Literary Classics & Library

I read The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett out of curiosity and I absolutely fell in love! I'm a heavy sci-fi and fantasy reader but I just wasn't feeling any of my TBRs so I tried reading Pillars and oh wow I couldn't put it down! The world building and characters are just so well-developed and the pacing is immaculate UGH i just LOVED it

Now I'm on World Without End and am thinking of going further into the series (and the Century Trilogy)! Can't wait!

Please drop your great historical fiction recs because I'd love to explore this genre more! And please tell me this is a worthwhile rabbit hole haha.

Welcome back for our final check in of The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis!

For a place to note your thoughts (and to keep track of events - this series spans many years!), head over to our marginalia post here -- but beware of spoilers! The marginalia post also contains links to the other discussions for this series.

Speaking of spoilers: while Narnia is an older series, that does not mean everyone has read it! Please use spoiler tags when referencing any later events in this series. When in doubt, err on the side of caution and use a tag!

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Chapter 10: 

Finally in the greener land of Archenland, our group spots Prince Rabadash’s army quickly approaching across the desert. The horses run as fast as they can but their journey has taken a toll on them and they quickly tire. As Bree pulls ahead of Hwin, Shasta turns around to see a giant lion closing in on the girls, and he begs Bree to turn around. When Bree doesn’t respond, Shasta throws himself off and stumbles back to help as the lion strikes at Aravis. To Shasta’s (and our) surprise, the lion is fended off by a shout. Both Aravis and Hwin are injured, but as the lion leaves, the Hermit of the Southern Marsh approaches to help. 

Shasta continues on to find King Lune on his own while Aravis and the horses stay behind with the hermit to recuperate. Aravis believes that Shasta will be successful, but Bree declares that he will enter back into slavery as he is ashamed that he didn’t help fend off the lion. The Hermit chastises the warhorse and tells him to being humbled isn’t a bad thing. 

Chapter 11: 

Shasta does find King Lune. After clarifying that he is not Prince Corin, Shasta relays the message about the approaching Prince Rabadash. The King quickly agrees with him and provides him with a horse. However, Shasta struggles with his horse and is quickly left behind, having to hide from Prince Rabadash’s group. He overhears Rabadash’s plans for assaulting King Lune’s castle and attacking Narnia. 

After Rabadash’s 200 men move on, Shasta is alone with his horse. Lost and cold, he cries about how exhausted and unfortunate he is when suddenly a Large Voice speaks to him. Using its warm breath to assure Shasta that it is not a ghost, the voice explains to Shasta that there was only ever one lion on this journey – Aslan has been by his side the whole time. When Aslan reveals himself to Shasta, we learn that Shasta has never heard of Aslan; but even he can tell that he is in the presence of a true High King. When Aslan departs, Shasta again finds himself alone with his horse. 

Chapter 12: 

In the morning, Shasta wonders if his entire encounter with Aslan was a dream before he realizes that he has somehow crossed the mountains into Narnia. 

In Narnia, Shasta is quickly swept up into the lives of the talking animals. First a hedgehog, then Rabbit, then more creatures appear and Shasta tells them all of the incoming threat. Finally, it is the dwarf Duffle who agrees to send the message. After having lunch with the dwarf and his kin, Shasta falls asleep only to awaken later to the sound of trumpets. Lord Peridan of Narnia had arrived at the home of the dwarfs along with King Edmund, Queen Lucy, and Corin. Shasta is finally able to relay his message to Narnian loyalty. Corin is eager to fight but has been forbidden by Edmund. However, after the dwarf Thornbut is injured, Edmund declares that Shasta can wear the dwarf’s armor for battle. 

Chapter 13: 

Shasta and the Narnian army arrive at King Lune’s castle, Anvard, to see Prince Rabadash’s men battering the walls.  

From afar, the Hermit observes the battle and relays everything to Aravis, Bree, and Hwin. Once the battle is over, an exhausted Shasta falls from his horse. The remaining Calormenes have been taken prisoner, and Rabadash has gotten himself stuck to a wall thanks to a hole in his mail. Rabadash insists on fighting but the Narnians take his sword and carry him off. 

Corin brings Shasta to King Lune. With the boys finally side by side, most are surprised. King Lune takes Shasta and kisses him on the cheeks to cheers from the crowd. 

Chapter 14: 

Learning that Shasta has survived battle, Hwin is eager to continue into Narnia, but Bree would rather wait until he is more presentable. When asked why he always says expressions such as, “By the Lion”, Bree begins to explain about Aslan and how he isn’t really a lion, but he is interrupted by the very lion Himself leaping into the wall. 

Aslan promises Hwin that she will find joy and invites Bree to touch him to prove that he is actually a lion before declaring that there is another visitor coming. 

Prince Cor arrives but is quickly revealed by his clumsy bow to by Shasta. He explains the story of what happened after his birth: Born a twin, there was a rumor that Prince Cor would one day save Archenland from great danger. Lord Bar, a spy of the Tistorc, kidnapped Cor and attempted to bring him to Calormen. King Lune gave chase and killed Lord Bar but Cor had been sent with a single knight on a smaller boat. Eventually, he was found by Arsheesh and renamed Shasta. 

His role in stopping Prince Rabadash fulfilled the prophecy. Cor also says that King Lune would like Aravis to live with them as they had had no ladies at court since the death of the queen. Cor and Aravis, walking with Hwin and Bree (as you don’t ride talking horses in Narnia or Archenland, except in times of great need), head north. 

Chapter 15: 

Arriving at court, Aravis tells King Lune how Cor had saved her from the lion. At lunch later with Edmund and Lucy, the group agree not to kill Rabadash. Once at trial, Rabadash is defiant and continues to threaten the others. Aslan arrives and foretells Rabadash’s doom unless he changes his ways. When Rabadash accuses Aslan of being a demon, the lion changes him into a donkey. His small mercy is that if he goes to the temple of Tash and remains within a ten-mile radius, he can change back into a man. If he strays beyond that limit, he will forever be a donkey.  

Rabadash later becomes the most peaceful Tisroc in Calormen history, as it is very hard to wage war when you can’t go beyond 10 miles of a temple. However, he is forever known as Rabadash the Ridiculous due to his time as a donkey. 

After Rabadash is sent off, there is a feast to celebrate. King Lune then tells Cor that he is next in line for the throne due to being 20 minutes older than Corin. Cor tries to say no, but Corin is glad to be free of the responsibility.  

In the future, Cor and Corin will quarrel like brothers, but Cor is stronger in battle. Cor also quarrels with Aravis, but not too badly: they end up married and become King and Queen of Archenland upon King Lune’s death. Both Bree and Hwin also get married in Narnia, but not to each other. They often visit Anvard to see their old friends. 

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Fun Fact: The Horse and His Boy was written before The Silver Chair, despite being published after. As such, there is a bit of a spoiler! (As we have already read The Silver Chair, it is not considered a spoiler for us). Did you catch it?

>And when all the serious eating and drinking was over, a blind poet came forward and struck up the grand old tale of Prince Cor and Aravis and the horse Bree, which is called The Horse and His Boy and tells an adventure that happened in Narnia and Calormen and the lands between in the Golden Age when Peter was High King in Cair Paravel. (I haven’t time to tell it now although it is worth hearing.)

Another fun fact? This is our first Narnian read that did not take place in multiple worlds: we remained in Narnia the whole time!  

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Next week, we will be starting our next book, The Magician's Nephew. See you there!

I really like understanding our world better. I really liked Sapians, Thinking Fast and Slow, Of Boys and Men, etc. Anything that’s going to teach me something about our current understanding of science, sociology, etc.

Welcome to our next discussion of The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman!  This week, we will discuss Chapters 11-15. You can find the Schedule here and the Marginalia is linked here.  

References to the books we've read so far in His Dark Materials and The Book of Dust will not be considered spoilers.  Please use spoiler tags to hide references to other books/media or anything from later in this book such as chapters we haven't read yet. You can mark spoilers using the format > ! Spoiler text here ! < (without any spaces between the symbols themselves or between the symbols and the first and last words). 

Discussion questions for this week’s chapters are in the comments below. Feel free to add your own questions or thoughts, as well! In case you need a refresher, here is a recap of our reading for this week! 

~+~+~CHAPTER SUMMARIES~+~+~

CHAPTER 11 - THE KNOT:  Lyra wakes up to find Pan missing. He left her a note that said he's gone to find her missing imagination. In a panic, Lyra realizes that she can't show herself (dæmonless) in public and is probably in a lot of danger, so she leaves the Trout and heads to see her friend Dick Orchard. She wants to meet his gyptian grandfather Giorgio, who she thinks could help her find Farder Coram.  Dick gives her a neckerchief tied in a knot that is a sort of SOS signal for gyptians. Lyra finds Giorgio Brabandt with his keeshond dæmon on his boat, The Maid of Portugal.  He says they still talk about Lyra Silvertongue and the voyage north, and he feels the gyptians owe her for bringing back all those children. Giorgio agrees to help her get to the Fens where she can hide and where hopefully Farder Coram will have some idea of what to do. 

Meanwhile, Marcel Delamare meets with a Tartar man who has returned from Karamakan with the rose oil he was paid to retrieve. The oil is painful to the eye but produces visions such as those described in the poem Jahan and Rukhsana: the two lovers enter a rose garden, guided by the king of birds, and see visions that reveal many truths. The man is instructed to wait for payment at his hotel until Delamare has tested the oil himself. Delamare has many questions about who else knows of the oil, where it was purchased, and who else wanted it. He is interested in hearing about the men who destroyed the research station at Tashbulak because they believed the work to be blasphemous.  Delamare writes to the Rector of the College of Theophysical Research before refocusing on his preparations for the upcoming congress of the Magisterium. 

Malcolm arrives at the Trout eager to check in with Lyra, but finds her gone. He alerts Alice, who promises to keep an eye out and have the original Jordan servants look, as well. He visits Hannah to tell her about Lyra as well as the Botanic Garden business. She says she can ask the alethiometer why Lyra left so it will be easier to track her down.  Hannah reveals she can tell Malcolm is in love with Lyra and warns him not to let it affect his judgment. 

CHAPTER 12 - THE DEAD MOON:  Lyra helps cook and clean for Giorgio Brabandt as they sail. The rest of her time is spent studying the alethiometer using the classical method, worrying about Pan, and dodging Brabandt’s questions about the CCD.  He tells Lyra about how the secret commonwealth - the fairies and ghosts and the like - are generally on the side of the gyptians and even help chase off the CCD from time to time. He also tells her about the time the bogles killed the moon and buried her under a huge stone, but she was rescued by gyptians. Master Brabandt suspects Lyra doesn't believe in anything like this, and she struggles a bit with the tension between thinking such beliefs are a comfort to people and knowing that the author of The Hyperchorasmians would look down on it.  But Lyra tells him about how she's seen ghosts and been suckled by Diania, the fairy of the River Thames, when she was a baby.  She recalls how Ma Costa said Lyra had witch oil in her soul.  She asks Master Brabandt about the Blue Hotel and he explains it isn't a hotel at all, but an ancient city in the Levant where the Huns once slaughtered everyone, leaving it haunted by the dæmons of the dead. 

Olivier Bonneville is having no luck locating Lyra for Delamare, who is too preoccupied with the upcoming congress to supervise Olivier. He uses the new method to seek her out, trying to focus on a photo of Lyra to aid his concentration.  This results in Olivier seeing through Delamare’s own eyes to gaze on the creepy stalker vision board that Delamare has made using dozens of photograms of Lyra through the years.  Olivier realizes that his boss is obsessed with this girl for personal reasons and thinks it's creepy.  He decides to go analog and try talking to people about Delamare and his connection to Lyra. 

Malcolm and Asta decide to play detective, too. They go looking for information from the man Lyra mentioned who was involved in the murder, Benny Morris. Malcolm pretends to be visiting Morris as a representative of the Royal Mail, his employer, to gather information for his injury compensation claim. Malcolm tricks Morris into revealing his connection to the crime and to the crooked policeman, George Paston. He forces Morris to reveal that Paston takes orders from Simon Talbot of Cardinal’s College.  

CHAPTER 13 - THE ZEPPELIN:  Pan hates being away from Lyra but knows he has to save her from dogmatic certainty. He is seeking Gottfried Brande, the author of The Hyperchorasmians, so he can return Lyra's stolen imagination. 

The Oakley Street gang meet to discuss recent developments and organize for their next steps.  Charles Capes will work on finding connections between Talbot, Paston, and the Magisterium. Malcolm will focus on the rose oil and the trouble in the Levant. Hanna will continue using the alethiometer to find Lyra. Capes updates the group on the Congress of the Magisterium, which is the first in centuries and probably indicates they are gearing up for a war or conflict. Capes explains that Marcel Delamare and his organization - The League for the Instaturation of the Holy Purpose which is housed at La Maison Juste - are driving this push. A glimmer catches Malcolm's eye and the spangled ring appears in his vision which widens his perspective on the Oakley Street group. They seem silly and ineffectual up against the Magisterium.  As he looks at each person, the ring focuses on them and makes them each seem very valuable. 

The Magisterium is a messy organization of rival bodies and orders with a loose hierarchy and no single line of command. The leaders of these groups, fifty three in all, have assembled for the congress at the Secretariat of the Holy Prefecture, whose Prefect chairs the meeting (but is really just reading a speech written by Marcel Delamare. Secretly, Delamare has been leveraging his political influence and influencing things behind the scenes to get the outcome he wants. A smaller leadership committee will be formed and he's ensured who will be on it and in charge. 

Brabandt is just telling Lyra how they know they're in the Fens when he suddenly cuts the lights and engine. There's a zeppelin above them and he doesn't want to be spotted. A search light begins panning across the marsh as they float in darkness and silence, and then the zeppelin drops flares. A few twinkling marshlights appear; Brabandt says they're jacky lanterns or will o’ the wykeses, although Lyra thinks they can probably be explained by a natural phenomenon like methane.  The marshlights seem to attack a flare. When the zeppelin drops a bomb on the marsh, the lights go wild and make so much light that their boat is starkly visible. Lyra grabs the alethiometer to find out what's happening, but it's too dark to read. She struggles with her next idea because she considers the magical stories to be nonsense, but she has the urge to call on the secret commonwealth and Pan for help. Lyra closes her eyes and imagines Pan herding the marshlights for her and directing them.  Brabandt is amazed to see that the marshlights are concentrating around a single area and chasing a white bird (possibly a heron, although he thinks it is a flying boggart) right into the zeppelin.  It explodes in flames and crashes into the water, its crew diving out the sides. Brabandt thinks no one could survive such a crash and believes the secret commonwealth was involved. Lyra feels that she caused it to happen. Despite the horror of the zeppelin's death, they tuck into a hearty hash for dinner. 

CHAPTER 14 - THE CAFÉ COSMOPOLITAIN:  Dick Orchard goes to the Trout to tell Malcolm about where Lyra probably went. Since Malcolm is heading out of town, he asks Dick to get in touch with Alice and Hannah, who will want to know about Lyra and anything information he has about Benny Morris. He also says that Pan might show up looking for help like Lyra did… if he comes back. 

Pan waits for some sailors to steal a propeller so he can take his chance to stow away on a boat called the Elsa. He wants to be on it because it's heading for Cuxhaven, a town in the river Elbe, which he can travel along to get to Wittenburg, the hometown of Gottfried Brande. Determined to bring Lyra's imagination back, Pan hides on the Elsa and falls asleep.  

Delamare has been observing the debate during the first day of the congress, and whipping the vote in between sessions. He knows which people to give attention to and what they want to hear. To an elderly Patriarch from Constantinople, he describes how a representative council would help deal with the troubles in the Levant by providing more unified leadership. He flatters a reserved Abbess just enough to help her see she could humbly accept a place on the council to serve with modesty.  Delamare is gradually turning the votes in his favor.  That evening, delegates are chatting over brantwijn about who would make good additions to the council. Simon Talbot introduces himself as a journalist reporting for the Journal of Moral Philosophy and adds his voice in support of Marcel Delamare as a member of the council. This is echoed by corporate sponsors as well. 

At the Café Cosmopolitain, Olivier Bonneville is watching a man named Matthias Sylberberg, who attended school with Marcel Delamare. Sylberberg’s companions are Pochinsky, an art critic, and Rattin, who works for Sylberberg.  Bonneville contrives a way to introduce himself and spends some time flattering the older men and chatting with them.  They have questions for him about his work at La Maison Juste and he gives a very flattering picture of his brilliant employer Delamare and their important work to blend spiritual life with worldly life. All the while, his dæmon is talking to Rattin’s.  Later, they compare notes and it is revealed that Sylberberg knew Delamare at school as well as his sister, a beautiful English woman who used to work for the Magisterium but disappeared. She had a child named Lyra Belacqua, which makes Delamare Lyra's uncle! 

CHAPTER 15 - LETTERS:  Lyra arrives in the Fens and pays her respects to Orlando Faa before going to see her friends. Ma Costa welcomes her warmly and offers her a place to stay. Farder Coram is elderly and dozes often, but he is still overjoyed to see Lyra and wants to help her. They talk a lot about Lyra's experiences, Malcolm's good character, and Oakley Street history.  Farder Coram cautions her that the CCD and Magisterium are stronger than ever while Oakley Street is struggling, because evil has nothing to hold it back from doing what it wants while good will always have obstacles to overcome.  Farder Coram asks Lyra what she wants, and Lyra begins to tell him about a dream she had. She played with a dæmon who liked her and made her feel happy, and she is starting to think that if she went to the Blue Hotel, she could find that dæmon again…but she'd have to find Pan first because you need a dæmon to enter.  Lyra lets Farder Coram rest and he promises to come up with some ideas for her that evening. 

Lyra gets a letter from Malcolm which encourages her to learn all about Oakley Street and reassures her that everyone misses her.  The servants at Jordan are up in arms that she may have been arrested by the CCD and the Master could be to blame. Malcolm tells her he is going to the Levant and he is happy she'll be safe with the gyptians. Lyra replies with a letter thanking him for his care and help. She tells Malcolm that she feels she knows something about the red building but can't quite grasp it, and hopes to dream of it again. She wonders if she might see him there because she feels she needs to travel to Karamakan if she finds Pan at the Blue Hotel. She hopes that she and Malcolm will get the chance to talk more, and she says she is glad they are friends. 

Pan is hidden away on the Elsa and has strange dreams or experiences. He seems to be surrounded by ghosts who seek out his warmth.  Two sailors come down to the hold for supplies and take the time for a smoke, so Pan overhears their gossip about the captain. They are supposed to take on passengers when they make port, but not the paying kind. They will be smuggling people with no official papers to become slave-like laborers for a farmer the captain made a deal with.  One of the sailors hopes to quit when he gets his pay, but the other figures the captain will just withhold their salaries so that doesn't happen. Pan wonders if the ghosts he saw were just dreams, because he is completely alone.

Just finished reading *The Exorcist* and I want more. The ending was very anticlimactic in my opinion. Other than that, it was such a great read. Had me hooked up during my boring night shifts.

I think I will have to watch the movie and see if it was tweaked or faithful to the book. The author made sure to confuse us if this is a psychological thriller or a supernatural horror till almost the end. Of course, reading a horror genre book isn’t going to give the jump scares but it didn’t fail to give me some creeps (maybe because I work night shift alone and recently I’ve watched the Obsession movie, but you never know).

Funnily enough, Regan cussing had me laughing out loud.Father Merrin’s minuscule subplot could have been avoided as I don’t see it adding anything important to the main plot. >!He came, he saw, he died!<. Adding nothing substantial to the plot.

Detective Kinderman is one of the characters I found very annoying. It’s his beating around the bush kinda talk and those profuse apologies, and his somewhat pretend civility.

Doubts:

&gt;!Father Karras killed himself or was he killed?!<

&gt;!Why was Regan staring at Father Dyer’s Roman collar in the epilogue?!<

Please help I’m 21 books into this year and not one has felt 5 stars. I’m reading a variety of genres authors eras and it just isn’t hitting. I read almost everything sci-fi, thrillers, romance, fiction, and non-fic. A few of last years 5 stars for me were Parable of the Sower, Rage Becomes Her, Empire of Pain, Chain Gang All Stars, Lost & Lassoed, Atmosphere etc
Let me hear your recs!! I’m down for anything

My daughter is looking for a witchy series similar to Sabrina the Teenage Witch. (We’ve read those few).

Hi, I'm transitioning from someone who primarily read non-fiction to reading a lot more of the "classics" or Great American Novels. One book I read recently was Crime & Punishment. I found it dense and hard to get through at times, but I think it's because my expectation weren't aligned. I expected a book that spent most of it's time pontificating on the ethics of murder in unique and rare circumstances, but it felt like most of the book was just the main character having panic attacks (lol) and some B plots that didn't capture my attention.

One thing I did very much appreciate from the book was that it introduced me to the concept of utilitarianism. I think I would very much enjoy reading a novel that revolved around the difficult questions that stem from this idea, where tough decisions are framed in the context of maximizing the wellbeing of large groups of people, and the ethics of those choices are debated.

The genre can really be anything as long as that theme is explored.

Thanks!

Ideally, it would include more than one of these elements:

- Midcentury setting

- Atmospheric Midwest setting

- Depictions of American Jewish life

- Darkly funny events or plot

- Allegories for/allusion to Old Testament stories

- Magical realism

- Existential bleakness

- Dark academia

Thanks!

Hi. I am (25F) studying for a very competitive exam. i actually studied for a year and took the exam last march, and i was among the top %5. but i have to do much better. so i have to retake it. during this process, ive been living back with my parents for 1.5 years now. i dont have any money. all my classmates and friends are living their lives, earning their money and i am stuck home all day studying. i know i did good but its not enough, and now i am lacking motivation. i am lacking energy. i dont want to do anything. i am not even stressed out. (i did gave myself 1 month of free time in april, so no its not burnout). i just need some motivation. and i am looking for book recommendations. just to help me with this upcoming year.

things i like:

• i am ok with fiction or non fiction. i usually read classics, but i love any genre, if its good quality.
• if fiction, a strong, focused main character that perseveres through anything would be nice.
• i am trying to enjoy the process rather than the outcome. so books that have a similar vibe would be nice.

things i want to avoid:

• ANY kind of toxic motivation or toughts. i dont want comparison, bitternes, jealousy, or any dark toughts.
• cheap superficial self help books that actually dont say anything useful at all
• cheap superficial cheesy fiction books

body text body text.

I have been searching for romance novel and I have no experience reading one coz I never tried that genre🤓 simply because all hyped books has some spice. I want something which doesn't have one.

Genuinely interesting not just revolving around the male and female protagonist. It should be interesting and with new plot. Not cliche with plot holes. Something underrated or even validly rated.

I finished a 'Kite Runner', 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' and 'And The Mountains Echoed' in this order a few weeks ago. This post is mostly about ATSS because I felt as though it was the most impactful of Hosseini's novels and I will reference these other novels in a generalized way to avoid spoilers if you haven't read them yet.

To start, I just wanted to say how reading this book made me feel so helpless. The gravity of having your life dominated by where you can go, what you can wear, and who you can even be seen with is such a hopeless existence. it's unbelievable that this still currently happens and that this book is probably not far from the existence of real women during the Islamic emirate/rise of the Taliban and modern day Afghanistan. in contrast, I did appreciate Hosseini's ability to show that even with such a hostile takeover, there's still a beautiful culture and people underneath.

When I first picked up ATSS after reading The Kite Runner, I thought it was going to be another book about the escape from a war ravaged country, the obstacles of immigration, and the difficult retention of your culture. To my surprise, ATSS was about the opposite. It was about the people who couldn't escape their situation and had to survive under incredible difficulty while their own culture was being destroyed and replaced around them.

Some parts of this book were very difficult to read. >!Laila having to save herself after her parents are killed by a stray rocket. Her only option is to be married and used by a degusting man to avoid detection is one of the most disturbing and heartbreaking things I've ever read. !<

This book also has one of the bravest and most heartfelt stories I've ever read. >!Laila and Mariam's friendship and love for their children. Their attempt to escape and Mariam's sacrifice to save Laila so that she can live a live a full life with Tariq. !<

It's not often that I read a book and think that it's important. Not entertaining, interesting, or educational. But important. This books importance comes from its ability to illustrate a perspective in so many enlightening angles that makes the reader feel so small and helpless that you can feel nothing by empathy for the characters. My goal is to find more stories like this and to share them with others so we can all be better for it.

I’ve read the night circus. Not water for elephants. Will accept romance, added points if theres lgbt characters or love interests

I just finished *Lonesome Dove* by Larry McMurtry. I heard about it on TikTok and bought a used copy soon after. I enjoyed it a lot. I laughed, I cried, and at times I struggled to keep reading. 857 pages felt incredibly long and short at the same time.

Gus made me laugh the most. So much so that I hardly had time to feel sad when he died, though his absence is strongly felt in the last stretch of the book. From then on, it’s just Call feeling bad about himself and the son he never named as his son.

Clara is a very compelling character. It’s easy to see why Gus was enamored with her for so many years, and I also understood why she turned him down in their youth. Her assessment of Call, as he left with Gus’s body, was also astute, if a bit harsh and simplistic.

Newt, as McMurtry said in the 2010 preface, is the titular lonesome dove. He’s a lonely and innocent young man plagued by tragedy. Unfortunately, I also learned from the preface that Newt was to die. I expected it to happen in *Lonesome Dove*, but he was still alive at the end, so I guess I have to read the fourth book of the tetralogy, if none else. And here I thought I was done with Westerns!

Some people feel the book is too slow, and at times it was, but I can handle a slow plot as long as the characters are interesting enough to carry it home. I was not disappointed. However, I must admit it’s not my new favorite book of all time. So many people say it’s topped everything they read, but either they haven’t read very many good books or I’ve been lucky enough to read lots. Not that I could tell you what my favorite book is. I have trouble ranking things by giving them a score out of 5 stars or a number out of ten, so elaboration is always necessary. Taste is far too subjective.

TL;DR thumbs up, good read, yes I recommend it, etc etc.

I'm curious: if you had a major publisher want to make an anthology of short fiction chosen by you, to show what kind of person you are, what would the ToC be?

1. Laird Barron, "Tiptoe" or "The Forest"
2. George Saunders, "Puppy"
3. Thomas Ligotti, "The Bungalow House" or "Our Temporary Supervisor"
4. Joe Hill, "Pop Art"
5. Faulkner, "A Rose for Emily"
6. T.E.D. Klein, "Petey" or "Children of the Kingdom"
7. Karl Wagner, ".220 Swift" or "Where the Summer Ends"
8. Michael Shea, "The Autopsy" or "Uncle Tuggs"
9. Bruno Schulz. "Street of Crocodiles," or "The Cinnamon Shops"
10. Kelly Link, "Stone Animals"

I like where characters have discussion about their opposing philosophical stands. I don't find a philosophy book that interesting. But I've read a few books with scenes where characters of opposing philosophical views have a conversation that turns into impromptu debate, which keep my attention and makes me think

• Justice of Kings series - a judge and apprentice often discuss about justice
• Name of the rose - this is more like teaching than discussion

Suggest some books please
Thanks

“Your manners? You go into a wild rant about the djinn—you know, the ones who stopped the indiscriminate butchery of shafit like me, insult me when I show some relief at the news of their victory, and then announce you’re planning to leave me at the gates of that damn city anyway? And you’re blaming it all on wine and your lack of manners? By the Most High, you’re so arrogant you can’t even apologize properly.”

Welcome everyone to the SECOND check in for The City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty. The story continues! We are continuing this amazing book this week by discussing Chapter 6 through Chapter 11!
Now, a note about spoilers!

The City of Brass Series is an extremely popular book series. Keep in mind that not everyone has read any of these items. This book may be the first time a person learns about it. Please keep r/bookclub's rules on spoilers, and the consequences for posting spoilers, in mind.

Everyone has a different perception of what is a spoiler, so here are a few examples of what would be spoilers:

- “Just wait till you see what happens next.”
- “This won't be the last time you meet this character.”
- “Your prediction is correct/incorrect.”
- “You will look back at this theory.”
- “Here is an Easter Egg: ...”
- “You don't know enough to answer that question yet.”
- “How do you first-time-readers feel about this detail that was intentionally not emphasized by the author?”

If you're unsure, it's best to err on the side of caution and use spoiler tags.

To indicate a spoiler, enclose the relevant text with the > ! and ! < characters (there is no space in-between).

For any type of comment or idea that may be a part of The City of Brass Series, just use proper spoiler labels, for example “In ” then describe the connection between books. Please be mindful when posting.

If you see something that you consider to be a spoiler, you can report it. It will be removed and the mods will look into it. To do so hit the “report” button, click on “breaks r/bookclub rules”, “next,” “spoilers must be tagged” and finally “submit”.

Hope you all Enjoy the discussion! Feel free to respond to any or all of the discussion questions below. Looking forward to discussing these chapters with you all!

Read on! 

- Rogue

Schedule

Marginalia