Official Book Thread

[Aster]

now I’m reading, “I Never Promised You A Rose Garden”. And it’s not going that great. I’m only a little over 20 pages in, but this book is giving me a headache. I feel awful saying this, but I can’t stand how the author writes. I keep reading the same sentences over and over. I don’t know if I can finish this one. It’s going to be a test in willpower if I can trudge through it. It gets good reviews so there has to be some pearls in there , right? Right?

The author wrote a semi-biographical novel about her youth with schizophrenia, and the way she describes her inner world with Yr and gods and eyes watching her, I’m just so lost right now. Part of me wants to just read it because it’s bugging me to want to figure it out.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/..._a_Rose_Garden

I had to take this back to the library at pg 50 because my renewals were up. I don’t really want to finish it because it’s painful to read.

[Aster]

I’m reading, “The Center Cannot Hold: my journey through madness”. It’s a memoir about a woman diagnosed with schizophrenia. Pretty interesting read. I’ve never read a book about schizophrenia or knew much about it, but this book is very enlightening.

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/1098486

id recommend this book. It was really good. I gave it 4 stars. Maybe it deserved 5.

[necrosebud]

Also

an offer from a gentleman is a decent romance/drama story, kept my interest throughout. I don't mind that it is a cinderella retelling, I liked it.

and yes, the male protagonist character at times does say brash/questionable things, but I guess the flaw didn't overpower it for me. Overall I think they have a nice chemistry.

some of the other books in the bridgerton series that I have read through have not yet held my interest like this one...

[necrosebud]

almost done with this one

Uprooted - Naomi Novik

not bad. You have to plod through some parts at the beginning (not the very beginning though - it is good at hooking you), but overall it's decent

kept me engaged enough to read it through

edit: finished it, it's good.

[Aster]

almost done with this one

Uprooted - Naomi Novik

not bad. You have to plod through some parts at the beginning (not the very beginning though - it is good at hooking you), but overall it's decent

kept me engaged enough to read it through

edit: finished it, it's good.

I read that one a few years ago, too. I thought it was pretty good. Not great, but good.

[Aster]

I ordered The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter and just got it yesterday. I sifted through lists of genres I love on goodreads to find it (Gothic lit, I believe) I’m excited to read it. Reviews looked good.

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/81026

[Squirrel]

Today I borrowed The Clash of Civilizations by Samuel P. Huntington

I was searching in the public library for a book that was mentioned in a principles of management lecture , in order to expand and learn more about its ideas , during the search, I found this book, I decided to borrow it because I had studied it's ideas briefly last year in one of National Education lessons to know more about it

I'll borrow the book I was looking for next time

[necrosebud]

I read The Lovely Bones as a teen and I still remember it

[necrosebud]

(spoilers)

From Blood and Ash

I actually enjoyed the chemistry of the main characters a lot, especially as it was building up initially and especially the strong yin/yang sub/dom ... sort of interaction even though it was never specifically stated and didn't veer into proper consent kink territory at all, it was just inherent in the way these two were. I like that better I think (?)

so, great chemistry in the beginning

sub-par world building but it was not that kind of book

and I kept waiting, the sexual has to follow up with emotional at some point (ideally I would like the reverse or at least concomitant but I can still understand, connect)

it doesn't happen, instead it's jarring violence and hatred very rapidly interspersed with sex/intimacy

it gave me an actual headache at that point

I also read in future iterations of this series the author expands this couple into a throuple, and I think I am done now lol, I am not sure my interest remains. Probably wouldn't be into it.

Almost feel like I consider a monogamous relationship 'sacred' if I can use that word. Something else ruins it for me. The trust and exclusivity is a bedrock.

Again everyone likes different things just.. it might not be for me.

the 'right' (as in I like them) romance stories, I am beginning to find, can be a page-turner for me

[Squirrel]

These days I am reading 3 books :

The Ring of the Dove by Ibn Hazm

Welsh Legends And Folk-Tales by Gwyn Jones

And a book about Al-Layth ibn Sa'd by Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani

[ChaosConductor6669]

I should probably finish some of those war books that my late father kept on recommending to me when I was 8 years old and I just wanted to watch cartoons on television.

[Northstar]

Reading the Machine Vendetta by Alastair Reynolds. Currently my favorite author. I'd type him ILI.

[FreelancePoliceman]

Recently finished The Magus by John Fowles. I'm not a fan.

The same formula was repeated a hundred times, with nothing that bound these repetitions together. There were many literary references that didn't add any depth to the story or offer a different light on things. There was a lot of pseudo-profundity that didn't say anything.

I will say that the author is good at describing people's actions, and interactions with each other. If only those characters had believable or comprehensible motives. I feel that the author had unpleasant and sick ideas which infected these characters' actions and motivations. Even by the internal logic of the story they don't seem consistent, as if they're compromised by the author's perversion.

[FreelancePoliceman]

Canadians, explain yourselves.

Wikipedia: The 1976 Governor General's Literary Award jury, which included authors Margaret Laurence, Alice Munro, and Mordecai Richler awarded Bear its English-language Fiction award, one of the highest literary prizes in the country...A 2014 National Post review by literature critic Emily M. Keeler called the book "the best Canadian novel of all time." Critic Aritha Van Herk, in an interview with CBC Radio's Q program, called the novel a "quintessential Canadian book," referencing the role of wilderness in Canadian lives.

???

[ChaosConductor6669]

The Ethical Slut: A Practical Guide to Polyamory, Open Relationships and Other Freedoms in Sex and Love, Third Edition