kogoyos

4mo

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

short story turned into a novel about a slow man who is given a miracle d*** to turn him smart. like a lot of high concept stories, felt like this had a promising premise but lacked depth. parts of it were well done but it never went in a very interesting direction or had something unique to say imo

7/10

American Pastoral by Philip Roth

novel about a seemingly perfect all American hero and the traumas his family goes through in the late 1960s. first Roth I've read and tho I liked his prose, he made so many choices that took away from this book. interesting storyline and chain of events but the shifting narrators and timelines as well as long tangents made this frustrating at times. like in the last thirty pages of the book Roth introduces new characters and gives their backstories I was annoyed af lol. does capture the late 60s and early 70s quite well and I'd read Roth again but this book needed an editor

7/10

They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib

written in 2017, this collection of essays is as powerful and well written as Abdurraqib's other works. love how he's able to blend culture and current events and of course his poetic prose is what sets him apart. some of the essays I couldn't get into because I wasn't as familiar with the subjects (like the early 2000s emo scene) but other essays really hit home. I've now read all of his major collections of essays and would recommend them all, but Go Ahead In The Rain is probably my favorite

8.5/10

The Vegetarian by Han Kang

had this on my TBR list for a while but wanted to get to it after seeing Kang won the Nobel prize for literature. novella told in three perspectives about a Korean housewife who spirals into insanity. well written but nothing that really impressed me, feels like I've seen this story/perspective done many times. idk not really seeing the hype as this is supposed to be her best work

7.5/10

earthwalka

4mo

Klara and the Sun
Kazuo Ishiguro

wish I liked this more. as I was reading, I kept waiting for something, anything, to really happen to get some momentum but throughout the whole novel there is this sense of stagnancy. While I can appreciate the themes of personhood and what makes a soul, the story is just not that interesting and the characters feel pretty flat.

3/5

The Nickel Boys
Colson Whitehead

I read this in preparation for the film that will be coming out later this year. I've actually had on my shelf for a while. This is a my first Colson Whitehead novel and you know what? I think it's solid. Based on a real place, The Nickel Boys is about an all boys reformation school during the 1950s. Terrible terrible place and we follow these two boys as they try to get through this. It's a pretty engaging read for the most part but I feel like there also isn't much depth to the story and the characters don't feel to have much interiority so it was hard for me to get a real emotional attachment besides just feeling like "damn that sucks".

3.5/5

Venus as a boy

4mo

Tried reading Never Let Me Go because a friend recommended and got the same feeling, couldn't read more than 20 or so pages, will try Klara and the Sun next.

CRACKASTEPPAVEGAN

4mo

Have you read "Remains of The Day?"

Venus as a boy

4mo

No, the same friend also recommended that one.

CRACKASTEPPAVEGAN

4mo

It's his best one imo. Just remember that when you're reading it, the stuffiness of the narrator is playing into some unreliable narrator elements, not in the sense of tryna deceive the reader but...you know what, just read it lol. I recommend it.

Venus as a boy

4mo

I will try, i have a very big list of books to read, so big i feel overwhelmed so it's hard to find motivation to read a book by an author i already gave a chance but didn't like the book but I will keep this one in the back of my mind

0ddJay

4mo

Read this in October for the spooky vibes, and this Victorian mystery/thriller did not disappoint. Every theory I had ended up being wrong, and I love that in a mystery. The setting of the story also played a significant role in the story. I think it's best to go into it knowing as little about the plot as possible. -------------------- 4.5 out of 5 stars

I read this as a palate cleanser because I finished The Only One Left faster than I planned, and I ended up loving this a lot more than I thought I would. I really enjoyed the vibes of this book-- coming of age, summer vacation, bike adventures, ghost hunting. Something happens at the end that makes many of the things throughout the book make a lot of sense and makes this book more impactful than I thought it could be. ------------------- 4 out of 5 stars

Sally Rooney is a master at writing interpersonal relationships with realistic nuance and lovely descriptive prose. Her writing style is not for everybody, but if it's for you, it hits! This is probably my favorite of her novels. This is a book that I ended up relating to a lot. Sally does everything she's good at in this but she also pushes past romantic and platonic relationships and focuses her skills on tackling familial relationships. ------------------ 4.75 out of 5 stars

HrdBoildWndrlnd

3mo

My GOAT Victor Serge back again with another story about the scheming and terror that enveloped the Stalinist Soviet Union. Caught up in a purge, the main character is exiled to a small village far out on the frozen expanse of the USSR where he finds a small group of other exiled radicals. It's beautifully written, the cold of the small village feels so real it gives me shivers. The characters are all tragic, the entire thing feels hopeless, but Victor Serge still begs you to believe the world can be better if we keep trying.

My other GOAT Anna Kavan back with another one about how the world is an excessively cruel place, doubly so if you're a woman and a heroin addict. An unnamed woman lives with her abusive husband in British-colonial India and tries to find her escape in a stranger that passes frequently. Similar to but opposite of Midnight in the Century, the heat and humidity of India's jungle felt heavy as I was reading this. It's a grotesque book, horror at some points and comedy at others. The husband plays a game where he uses a tennis racquet to volley rats at his wife. It's insane. It's a quick read though it plays with perspective and truth in a way that probably rewards thoughtful reading or re-reading. Ice by Anna Kavan is my favorite book ever written, and this cements her talent as far better than a one-off.

Ok this one was actually fire. Usually these books are kind of s***ty in like a "this was written in 3 weeks" kind of way, but this one was cool. It introduces the idea of Jedi orthodoxy being stifling and alienating to the rest of the galaxy like 15 years before Last Jedi did it. It delves into the Yuuzhan Vong society in new and interesting ways, and the characters are far more three-dimensional than they've been in 99.9% of other Star Wars books. Greg Keyes also wrote an Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion book that I'm kind of interested in reading now lol

HrdBoildWndrlnd

3mo

My GOAT Victor Serge back again with another story about the scheming and terror that enveloped the Stalinist Soviet Union. Caught up in a purge, the main character is exiled to a small village far out on the frozen expanse of the USSR where he finds a small group of other exiled radicals. It's beautifully written, the cold of the small village feels so real it gives me shivers. The characters are all tragic, the entire thing feels hopeless, but Victor Serge still begs you to believe the world can be better if we keep trying.

My other GOAT Anna Kavan back with another one about how the world is an excessively cruel place, doubly so if you're a woman and a heroin addict. An unnamed woman lives with her abusive husband in British-colonial India and tries to find her escape in a stranger that passes frequently. Similar to but opposite of Midnight in the Century, the heat and humidity of India's jungle felt heavy as I was reading this. It's a grotesque book, horror at some points and comedy at others. The husband plays a game where he uses a tennis racquet to volley rats at his wife. It's insane. It's a quick read though it plays with perspective and truth in a way that probably rewards thoughtful reading or re-reading. Ice by Anna Kavan is my favorite book ever written, and this cements her talent as far better than a one-off.

Ok this one was actually fire. Usually these books are kind of s***ty in like a "this was written in 3 weeks" kind of way, but this one was cool. It introduces the idea of Jedi orthodoxy being stifling and alienating to the rest of the galaxy like 15 years before Last Jedi did it. It delves into the Yuuzhan Vong society in new and interesting ways, and the characters are far more three-dimensional than they've been in 99.9% of other Star Wars books. Greg Keyes also wrote an Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion book that I'm kind of interested in reading now lol

Smuchador

3mo

that tes book was aight and i ended up droppin it, wouldn't recommend it tbh

this is not an alt

3mo

Cover of that first book is beautiful

Smuchador

3mo

that tes book was aight and i ended up droppin it, wouldn't recommend it tbh

earthwalka

3mo

Luster by Raven Leilani

whew this was sort of a trip lol. This story follows the a black woman who begins an affair with this older white man (mid 40s) and one thing leads to another and she ends up moving in with him and his wife and adopted (black) daughter. I went it in fairly blind but think given the premise, i could see how people's expectations for spiciness and drama could be thwarted by a much more cerebral stream of consciousness. I'm not sure I am fully sold on the choices made to subvert expectations but I did enjoy my time reading this.

3.5/5

llama

4mo

Finished dracula by bram stoker cause it’s spooky season, the start of the book is crazy with Jonathon slowly realizing he’s stuck in the castle