Yes ima get back on it for January!!! I was super busy the last 2 months & club engagement fell so I kinda neglected it.

I’ll @ you when I post the poll for the next book!

appreciate that!

I'm sorry I couldn't be there. Life has been hectic

Do not apologize brother life happens

I was thinking about switching books bi-monthly instead of monthly to give everyone more time to read & engage

I think that would be a splendid idea! Gives people a chance to read on their own besides the bi-monthly pick too

Sort of a helpless feeling I had while reading this. I like the writing though and I think the way Harpman describes experiencing a life for the first time is really well done. Admittedly I feel a little burned by the lack of closure but I do concede that that is probably part of the point. But it still made for a rather frustrating read.

Been in the mood for some crime fiction lately and I’ve been delving into John Connolly’s Charlie Parker series.

Man, these books GO places.

I’m really digging Connolly’s prose, very poetic at times and he’s great at creating endearing, deeply troubled characters, and in true noir fashion almost every book explores a different, dark facet of American culture and history (racism/white supremacy, religion, poverty, corporate influences, corruption, colonialism etc.).

It’s also one of the most bleak series I’ve read, it delves into some absolutely heinous s***.

Sounds dope

It’s also got a supernatural element to it, which gives it its own flavor.

starting 2026 off right

El Sindrome de Ulises by Santiago Gamboa (2005) 365 pages

novel by a Colombian author about a young Colombian man who immigrates to Paris in the 1990's and tries to succeed as a writer. he meets a large cast of immigrant characters from all over the world and they all share in the struggles of making a new life for themselves. filled with literary references and some of the most graphic s***scenes I've ever read (including an orgy scene that lasted like 10 pages), this book was an entertaining read that spoke to the late 20th century immigrant experience. felt like the main character wasn't as fleshed out as he could have been, but I still liked this a lot and would recommend it for fans of the first section of The Savage Detectives. don't think there's an English translation unfortunately

8.3/10

Flesh by David Szalay (2025) 368 pages

Booker prize winner from last year about a Hungarian man's life spanning from childhood to around his forties and the women that shape it. I've read Szalay before and liked his writing but I found this novel to be very cold and distant. even if it was representative of the main character, there was no psychological exploration of the seminal events that impacted his life and I found myself just not caring about the main character at all. so much of the dialogue was just "yeah" and "okay" (was curious so I checked the ebook, 237 yeah's and 340 okays lol) and though I did tear through this one in like two days, it didn't leave much of an impact on me. definitely undeserving of the Booker prize imo, by the end of the novel I just thought "Yeah. Okay."

6.3/10

One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad (2025) 208 pages

seen this book getting a lot of hype online and it's definitely an important piece of work. let me start with what this book is not tho; it's not an overview of the history nor a firsthand account of what's happening in Palestine. instead it's an exploration of how it feels for somebody with ties in Palestine yet living in the Western world to experience the apathy and response to the horrors going on in Palestine in the past few years. at times I thought the author made the book a bit too much about himself, but the last few chapters were very strong and it did make some convincing arguments and rightful attacks on all the people (especially politicians) who sweep what's happening under the rug. not a definitive book on the topic by any means, but an important book for westerners to read to look themselves in the mirror and consider how complicit they want to be

8/10

You have read that in five days?

read the last two in a few days as they were pretty quick reads and the first one I had been reading for a few weeks

finished it on the 1st to make sure it counts for this year

I read max 10 pages a day for two fiction books im sitting on

as long as you're reading and getting something out of it who cares how many books or how fast you read imo

to each their own

One Hundred Years of Solitude is good for that pace

gotta read this year, i'm fried af

Since Thanksgiving:

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce (9/10)
Sula by Toni Morrison (10/10)
No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood (10.5/10)
The Stranger by Albert Camus (10/10)
The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño (11/10)

Just finished Savage Detectives today. 2666 is one of my all time favs and this one might be too. Mindblowing s***.

Damn you’re good at selecting books

Reading it Again in English/10

There’s a physical exhaustion I felt from piecing together the fragmented stories told from first-person to third-person perspectives with changing narrators and alternating timelines. But this feeling is exactly what the narrator experiences as the ghosts of Comala recall tales of his father, Pedro Paramo. A man known as a curse to an entire village, who turns men into killers, women into traffickers, and priests into heretics. Empowered by the murder of his father, Pedro Paramo proves that the “individual” doesn’t exist as his entire community suffers and changes at his whim. The victims of his madness also adopt feelings of vengeance in hopes that Pedro will suffer for everything he’s done. This culminates in a multi-day celebration in the village after the death of Pedro’s only true love, which then solidifies his intentions to plunge Comala into hell. Pedro’s punishment and the eternal suffering of the ghostly villagers paint a world where justice is only served on Earth, and to avoid it makes you complicit. Either you take action in the present or your regrets live in the memories of forever. More importantly, the consequences continue for those left behind until the cycle is completed, destroyed, or reinterpreted. In the world of Comala, there is no one to forgive them for what they’ve done, including the reader, because everyone has betrayed God.

bangers!

King sorrow by Joe Hill and it slapped

Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin (1956) 178 pages

this one has been on my TBR for a long time and it's the second Baldwin work of fiction I've read. story about a closeted man in Paris who falls in love with another man while his wife is away. fairly light on plot but Baldwin excelled at painting the picture of the inner turmoil and conflict of the main character. didn't find it quite as moving as others have said but I can see why it's so revered, especially because of the era when it was written

8.2/10

Covert Joy: Selected Stories by Clarice Lispector (2025 compilation) 160 pages

actually the first time I've read Lispector and after hearing so much about her poetic prose, this did not disappoint. her writing style reaches a unique balance of being abstract while easy to read and every story had an immersive vibe. that said, I usually don't appreciate slice of life short stories that much and there were only 3-4 that I was really impressed by, with a few going completely over my head. I will have to check one of her novels out (open to recommendations) because I definitely saw the appeal of her writing

7.3/10

Las batallas en el desierto (battles in the desert) by José Emilio Pacheco (1981) 72 pages

coming of age novella about a young boy in post WWII Mexico. was immediately hooked by the writing and then the story unfolds and concludes in a brief manner. almost felt like this was the first few chapters of a longer novel and I didn't want it to end. I think what made this novella so compelling to me was that it's not only a Bildungsroman (which I always enjoy) but also a snapshot of a country before it changed forever. Pacheco touched on so many societal issues like xenophobia vs. US influence, capitalism, religion, lust, etc. in such a short novella that it was really impressive

9.5/10

The Hour of the Star, of course. Read it on high school.

What a f***ing book man...tears streaming down my face as I finished it. 10/10 might be my new favorite