The book is fiction, but is based on a real boy’s reformatory school in Florida. The author uses some real places and experiences that creates a story that I think needs to be heard.

Set in the 1960s, the book portrays what it meant and means to be a Black boy/man in the US, particularly in the south. It’s important to remember the period of Jim Crow ended less than 100 years ago, and the brutality that Black people endured in the south at the hands of whites shouldn’t be forgotten or ignored, swept under the rug because it makes people uncomfortable.

Gave it 5/5 stars on Goodreads. Let me know what you think.

now i know this book is widely recommended across multiple different platforms and not by any means underground

but let me tell YOU why you should read this!!! don't go into it expecting an extraordinarily fast-paced plot - it is most certainly not an action book. the plot is relatively slow-moving and builds up to an extraordinary ending but this is not necessarily what sold it for me.

what really had me hooked was the characters - while i've seen a lot of reviews saying that the characters lacked depth and had no personality, i feel the opposite way.

the secret history is about the dysfunctional relationship between the main six (richard, charles, camilla, francis, bunny, henry) - initially richard idolised them and high society and longed to be a part of them, but he eventually uncovers their flaws and the poison within them as they unravel. on the surface level, their academia is enchanting and consuming and their tight-knit group is inviting and friendly. but not everything is as richard sees it!!!

Full disclosure. I had to read this book in college but was busy that week so I bullshited my essay and discussion...

Nine years later, I finally got around to giving this book the attention it deserves.

This book is a literary mystery. We follow an unnamed narrator in a Sudanese village, who suddenly gets swept up and pretty much adopted by a man named Mustafa Saeed. Despite their generational gap, the two bond over thier past experiences of living abroad in England.

But Mustafa has a bizarre confession. He is responsible for 4 suicides and a murder. All of whom his former lovers, and wife.

When mustafa disappears in an apparent suicide, the narrator is left as the new male guardian of mustafa's family. the narrator pieces together the mysterious man's past which despite its distance in both time and geography, threatens to repeat once again.

This book is a grab by the lapels and a shaking of sense into you. The book is critical not only of colonial oppression, but postcolonial complacency.

This is a slender postcolonial melodrama of the highest caliber. You are missing out if you pass on this.

Just finished Pachinko. The scope is so grand. Even with the narrator's objective omniscience, you feel so deeply connected to each of the characters in this family. I also learned about 20th century Korean and Japanese history.

Highly recommend this devastating book!

Joining the chorus of many voices who love this book. I found it extremely absorbing and there is something so smooth about Keefe's writing style. While there is a true crime story(ies) I felt it was the historian in me which enjoyed this the most. Because it is such a good modern history of London.

At the core is the Brettler family mourning their son. A nineteen year old boy who jumped from the balcony of one of the most exclusive apartment buildings in London. As his parents seek to understand what brought him to that moment we are offered glimpses into many aspects of the recent history of London. Russian Oligarchs, Indian-Ugandan refugees, Underworld figures, Holocaust survivors and a strangely passive Police and Justice system. It is an anti-Guy Ritchie movie, stripping away the mythology and asking some very pointed questions.

I'm in my forties now and truly one of the most heartbreaking things in life is when teens and young adults don't survive their stupid era. Because we all fly too close to the sun at some point and most of us are lucky enough to escape with some sunburn and singed wingtips. Zac Brettler didn't and I feel so deeply for his family and their loss.

This debut book is a beautifully written exploration of the trauma of migration through dual timelines.
The story follows two women, a hundred years apart. Avani is a part of the migration scheme the British had to send workers to the sugar plantations in Fiji, and Meera one hundreds years later living in NZ and really feeling the double whammy of living away from her original Indian heritage, along with being Indo-Fijian. She feels rootless and is living in the pain of diaspora. This leads her on a journey of reconnection through dance, and eventually makes a trip to India.

This book is so good, a solid 5 star read from me, if you are into generational stories then this is for you!

I just finished the last novel of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books series. I LOVED IT!!

Long story short, it's about a woman (Alicia Gris), an investigator who is given her last mission of solving the mysterious disappearance of a very important person. Her investigation reveals all kinds of betrayals, brings her into contact with people who were part of her past, and uncovers one twisted plot after another.

The investigation also disturbs the lives of the Sempere family who run a bookshop, by bringing past events and buried secrets back to the surface.

What I particularly loved about this book is how all the characters and stories from the previous novels come together and perfectly fit into the bigger story. It's my first time reading a series of novels, and I'm sure this will remain one of my favorites!

Tore through the book this week. Maybe a coming of age addiction story sounds too dark, but it wasn’t heavy handed. It felt real and matter of fact. Not sappy or glorifying. I will be thinking about and rooting for the main character, Jess, for a long time.

I need to talk about The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion by Beth Brower because I picked up the first one on a whim and somehow I'm now eight volumes deep.

This is basically historical fiction told through Emma's journals, following her life, friendships, family, and all the little dramas that come with being a woman in the 1880s. There’s romance, friendship, social expectations, the occasional bit of feminism, and eventually the wider impact of the war. It's very much a slice-of-life story, but the longer you spend with these characters, the more invested you become in what happens to them.

If you like Bridgerton, I think there's a good chance you'd enjoy this. It's definitely different, but it has those same sort of romantic and social undertones. It's low stakes, there's a little bit of everything, and it's just a really enjoyable palate cleanser between bigger or heavier books.

And Emma's voice is probably my favourite part. She's witty, observant, and I genuinely like spending time in her head. The relationships also feel like they get more fleshed out as the series goes on, which is why I think sticking with it pays off. It really feels like one big novel that's been broken into smaller volumes, so you get more depth as you go.

There are currently eight volumes available on audiobook, which is how I've been listening to them, and apparently there are more to come.

Anyway, I clearly have become emotionally invested in the lives of these 1880s people, so if this sounds like your kind of thing, I highly recommend giving it a shot.

Man I really loved this book. I just finished it last night. I can always tell when I love a book because I keep thinking about it and the idea of even starting a new book doesn't even sound fun 😆

Watership Down is a story about a little group of rabbits. It was so touching to see how they helped and cared for one another. I thought the prose was beautiful. It was so refreshing and interesting to read a book that isn't told from the perspective of humans.

I am not ashamed to admit I cried after reading the last page. It gutted me a bit. I laughed, I cried, I hated Woundwort. This book is a new favorite and one I could definitely see myself reading again. I love these rabbits.

Just finished reading PERFECTLY NICE NEIGHBORS by Kia Abdullah. It’s about this Indian family that moves into this suburban neighborhood. Of course, things start off innocently enough with them being welcomed to the neighborhood at a cookout.

Then, Salma posts a BLM banner on her yard. She comes home one day to find that the white neighbor next door, Tom, has ripped it out of the yard. However, she chooses not to speak out on it, instead moving the banner to her window. The next morning, her window is smeared with white paint. Though she didn’t see Tom do it, Salma figures it doesn’t take a genius to conclude that he did. So, despite her husband’s protests, she goes over to her neighbor’s house to give him an earful.

Tom denies any wrongdoing and claims she’s overreacting. Salma ends up posting about the incident on social media and, though her identity is not divulged, the post goes viral.

Anyway, Tom’s wife Willa tries to smooth things over with Salma. After all, their sons have started to become friends and nobody wants to cause any trouble. However, unwanted attention from the viral post causes Tom to confront Salma & her family on their doorsteps, saying some rather offensive things about them.

Having simmered down from his racist rant, Tom considers it the end of the matter. Unbeknownst to him, though, Salma’s son recorded the whole thing and posted it online and that blew up, eventually reaching the attention of Tom’s employer (apparently, Tom has a pattern of racially insensitive moments and this latest incident cast the company in a bad light), where he ends up fired.

And that’s when things REALLY get wild. Things devolve into a war between the two families where it escalates into wild accusations, animal theft, detainment, a miscarriage, and even attempted murder (yes, you read that right).

Most of the characters in this novel aren’t exactly completely likable but they’re compelling. I mean, I’m a Black man and I understand what it’s like to be in predominantly White spaces and be confronted with microaggressions and racially charged moments and be at the crossroads of deciding whether to speak out or keep silent. And there were those moments between Tom & Willa that were so insulting that I totally understand Salma’s reactions. However, there were a few moments where I thought she was being a bit oversensitive.

That being said, this novel was a wild, dramatic thriller that got messier the more you got into (with a third act that surprised me). Who knew suburban life could be so intense? 😮

The book Happy Place is almost like a familiar feeling that you can't put your finger on it. You may have never gone through something similar but the emotions you feel throughout feel tangible. It follows Harriet and Wyn, a couple who broke up shortly before their annual vacation with their best friends. They go on this vacation without having told anyone that they aren't together anymore, they pretend they’re still together while spending one last summer at the place that has always felt like home, forcing them to confront what happened between them and whether they can find their way back to each other. Now, i won't spoil anything more from here but this book is about romance, friendship, heartache, a growing up, and the deep feeling of longing. It explored how difficult it can be to hold onto the people and versions of yourself that once felt like home. I love all of Emily Henry’s books, but this one is special to me! It felt like so much more than a “romance.” Harriet and Wyn’s relationship felt messy but real, and I liked that the book made room for grief, loneliness, and uncertainty without losing its warmth or emily's natural way of adding humor in a way that feels realistic. It was emotional and nostalgic in a way that felt really personal, but still comforting.

This was my first book by the author. There is another book by the author, Diary of a Void (debut) which I left after a few pages and maybe I shouldn't have.

So coming to the story, it's a bit absurd but interesting and I'm glad I read it.

So the MC, Hora works part-time in a freezer but also works as a Latin translator in a museum.

Her work entails speaking to Venus (statue)

Venus tells her about all the places she has been to, all the places in the sense the palaces, the officials who had had her in their house, but now she wants to explore the world.

Venus is also very irritated being looked at from dawn to dusk, and even the curator is a bit of a creep

So Hora, very slowly falls in love with Venus, sometimes I feel I should have been Pygmalion, I digress

So what happens next? Does Venus and Hora's love story become successful? for that you need to read the book!

It's a short one.

What a beautifully written story on friendships between humans and their animals combined with the ugly history of slavery and the abomination of the master-slave relationship. The animal-human relationship between Jarrett and Darley/Lexington may be some of my favorite writing on the topic. I finished the book early this morning at 2:30 am and keep thinking about all the different topics artfully (pun intended) intertwined in a book.

I finished this book in the early hours of the morning, while weeping and sobbing. This was a really powerful book for me that sweeps across four generations of a complicated family.

We start with Ryan, who as a boy, resents his violent alcoholic father. He loses himself in the creation of art and grows up to become an artist. He falls in love with Lillian, who has a past that involved having a baby before she met Ryan and giving that baby away for adoption. She harbors a lot of guilt for that and even more when Ryan doesn't take that news well, believing it attributes to his downward spiral.

Their marriage ends after they have a baby of their own named Georgette. Lillian navigates motherhood alone but exists in this space between resenting Ryan for abandoning their family and marriage, and wanting the version of him that she loved back, if it even exists anymore.

Georgette, on the other hand, sees this as a man coming and (mostly) going from their lives. That's the context that she has, and she has a lot of disappointment in her dad, as anyone would in her position. But a tragedy happens that causes Georgette to spiral and leads to a further split between herself and her father.

There is a very real, easily grasped depiction of the deep depression that Georgette goes through, and it isn't rushed for anyone's comfort. You have to linger in it with her. When she starts to come out on the other side in slow, steady paces - it feels like a triumph. It feels real. I wanted her to be healed so badly.

I think this book is so rich - it has references and mannerisms the characters partake in that fit the decades this story spans through like a glove.

It's so immersive. It also isn't afraid to confront those hard feelings and choices that the characters have to make, where sometimes there's no real way to win... it's just how to lose the least.

I was so moved. I will keep these characters with me for a long time. Five well-earned stars drawn on a dining room table.

As someone who watched Troy dozens of times as a child and fell in love with Greek mythology, I finally read what is probably the greatest work of world literature in its entirety.

The Iliad is the story of the final days of the Trojan War, and the events of the poem are a direct result of Achilles' decision to exit the war out of rage.

This grand drama that plays out amongst gods and men is unparalleled in pure, raw intensity. From page 1 we are thrown into the madness of war and receive a poignant meditation on wrath and its devastating consequences.

Was this a fun read? Yes and no. It is packed with non-stop action and combat, yet also drenched in enormous monologues which are delivered in the heat of battle. It is riddled with minute details and contains a massive cast of players, large and small. Lots of repetition. But that doesn't take away from the sweeping, epic narrative that is full of the most psychologically compelling characters of all time.

Not only is this a brutal war epic, it is also a stunning work of philosophy. At the heart of its narrative is the question of human free will as opposed to divine determinism. I'll be thinking about this book forever probably.

Not much more needs to be said about this masterpiece, it speaks for itself!

Thanks for reading!

I knew on a general level what the ending was going to be, but I wasn't prepared for the writing in the last paragraphs to be twisting in my gut like a knife.

Wharton has a gift of making you feel for people who should be all accounts by unsympathetic - she had me moved by the plight of Newland Archer as a teenage girl, a man I should've by all rights despised.

There's something in Lily's predicament on the outset that resonates deeply with most women readers I believe, in that she is beautiful and penniless but worst of all she has no parents. In an era when women could not make direct moves of their own but had to rely on the machinations of those already in society to ensure that they came out and were introduced to suitable men, a woman who has no family or connections looking out for her is already 10-0 behind.

The fact that she is unable to make the decisions that are required of her to reach her goals is incredibly frustrating but also strikes me as very human. She knows that she needs a wealthy husband, but is unable to commit when the cards are on the table. In my personal opinion, it comes from her little rebellious streak - I believe that part of her would prefer to be independent, but with money - in that sense she strikes me as a woman too modern for the times she lives in. A few decades more and new vistas of possibilities would've opened up which wouldn't involve hitching your wagon to the highest bidder. She values her need to go wherever she pleases, as she stops by Lawrence Selden's flat despite this being an action that would've been generally frowned on by society at the time. She can't but help make constant missteps and self-sabotage because she doesn't really want to do what she needs to do to reach her goals. She is clearly in love with Selden since the beginning and

And I notice again and again how alone she is - though Lawrence says he can only offer her help by "loving her" he also doesn't offer any real aid in finding a possibility to free herself of her financial obligations. And I notice that Selden, though critical of the superficial trappings of the 1900 version of the leisure class / "jet-set", moves in and out of those circles with the ease generally only allowed to men, and is quick to believe rumours about Lily's reputation spread by members of that same class. He runs off to Cuba after seeing Lily exit the Trenor's house without even demanding an explanation? Though he gives her good advice later, I don't see him as a knight in shining armour.

There is so much more to say about all of this, I welcome your thoughts.

Why I adore this book - it is incredibly dense and layered despite not being very long, the many subtleties in interactions and characterisations invite re-reading. The prose is also beautiful and unexpectedly frank with some very elegant turns of phrase. The heroine and her dilemmas are surprisingly modern in some respects. The ending is heartbreaking without being typically Victorian melodrama and its the writing that elevates it there.

I want everyone I know to read this book. It has something for everyone. Sci fi dinosaur drama in a mysterious place with some time travel/blackhole paradoxes that really kept me guessing throughout. This is such a fresh idea that I felt really held its own in what really is a complex world and plot. It’s well thought out with a very perfect ending and I’m going to have a book hangover for a while!

The main thing keeping this from being a full 5 stars is the amount of loose threads that indicate it was planned as a series. As a standalone it has to have a half star taken off.

The Sword of Kaigen is a book that is difficult to explain without spoiling it. It's about a family of warriors who for generations have been the best and protect the country by being a bastion of strength on the border. After a long period of peace trouble comes to their village. It seems the peace they've lived in may not have been as absolute as they thought.

Even with that being true, this is one of the best books I’ve read this year. The battle scenes had me so immersed that my heart rate spiked so much my watch told me to calm down. I felt so connected to the characters that I was on the verge of tears on multiple occasions, and only not fully crying so I could continue reading with my view unobstructed. The world felt incredibly rich and believable. This book does feel a little self-indulgent in its worldbuilding at times, and the plot structure is unconventional, which might put some people off. This is the kind of fantasy I’ve been craving and want to see more of. I can’t wait to read more from this author and see the heights she will take the genre to.

This was recommended to me to get out of a bit of a reading slump and I can't get over how effective it was! Part memoir and part fictional. It is a collection of 43 short stories/essays ranging from a day at the Laundromat to a brief look at detoxing in a hospital. I laughed out loud more than I was expecting. Sometimes I finished an essay, closed the book, and just stared and thought. I can't recommend this collection enough.

In the mid-1990s, a young British man named Thomas McFadden got caught trafficking cocaine in Bolivia and was sent to San Pedro Prison. The guards only patrol the perimeter or intervene to stop riots; everything in the prison is run by the prisoners themselves. You have to purchase your cell. Your spouse and children can live with you in your cell. Some luxury cells have hot tubs, second floors etc. Everyone has to have money to survive. McFadden came into the prison with no money at all so he was “homeless” (sleeping in the hallways etc.) and nearly died of cold and hunger before another inmate took pity on him and let him share his cell till he could get back on his feet.

The prison was like a village in many ways with shops, restaurants, a nursery for the babies, etc. McFadden started several businesses there: a shop, a restaurant and a tour guide service, giving tours of the prison to foreign tourists. He got kind of famous as a tour guide. In many ways though it is like any other prison. Lots of violence. McFadden was jumped and beaten up every day until he fought back, beating up his bullies and getting respect in the process. They don’t permit rapists or child molesters to live. McFadden witnessed three accused gang rapists being murdered by a cheering crowd of prisoners. They threw them into a “swimming pool” (a deep concrete pit they filled with water). Two of them drowned. One of them was able to crawl out and they stomped on his head so hard his skull split open. There was quite a graphic description of what happened as McFadden was close up and saw it all and was deeply traumatized by it.

He was released in 2000 and gave up drugs and crime for an honest living and now he farms chickens, from what I found online. As far as I know the prison is pretty much the same now, except they no longer allow foreign tourists to visit. I’ve seen a documentary about the prison and seen the “swimming pool” and they still drown rapists and child molesters there.

It was quite an interesting story and, as bad as my own country’s corruption problems have been lately, the book made me feel glad not to live in Bolivia.

Just finished this like 5 minutes ago and man I am so serious when I say this is one of the most beautiful books I have ever read. For those who don’t know, its a story that follows a man and his son (they don’t have names they’re literally just called the man and the boy) traveling across the country after the apocalypse in search of a better life. It can be really heavy at times and the atmosphere carries so much weight to it but never at any point did that make me want to stop reading. The prose is simple and to the point making it very easy to read yet you’ll find that even in the simplest of senses there is so much wonder to be found. There isn’t a single word wasted. I think what I admired most about this story is that even amid such a bleak setting, it manages to tell us a tale of hope, resilience, and triumph in the human spirit. Even after the world ending, this one man and his son still find meaning in life within each other and have that be reason enough to keep pushing forward and I think thats incredibly beautiful. Idk what else to say it’s just perfect. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Recently, I reread PSYCHO by Robert Bloch. I’m sure many of you have seen Hitchcock’s classic adaptation (and so have I—it’s literally one of my favorite movies ever). But it’s been a while since I’ve read the original Bloch novel.

The plots of both the novel and the movie are similar—Norman Bates runs the Bates Motel, dresses up as his dead mother (and has her body in the house), and kills Mary Crane when she stops to spend the night.

But the differences between the novel and the movie are intriguing. Norman in the book doesn’t look anything even remotely close to Anthony Perkins. Here, he’s balding, fat and in his 40s and harbors deep resentment against women. The guy’s a total incel. Not to mention that he drinks heavily and has this crazed obsession with Satanism & the occult.

But it’s still a great novel—suspenseful, disturbing, and under 200 pages. Bloch wrote two sequels: PSYCHO II (which is unrelated to the film) and PSYCHO HOUSE, and those are interesting reads if you’re into cheap, pulp-style horror.

For those who have read the original Psycho novel, what did you think?