I also read this book this month after a coworker leant it to me, amazing read imo

RF Kuang is one of my favorite authors rn! Can’t wait for her next book Katabasis

guess we all gon be reading Katabasis!

fs, would be a good choice for the book club when it comes out. I wanna read Yellowface too

waiting on your Song of Solomon review btw

im actually typing that up right now lmao

and yea Yellowface is on the list as well. a publishing house reached out to send me Katabasis early (im on booktok) so I hope i get it.

king

drop your booktok if you don't mind, been thinking about starting a page. must be going pretty well if you're getting advanced copies

Song of Solomon
Toni Morrison

Making it a tradition to read one Toni Morrison book a year. First year was The Bluest Eye, the second was Sula, and now we have arrived with Morrison's third novel, Song of Solomon. What's interesting about this one is that it features a male protagonist which was something she had not done before. The book follows Milkman, a young black man growing up in 1940s Michigan. He's a pretty well-off kid as his mother was the daughter of a doctor and his father is a landlord who owns several buildings in this small black town. As the story goes we are introduced to a wide cast of interesting complex characters.

Morrison has such a rich style of writing, every time I would sit down to read the book, I knew I would have to lock in completely. I enjoyed Milkman but I'd be lying if I said he was the most interesting character in the book, I found the time spent of Milkman's mother, aunt, cousin, and sisters led such deeply rich inner lives. I went to a book club that discussed this book and I brought this point to which many women responded in agreement and I think there was a point Milkman's... ineptitude. He is a man who has been spoiled his whole life and been propped up by all those that came before him and I love how the story is about Milkman uncovering his past and learning about his heritage and through that learns about himself. This is a deeply moving novel that I recommend everyone check out at some point in their lives.

I found some similarities to One Hundred Years of Solitude to this but maybe that was because I just read that one. Either way they both share a lot of the same qualities especially when it comes to its use of magical realism.

5/5

tiktok.com/@​thatgodwork?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc
preciate it king!

You should do it! my first few videos got massive views because I think the algorithm pushes you forward and that's how I was able to attain a pretty good following in the beginning and build a back and forth with a couple publishing houses. i don't get the same amount of views nowadays but I still enjoy doing it and who knows... one video might pop off again

Finally read this book. First Stephen King book I’ve ever read, and did so because I love the book Replay and all the recommendations I see for similar books always mention this one.

I will say this, it was extremely enjoyable/fun to read and the characters are well written. Is it worth 842 pages? F*** no lol. Again, first time reading King, so I don’t know if all of his other books are like this — but there was so much unnecessary description on almost every page. A lot of the overall plot was also very repetitive and unnecessary.

Biggest gripe I have with it though is that Jake has absolutely no connection to JFK, he’s even born 13 years after the assassination so to A) throw away your whole life in 2011 B) devote painstaking hours to kill his assassin and most importantly C) give up a life with the woman you love to kill Oswald when you have no idea what the world would even be like if JFK lived is just head scratching. Like I’d kind of buy it if he had some sort of personal connection to the person he’s trying to save from being assassinated, but it’s so random for him to care that much.

Now all that said, I get that it leads to the ending. And the ending really was great. So great, that I am happy I read it and can past my gripes with it. But no way do I feel like it’s better than Replay

I actually loved this. I could see why some could consider it bloated and slow at times though.

You’d probably like the show’s pacing more I think. It trims a loooot of fat & gets to the point quicker. I just hate the acting on the show.

Yeah I want to be clear, I loved reading it too. Those problems didn’t stop me from loving it, but they were just glaring to me and I felt like they were obvious ways that it could’ve been improved to make me love it even more.

Now the show on the other hand is a HOT disaster from the two episodes I’ve watched so far its campy to the point where I keep expecting them to look into the camera and wink (not just because of the acting, but also the writing — they butchered the story and dialogue)

Kinda funny too, cause I was just watching an interview between King and Tom Perrotta today and both this book and the Leftovers dropped around the same time (and both shows did as well). And from what I’ve heard (correct me if I’m wrong and I should read it) but the Leftovers book got kinda meh reception from people but the show is constantly referred to as one of the best of all time — and 11/22/58 is referred to as one of Kings best books, but the show is terrible

Yeah I was ranting the entire time watching the first episode w my gf and I never got past it to the second

It’s like very obvious that James Franco really liked the book and produced this so he can cast himself as Jake

true

Anyone read the Hyperion series? Is it good? I want a good sci fi story with multiple books. I need a change of pace from fantasy.

I've read the first 2 (Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion) and I enjoyed them a lot. Hyperion is structurally based on the old English novel The Canterbury Tales and consists of several main characters on a journey each telling the story of how they ended up on the journey. Some really great worldbuilding, and kind of a LOST style of storytelling where learning about the characters' pasts raises interesting questions about what they're doing on this journey.

Fall of Hyperion picks up right where Hyperion leaves off and continues the group's story forwards rather than through flashbacks. It leans more into space opera with the classic "republican government of allied planets" type s***. It definitely show some of Simmons' horror instincts.

The writing in both reminds me a lot of Orson Scott Card's Ender books, so if you like those I would recommend giving them a try. I have not read the final two but intend to off the strength of the first two

Thanks for the write up. I will start them.

Cool! Excited to hear what you think. One thing I forgot to mention: they four books are really two duologies, the third and fourth book are set hundreds of years after the first two and deal mostly with different characters. So if you're not vibing with it book two is a fine place to quit!

just finished this this morning and had an absolute blast. so many fun references and callouts to other media which I really appreciated. I have never watched the Spielberg movie so I’m excited to check that out as well.

8/10
There is something about Edward that reminds me so much of Tyler Durden: didn't expect it to turn into an history lesson, albeit a welcome one despite not being familiar with either the Kosovo war or with Russian history in such a detailed and complex way as the story delves. The visceral and more graphic parts of the book are a bit less easy to digest but still, a very solid biography that will make you wonder more than once how tf is possible someone like this man has really existed and walked among us lmao.

This is the absolute height of froth; perhaps even too slight for a beach read. Those with above-average or even just standard attention spans might cruise through all 400 pages in the course of a single afternoon; the formatting recalls a high school senior stretching to hit the required length on an end of year essay assignment. The authorial tone is about as professional and impartial as a high school senior, too. But is this a lot of fun? Yes!!

If you’d like to learn a little bit about a lot of things, if you need a reason to loathe Mormons, if you’re interested in hearing about some of the crazier mainstream culture of the late 60s/early 70s that’s been forgotten or discarded, or if you would benefit from being reminded that this country has always had a knack for producing wide swaths of bigoted, vocally opinionated morons, this will probably be highly entertaining! But it’s basically a three-episode Netflix limited series padded out to book length. Like one of their true crime docs, it’s fun to partake in; but afterwards you’re left with almost nothing except a growing awareness of your complaints with the material. Plus you just feel dumb reading a book where the chapters are four pages long at most. This could easily be culled from 400 pages to maaaaybe 150 just getting rid of empty space. That’s crazy!

6/10

Did u? currently jumped on the first, had sum trouble guessin who is who and the initial loredump can be disorientin but when u figured out everything it's a vibe.
Loved the Lost comparison, it's appealing and makes the mistery more juicy.

I haven't bought the books yet. Wanna finish 2-3 more books of Wheel of Time and Malazan first.

Naaaah dis s*** is crack, can't wait to see more of dis Shrike thing, I got my own theory on what it is
Might open a thread on the series

Our first read for Book Club To The on the Fable app and I loved this tbh. The magic system was unique and pretty complex for a standalone fantasy and I really enjoyed it. I liked the similarities to coding a lot. I don’t generally love romantic plots but the romantic plot in this is minor and realistic, given the situation. I liked the themes that ML Wang explored like facing the truth when all you’ve ever known were lies. That seems to be a prevalent theme in Wang’s writing in general. She is also a master at writing characters that grow from where they start at the beginning of her stories.

4.25/5 ⭐️

Golden Son & Morning Star are books 2 & 3 in the Red Rising trilogy, and wow!!! I haven't had this much pure fun reading a series in so long. This series made me feel the same feeling I felt when I read The Hunger Games in high school. The first book is good, but Golden Son and Morning Star both turned everything up 100 notches each. The end of Golden Son genuinely left me stunned and almost made me disregard my TBR and jump right into Morning Star. The character development throughout this series was also incredible, which idk how to get into without getting into spoiler territory lol. I felt every death and every betrayal in my gut. There was one death in particular that was on a Dobby from HP level to me. The political interest, the sci-fi elements, the action, the themes, and the characters were all key parts to an immense sum.

Golden Sun - 5/5 ⭐️
Morning Star - 6/5 ⭐️

This is prob my most anticipated release of the year! I hope a bookstore near me does a midnight release party but I doubt it lol