"I’m a big quitter of books I don’t like, mostly because I’m not a sadomasochist, but also because I have other shit to consume, like television."
These words had me rolling. It is exactly how I feel about books and TV. I have a friend who complains about whatever she is reading and I say DNF that book. Then she whines that she can't. Ugh so annoying. For the love of God, readers please dnf books.
Wow I'm extremely grateful for this. Lincoln in the Bardo is on my pile of "reading very soon" books so I'm glad to know some context beforehand is so needed 😂
Some of my favorites this year:
1. A Widow for One Year by John Irving: almost done reading for the first time and LOVE IT — I'm an Irving fan and this is perhaps his most crude to date lol but if you're up for that, you may enjoy it.
2. Pride & Prejudice: just reread it and forgot how laugh-out-loud funny it is!!!
3. Crying in H Mart: really, really liked it but maybe not as much as everyone else? It's really touching and sad, but somehow the food writing was a little too detailed for me (I didn't know I could ever feel that way)
4. A Gentleman in Moscow: another favorite I recently reread and still absolutely love
5. Beneath a Scarlet Sky: this story blew my mind, I'd never come across it before and will say the writing itself is not the most sophisticated, but it's based on a true story and so beautifully done
Love lists like this that feel promising when I see so much overlap on my own bookshelf :) Thank you for sharing!!!
A Gentleman in Moscow is one of my faves of all time. Did you see there's a new Netflix show? I haven't checked it out. Crying in H Mart is one I feel embarrassed for not reading! Very interested in Beneath a Scarlet Sky! Great rec!
YES a friend of mine is watching and said it's great, but I haven't checked it out yet either. It's one of my all time faves too! I haven't actually read any of Amor Towles's other books because I worry I'll be let down by anything less than GiM 😂 but if you have and recommend any of them too I'd love to know.
Such a great list! I'm always looking for quality recommendations, so thanks for sharing! This year, I "discovered" Rachel Cusk, so I've been making my way through her work. She is an incredible study in craft and her books just won't leave me.
-After being disappointed in Extremely Online I read the older, but much more the kind of book I want to read about the Internet, Magic & Loss by Virginia Heffernan
-I was reminded that Stephen King is amazing writer, kicking off a 3-book effort with Fairy Tale.
-The Future by Naomi Alderman was interesting.
-Cassandra in Reverse by Holly Smale is a super enjoyable time-travel romcom with a neurodiverse twist.
-I do like Abraham Verghese, so I enjoyed listening to Cutting For Stone a lot. he writes grief really well.
-I am currently listening to Quietly Hostile by Samantha Kirby, and she is just laugh out loud funny, if you can get past a lot of scatalogical humor :)
I read a lot of big popular novels in the past 12 months (Chain Gang All Stars, There There, Wandering Stars, The Fraud, Tom Lake, Demon Copperhead) and in almost every case I felt like I should love them more than I did actually love them.
I LOVED Cutting for Stone. And I did really like the new one, I just found it twice as long as I wanted. Stephen King reminder is a GREAT one. I've been meaning to try. Quietly Hostile I must do! I love her!!! Same on Tom Lake. The Fraud I've been putting off? DNF on only 3 is amazing!!!!
I loved both Cutting x Stone and Covenant. I did finish it. Very long Amazing ending, though. But afterwards I've been in a kind of ostrich mode now for personal reasons, so nothing that triggers anxiety, or angst, or sadness.
So mostly speculative fiction/magical realism for me:
Love all of Yangsze Choo books but her latest
-"The Fox Wife" is my fav, exquisitely narrated by her, I devoured it too fast-- in a listening kinda way.
- "The House of Doors" by Tan Twang En. Somerset Maugham is a character in this captivating novel set in Penang.
- "Agatha Christie" excellent bio by Lucy Worsley
- "Kantika" by Elizabeth Greaves a sephardic saga. Super interesting
-"Shōgun" re read again, as fascinating as when I had just borne my second daughter.
-The Pillow Book" by Sei Shōnagon, I adore her lists and commentaries of the 999CE Heian court. Truly THE first Substacker!!
-"The Encyclopaedia of Faeries" & "Otherlands" both by Heather Fawcett mesmerizing worlds created like a Harry Potter but with Faeries, narrated perfectly by Elle Potter.
I loved Lucy's bio -- and I also watched the documentary. Have been meaning to do both Homecoming and Fox Wife! Thanks so much for House of Doors rec. Sounds exactly me.
You will love House of Doors, I imagined Kirsten Scott-Thomas as the MC. The Fox Wife( beautifully narrated by Choo) and Homecoming (narrated by Claire Foy) were painting the stories with their inflections. Gracias x la rec de G
Recent reads I recommend: Being Mortal (nonfiction), Wandering Stars (fiction, also recommend There There, both by Tommy Orange, the books are linked in story)
Recent reads I do not recommend: The Alignment Problem (a nonfiction history of AI, I listened to the audio, while it was informative it was a SLOG)
This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto against Ageism, could not do it and dropped out about 20% of the way in
Um, Costalegre sounds amazing. Thank you for sharing that.
The book I've loved the most so far is Piglet by Lottie Hazell. OMG, the story, the writing. I listened to the audio and the performance is pitch-perfect, and/but now I want to read it on the page because the prose is so precise and luscious. The setup is great: Piglet (childhood nickname from her family that stuck) has a great life: handsome/loving fiance, job in publishing, circle of friends, new house. Then 13 days before the wedding her man admits a betrayal — and they decide to get married anyway. The rest of the story is Piglet's life going off teh rails in spectacular fashion with tons of food along the way. My favorite thing about it is that Piglet is assumed to be ambitious, but I think she' just hungry — for love, for satisfaction, for self worth. It's darkly funny, and I never knew what was going to happen next. A really fantastic read. (I got a very angry email from one of our podcast listeners because she read it on my recommendation and hated it. She was SO MAD at me. That's the sign of a great book, no?)
I love historical fiction. The Little Liar by Mitch Albom was fascinating and of course well written. The Greek holocaust is never talked about and I never even knew existed until we went to Greece last year. Highly recommend.
"I’m a big quitter of books I don’t like, mostly because I’m not a sadomasochist, but also because I have other shit to consume, like television."
These words had me rolling. It is exactly how I feel about books and TV. I have a friend who complains about whatever she is reading and I say DNF that book. Then she whines that she can't. Ugh so annoying. For the love of God, readers please dnf books.
Ha! So glad you liked;) for the love!
Y yo? También!! DNF. Like my dad used to say with post WWII optimism " Life is short, and then? you die"
De qué trata el de Gemma Urraka?
Una chica que se va a un retiro para escritores. Buenissimo, pero te debo decir que no hay muchooo que pasa jaja ;)
No importa, será lo que llamo yo, un "libro sorbetico" que me encanta pero sin estrés o angustia. 🍧🍧🍧
Parecido a Cusk?
The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo. Excellent
ohhhh!!!
Wow I'm extremely grateful for this. Lincoln in the Bardo is on my pile of "reading very soon" books so I'm glad to know some context beforehand is so needed 😂
Some of my favorites this year:
1. A Widow for One Year by John Irving: almost done reading for the first time and LOVE IT — I'm an Irving fan and this is perhaps his most crude to date lol but if you're up for that, you may enjoy it.
2. Pride & Prejudice: just reread it and forgot how laugh-out-loud funny it is!!!
3. Crying in H Mart: really, really liked it but maybe not as much as everyone else? It's really touching and sad, but somehow the food writing was a little too detailed for me (I didn't know I could ever feel that way)
4. A Gentleman in Moscow: another favorite I recently reread and still absolutely love
5. Beneath a Scarlet Sky: this story blew my mind, I'd never come across it before and will say the writing itself is not the most sophisticated, but it's based on a true story and so beautifully done
Love lists like this that feel promising when I see so much overlap on my own bookshelf :) Thank you for sharing!!!
A Gentleman in Moscow is one of my faves of all time. Did you see there's a new Netflix show? I haven't checked it out. Crying in H Mart is one I feel embarrassed for not reading! Very interested in Beneath a Scarlet Sky! Great rec!
YES a friend of mine is watching and said it's great, but I haven't checked it out yet either. It's one of my all time faves too! I haven't actually read any of Amor Towles's other books because I worry I'll be let down by anything less than GiM 😂 but if you have and recommend any of them too I'd love to know.
Such a great list! I'm always looking for quality recommendations, so thanks for sharing! This year, I "discovered" Rachel Cusk, so I've been making my way through her work. She is an incredible study in craft and her books just won't leave me.
She is AMAZING. I'm also in process of discovery with her!
I've finished 44 so far this year and DNF 3.
Faves:
-After being disappointed in Extremely Online I read the older, but much more the kind of book I want to read about the Internet, Magic & Loss by Virginia Heffernan
-I was reminded that Stephen King is amazing writer, kicking off a 3-book effort with Fairy Tale.
-The Future by Naomi Alderman was interesting.
-Cassandra in Reverse by Holly Smale is a super enjoyable time-travel romcom with a neurodiverse twist.
-I do like Abraham Verghese, so I enjoyed listening to Cutting For Stone a lot. he writes grief really well.
-I am currently listening to Quietly Hostile by Samantha Kirby, and she is just laugh out loud funny, if you can get past a lot of scatalogical humor :)
I read a lot of big popular novels in the past 12 months (Chain Gang All Stars, There There, Wandering Stars, The Fraud, Tom Lake, Demon Copperhead) and in almost every case I felt like I should love them more than I did actually love them.
I LOVED Cutting for Stone. And I did really like the new one, I just found it twice as long as I wanted. Stephen King reminder is a GREAT one. I've been meaning to try. Quietly Hostile I must do! I love her!!! Same on Tom Lake. The Fraud I've been putting off? DNF on only 3 is amazing!!!!
I loved both Cutting x Stone and Covenant. I did finish it. Very long Amazing ending, though. But afterwards I've been in a kind of ostrich mode now for personal reasons, so nothing that triggers anxiety, or angst, or sadness.
So mostly speculative fiction/magical realism for me:
Love all of Yangsze Choo books but her latest
-"The Fox Wife" is my fav, exquisitely narrated by her, I devoured it too fast-- in a listening kinda way.
- "The House of Doors" by Tan Twang En. Somerset Maugham is a character in this captivating novel set in Penang.
- "Agatha Christie" excellent bio by Lucy Worsley
- "Kantika" by Elizabeth Greaves a sephardic saga. Super interesting
-"Shōgun" re read again, as fascinating as when I had just borne my second daughter.
-The Pillow Book" by Sei Shōnagon, I adore her lists and commentaries of the 999CE Heian court. Truly THE first Substacker!!
-"The Encyclopaedia of Faeries" & "Otherlands" both by Heather Fawcett mesmerizing worlds created like a Harry Potter but with Faeries, narrated perfectly by Elle Potter.
-"The Karma of Success" by Liz Tran Loved
-"Homecoming" by Kate Morton.Loved
-"Brujas" x Brenda Lozano.Loved
-Anna x Amy Odell bio of la Wintour.
DNF:
Tom Lake
H&E Grocery Store
I loved Lucy's bio -- and I also watched the documentary. Have been meaning to do both Homecoming and Fox Wife! Thanks so much for House of Doors rec. Sounds exactly me.
You will love House of Doors, I imagined Kirsten Scott-Thomas as the MC. The Fox Wife( beautifully narrated by Choo) and Homecoming (narrated by Claire Foy) were painting the stories with their inflections. Gracias x la rec de G
Right now reading "A Princess Remembers" a memoir by Gayatri Devi for my bookclub.
Ohhhh! I just looked! So cool!
Lincoln in the Bardo!! A fave fave!
Recent reads I recommend: Being Mortal (nonfiction), Wandering Stars (fiction, also recommend There There, both by Tommy Orange, the books are linked in story)
Recent reads I do not recommend: The Alignment Problem (a nonfiction history of AI, I listened to the audio, while it was informative it was a SLOG)
This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto against Ageism, could not do it and dropped out about 20% of the way in
Recently started Stories of Your Life and Others
Keep the book posts coming!! I LOVE IT
I don't know any of these!!! Thank you! Hugs!
The Women by Kristin Hannah is one of the best I've listened to so far this year: https://kristinhannah.com/books/the-women/
I need to go back through Poisonwood Bible (has been a long time since I read it).
Yes! The women is a MUST. MUST MUST MUST. Getting it now. Thanks!
Oh Man, The Women is incredible. It was a book I wanted to speed read as well as savour slowly.
Um, Costalegre sounds amazing. Thank you for sharing that.
The book I've loved the most so far is Piglet by Lottie Hazell. OMG, the story, the writing. I listened to the audio and the performance is pitch-perfect, and/but now I want to read it on the page because the prose is so precise and luscious. The setup is great: Piglet (childhood nickname from her family that stuck) has a great life: handsome/loving fiance, job in publishing, circle of friends, new house. Then 13 days before the wedding her man admits a betrayal — and they decide to get married anyway. The rest of the story is Piglet's life going off teh rails in spectacular fashion with tons of food along the way. My favorite thing about it is that Piglet is assumed to be ambitious, but I think she' just hungry — for love, for satisfaction, for self worth. It's darkly funny, and I never knew what was going to happen next. A really fantastic read. (I got a very angry email from one of our podcast listeners because she read it on my recommendation and hated it. She was SO MAD at me. That's the sign of a great book, no?)
yes, costalegre is a YOU book.
did you talk about piglet on your pod? this sounds fab, although the title eeks me. maybe that's the point?
That is 100% the point. Also, knowing that you like Christine Mangan’s books makes me think you would like Piglet.
I talked about it on The Library of Lost Time. https://strongsenseofplace.com/lolts/lolt-2024-03-08/
What a list! So very glad you enjoyed COSTALEGRE and that you safely received "Notes from Mexico." Love so many of the books here!
LOVED both! ;///
I love historical fiction. The Little Liar by Mitch Albom was fascinating and of course well written. The Greek holocaust is never talked about and I never even knew existed until we went to Greece last year. Highly recommend.
Mitch Albom of Tuesdays with Morrie / Maurie?! I haven't heard about him in forever!
Yes! Another great book. And The Five People You Meet in Heaven.
Awesome!