and then coming to wonder whether that process has honed their individuality or lessened it . By reading, we practice being alive." --Talya Zax, The Washington Post "It is hard to think, however, of a novel that describes as precisely as Rosalind Brown''s Practice does what happens when an ardent young person sits down to read and learn and write . Exquisitely attuned to the thrill and boredom of academic reading .
Practice conveys the hesitancy, extravagance and naiveté of a young mind discovering what writing can do ." --Brian Dillon, The New York Times "Brown has delicately articulated one of the less-discussed pleasures of reading: a kind of anti-reading, a momentum that gathers not in spite of distraction but because of it." --Dan Piepenbring, Harper''s " Practice is one of those surprise charmers that initially appears to be microscopically focused yet encompasses its main character''s startlingly intimate, wide-ranging thoughts and feelings--both scholarly and libidinous--about life, love, literature, solitude, self-discipline, physical and intellectual appetites, and more . Ms. Brown''s novel contains a kingdom in its pages, probing nothing less than a reader''s relationship with a text and how to satisfyingly reconcile one''s mind and body." --Heller McAlpin, Wall Street Journal "[ Practice and naiveté of a young mind discovering what writing can do." --Brian Dillon, The New York Times "Brown has delicately articulated one of the less-discussed pleasures of reading: a kind of anti-reading, a momentum that gathers not in spite of distraction but because of it." --Dan Piepenbring, Harper''s " Practice is one of those surprise charmers that initially appears to be microscopically focused yet encompasses its main character''s startlingly intimate, wide-ranging thoughts and feelings--both scholarly and libidinous--about life, love, literature, solitude, self-discipline, physical and intellectual appetites, and more .
Ms. Brown''s novel contains a kingdom in its pages, probing nothing less than a reader''s relationship with a text and how to satisfyingly reconcile one''s mind and body." --Heller McAlpin, Wall Street Journal "[ Practice br>"There''s a genius in the idea of using Shakespeare''s sonnets, which form an exploration of desire deeply and messily concerned with questions of gender and selfhood, to illustrate the complicated process of a young woman figuring out who and what she is . A novel written for readers , which may seem a silly distinction to draw; all novels are written to be read. But Brown appeals specifically to those who have found themselves shaping their own identities around the words of others , and then coming to wonder whether that process has honed their individuality or lessened it . By reading, we practice being alive." --Talya Zax, The Washington Post "It is hard to think, however, of a novel that describes as precisely as Rosalind Brown''s Practice does what happens when an ardent young person sits down to read and learn and write . Exquisitely attuned to the thrill and boredom of academic reading .
Practice conveys the hesitancy, extravagance and naiveté of a young mind discovering what writing can do ." --Brian Dillon, The New York Times "Brown has delicately articulated one of the less-discussed pleasures of reading: a kind of anti-reading, a momentum that gathers not in spite of distraction but because of it." --Dan Piepenbring, Harper''s " Practice is one of those surprise charmers that initially appears to be microscopically focused yet encompasses its main character''s startlingly intimate, wide-ranging thoughts and feelings--both scholarly and libidinous--about life, love, literature, solitude, self-discipline, physical and intellectual appetites, and more . Ms. Brown''s novel contains a kingdom in its pages, probing nothing less than a reader''s relationship with a text and how to satisfyingly reconcile one''s mind and body." --Heller McAlpin, Wall Street Journal "[ Practice br>"There''s a genius in the idea of using Shakespeare''s sonnets, which form an exploration of desire deeply and messily concerned with questions of gender and selfhood, to illustrate the complicated process of a young woman figuring out who and what she is . A novel written for readers , which may seem a silly distinction to draw; all novels are written to be read. But Brown appeals specifically to those who have found themselves shaping their own identities around the words of others , and then coming to wonder whether that process has honed their individuality or lessened it .
By reading, we practice being alive."