The City Trilogy (City on Fire, City of Dreams, City in Ruins) by Don Winslow

usually don't go for trilogies but I couldn't put these down. read through all three in less than a week. the first book covers an Irish mob and an Italian mob in Rhode Island that end up going to war in a storyline inspired by the Iliad. second book takes place in Hollywood and the third one in Las Vegas. they all follow the main character Danny Ryan. very readable with short chapters, many characters, and full of drama and suspense. at times I had to suspend my disbelief and these books weren't very thought provoking or anything, but damn were they fun reads. definitely recommended for anybody who enjoyed Heat 2 or is looking for an entertaining story about organized crime

8.5/10

was excited to see they'll be making a movie out of this but then I saw Austin Butler will play the main character, which is a horrible casting choice smh

just finished crime & punishment (first dostoyevsky👍) 4.5 ⭐︎

crying of lot 49 next 4 my first pynchon

on the non-fiction side i just read on photography by susan sontag & ghosts of my life by mark fisher .

switching between carl jung - man & his symbols & joan didion - slouching toward Bethlehem 👍

I love movies and I love Tarantino so this was a match made in heaven. Good stuff!

I love that cover, Peckinpah x McQueen :datass:

Nah but I really want to. When We Cease to Understand the World was truly unlike anything I've ever read before. I wonder if this one will blow up with a new crowd of people interested in Oppenheimer and mathematical theory

Ive read it since then. Book is great, but not as unique as WWCTUTW imo, there’s some beautifully written passages in this though. It does connect to the whole Oppenheimer thing although Labatut doesn’t delve in to much on the specifics of Von Neumanns work, more the ideas behind them and his personality. I might have actually found the story about AlphaGo at the end of the book the high point, which I did not really expect since I don’t know anything about the game, but that story was kind of a bittersweet story about humanity vs AI. I would def recommend reading this book since it’s not that long.

Finished 3 Body Problem yesterday
About to start Captains of the Sand and The Septology ( @KFA ) after that

making my way through this as the paperback just came out weeks ago, on like the 4th chapter. best bit so far is the story of how that football player who was trying to court his mom took him to some Blaxploitation films lol

ghosts of my life

lol yea fr i loved that part. the book is actually short on a lot of his own personal life which I do feel like are the best parts of the book but alas his insight on these films are great whether I agree with all his takes or not.

Been rereading Sun Eater books in anticipation of Disquiet Gods at the end of the month. I stand by everything I said in this post.

I should post more often so I can actually write something about what I've read cause it's too daunting to do it for multiple books at once. But I've read these recently, all good!

The Case of Comrade Tulayev - Victor Serge
A Country Doctor's Notebook - Mikhail Bulgakov
The Feast of the Goat - Mario Vargas Llosa
Darryl - Jackie Ess
Will You Please Be Quiet, Please - Raymond Carver

feel about the same way i felt about the movie which was yes, this is cool but doesn't really lean into the satire as much as I would have hoped.

3.5/5

Is this your favorite artist literature to date

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

novel about several characters and their relationships and lives during the 1960s in Czechoslovakia. some interesting explorations of fidelity, destiny, and sacrifice but so much of the book was the backdrop of a historical period and country I'm not really familiar with. maybe because of that I wasn't too impressed by this one

7/10

St. Agnes Stand by Tom Eidson

think this was recommended itt. western novel about a man who stumbles upon a group of nuns under siege by a band of Apaches. couldn't put this down, think I read it in two days. nothing amazing or all that unique about this but it was simply a well written western novel with a story told in different perspectives and at a pace that makes it a fun read. read Scorsese was planning on doing an adaptation of this which would've been crazy, but I don't think you can tell this story nowadays tbh. definitely recommend this one

9/10

Poeta Chileno by Alejandro Zambra

story focusing on a few fictional Chilean poets, this novel unexpectedly turned into a bit of a family drama but with ruminations on responsibility, selfishness, and existentialism. a lot of literary and Chilean poetry references, including meta comparisons to Bolaño and how all Chilean novelists must write about poets. can't speak to the English translation but I really liked Zambra's prose and style of writing. the structure was interesting as well, check it out if you like Bolaño, tho their style is a bit different

8.5/10

one of the toughest reads I’ve completed in a hot minute. my first toni morrison book I’ve read and won’t be my last. the writing was like no other.

read Animal Farm for the first time. very deserving of its’ classic status.

5/5

Been a few months since my last post. Highlight reviews for three novels:

Therese Raquin – Emile Zola (1868)

A novel considered salacious and scandalous for its time, and for good reason – Zola manages to fill a relatively short book with adultery, murder, and shines a light into the inner recesses of man’s lurid subconscious.

All being exemplified by the backdrop of the dingy, packed backstreets of Paris, the novel culminates in its murky descriptions of the river Seine. For the most part, the novel is claustrophobic, gothic, and the ending downright tragic.

For anybody looking for a quick and surprisingly easy read classic, look no further than this.

3.5/5
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Wolf Hall – Hilary Mantel (2009)

I’m a sucker for historical fiction, all the more so when it’s kind of based on truth, and Wolf Hall is the quintessential example of such. Mantel presents a rather sympathetic retelling of the ascent of Thomas Cromwell – from Butcher’s boy to Lord Chancellor under King Henry VIII.

Mantel masterfully creates a vivid depiction of such rich characters and backdrops. The prose is so sharp, so crisp. It says something special about an author when you know what the ending is going to be, yet you’re still on tenterhooks for what’s to come.

Another must-read for anyone into historical fiction, especially anything Tudor related.

4/5
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My Brilliant Friend – Elena Ferrante (2011)

One of my unofficial reading resolutions was to read more novels out of my usual comfort zone, and this recommendation was such.

The basic premise of the novel follows two young girls and their life through a small city in Naples. Throughout the novel, the two continually push themselves through intellect and an eagerness to learn. It’s such a unique novel – the novel genuinely feels real. Organic. As if, Ferrante (a pseudonym) is retelling her own experiences growing up in a working class city in the south of Italy.

3.5/5

What did you think of this novel? I personally found it bloated, and honestly such a disappointment.

I don’t think its impact can be understated — you cannot, to this day, think of any vampiric motifs without paying homage to Dracula — but the best part of this novel was the first five or so chapters for me. Once we leave Harker in Transylvania and spend the next 10-12 chapters back in London the novel nosedives in quality.

Frankenstein is the undisputed gothic champion novel for me.

Wolf hall added to the reading list

The Goodreads description of Darryl

Bulgakov is a weird one for me. The Master and Margarita is a top 5 novel of all time for me, yet I haven’t managed to find another one of his novels that have really gripped me.

Strange.

There’s also a great BBC mini-series of it — 6 parter with some famous names: Damian Lewis as Henry, and a few other vets like the now late Bernard Hill and Jonathan Pryce. Cameo from a very young Tom Holland too.

love the Neapolitan novels. there's an excellent TV series adaptation of My Brilliant Friend on HBO too, highly recommend since you enjoyed the books

I really liked it. It took me a while to finish because I put it down halfway, but I tried out immersion reading around the time Harker leaves Transylvania, and it helped me get through it quicker.

I agree with you on the quality drop as well, but I didn’t mind it too much. I’m 50/50 on how it reads like a diary entry though.

I watched a bunch of Dracula movies way before I read it which really made me appreciate the book more, especially Coppola’s adaptation.

And yeah I’m gonna read Frankenstein for sure, maybe after I finish The Memory Police.