About

This blog was born from a long commute. I was working in upper Manhattan, and living in Brooklyn, every couple of years moving farther south in search of an affordable place to live and my commute kept growing.  I wanted to do something with my time underground.

I decided to read and write about first books because I hadn’t seen a lot of book review blogs devoted to debuts (direct me to those you know about) and thought it would be a way to discover new writers. I have found that reading new authors is deeply rewarding. There are a handful of debut authors who get attention and many others who are less visible, but extremely talented. I devote my reviews to authors in both camps. I have found that most of the books that win awards deserve them, but many books that are really good never win any awards and don’t even get reviewed in the mainstream press.

I will also, on occasion, publish a, “two review,” which is a review of an author’s second book. And some of the books I review may be “debut, but not new.” I also share links to articles and news on the topic of first books.

You can find me on Twitter: @k8baldus

I am also a fiction and essay writer.

This essay is about time I spent living in Bangladesh.

And this is an essay about my bittersweet wedding and my father’s untimely death.

Thanks for visiting Proto Libro! I’d love to hear from you and what you think about my blog.