I love linky in the bardy and his short stories but everything I've heard about that new one just has it sounding a bit crap

The Count of Monte Cristo

Flawless, captivating and fulfilling. It’s the greatest get back ever told.

AI curses or courses?

yea it was just simply weak and too much of a rehash of LITB and similar works. felt mailed in

I really like Saunders when he goes a little out there in a sci-fi or speculative fiction direction. Bounty from CivilWarLand in Bad Decline is probably my favorite of his, wish he'd go more in that direction for a full novel

He said Kubrick dropped him like a bad habit as soon as it became convenient. Curses his name.

Written by Wurlitzer in the 70s as a movie script that Sam Peckinpah and Hal Ashby were attached to at one time or another. Stolen by Jim Jarmusch and turned into the movie Dead Man. Finally released as a novel in the 00s. Trippy, crude, and violent account of the Gold Rush as the apocalypse. Breezy read.

Wow I had no idea that No Other Choice was based off of a book..might have to read this

just finished story of your life short story (what the movie arrival is based off)

god damn beautiful

Trying to read more this year. Year after graduating i did 20 books and have done 1-2/yr since then, trying to get back to thast 20 number even though i started late.

Got this as a christmas present a couple of years ago.
Kept me captivated especially near the end, but the constant storyline speedups/author self insertion, and trying to make it historically accurate then mentioning memes when its supposed to be 2001 for ie.
Overall I liked it and Zevin is a great writer.

Next on my list: no order
ubik - Philip K. D***
The Man in the High Castle - Philip K. D***
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert M. Pirsig
1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows - Weiwei Ai
the fall of hyperion - Dan Simmons
letter from a stoic - seneca
timeless - r.a. salvatore

Bartleby, The Scrivener by Herman Melville (1853) 64 pages

very short novella about a mysterious man in an office who when asked to complete his duties responds, "I prefer not to". much different reading experience than Moby D***, Melville creates a humorous story that on its surface seems simple but carries a lot of meaning regarding work, purpose, capitalism, technology, etc. quick read that I read for the next book but I enjoyed this a lot

8.4/10

Barlteby & Co by Enrique Vila-Matas (2000) 178 pages

experimental novel by a Spanish author that is written from the perspective of a young struggling writer who starts to write about other Bartleby's (authors who said no and stopped writing) in the literary world. I liked the concept but not so much the execution. wasn't really feeling the prose, maybe because I sometimes struggle with authors from Spain, and about halfway through it started to get tedious and repetitive. a lot of literary references, some of which were interesting but the majority went over my head and by the end I was just glad to finish it

6.3/10

The Big Blowdown by George Pelecanos (1996) 313 pages

crime novel by the author who was one of the main writers on The Wire. you can see the similarities with the deep cast of multidimensional characters that made The Wire so special. the story focuses on two friends in the DC area who go off to war, go down different paths, and try to find their way in the world once they get back to DC. tore through this one in a few days as it had witty writing and an engaging story. definitely a must read for any crime fiction fans, I'll have to check out Pelecanos' other work

8.6/10

Eleanor is like if Stephen King's Carrie was the star of a show like Fleabag. There's a whole psych genre twist. Funny and then dark. A good pick to read with a woman.

Lolly is a progressive take on witchcraft as feminist liberation. It's slow to get there but really finishes strong. Brilliant writing. Nice short read all in all. I wish it was longer. Part of the NYRB collection. One of the worst forewords I've ever read. Glad I saved it for after. Mostly just a synopsis of the entire book.

Just finished The Dialogues of Plato. Challenging read but really cool if you wanna look at dialectic dynamics and rhetoric in general. 8/10

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt (2011) 328 pages

western novel set on the west coast in the mid 19th century about two outlaw brothers who are hired killers trying to track down a man with a lucrative invention. easy read but I was pretty underwhelmed by the writing and characterization. when you've read the western classics like The Border Trilogy or Lonesome Dove, it's hard for a similar novel with mediocre writing to stack up

6.6/10

Sula by Toni Morrison (1973) 174 pages

Toni is in a class of her own and her writing shines as usual in this short novel about two friends in a changing town in the early 20th century in Ohio. Morrison's prose is always just so captivating and hypnotic. not only did this novel capture the complexities of (female) friendship but also the sense of community and how both of those can evolve throughout the years. Song of Solomon is still my favorite work of hers but this was excellent as well

8.4/10

Crónica de una muerte anunciada (Chronicle of a Death Foretold) by Gabriel García Márquez (1981) 118 pages

novella about a small town in Colombia that witnesses the murder of a man after a wedding. like Sula, this story focused on the community and how they react to and remember the murder. the Spanish was a bit difficult for me at times but this was a tight narrative that was well written and spoke to the ideas of class, destiny and honor

7.9/10

7/10

Haven't been back here in a minute, miss y'all thanks for sharing about what you've been reading.

Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe

Things Fall Apart was very affecting to me when I was in high school, so I decided to return to Achebe's works about colonial Nigeria. There's a cool Shakespearean quality to this one, a prophecy at the beginning spells doom for a landowning family of the priest caste in Nigeria. The book oscillates between following members of this family and members of the British Colonial Mission in Nigeria as they seek to use the priest to bring the Nigerians under control. The novel centers around the Nigerians competing beliefs in Christianity and their traditional religion. It's a straightforward tragedy, the reader can see the approaching doom gathering on the horizon like storm clouds from miles away. It's well written, filled with Nigerian idioms and colloquialisms that lend texture to the book. Ultimately for such a predictable plot it felt slow and overfull.

The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares

A fugitive loses his mind on an island that may or may not be deserted, depending on your point of view. Reminded me of the best of Borges, a story about love and obsession, and what it means to live forever or if we should even want that. Reading the plot summary it might be easy to believe that this is a novel that drags on, but the diary-like construction of the book and the quick pace prevent it from being a slog. The feeling of dread is palpable, the insanity of the diary writer feels believable and recognizable, while still being terrifying. It's impressive to capture something so human in the written word.

The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño

I don't even know what to say about this one. Widely recognized as the magnum opus from my favorite author, this book bleeds humanity through every word. Structured in 3 parts, the first and last parts contain the diary of a teenage poet in Mexico City meeting Arturo Belano and Ulises Lima, the founders of the political-poetic movement Visceral Realism. The diary chronicles the young person growing to become a part of the movement and is basically a coming-of-age story. The middle part of the novel is ~400 pages of interviews with people who met Belano and Lima in the 20 years after the diary takes place. The dialogue and characters feel real and palpable, the locations are written about with such care that I felt transported. It's no mistake that Bolaño named the movement Visceral Realism: it was impossible for me not to truly ~feel~ the book happening around me as I was reading. The overlapping voices in a Mexico City cantina, the beating sun of the Israeli desert, the fear of an Austrian park after dark. It's also somewhat an autobiography, Bolaño bases the character Belano on himself, and the story is in many ways a retelling of his exile to Mexico City and his creation of the Infrarealismo poetry movement.

I don't know that I entirely feel like I ""got it"" per se, at times it's about the futility of art in the face of real life, or about the unknowable portions of other humans, or about how ill-prepared the youth is to confront the horrors of state violence. But it's just gorgeous. At every moment reading it I felt transported to the time, place, and company where the novel was occurring. It's haunting, and truly like no other book. But I may also think that because (before reading this) I was entirely bought-in to Bolaño's fictional shared universe after loving Amulet and 2666 (and all the rest of his novels). I would love to hear anyone else's thoughts about this one if they read it, it's all I can think about since finishing a month ago

Savage Detectives really is one of those books thay you just don't stop thinking about once you've finished. One thing I really love about that long middle section is how those main characters just sort of gradually dissolve into myth. Been years since I read it now and the duel vignette still pops into my head all the time

Totally, it's weird to think about Bolaño writing himself basically fading into mundanity and obscurity, while also making himself a lasting and towering figure. Both in the book in all these people's lives, but also in real life with the publication of this book! S*** is crazy

loved The Savage Detectives. it's one of my favorite novels of all time and I read it both in English and Spanish and was moved in different ways. definitely my favorite work by Bolaño and the characters have stuck with me for years

one of the biggest impressions that book left on me that kind of speaks to your point is that we are the memories we leave behind. the small interactions that you have with a person for a few months in your life or even just a day create a tapestry of lives you've impacted, whether big or small. this is especially true for a rolling stone like Bolaño/Belano and while reading the novel both times I couldn't help but think, if a journalist were to interview people I've come across in my life, what would they remember about me?

just an amazing book

It’s also tragic because Belano & Lima become tiny footnotes. Even the expert journalist who tries to historicize the movement does so in fragments, hearsay and contradictions; and ends up forgetting Madero even existed.

I absolutely loved the first part, it’s such a beautiful vignette of a coming of age story in Mexico. The kids just hanging out at the Font’s house was such a joy to read

“When we went out into the courtyard I realized that the sun was already coming up. For the first time that night I could see my lover a little more clearly.”

Truly! I think about this a lot since my dad passed years ago, like the real afterlife is how people remember us and how we affected them. What I can't decide is whether the story is tragic (all of the interviewee's memories of Belano range from mundane to hateful) or happy that so many people remember him at all.

I'm also still trying to find what ties Belano and Lima's search for Tinajero to the portion of the book about the interviews. And why was Tinajero talking about the year 26XX??

Yeah, the whole portion of the interviews has this weird haunting affect because someone cares enough to try to track down all info they can about Belano and Lima, and the book is clearly asking us to care, but there really isn't anything notable that happens after Sonora 1976. Which is also kind of the power of the book, nothing amazing happens the entire time, and yet it feels like this powerful object the more I read of it.

I agree about the Mexico City portions, Bolaño is such a good writer I would probably have loved the book all the same if it was just the story of Madero's life among the Visceral Realists

A fun and quirky little read. Not the coming-of-age story you might expect. More of a screwball comedy full of mispronunciations and malapropisms and absurd touches. It takes place over the course of a weekend and the French identity is lampooned as being whatever anyone finds convenient. I've heard more praise for the movie so I'm excited to give that a whirl.

Just finished this a couple days ago. My first fiction read in many years and I really enjoyed it all the way through, tho I feel they kinda dropped the ball in the end lol

Which Cult Should I Join? By Jo Stewart. Great satirical book about real cults with random cults around the world and throughout history with random facts on each, really interesting and also hilarious, didn’t know Charles Manson once joined and then left Scientology because it was ”too crazy” you can read the whole book in about 20 minutes maybe 30, really fun read