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Department of Education dismisses book ban investigations, ends guidance
https://abcnews.go.com/amp/US/department-education-dismisses-book-ban-investigations-ends-guidance/story?id=118098825
https://redd.it/1i9slkw
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What series are you waiting to be finished before reading?
This might only apply to people who read Sci-Fi & Fantasy.
ASoIaF and The King Killer Chronicles are the classic examples of series we may never get to know how the story ends. Ever since these series have left us high and dry, I have yet to start a series that isn't finished yet - the only other unfinished series I am currently reading is Red Rising. It's not always a writers procrastination / writers block that may be the cause of this, sometimes horrible unforseen things happen as well.
Are there any series you want to read but you're waiting for them to be finished?
For me I really want to start The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson, and the Hierarchy series by James Islington.
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George R.R. Martin has co-authored a physics paper
https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/01/george-r-r-martin-has-co-authored-a-physics-paper/
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On a PG Wodehouse reading spree, and a better humorist doesn't exist
I have made it a mission to read PG W's entire works. Currently on Jeeves and Wooster and I don't think I have laughed out loud like that ever while watching a movie or reading a book. The scrapes that Bertie Wooster gets in are absolutely hilarious, love the scenes with his crazy aunties and friends and his convos with Jeeves.
One thing that struck me about his works is that he has an uncanny understanding of human nature, society and temperament which gets reflected Jeeves' dialogues. Same with Saki and O Henry works. The irony and dry wit employed by them to call out the hypocrisy and genteel mannerisms of the society never fails to impress me.
https://redd.it/1i9l7ab
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Reader’s Remorse?
What do you call the opposite of a book hangover? When you finish a book so terrible that it leaves lingering anger, frustration & disappointment. How do you cure it, by diving right into another hoping for a better outcome? By writing a scathing review? By wallowing?
The most recent addition to my Shelf of Shame: In Five Years by Rebecca Serle
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Thoughts on Annihilation
Just finished Annihilation tonight. Here’s some of my raw thoughts on it. I’d love to hear your views as well!
I loved the cosmic horror element. Almost lovecraftian in nature. The explanation of The Crawler being completely incomprehensible was very well done. I ended up imagining it as constantly shifting and moving in a geometric way whilst emanating light. The creature in the reeds was also really fun to imagine despite appearing briefly. The exoskeleton like face appearing in the water was terrifying.
The realization that “annihilation!” Was a hypnotism command to induce suicide was really crazy and such a cool way to reveal what the title of the book was about.
In my head I almost imagined that the light at the bottom of the “tower/tunnels” stairs was the entrance into the light house. An “as above so below” kind of thing. But the line about it feeling like eyes were watching her as she walked away made me wonder. (Please don’t tell me if I’m right I’m gonna read the 2nd one very soon.)
I really enjoyed hearing about her relationship with her husband and how they always seemed to feel distant from each other. By the very end I felt that despite being no where near eachother and him not even being alive they were closer than ever having experienced Area X. His writings in his journal to her were heart warming in a way.
The “brightness” was such a crazy way to explain the transformation (whatever transformation that is) was so interesting and different. I loved moments like her killing the surveyor with a supernatural ability to sense and feel the environment and impending danger.
Finally I loved the ending. Her acceptance that she was destined to become a part of the environment in the end was fascinating and her attempts to seek out her husband whether he’s alive or dead was a bit harrowing as well. She just wants to experience what he experienced after being transformed both mentally and physically the same as her.
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Those who related to Holden in The Catcher in the Rye in high school, where are you now?
The Catcher in the Rye was my absolute favorite required reading in middle and high school and it became a comfort book for me during those years. I identified pretty closely to Holden and would reread the book whenever I struggled mentally. I've never admitted that though because everyone thinks Holden is insufferable and hates him lol.
I just read a comment from a pretty old thread saying anyone who relates to Holden needs to go to therapy. The commenter was so serious about it too, he was genuinely concerned about Holden apologists' mental state. Anyway I'm in my late 20s now, diagnosed with ADHD, depression, and anxiety, and am on a cocktail of meds keeping me together. I thought it was funny how spot on the commenter was. Does anyone else relate, is this really a trend amongst Holden fans?
I'm going to try to find my old copy of the book to read and see how I view Holden now. I think I'll always be able to empathize with his character, but as a fairly mentally adjusted adult, I doubt I'd still relate to him as much as teenage me did.
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Michael Cannell book delves into true story of New York cops who killed for the Mafia
https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/books/2025/01/14/blood-and-the-badge-killer-cops-mafia-michael-cannell/77489600007/
https://redd.it/1i91ac7
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home for those who have gone through a bit of a "lost faith" crisis at any point in their lives, at least from a Christian or Catholic perspective. Grappling with the idea that sometimes you can be punished on a spiritual level simply for not knowing the right people at the right time feels cosmically unfair at times. But at the same time I believe this realization lays the framework for Billy's ability to resonate with the Tralfamadorian outlook towards life itself, and is able to rationalize a way to cope with his trauma (at least better than he was able to before).
>Billy took his pecker out, there in the prison night, and peed and peed on the ground. Then he put it away, more or less, and contemplated a new problem: Where had he come from, and where should he go now?
Billy is on the tail end of a morphine-induced stupor while being held as a POW. He's so out of it that by the time he accomplished the one thing he stepped outside to do, he had completely lost sense of where he was and what he should be doing, failing to even put away his manhood away properly when he finished. Once again, a terribly sad reality of war and assessment of his current situation and mental state. But also once again, with just the smallest interjection of humor. "Then he put it away, more or less," broke me, because I knew I'd never laugh if I were witnessing it happen in real time. But masterful language use cracks through the sadness with humor without detracting from it.
>An American near Billy wailed that he had excreted everything but his brains. Moments later he said "There they go, there they go." He meant his brains.
>That was I. That was me. That was the author of this book.
This passage happens just two pages after the previous passage above, so the sentiment of the atrocities endured by POWs remains the same. But once again the comedic timing to tilt the balance of the tone to something that is this funny in isolation of its circumstances once again toys with my head. For Vonnegut to include himself in a cameo, all but literally shitting his brains out, is outrageously amusing.
>Montana was under heavy sedation. Tralfamadorians wearing gas masks brought her in, put her on Billy's yellow lounge chair; withdrew through his airlock. The vast crowd outside was delighted. All attendance records for the zoo were broken. Everybody on the planet wanted to see the Earthlings mate.
>Montana was naked, and so was Billy, of course. He had a tremendous wang, incidentally. You never know who'll get one.
Drugged character carried in by aliens wearing gas masks, thrown into a human zoo to be put on display with expectations that they would perform sexual acts in front of the crowd, this is the stuff of nightmares. And yet, the sidestep to praise Billy's penis feels comes off like a direct author's note rather than an addition to the advancement of the plot itself. It doesn't feel mocking or objectifying, but whimsical and hilarious, while not coming across as out of place whatsoever. I also learned that "wang" has been a penis euphemism since at least 1969 when the book was published, which goes back farther than I realized.
>Trout's leading robot looked like a human being, and could talk and dance and so on, and go out with grils. And nobody held it against him that he dropped jellied gasoline on people. But they found his halitosis unforgivable. But then he cleared that up, and he was welcomed to the human race.
Oof is all I can really say here, and all that I think is necessary. Point proven, Kurt. War crimes are bygones. Bad breath though? Unforgivable. (I believe Napalm wasn't formally considered a war crime until after the book's publication, but still.)
>There had been French doors on the Cape Ann love nest of his honeymoon, still were, always would be.
Mitch? Is that you? This is one I didn't feel bad chuckling about. I'd love to be a fly on the wall in the room of a hypothetical Kurt and Mitch conversation.
If you made it this far, thank you for indulging my ramblings. I haven't felt this compelled to dive so deep into a
The house where Jane Austen died open to public for the first time this summer
No. 8 College Street, Winchester (the house where Jane Austen died) will be open for a limited period this summer. The rooms where Austen spent her last days were, until recently, a private residence.
The house will be open for a limited time from June to August 2025 as part of a celebration of the 250th anniversary of Austen’s birth.
https://www.trybooking.com/uk/events/landing/66624
https://redd.it/1i8y4ob
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"A Self-Made Myth: How Edith Wharton Rewrote Her Own Childhood"
https://lithub.com/a-self-made-myth-how-edith-wharton-rewrote-her-own-childhood/
https://redd.it/1i8t96z
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Books are a cheat code for living multiple lives in one lifetime
I read a lot of books. I finished 72 books in 2023 and 78 in 2024, and that's just the ones I actually finished; I read probably three times that many to various stages of completion without finishing. I also buy a lot of books. They're really the only thing I buy outside of the necessities. Which is all a long way of saying: Why do I do that? lol.
I think about that a lot, and one of the answers is that books are a real cheat code for living multiple lives in one lifetime. They let you experience and learn from other people's successes and mistakes in an abbreviated/accelerated form so you don't have to do it yourself.
Looked at this way, I can't believe everyone isn't constantly reading. You can literally read the thoughts other humans have had across literal millennia. It's like time travel, or getting advice from dead people lol.
I'm also a writer, so there's probably a kind of camaraderie aspect to it as well. Some of my favorite reading includes things like Charles Bukowski's letters, especially from his later years, which read like philosophy and should be required reading for anyone dedicated to the craft of writing (as opposed to the love of having written).
Anyway, just a thought I thought maybe other book people might be interested in.
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Margaret White, Carrie's Mother in Carrie by Stephen King
I have recently consumed the book and two of the movie adaptations. The book is definitely better for sure. However the character Margaret White stands out to me, not necessarily in the positive way. She is a dogmatic, overzealous, extreme, Christian fanatic who believes she is so Pious in her beliefs, to the point that it controls over emotions, thought process, and actions. However what's even more toxic is that she imparts that upon her daughter. I would not be surprised if there or real life people like that in this country, let alone this world. I'm just wondering if this character is a relative accurate portrayal of them. Is Margaret really over the top, an accurate representation, or only a watered down version of the religious fundamentalists out there? In america, how prevalent is this kind of thinking and these kinds of people? I have a general idea of certain regions of the United States that are like this, but I'm just wondering how many are there, and how deeply rooted are they? Because truth be told, I find it terrifying that there are people like this in our Society in our government. What's even worse is that they try to push their hypocritical, cultish beliefs upon the general public and average citizen.
Of course, Carrie is scary but her mother is also, though in a different way
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Books about loneliness and melancholia
I'm often fascinated by books that directly and indirectly addresses loneliness especially in fiction. I've read so many of them and I think it's the Japanese Literature that perfectly captures it in writing.
A friend asked me why I read such bleak books. This made me stop and think, and I can't exactly explain why. It felt wrong to say I enjoyed such a "sad" book.
I'm curious, for people who read such books, why do you like it? What made you interested in reading books (novels) about loneliness?
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Foucalt’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco.
When I started reading, the first few chapters made me rethink. Should I DNF this book and move forward with other books. But then again I checked some Reddit posts saying it’s a good book. Which I wouldn’t deny.
I continued, the book was engrossing. And then it was like how the lines run through in an ECG/EKG of a dying person. So many up and downs only for it to fall into a flat line. As in the ending was just flat. Don’t take me wrong, the book when it was interesting, I didn’t even want to put it down. And then there are chapters you just wonder what’s the purpose of this chapter. Why am I reading this? What’s the significance of this chapter to the main plot? Maybe i misunderstood those chapters.
Umberto Eco did a great job of connecting the dots and lines. It was like reading the history of all these cults through the trio’s own mind. The setting up of the plot was a bit tedious to read though. As someone in this subreddit mentioned before it felt like a prologue. Was the end worth it? >! Personally, No. All these setup for what? !< Most of y’all might beg to differ and it’s understandable.
Most of the time the book kind of made it hard for to read with lots of the historical references , French sentences, Latin Sentences and historical/occult related words in general. Wish the book I read had an index for the historical and occult reference texts. And it was kind of annoying that I had to use Google a lot to translate the foreign languages and find the definition of certain terms as well.
The book was good. Not bad. Readable with some effort put into it for me. Will I reread it again? FUCK NO.
>!One thing for sure is Eco’s dig at the so called conspiracy theorists and the book felt like a parody at the end by calling the theorists out.!<
https://redd.it/1i8i9or
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Totally Obsessed with 19th Century Literature
I've been reading a ton of old books lately..Austen, Dickens, the Bronte sisters... and I'm completely hooked. i mean, I know they're classics and all that but there's just something about them that feels so... relevant?
The big stuff.. social class, love, relationships... they're all in there, and it's crazy how much of it still applies today. And the characters? forget about it. They're all messed up and relatable and just... human.
I've been reading a lot of Austen lately, and I'm obsessed with her sense of humor. she is amazing, calling out the social norms of her time and just generally being awesome and Dickens? He’s all about revealing the tough realities of life for the less fortunate in Victorian England, which really makes you think.
But what really gets me is how these authors just... get it. they get what it's like to be human, to struggle and make mistakes and just try to figure things out. And it's not just the big themes, either... it's the little things, too. The way they describe the way someone looks, or the way a room feels... it's all just so beautifully written.
I don't know, maybe I'm just a nerd, but reading these old books has really made me realize how little things have changed. We're still dealing with the same stuff our ancestors were dealing with, and it's kind of comforting to know that we're not alone in all this.
So yeah, if you're looking for some new books to read, I highly recommend checking out some 19th century novels. They're not as boring as you might think, i promise.
What are some of your favorite old books? Got any recs for someone who's just getting into this stuff?
EDIT : I was not expecting to get this many recommendations, it's more than i could have hoped for! thank you all so much guys!!
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“ We used to joke that Alice G. had been married three times, twice to mere mortal men, and once to the Chicago Manual of Style.”
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/73017.html
https://redd.it/1i9nl2y
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What do you call this kind of book?
Hello,
I’m reading Ann Patchett’s “commonwealth” right now and it’s very similar to another book I read last year and loved “French braid” by Anne Tyler. They’re both about dysfunctional families and instead of it being a chronological story, it’s more of a series of vignettes focusing on different characters at different points in their lives. I’m finding I really enjoy this type of book and I’m curious what you would call this kind of book as well as if anyone has any recommendations for similar titles?
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My take on Normal People
i know it was so much on trend when the series got released, and many people find it cathartic and painful and can never watch/read it ever again. But for me, it was kind of comforting, I loved every bit of it. I am anyway a very big fan of Sally Rooney. The characters are perfect examples of what you become when you don't take therapy 💀 But that's so honest because most people don't. and below is my interpretation of Marianne's chain of thoughts, yes some lines were inspired from the book itself.
From Marianne
I’m losing my teenage smile,
the unpolished shine
wiped off by the chaos
of worldly rhymes.
I’m forgetting my childhood games,
the ones with no blame, no shame.
I’ll throw you away
just so you can pull me back to you.
You’ll pull me back, right?
All you have to do is stay
while I solve my internal mysteries.
But with me, peace will be off the table, okay?
I’m becoming a madhouse
of nostalgia and misery,
confusion, false vows,
stuck between hope and destiny.
Time has never healed,
nor do I expect it to.
I’ll be here yearning,
wondering about all the coulds and mights.
You go find yourself,
I’ll be here, alright?
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Anyone else find they enjoy reading well-written non-fiction books more than fiction novels most of the time?
Title kinda speaks for itself. For me in particular, I find historical non-fiction to be the best; authors like Pierre Berton and James D. Hornfischer had an almost magical way of being informative while writing in a highly compelling manner. Books like Klondike, Vimy, The Last Spike, The Invasion of Canada, Flames Across the Border, and The Arctic Grail (among others) in Berton's case and Neptune's Inferno, Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors, Ship of Ghosts, and The Fleet At Flood Tide in Hornfischer's are cinematic in their presentation and as utterly gripping as the best fiction you can think of in their writing, augmented by what I feel is the biggest reason why I love these books more than regular fiction novels: It's all real. Everything you see presented in them really happened; all the events that take place, all the characters you meet, the personalities they exude, the flaws they have, the struggles they face and the things they do - all of it is 100% real, and it invests my emotions in a way that I find fiction is never quite able to. I've still found plenty of fiction books I greatly enjoy reading, but there's just always a degree of separation between me and what's inside it that keeps me from being as invested in it all as with non-fiction.
It isn't even just Berton and Hornfischer where I've experienced this either (even though they were the ones that clued me into this taste of mine) and it isn't even always just history books: A Gentleman and a Thief by Dean Jobb has vibes that I am a sucker for amidst the backdrop of an era I've always found interesting, probably my two favourite books I've read in the past year and change have been Off the Record by Peter Mansbridge and The Road Years by Rick Mercer, and my to-read list currently includes more non-fiction of those sorts than actual fiction, such as The War We Won Apart by Nahlah Ayed, a biography of the late MLB pitcher Roy Halladay by Todd Zolecki, Dead in the Water by Matthew Campbell and Kit Chellel, a book by Stephen R. Bown on the history of the Hudson's Bay Company, and Talking to Canadians also by Rick Mercer, all of which I hope will be just as good as the rest of the non-fiction I've been reading.
Honestly, I'm just saying all this because virtually all of the discussions on this sub revolve around fiction books and I kinda wanted to start one about the non-fiction books I've been going through. Feel free to engage or ignore at your leisure.
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Whale Fall by Elizabeth O'Connor
There is surprisingly little discussion about this book on Reddit, so I've taken it upon myself to start one!
Whale Fall transports you to a remote island in the British Isles on the cusp of World War II and puts you in the shoes of 18-year-old Manod. She was born and raised in the island, which is about as isolated as you can get from the modern world. She lives with her father and little sister; her mother died years ago.
Manod longs to go to the mainland. She wants an education. She wants to join the modern world. Her prospects on the island are slim. While she looks to the future, her sister, Llinos, seems to be fully of the island. She resists learning English, while Manod is proficient.
A whale becomes beached on the island. The islanders try to save it, but nothing can be done. Along with the whale comes two researchers from England who wish to write an ethnography of the islanders and their customs. They hire Manod to be their translator to communicate with her neighbors about their way of life.
Manod is sheltered, but not stupid. >!She loves and respects her home even though she dreams of going to college on the mainland, she doesn't want the people she grew up with to be looked down on or misrepresented to outsiders.!<
>!As the book goes on, it becomes clear that the researchers aren't as dedicated to telling the truth as you expect. They both play with Manod's emotions in different ways. They don't treat her or the island with the respect they deserve.!<
There are coming-of-age themes, as well as themes of modernity pushing in on a traditional society, isolation, betrayal, with a healthy dose of folklore. It is based loosely on real islands. Though this one is fictional, it feels real. You can imagine it vividly based on the prose.
If any of this sounds good to you, I can't recommend this novel enough. It is quite short. I must shout out the audiobook, which is lovely and creates an immersive experience. Worth it for the accents alone, but there are also bits of material that sound like they were collected for a real ethnography.
I'd love to discuss it more in depth with people who have already read it.
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The Road is my favorite book, but I read Earth Abides and I think it's the best Post Apocalyptic Book I have ever read!
The Road is dirty and gritty and Cormac McCarthy is an amazing author. Easily my favorite.
But then I read Earth Abides and I think it hits on so many emotions while also keeping a disturbing accuracy to how close we are to everything just going away.
I loved how there are "quick years" where you get to understand how things evolve as time goes on without making the book over 1000 pages.
The grim reality that matched so closely with our very real pandemic we encountered was alarming considering the book was written so long ago.
I would love to hear everyone's thoughts on how they experienced the book. I don't usually get too overly emotional, but there were multiple parts in this book that had me weeping.
https://redd.it/1i94bla
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The duality of Slaughterhouse-Five (Spoilers-ish) nearly broke me
Tl;dr - You can stop after the first two paragraphs of this post if you don't have interest in the actual passages which inspired this post and my expanded thoughts. Anything beyond the bolded sentence two paragraphs down is "extra" and just supplementary to my feelings below.
I just finished my first ever read of Slaughterhouse-Five (and Vonnegut as a whole) last night and I just need to gush for a moment. I'm truly not sure I've ever come across another work of art of any media in my lifetime which has struck me personally as both so profoundly sad but also laugh-out-loud hilarious at the same time. The portrayal of PTSD (and likely some cocktail of other stress/trauma-induced complications as well) and dissociation experienced by Billy throughout his life is heartbreaking and gut-wrenching. But the content within his leaps through time, when viewed in isolation away from the lens of PTSD, is just... so... funny. To the point where I kind of feel bad about how hard I laughed at various points throughout the novel. I can tell this is the type of work which would get less funny with each subsequent reread, but I think it's important to capture the humor in its most raw form upon a first impression read as well.
It's also the first novel I've read in years which is so deliberate and efficient with its prose, dialog, and narration, that I feel like there is effectively zero wasted space throughout the entire text. This kind of efficiency would feel downright robotic if not for Vonnegut's ability to convey so much life and character in so few words. Which is an even more remarkable feat when considering the wild jumps through time and space that occur throughout every chapter and often every individual page. To be so chaotic and organized/put-together in the same novel is a feat of monumental proportions as far as I'm concerned. I can't wait to dive further into Vonnegut's works, as I understand that many fans of his have several favorites which can be ranked even higher on their lists than Slaughterhouse-Five**.**
For the first time in a long time, I felt compelled to take notes as I read, writing down passages which left their mark on me for one reason or another. There's plenty more than what I highlight below, these were just some favorites.
>So Billy uncorked it with his thumbs. It didn't make a pop. The champagne was dead. So it goes.
This was the first time (to my recollection) where "So it goes," follows a reference to an inanimate object. And it was quite literally this exact passage that was my eureka moment with this novel. I laughed out loud as a switch flipped in my head that took it from "interesting," to "ohhhhhh I GET IT," and my zeal to keep reading positively skyrocketed.
>Billy coughed when the door was opened, and when he coughed he shit thin gruel. This was in accordance with the Third Law of Motion according to Sir Isaac Newton. This law tells us that for every action these is a reaction which is equal and opposite in direction.
>This can be useful in rocketry.
Billy and his fellow POWs being transported to their various locations via train is obviously a deeply upsetting circumstance. And the fact that he's in such a state that he no longer has full control of his bowels is objectively horrifying. But the interjection of humor here which can be seen as a coping mechanism for dealing with that trauma is expert-level comedic timing and execution. Absolutely one of the most "I feel bad for laughing, but I just can't help it," moments in the entire novel for me.
>And then, just before nobody died, the heavens opened up, and there was thunder and lightning. The voice of God came crashing down. He told the people that he was adopting the bum as his son, giving him the full powers and privileges of the Son ofthe Creator of the Universe throughout all eternity. God said this:
>From this moment on, he will punish horribly anybody who torments a bum who has no connections!
This moment hits particularly close to
Which (non self-help) book did you read that helped you be a better self?
I'm a bit tired of reading self-help books and was wondering if you had experience with reading a regular novel (anything from fiction, non-fiction, thriller, fantasy, ...) that helped you realise something about yourself, or gave you profound examples that you were able to apply in your own life?
For example, I recently read Metamorphosis from Frank Kafka, I had "fun" reading it (as in, it was curious and entertaining), but then I re-read it more "actively".
In the book, Gregor's family becomes gradually detached as they traverse difficult times. Here we see Gregor still trying hard to provide for his family nonetheless.
This made me somehow question about my own life and when not to be blindly too altruistic and instead focus on my own self.
Does anyone have had similar experience with other books ?
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I finished reading all of an author’s English translated books, and all of them were 5 stars!
I absolutely adored every one of Elisa Shua Dusapin’s books and I would love to share why, since she is a much lesser known author.
Everything I talk about here is my own opinion, and I would love to hear anyone else’s opinions if they’ve read her work!
Elisa Shua Dusapin is a young French-Korean author who grew up in Paris, Seoul, and Switzerland, and all of her books are translated from French (to English by Aneesa Abbas Higgins). So far, the books that have been translated are Winter in Sokcho, The Pachinko Parlour, and Vladivostok Circus. (This is the order that I read her books in.)
Overall, her prose is very simple, but so gorgeous. I fell in love with her writing style within the first few pages of Winter in Sokcho. I found it so interesting how her writing was able to completely hook me in so quickly, when it is so simple. Her stories to be so beautiful, so well written, that I couldn’t put them down. I read Winter in Sokcho in one sitting. I was obsessed right away.
Winter in Sokcho is a story about a young woman who works at a guest house in a Korean town near the North Korean border. She meets a French man, a graphic novelist, who is travelling to the area to find inspiration for his next book. This isn’t a romance, although I’ve seen it marketed as one, but rather a story of an unlikely relationship that forms out of wonder and curiosity for each other. They needed each other when they met; it was fate.
The Pachinko Parlour follows a young woman who moves to Japan to live with her Korean grandparents, who have a long time resentment towards Japan for their occupation of Korea and forcing them out of their home country. While she’s living with them, she is also tutoring a young Japanese girl and develops a very special sisterly bond with her. While attempting to get her grandparents to go back and visit Korea for the first time since they left, she makes some discoveries about herself - for herself - that really changes her outlook on life.
Vladivostok Circus is centered around a group of circus performers and their director, and their relationship with their costume designer, a young woman who travelled from Europe to Russia to be apart of their team. The story takes a closer look at how she forms new relationships with these people who have known each other for much longer, and have a special form of trust between them due to the nature of their circus act, as well as how her relationship with her father who lifes in America has changed since they last saw each other.
My favorites in order are also the order that I read them in. Winter in Sokcho stands out as my favorite for a few reasons. I love the character dynamics, the complexity of their relationship, and how their relationship develops over time with the events that take place. The ending also stands out to me as the best ending of the three (although, all of them have some of the best endings I’ve ever read). Vladivostok circus had a much slower start in terms of reeling me in which sets it a little further back, but ultimately still landed at 5 stars for me in the end.
And also, I cried at the end of all three books; not out of sadness, but out of awe for how beautifully they were written.
Something I find really interesting is that all of her books have relatively “low” ratings on websites like Goodreads compared to what you see from other authors - 3.55, 3.61, and 3.47. As I’ve already said, all of her books are 5 stars, in my opinion. I was so blown away by her books that these ratings are shocking to me. (But everyone is entitled to their own opinion, of course. I don’t read other people’s critiques usually, but I may go back and do it just for this case - if I do, I’ll update this post.)
So, those are my thoughts on Elisa Shua Dusapin’s books! I would love to hear if anyone else has read her work and what you thought. Thanks for reading :)
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"How we misread The Great Gatsby: The greatness of F Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, published 100 years ago, lies in its details. But they are often overlooked, buried beneath a century of accumulated cliché."
https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2025/01/how-we-misread-the-great-gatsby
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William Gibson's "The Peripheral
Oh yes! So tonight I've finished up the first book of a trilogy by William Gibson titled "The Peripheral"! And it's been a long while since I've read anything by him.
In it I've follow three individuals. First up we have Flynne Fisher, who lives down a county road in a rural area of a near future America where jobs have become scarce. But not unless you would count the illegal drug manufacturing. And her brother Burton who lives--or at least tries to--on the money from the Veteran Administration. Flynne tries to earn what she can through assembling products at a local 3D printshop. She initially made more by being a combat scout in an online game, playing for a wealthy man, only to let shooter games go.
And seventy years later we meet Wilf Nehterton who lives in London, and on the far side of an apocalypse in slow motion. Things seem pretty good for the haves, with not very much have-nots left. He is a high powered and celebrity minder, and sees himself as a romantic misfit, in a society where reaching right into the past is just only a hobby.
Flynne's brother has been moonlighting online working secretly as security in some kind of a game prototype, a virtual reality world that somewhat looks like London, only much more weirder. And he's got her working shifts, promising that the game is not a shooter. But still the crime she ends up witnessing was plenty bad.
Now both Flynne and Wilf will meet. With Flynne's world about to be altered irrevocably. And for Wilf, with all of his decadence and power, will come to learn that some third world types from the past can be quite the badass!
This book is a mind bender! Switching from the past to the future multiple from chapter to chapter, with some moments that seem to be just so trippy! This is a cross between the cyberpunk scifi, that Gibson is known for, with heavy influences of crime thrillers. And of course I do really love crime thrillers!
Really like this first book of the trilogy that Gibson has been working called The Jackpot Trilogy, there's a second book of this trilogy, "Agency", that's been out for a while that I might also check out. There's a third one titled "Jackpot" that hasn't been released yet, but when it does I'll certainly be gunning for that one! (And I still haven't gotten my hands on the second book of Gibson's Sprawl trilogy "Count Zero"! Really have to get that one!)
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Reading Frank Herbert's Dune series feels particularly chilling these days
Part way through the third Dune book and there's a fictitious quote that felt like it was torn from a modern day political think piece
Governments, if they endure, always tend increasingly towards aristocratic forms. No government in history has been known to evade this pattern. And as the aristocracy developed, government tends more and more to act exclusively in the interests of the ruling class - whether that class be hereditary royalty, oligarchs of financial empires, or entrenched bureaucracy
The thing that was most interesting was that he wrote this at some point, presumably, in the 70s as it was published in '76 I believe. And by most measures that's squarely in a time period where democracy really proliferated globally. It makes me wonder what specifically he had in mind when he wrote this quote, and why he so firmly believed that such a democratic wave was really temporary. It also makes me wonder how he'd interpret the current discourse around the authoritarianism globally in the current age.
Maybe others who have read more of the series, or more into Herbert, have more insight. But I thought it was interesting nonetheless how a topic at the forefront of popular discourse today is reflected so directly and succinctly in a (imo great) 50 year old book
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Amazon UK to stop selling Bloomsbury's books
https://www.thebookseller.com/news/amazon-uk-to-stop-selling-bloomsburys-books?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Morning%20Briefing
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