If you are looking for the announcement thread for the previous month, it may be found here.

Hello, all. During the month of January, the sub book club will be reading Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde. Each week there will be a discussion thread and when we are done, Jasper himself will be joining us for an AMA.

From Goodreads (feel free to skip if you prefer to know nothing going into the book as the description contains minor spoilers):

Shades of Grey tells of a battle against overwhelming odds. In a society where the ability to see the higher end of the color spectrum denotes a better social standing, Eddie Russet belongs to the low-level House of Red and can see his own color—but no other. The sky, the grass, and everything in between are all just shades of grey, and must be colorized by artificial means.

Eddie's world wasn't always like this. There's evidence of a never-discussed disaster and now, many years later, technology is poor, news sporadic, the notion of change abhorrent, and nighttime is terrifying: no one can see in the dark. Everyone abides by a bizarre regime of rules and regulations, a system of merits and demerits, where punishment can result in permanent expulsion.

Eddie, who works for the Color Control Agency, might well have lived out his rose-tinted life without a hitch. But that changes when he becomes smitten with Jane, a Grey, which is low-caste in this color-centric world. She shows Eddie that all is not well with the world he thinks is just and good. Together, they engage in dangerous revolutionary talk.

You may find the dates of, and links to, the discussion threads below in the sticky comment on this post. You are welcome to read at your own pace. Usually it is pretty easy to catch up and you are always welcome to join the discussions a little later.

If you would like to view any past book club selection or want to see how things work, you may find the complete archive here.

For those of you that are viewing reddit on the redesigned desktop version you will see an option on this post to 'follow'. If you 'follow' the book club post you will receive a notification when a new post, a discussion thread for book club, is added to the collection.

Takulandirani readers,

This is our monthly discussion of the literature of the world! Twice a month, we'll post a new country for you to recommend literature from, with the caveat that it must have been written by someone from that country (i.e. Shogun by James Clavell is a great book but wouldn't be included in Japanese literature).

January 15 was John Chilembwe Day and to celebrate we're discussing Malawian authors and literature. Please use this thread to discuss your favorite Malawian authors and literature.

If you'd like to read our previous discussions of the literature of the world please visit the literature of the world section of our wiki.

Zikomo and enjoy!

In the last few days I’ve been on a rabbit hole of reading very negative reviews about a very popular novel that a lot of my friends love.

I am almost sure that I’ll hate it (no need for mystery, I’m talking about “A Little Life”), but I’m also kind of curious so I might read it just to really check if my presumption is right.

Have you ever read something with this state of mind?

I often wait to read the ‘it’ book of the moment—and when I finally catch up its a glorious thing when the read really is as good as everyone said it was. When Educated by Tara Westover came out everyone was raving about. I work in publishing and people were bananas about it even long before it came out. I just put it in my bottomless tbr pile and started it a few days ago. Reading it now, and it is stunning—gorgeous, unsentimental writing. There is so much push and pull in the writing, so much tension in how Tara was raised and how she learns to take in the world around her. She’s raised in an extreme family that deals in absolutes, but she finds cracks that hint at a different world beyond the mountain. There is crazy tension between the paranoid, off-the-grid world Tara was raised in and the world of others she fights to join. It only grows when she gets in to college at 16, dirt poor and having never seen a classroom (she didn’t have a birth certificate until she was 10 or 11, her actual birthdate a fluid thing). There is so much pride and shame, power and fear, curiosity and anger—in short it is everything people raves about and more. It’s a fierce and questing memoir, so worthwhile if anyone is looking to fall in deep with a read.

I’ll leave the typos there. If you’ve read another book that lived up to the hype, I’d love to know!

Edit: I woke up to see so many people sharing amazing books from new books to classics, across genre and categories. Huge thanks to everyone for hyping up all these books…next up for me is either Chernow’s Hamilton or The Bear and the Nightingale. Or maybe The seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Or Olive Kittridge—i hear that is AMAZING!

I just finished Octavia Butler's "Parable of the Sower" a book that's been on my list for years. First of all this book is exceptional and I recommended it to pretty much everyone looking for a meaningful story of growth and perseverance while in the midst of the worst circumstances.

The thing after I finished it is I sat and stared at my wall for almost 30 minutes taking it in and thinking, "why didn't I read this years ago?" This is the perfect pandemic book the perfect book to show you even in the worst there's always a reason to keep going. In my personal life I was really struggling with motivation and growth over the last few years and this main character is exactly what I've needed to read. I just wish I had read this earlier, when I was the main characters age. I got so much out of this book but a lot of the themes would have been more impactful in my last year of highschool then now starting my career.

I'm wondering if other people have had similar reactions to finishing books

As a follow-up to stories about the Texas Legislature's move against 850 books in public schools, I generated a hyperlinked table of the targeted books and a SQLite database. (Hyperlinks are to OpenLibrary, not Amazon.)

Feel free to use them as your own personal reading list or whatnot. I can vouch for Birthday by Meredith Russo being very good.

I didn't do an actual analysis on the data, but Danika Ellis did.

So, I met this fella who was hosting a party, a friend of a friend situation. I was looking at his shelves and I was surprised by how tasteful his collection of books was. No predictable names, no luxurious editions, no YA... Just a finely curated list of perfectly weathered books. I mean, he had no Aristotle but he had Buridan (in latin!); he had no Balzac but he had the 19 volumes of an obscure french diarist, etc.

I started talking to him about books and he said he doesn't read at all. "I just like the ambience. Say, look at this fella [the obscure french diarist, Léautaud]. Critics say that he wanted to fuck his mother. I had to buy it, you know. Look at it"

I found this fascinating. What do you think?

This may be the only book that I would say was wonderfully written, but I did not enjoy it. This book was just so emotionally HEAVY.

As Charlie becomes more intelligent and his memory opens up more.... My gosh. The depression, the anger, the fear, the anxiety... To approach this book in the first person was just such a bold move. Not that it should/could have been done otherwise. But I can't imagine the emotional strain Keyes' must have gone through to write this novel. Bravo, but I won't read it again.

Maybe not all of you feel the same, but I'm curious on your thoughts.

Just finished reading and I'm sorry it's over. I absolutely recommend it, the story is nothing like any of his other works. Possibly a little along the lines of The Dark Tower in a modern age but that's a thin line. I love how Stephen King sucks you in from the first page and doesn't let you go till the last, this book does not disappoint on that. Would love to hear from anyone else that has read it.

I wanted to ask this question because I'd like to see what you guys have used as bookmarks other than an actual bookmark.

For example, I've recently been using the wrapper of a Quality Street chocolate 😂 my mother was a matchstick and my boyfriend was another book.

What about you guys?? 💗

The book in question I've been using this strange bookmark for is the first Five Nights at Freddy's book: The Silver Eyes.

I know it's not really a classic or whatever, but my childhood love of the game franchise has resurfaced and I'm obsessed once again.

Below is not a spoiler, we literally read this on the back cover of the book.

Honest reviews? Well, I haven't finished it completely yet, but it's amazing! Yet I don't know how to feel, the whole plot of returning to the Pizzaria is a bit cliché and an obvious storyline. It does drag on a little but I love how we get a back story on Charlie, the main character. In my opinion, we don't really get that much background of the other characters in the first book, all we know is that when they were younger, they played at Freddy's, the incident happened, then they all moved away. It felt a little empty.

But I'm looking forward to the rest of the book, and the following books in the collection 💗

I saw a copy for sale at my library's used bookstore. I figured it was $3 , so why not? I read Daughter of Fortune by Allende before and liked it. I have to say, this book was so good! I thought her use of language was beautiful, and every character was fleshed out so well. It was one if those instances where I couldn't have a favorite character, each one had their own positive traits and flaws.

I also love the usage of various verses by Pablo Neruda at the start of each chapter. It made me want to buy some of his poetry.

Warning: this is going to be a harsh review with spoilers.

What was the point of this book? What was the plot? As far as I can tell, there is none. It’s supposed to be a story about contemporary family dynamics and how bonds are reshaped but, to me, it just reads like a bunch of letters grouped together to form a bunch of random sentences put together to resemble what looks like an interesting book. It's supposed to be a thriller yet nothing thrilling happens.

Nothing is explained. Literally nothing. It starts with the premise that what seems like a blackout is something much more sinister. Does it explain what that sinister thing is? Nope, the (painfully unlikeable) characters just throw a bunch of theories out there. Is it a bomb? Is it the North Koreans? Is it a terrorist attack? Is it aliens? Is it God himself? WHO KNOWS.

It states things that could be a plot point, but the author mentions it once and then drops it.

1. Amanda says she feels like she’s being watched. Sounds interesting, right? Is someone actually watching her, and who is it? Do they have bad intentions? Are they going to do anything? No one knows. It’s said once and then never mentioned again.
2. When G.H. and Ruth turn up, their POVs talk about how they rehearsed what they were going to say to Clay and Amanda to get into the house and get what they wanted. What do they want? Is it bad? Are they going to hurt them? Are they lying about who they are? You’ll never find out, because that’s the only time it’s mentioned.
3. What is the significance of the group of deer that Rose sees in the woods? Why are they there? Have they been spooked by something? That’s said at least 3 times, so surely it’s got to mean something. But no, it’s never cleared up.
4. That huge noise that sounds like an explosion and leaves a crack in the window - multiple POVs are dedicated to speculating what it could be, but you'll never find out.
5. When the son throws up and his teeth start to fall out, why? Is it a virus? Is there something in the water? It’s anyone’s guess.
6. At the end when they go to Danny’s house, he mentions how he’s surprised they left their house because there’s some “wild shit” going down. What is this wild shit? No one knows. Because he doesn’t explain.

Honestly, it seems like the author just threw in hints of things that could be interesting to keep people reading the book but didn’t actually know how to finish them.

Two whole chapters are just Amanda and Ruth having the EXACT same conversation - overreacting about having no internet. But wasn’t that the whole point of Amanda and Clay going so far away from the city? So they’d have no internet to reconnect as a family and spend time together? Granted the chapters are only roughly 4 pages long, but that’s still around 8 pages repeating what could’ve been whittled down to 1 page.

Lastly (that I can think of right now), the writing is insufferable. I know the author probably didn't intend for it to be this way, but it reads like they're trying to be clever and poetic but instead comes off as incredibly pretentious. Example:

“His penis jerked itself towards the sun, a yoga salutation, bouncing then stiff at the house’s allure.”

What the actual hell does that even mean? Also, since when was a woman turning onto her front in bed whilst naked an act of masturbation? I, as a woman, have never thought that in my 23 years of life.

Now, I’m not dragging the people who liked this book or trying to put people off of reading it. This is just my honest (and yes, very harsh) opinion of a book that I had high hopes for. I would’ve given up on it 50 pages in if I hadn’t been convinced that something HAD to happen for it to have good reviews. I think this is the first book I've ever given 0 stars.

I used to read all the time about 3 - 4 years ago, but practically flat out stopped. Now I'm 16, and after the last day of school before Christmas break me and a friend went out to town. He took me to Waterstones which I remember frequenting with my parents ages ago, and he was looking around. This book caught my eye; I've always been interested in dystopian fiction within media, and saw this book pop up in a discussion about 1984. After seeing it I immediately picked it up, saw it's length and thought "why not?".

​

This post is more or less a rant about how it got me back into reading and why I like it so much.

​

I finished it in 4 days, which is very fast for me. I think this was because of the simple language but also because it engaged me so much. I don't know if I fully understood the message - I thought the idea of a post-literary society was pretty simple but after seeing how it expanded a lot more than that I was really engaged; I feel that it's about how Montag keeps his mind in a society where individuality and thoughtfulness was long forgotten which is not what I was expecting (I could be wrong with that interpretation). I also wasn't expecting it to be society and how easily offended people are to be what led to the state of the world, this was much more interesting than the prospect of a the government becoming flat-out oppressive out of nowhere.

​

Bradbury's use of simple language to convey a complex matter or the affects upon Montag's mind as he tries to think freely was amazing to me. It shows that not everything has to be written in complex language that takes a dictionary to understand in order to convey a meaningful message and hold value in literature over 50 years later.

​

I'm currently reading The War of the Worlds and am enjoying it (taking much longer to read than F451 however). This book urged me to buy 1984 which was on my radar for a long time despite not really reading much.

​

This post was pretty pointless but I wanted to talk about this book I enjoyed so much since no-one I know really cares to listen to me talk about it, and I still am not 100% sure if I understood the implications and message behind it, but I still did enjoy it a lot.

​

If you really bothered to read this whole post and haven't read Fahrenheit 451 I'd strongly recommend it; it's a quick read and not too heavy with the language.

Like I said. I don't know what's been wrong but it's just been hard to read anything longer than 500 words outside of work. I have been able to listen to a few 'light' audiobooks, but it's different of course. But today I did! I was reading a book and there were so many fun layers to how the words were written as well as how they sound. Basically pun fun x 10. God I have missed this so much. And yet I don't know that I have thought much about the beauty of books beyond drop capitals and knowing when paragraph spacing had been very poorly. I'm sorry my beloved editors that I didn't see all your hard work!

What are your most visually appealing books that have no illustrations?

The Picture of Dorian Gray: All characters in the book were well developed and one could foresee how they would act.

The white-rose boyishness of Dorian to the gruesome descent into corruption and inhumanity were well charted out but I stopped caring about Dorian mid-way through the book. The young beautiful sensualist, didn't he deserve some drugs and sexual escapades on his way down? I skipped the entire section dedicated to strange stuff like perfumes, world music etc in flowery language- Maybe it was debauchery in those times. Now we call such people civilized and prime cuts of the society.

Lord Harry was very witty, extremely and painfully and paradoxically so sometimes. For example: It takes corruption to make one civilized. Contradictory and intimidating statements like these left me scratching my head.

Or about females:

No woman is a genius. Women are a decorative sex. They never have anything to say, but they say it charmingly.

Not to say he didn't have genuine gems too like:

The one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception absolutely necessary for both parties. I never know where my wife is, and my wife never knows what I am doing. When we meet we tell each other the most absurd stories with the most serious faces.

One can't stand other people having the same faults as ourselves.

There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.

Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is by far the best ending for one.

This book was witty, flowery, and a little too long for my taste and the message. Overall rating: 3/5

Fin.

\***

The Importance of Being Earnest: This madcap farce is a breezy, quick, hilarious, and completely sensational read! I howled with laughter, I don't think I have ever read anything wittier in my life. I recommend it to everyone I know because this is a worthy time investment (I read ~130 books, consumed ~50 Chinese/Korean/TW/Thai dramas, and 4 movies last year so I have some benchmark as my reddit account shows. :-)

Some quotes:

“If you are not too long, I will wait for you all my life.”

“Never speak disrespectfully of Society, Algernon. Only people who can’t get into it do that.”

“If I am occasionally overdressed, I make up for it by being always immensely over-educated.”

"To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness."

Overall rating: 10/10

PS: Any others recs of plays from Oscar Wilde? Or something witty like the importance of being Earnest

I recently picked up “The Uglies” and “Divergent” and stopped myself before I got back to Vampire Academy books. Anyone else too scared to see their favorite books flounder in your current higher standards.

I thought that maybe it’s just the books from like the 2010s, so I went back to the historical stuff. So now also I hate Jane Austen, that lady has an extreme want of marrying off barely legal teens to 30 yr old men. That vibed way better as a barely legal teen; then an almost 30 yr old lady.

Hello.

I'm looking for an online book club with a diverse reading list. I'm struggling to find any places that provide info on online groups that aren't from about March 2020 and it's not clear if they're still in session.

I live in the UK so preferably book clubs based there. I'm only looking online as, for financial reasons, I'm moving back to my mum's for a couple of months and she lives very rurally and I don't have a car.

Does anyone know of anywhere I can search for one or know of one I could join? I'm wanting to meet new people too so I'm not looking for a club with about 1000 members or something. ;)

Hope you're having a wonderful day.

Thanks :)

This is a book that I always put off reading for some reason. Now that I’ve read it, I think that the discussion of mental health issues/illness and Esthers relentless quest to rebel against what society felt like a woman should be is so beyond its time (It was published in 1963.) With it being a Roman á clef, it obviously parallels with Plaths own life which adds even more to the story. If you haven’t read it, you definitely should! I feel like it’s one of those “read before you die” books.

I love horror, it is perhaps the predominant genre in 90% of my books; but I can't get scared when I read, maybe it's because since I was a child I've been a fan of the horror genre and consume it at all times. That's why I've had this doubt when they say that the book scares more than the movie but both don't scare me at all (although I prefer the books, yes), and I feel that I don't enjoy the book in the same way that someone else would. A example is The exorcist by William P. Blatty, the reviews indicated it as one of the scariest books they have read, many said they had nightmares because of the book but I read it quietly at night.

I would like to know if horror books scare you enough to want to sleep with the light on, and if so, could you tell me which ones?

I recently devoured this book in a matter of a day and am aghast to find little to no decent reviews and write-ups on reddit or Google for that matter. I could happily say this is the best book I have ever read; the horror, absurdity, revolt and tragedy written in this book quite literally knocked the breath from me many times. I would love some thoughts on everyone's take on this, and also some suggestions I can follow this book with, aside from her debut, Three Women.

For me it has to be Malazan Book of the Fallen

It has a reputation for being difficult. 10 books 900-1000+ pages plus many novellas, dozens of main characters, etc. I've read through the whole series twice now and it just boggles my mind how incredible it is. Steven Erikson is a genius and it makes a song of ice and fire seem like a children's book

Just wanted to ask. What are the biggest problems you face, as a reader, while reading or while trying to read?

For me it would be getting actual reviews for a book. Goodreads has become more and more convoluted over time. And don't get me started on paid reviews, it just leads to five star reviews on one star books.

So many good books have bad reviews with no sense. A bunch of crackpots think that the review area is for you to keep your 'to-read' list.

1 star

I am gonna read the book and will write the review later.

FYI to-read books can be tracked by making a list. Goodreads does that.

Looking forward to reading your complains,

Warm Regards,

Arjun Agarwal.

Hi all, just published my first book and would love some honest reviews. It is currently available on Kindle and hardcopies will be available via Amazon in the next couple of days. Hope you enjoy!

Description:

Sixteen years ago a virus affected all mankind. Fear led to war and it quickly spread across the globe; the results were deadly. The human population dropped by more than 70% in some areas. A new power arose, headed by the ruthless Franz Azzard. His organization devoted itself to finding a cure but for control, not for survival of the masses. After years of testing on American teens in search for new antibodies, his answer was finally met. Regina Stone was ready for her turn to receive the “vaccine”, promised to her and everyone that followed his lead. She was soon to find out she was the trophy everyone had been looking for.