Haven't read a book in a while. Can anyone suggest something relatively short that they enjoyed?

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch if you like sci fi.

fun read

been meaning to check this one out

Liberation Day by George Saunders

(love the cover)

new collection of nine short stories by the heralded book section favorite George Saunders. he's such a talented writer and his ability to craft worlds and characters in the short story form is impressive. that said, this one let me down just a little bit. there were like 3-4 short stories that I really liked, but the other 5-6 weren't all that impressive, seemed derivative of his earlier work, or too on the nose with the societal commentary. still, there were some excellent stories in this collection, and it's definitely worth reading for Saunders fans, but isn't as good as his earlier collections imo

7.5/10

on to the new Cormac

finally finished this, great book

Octavia Butler is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. Love the way she writes and describes things. Love the way she approaches stories no matter how fantastical from a practical and a***ytical standpoint.

I’m not quick to consume stories, especially fictional ones, about slavery. I’m often times disappointed by the narrow landscape of black literature BUT I am growing and learning to understand how deeply linked black history is to our oppressions. So with that understanding I will accept the literature that we have and continue to form my own opinions on black literature as a whole.

With that being said, I enjoyed this book a lot. It is not a book I believe any author not named Octavia Butler could pull off. It’s not perfect and I definitely don’t think it’s her strongest book I’ve read from her so far but it’s really solid. I also think she is able to get her message across very clearly. Dealing with the types of characters she deals with tied with the setting, I imagine it could’ve been a difficult task humanizing and fleshing out everybody but somehow she does it in a very nuanced way. This is both a character study and a critique on society and how is it is for us just accept the world around us. How it is easy for us to assimilate and to revert back to old ways without much resistance. I got more thoughts on this but I’ll leave at that.

4/5

My introduction to Brandon Sanderson. (Plus the first full book I've read in 6+ years.)

An easy 7.5/10 for me. And from what I've heard from others, Brandon only keeps on improving.

Currently reading Warbreaker by Sanderson and then will finally start the Stormlight Archive.

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is always a fun little read.

Anna Javan’s Ice is also pretty compact if you want something more literary.

Or Ubik by Philip K. D*** if you want some good sci-fi.

Don't think it's possible to properly sum my thoughts up on this one but I feel like this book has just chewed me up and spat me back out over and over again. At times was a struggle (especially the part about the murders) but I can already tell that it's a reading experience that'll stick with me forever. I think Bolaño sums it up best:

He chose The Metamorphosis over The Trial, he chose Bartleby over Moby-Dick, he chose A Simple Heart over Bouvard and Pecuchet, and A Christmas Carol over A Tale of Two Cities or The Pickwick Papers. What a sad paradox, thought Amalfitano. Now even bookish pharmacists are afraid to take on the great, imperfect, torrential works, books that blaze paths into the unknown. They choose the perfect exercises of the great masters. Or what amounts to the same thing: they want to watch the great masters spar, but they have no interest in real combat, when the great masters struggle against that something, that something that terrifies us all, that something that cows us and spurs us on, amid blood and mortal wounds and stench.

This is a book from an absolute master grappling with his own legacy by fighting against the very notion of literature itself. It's a f***ing masterpiece

The Joys of Compounding is a 400 page beast but one of my best financial reads in a while

Wow

I just checked this out at the library today. I’ve already read the era 1 Mistborn trilogy. Definitely worth it to continuing reading!

"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."

enjoyed this one. took a minute for me to get into but once I was in, I was completely invested. really entertaining but also deeply psychological. good read.

4/5

“Naked Lunch” by William S. Burroughs

This was a trip of a read. I still feel I’m not entirely used to his fractured style of writing so I’ll probably let his other books rest for a while, I think I’d rather re-read this book before going on to his other works. But the world building was fire, I wish we could have spent more time exploring the world instead of having fractured stories. A lot of interesting characters for sure. I want a 200 page chapter on just the Mugwumps and how they live. Overall I’d give this book a 7/10

I’m on to “Infinite Jest” by David Foster Wallace next.

Any black fiction you'd recommend? Looking to get two fiction books of any kind but would love to have at least one from a black writer

I have read some Butler and she's fantastic but I want to get back to her stuff later

not to be the white man jumping in but

gotta plug one of my favorite authors, Paul Beatty. he won the Booker Prize with The Sellout which was excellent, but The White Boy Shuffle is his best novel imo

can't go wrong with either of those two

Much love ✍🏾✍🏾✍🏾

You have any fiction in general you'd recommend off top? Trying to grab two fiction books to really start a heavy and regular reading run so I want a bunch of stuff to pull from

of course bro, here are some of my favorite reads from the past few years

The Secret History by Donna Tartt
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut
The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño
In the Distance by Hernan Diaz
Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese
Sharks In The Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn
Civilwarland in Bad Decline by George Saunders

the link in the OP has a long list worth checking out too

Imma look into all of these, thank you so much, some familiar titles here too so that's cool as well

You have any magical realism favorites? Should I just jump into 100 years of solitude if that's something I'm interested in

Been slowly diving into Black fiction so I haven’t read a lot but I’ll recommend the ones on TBR.

Dhalgren by Samuel Delany
Big Machine by Victor Lavalle
The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter
The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin
Friends and Lovers by Eric Jerome D***ey

Info on TBR

And thank you

that Sharks in the Time of Saviors I mentioned was really well done magical realism imo

then of course anything by Haruki Murakami or Kurt Vonnegut

would also recommend American Gods by Neil Gaman, The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber, and Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson

haven't read 100 Years of Solitude yet. lotta Latin American authors in that genre, I've heard Borges is like the founder of magical realism but I haven't gotten to him yet either

Meant to say ‘my TBR’ which is To Be Read. What I’m planning to read

Going through a slump right now. Started too many books and they aren't really hooking me. I started:
The Fisherman by John Langan
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
and like 3 others

Found time in my schedule to pack away a couple books
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (loved reading this one again need to get my hands on homeland soon)
Thing Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jenette McCurdy

just cracked open Algiers by Elaine Mokhtefi