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Regardless of whether you end up enjoying it or not, do you ever read something just to "get it over with" and be able to weigh in on books that frequently get brought up?
I'm writing this prompted by finally having read The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue.
It's one of those titles that you'll frequently find in the two rec subs, so while I wasn't exactly enthused with the premise I picked the book up just so I can say I read it and form a personal opinion. Addie's impression on me turned out to be lukewarm as I don't fall under the 20-something female reader demographic it seems to be aimed at.
So, do you ever cave and pick a book up just because it's seemingly everywhere? If you do, have your experiences been mostly positive or negative so far?
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How Art Spiegelman and 'Maus' changed comics and how we understand Holocaust literature
https://www.wnyc.org/story/how-art-spiegelman-and-maus-changed-comics/
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The Hunter by Richard Stark
I would like to open this post by saying I have watched Payback starring Mel Gibson a hundred times at least and I knew the Parker Novels were out there but I finally got the chance to read the first one.
The Hunter by Richard Stark or Donald E. Westlake as Stark was a pen name he used for these books, is captivating l. The descriptions are vivid and telling, the story flows well and yes there are flashbacks but they work with the structure of the story.
Are there issues with the novel?
Well it is a product of it's time which was 1962. So the women in the story aren't treated well and violence against them is rampant, the women of the story are either sexual objects or just there to be mistreated.
I would say surprisingly for that era there is almost no racism in the novel. The only racism within the writing that I caught was the use of the word coloured for black people but beyond that being the verbiage of the time I didn't catch anything else.
What about the story?
Well it is a heist/revengr story and it displays the full Malice of our protagonist Parker. He is callous and has no compunction about killing or being cruel.
In one scene he accidentally kills a beauty salon owner and she was just in the place he wanted to use to keep an eye on another location. He knocked her out, tied her up and gagged her, she had a breathing issue and died without him noticing until he realized she should have woken up. His only thoughts are of the inconvenience pf her dying and how it was stupid for her to die and it shouldn't have happened.
The revenge story and the heist are well written but none of the players of the story are good people. I enjoyed the novel and as I said it was captivating and I am looking forward to reading the other Parker novels.
However if you like the Parker character from the Jason Statham film Parker or Porter from Payback, which are the most recent adaptations on film for the character I would say be ready to see a much darker character.
Parker considers himself a professional heist man and if he does a job he gets his cut. How he is presented in this first novel.told me everything I needed to know. He has no compunctions about killing, no conscience if he kills an innocent, he is an amoral character who in my opinion may be a sociopath although I am no professional on that front.
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"Their Eyes Were Watching God", Timing And Janie MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS:
Had recently read Zora Neale Hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God" and I've been pretty confused as to when Janie was born.
In one of the first chapters, we are told of Janie's origins through her maternal grandmother, Nanny. Back when she was a young, she was a slave at a "'big plantation close to Savannah,...'" ((Their Eyes Were Watching God. 16.). This seemed to have been in Georgia too. And while a slave, Nanny was assaulted by the plantation owner which resulted in her daughter, Leafy. At that time, "'Marse Robert's son had done been kilt at Chickamauga. So he grabbed his gun and straddled his best horse and went off wid de rest of de gray-headed men and young boys to drive de Yankees back into Tennessee'" (Their Eyes Were Watching God. 16.).
All I can get from Marse Robert and Chickamauga was the Battle Of Chickamauga that was from Sept. 18th-20th, 1863. Though none of Marse Robert's sons died at that time.
Then, after escaping the plantation and being out in the wilderness with baby Leafy, Nanny got word that "'...Sherman was comin' to meet de boats in Savannah, and all of us slaves was free....But it was a long time after dat befo' de Big Surrender at Richmond. Den de big bell ring in Atlanta and all de men in gray uniforms had to go to Moultrie, and bury their swords in de ground to show they was never to fight about slavery no mo'. So den we knowed we was free'" (Their Eyes Were Watching God. 18-19.).
So, going by history, Sherman and the Savannah boats was alluding to Sherman's March To Sea from Nov. 15-Dec. 21, 1964. A whole year of Nanny being in the wilderness with baby Leafy.
As for the surrender, it seems to have been alluding to The Fall Of Richmond on April 3rd, 1865. Leafy would've been 2 about 5 months later.
Not long after, Nanny and little Leafy went to West Florida where the former worked with the Washburn family. Then when Leafy was 17, she was assaulted by her schoolteacher (not sure if the teacher, himself, was black or white). As a result, Janie Crawford came to being. So, this would've made Janie's birthyear around 1880-1881.
Janie was 16 when made to marry her first husband, still 16-17 when she ran off to marry another. 20 years later, the second husband died. Thus, making Janie about 36-37. Not long after, she met and married Tea Cake who was 10-12 her junior. Then when at the marshes, a hurricane in Chapter 18 happened which indirectly led to Tea Cake's date and Janie's return to Eatonville within weeks or months.
Yet, during said hurricane, Janie says this:
"'We been tuhgether round two years'" (Their Eyes Were Watching God. 159). Thus, Janie should be around 38-39.
This is where things get confusing. Going by math, the infamous hurricane should be in 1918-1919 or 1920-1921. If that's the case then...why did the wikipedia page have this line here?:
"Suddenly, the area is hit by the great 1928 Okeechobee hurricane" (Their Eyes Were Watching God - Wikipedia ).
Was this a misunderstanding on Wikipedia's part? Did I miscalculate something? And, while we're on the subject was Janie's father a white schoolteacher or a black schoolteacher?
Despite being half-black and half-white, Leafy would've most likely gone to a school for black children as this was West Florida. But, given that she had blonde hair and grey eyes, she might have passed for white. Yet, Janie was darker than the white Washburn children along with having black (or at least dark-brown) hair. Not to mention, she had gone to school with black children.
This brings up another point in that Janie's schoolmates would bully her about her dad being hunted down by Mr. Washburn and the sheriff's hound dogs for Leafy's assault. Had Janie's dad been white, would Mr. Washburn and the sheriff still have that same energy. Even as "'...he (Janie's dad) wuz seen
communicates through humor, wit, and satire. Sometimes these are clever and entertaining. But Twain isn't always easy to read. His tendency to reproduce the vernacular may have made him popular in his time, but it becomes an obstacle for most modern readers. And although he is highly regarded as a story-teller, there were frequent times I found him repetitive, verbose, or just boring.
While there are glimmers of brilliance in his work, I'm not likely to ever read any more of his short stories - although I know I will certainly enjoy re-reading the stories I've covered above. But despite my personal experience with his short stories, there's no doubt that Twain has undoubtedly had a huge influence on American literature, and will always be considered a literary great.
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Straight Guy Reading Romance
I have started reading romance due to a book recommendation from a female friend as a way to give myself a break from thriller books and I love it but there is a part of me that keeps wondering if I’m weird for liking this genre as much as I do.
I always worry that if anyone I knew found out that I read romance they’d think I’m odd & weird more than they already probably think I am.
So my question to the readers out there is how would you feel if you found out a male friend you knew liked to read romance? (Some of it spicy)
Is it too weird & should stop reading the genre & stick to thrillers?.
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What Books did You Start or Finish Reading this Week?: February 24, 2025
Hi everyone!
What are you reading? What have you recently finished reading? What do you think of it? We want to know!
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F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby".
I've had the great pleasure of reading one of the great novels of the twentieth century. But which one am I talking about? Well it is "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald!
Told in the first person by Nick Carraway, who is a graduate student, as he narrates about his elusive millionaire nieghbor Jay Gatsby, who hosts large and lavish parties at his mansion, and of his undying love for an old flame.
When people think about a great literary novel, ones that are complex and often times on the long side will come to mind. But with Fitzgerald's short 1925 creation he proved you can write as simply as you can and still come up with something that is truly good and profound. I find his simple way of writing very endearing; yes I do love reading books that are long and even complex at times, but I do love books that are short and written simply and still be great.
In "The Great Gatsby" Fitzgerald painted a portrait of the roaring twenties with it's ideals and the social upheavals and classism. At the same time it is also a portrait about Gatsby himself, and the mystery about him and his life that I really found engrossing.
At the time of it's initial publication in 1925 it got favorable views, but was a commercial failure, which greatly disappointed Fitzgerald. But nterest in it would surge and would be re-evaluated, and then would be considered a classic. If Fitzgerald were alive today and saw how much attention "The Great Gatsby" has gotten today, I honestly would believe it would've brought a smile to his face!
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Red Storm Rising - or the perils of Catfish Literature
Recently I used an Audible Credit to get Red Storm Rising which I hadn't read in the better part of a decade, and at least in my opinion it still holds up. Despite it's problems in (what I believe to be) the Holy Trinity of Cold War gone hot novels (Red Storm Rising, Team Yankee, and Chieftains), I still think that Red Storm Rising is the best of them. One of the first action movies I can remember in it's entirety is We Were Soldiers and the way it portrayed the NVA as not faceless villains but tough and clever opponents who were half a step ahead of the Americans was amazing to me, and RSR just hits that same itch. The Soviets and Americans are both shown at the peak of their capabilities going tit for tat, bringing out novel technologies and tactics that catch their enemies off guard even as their commanders flounder with an impartial picture of events despite bringing everything from foot scouts to reconnaissance satellites to bear. The Dance of the Vampires is still one of my all time favorite sequences of action in any book I have read and it is only one engagement in a conflict that pushes the bleeding edge of 80s/90s technology. However there is one egregious issue I have with the book, because after listening to it again I have determined that I have been catfished. Throughout the book there are a number of events that would be awesome novels all on their own, the destruction of the Royal Norwegian Air Force, the Battle of the North Sea, the Battle of Hamburg where the Bundeswher launched a suicidal counter-attack the broke the back of the largest Soviet Army and didn't just drive them back but pushed on into East German territory. All of these events are talked about and referenced but are not discussed in anything more than passing which is a little frustrating on it's own, these are flat out stated to be incredibly important events in the course of the war between NATO and the Pact but it's just a footnote in the background. This doesn't even go into the political crisis between SACEUR and the German government (minor spoilers ahead) >!which escalates to the point that after weeks of begging to abandon Hannover and fallback behind the Weser River, when some NATO officers suggested a further withdrawal behind the Leine the Bundeswher issues an ultimatum that another retreat is out of the question and the war will be won or lost on the west bank of the Weser!<. But by far the most egregious example comes from Chapter 14: Gas.
Moderate Spoilers in the following paragraph:
The chapter comes after the decision to go to war has already been made, the pieces are in motion, the maskirovka is underway, and tensions are sky high as NATO has detected the movement of Soviet troops into assault positions and begun their own mobilization. As the moments draws near the Soviet government finally informs the German Democratic Republic of what their plans are and includes a copy of their plans, which calls for a conventional attack initiated with a strike by chemical weapons on strategic targets. In the dead of night the leader of the DDR (called the head of their Communist Party even though they were lead by a Prime Minister, one of the oddities that pops up throughout the story) dons plains clothes and leaves for a secret meeting with the Commander in Chief of the National Volksarmee and a Colonel of the Stasi. Together they present a report obtained through an agent highly placed in the West German military that presents the analysis of the result of a chemical weapon attack in Germany, and the catastrophic results it would have. The report makes for some truly horrifying reading I'll type it out below, and as the PM finishes his reading he turns to the officers and ask them what they think, and the General begins by saying that the report if anything understates the damage a Soviet chemical weapon attack and a tit for tat exchange would leave Germany 'as barren as the surface of the moon' and there was nothing they could do to mitigate the damage. At the end of the
R.I.P. Phil Rickman (1950 – 2024), rural British folk horror/mystery
R.I.P. Phil Rickman (6 March 1950 – 29 October 2024)
I just wanted to take a moment to commemorate one of my favorite writers who sadly passed away recently in his native UK. He wrote in the elusive genre best described as rural British folk horror/mystery that blended pre-Christian mythology, atmospheric landscapes, and human psychology.
Rickman is probably best known in the UK for the Merrily Watkins series, in which a female Anglican pastor tackles supernatural and human evils in rural Herefordshire parish.
My favorite is one of his stand-alone books, The Man in the Moss, which starts with the discovery of an ancient body in the bog beside an isolated village. As it unfolds, the mystery hits that sublime level of creepy that makes you uneasy without being gruesome.
I also cannot help but appreciate the amount of research into the folklore and history that went into each book and the fact that Rickman was visibly fond of rural places and the small communities that thrived there. When asked about his supernatural elements, he replied, “If I can't believe it, it doesn't go in.”
I hope this post will convince a few people to pick up one of his books.
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Do NOT Sleep on Dungeon Crawler Carl
A few months ago I watched a Booktok about a book I had never heard of previously and the premise was something I would not normally read. But the review was intriguing and so I started reading “Dungeon Crawler Carl”. I have basically done nothing since but read the series. I’m on the fourth book now.
This book is crazy weird but delightful and imaginative. The author Matt Dinniman writes without rules which provides a refreshing and surprising story line.
I haven’t heard many people talking about it, and like I mentioned before, the premise is wacky so I just had to come on here and sing its praises! Read it if you haven’t!
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Specific request for information about the content of the 1970’s edition of the Childcraft encyclopaedia?
https://geekdad.com/2009/05/everything-i-need-to-know-i-learned-from-childcraft/
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Are picture books undervalued? This new ambassador of children's literature thinks so
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/06/nx-s1-5285442/childrens-author-mac-barnett-ambassador-for-young-peoples-literature
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My Death by Lisa Tuttle: why is this book enjoyed by so many?
I saw this book at a local bookstore and was so intrigued by it, but didn’t have the money to get a copy. Thankfully my library had it available on Libby so I read it on my Kindle!… But man, am I happy that I didn’t spend my money on it.
Between Goodreads and StoryGraph, it has a rating (on average) of 3.9-4.1 stars. For me? It was my first one star review of the year.
My Death by Lisa Tuttle is marketed as a mysterious and uncanny book about a widow writing a biography about a mostly unknown painter and writer. She ends up finding all these strange parallels between their lives that horrify her and change the course of her writing and researching process altogether.
It’s been described as chilling, bizarre, strange, uncanny. In my opinion, it was none of those things.
One of my biggest gripes from the get go was how the writing style was very bland. I found it boring and transparent, and it lacked any true substance. When it comes to character driven books, I really look for the story to be well written (or at least, written in a way that fits the story), and in this case, it fell completely flat for me.
I also really disliked the way everything was laid out to you, completely obvious - it’s like she didn’t trust the reader to make any inferences about what was going on. I felt like during her writing process, she was assuming the reader would be stupid and unable to connect the dots in certain ways. There were some places where it felt like this style was necessary, sure, but for the most part that was not the case. Similarly, some parts just made no sense, such as >!Helen being well into her 90s and being able to walk on an island more easily than her daughter and the narrator?!<
As for the ending, >!I don’t understand what happened. The revelation that the narrator was Helen was supposed to be shocking and jarring and instead it left me confused when it reverted back from being Helen to being the separate narrator, speaking to Clarissa.!< I’ve read multiple reviews and summaries to see if I missed the point, but there’s nothing that has made it click for me why she took that direction in the writing.
Did I miss something? Why do so many people enjoy this book so much? I was rolling my eyes every few pages because I disliked it so much. I almost DNFed it around the 50% mark, but because it’s so widely praised I pushed through.
It wasn’t worth my time in the slightest, but I can’t help but feel like I’m missing out on what I was told would be a mysterious and uncanny read.
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"I will bear witness" Volume 1 by Victor Klemperer
This book to this day remains the most fascinating recounting of the escalation of daily life under a fascist regime. Born and raised in Austria, i grew up learning about the 3rd Reich in school, college and my work life, but this book offers a perspective that deals with the mundane over the big events, which makes it all the more bleak. Especially volume 1 which deals with the pre-war years of the nazis fresh in power.
With the global rise of anger, nationalism and hate as political core messages, i think it would behoof us all to read books like this one and become more aware of what is happening around us.
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An Israeli raid of a famous Palestinian bookstore stokes censorship fears
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/14/nx-s1-5294328/israel-raid-bookstore-east-jerusalem
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What are your thoughts on Milan Kundera?
I own and have read 10 of his novels. I’m currently re-reading ‘Ignorance.’ I can’t make my mind up though. I have to be in the right mood to read his works and I may go months or even years until the mood to read them strikes me. I flip between thinking he’s a literary genius to viewing his works as overly pretentious and, at times, misogynistic. Help me out. What do you think?
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tryin' tuh git in touch wid mah mama later on so he could marry her'" (Their Eyes Were Watching God. 10).
Then again, had Janie's dad been black wouldn't there had been more public outrage? Especially if we take colorism into account. Going by Emmett Till, the Scottsboro Boys and "To Kill A Mockingbird", racist folk would find any excuse to kill a black man even if he had been wrongly accused.
Sorry for how long this is but I'm just a bit confused.
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"The Woman in the Dunes" by Kobo Abe - a bleak and unsettling book
On a recent trip to Japan, I picked up Kobo Abe's 1962 classic "The Woman in the Dunes" (I like buying books in countries I visit). I've been looking to get into more Japanese literature beyond just whatever I've read from Haruki Murakami, and this book came highly recommended.
It's a pretty short and quick read, but it's one that's stayed on my mind since I finished it. The premise is simple yet compelling - a Japanese entomologist travels to a fishing village on the coast to do some research. Something is off about this place - huge sand dunes have pretty much taken over the entire village. He misses his last bus back into town, and is forced to accept lodging in a small house at the bottom of a huge sand pit, where the titular woman of the story also lives. The next morning, he wakes up to find the ladder he took into the pit to be gone - and the villagers won't let him out.
What follows is a uniquely claustrophobic and stressful narrative that left me feeling pretty damn uncomfortable. I've been mulling over in my head as to the ultimate meaning of this story. To me it seems that it's supposed to symbolize the ways in which events or society or life or whatever else can knock you down into impossible situations from which you feel like there's no escape.
The man and woman seemed to represent two different kinds of people. The woman is the kind of person that accepts their fate and their station in life, and adapts to whatever shitty environment or situation they've been forced to be in, creating narratives in their head to cope with the situation and tell themselves that everything's ok. Whereas the man represents those who fight back and rebel, no matter how futile the gesture may be.
Thematic meaning aside, it's really enjoyable from a purely technical standpoint as well. The way the sand is described to be so incredibly invasive, how it pervades pretty much every single aspect of the physical lives of the man and woman, truly makes you feel unconformable. There never seems to be a moment of peace at first, no instance when the man feels clean or free. I suppose the sand is a metaphor for the mental impact and trauma that feeling hopeless in a situation out of your control can have?
It ends in a truly bleak and downbeat manner, as the man's one attempt at escape is foiled, and he eventually just resigns himself to accept his situation. It made me think about events in my own life that have come to pass, where I've felt hopeless at my inability to control or solve the problem, and eventually just let myself accept it. It hurts at first but overtime you learn to live with it.
Nevertheless, this was a powerful and contemplative story. It's not "fun" by any stretch but still a very worthwhile read.
For those who have read it, how did you feel? What were your interpretations of the story?
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Impressions of Mark Twain's short stories
More than just the author of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn
Famous American writer Mark Twain (1835-1910), whose real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens, is well known as the author of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. But until recently I didn't realize that his literary output was very prolific, and that he had also penned many short stories.
In many ways Twain's writings were shaped his diverse experiences earlier in his life, which included working as a river boat pilot, a journalist, and a printer, and even spent time as a gold prospector and as a vagrant. He's one of America's most recognized writers, and is especially known for his sharp critiques of the social conditions of his day, themes that he often conveyed with biting wit, satire, and humour.
Twain was also a great story-teller, although his frequent use of dialect can sometimes be a barrier for modern readers to easily enjoy his work. Besides his two more famous novels, I've also enjoyed his excellent novel "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court". He also had success with travel books "The Innocents Abroad" and "Roughing It".
But it is particularly his short stories that are the focus of this review. Twain produced a large number of short stories in his time, so I made my starting point in lists of those which are generally considered to be his best. Some of them proved to be disappointing, but listed here are the ones I especially enjoyed and recommend:
\- The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County (1865): This humorous story made Twain famous, and tells about a compulsive gambler who trains a frog to jump, and then bets on it.
\- The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg (1899): This longer story is really a satirical novella, and features a town noted for its honesty. Their hypocrisy gets exposed when a stranger tempts its citizens with an unclaimed sack of gold coins.
\- Luck (1886): More satire, this time as a blundering British military officer becomes a hero through blind luck rather than skill.
\- Extracts from Adam's Diary (1904) and Eve's Diary (1906): Adam and Eve write separate diaries about their experiences and interaction with each other in the newly created world. It could be considered somewhat irreverent, so it should be read not as an alternative take on a creation story, but rather as a humorous and clever satire on modern gender roles.
\- The Stolen White Elephant (1882): This hilarious story describes the absurd efforts of detectives to find an elephant that has mysteriously gone missing.
The following three stories aren't as well known and celebrated as the above titles, but are ones I also enjoyed immensely and recommend:
\- The Californian’s Tale (1892): A sad story about a lonely miner waiting for his wife's return, but with a powerful twist at the end.
\- Cannibalism in the Cars (1868): A humorous political satire, in which train passengers in a stranded train carefully follow political procedures to justify murdering each other for survival.
\- An Encounter with an Interviewer (1893): Witty dialogue between a journalist and his subject satirizes the absurdity of the nature of interviews.
There's one other novella that deserves mention in light of the recognition it has received:
\- The Mysterious Stranger (1916): Twain wrote a couple of versions of this prior to his death, but the cobbled together version published posthumously is the most well-known. A young boy meets a mysterious stranger named Satan, an angel who is a nephew of the real Satan. The premise of the story is used by Twain to explore philosophical questions, and to call into question God's existence in light of human suffering and the nature of free will. Just read the final paragraph of the story to get Twain's own view about God and Christianity; it's not an optimistic perspective.
Recurring features in Twain's short fiction are his frequent criticism of the social conditions and structures of his day, which he mostly
These Books Are Absolutely Unreadable. That’s the Point. (Gift Article)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/23/books/review/book-shaped-objects.html?unlocked_article_code=1.zU4.Hx4z.qV4yNG4fhdyg&smid=url-share
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Using Gloves to Better Handle Books Without Damaging Them
My hands can get sweaty and oily rather easily, so I fear (Albeit probably irrational) to accidentally damage the pages of my books, comics and manga. Usually I either wash my hands or put on unpowdered latex gloves before handling them, but I don't know which way is either the best one or if there is even a the right one.
I would love your thoughts, specially since I have some anxiety problems that can make both sweating and overthinking about yhe problem worse
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day he concludes, it would be easier to protect the people of the DDR from a nuclear exchange than it would be from a chemical attack, and they had confirmed reports that American transport aircraft had begun delivery of Bigeye chemical bombs into Germany. The PM turns to the Stasi Colonel, who states flat out (albeit with more words) that one way or another the conflict will end with a unified Germany, and they had to consider the possibility that the immense destruction may in fact be a deliberate consequence of the Soviet plan. After all over the past seventy years it was a unified Germany which had invaded Russian territory twice and inflicted such damage to the nation, and what better way to cripple a newly unified Germany than devastating their population and leaving the few, if any survivors with the worst humanitarian crisis in history. The PM is understandably appalled by the conclusion his officers have reached, and after a few minutes consideration he decides that he has no choice but to issue a letter to the Soviet Politburo stating in no uncertain terms, that the People, Party, and Army of the DDR will under no circumstances tolerate the deployment of chemical weapons within the territory of Greater Germany.
This letter is quite simply, a political nuke that would have forever changed the relationship between the USSR and the Warsaw Pact. Even within the story it's a one hell of a bomb that throws the Politburo into a circular firing squad of insults and accusations before they decide that they are too far along to stop now and decide to go full convent, but here is the kicker. It is never mentioned again. You could write an entire story about this crisis on it's own but it is never mentioned again, and I am seething a little bit that my political thriller boner was tickled and left unsatisfied by an incredibly interesting situation.
In conclusion, 7/10 I recommend it for action fans but I am forever saddened that we couldn't hit every note that I wished TC could have.
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I guess people who only have a smartphone, and who own no other electronic device, really don't have any option for permanently downloading their purchased Kindle books?
I guess I had a desperate hope that there might be some way to do this, in light of the new Kindle policy (books can only be downloaded onto a Kindle) which soon goes into effect.
I have a good phone, a Pixel, and it has plenty of storage space, but it sounds like you have to have a laptop to make a permanent download of your whole library?
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Gillian Flynn and her weird books
So I finally finished reading “Sharp Objects” because it was recommended by sooooooo people in this sub on a variety of posts, and I can I just say that this book was a HUGE letdown and it treated the “adult” themes in a VERY uncomfortable way (not the good kind of suspenseful uncomfortable).
The book had a great strong start but then somewhere halfway it started getting the Stephen King treatment of weird sexual energy. I was really put off by the numerous times the main character was describing the breasts or the sexual energy of her THIRTEEN YEAR OLD SISTER. THIRTEEN. At no point did it feel relevant to the main plot, which already was a strong idea!! Hell the main character and her mother and her stepfather were all strong characters. The sexual energies in this book were very similar to the uncomfortable sexual energies in “Wicked”. Don’t even get me started on the odd drug scene where both of them partake in illicit substances together and just…vibe I guess? 🤣🤣🤣 That part really didn’t offer much to the plot.
Additionally, Gillian Flynn really seemed to radiate a sort of boomer hateful energy towards other women in this book as well, which was really off putting.
I don’t know, maybe I just don’t get it. I understand that it’s kind of supposed to be a more feminine take on the masculine styles that dominate the detective noir genre but it still feels so poorly done. The only other book I’ve read of hers was “Gone Girl”, which was boring because I saw the movie first and it was pretty much a faithful adaptation so none of the intrigue held. I’m curious if anyone else had the same experience as me or can maybe provide other perspectives on this book?
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What is this called?
removed
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I finished every Stephen King book in chronological order
I finally did it. I had read 15 various King novels in 2021. I decided to start on Carrie and work my way through his bibliography chronologically, skipping the books I had already read. Last month, I finished You Like it Darker. I did not like them all, I hated a few and some are my favorite books of all time.
Favorites: Under The Dome, 'Salems Lot , 11/22/63, Pet Sematary
Least favorite: Insomnia, The Dead Zone, The Library Policeman, (included in Four Past Midnight) It(fight me)
(Although The Dark Tower is very near and dear to me, so it doesn't feel right picking just one, but it's either The Drawing of the Three or Wolves of the Calla.)
Long Days and Pleasant Nights.
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I had to drop "a hundred years of solitude" because it made me sick
Hi everyone.
I was just wondering if anyone else had the same experience with "A hundred hears of solitude" by Garcia Marquez.
All the childs having sexual relationships with adults just made me sick honestly. Don't get me wrong, I love Garcia Marquez and I have read most of his work, but this book was way too much with all the sex between grown ups and children.
I made it to the part where Aureliano marries Remedios and, it clearly states, that she barely made it to womanhood for the wedding. And I just sat there with the book wondering why I was reading this to begin with.
So, I don't think I'll ever finish this book.
Anyone had a similar experience?
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Weekly FAQ Thread February 23, 2025: Which contemporary novels do you think deserve to become classics?
Hello readers and welcome to our Weekly FAQ thread! Our topic this week is: Which contemporary novels do you think deserve to become classics? We're all familiar with the classics, from The Iliad of Homer to F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. But which contemporary novels, published after 1960, do you think will be remembered as a classic years from now?
You can view previous FAQ threads here in our wiki.
Thank you and enjoy!
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Amid Changes at the National Archives, the Carter Library Cancels a Civil Rights Book Event
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/22/arts/national-archives-carter-library-cancels-event.html
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