The Reader’s Nook - The N&G Book Thread

McGlam said:
Halfway through David Mitchell’s latest Utopia Avenue and really enjoying it like I have with pretty much everything he’s done.

It would be a perfect choice for a N&G book club as it revolves around a band trying to break through the rock scene in late 60’s London.
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Just finished Utopia Avenue, a very enjoyable read.
 
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I finished A Prayer for Owen Meany tonight.

REMEMBER ALL OUR PRACTICING?
I almost full on lost it on my front porch.

I've rarely been so moved by a book, and with this one, Irving telegraphed it the whole way and it still really got me. I'll be thinking about this for a while.
 
LeSamourai said:
I'm reading Patricia Lockwood's No One Is Talking About This, and it does such a good job capturing the fluttering madness of social media that I keep have a hard time picking it up again- it keeps reminding me why I deleted all my social media accounts years ago.
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I loved that book.
 
That's like me and House of Leaves. I love it, Danielewski is an artist and craftsman, and it's one of my favorite books ever, and I will never, ever, ever re-read the thing. When I finished reading it I had that clammy not-sick-but-not-well-yet feeling you have when you've been sick and your fever just broke. Never again.
 
LeSamourai said:
I guess what I'm saying is I'm having a hard time enjoying it precisely because she's expressing these things so well. It's a compliment, even if it doesn't seem like one!
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Oh I understood completely. Felt the same way. Although, I'm not sure how far into it you are at the moment, but at a certain point there is a bit of a shift in tone. It's really a moving and beautiful piece of work.
 
LeSamourai said:
I'm reading Patricia Lockwood's No One Is Talking About This, and it does such a good job capturing the fluttering madness of social media that I keep have a hard time picking it up again- it keeps reminding me why I deleted all my social media accounts years ago.
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I went through a lot of highs and lows reading that book. It's very a amusing look at being Extremely Online and sometimes only seems legible if you yourself are Excessively Online. To an extent that I felt a little ashamed. Then as the book starts to delve into an exploration of experiencing tragedy it gets hard to read on a completely new level.

Of the recent spate of fiction aiming to describe life on the internet in the latter half of the decade, it was definitely my favorite so far.
 
I recently read Samanta Schweblin's Little Eyes and I'm presently about half way through Dave Eggers' The Circle which both deal with the subjects of big tech and the online world. So far, I'm hooked and racing through The Circle. It certainly speaks to the same outlook on social media that I hold and I'm guessing many people who remember a world 'pre-internet' hold so, I guess it's somewhat preaching to the choir in that respect. I'd be interested to read a novel by someone significantly younger on the topic though and see if they have a less dystopian outlook than me, Eggers, Schweblin, Charlie Brooker etc. Eggers protagonist is in her early twenties and seems to share my scepticism up to this point but seems to be on her own in doing so. Interested to see if she remains so as the story progresses or if she becomes a convert to the cult.
 
Indymisanthrope said:
www.esquire.com

What Were John Steinbeck's Publishers Thinking Rejecting His 1930 Werewolf Murder Mystery?

Almost a century later, his estate is still trying to keep the dope-as-hell sounding 'Murder at Full Moon' a secret.
www.esquire.com www.esquire.com

wut
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I'm sure the reason they didn't publish it has more to do with quality than subject matter, but
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I binge-read the ACOTAR series in about two weeks... which is a lot of reading, honestly. Now I don't know what to do with myself. I have a copy of the new book Ariadne (Jennifer Saint) and I need to read it, but it's just not calling me. I've been excited about reading it, as I'm a HUGE Greek mythology nerd but idk. I'm not fully recovered from ACOTAR.
 
ayayrawn said:
Begging everyone to read Michelle Zauner's (Japanaese Breakfast) Crying in H Mart. Easly my favorite and most moving book I've read this year. And they just announced that MGM has the rights for a movie as well. Should be great.
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I'm about 3/4 of the way through it right now. I have to admit, I feel a lot more mixed about it than most. For one, I might simply be struggling with the book because it is a very direct, apt description of watching someone close to you die. My wife lost both her grandparents a year ago, and the descriptions of that in-between, logistically-detailed yet completely-detached space one lives in are very apt.

I do also think the focus is on Zauner's experience and her grief, to the extent her father and even her mother are a bit less shaded in than I'd prefer; but I think that's simply due to the book being an exploration of the grief, not necessarily a description of her family.

Definitely a good book, one I'd recommend with caveats.
 
Bull Shannon said:
I'm about 3/4 of the way through it right now. I have to admit, I feel a lot more mixed about it than most. For one, I might simply be struggling with the book because it is a very direct, apt description of watching someone close to you die. My wife lost both her grandparents a year ago, and the descriptions of that in-between, logistically-detailed yet completely-detached space one lives in are very apt.

I do also think the focus is on Zauner's experience and her grief, to the extent her father and even her mother are a bit less shaded in than I'd prefer; but I think that's simply due to the book being an exploration of the grief, not necessarily a description of her family.

Definitely a good book, one I'd recommend with caveats.
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It is heavy, there's no denying. I'd probably tell somebody having a hard time that they should probably wait on it. But then again it could be a very cathartic experience. Either way, it's an intense and affecting read.
 
Finished Franzen's 'Freedom' last night. Man alive, that guy writes 'Jo/sephine Schmo' America like no one else. I'd loved his earlier 'The Corrections' but this just stopped me dead in it's brutally raw depiction of the American Dream, the American Way, The American Family Unit and all the flaws that they beget. Can't wait for his upcoming, 'Crossroads'. Such a good writer.
 
Mr Moore said:
Finished Franzen's 'Freedom' last night. Man alive, that guy writes 'Jo/sephine Schmo' America like no one else. I'd loved his earlier 'The Corrections' but this just stopped me dead in it's brutally raw depiction of the American Dream, the American Way, The American Family Unit and all the flaws that they beget. Can't wait for his upcoming, 'Crossroads'. Such a good writer.
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It's been a while but I really really liked that one too. Also, Walnut Surprise is Uncle Tupelo and you can't convince me otherwise. Franzen grew up a hop and a skip away from them too.
 
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