Daniël van der Winden

A voracious reader myself, I started this website and newsletter late 2022, as an exercise to write briefly about the books I love reading.

Amsterdam, NL

Website

Bluesky

Instagram

Nov 01, 2025

Open City

By Teju Cole

Open City is a novel that reads like a great essay might, pulling in references to art, music, literature and history, weaving in facts and stories, building a collage that invites further discovery beyond its pages.

Fiction / Faber & Faber / 2011

Oct 02, 2025

Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha

By Roddy Doyle

The perfect balance between humour and heartbreak: a vivid portrait of childhood innocence set against a backdrop of a family's quiet collapse.

Fiction / Martin Secker & Warburg / 1993

Sep 08, 2025

Burning The Days

By James Salter

Recounting his years as a fighter pilot and writer, Salter's nostalgic and melancholic memoir drips with a Don Draper-esque masculinity.

Non-fiction / Vintage / 1997

Jul 07, 2025

It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over

By Anne de Marcken

I finished reading this book more than a week ago and it keeps running loops inside my mind, its eyes glazed over, its arms outstretched before it.

Fiction / Fitzcarraldo Editions / 2024

Jun 02, 2025

Collected Works

By Jo Ann Beard

“My first love was poetry, my second love was fiction and my third and lasting love was the essay.”

Non-fiction / Serpent’s Tail / 2023

May 02, 2025

The Alternatives

By Caoilinn Hughes

A cleverly composed family novel about care and climate.

Fiction / Oneworld Publications / 2024

Mar 31, 2025

Nuclear War: A Scenario

By Annie Jacobsen

A cinematic glimpse into Armageddon.

Non-fiction / Dutton / 2024

Feb 28, 2025

The Repeat Room

By Jesse Ball

In this frightening society of interchangeable robes, telescreens and plastic trays, much of the writing lands with the potency of a punch in the stomach.

Fiction / Catapult / 2024