Literary Classics & Library

I’ve been seeing this book everywhere lately and I’m really on the fence about picking it up. I loved her memoir, but I've heard such mixed things about this one, some people say the writing is raw and honest, while others think it’s a bit too much or tries too hard to be edgy. I usually like books that don't sugarcoat things, but I don't want to waste my time if the plot doesn't actually go anywhere.

For those of you who have read it, did you actually enjoy the story or was it just the hype that kept you going? Would you recommend buying it now or should I just wait for the paperback?

I enjoy reading but I have a problem where I fall asleep if I read for more than 30 mins. I can feel my eyelids close and I then need to nap. This happens during the day so it’s not a night time thing. I’ve been consistently getting 8 hours sleep so I don’t think it’s because of that. I am really into the books I’m reading so it’s not from boredom. It’s annoying because I would love to spend a Saturday reading, but if I try and do that I feel like I’m wasting the day napping. I can watch TV or scroll on my phone without any sleepiness. It’s not narcolepsy. It only happens when I read. I have ADHD which may be part of it, but I’m medicated. I usually read on my kobo. Any advice appreciated!

After barely reading anything last year, I’ve somehow had the best reading year of my life so far. Song of Achilles and Piranesi back to back has genuinely broken my brain.

Already have Circe by Madeline Miller on my list — but what else would you recommend if these two are your favourites? Looking for that same transportive, emotionally devastating feeling. Any genre welcome. 🙏​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

I'd also probably say Pynchon now that Toni Morrison is dead, but that's such an easy answer and one that's been given a million times before. I feel like younger, up-and-coming writers are sidelined whenever this question is asked just so the canon can be reemphasized.

Who are the greatest contemporary prose stylists who started writing in the 90s-now?

i'd probably say Colson Whitehead.

There's been a lot of articles and posts lately about the decline of mass market paperbacks. I've definitely read my fair share of books in this format (like most of us I bet). I'm not very sentimental about the format's decline. I like them, but I have developed vision problems that make pretty much any other format/sizing easier to read. That said, I still find myself reading them under an enlarger because of the shear volume of stuff produced in this format. And I think they are sort of fascinating reflections of popular genres. I could be wrong, but I associate the popularity of genres with the paperbacks I see on thrift store or used bookstore shelves. 50s/60s: mysteries, westerns, and sci fi. 70s: spy fiction and horror. 80s: romance, fantasy. 90s: military and legal thrillers.

These genres are always popular, but I associate them with these decades mostly because of the paperbacks I've been looking through all my life. Often the work was produced with an eye towards marketability, but there's a lot of craft and fun to be found. BUT THERE'S JUST SO MUCH OF IT. Do you all have any little known books that you've found randomly and really liked? The sort of stuff that probably won't wind up on a syllabus; by authors who probably wrote one of these a year? Particularly I'm interested in Westerns because I've never really been able to get into them but they were massively popular. I mean the Louis L'amour tier stuff, not like Lonesome Dove. With so many written for so many decades... there's gotta be a few really good ones right?

Just finished Playground and I can't stop thinking about one particular thing it does.

The novel follows Todd, who builds an early social platform into a multi-billion dollar company. Powers traces his worldview with genuine empathy — in Todd's universe, code produces output, clean code produces clean products, and cause leads to effect. From inside that logic, the state really does look like pure noise.

What got me is how clearly Powers shows why that worldview forms. Todd is a rich white kid who went to private school and never had a meaningful interaction with public services. The state was always invisible to him. So he builds despite it — or so he believes.

The irony Powers builds into the novel without ever stating it outright: Playground only becomes a billion-dollar platform because millions can access it. That access requires the internet, which started as a US government defence project. The electricity, the supply chains, the stable legal systems — all of it is state-produced or state-enabled.

He contrasts Todd with Rafi, his Black friend who got into the same private school on merit but never had the option of treating the state as abstract. Same era, same country — entirely different relationship to public systems.

Has anyone else read Playground and picked up on this thread? And more broadly — does anyone else think fiction is doing a better job right now of explaining tech ideology than most non-fiction is? Please recommend more books that help me understand the world better!

Recently I’ve taken up reading at a cafe for a few hours every weekend. While typically I’ve only ever had one non fiction and one fiction book going at once, I decided to read Crime and Punishment exclusively at the cafe.

And while that turned out to be a very good choice, it did take me a hell of a lot of time to read, since it was my cafe book.

I’d like to stick to my sort of “penguin classic” theme I set for myself with my first book, so does anyone have a good one? Some vaunted book, something truly considered to be *literature*.

To those who are looking to do something similar, I’d recommend short stories. If I hadn’t just completed a read through of Poe and Lovecraft for Halloween the past two years, I’d recommend reading their works. Nice short stories, and reading Poe is genuinely rather rewarding. One of my all time faves.

I’d also recommend getting a nice thick Sherlock Holmes book, I think there are a few different imprints that do collections to Sherlock Holmes books. Agatha Christie gets an honorable mention here (although tbh I think her books shouldn’t be set aside for a leisurely weekend read, I typically can’t put those down!)

Let me know what you all think makes for a good “cafe book”! I’m interested to see what you guys would pick.

there's this situation with my son where I didn't feel that his teacher was giving him an equitable shot. And in asking for help, a bunch of my friends have made it clear to me that I'm assuming a bunch of things about his teacher. bad judgments really, and unrealistic expectations. and honestly, it's exhausting to make those kind of judgments. especially since I noticed that I've been doing it all the time and in more situations than just this one. really looking to and ready to grow. religious and spiritual texts, from any religion, also welcome.

What are some books that changed your perspective on life in a good way? Not self help, but novels that made you see life from a new angle. Any length is fine.

It is rare that Salter is ever mentioned on this sub and I wondered what the consensus is. To me, he is one of the greatest American writers of the twentieth century. I find his prose to be gorgeous and very moreish when reading. Richard Ford once declared that he “writes American sentences better than anyone”. He was a master novelist and was possibly even better at short stories.

I met the man at a reading a few years before he died and he blew me away with his sharpness and speed of thought. He was nearly 90 at the time and I feel privileged to have shake his hand. To me he is a quintessential American author, someone I would put up with Cormac McCarthy and Hemingway.

Anyway, opinions?

I’ve just finished the silent patient and I absolutely loved it.

Does anyone have any good recommendations for similar books with a good twist or an unreliable narrator? I love psychological thrillers so anything that’s a bit creepy is also very welcome!

I want to outright state that I don’t hate this novel. There are books that are bigger hypocrites, books that made me far angrier, books that are just worse. Notes on an Execution still is disappointing, it still doesn’t fully deliver when it comes to its themes, but it’s at least a 2.75/5 for me. So, in the “okayyyy” range with regards to how I felt!

But I sure have a lot I’d love to discuss…

Undermining its own central plot and themes

I understand that Ansel is the focus here. However, the central premise of the book is to be something that “de-centers the serial killer,” and that’s just blatantly not showcased. It wants to be this feminist reframing of a genre, and it doesn’t fail at that in EVERY way, but that goal is for sure constantly undercut by the actual structure and narrative.

Ansel remains the center of the novel. He is at the forefront of all of these women’s lives. He is one of (if not THE) primary thoughts in their heads. Every woman in this novel is defined by him. Lavender’s life is his prelude, Jenny’s life is a reaction, Saffy’s life is consumed by him, etc. We are told that they all have their own lives, but when do we really ever see that beyond being told about the twins’ childhood? I think they were perhaps the only characters to receive at least an attempt at a life that doesn’t revolve around Ansel (at least, out of the POV characters), but is that good enough?

The philosophical core of the novel

I can show some leniency here because we are meant to sort of roll our eyes at Ansel’s thesis and his manifesto. But we’re also meant to take it to heart since it ends up being one of the central themes. I’m reminded of the concept of “timshel” in East of Eden. “Thou mayest.” We all have a choice. Sin lives within all of us, but it’s up to us to decide how to act. I’m not sure how I feel about the narrative acting as though Ansel’s thesis is a revelation. Does the text genuinely believe that this idea is his own unique invention? Are we meant to roll our eyes at him? Surely we are meant to believe to some extent that it is a new concept, otherwise how would he have been able to even pursue it academically to that extent? Would the other characters not have heard of this broad concept? It is not inherently poor writing for Ansel to feel this way and believe it is unique, but its delivery in the novel feels a little naive.

I think also that particular theme isn’t even explored well here. We are told again and again that Ansel chose his path, but I can’t help but feel that his agency is severely undermined. The women in this novel constantly reflect on their own choices and how they shaped Ansel. Yes, that’s only natural. Yes, our environments impacts us and the choices we make. However, the book primarily has the women ask “what if scenarios?” about how Ansel would have changed based on their actions. In a way, it feels like the book is blaming these women. What if I hadn’t exposed him, what if I hadn’t abandoned him, what if I had reached out sooner… Again, natural questions to ask. Especially when delving into the psyche of a killer. BUT ! This is meant to be a feminist take that focuses on the male serial killer’s own actions. So why does it almost suggest that the women are to blame? After all, other characters who had similar childhoods turned out great! (I’m being sarcastic). Ansel enjoys asking the what if questions too, but it’s usually never regarding his own actions. It’s more so just imagining a different world, so in a sense it feels like he’s partially absolved of responsibility.

Side note about environments

I think this book does not discuss the importance of setting enough. Setting in a novel is another character; it’s another factor that impacts and shapes characters deeply. Maybe I’m just biased from having recently read books like East of Eden, Grotesque and Wuthering Heights where this is a concept that is key, but I can’t help but feel like surely the setting is important too? What was Ansel’s environment? Beyond his parental situation. How did that impact him, how did it impact other characters? The purpose of Notes on an Execution is in part to go into the inner psyche of the killer and the women in his life. Why not touch more upon their physical environments? They are mentioned, but it feels like just as minor set dressing. Not as something that impacts the characters.

Problematic gender politics

Moving on. For a feminist novel, this sure likes to rely on bio-essentialism and problematic gender politics. It could be worse. But yikes.

Saffy comments on how women have “an ask for suffering. It was the scariest thing about being a woman. It was hard wired.” Hard wired?? I could see this book making the argument that it is only “hard wired” into women to be submissive and desire suffering due to society and the patriarchy. But that’s not really the context of this quote at all. It seems to imply that it’s a desire from birth. I recently read Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino, and that book follows many similar concepts of women having been murdered, following the POV of the sister of one of them, the POV of the killer, and of some other characters. I find that novel to be far more effective, especially in its feminist themes. It too looks at the way in which women may have internal beliefs about themselves and their worth that are harmful. It does so without relying on “this is just how women all are meant to be,” instead it delves into the society that made a woman this way. A society we don’t learn much about in Notes on an Execution (perhaps only touched upon by the misogyny Saffy faces at her job, or the abuse Lavender experiences…but these are never shown in a light that relates them to this quote.).

Regarding other weird bio-essentialism takes, this quote stands out: “there was nothing like the love you had for your own child. It was biological. Evolutionary.” It feels odd for a novel in which so many characters were in foster care to suggest that the love a parent feels for a child they bore is stronger than the love they may feel for one they adopted. Is that a lesser love according to this novel? Is DNA the end all be all? A lot in this book seems to suggest that DNA is the strongest bond, something even evidenced by Blue. It’s a bit of a narrow take in a story that wants to explore complex human connections.

Miscellaneous

I have some other minor issues too, mainly regarding the overwriting. There are too many flowery metaphors for my taste, ones that often do not improve my reading experience. It sort of contributes to the performative feeling in general.

I also don’t really enjoy the graphicness of the sex scenes. Of course, they aren’t full on “smut book” levels, but we don’t need the details of Ansel grabbing the breasts of the woman he’s with and how they feel. This feels less like an exploration of power and more like stepping into the voyeurism that the book aims to critique. It wasn’t a massive part of the book, but it was enough to make me raise my eyebrows.

I’ll end my review with just a moment of irony. Perhaps this was meant to be ironic in some way, perhaps not. There’s a moment in which a character cites her vote for Obama as evidence of her inherent goodness. Even though I understand why this was mentioned, it still made me laugh. It’s almost like a gesture toward moral complexity that the book isn’t actually interested in exploring. It is a gesture of self-congratulatory morality. “I made the better vote, therefore I’m a good person.” The more complicated realities are ignored. Maybe it was the “better vote,” but it’s almost like performative virtue signaling in a book that itself is performing depth that it cannot maintain.

(edit: grammatical mistakes)

Okay, for whomever has seen this movie. I’m looking for a book similar to this vibe. It’s sorta grim but not insanely, it has all kinds of wacky antagonists in a weird universe and a legend of a protagonist. Yes vampire is allowed bout not necessary. It’s more about the vibe of this movie. Also it’s got some dune like elements which I like but please don’t reccomend dune cuz I’m looking for something slightly different.

Hope this is clear enough

Books that I enjoyed (despite some of the authors being problematic in many ways)

Charles Bukowski “Post Office”

Henry Miller “Tropic Of Cancer”

Jack Kerouac “The Subterraneans” and “On The Road”

Patrick Süskind “Perfume”

Caitlin Rozakis - Dreadful

Justin Cronin - The Ferryman

Ray Nayler - The Mountain In The Sea

David Grann - The Wager

Jeff Vandermeer - Annihilation

Michael Crichton - Timeline

M.J. Kuhn - Among Thieves

Haruki Murakami - 1Q84 (Book One)

S.A. Cosby - King of Ashes

Linden A. Lewis - The First Sister

Kay Chronister - The Bog Wife

Ethan Rutherford - North Sun

Antonia Hodgson - The Raven Scholar

Mark Z. Danielewski - Tom's Crossing

My friends and I started a book club last March. We just finished up Year 1. It's been a lot of fun and has led to some interesting discussions. What do you think of our picks?

Our favorites were North Sun, Annihilation, The Wager, King of Ashes, Bog Wife and Raven Scholar

Our stinkers were 1Q84 and Timeline. Everything else was either meh or decent. We are in the middle of Tom's Crossing right now so I don't have an opinion on it yet, but so far I'm enjoying it, even if it's a little long in the tooth.

What are your thoughts? Any good suggestions to add for future reading? Thanks!