u/bahbamski

Wow.

What a tremendous novel. This is in I believe my top 5 of the year.

Akbar is a published poet, and this is his first novel. I would make a comparison to Queen, who was an opera singer. Now, I don’t like opera and I really don’t like poetry. But I do think Freddie Mercury was able to bring something to Queen that others without his training really couldn’t. Same with Akbar here. A novel written by a poet carries additional weight in the language. I found it such a pleasure to read, even though parts were heartbreaking.

The writing is beyond good. The main character is so deeply troubled and sad, but the way Akbar writes him, I mean this is a wrenching novel. It explores his family in Iran, being an immigrant, family tragedy, relationships, martyrdom (obviously).

There’s so many great one-liners. It’s surpassingly funny at points with some great irreverent takes on religion and death. There’s some hilarious and beautiful dream sequences. But it’s above all a very moving story. I know it’s a few years old but if you haven’t had the chance treat yourself and read this book.

Continuing with the classics, and this was a great one.

For those unfamiliar this is about a young man makes a magical bargain in which his portrait ages instead of him, which, I know sounds like the plot of a Goosebumps book. So I was a bit skeptical that this would deliver on all the wild hype this has.

For me, it totally did. It’s much darker than I expected, the plot moves at a quick pace, the writing is extraordinary, the characters are great.

It’s not a shallow ghost story either. There’s deep thematic exploration of morality, high society, ego and vanity. It’s really timeless, and I have to say the hype is real.

I was given a copy of “James” by Percival Everett as a gift, but I’d never read Huck Finn. So I figured I’d need to tackle this before I got into that one. Seemed appropriate.

I’ll say at the outset that if you decide to read this, get comfortable with racial slurs. It just comes with the territory. Be warned.

Once you get past that, the novel itself takes on a couple different styles. Part of it is just a young kid up to hijinks like a young adult novel. Part of it is an adventure novel; and the sections where Jim and Huck are just floating down the river taking the day as it comes amazingly captures a spirit of freedom in the open country. A deeper reading of it is watching Huck come to his own moral conclusions about Jim and his place in the world once the “civilized” influences of society are removed and it’s just the two of them.

I wouldn’t’ve given this a go were it not for being given “James”. I’m glad I read it, I can see why it gets regarded as an American classic even despite how parts of it maybe are uncomfortable.

For me, this was fine.

I didn’t find this to be an amazing novel, I think this belongs squarely in the “beach read” category. Nothing wrong with that at all, just not what I was expecting.

The characters are good (not great). The writing has its moments. The plot moves at a good pace and the events did leave me pretty satisfied. I really don’t have much to complain about other than it didn’t wow me.

Parts of this are really funny as well. I think Epsach is better at writing comedy than most. I think those moments are better written than the emotional parts (personally).

I did hear some people really steer away from this book because su*c*de is a fairly major plot point. For a lot of people who would prefer to not read about that, I don’t think this is for you. I didn’t mind it.

I LOVED this one.

I didn’t really know a great deal going into it at all. So what I got I was pleasantly surprised by. I didn’t know if it was a coming of age story or a love story, or what. I heard it described as a story of “people going through it” lol and I would generally agree with that.

Without giving too much away, this novel focuses on a young man and woman as they move from high school into adulthood and going through a little “will they/wont they”. Which I know sounds very young adult and I would not be interested in a novel described to me that way.

But parts of this are devastating, there are some wonderful tender moments, some deep insights, and a story that moves at a good clip. The characters are so vivid and honest they feel almost transparent.

One notion that really stood out to me was, these characters just want to be seen as normal - to blend in and not be ostracized or singled out. What would they give to accomplish this? Would you resort to cruelty or abuse, even of ones close to you ?

I thought it was so great. Could not recommend enough.

This was my first George Saunders book. I heard Lincoln in the Bardo was unbelievable but this I did not enjoy too much.

Supposedly it’s about an “angel”. But I’m confident that word is never used in this book, so “Jill” could just as easily be a ghost. I think that would be more appropriate because the antics that these … apparitions … get up to are so absurd that it reminded me of “Beetleguice” or “Casper the Friendly Ghost”.

And these slapstick antics are in the service of he main plot of convincing this Scrooge McDuck character that climate change is real.

It was a short book but keeping up with it felt like a whirlwind. Not to my taste. I’m still curious to try Lincoln in the Bardo.

I thought this was very good. It’s a post apocalyptic tale about a group of interconnected characters before and after a virus wipes out most of humanity.

The writing is great, the characters are rich and vibrant. It was made into an HBO mini series which is something.

I won’t give away too much, but I especially liked how the complete absence of technology after the pandemic impacted human connectivity. I recommend it.

This was a great one.

I would say though that it wasn’t what I expected. All I heard was that it was great and that it was about a group of friends, and the inside jacket made reference to farts. So for those reasons I was expecting a literary version of “The Sandlot”.

Now to some extent, I got that. Farts are discussed repeatedly. There’s some laugh out loud funny moments here, but there’s some dark moments as well. I mean these kids are really going through some stuff, and it’s so touching to see them bind together like penguins in the Arctic to overcome their respective situations. So it’s not all farts and s’mores.

The hype around this one is real. It’s an extremely touching story about this thing we call friendship. Highly recommend.

This was a good read.

This took me FOREVER to read though. Just something about Powers’s writing style worked like a lullaby on me every time. It’s very dreamy the way it’s written.

I was told that reading this would make you never look at trees the same way, and I think that proved true for me. Even though it’s a good book, it feels more like an important book.

It delves deep into the question of man’s relationship to the natural world. I felt like I was constantly learning something new, and constantly seeing some new perspective.

Very very good, and would very much recommend.

Ok, at the insistence of everyone I had to read this. It’s so well received, particularly for a debut novel, it’s been sitting on my TBR for months, I’ve been putting it off, and I finally bit the bullet and read it.

I will admit I was being (unintentionally) prejudicial against this book. The synopsis is that it’s about an old woman who writes letters(!). So I thought the target audience for this book would be, shall we say, bird watchers, bingo enthusiasts, AARP members, fans of Golden Girls… old people.

I’m reading too many books lately about “sweet old people” - “Theo of Golden”, “A Gentleman in Moscow”. So I was reluctant to go down this road again. So for that reason I have been putting this off for some time.

That said, I found that this book .. is fine. At points I would say even good.

The story is indeed told through letters, which is unique, and creative and fun, and perfect. The novel I believe is above all just a big love letter to the letter-writing medium. And that aspect is done SO well.

Then the characters come through these letters and they are vivid and textured and lively. And they are great.

Where it lost me was the story. I just didn’t get hooked in the narrative of it, and just wanted more to happen. There’s a few events which, to its credit, stood out. But overall, I found a lot of the plot points that did come through to be pretty predictable.

And all of this would be fine in most cases. But given the HYPE around this book (My God) I expected more. I was entertained, parts felt like a warm hug for sure, it gets points certainly for having a unique storytelling structure. But unfortunately for me it just fell short of its astronomical hype.

I know this one is everywhere at the the moment and I know it’s really divisive. In my experience whenever there’s a split of opinion about a book I almost always fall on the negative side, and end up not enjoying it (*AHEM* Tomorrow, Tomorrow, Tomorrow *AHEM*). So my expectations were not high for this book. BUT, I found myself enjoying this and was actually pleasantly surprised.

I’m not exactly sure what I was expecting. Since it’s about a trad-wife who is magically sent back to the mid 19th century, I thought this book was going to be powered by schadenfreude. That we were going to establish the main character as reprehensible, laugh at her as she struggled, perhaps glean a meaningful lesson and that’s that.

And yes a lot of that is there. But it does I think get deeper than that and leaves us with a good amount to chew on. It’s I think just a great exploration of modern feminism, the impact of social media, gender roles, the manosphere.And there’s also the “Quantum Leap” mystery of how this woman ended up in the past in the first place.

I was ready to snub my nose at it, but I got sucked in and would recommend this one. I hear Anne Hathaway has the rights to it now? Let’s see how that goes.

Which do you guys recommend I tackle next?

Hi there. First time poster in this group. I’ve just finished reading this novel and I think I’m preaching to the choir here when I say just how remarkable this experience was.

This is my 3rd Dostoyevsky novel. First two were “Notes from the underground” and “Crime and Punishment” respectfully. I’ve heard this is his best work and I wasn’t disappointed.

I’m looking forward to reading the Idiot later this year. But I need a break for now.

Well, I had to do it. Every list of greatest novels has this close to the top so I had to give it an honest go, and I am so so so glad I did. This did not disappoint. It could be the best book I’ve ever read.

I will say, this was an endeavor on my part. Because it’s so highly regarded, and there’s a translation in play, and so many characters, and the ideas in it are so dense & profound I really had to take my time with it. At times I had to take a break and read chapter reviews online because I didn’t want to miss anything that might be important later on.

But man oh man is it worth it. It’s an ingenious plot. It’s an Agatha Christie whodunnit combined with a family melodrama, combined with a philosophical discussions on justice, love, faith, freedom, suffering, everything. It’s got it all. And it’s compelling !

I would say if you haven’t read it and maybe you feel like you’re reading a lot of the same stuff repeatedly and maybe you feel like challenging yourself, I would really give this a try. This is some world class writing.

A real quick one ~125 pages. This one has been on my shelf for a while and finally decided to tackle it. It’s very good, but didn’t make me feel good. It’s about Anna and Tom, a couple who are influencers/digital content creators living in Berlin. Their life is perfect on instagram but the reality is less so.

We watch them deal with modern problems like social media addiction and gentrification but also old ones like mid-life crises and keeping up with the Joneses. They love their lives as digital nomads, all their connections are ephemeral and temporary. If they choose, they have no fixed address.

You watch them live their lives and it reads like a sick joke. I wanted Anna and Tom to lift their heads above their laptops and just be like “Really?! This is what we’re doing as a society ?!”

10/10 for being a good read.
0/10 for bumming me out.

This book is AWESOME !

This was so refreshing because I’ve had a run of so-so books and this one seemed to really shocked me back out of a daze. I know this is an older one (2017) and I’m a bit late to the party but I just kept seeing it everywhere and decided to give it a shot. And I’m so glad I did, because it’s been a while since I haven’t been able to put a book down.

This is an epic multi generational tale of a Korean family living in Japan spanning over most of the 20th century. It explores identity, family, love, success, culture, everything. The characters are so vivid, the history comes alive, it just feels grand in scope and depth. It’s heartwarming, it’s tragic, it’s entertaining, it’s educational. Everything just grabs you.

This was a DELIGHT to read, and one of the top books I’ve read so far this year.

I’m sorry, but I didn’t like it.

I know this book is everywhere. I just took a flight across the US and I saw two people reading it. It’s in all the stores everywhere. It’s #1 on the NYT best sellers right now, and it’s the highest rated on Goodreads for my TBR.

Maybe it’s because I just read ‘A Gentleman in Moscow’ and I could be worn out a little on ‘sweet old man-core’.

But this a debut novel and it’s had tremendous success. How do I explain my thoughts on this? This is a very sweet old man who comes to town with seemingly unlimited money and a true heart of gold. As he immediately sets out listening to (and fixing) everyone’s problems, there’s very little conflict.

I also just didn’t like the vignette style of storytelling for the background of each character. Nearly everyone in the town seems to be involved in the arts in some way, so there’s lots of writing about painting and music.

The vibe to me was very much like the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” books from the 90s. I know people love this book but I just got too much of a “Live Laugh Love” sentiment from it.

This is a bit of a departure from the novels I’ve been reading lately. This is a thoroughly researched and chilling telling of a true story of a gruesome mass murder in 1959 in Kansas. It’s one of the first example of what I guess you would call ‘new journalism’, like Hunter S Thompson. It’s very good, very well written. Apparently it was very controversial when it came out because it did a very good job of humanizing the perpetrators. Very interesting.

This is just a nice book about a man on house arrest in a nice hotel in Moscow (think Julian Assange living in that embassy). I thought there would be more history to it, but this novel really focuses on this character and the relationships he forms while incarcerated in this hotel. There are some really touching moments and the writing is great.