The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain

another hardboiled crime novel and a very quick read. these books are fun and light. perfect to breeze through in between more serious or challenging reads. didn't like this one as much as The Big Sleep but it's another novel that was considered racy and violent when it was released in 1934 but is tame by today's standards.

6/10

will check out

Great and easy read. Simple but somehow still surprised me with some decent depth.

8/10. Wanted to see what the hype was about. More shocking than I expected it to be.

slow week for everybody :word:

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

after enjoying his short stories, I was excited for this lone novel by Saunders, but it ended up disappointing me a bit. think it was mainly the format that didn't work for me. the excerpts about Lincoln would have been fine but then to mix that with narration by so many characters in script form just felt a bit tiresome. it was a deep topic and well covered but the plot was so minimal that I felt like it would've been better as a short story. still think Saunders is a great writer and will read some more of his short stories soon

6.5/10

I've been going ape this year

Already finished 10 books (having read 19 all 2020) and all because I bought a Kindle and created a good habit of reading in the morning for 2h

One of the last books I've read was On The Road by Kerouac and I think it might be up there as one of my favorites

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

brand new novel by Ishiguro but the first one I've read from him. this was a very unique and engaging character study about an AI robot in the near future caring for a girl and learning about humanity. it had a few interesting twists but its strength was its perspective and narration. still mulling over the ending and I think this book will stay with me for a while. definitely would recommend for anybody interested in the future complexities and ethics regarding human and AI relations. I'll make sure to check out more from Ishiguro soon.

8/10

The author travels to different parts of Europe and gives a really good account of the experiences of black communities around europe

I really love reading from the counter culture era
I feel like we’re bound to repeat that period
Great book and a beautiful portrayal of how society could function and of spirituality, psychedelics and just compassion
The ending hurts but the book pulls you right into this meditative mind state where you can find the good in it
Took a while to get through it though a lot of the prose is difficult

i just started on the road, good to hear, it's fye so far

Like I said before, I gotta read more. I've got so many books I want to read. I just have to get in a routine. It's hard though with some stuff I'm going through, hard to concentrate reading as my mind races.

How long does it take you to read a book? If I do like a chapter or 2 a day, I think I can get through a book a week..

Sounds interesting, I'll add it to my list.

Thanks

Depends on what else is going on in my life

last two or so weeks I had a break between semesters so I had literally nothing going on and I could spend time reading and meeting friends - overall Free time

So I had a routine of reading 2h in the morning from 10:30 to 12:30 and a book with around 200 pages took 2/3 days

Kindle has this feature that tells you how long will it take you to finish the chapter and it's addicting when you say "okay I'm done" and then see "18 minutes left in chapter" and you go and finish it bc what's is 18 minutes right?

But now that classes are back I'll probably read a book a week max

Pretty valuable sport psychology book that applies very well to learning and bettering yourself in general life as well

Great book, was very creepy and didn't expect the ending, would recommend

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

I wanted to like this but something about it just didn't work for me. hard to put my finger on it, but maybe it felt like the characters weren't fleshed out enough, the structure took away from the story, or the prose was too dry. still a harrowing tale of slavery and the plight of an escaped slave. I think Barry Jenkins might tell this story better in the upcoming series based on the book.

6/10

10/10

I'll definitely be revisiting this later.

Hearing great things about this book.

Heavy book

it was very powerful and well written. how would you compare it to her novel Americanah, if you've read that?

I'm still reading Americanah but I'm caught up with other s*** lol. I'm just a fan of hers overall, and I'm enjoying the book so far, but Half a yellow sum else

I was debating if i should get this or not cos i've also never read anything by Ishiguro, but you've convinced me to get it

Not posted in a while but here's what I've read since i last posted:

The Great Gatsby - nothing to say about this that hasn't already, so i'll just say i really liked it but didn't love it as much as a lot of people do

They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us - This books was made for KTT users If you're a music fan in anyway you should check this out asap. It's a collection of essays that connects music (main concerts that that the author went to)

If They Come For Us - A poetry book by a queer muslim with a big focus on being a child of immigrants and the partition of India and Pakistan. Made me feel ashamed that I didn't know just how bad the partition was and how many people were killed. it's not the kind of book where you learn a lot about the specific details about the Partition, but it does make you want to learn more about it

10/10