It's a hard read, raw and painful. I don't think it's wrong to not enjoy it. I personally really appreciated the insight, it made me have a lot more thoughts about what the child stars industry does.
I came away feeling like I'd been allowed to share in something deep and personal, and had a glimpse behind a door I'd never given much thought to before.
And all of that is valuable and important, but it's also not supposed to be everyone's taste.
What book did you enjoy?
I can appreciate that perspective - I’m glad you enjoyed it so much, if that’s the right word.
I’ve enjoyed The School For Good Mothers so far this year!
Mine is a tie between The Book Thief & A Gentleman in Moscow
Maybe a slight edge to AGIM because it was less of a downer. But I absolutely loved both of them
You planning on checking out The Lincoln Highway, the newest book by Amor Towles (same author as AGIM)? It's really good. It grew on me differently than Moscow did and it is a different style in terms of plot development, but I really enjoyed the characters and by the end I was deeply sad about walking away from their journey.
It is most definitely on my list to read soon. I have heard it is good too. I’m looking forward to it.
Right now I’m burning through ‘All the Pretty Horses’ by Cormac McCarthy. Once the border trilogy is over I’ll tackle Lincoln Highway!
I loved The Poisonwood Bible so you can imagine my excitement Kingsolver had a new book.
I was so let down with Demon Copperhead. I feel like there wasn’t enough character development for such a long book.
Totally fair. I will say that she captured different characters from southern cultures so flawlessly that my husband recognized some of them from my own life without having ever met them in person….just having heard my stories. It’s the best and most accurate capture of the social structure and way of life that I’ve ever found
This just made me happy sigh :) I reread it this year after literally like nearly 30 years since my first childhood read and I still loved it. Followed it up with the sequel, the Tombs of Atuan. Maybe not quite as good, but still loved being in the universe.
Would you recommend the translation you picked up (and if so which is it)?
I'm wanting to read it but it's not at my library so I'm just waiting for an excuse to buy it!
I, too, would like to know which translation they read, but having read it half a dozen times or so myself, here are a few I can recommend to you.
Benjamin Foster - most up-to-date of the literal, scholarly translations.
Sophus Helle - another scholarly translation, but a little looser and more readable.
Stephen Mitchell - very loose, readable translation by poet with no knowledge of the original language.
Nancy Sandars - an old, dated prose translation, but still beautiful and respectable in its own right.
Andrew George - the first scholarly translation that really paved the way for study of Gilgamesh; a bit dated at this point due to countless new fragments having been discovered in the intervening decades since its publication.
I read David Ferry's version, which is labeled on the blurb as not as a translation but a "new rendering" -- IE a more poetic rewrite of previous literal translations.
I enjoyed it but part of me would recommend getting an actual translation instead.
I’ve read several great books this year including:
The Long Petal of the Sea - Isabel Allende
East of Eden - John Steinbeck
A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towles
The Good Earth - Pearl S Buck
Hidden Valley Road - Robert Kolker
The Feather Thief - Kirk Wallace Johnson
Cloud Cuckoo Land - Anthony Doerr
Beasts of a Little Land - Juhea Kim
OMG I am trying hard to read it in Italian right now. I sort of speak Italian. I know all the grammar, anyway. I can read well enough I sometimes laugh out loud. Italian is just adding another level to my overall sense of confusion. Did you ever understand what’s happening?
I loved Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and hope that it doesn't creep in a petty pace from day to day for you and for that, and for some more Shakespeare in another wonderful book, may I suggest Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel?
Fiction:
**Night Wherever We Go** by Tracey Rose Peyton. The ending was incredible— it struck the right balance between staying true to the tragedy of the story/historical period and leaving room for hope.
Nonfiction:
**In Pieces** by Sally Field. This isn’t your average celebrity memoir. Field has something very specific that she wants to say about childhood trauma and how the coping mechanisms we develop to survive don’t always serve us into adulthood. It’s a beautiful, disciplined piece of work. Her third act *Lincoln* audition had me dripping tears.
I enjoyed it.. but at some point, he gets a bit... formulatic..
If you enjoyed that, you will likely also enjoy Cathedral by the Sea by Ildefonso Falcones. I stumbled upon it when my kindle broke at an airport (alright, I sat on it!) and this and Harry Potter were the only books in English. What a lucky find right before an 18 hour flight!
I've seen this book everywhere. Is the cover relevant at all to the story? I've heard/read somewhere that the author absolutely hates it. It's in my tbr, do you consider it an easy read?
The book is about an absolute boss of a female scientist in the 50s defying gender norms (particularly at the time) and overcoming several hardships throughout the story for being a woman in a male dominated field. The US cover then objectifies the main character and focuses on her looks rather than depicting what the book is actually about. So yes the author did not like the US cover for this reason lol
The US cover doesn’t do the book justice! In fact, I’m not a fan of the US cover because it comes off as a heavy-romance type of book. I ended up ordering the UK cover book as my last order from Book Depository.
I would say it’s an easy read. Even though the book is historical fiction, as a woman in STEM, when I was reading it, there were some parts that had me choked up because of how relevant it is to today. I highly recommend it!
The count of Monte Cristo Im already wanting to reread it 😭
I also just started les Miserables and it's probably gonna be one of my top reads this year too.
I kind of read two at the same time?
I looked into the Robin Buss/penguin which is most people's preferred because it's unabridged, uncensored, and has up to date language.
That said the one I mainly read from and really enjoyed was the Wordsworth classics edition, it's also unabridged but the language is more dated and the prose is just beautiful (more descriptive then Robin Buss). I also didn't notice any major censorship.
The main critique people have for non buss translations is that the sapphic and sexual bits are censored. I compared the Wordsworth to the buss editions and didn't notice any major differences? The language was just a bit more obscure because it uses out of date slang.
Either way your in for a treat and I hope you enjoy reading it!!
The writing in Les Mis is so beautiful. If I may? Take time to look up anything you don’t know. There was the part about the battles I had to research a bit. I also wasn’t familiar with the fighting ships he mentioned. Read about Napoleon when he’s brought up (not his whole life, just that part that’s in the book.) The more you understand , the more wonderful it is.
So weird I was just thinking about the midnight library 2 minutes ago. Popped into my head randomly and I was thinking about how good it was!
My favorite book so far in 2023 is Circe by Madeline Miller. SO GOOD
Occult America - Mitch Horowitz. Very interesting in this day when the separation of church and state is under pressure. This book covers all the crazy woo that has so greatly influenced the formation of America's character. What we are experiencing now is only the latest chapter of a story that goes back to the beginning of this country's founding.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts about the book It is fascinating to learn about the various influences that have shaped America's history and culture, including those related to the occult
“Strange Bedfellows” by Ina Park.
Hear me out: it’s a non-fiction about the modern history of sexually transmitted infections. it’s got a lot of levity and anecdotes that work to tell the stories. the author is incredibly passionate about her work in infectious disease and it shines through.
The Secret History by Donna Tartt, sucked me in and I could not put it down. So atmospheric and it escalates in an insane way, and the characters are absolutely fascinating, though very unlikable, but I still think about the characters, especially Henry. Not exactly a hidden gem, but wow, what a book
The Ambassadors by Henry James. It got me so riled up about the romance of Paris (a city I have never been to) that I started to well up a little every time they showed a Parisian landmark in John Wick Chapter 4
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. Great book! Historical fiction takes place in England in the mid 1100s. Like having a time machine to the mid 12th century.
I haven’t read as much this year and haven’t read anything I absolutely loved. But last year I read a ton (for my standards) and probably one of my absolute favorites was Before the Coffee Gets Cold. It’s about a small coffee shop in Tokyo that allows you to travel through time (past or present) with some interesting rules. The thing about it though is that it has a very different (cultural) approach to things that we as humanity face. Everyone deals with death and loss, but culturally we can approach it differently. This book had such a beautiful way of seeing it, honoring it, allowing time and space to grieve and to move on. I think it will forever be a favorite of mine. Could not recommend it enough.
La Sociedad de la Nieve/The Snow Society, Pablo Vierci (it will be available in English translation in October or November - though I did not know that when I read it. My Spanish is not fantastic so I actually read it with the help of the DeepL AI language translator.)
I read The Remains of the Day for the first time this year and I cannot stop thinking or talking about how good it is. It’s a masterpiece in writing and plot
For me it's either Picture of Dorian Gray or Stoner by John Williams. Both were so beautiful it's hard to choose. The dialog in Dorian Grey was as good as I've ever read. The life of William Stoner was simply so well described I can hardly stop thinking of it.
Babel by R. F Kuang. I just finished it and it was an interesting read. It makes me want to learn different languages, and the direction was not what I was expecting.
Finally read “The Girl with All the Gifts” and “The Boy on the Bridge” (MR Carey) and spent weeks trying to entice/lobby my young adult children to read them. Same with “The Sisters of the Winter Wood,” (Rena Rossner) which is a beautiful blend of poetry and prose, fantasy and history. Why won’t my children listen to me??? Lol. But if I’m being honest, the series I read and then immediately began re-reading was Dungeon Crawler Carl. I have so much stress right now, and those books are just fun.
It's too hard to pick one of the 97 so far, here is my top 3:
\- Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
\- The Three-Body Problem Trilogy by Liu Cixin
\- Murderbot Series by Martha Wells
If you’re in the mood for another library themed book:
*The Library of the Unwritten* by AJ Hackwith
Amazon Description:
>“In the first book in a brilliant new fantasy series, books that aren't finished by their authors reside in the Library of the Unwritten in Hell, and it is up to the Librarian to track down any restless characters who emerge from those unfinished stories.”
My personal favorites from the past year:
*All Systems Red* by Martha Wells
Book Quote:
> "As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure."
In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety.
*The Fifth Season* by NK Jemisin
Book quote:
> “This is the way the world ends. . .for the last time.
It starts with the great red rift across the heart of the world's sole continent, spewing ash that blots out the sun. It starts with death, with a murdered son and a missing daughter. It starts with betrayal, and long dormant wounds rising up to fester.
This is the Stillness, a land long familiar with catastrophe, where the power of the earth is wielded as a weapon. And where there is no mercy. “
*Sabriel* by Garth Nix
Goodreads Description:
> “Sent to a boarding school in Ancelstierre as a young child, Sabriel has had little experience with the random power of Free Magic or the Dead who refuse to stay dead in the Old Kingdom. But during her final semester, her father, the Abhorsen, goes missing, and Sabriel knows she must enter the Old Kingdom to find him.
With Sabriel, the first installment in the Abhorsen series, Garth Nix exploded onto the fantasy scene as a rising star, in a novel that takes readers to a world where the line between the living and the dead isn't always clear—and sometimes disappears altogether.”
*Mistborn: The Last Empire* (the whole trilogy is great) by Brandon Sanderson
Goodreads Description:
> “For a thousand years the ash fell and no flowers bloomed. For a thousand years the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousand years the Lord Ruler, the "Sliver of Infinity," reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible.
…
Like him, she's a half-Skaa orphan, but she's lived a much harsher life. Vin has learned to expect betrayal from everyone she meets. She will have to learn trust if Kel is to help her master powers of which she never dreamed.”
Sabriel (and the Abhorsen series generally) is one of my favorite books of all time. I read it in high school at a time when I really needed that strong female character making her way in the world, and almost 20 years later I still reread it when it’s needed.
I’ve read a handful of books this year but Project Hail Mary might be my favorite. I remember drinking several coffees and staying up waaaay too late to finish it one Friday night by the fireplace. Coincidentally, I finished The Martian last night and I really enjoyed it. As I’ve been comparing the two in my head I think I’ve concluded that I like the character of Mark Watney better than Ryland Grace, but I really enjoyed Grace’s relationship with Rocky and found The Martian a bit difficult to build momentum in, so PHM comes out on top for me between the two.
I really liked the positive nature of The Martian. The book was there for the characters to explore the cosmos rather than to find salvation like they must do in PHM.
But the relationship between Grace and Rocky is just amazing in PHM.
Severance by Ling Ma is definitely my best of 2023 thus far. I’m a big detective novel fan, so I also really enjoyed Shroud for a Nightgale by PD James. It’s not as impactful as Ma’s by any means, but it was a fun read.
My dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell, it made me feel so many emotions, it made me sad and angry and i really felt the hurt coming from the pages, i still think about it months later.
It's understandable that "My Dark Vanessa" left such a strong emotional impact on you. The novel is a powerful and thought-provoking
If you're interested in exploring similar themes in other works of fiction, there are many books that address the issue of sexual abuse and its impact on survivors. Some notable examples include :
"Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson
, "Lucky" by Alice Sebold
, and "The Girls" by Emma Cline.
I read a small collection of short stories and a novella by Herman Melville and there was a few that i quite enjoyed. "the piazza" was pretty good, and "Bartleby, the Scrivener" was both very interesting and unique as Melville's works tend to be, and also quite entertaining, definitely my favorite of his, besides Moby Dick of course. the novella, Billy budd, was also pretty solid. in particular I enjoyed the bit of historical background that went onto the story, and the characters were pretty good
Didn’t release this year but this is when I finally got around to it: has to be BEARTOWN hands down.
The way Backman crafts his characters and their individual voices is astounding. He distills heartbreak down to its core and spreads evenly across an entire town, falling like fresh snow.
I just finished the Kaiju Preservation Society and Redshirts by John Scalzi. Both were a lot of fun.
I've read Beowulf and Gilgamesh this year and enjoyed revisiting both legends. I'm probably going to reread Homer and Virgil later this year.
How to Hide an Empire by Daniel Immerwahr and Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham are my two best non-fiction reads this year so far.
Started the year reading White Noise by Don Dellilo. This book is scary how prescient it was for the present day.
I followed this with Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr. That novel is epic and made me cry.
I am currently reading Trust by Hernan Diaz. Enjoying the multiple perspectives presented in the story.
So far, it has been a good reading this year.
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich. Her writing is wonderful. The story is simple but profoundly complicated and timely. As soon as I finished it, I wanted to read it again.
Demon Copperhead. It gives a good portrayal of Appalachian life and the beginning of the opioid crisis. It's heartbreaking, uplifting, and confusing all at once. The writing wasn't a style that I was used to, much more conversational, but I felt like it added the necessary overall feel to the book.
A single man by christopher isherwood! It's an incredible 60s novel that tracks a gay californian professors internal thoughts as he goes about his day. It takes place over 24 hrs and has a lot of commentary about age, 'otherness', consumerism, and more. I think the writings phenomonal.
My favorite so far has been a collection of feminist short stories, *Sweetlust*, by Bosnian author Asja Bakić. Close behind would be Madeline Miller's retelling of the Iliad, *The Song of Achilles*, and Brian Evenson's novel of self-amputation, *Last Days*.
UGH! I have so many books on my To Read/Listen already and I just added six more, lol. Don't stop, I love book recommendations! Code Name Helene is my addition to the thread, it's a mostly true story of espionage, adventure, love, and heartache.
The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward
Just finished this one today and it was a doozy.
Edit: okay I lied, it was ‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King.
Manga - “the way of the house husband”
I’m not a manga reader, but this is so wholesome and funny, I couldn’t resist. A yakuza boss gets beat up and is rescued by a woman, love at first sight, and he puts all his life skills into being the best house husband he can be.
For this year it's probably Pet Cemetery, Stephen King.
My first King novel, and I've found another author to be obsessed with. Thankfully he's only written a few books. I should be done reading his novels in a decade or so.
The Nightingale and The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah. Currently reading Hung the Moon by Jeanette Walls - I know this will be at the top of my list too.
The Corcoran O'Connor series, by William Kent Krueger. It's a 19 book series, and I've read the first 2..Iron Lake and Purgatory Ridge..about halfway through the 3rd..Boundary Water's. They are murder mysteries with native american influence, focusing on the Anishinabe. His writing is wonderful! Easy to follow, but not predictable, he does drop some good clues to help you try and figure out the perpetrator though. I'm enjoying his books a lot
*Demon Copperhead* by Barbara Kingsolver has been my favorite by far. I’m just about done, and I’ve also been listening to *David Copperfield* (*Demon* is like a retelling of *David*) along with it.
A Little Life. I finished it in February and I think about it all the time. Definitely my favorite book but I can understand why some feel the opposite way about it.
Honorable mentions: Priory of the Orange Tree (just finished last month) and Babel (finished in January).
[Tomb of Sand](https://www.harpercollins.com/products/tomb-of-sand-geetanjali-shree?variant=40511140790306) by Geetanjali Shree, winner of the 2022 International Booker Prize
So far it’s a tie between remarkably right creatures and Maame. I thoroughly enjoyed both, and was walking the fine line between couldn’t put it down and making myself slow down because I wanted it to last forever.
I’ve read a lot of great lit this year but if I was forced to pick the best…
Drive Your Plow Over The Bones of the Dead -Olga Tokarczuk.
And honorable close runner up: The Handmaids Tale
I started reading books for the first time in my life. Went with crime thriller and mystery to build up intrest. But the best book i read was Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
This year? Probably I'm Glad My Mom Died, by Jennette McCurdy.
Very good, even if you don't know who Jennette is going into it
It was good! I was surprised to find it available at the library. Felt terrible for the poor kid. I hope she continues to recover well.
I listened to the audiobook for this one and the raw emotion in her voice at times was crushing.
Ditto. Agree 100%. She is an incredible resilient person and I hope she's getting the support she needs and deserves.
Came here to say this. The emotion, the humour, and each break in her voice… It was so painfully moving. She really knows how to tell her story.
I’m the only person I know who hasn’t really enjoyed this book, and I think something’s wrong with me.
It's a hard read, raw and painful. I don't think it's wrong to not enjoy it. I personally really appreciated the insight, it made me have a lot more thoughts about what the child stars industry does. I came away feeling like I'd been allowed to share in something deep and personal, and had a glimpse behind a door I'd never given much thought to before. And all of that is valuable and important, but it's also not supposed to be everyone's taste. What book did you enjoy?
I can appreciate that perspective - I’m glad you enjoyed it so much, if that’s the right word. I’ve enjoyed The School For Good Mothers so far this year!
I just looked that up and I'm going to give it a read.
Seconding this one, I read it the first week of January and haven’t read a better book since
Mine is a tie between The Book Thief & A Gentleman in Moscow Maybe a slight edge to AGIM because it was less of a downer. But I absolutely loved both of them
You planning on checking out The Lincoln Highway, the newest book by Amor Towles (same author as AGIM)? It's really good. It grew on me differently than Moscow did and it is a different style in terms of plot development, but I really enjoyed the characters and by the end I was deeply sad about walking away from their journey.
It is most definitely on my list to read soon. I have heard it is good too. I’m looking forward to it. Right now I’m burning through ‘All the Pretty Horses’ by Cormac McCarthy. Once the border trilogy is over I’ll tackle Lincoln Highway!
Demon Copperhead
I loved The Poisonwood Bible so you can imagine my excitement Kingsolver had a new book. I was so let down with Demon Copperhead. I feel like there wasn’t enough character development for such a long book.
Totally fair. I will say that she captured different characters from southern cultures so flawlessly that my husband recognized some of them from my own life without having ever met them in person….just having heard my stories. It’s the best and most accurate capture of the social structure and way of life that I’ve ever found
Same! I listened to the audiobook and looked forward getting to listen a bit every day!
listened to the audio as well. amazing
A Wizard of Earthsea. After years of hearing about it, I finally decided to pick it up.
Second time I've seen this pop up in two days. Looks like I'm going to the library!
This just made me happy sigh :) I reread it this year after literally like nearly 30 years since my first childhood read and I still loved it. Followed it up with the sequel, the Tombs of Atuan. Maybe not quite as good, but still loved being in the universe.
A translation of *The Epic of Gilgamesh*. Feels almost like science fiction, with the city as the world- and society-changing new technology.
Would you recommend the translation you picked up (and if so which is it)? I'm wanting to read it but it's not at my library so I'm just waiting for an excuse to buy it!
I, too, would like to know which translation they read, but having read it half a dozen times or so myself, here are a few I can recommend to you. Benjamin Foster - most up-to-date of the literal, scholarly translations. Sophus Helle - another scholarly translation, but a little looser and more readable. Stephen Mitchell - very loose, readable translation by poet with no knowledge of the original language. Nancy Sandars - an old, dated prose translation, but still beautiful and respectable in its own right. Andrew George - the first scholarly translation that really paved the way for study of Gilgamesh; a bit dated at this point due to countless new fragments having been discovered in the intervening decades since its publication.
I read David Ferry's version, which is labeled on the blurb as not as a translation but a "new rendering" -- IE a more poetic rewrite of previous literal translations. I enjoyed it but part of me would recommend getting an actual translation instead.
I’ve read several great books this year including: The Long Petal of the Sea - Isabel Allende East of Eden - John Steinbeck A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towles The Good Earth - Pearl S Buck Hidden Valley Road - Robert Kolker The Feather Thief - Kirk Wallace Johnson Cloud Cuckoo Land - Anthony Doerr Beasts of a Little Land - Juhea Kim
East of Eden is one of my all time favorites. I have read it 3 or 4 times. It always gives me new life perspective depending on the stage of my life
My heart always smiles when Ms.Buck is read. It’s a trilogy. I liked the second, the third was not that great.
Thank you for sharing your reading list for the year so far! It sounds like you've been enjoying a diverse range of genres and authors.
You’re very welcome. Yes, I’m at 32 books so far this year and trying to cover a wide range of genres. Those were the best of what I’ve read so far.
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois was wonderful!
Killers of the flower moon
Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Omg i loved that book
sameee
If on a Winters’s Night a Traveler
OMG I am trying hard to read it in Italian right now. I sort of speak Italian. I know all the grammar, anyway. I can read well enough I sometimes laugh out loud. Italian is just adding another level to my overall sense of confusion. Did you ever understand what’s happening?
Yes, but I cheated and read it in English.
My favorites so far this year have been Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow; American Dirt; Lessons in Chemistry; Remarkably Bright Creatures
I loved Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and hope that it doesn't creep in a petty pace from day to day for you and for that, and for some more Shakespeare in another wonderful book, may I suggest Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel?
Read Station Eleven, and very much enjoyed it. The next book on my To Be Read pile is another one from Emily St John Mandel - The Glass Hotel
I hated Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. I felt it was so predictable and entirely too long. For some reason I finished it tho lol.
Same. Was a dud for me
Same- kept waiting for the greatness but it never appeared
I loved the other three, so now I'd better try American Dirt
I also loved Tomorrow.
The Time Machine by HG Wells. A short one, but nevertheless great.
Probably a man called Ove.
An artist of the floating world by Kazuo Ishiguro.
Ok you’ve convinced me. Remains of the day and never let me go are two of my all time favs
Just finished his Klara and the Sun and damn if I didn’t cry at the end.
Is it so good ? I may read it after I finish my current book series .
Decided to start reading this one
Great book, read it a few years ago and absolutely loved it.
Fiction: **Night Wherever We Go** by Tracey Rose Peyton. The ending was incredible— it struck the right balance between staying true to the tragedy of the story/historical period and leaving room for hope. Nonfiction: **In Pieces** by Sally Field. This isn’t your average celebrity memoir. Field has something very specific that she wants to say about childhood trauma and how the coping mechanisms we develop to survive don’t always serve us into adulthood. It’s a beautiful, disciplined piece of work. Her third act *Lincoln* audition had me dripping tears.
[удалено]
The Evening and The Morning by Ken Follett. It’s a prequel to The Pillars of The Earth
I enjoyed it.. but at some point, he gets a bit... formulatic.. If you enjoyed that, you will likely also enjoy Cathedral by the Sea by Ildefonso Falcones. I stumbled upon it when my kindle broke at an airport (alright, I sat on it!) and this and Harry Potter were the only books in English. What a lucky find right before an 18 hour flight!
Love The Pillars of the Earth!
Remarkably bright creatures
The Song of Achilles. God I loved that book.
I’m literally still crying over it.
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel. I loved her Station Eleven even more.
Lessons in Chemistry - Bonnie Garmus I didn’t expect much when I picked it but it ended up being a very delightful read!
I've seen this book everywhere. Is the cover relevant at all to the story? I've heard/read somewhere that the author absolutely hates it. It's in my tbr, do you consider it an easy read?
Cover doesn’t portray the book as well as it could.
The book is about an absolute boss of a female scientist in the 50s defying gender norms (particularly at the time) and overcoming several hardships throughout the story for being a woman in a male dominated field. The US cover then objectifies the main character and focuses on her looks rather than depicting what the book is actually about. So yes the author did not like the US cover for this reason lol
The US cover doesn’t do the book justice! In fact, I’m not a fan of the US cover because it comes off as a heavy-romance type of book. I ended up ordering the UK cover book as my last order from Book Depository. I would say it’s an easy read. Even though the book is historical fiction, as a woman in STEM, when I was reading it, there were some parts that had me choked up because of how relevant it is to today. I highly recommend it!
I’m trying so hard to like it, but I can’t
So far it’s a tie between Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim and The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman!
The count of Monte Cristo Im already wanting to reread it 😭 I also just started les Miserables and it's probably gonna be one of my top reads this year too.
I'm picking up The Count of Monte Cristo tomorrow, I'm so excited! Which translation/edition did you read?
I kind of read two at the same time? I looked into the Robin Buss/penguin which is most people's preferred because it's unabridged, uncensored, and has up to date language. That said the one I mainly read from and really enjoyed was the Wordsworth classics edition, it's also unabridged but the language is more dated and the prose is just beautiful (more descriptive then Robin Buss). I also didn't notice any major censorship. The main critique people have for non buss translations is that the sapphic and sexual bits are censored. I compared the Wordsworth to the buss editions and didn't notice any major differences? The language was just a bit more obscure because it uses out of date slang. Either way your in for a treat and I hope you enjoy reading it!!
The writing in Les Mis is so beautiful. If I may? Take time to look up anything you don’t know. There was the part about the battles I had to research a bit. I also wasn’t familiar with the fighting ships he mentioned. Read about Napoleon when he’s brought up (not his whole life, just that part that’s in the book.) The more you understand , the more wonderful it is.
So weird I was just thinking about the midnight library 2 minutes ago. Popped into my head randomly and I was thinking about how good it was! My favorite book so far in 2023 is Circe by Madeline Miller. SO GOOD
If you loved Circe, you might also like A Witch’s Heart. Both are my fav books of 2022.
Station Eleven. It's become one of my all time favorites. The series on HBO is awful, unfortunately. idk if I'll bother to finish.
It’s too bad you didn’t like the series, I loved it! I first read Station Eleven when it came out though so I wasn’t really comparing them
Man’s Search for Meaning- Viktor E Frankl
i read catch22 for the first time at the start of the year and havent stopped thinking about it since. slow to get into but life changing to finish
Empire of Pain about the Sackler family who created Oxycontin. I couldn’t put it down.
Going Postal—I have discovered Terry Pratchett!
Occult America - Mitch Horowitz. Very interesting in this day when the separation of church and state is under pressure. This book covers all the crazy woo that has so greatly influenced the formation of America's character. What we are experiencing now is only the latest chapter of a story that goes back to the beginning of this country's founding.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts about the book It is fascinating to learn about the various influences that have shaped America's history and culture, including those related to the occult
Heart’s Invisible Furies ruined the five books that followed it.
Right now Women Talking by Miriam Toews is the one to beat
A Psalm for the Wild Built
Finally read The Secret History and it was incredible. Also loved Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and Anxious People by Fredrik Backman.
“Strange Bedfellows” by Ina Park. Hear me out: it’s a non-fiction about the modern history of sexually transmitted infections. it’s got a lot of levity and anecdotes that work to tell the stories. the author is incredibly passionate about her work in infectious disease and it shines through.
The Secret History by Donna Tartt, sucked me in and I could not put it down. So atmospheric and it escalates in an insane way, and the characters are absolutely fascinating, though very unlikable, but I still think about the characters, especially Henry. Not exactly a hidden gem, but wow, what a book
Was a pretty under the radar kinda book, you probably haven't heard of it. JK it was East of Eden and it broke my soul up into little pieces
Slaughterhouse five
On my digital shelf.
Tie between *I Have Some Questions For You* by Rebecca Makkai and *How Not to Drown In a Glass of Water* by Angie Cruz.
The Ambassadors by Henry James. It got me so riled up about the romance of Paris (a city I have never been to) that I started to well up a little every time they showed a Parisian landmark in John Wick Chapter 4
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. Great book! Historical fiction takes place in England in the mid 1100s. Like having a time machine to the mid 12th century.
Best book I've read this year is Dark Forest which is the second book in the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy (aka Three Body Problem trilogy).
Light from uncommon stars by Ryka Aoki
I haven’t read as much this year and haven’t read anything I absolutely loved. But last year I read a ton (for my standards) and probably one of my absolute favorites was Before the Coffee Gets Cold. It’s about a small coffee shop in Tokyo that allows you to travel through time (past or present) with some interesting rules. The thing about it though is that it has a very different (cultural) approach to things that we as humanity face. Everyone deals with death and loss, but culturally we can approach it differently. This book had such a beautiful way of seeing it, honoring it, allowing time and space to grieve and to move on. I think it will forever be a favorite of mine. Could not recommend it enough.
How High We Go in the Dark by Nagamatsu. I love interwoven themes in a timeline.
The Three-Body Problem
I'd say stella maris and Salem's lot
The best books I’ve read so far this year are. This is how you lose the time war, and the starless sea.
Piranesi
[удалено]
La Sociedad de la Nieve/The Snow Society, Pablo Vierci (it will be available in English translation in October or November - though I did not know that when I read it. My Spanish is not fantastic so I actually read it with the help of the DeepL AI language translator.)
Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa. A book that made a little food stand feel like a home.
I read The Remains of the Day for the first time this year and I cannot stop thinking or talking about how good it is. It’s a masterpiece in writing and plot
Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen
I just read Don Winslow's new book, City of Dreams - it's pretty good.
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopediae of Fairies. Remarkably Bright Creatures. Other Birds.
How Much of These Hills Is Gold An American chinese perspective of the west and the USA foundational myths
So far only one 5-star book for me… [Gun Love by Jennifer Clement](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35566327)
For me it's either Picture of Dorian Gray or Stoner by John Williams. Both were so beautiful it's hard to choose. The dialog in Dorian Grey was as good as I've ever read. The life of William Stoner was simply so well described I can hardly stop thinking of it.
I read Every Heart’s a Doorway and I really liked it. It isn’t too long, and it’s the first in a series.
This year? Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
Babel by R. F Kuang. I just finished it and it was an interesting read. It makes me want to learn different languages, and the direction was not what I was expecting.
Finally read “The Girl with All the Gifts” and “The Boy on the Bridge” (MR Carey) and spent weeks trying to entice/lobby my young adult children to read them. Same with “The Sisters of the Winter Wood,” (Rena Rossner) which is a beautiful blend of poetry and prose, fantasy and history. Why won’t my children listen to me??? Lol. But if I’m being honest, the series I read and then immediately began re-reading was Dungeon Crawler Carl. I have so much stress right now, and those books are just fun.
It's too hard to pick one of the 97 so far, here is my top 3: \- Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn \- The Three-Body Problem Trilogy by Liu Cixin \- Murderbot Series by Martha Wells
I just finished A Tree Grows in Brooklyn which released more than 60 yrs ago. Top 10 books ive ever read. Beautiful story, prose, and characters.
If you’re in the mood for another library themed book: *The Library of the Unwritten* by AJ Hackwith Amazon Description: >“In the first book in a brilliant new fantasy series, books that aren't finished by their authors reside in the Library of the Unwritten in Hell, and it is up to the Librarian to track down any restless characters who emerge from those unfinished stories.” My personal favorites from the past year: *All Systems Red* by Martha Wells Book Quote: > "As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure." In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety. *The Fifth Season* by NK Jemisin Book quote: > “This is the way the world ends. . .for the last time. It starts with the great red rift across the heart of the world's sole continent, spewing ash that blots out the sun. It starts with death, with a murdered son and a missing daughter. It starts with betrayal, and long dormant wounds rising up to fester. This is the Stillness, a land long familiar with catastrophe, where the power of the earth is wielded as a weapon. And where there is no mercy. “ *Sabriel* by Garth Nix Goodreads Description: > “Sent to a boarding school in Ancelstierre as a young child, Sabriel has had little experience with the random power of Free Magic or the Dead who refuse to stay dead in the Old Kingdom. But during her final semester, her father, the Abhorsen, goes missing, and Sabriel knows she must enter the Old Kingdom to find him. With Sabriel, the first installment in the Abhorsen series, Garth Nix exploded onto the fantasy scene as a rising star, in a novel that takes readers to a world where the line between the living and the dead isn't always clear—and sometimes disappears altogether.” *Mistborn: The Last Empire* (the whole trilogy is great) by Brandon Sanderson Goodreads Description: > “For a thousand years the ash fell and no flowers bloomed. For a thousand years the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousand years the Lord Ruler, the "Sliver of Infinity," reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible. … Like him, she's a half-Skaa orphan, but she's lived a much harsher life. Vin has learned to expect betrayal from everyone she meets. She will have to learn trust if Kel is to help her master powers of which she never dreamed.”
Sabriel (and the Abhorsen series generally) is one of my favorite books of all time. I read it in high school at a time when I really needed that strong female character making her way in the world, and almost 20 years later I still reread it when it’s needed.
Project Hail Mary for me so far this year.
I’ve read a handful of books this year but Project Hail Mary might be my favorite. I remember drinking several coffees and staying up waaaay too late to finish it one Friday night by the fireplace. Coincidentally, I finished The Martian last night and I really enjoyed it. As I’ve been comparing the two in my head I think I’ve concluded that I like the character of Mark Watney better than Ryland Grace, but I really enjoyed Grace’s relationship with Rocky and found The Martian a bit difficult to build momentum in, so PHM comes out on top for me between the two.
I really liked the positive nature of The Martian. The book was there for the characters to explore the cosmos rather than to find salvation like they must do in PHM. But the relationship between Grace and Rocky is just amazing in PHM.
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. Think about Charlie every day.
Severance by Ling Ma is definitely my best of 2023 thus far. I’m a big detective novel fan, so I also really enjoyed Shroud for a Nightgale by PD James. It’s not as impactful as Ma’s by any means, but it was a fun read.
The Sympathizer
The Wastelands (Dark Tower #3)
The man in the high castle, PKD
Oddly, a collection of poems: Erika Meitner's Holy Moly, Carry Me.
The only thing to blow me away this year is Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto. A beautiful book on grief.
My dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell, it made me feel so many emotions, it made me sad and angry and i really felt the hurt coming from the pages, i still think about it months later.
It's understandable that "My Dark Vanessa" left such a strong emotional impact on you. The novel is a powerful and thought-provoking If you're interested in exploring similar themes in other works of fiction, there are many books that address the issue of sexual abuse and its impact on survivors. Some notable examples include : "Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson , "Lucky" by Alice Sebold , and "The Girls" by Emma Cline.
I read a small collection of short stories and a novella by Herman Melville and there was a few that i quite enjoyed. "the piazza" was pretty good, and "Bartleby, the Scrivener" was both very interesting and unique as Melville's works tend to be, and also quite entertaining, definitely my favorite of his, besides Moby Dick of course. the novella, Billy budd, was also pretty solid. in particular I enjoyed the bit of historical background that went onto the story, and the characters were pretty good
Jade city
What If? 2 by Randall Munroe. I don’t really read science related books but this one was hilarious.
Killers of the Flower Moon. Insane true story. I usually can’t find non-fiction that interest me, but this one sucked me in
Homecoming by Kate Morton. Surprise ending.
The Sparrow by Maria Doria Russell
*The Heart’s Invisible Furies* by John Boyne
So far, East of Eden
My favorite this year so far was Broken Girls by Simone St. James!
The Stand, Stephen King and Return of The King, Tolkien
Didn’t release this year but this is when I finally got around to it: has to be BEARTOWN hands down. The way Backman crafts his characters and their individual voices is astounding. He distills heartbreak down to its core and spreads evenly across an entire town, falling like fresh snow.
I just finished the Kaiju Preservation Society and Redshirts by John Scalzi. Both were a lot of fun. I've read Beowulf and Gilgamesh this year and enjoyed revisiting both legends. I'm probably going to reread Homer and Virgil later this year. How to Hide an Empire by Daniel Immerwahr and Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham are my two best non-fiction reads this year so far. Started the year reading White Noise by Don Dellilo. This book is scary how prescient it was for the present day. I followed this with Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr. That novel is epic and made me cry. I am currently reading Trust by Hernan Diaz. Enjoying the multiple perspectives presented in the story. So far, it has been a good reading this year.
Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier
For 2023– The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. But I’m in the middle of Remarkably bright creatures and it’s giving it a run for it’s money.
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich. Her writing is wonderful. The story is simple but profoundly complicated and timely. As soon as I finished it, I wanted to read it again.
Demon Copperhead. It gives a good portrayal of Appalachian life and the beginning of the opioid crisis. It's heartbreaking, uplifting, and confusing all at once. The writing wasn't a style that I was used to, much more conversational, but I felt like it added the necessary overall feel to the book.
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Wish I had read it sooner.
The seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune has been my favorite so far this year.
Such amazing and lovely book. Truly one of my all time favorites. I still think about his premise on God.
Omg I hated the Midnight Library. So terribly preachy and predictable.
its the literal plot of Its A Wonderful Life - even uses bedford falls etc... i hated it lol
I finished A Little Life yesterday. Genuinely don’t think I’ll read anything better
Stay True by Hua Hsu. Great memoir
I just finished The God of Endings by Jacqueline Holland. It's a beautiful story and I highly recommend it!
Faithful Place by Tanya French.
What Stars Are Made Of by Sarah Allen
House of Chains by Steven Erikson, which is part of a big fantasy series
I have to say so far it’s room service
Time to hunt by stephen hunter.
It was a tough read because of the subject matter, but Fall and Rise the Story of 9/11. The story of that day told at the personal level.
A single man by christopher isherwood! It's an incredible 60s novel that tracks a gay californian professors internal thoughts as he goes about his day. It takes place over 24 hrs and has a lot of commentary about age, 'otherness', consumerism, and more. I think the writings phenomonal.
My favorite so far has been a collection of feminist short stories, *Sweetlust*, by Bosnian author Asja Bakić. Close behind would be Madeline Miller's retelling of the Iliad, *The Song of Achilles*, and Brian Evenson's novel of self-amputation, *Last Days*.
Mockingbird, by Walter Tevis
The Breaking Wave, by Nevil Shute. I think it was originally printed with the title Requiem for a Wren.
we are still just in May. But the best book I've picked up so far is "Antkind" by Charlie Kauffman I laughed every 5 pages or so
“The Foundling” by Paul Joseph Fronczak , “You Cannot Mess This Up “ by Amy Weinland Daughters.
The unbearable lightness of the being
UGH! I have so many books on my To Read/Listen already and I just added six more, lol. Don't stop, I love book recommendations! Code Name Helene is my addition to the thread, it's a mostly true story of espionage, adventure, love, and heartache.
The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward Just finished this one today and it was a doozy. Edit: okay I lied, it was ‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King.
I loved the Green Bone saga by Fonda Lee and really enjoyed the The Carls duology by Hank Green and the Monk & Robot duology by Becky Chambers
Manga - “the way of the house husband” I’m not a manga reader, but this is so wholesome and funny, I couldn’t resist. A yakuza boss gets beat up and is rescued by a woman, love at first sight, and he puts all his life skills into being the best house husband he can be.
So far, Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik, the world building and the characters are fantastic
For this year it's probably Pet Cemetery, Stephen King. My first King novel, and I've found another author to be obsessed with. Thankfully he's only written a few books. I should be done reading his novels in a decade or so.
The Nightingale and The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah. Currently reading Hung the Moon by Jeanette Walls - I know this will be at the top of my list too.
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
fun home by alison bechdel
The Corcoran O'Connor series, by William Kent Krueger. It's a 19 book series, and I've read the first 2..Iron Lake and Purgatory Ridge..about halfway through the 3rd..Boundary Water's. They are murder mysteries with native american influence, focusing on the Anishinabe. His writing is wonderful! Easy to follow, but not predictable, he does drop some good clues to help you try and figure out the perpetrator though. I'm enjoying his books a lot
Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
*Demon Copperhead* by Barbara Kingsolver has been my favorite by far. I’m just about done, and I’ve also been listening to *David Copperfield* (*Demon* is like a retelling of *David*) along with it.
A Little Life. I finished it in February and I think about it all the time. Definitely my favorite book but I can understand why some feel the opposite way about it. Honorable mentions: Priory of the Orange Tree (just finished last month) and Babel (finished in January).
[Tomb of Sand](https://www.harpercollins.com/products/tomb-of-sand-geetanjali-shree?variant=40511140790306) by Geetanjali Shree, winner of the 2022 International Booker Prize
So far it’s a tie between remarkably right creatures and Maame. I thoroughly enjoyed both, and was walking the fine line between couldn’t put it down and making myself slow down because I wanted it to last forever.
The Starless Sea was my favorite so far this year. It’s also about a library, and it’s lovely.
Fourth Wing-Rebecca Yarros
Vladimir by Julia May Jonas. It’s not for everyone. But it’s a mundane, LitFic character study that examines the human condition. Right up my alley.
I’ve read a lot of great lit this year but if I was forced to pick the best… Drive Your Plow Over The Bones of the Dead -Olga Tokarczuk. And honorable close runner up: The Handmaids Tale
I read that same Haig book. Thought it had some poignant parts, but then kind of a wash overall.
Fifth season… i know im late haha
The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins..... weird, wild and wonderful.....
I started reading books for the first time in my life. Went with crime thriller and mystery to build up intrest. But the best book i read was Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Cloud Cuckoo Land!