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Sale of Ellen Raskin Estate Reveals Unpublished 'Westing Game' Sequel
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-industry-news/article/97266-sale-of-ellen-raskin-estate-reveals-unpublished-westing-game-sequel.html
https://redd.it/1j5czuu
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I'm finally starting to 'get it' with Ursula K. Le Guin's Left Hand of Darkness
Left Hand of Darkness was required reading for me in college, which I skipped, because I was too busy playing League of Legends and I sparknoted the discussion the day after. I regret this now.
The first introduction to Gethen painted here is a bit stiff, especially the first chapter, but as I approach the middle of the book it dawned on me that everything presented to me, and the way it was presented, was intentional and thoughtful. I've just been introduced to the clinical definition of 'kemmering', but before that, my brain was trying to put to face how the people on Gethen looked. Le Guin seems to purposefully only describe them when needed, leaving everything else up to imagination.
Everyone is referred to in male pronouns for simplicity, I think. But there are Gethens who are described as feminine, beautiful, handsome. They're clearly supposed to be visualized as women or .. are they? It's hard to tell. The gruff muscular sailors that one character passes -- are they shaped like women? Men? The politicians in Karhide, the King of Karhide himself ... is that a woman? A man? They're described with both qualities of course, because on Gethen nobody is a man or a woman, they're just Gethen.
That is the point I expect. No Gethen is beautiful or noteworthy because they are 'male' or 'female', I can't ascribe assumptions to a character just because they're a certain gender (and it would be useless to, considering Gethen society).
The book has a few stale points and some parts of it are like chewing through chalk, but I'm sad that it will end soon. I wanted to explore more of this world.
Hope I haven't spoiled anything but I'm delighted to finally be able to read and enjoy this book when at first I thought it was a total slog.
That's all,
Greyson
https://redd.it/1j59b2p
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Do you ever re-read to prepare for a new book in a series?
I recently purchased "Waterblack" by Alex Pheby, the third and final part of the Cities of the Weft trilogy (if you've not heard of it and enjoy somewhat dark, wildly imaginative fantasy books, I can't recommend it enough). I absolutely loved the first two books - to the point that they are some of my favourite memories of reading as a hobby. However, I sometimes struggle with remembering details of books - even ones that I have enjoyed a great deal.
My question to you is - do you ever re-read the rest of a series before starting the next sequel? These books are dense with details and lore for the way things work in these worlds and I am actually nervous to start the final book in case I can't remember minute details that will make all the difference.
My other issue is that I'm not the quickest reader in the world, so I'm conscious that I might be itching to skip through a re-read in order to see how the trilogy will end.
https://redd.it/1j517ut
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Should The Gulag Archipelago be making a comeback?
I picked up The Gulag Archipelago recently just out of interest in historical nonfiction, and I have been so deeply affected by how relevant it feels (I am American). The book has received plenty of critical acclaim... I mean, Solzhenitsyn won the Nobel Prize in literature... but I hadn't even heard of this book until after a deep dive into Russian literature. I'm still early in reading it, but this seems like the book to read during this critical turning point in American and Russian history. It scares the crap out of me. Oh, and it's beautifully written and translated. What does r/books think about it?
Note: I'm reading the abridged version, which has been deemed more readable for those less familiar with the intricacies of Russian history.
https://redd.it/1j4vkl1
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Unseen Harper Lee stories set in New York and Alabama to be published
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/mar/04/unseen-harper-lee-stories-to-kill-a-mockingbird-the-land-of-sweet-forever
https://redd.it/1j4sly7
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The disposability of paperback series is a bit depressing
When it comes to "girly" 80s through 2000s children's books, a lot of people know of series like The Babysitters Club, The Saddle Club, American Girl, Cam Jansen, Judy Moody, Dear America, The Royal Diaries, The Clique, Junie B. Jones, and Sweet Valley. Many have been revived as graphic novels as well.
But what about Girl Talk, The Party Line, Sleepover Friends, Girls of Canby Hall, Bad New Friends, The Gymnasts, Paperback Crush, or Friends 4 Ever?
They must have been read by many kids in their heyday, but they're so old and niche that not even libraries carry them anymore. They're "disposable" paperback books.
This isn't a new phenomenon at all. I've read books analyzing cheap, "disposable" literature from the 1800s. Everything from penny dreadfuls, dime novels, pulp fiction, and various genres of western adventure books.
It is sad, though. It's a bit of an existential issue. I' sure many of these series were written by ghostwriters and just made to sell books, but that doesn't mean they weren't enjoyed by others and thought wasn't put into them. But now they're faded memories at best, probably thrown away in the garbage or in secondhand stores.
https://redd.it/1j4lfdz
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R.L. Stine Shows Off Cover For New ‘Goosebumps: House Of Shivers’ Book
https://www.forbes.com/sites/mitchwallace/2025/02/06/rl-stine-shows-off-cover-for-new-goosebumps-house-of-shivers-book/
https://redd.it/1j4jb76
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Holy crap....The Street by Ann Petry
Y'all I just finished this book in a feverish sprint and I neeeeeed to talk about it. Might be the best book I've read in the last 12 months and it absolutely destroyed me.
The synopsis: ""The Street" tells the poignant, often heartbreaking story of Lutie Johnson, a young black woman, and her spirited struggle to raise her son amid the violence, poverty, and racial dissonance of Harlem in the late 1940s. Originally published in 1946 and hailed by critics as a masterwork, The Street was Ann Petry's first novel, a beloved bestseller with more than a million copies in print. Its haunting tale still resonates today."
The use of space is GENIUS in this novel. Spaces become characters in their own right: a street, an apartment, a window on the second story from which a woman hangs out. Everything takes on bigger proportions, making the actions of the characters, the life trajectory of every person, seem inevitable.
This book is a sucker punch. I'm gutted. It covers a lot but it does it well. I finished the book, set it down, then stared at the wall with a void in my chest. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
https://redd.it/1j4hb5g
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Expected to love it, but you ended up hating it?
I enjoy a wide range of styles in fiction. Having fully embraced Carroll's Alice in Wonderland books, O'Brien's At Swim Two-Birds, Joyce's Ulysses, Nabokov's Pale Fire, and Danielewski's House of Leaves, I'm very open to authors who present their work in different formats or make great use of word play or blend widely different genres. I realize many might find these things ostentatious, but I think they add a whole new layer of wonder to what otherwise could be just a simple, straightforward story. So, when I was given Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow, I thought for sure I'd love it. But I didn't. In fact, I ended up hating it. To me, despite it skillfully blending genres, its wonderful word choices, its interesting variations in tone, and its fascinating subject matter, I found its complexity much too complex, its self-references bewildering, its conclusion unresolved and it meandered much more than I would like. I kept reading it hoping it would get to a place that I'd find satisfying, but it never did and I ended up throwing it against the wall on the other side of the room. Have you ever read a book you thought you'd love, but you ended up hating?
https://redd.it/1j4edxf
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relatable and meaningful.
Zhuang folk tales have a different vibe altogether. They focus a lot on logic and humility, usually showing how arrogance or poor judgment leads to trouble. The cause-and-effect style of these stories makes the lessons feel practical and down-to-earth. This might reflect the Zhuang people's historically agrarian lifestyle, where making smart decisions and working together were really important.
Comparing these three types of tales made me realize that the way a story delivers its message is just as important as the message itself. The Han stories, with their predictable endings, didn’t leave as strong an impact as the humor and relatability of the Tibetan and Zhuang tales. It really shows that a bit of creativity and flexibility can make moral lessons stick with you longer.
So that’s it for my China stop! Next up, I might dive into some German literature—possibly Siddhartha—to keep the Buddhism theme going. As always, I’m open to comments, so feel free to drop your favorites, share your thoughts, or let me know if you’ve read any Chinese books! German literature suggestions are also more than welcome.
https://redd.it/1j4bkma
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After nearly 3 years of sitting on my shelf unread, I finally finished The Fellowship of the Ring last night (No Spoilers)
As somebody who was born in a year that starts with 19, I often feel anomalous in that I've somehow managed to not consume any LotR content in any of its forms for my entire life (in any meaningful way at least, I have vague memory of not paying attention to it in the background of the living room while playing my Gameboy Advance when I was like 10). I didn't try to avoid it, kind of one of those things that just never happened. I bought all 3 books almost exactly 3 years ago, but they ended up trapped in the "maybe one day" section of my bookshelf. It doesn't exactly help that in the first 2ish of those years I did not read very much at all, but I digress.
I finished chapter 1 on Saturday, and finished the final sentence last night at 11:59 pm. It should be noted here that fantasy is not typically my forte. I'm more of a sci-fi and thriller fan, and have also developed a bit of an appreciation recently for historical fiction. Having also heard that Tolkien's style is a bit tricky to navigate for a first-time reader, I approached this read with a bit of caution. Though it appears that caution was relatively unwarranted, because I tore through that book far quicker than I could have expected.
What I can say is that I don't think I've read a book that took me so long to finish each page in a very long time, if ever. I've read 10 other books so far in 2025, and typically I can get through 40-45 pages on my lunch break at work. But The Fellowship of the Ring was consistently around 22 or so pages. Whether that's because there were more words per page or it just took a greater sense of processing, I can't quite say. Nonetheless, I was taken aback by how captivated I felt through each chapter.
I know LotR was originally written to be one long book split into 6 parts, and that it was only made into a "trilogy" because that was the preference of the publisher. So with that in mind, the pacing of this book felt like perfection. Had I not known that, I may have felt differently. But knowing I'm only 1/3 of the way through the intended story, I don't think any of the adventure thus far was wasted or unnecessary.
I'm thoroughly impressed by not just Tolkien's worldbuilding and plot curation, but also his abilities as a poet/songwriter. Throughout the numerous songs/chants/etc scattered all along the way, I found myself reciting them aloud, and I'm so happy with the decision to do so! It added so much character and life to the read, and I often caught myself maintaining a sort of singsong rhythm into the narrative well after each song was over.
I also ended up really enjoying reading many parts of the narrative and dialog aloud to myself, and I think Tolkien's style is remarkably conducive to a readaloud experience!
9/10 book on its own as far as I'm concerned, and I can't wait to dive into the second book today. I'm still not sure my opinion towards fantasy as a genre has changed at all, but I'll be damned if I haven't developed a thorough appreciation of Tolkien.
https://redd.it/1j45zzo
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Gerda Weissman-Klein's holocaust memoir "All But My Life"
This book was so good, I stayed up all night reading it. I was so invested in the author's world, as a Jewish teenager in occupied Poland. This was like a coming of age novel, against the most horrifying backdrop possible.
The prose is beautiful, reflective, vivid. She honors her family and the women she was in the labor camps with and makes them feel real through her writing.
This is the first time I read a Holocaust memoir and thought that someone should make a (limited) series about it. Her homelife during the occupation, her time at the labor camp with the other women. The way she meets her husband by the end is also straight out of a movie.
I hope I didn't sensationalize this because it is obviously a very grim subject and someone's real lived story. I just thought it was one of the most compelling Holocaust memoirs that I have ever read. To me, this is on par with Maus, Night, and the Diary of Anne Frank.
Has anyone here read this book? Do you have any recommendations for lesser knwon holocaust memoirs, especially written by women?
https://redd.it/1j3ypm4
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Was Steinbeck's "The Moon is Down" an inspiration for Joseph Heller's "Catch 22"?
Consider this passage (Steinbeck describing a Nazi officer):
If Captain Bentick was too old to be a captain, Captain Loft was too young. Captain Loft was as much a captain as one can imagine. He lived and breathed his captaincy. He had no unmilitary moments. A driving ambition forced him up through the grades. He rose like cream to the top of milk. He clicked his heels as perfectly as a dancer does. He knew every kind of military courtesy and insisted on using it all. Generals were afraid of him because he knew more about the deportment of a soldier than they did. Captain Loft thought and believed that a soldier is the highest development of animal life. If he considered God at all, he thought of Him as an old and honoured general, retired and grey, living among remembered battles and putting wreaths on the graves of his lieutenants several times a year. Captain Loft believed that all women fall in love with a uniform and he did not see how it could be otherwise. In the normal course of events he would be a brigadier-general at forty-five and have his picture in the illustrated papers, flanked by tall, pale, masculine women wearing lacy picture hats.
https://redd.it/1j3yj1f
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80s nostalgia and William Peter Blatty: Grady Hendrix's "My Best Friend's Exorcism".
Finally read some of Grady Hendrix's fiction! A long while back I talked about his non fiction book "Paperbacks From Hell", which was a very interesting read for me. And now I've finally got to read one of his novels, "My Best Friend's Exorcism"!
It's about Abby and Gretchen, two high school sophomores, who have been best friends since the fourth grade. Things go completely wrong after a skinny dip in the evening, Gretchen begins to act strangely. She becomes irritable and strange incidents constantly happen whenever she's around.
Abby embarks on an investigation that would lead to some shocking discoveries, and by the end of it their fate shall be determined by one simple question: is their own friendship strong enough to beat the devil?
This book is oddly charming at times, while also being very intense and terrifying. There is also a lot of 80s nostalgia going in this book. There are chapters with song titles from some of the top music acts from the era, among other references. I kinda feel like I'm reading something that would've made for a possibly great 80s horror movie (there's a credits page that's fashioned into something that you would see in the end credits of a movie). And I loved every single minute of it!
I also love the cover of the paperback edition I have. It's made to look like the video tape cases that you would see in video stores and such(and I used to remember those), complete with wears and stickers. And it works pretty well since it is a B format paperback (the format that is a standard for paperbacks nowadays). Really loved this, and now I wonder which other Grady Hendrix novel I will pick up next?
https://redd.it/1j3vsbr
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From ‘The Housemaid’ to ‘The Women in Cabin 10’: Upcoming Book Adaptations in 2025
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/anticipated-movies-tv-shows-based-books-2025/
https://redd.it/1j3rbcb
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A Greek Epic, but Rabbits - Watership Down
Oh....my god....
This book is so good?!? How I went through my life until 30 years old without ever hearing of this book before this subreddit is, frankly, astounding considering how much I've been a reader my whole life, but here I am.
Calling it a Greek epic but about rabbits is the best short description I've ever seen for it. I saw the "how do I describe watership down to people" post and decided to listen to the Peter Capaldi audiobook...wow. Probably the best way to experience it the first time imo, Capaldi PERFORMS. (Plus, it really helped with understanding the Lapine language to have him reading the words instead of my brain just mushing the sounds together) I was completely transported listening. I cheated a bit and looked up if any of the main characters died after Bigwig's first near death experience, so I wasn't losing my mind the rest of the book when bad things cropped up...but the ending?? Ahhh I'm gonna start crying again. Yeah it's a happy ending but it really hits you right in the emotions. Hazel is an amazing leader and Adams taking us to his end so we can really sit in the satisfaction of a life well lived...sniff Anyways thank you to this subreddit because this has easily become one of my all time favorite books and now I'm going to be one of those "weirdos" telling everyone "it's a Greek epic, but rabbits".
https://redd.it/1j5cnar
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Books that only clicked on a second try?
I was exchanging book recommendations the other day with somebody and they decided to try again with a book they didn't finish a couple years ago on my recommendation, and it got me thinking about my own journey to appreciating Tolkien in particular. I'd had The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings read to me as a kid but wasn't a fan when I actually came to read them myself in my latish teens. It wasn't the prose or plodding pace some people complain about, the narrative and atmosphere just didn't click with me. I finally tried again a few years later, and this time LoTR in particular very much clicked for me. My tastes hadn't changed much but, without getting into politics, the sense of rising dread early on and general feeling (in my interpretation anyway) of the world clearly going very wrong but too many people who could act not doing their part gave me what I can best describe as a long series of mental 'oh' moments. And yes, it was also some comfort at the time reading about the handful who did act and encouraged others in turn to start righting the ship as best they could. Teaching that dragons can be killed and all that.
Now I'm curious for other examples of this sort of thing. Have you ever bounced off a book only to have it suddenly make sense to you on another read? And less because your taste has evolved than because, by personal circumstance or outside events, you were now in a position to actually properly hear what it was trying to say? I'd love to hear some stories.
https://redd.it/1j5329a
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How’d you feel about the ending in Dead Ever After, the final book in the Sookie Stackhouse/TrueBlood series?
A couple of weeks ago I decided to read the Sookie Stackhouse (TrueBlood) books and I finished Dead Ever After, the final book, last night.
I am so mad, what the fuck was that ending?
Harris spent most of the series building this compelling, tension filled relationship with Eric. Sookie never looks at Sam twice. And she chooses to have Sookie end up with Sam?
I was reading on Kindle and didn’t realize the last 10% of the book was Q&A, so literally up until the last paragraph I was plotting in my head how Eric and her would work out.
I know it’s labeled “mystery,” but so much of Sookie’s character growth is through her relationships. Romance is a huge portion of the book, too. And the “rule” in romance is that the main couple gets their happily ever after.
I’m just glad I only spent two weeks reading this. I couldn’t imagine how betrayed I would have felt if I read this in real time over 13 years.
I think most endings of series are anti-climatic because you have your own opinions for how the book should have ended and the author is trying to live up to the fandom’s expectations. But this is the first time I refuse to accept the ending as real and will be writing my own epilogue as my head canon where Eric and Sookie do end up together.
It was also, in my opinion, a poorly written book. It truly felt like she was trying to have this bombastic ending by bringing back all of the old love interests and big bads, and it was like, dear god how many enemies can one person have!
There’s not a lot of discussions out there on this book, the reviews on Good Reads from 2013 were funny and in line with my own. It seems like Harris and the publishing company were trying to call the fandom dramatic after its release. How’d you feel about the ending, especially if you read it upon release? It appears to have had an equivalent negative reaction as the final season of Game of Thrones.
https://redd.it/1j4wkvv
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Orwell’s nightmare was easier to escape
I first read 1984 in my late teens, and it absolutely wrecked me. The whole idea of constant surveillance, thought control, and a world where the government decides what’s true or false was terrifying. It felt like the worst possible future. But then I read it again recently, and honestly? I think we ended up with something even worse.
At least in 1984, people knew who the enemy was. Big Brother, the Party, the Thought Police. It was all in-your-face oppression. Today, nobody needs to force us into compliance. We do it ourselves. People police each other. New ideologies, movements, and identities pop up constantly, and everyone’s busy fighting over them while the bigger system stays untouched.
In 1984, the government kept people in check through fear. Today, it’s done through distraction. We think we’re free because we can argue online, post opinions, and dunk on each other in the comments. But the system is still in control. Narratives are pre-written, dissent gets buried by algorithms, and outrage is manufactured on demand.
We don’t even fight for privacy anymore. In 1984, people feared surveillance. Now, we literally buy our own tracking devices, install smart speakers in our homes, and let corporations collect our data without thinking twice. The worst part? We’re totally fine with it.
Even resistance has been turned into a business model. Every time something challenges the system, it gets absorbed, rebranded, and sold back to us. Outrage is profitable. Rebellion is a trend. Nothing truly threatens the status quo because anything that does gets co-opted before it can make a real impact.
And here’s the craziest part. Nothing shocks people anymore. Corruption, scandals, systemic failures. We see it all the time, but instead of revolting, we turn it into memes and jokes. It’s like we’ve seen so much chaos that we don’t even care anymore.
The more I think about it, the more I realize that 1984, for all its horror, was at least a dystopia you could recognize and fight against. Today’s world is a dystopia so well-designed that most people don’t even realize they’re living in one. In some ways, 1984 was the greater evil, but it was also something you could eventually overthrow. What we have today might be the lesser evil, but it’s so deeply ingrained, so self-sustaining, that it’s almost impossible to remove.
https://redd.it/1j4vxg6
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I loved Hard-Boiled Wonderland
Everything I love about Murakami was there. The magical elements and the appreciation of the mundane. In one scene you hear the character talk about his love for sofas, whiskey, music and old movies, and in the next you see him confronting INKlings, unicorns and giant mythical fish. For me this former realism really anchors the fantasy elements to reality. It doesn't feel like I'm escaping to a fantasy realm. It feels like I'm learning things about the strange world that I inhabit. This particular book also had some amazing tech-noir elements with the protagonist being a cryptographer and semiotecs trying to steal the secrets of the System. It reminded me a lot of Yoshitoshi Abe's works too like Technolyze and Serial Experiments Lain. I subconsciously visualized the town from the End of the World as the town from Haibane Renmei (with the wall and everything).
Also I had to get to the end of the book to notice that none of the characters were given names (the "chubby girl in pink" is referred to as the chubby girl in pink until the end basically).
Now that I finished it I'll definitely pick up the Wind-up Bird Chronicle
https://redd.it/1j4r4ns
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Former Meta official's 'explosive' memoir about the social media giant to be published next week
https://apnews.com/article/meta-insider-account-zuckerberg-sandberg-3280059cd7c3c3022afe171c2188f557
https://redd.it/1j4ljtr
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My Thoughts on A Dog's Purpose
So as I have been reading the Parker Novels and finished reading The Outfit yesterday while pn a break at work I saw A Dog's Purpose sitting on our Community Swap shelf.
I work in a library btw. I picked it up and remembered seeing yourube shorts about a dog movie recently and thought this was it.
I started reading A Dog's Purpose yesterday evening and stopped at chapter six. I have spent a good portion of a slow day here today reading the book and finished the novel moments ago.
I haven't owned a dog in 12 or 14 years since my first dog passed away at the ripe old age of 16 years and A Dog's Purpose has made me want to get a dog again. I won't because I don't have the time to properly give to a dog eight now but maybe in a few years.
Alright onto the novel. Spoilers below if you haven't read the book.
This is the first time a book has had me tearing up multiple times and if you've read it you can guess the plot points I teared up at.
The story of a dog in a cycle of rebirth and their purpose building over time was so touching. From Toby to Bailey to Ellie and then finally to Buddy. The experiences of past lives informing the next cycle were well thought out and told organically and each life the Dog had still felt like a separate life.
This I think is important for the impact of the story because each human the dog came across was important especially at each point in it's lives which informed everything from the dog's perspective.
The novel didn't shy away from the cruelty of people or their ignorance of what a fog might be picking up from them. When Toby was put down I was upset for the dog, when Bailey was in the truck dying of Heatstroke I was concerned, but then Bailey had a whole life with Ethan which was the most important relationship of course, and as Ellie the dog worked to rescue people and understand their deeper complexities and feelings. Buddy had a harder time of things due to neglect until he found his way back to Ethan.
I know I glossed over a lot of the story but it was such a beautifully written tale and the afterword of how the story came to be was very nice. I am not sure if A Dog's Journey the sequel novel is something I want to read because I don't know if it can hold up to A Dog's Purpose.
https://redd.it/1j4c7se
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I didn't enjoy the Kite Runner
The first half was a heartwarming and tragic character story between two friends and also provides great insight into Afghan culture and history.
But the second half turns into this over-the-top and overly dramatic rescue story that took away my suspension of disbelief. There are also major coincidences that made me roll my eyes like when Amir met a beggar who happened to know his mother.
I have A Thousand Splendid Suns but after reading this, I don't know if I should start with that one too.
https://redd.it/1j4f7q1
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Announcing the Finalists for the 2025 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction
https://www.penfaulkner.org/2025/03/03/announcing-the-finalists-for-the-2025-pen-faulkner-award-for-fiction/
https://redd.it/1j4bcqx
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Impressions on Chinese Literature
Hey, folks! I just finished exploring China for my 2025 Read Around the World challenge (my last post was about Hungarian literature). For this stop, I decided to read a novel and some folk tales to get a broader sense of the culture.
# Brothers, by Da Chen - my first chinese novel.
For the novel, I picked up Brothers by Da Chen completely by chance—I saw it in a bookstore, knew nothing about it, and decided to give it a shot. Honestly, that’s been one of the best parts of this challenge so far. The book turned out to be an epic story set in 20th-century China, following the lives of two half-brothers, Tan and Shento, who don’t even know about each other but are still deeply connected by fate.
Shento, the illegitimate son of a high-ranking Communist official, grows up in poverty and faces a lot of hardship, while Tan, the legitimate heir, is raised to become a leader. After their father dies during political purges, their lives take completely different directions, leading to a dramatic and tragic confrontation. The novel explores themes like ambition, betrayal, and how political chaos can tear families apart.
One of the things that really stood out to me was how the story deals with duality—like destiny vs. free will, harmony vs. destruction, and love vs. tragedy. Social status and family origins play a massive role in shaping who the characters become, making their actions and fates feel almost inevitable. Interestingly, the focus on dualities and the importance of work culture and social status seems to come up a lot in other Chinese works I've read or looked into—way more than in books from non-Asian countries.
Da Chen's writing is a mix of beautiful, poetic descriptions and straightforward, precise action. He switches between the perspectives of Tan, Shento, and other characters, which keeps the story fresh and builds suspense as you wait for the brothers' paths to cross.
The book also reminded me a lot of The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas with its themes of power, revenge, and the heavy cost of ambition. Both stories show how chasing power can end up isolating you and stripping away what really matters.
Another interesting aspect was how the novel explores sexuality and power, especially with the context of traditional and Communist-era Chinese values. The way female characters are treated exposes a lot of the hypocrisy and double standards of that time.
Overall, Brothers left me curious about Buddhism since it comes up a lot in the story - and I'm currently reading about it.
# Chinese Folk Tales: Han, Tibetan, and Zhuang
After finishing Brothers, I found an old book of Chinese folk tales that had been gathering dust on my shelf and decided to dive in. Folk tales are such a cool way to understand different cultures’ values and beliefs, so it seemed like the perfect follow-up. The book includes Han, Tibetan, and Zhuang tales, and each of them has its own unique way of storytelling and teaching lessons.
Han folk tales tend to be pretty straightforward and sometimes even a bit violent in how they deliver moral lessons. Wrongdoers get punished swiftly, and the endings are usually clear-cut. This approach might have a lot to do with the strict social and moral rules of the Han dynasty, like those in Confucianism and Legalism. Because these stories focus so much on obvious lessons, they can sometimes feel more like lectures than engaging tales.
Tibetan folk tales take a totally different approach. Even when they deal with dark themes like death or cruelty, they often use humor and absurdity to soften the blow. The exaggerated, almost comedic tone makes the lessons more memorable and a lot more fun to read. This style fits really well with Buddhist ideas about compassion, karma, and personal growth. Instead of just punishing characters for doing bad things, these stories show them learning from their mistakes, which makes the messages feel more
Romance publisher yanks book series after author finds herself in controversy
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/sophie-lark-book-apology-elon-musk-b2708820.html
https://redd.it/1j466rk
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Malazan book of the fallen = depressing
I've been reading the Malazan Book of the Fallen series and just finished Gardens of the Moon. I really liked it; there were a lot of elements that worked for me. The characters were all pretty likable, and the world-building was intriguing. That said, the book did have a tendency to kick the protagonists while they were down, which was a bit rough.
Now I'm about 80% through Deadhouse Gates, and honestly, I think I might stop reading the series. The whole book feels like it could be summed up with that Thomas Hobbes quote: "No arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." Every character just seems to get beaten down again and again, and it's honestly depressing.
I did a bit of Googling to see if things lighten up, but most of what I found were people who read the whole series saying it pretty much stays that way. The thing is, I want to like this series; it checks so many boxes for me. It's a massive series with long plot arcs, a compelling alternate world, and a unique magic system with its own strengths and weaknesses. But, damn, Deadhouse Gates has been such a gut punch. I keep telling myself it'll get a little better, and then it just gets worse.
For those who’ve read the series, what do you think? Does it ever feel less like a kick in the teeth, or is this just how it is the whole way through? I was coming to this after reading all the Stormlight archives and was hoping it would be another expansive fantasy world building arc, but I think I am going to start the gentlemen bastards series instead.
https://redd.it/1j432kp
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I just finished reading "Big Swiss." Did I miss something?
Big Swiss must've spent at least a year on my TBR list, so the other week I decided to finally pick it up and read it in about three or four days.
I enjoyed the writing style and how the author used words, how she'd set up situations, and also how original the initial idea of the novel was, but... I feel like I really missed something, while reading. Everybody was insane but not in a way that was "organic" to the plot (like in Earthlings, for example) but more in a "the author desperately wanted her characters to be quirky" one.
The descriptions of the house where Greta lives get crazier the more the book goes on, enough so that it becomes clear that the author really wanted her characters to live in an eccentric sort of poverty but doesn't really have an idea of how poor people live so she spun a wheel and landed on "falling windowpanes," "stink bugs everywhere," "a rotting apple orchard in the backyard," "concrete floors." I realized midway through the book that her idea of poverty reminded me a lot of how it was presented in The Selection by Kiera Cass: a rich person's idea of poverty, with characters who think that poverty equates to having small tree houses instead of, you know, food insecurity.
I understood the nature of Greta's obsession for Big Swiss and, in a way, also how Big Swiss attaches herself to Greta (first gay relationship, Greta anticipates her every thought, they're completely opposites of one another, etc), but the way their relationship was presented just... left me baffled?
They had nothing to talk about, and most times they did talk about something, it was Greta rambling and Flavia telling her she was being annoying. The dinner with Flavia's husband was also very weird and none of the characters acted like humans, either insulting one another in the weirdest fashion or acting borderline unhinged.
Also, at no point I expected this book to be smutty or sexy, but the sex described was downright painful sounding, and the constant use of coconut oil as lube gave me UTI nightmares.
While reading, I couldn't but feel like this book was structured a bit like the fanfiction of a very juvenile writer: the first few chapters are engaging because they are written with a clear idea in mind, then they lose steam and become little more than characters in this or that situation, and then, towards the end, the author loses interest completely and wraps up whatever they can remember, leaving threads open and situations unsolved. Except that's fanfic and Big Swiss is a published book.
I don't know, I feel like I might've missed something, because the reviews I see of it on Goodreads and TikTok keep referring it as being hilarious and visceral, while I just ended up finding it annoying.
https://redd.it/1j3wqqo
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I loved 2/3 of Babel, or the Necessity of Violence by R.F. Kuang, but the last third hits different in 2025
My true love of books is Scifi, I love when an author uses an interesting premise as a way to explore a real world topic. So when this book used a magic based on translation as it's premise to explore colonialism, I was all in.
I loved the first two thirds of this book, especially the setting of Oxford and the use of a coming of age story as a framework to enter the reader into the world. I think the way that the four main characters are forced together by being outsiders was brilliant. I enjoyed the way that conflicts between these characters were driven by their different outsiderness, be it being non-white under colonialism, or by being a woman under patriarchy, or both. It gave me a lot to think about.
But the last third of this book, oh boy. I have two issues, one minor over pacing, the second about the ending itself.
In regards to the pacing, I don't really have the words to describe this in literally terms, but if this was a video game, I'd say this section felt like it was on rails. Everything happened too conveniently, and in a rapid fire that didn't make sense narratively. It was as if there was a bullet point list of all the things that needed to happen to Robin, so they just happened, one after the other, logic and believability be damned. They get caught, they immediately find Hermes, then are immediately betrayed, Remy dies, then they are imprisonment, then a perfectly timed miraculous escape happens, then immediately onto the siege that was the story game.
It happened way to quick and precise in a way that didn't feel earned.
But my problem is really the wanton destruction of the ending.
Now, I can recognise that part of my problem is due to the time in which I am reading this. Living in 2025 and watching in real time as flawed but important scientific institutions in charge of making the world a better place through study, research, providing aid etc are being diminished and destroyed is a big factor in why I didn't jive with the ending of this book.
To watch Babel destroyed just so that the biggest colonial power is hobbled, but ultimately still a colonial power that will eventually return to the same path. It makes the destruction feel very pointless. This is an institution that made massive advances in medicine, construction, exploration. Yes the spoils of those advances weren't shared, and yes the advances were made through exploitation, but is the message of the book that the world is better off without that medicine, without those buildings, or faster ships?
Colonialism wasn't stopped by these actions, only slowed. So what was the destruction for? It didn't make a more just world. Women like Robin's mother would still die preventable deaths, but this time not just because of the uncaring colonial powers, but now because the tower that created the cure has been destroyed. Is the message of the book really that even the most beneficial institutions, if built on exploitation, must be utterly destroyed?
https://redd.it/1j3pj5b
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The Teacher (McFadden) & My Dark Vanessa (Russel)
I read The Teacher (2024) about a month ago and it was my first McFadden book. I thought it was an easy read and I liked it enough to read it in two or three days. However, I'm now reading My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russel (2020) and I have to say that McFadden basically copied every major plot line of this book and even minute details, such as professions, actions of characters, specific books and poems. I wouldn't be surprised to see a word-for-word copied sentence or paragraph. Vanessa is deeper and has more meaning and less of a "whodunnit" feel and hits darker elements of the teacher/student relationship and is more well written in my opinion, but still the similarities are irrefutable. Has anyone else read these books and come to the same thought?
https://redd.it/1j3osx6
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