What are you currently reading?

[ghost]

[Mickey]

[lennytheweedwhacker]

the grapes of wrath...first time rereading

hopefully the library will open back by the time i finish

[Simple Torture]

The Witch is dead. And the discovery of her corpse—by a group of children playing near the irrigation canals—propels the whole village into an investigation of how and why this murder occurred. Rumors and suspicions spread. As the novel unfolds in a dazzling linguistic torrent, with each unreliable narrator lingering details, new acts of depravity or brutality, Melchor extracts some tiny shred of humanity from these characters that most would write off as utterly irredeemable, forming a lasting portrait of a damned Mexican village. Like Roberto Bolaño’s 2666 or Faulkner’s greatest novels, Hurricane Season takes place in a world filled with mythology and violence—real violence, the kind that seeps into the soil, poisoning everything around: it’s a world that becomes more terrifying and more terrifyingly real the deeper you explore it.

[epilogue]

Just finished The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel (a quarentine birthday gift from my wife, ordered from and delivered by one of our favorite local bookstores, Books Are Magic).

The book is amazing. I feel like it's the kind of book I'm trying to write. It's a book like shards of glass.

While not quite as transcendent nor as gut-punch powerful as Station Eleven, it's a book that cements Mandel as a necessary literary voice. She's fucking brilliant. Would recommend to fans of literary noir.

[lennytheweedwhacker]

crap i haven’t read in a week

[Simple Torture]

Joey, were you the one who had read the Vorrh trilogy? I jusy finished it and it was...something.

[epilogue]

Joey, were you the one who had read the Vorrh trilogy? I jusy finished it and it was...something.

Yes!

It's, at times, fantastic and terrifying in both content and imagination. I think, ultimately, it's uneven. But there's something about where and how it fails that I find even more interesting. It's like its bruises make it more beautiful somehow. I liked the journey though I found myself frustrated by certain choices throughout. I think saying it "was...something" is exactly right.

[Mickey]

The Witch is dead. And the discovery of her corpse—by a group of children playing near the irrigation canals—propels the whole village into an investigation of how and why this murder occurred. Rumors and suspicions spread. As the novel unfolds in a dazzling linguistic torrent, with each unreliable narrator lingering details, new acts of depravity or brutality, Melchor extracts some tiny shred of humanity from these characters that most would write off as utterly irredeemable, forming a lasting portrait of a damned Mexican village. Like Roberto Bolaño’s 2666 or Faulkner’s greatest novels, Hurricane Season takes place in a world filled with mythology and violence—real violence, the kind that seeps into the soil, poisoning everything around: it’s a world that becomes more terrifying and more terrifyingly real the deeper you explore it.

This has been on my radar for a bit, might try to read it this summer.

[epilogue]

The Witch is dead. And the discovery of her corpse—by a group of children playing near the irrigation canals—propels the whole village into an investigation of how and why this murder occurred. Rumors and suspicions spread. As the novel unfolds in a dazzling linguistic torrent, with each unreliable narrator lingering details, new acts of depravity or brutality, Melchor extracts some tiny shred of humanity from these characters that most would write off as utterly irredeemable, forming a lasting portrait of a damned Mexican village. Like Roberto Bolaño’s 2666 or Faulkner’s greatest novels, Hurricane Season takes place in a world filled with mythology and violence—real violence, the kind that seeps into the soil, poisoning everything around: it’s a world that becomes more terrifying and more terrifyingly real the deeper you explore it.

This has been on my radar for a bit, might try to read it this summer.

Just added it to my list.

How is it ST?

[Simple Torture]

The Witch is dead. And the discovery of her corpse—by a group of children playing near the irrigation canals—propels the whole village into an investigation of how and why this murder occurred. Rumors and suspicions spread. As the novel unfolds in a dazzling linguistic torrent, with each unreliable narrator lingering details, new acts of depravity or brutality, Melchor extracts some tiny shred of humanity from these characters that most would write off as utterly irredeemable, forming a lasting portrait of a damned Mexican village. Like Roberto Bolaño’s 2666 or Faulkner’s greatest novels, Hurricane Season takes place in a world filled with mythology and violence—real violence, the kind that seeps into the soil, poisoning everything around: it’s a world that becomes more terrifying and more terrifyingly real the deeper you explore it.

This has been on my radar for a bit, might try to read it this summer.

Just added it to my list.

How is it ST?

I've only read the first two chapters. As advertised so far! (that is a good thing)

[epilogue]

The Witch is dead. And the discovery of her corpse—by a group of children playing near the irrigation canals—propels the whole village into an investigation of how and why this murder occurred. Rumors and suspicions spread. As the novel unfolds in a dazzling linguistic torrent, with each unreliable narrator lingering details, new acts of depravity or brutality, Melchor extracts some tiny shred of humanity from these characters that most would write off as utterly irredeemable, forming a lasting portrait of a damned Mexican village. Like Roberto Bolaño’s 2666 or Faulkner’s greatest novels, Hurricane Season takes place in a world filled with mythology and violence—real violence, the kind that seeps into the soil, poisoning everything around: it’s a world that becomes more terrifying and more terrifyingly real the deeper you explore it.

This has been on my radar for a bit, might try to read it this summer.

Just added it to my list.

How is it ST?

I've only read the first two chapters. As advertised so far! (that is a good thing)

[Simple Torture]

Joey, were you the one who had read the Vorrh trilogy? I jusy finished it and it was...something.

Yes!

It's, at times, fantastic and terrifying in both content and imagination. I think, ultimately, it's uneven. But there's something about where and how it fails that I find even more interesting. It's like its bruises make it more beautiful somehow. I liked the journey though I found myself frustrated by certain choices throughout. I think saying it "was...something" is exactly right.

Yeah, the prose was just great page-to-page, it really felt like I was sinking into the novel's world the more I worked myself in. I had planned to spread out the volumes with a bunch of books in between but it just drew me in and enveloped me. Form/content etc. And there were some truly terrifying chapters, as well as some ones that were mystical and not in the "hey, let me tell you about my crystals" sort of way, but in a way that made the magic and myth of the text feel weighty and substantial, like you felt like you had to believe. But I think you're right, there were parts of the mythology that just didn't fit together that felt like they should've, or if there was an offhand passage somewhere explaining it, I missed it (I'm thinking about the warehouse specifically). Then there were parts that made me feel dumb, like:

Spoiler: show

How early in the text were we supposed to understand that Cyrena was an angel? I felt like it was a total surprise to me. That is a pretty major plot point that didn't feel like it landed like it should've.

Then there were parts where I felt like the book thought I was dumb. Like:

Spoiler: show

Did it really expect us to believe that Ishmael was executed? Come on; that took away some really great, intensity built up around the execution scenes. Loved the description of the execution d

I bet it would get even better if I read it again, but that probably isn't happening until I'm like 85.

[epilogue]

Joey, were you the one who had read the Vorrh trilogy? I jusy finished it and it was...something.

Yes!

It's, at times, fantastic and terrifying in both content and imagination. I think, ultimately, it's uneven. But there's something about where and how it fails that I find even more interesting. It's like its bruises make it more beautiful somehow. I liked the journey though I found myself frustrated by certain choices throughout. I think saying it "was...something" is exactly right.

Yeah, the prose was just great page-to-page, it really felt like I was sinking into the novel's world the more I worked myself in. I had planned to spread out the volumes with a bunch of books in between but it just drew me in and enveloped me. Form/content etc. And there were some truly terrifying chapters, as well as some ones that were mystical and not in the "hey, let me tell you about my crystals" sort of way, but in a way that made the magic and myth of the text feel weighty and substantial, like you felt like you had to believe. But I think you're right, there were parts of the mythology that just didn't fit together that felt like they should've, or if there was an offhand passage somewhere explaining it, I missed it (I'm thinking about the warehouse specifically). Then there were parts that made me feel dumb, like:

Spoiler: show

How early in the text were we supposed to understand that Cyrena was an angel? I felt like it was a total surprise to me. That is a pretty major plot point that didn't feel like it landed like it should've.

Then there were parts where I felt like the book thought I was dumb. Like:

Spoiler: show

Did it really expect us to believe that Ishmael was executed? Come on; that took away some really great, intensity built up around the execution scenes. Loved the description of the execution d

I bet it would get even better if I read it again, but that probably isn't happening until I'm like 85.

Agreed all the way around.

But especially your final point. I know it would improve and open up if I read it again. But... come on, that ain't happening.

Still, I'm glad you got something out of it. I know I did. It seems like we have very similar reactions/appreciations.

[ghost]

Pretty good story, although the author's style fights against it at times. The quasi-Old Testament, McCarthy-inspired prose thing is starting to feel pretty played out at this point.

Also, the margins in this thing are hilarious. Like a full inch between paragraph breaks. I'm not complaining because I prefer shorter books, but this is a novella disguised as a novel.

[epilogue]

Really thinking about diving into this baby at some point this week...

[Simple Torture]

Super high on my list of "would love to re-read but probably never will."

[epilogue]

Super high on my list of "would love to re-read but probably never will."

I've been looking forward to it for a long time.

[Simple Torture]

It's everything you've ever heard about it. I think I read it 15 hears ago and still think about it regularly.

[epilogue]

It's everything you've ever heard about it. I think I read it 15 hears ago and still think about it regularly.

Chekov is one of my favorite playwrights. And I loved Anna Karenina (the only Tolstoy I've read). But I've never read any Dostoevsky before. Super excited.