2.5/5

This is apparently one of Stephen King's best works. Idk, it was long-winded, not that scary, and even after s*** kicked off way late into the story, that boring long-windedness never went away and I was just waiting to be done with the novel. Guess I'm just not a fan of his writing style. Also, I went into this blind and I'm over grief-intensive narratives, so that's on me lol

Fun story and characters. Definitely dragged in some parts and took detours at annoying parts to make the pacing a bit irritable at times, but overall it was worth it. The climax of the story was very moving.

Man oh man this book was brutal to get through. The first 50 pages were so tedious and boring. And then when the plot finally began to come into form, it was extremely underwhelming. Not at all surprising, and almost felt like a children’s story. Characters were never given depth. I guess the prose and descriptions were cool at times. Idk…I really do not get why this book has received so much praise lol

first person i've seen not like this book. been seeing so much praise for it through the years but have yet to check it out.

any thoughts on what might be the disconnect for you? considering many find the story to be very emotional and gripping.

I guess I would answer your question by explaining why I think people DO like it: they like the long descriptions, they like the immense focus on the fantastical world, and they find the predictable story to be comforting.

I personally didn’t love those things, and I also found the characters and plot to be very 2D. I enjoy world building in general — but that’s basically 90% of why you would enjoy this book. And I guess I would also say that I found it boring because I love reading about characters, and this book is really focused on solitude — there are multiple characters, but the majority of the book is spent with just one of them alone.

But if that appeals to you, then you should def check it out! Because like I said, the prose is really good, just wasn’t for me.

gave up on Piranesi too after like 50 pages

Mr. Vertigo by Paul Auster (1994)

novel about an orphan beggar boy taken under the tutelage of a strange man who swears he will teach him how to fly. entertaining storyline that went in unexpected directions with some well written characters and witty turns of phrases. third Auster book I've read in the past few years and I've enjoyed all of them, looking forward to reading more

8.4 / 10

The Stories of Breece D'J Pancake (1983)

had this on my tbr list for a while and after Pancake was namedropped in the latest S.A. Cosby novel figured now was the time. collection of short stories following poor white characters, especially miners, in West Virginia. not a big fan of this slice of life genre of short stories but if you fw Raymond Carver you'd probably like this. liked a handful of stories where there was more character development but I wasn't too impressed

6.8 / 10

Ceniza en la Boca by Brenda Navarro (2022)

novel from an up and coming Mexican author about a young woman coming to terms with the suicide of her younger brother after they immigrated to Spain to be with their mother. powerful representation of grief, migration, family, and identity. the non linear timeline and lack of quotations made it challenging at times but Navarro found a way to tackle these heavy themes in an understated yet moving way without being manipulative. don't think this is available in English yet but I was very impressed by the writing and will check out her other work when I want a gut punch

8.8 / 10

read 4321 just ignore that the main character is a stand in for auster to talk about how other writers besides d***ens fcking suck

The Honditsch Cross by Ingeborg Bachmann

Amazing book, Ingeborg Bachmann wrote this when she was 18, in Nazi Germany, trying desperately to avoid joining the woman's version of the Hitler Youth. It's the story of a young man (Franz) returning from seminary to his small village in 1800s Austria to find it occupied by Napoleon's French army. The villagers resent their French overlords and wish to overthrow them, and seize on the main character as their fulcrum with which to do so. Franz is a richly drawn character, he struggles with competing desires: to find an enlightened solution and avoid violence, and a deep desire to prove that he is still a boy from the village, that he bleeds the same as they do. All of the characters are as compelling and full, the village priest (Franz' mentor) show up for a grand total of maybe 12 pages across the book and yet I could not stop thinking about him and the philosophy he expresses long after I finished.

It's a quick read, a little over 100 pages, but it's packed with some truly fascinating ideas about nationalism, occupation, heroism, and religion. Bachmann at the time of her writing was probably seeing thousands of youth being killed in Germany, and her trying to make sense of that seems to be a central idea expressed in the novel. I think she comes to some weird places about it (a 1944 Austrian novel about the "French invaders" is certainly a choice), but again, an 18 year old in Nazi Germany is bound to have some screwed up ideas about the world. Despite that this book expresses so many things so true to humanity that it will undoubtedly be one of the best books I read all year.

Grey Bees by Andrey Kurkov

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. That's not the bees this book is just boring as s***. I wanted to like it. I wanted to find something about the Ukraine-Russia war, since it's something I understand little about and it feels new, like a truly novel battleground the likes of which we have not seen before. A post-state conflict.

This is not that. This book is set in the 2010s, during Russia and Ukraine's protracted conflict over the Donbas region that resides on both borders. The main character has elected to stay behind in the Grey Zone, territory that is claimed by both nations and is (at the time of the novel) constantly being bombarded, advanced through, and fought over. There's some interesting stuff about nationality here (the main character navigates about 7 borders between only 2 countries) and some insight about stateless people. But the vast majority is just him thinking about calling his ex-wife. One of my least favorite things in books is a character being surprised by something that the reader knows far ahead of time. Buddy, you're surprised the FSB agent put a tracker on you? I knew they would do that and I only know the FSB/KGB through James Bond movies!

He's also a bee keeper or some s***. Who cares.

Monsieur Pain by Roberto Bolano

My GOAT. This one unfortunately does not live up to the heights of Bolanos other works (2666, Savage Detectives, Amulet, The Third Reich, Antwerp are all stone cold classics as far as I'm concerned). The titular main character is an acupuncturist/occultist who is called in as a last resort to try and cure a friend afflicted by deadly hiccups. This turns out to be a classic noir setup as two shadowy figures offer Pain money not to treat the sick man, and the plot thickens from that point. The tone of the novel is not what one would expect from noir, it's sillier and lighter. There are some pretty creepy moments: a hospital constructed in a spiral shape without any rhythm to its room numbering, a warehouse with a shambling monster hidden inside. There is one fantastic phone call towards the end that gave me that old Bolano feeling -- that he's truly been in contact with ghosts before, that he has some way of talking to the human center that resides in all of us. And there's a cool outro/coda at the end that gives biographies for most of the characters involved. Overall it fizzled, which is unfortunate. It's short, and might reward re-reads. Perhaps the story itself is that spiral hospital, and we find things repeating on each level reveal something new about the story.

Holy s*** we're in the same boat lmaoo. I do NOT get the praise behind this one AT ALL

I've read like 8 books by Bolaño but still haven't read Antwerp or The Third Reich yet. gotta remedy that soon

highly recommend his short story collections if you haven't gotten to those yet

Usually I'm not a short story person but for my guy Roberto I'll check them out. Thanks for the tip!

Not to have another negative review of a book that seems to be popular and well liked, but this was also underwhelming lol. Not anywhere near as bad to read as Piranesi — this was readable, had humor, and well written characters. But idk…it just seemed cheesy (both the dialogue and the plot). I guess I would just say it kind of seemed like a Hallmark movie or something

just finished things fall apart on the train to work this am after copping a week n a half ago, finna get into soul on ice next

Things Fall Apart is so fire, we were assigned to read it in high school 10+ years ago and I don't think a single week goes by where I don't think about it. I've been meaning to return and read the other two that make up the trilogy

i’ll forever b envious of the command nigerians have over the english language

Any non fiction recs that aren't jake tapper? Lol

Have you watched Pachinko?

how nice of you

was gonna check it out cause I heard it was good but looks like they changed a lot from the book and I wasn't sold on the trailers

Most of the changes and additions are to Solomon's story. That and the fact that the show bounces around the timeline

The show is excellent so far, I appreciate the added adult Solomon stuff but the book is still clear imo

First time reading a mystery novel, and it was definitely a lot of fun. Got a bit repetitive in parts and the payoff wasn’t anything super surprising, but the path to get there was generally enjoyable. Gonna peep a few more of Christie’s books.

I’ve read like 12 books since my last post I might just do a post on my top 5

Clandestine in Chile by Gabriel García Márquez

Non-fiction with the shape of a spy thriller. A Chilean director (Miguel Littin) who was exiled when the right-wing coup installed Pinochet in power returns in disguise to film a documentary exposing the corruption of the government and the injustices done to Chile's citizens. Márquez recorded 18 hours of interviews with Littin for the book, and the attention to detail and internal world of the book is lush inhabited. It's hard to tell whether that's Márquez or Littin's touch. The history Littin relays is fascinating, he tells his story of surviving the coup's death squads in a state of terror and confusion that is palpable to the reader -- and shattered to pieces as the soldiers start asking the condemned men for cigarettes. It's beautifully written, informative, politically charged, and short. A recipe for success!

We Want Everything by Nanni Balestrini

In parts rousing, this book suffers from quantifying the struggle too much in it's third quarter. Too many sentences are "line number ceased work for amount of time and marched to line number to slow their production. Overall production on date fell from number of cars to lower number of cars." That's the majority of about 60 or so pages. Exhausting, but the beginning is a great portrait of the conditions in 1960s Italy, and the end is a fantastic, satisfying explosion of the worker's struggle into bravery and violence.

Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman

I wish I had liked this more, but it reminded me too much of (and paled in comparison to) another book that I love, When We Cease to Understand the World. Einstein's Dreams is a collection of apocryphal writings from Albert Einstein's journal prior to him inventing the theory of relativity. His writings reference dreams he had where he imagined different relationships between time and space. Time goes backwards, time goes slower the higher your altitude, cause and effect are divorced from one another. Each "dream" is between 3 and 10 pages, sparsely populated, and unrelated to those that come before or after. From the 7th dream on it was hard to find one that was particularly interesting or surprising. The dreams are broken up by short interludes where Einstein discusses his work with a friend. It's "contemplative" in a word, though I struggled to find anything worthwhile gained in the contemplation.