r/52book

A tragic love story in my eyes. Especially with the context of the letters between “Laura” and the doctor. I guess the real Laura, Veronica, was buried with a rose and her lover Marcia (Carmilla) used to leave roses on her pillow for her :( and it’s very obvious they were in love. I think if not for the introduction and footnotes of my edition I would have been disappointed, though immersed and having fun with the gothic story, because Le Fanu tries and fails to erase the queerness lol. I mean he describes her desire as mixed with repulsion in the book but in the letters it’s only desire and wanting Marcia always. It’s so obvious they’re lesbians especially after reading the letters Veronica wrote. Anyways I really enjoyed this it rekindled my love of gothic literature and made me feel nostalgia for wuthering heights and Jane eyre

I picked this as my first Adrian Tchaikovsky book and liked it a lot. The beginning and end were uninteresting, but I really liked the middle section where the humans were traversing the planet. It's was like being on a rail ride through the 2005 Alien Planet mockumentary and I loved those shows. It was cool how detailed the biosphere was from how the environment worked to how the animals uniquely evolved to navigate it.

I liked how the humans and sentient alien were utterly baffled by the other. It wasn't a usual us vs them alien book since they couldn't directly interact and communicate. A bit like Flatland. They were both like, what is this strange beast? What is it doing now? Why is it so weird and dumb?

Spoiler thoughts: >!I'd like a sequel where the humans and aliens come to benefit from each other or evolve together. The ending cut off abruptly and didn't resolve anything other than leaving a sense of dread, so I doubt my wish will come true.!<

>!It seemed more a 'capitalism bad, so now humans die from being greedy little capitalists' ending which is kind of boring and uninteresting. I thought it was moving in a direction where the Shrouded would become like an AI and completely replace all of the systems on the spaceship. It would have been interesting if humans and the Shrouded formed some type of interstellar symbiotic relationship of man and alien AI thing.!<

I’ve been wanting to build one of these lists for a while and finally felt like it was time. 22 books read this year with 5 more DNF all of which I read at least 50%. Let me know your thoughts! My favorite book of the year is easily The Everlasting, and my least favorite was Two Twisted Crowns.

3.75/5

I really enjoyed the way the world was presented. The ambiguity added to the world and def left me feeling like this was not a place I’d ever want to visit. Very philosophical and pretty damn bleak.

Slow start to the year after tackling a few heftier books to get the page count up. The Dispossessed was an incredible read. I'll definitely be picking up more from Le Guin this year. Wolfe's Book of the New Sun was a wild, enjoyable experience. Didn't quite reach that echelon but man, I want to read more of his work. Master of Ballantrae was a $1 find at an antique shop and Stevenson's prose was a work of art.

I could gush about these books all day.

The amount of time the word "Sharpie/Sharpied" was used in the first part is getting funny. But I'm loving the found footage/creepy SCP-esque anomaly vibes.

I have been collecting/reading Ace Doubles for a while, and they really run the spectrum. Some of them are really predictable sci-fi pulp stories. But then occasionally I find something like this, at a good price. This is an early novel by Samuel Delany, who would go on to be an important experimental and literary sci-fi writer. Well, he was already experimental at this point.
This is less than 100 pages, but it tells the story of an anthropologist trying to find out what happened to some destroyed space ships by investigating the lyrics to a song. And in under 100 pages, there are more answers and backstory than someone might expect!

I am halfway through my (theoretical) goal of 104 books this year. Theoretical because I'm not sure I will (or maybe even want to) maintain this pace and so might change it.

Titles, authors, and translators to follow in a comment.

Takeaways:

• Why'd I take so long to read The Age of Innocence?
• A book about cycling (The Rider) can be interesting even if all you know about racing going in is, "people pedal fast maybe?".
• Some kinds of dated sci-fi are more enjoyable than others (e.g. The Radium Age short stories, while from the 1900-1930s were in some ways less dated than Asimov and Bradbury)
• Reading in translation will sure widen your reading horizons. Even if you don't like the book that much (e.g. No One Prayed Over Their Graves), you get a fascinating glimpse into another part of the world.

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 just 100 pages in

This is incredibly well written. Should’ve probably read this in winter..

Finished last night. I’m a sucker for the epistolary format.

Hello all, I’m new here. This is a perfect book to start with since I’m such a big fan of the series.

This was another awesome addition to the series. Handful of new characters, closure on a couple others, and some of sub plots were deepen and made thoroughly more complex. Of all the hilarity these books provide, I’m always impressed how intricate some of these storylines are, but maybe I’m too easily impressed. Or too easily distracted by the funny.

Friendship, Angst, Love and Anger, all driving forces of puberty and the haze of emotion that fuels the burgeoning relationships of two young Latino males in El Paso, Texas. Themes of belonging, heroism, acceptance, family secrets, love and friendship all take center stage in the slow burn coming of age tale. Yes it’s “Young Adult” but there’s nothing “young” about the lessons these young men learn. Despite your age, this is a story that any queer person should read and recognize. SILENCE = DEATH. Celebrate queer joy, safely, wherever and whenever you can. Life is short.

This book was a full sensory experience. The world building was phenomenal. The characters were developed and nuanced so they were easy to get invested in.

The plot did remind me of The Heir Chronicles which I read 20 years ago. Both had the theme of characters forced to fight an ongoing battle as pawns in others’ games. This books battle was more on Nature vs Nurture.

I didn’t like the jumping around the timeline even when I could see what the author was building towards. I loved the multigenerational aspect. So much of the book came alive in my mind as if I was watching/experiencing it first hand.

3⭐️

This might be a bit of a hot take. I was kind of expecting more from this as it was hyped up so much and said to be one of the best books of 2025. But I found that the plot moved really slowly and the writing was too descriptive for my liking. I also knew very early on in the book where things were going to go and found the book overall rather predictable. The drama in this was interesting but not particularly exciting. I struggled with the decisions the characters made in this, particularly Beth — I definitely wanted to shake her.

My biggest issue with this book was that I found it really choppily written with the switching back and forth between time periods. There was “Before” and “After” and the amount of time passing in both those timelines was written in a very muddied way. I was confused about whether days, weeks, months were elapsing, and I felt it jumped between time periods a little bit too much. I eventually just kept reading, knowing that I’d never be sure exactly when the events were taking place. Only later in the book did the author give you specific dates. I found that a bit disorganized and frustrating.

I did consider DNFing it many times but kept going because it was actually a rather short book (it felt long though…).

I will say, however, that the ending saved it. Part 3 (about 2/3 in) was where things really started to actually happen and I got properly invested in the book. The conclusion was rather beautiful and gave me sufficient closure for the book overall, which is the main reason why my rating is not lower.

People seem to really love or really hate this book, but my opinion falls more into the middle; I will say it is not one of my favourites, and was not really worth the hype, but it was still an okay read overall.

P.S. Don't listen to anyone who refers to this book as a thriller. I feel like hearing that got my hopes up a bit too much. This is decidedly a drama rather than a thriller, so if you read this, just know what you're getting into.

This one was on my to read list and was heavily recommended for many years.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It gives an interesting retelling of some of the old testament characters and stories from a woman's/minor character's perspective. It makes you think about how so much of history and religion is told from one perspective that writes out women's stories. It was also a fascinating look into the cultural and religious practices of ancient civilizations.

It's not a book I grew up with as a child. My fairy tales of choice were always written by the Brothers Grimms. Which means I don't hold any childhood nostalgia to this story, but I know it's loved and praised everywhere.

I thought it would be the best read as a pallet cleanser. The recent books I've read were mediocre at best. This one isn't. It made me tear up in the end so badly, I almost started crying. Just proves that a good book doesn't need to be +300 pages to make you emotional. No shame in adding children's books to my counter, whether it's Disney retelling as novels or a book like this one. If it touches me, it counts