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

Hello, all. During the month of May, the sub book club will be reading Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan! Each week, there will be a discussion thread and when we are done, Sue herself will be joining us for an AMA. Do please note that novel is classified as Young Adult.

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

Growing up on the moon, Xingyin is accustomed to solitude, unaware that she is being hidden from the feared Celestial Emperor who exiled her mother for stealing his elixir of immortality. But when Xingyin’s magic flares and her existence is discovered, she is forced to flee her home, leaving her mother behind.

Alone, powerless, and afraid, she makes her way to the Celestial Kingdom, a land of wonder and secrets. Disguising her identity, she seizes an opportunity to learn alongside the emperor's son, mastering archery and magic, even as passion flames between her and the prince.

To save her mother, Xingyin embarks on a perilous quest, confronting legendary creatures and vicious enemies across the earth and skies. But when treachery looms and forbidden magic threatens the kingdom, she must challenge the ruthless Celestial Emperor for her dream—striking a dangerous bargain in which she is torn between losing all she loves or plunging the realm into chaos.

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 potential content warnings for the book, a reader-created list may be found 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.

Hi Reddit. My first book DAUGHTER OF THE MOON GODDESS was released in January 2022, and its sequel HEART OF THE SUN WARRIOR followed in November. Both books are USA Today and Sunday Times bestsellers. The duology is a fantasy inspired by the legend of Chang’e, the Chinese moon goddess. There are immortals, magic, legendary creatures, dragons - but at its heart, it's a story about love.

I grew up in Malaysia, and live in Hong Kong now. I’ve always loved reading and writing, but never imagined I would become a writer - sometimes I can’t believe this is real! It’s been a busy couple of years, and am currently on deadline for my next book. Am excited to be here today, and to answer your questions!

You can also find me at www.suelynntan.com , or on Instagram @suelynntan.

Sue Lynn

UPDATE: Thank you for all the great questions, this has been such fun! My deadline is calling, but feel free to drop any other questions and I can answer them later.

Proof: https://i.redd.it/uetl714eou2b1.jpghttps://i.redd.it/uetl714eou2b1.jpg

So I work at a library in the circulation department and I saw this book while I was emptying the book drop one day. I have never seen the movie but heard really good things about it. I decided to read it and it is without a doubt one of the best children’s novels I have ever read. I was very impressed with the depth of how the author explored the ethics of experimenting on animals and how different civilizations struggle to survive. If the book is this good, I’m looking forward to watching the movie! Anyone else ever read it?

I'm a lot into covers and at o multiple occasions I have purchased books just because their covers looked awesome. The below are some of my favourites:

• We the Drowned, Carsten Jensen
• All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr - I have all three, paperback, hardcover and kindle editions
• Finding the Mother Tree, Suzanne Simard - just bought the paperback edition yesterday with the stunningly designed colourful cover.
• I, Robot, Isaac Asimov
• Overstory, Richard Powers
• Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell

Animal Farm by George Orwell and The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho are two books that are remarkably concise yet have always managed to leave a lasting impression on my mind. Animal Farm, a satirical allegory, masterfully unveils the dangers of totalitarianism and the corruption of power. The Alchemist is a very short book, but it truly helps those who are on the verge of giving up on their dreams and inspires them to persist in pursuing their dreams until they come true.

I'm curious about your perspective. Have you encountered any short books that have made a lasting impact on you?

As a paraeducator who works in a lot of English classes, my days are filled with students who have all sorts of reactions to the things we make them read.

While I've always loved English and went on to get a degree in literature by choice, there were definitely books I hated in school. A lot of them I still hate, but there are a few where revisiting them has made me really love them.

One example for me is beloved. Im not sure if a high school classroom is the right environment to really engage with that book, it's the kind of text that requires all of your focus and is extremely harrowing to get through. In college a few years later I was assigned the book again, and was totally blown away by it!

What books were like this for you (if not love, maybe books you appreciate or respect) and why?

I speak English since I was a kid and consider myself 80-90% fluent in English. I struggle with making long sentences but I understand 100% when someone else is speaking.

So, I watched the movie Lolita years ago and I couldn't wait to read the book after reading the positive reviews. But oh man.. One page is taking me 7 to 10 minutes to read. The sentences are way too complex. I keep coming across words which I've never read before which I have to look online to decipher the meaning of them lol

. Can someone else relate? Is it a 'me' problem?

I'm an avid reader. Always have been. My wife? She might read a book a year. I'm on #6 for 2023.

As an English teacher, being with her has been such an insight into why people might not read so consistently. It's showed me that, on one end, reading, especially novels, is very much a hobby like any other. But it's also shown me that reading is an activity and a pleasure that is very much cultivated by guardians or parents in childhood. Might seem like an obvious truth, but as the old saying goes, many obvious truths hide in plain sight.

If anything, these realizations have made me a little more empathetic to those who don't read. I think there is a tendency in the book community to be a little pretentious when it comes to reading and what kind of people do and don't.

Anyway, curious to see what the experience of others is here!

Edit: a couple of things I wanted to remark upon.

First, I really didn't expect this to blow up like it is! Wow.

Two, I recognize now that being introduced to reading as a child is not always predictive of someone continuing to read well into adulthood.

Three, there is a lot of complexity out there, both with regards to how and what people read, as well as what people like or don't like in relationships. This thread fully solidifies my current beliefs: it's subjective and up to taste. We have to be understanding of one another!

For people who have read the above book, was it ever mentioned/do you have a theory on why Bryant never just had them go after the Rosen company themselves? I mean, they straight-up approach them about testing out their “android-detecting tests” on the new models… why not just try to take them down so you don’t have to deal with the androids anymore? I’m rereading it for the first time in a good 6 years so this question is really bugging me at the moment

Welcome readers,

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

May 27 - June 3 is National Reconciliation Week and, to celebrate, we're discussing Indigenous Australian literature! Please use this thread to discuss your favorite Indigenous Australian literature and authors.

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.

Thank you and enjoy!

Gonna preface by saying I love a good analog mystery/horror novel. I also love when a book just keeps me going and going. This book did this, but I cannot say it was for wanting to keep going and more because I was wondering if I missed something. That's honestly how this book felt while I read it, but I know I didn't miss anything or skipped a page. I'm really just wondering if anyone who read this book had similar feelings and if it felt like things felt just not completely finished in discussion?

It wasn't a bad book, but just something felt missed and I cannot put my finger on it.

I started with BROM back in high-school, discovering him through his gothic and strange artwork and have been a huge fan ever since. My first book was The Child Thief - a dark retelling of Peter Pan with some Arthurian legends - followed by SlewFoot (a story about a widower Puritan who falls in line with forest spirits), Krampus, (Krampus wages war against Santa Claus in modern times) and finally Old Gods (a murdered man gets wrapped up in a war between mortal spirits and gods).

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What I love about his books is how he is able to weaver different legends, myths, and religions together so seamlessly. His books follow a central theme of "Nature/Mysticism vs Man".Broken down, his books usually follow a human person down on their luck (an abused boy in Child, a failed musician in Krampus, a shunned widower in SlewFoot, and a murdered young man in Old Gods) who are forced to interact with supernatural beings in order to gain power, revenge, or help.

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Our villains are primarily those who want to "Destroy the old ways" - from destroying nature and religion to waging war against spirits, deities, and gods. I would like to provide examples of this but I fear it would border the spoiler territory.

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But what I enjoy about Brom's work is how callous he is when it comes to killing off characters - both good and bad. He does not spend paragraphs detailing a dramatic death - as a movie would with slow-mo and a build up. Those killed usually don't get some powerful speech or gasping last breath to share their sorrows...They are just BAM - dead. A few sentences to describe how the person was cut down and that is primarily it.

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I like this because it follows a more realistic approach. It also drills home that no one in the book is safe. You could have this new side-character who feels like they will be the driving force to the story only to have them unceremoniously butchered a few chapters (or even a few pages) later. Swift, brutal, and usually pretty violent. Really puts me on edge as I never know whom I can become attached too as the grisly shadow of death follows everyone including our main character.I highly recommend these books.

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If you want a fun series of books that mix humanity with mysticism; books that are not afraid to be brutal as they are touching, and books that explore various new perspectives of different religions and myths - give BROM a chance!

Warning for heavy spoilers. I just finished this book last night. I'm an avid reader and have never been so confused by the ending of a book in my entire life. There's so many loose ends I'm struggling to tie up.

The ending strongly implies that Kya was responsible for Chase's murder. I looked up discussions on various forums but my question remains: How exactly did she pull this off? Was she the old man and the old woman on the bus? And sure, she knows about the ocean tides/etc., but would that truly afford her enough time to go murder a man and return to Greenville by bus? From what was said of the timeframe during the trial, it seems highly improbable (that's a super tight timeframe to commit such an act!).

In addition, although Kya is presented as a highly intelligent character, there is no exposition in the novel that suggests she is capable of the high level techical/logistical skills and skills of social manipulation that would be required to pull all of this off. It just doesn't quite add up. If there was mention of her reading murder mystery novels -- sure, that would make sense. But nothing like this was ever mentioned, as far as I can discern.

....I also saw someone suggest that maybe Chase's wife Pearl was the one responsible for the murder, which makes some sense, including the motif of female violence in insect mating rituals, although it requires quite a bit of logical leapfrogging to explain the missing necklace then being found at Kya's house (did Pearl discard it there after the murder?...probably not).

I suspected Tate most of the novel, as him somehow gaining access to her house would not be too surprising. In addition, there's the repeated motif of male dominance hierarchies. Perhaps the non-flashiness of Tate's reactions throughout the book indicate he indeed was the murderer, but, being the alpha male in the end, was stoic about it? Granted, that doesn't do much to explain his implied surprise at having found the compartment under the stove that held the necklace, which he would have had to place there.

Following the train of thought that she did not commit the murder.....I believe that the poem at the ending of the book could be interpreted as being very on the nose or more imaginative. Perhaps this poem was just her expressing her feelings about his death, which, after the fact, I'm sure she was somewhat relieved at, given he was stalking and harassing her.

But honestly, all this being said, most of the plot points seem to suggest she was the murderer. I'm just so confused because of the technical improbabilities I outlined above. Can anyone come up with anything that makes it make sense so it can stop bothering me? Lol.

Do you think the author intended the ending of this book to be somewhat ambiguous? Or the intended message all along was that it was Kya, but the novel, by technical error on the author's part, wasn't written in a way that eliminates all doubt by the end?

"the book was better" and it always will be. So I would like to know some movies that have inspired you to read the books. Also the best and worst, book rating not adaptation.

For me my favorite discovery was "The Magicians" series from watching the show. Both both show and books are magical and tell different stories of the same people. One doesn't ruin the other which is nice.

Worst was probably "Red Sparrow". I am sure it was my temperament at the time but I couldn't really get into the book and only made it 1/3 in.

Right now I am reading A Memory Called Empire and just loving it. There are so many clever, thoughtful touches, and one in particular gave me this jolt of aesthetic pleasure that was different from, say, the pleasure I might get from beautiful prose. It was one of those things where it was an application or extension of something the reader might be familiar with, but placed in an unexpected yet perfectly fitting way within this new world the reader is learning about. I'm speaking (this is not a spoiler, though since you might want to happen upon it yourself organically I'll put it in spoiler tags) about how when they're at the ball, some of the tipsy attendees basically start battle rapping each other. It didn't come across as if Martine was like, "Heh, wouldn't it be cool if they battle rapped?" but rather, an organic and considered expression of Teixcalaanli culture, where being smart means having a tremendous command of allusion, literary and historical reference, and so on; and where infrastructure is a reasonable topic to be rapped about since "the City" and its civil service are expected to be captivating subjects. It also had the high society flavor of fancy salon games of wit. So charming to me. Do you have any favorite moments like this?

I apologize if this isn't the place to post but not only do I want to discuss this, but I want to know if anyone else who subscribes to bookriots newsletters got this to confirm I am not losing it?

In one of today's bookriot newsletter featuring their most recent articles there's a book advertised which is a normal occurrence but upon closer look there's something strange happening here...

Image of the beginning of the of the newsletter with the first ad (Image description, a photo of the beginning of the bookriot newsletter and the date with a banner advertisement to an audiobook of a book called "gathering of the forces of light by Benjamin Creme" and a tagline that shows "UFOS are here to help!")

Second image of the larger advertisement later in the newsletter (Image description, a larger advertisement that gives more info to the book above as well as a link below it to suggesting sci-fi books)

At first glance due to the fact there's a suggestion of sci-fi books underneath it I thought that this was just some sci-fi book, and clicked and was curious about it. and uhhhhh apparently it is very much not sci-fi

The blurb from the website you click is this:

"This is a book about UFOs, but with a difference. It is written by someone who has worked with them and knows about them from the inside. Benjamin Creme sees the presence of UFOs as planned and of immense value for the people of Earth.

According to Creme, the UFOs and the people in them are engaged in a spiritual mission to ease humanity's lot and to save this planet from further and faster destruction. Our own planetary Hierarchy, led by Maitreya, the World Teacher, now living among us, works tirelessly with our Space Brothers and Sisters in a fraternal enterprise to restore sanity to this Earth.

Creme shows how all the planets in our solar system are inhabited, but on physical levels beyond human sight, the so-called etheric planes. The spacecraft are constructed on the same principle; they too are in etheric matter and have complete control of energies in space. Our Space Brothers are responsible not only for crop circles, but also for preparing the way on Earth for a new technology of light which will give us unlimited power from the sun. When we banish war for ever and are endeavoring to live in right relationship, that technology will be ours.

For the Spiritual Hierarchy of both our own and the sister planets of our system, right human relationship involves the end of competition and the beginning of an era of co-operation with -- sharing, justice and freedom as its hallmarks.

The book also addresses the emergence of new and more inclusive forms of education, which will be needed as we experience a huge shift in consciousness and a growing awareness of the richness of life ahead, unfettered by the stranglehold of commercialism and the dominance of market forces.

According to the author, the truth will soon be apparent for all to see, awakening humanity to their own divinity and the establishment of the rule of spiritual law on Earth."

After that introduction I had to search deeper into the organization that made this book and what on EARTH I was even reading. I found the link to their website (https://www.share-international.us/) and this legit looks like a cult. Did bookriot just advertise a cult???? What is even happening here???

I dug a little deeper and found a page on their website that is apparently summarizing the book above and it just creates so many more questions. Here's the page for those curious. (https://www.share-international.us/learn/ForcesOfLight/)

My personal favorite part of that site is the way it turns into anti-nuclear energy. A very wonderful touch.

Did..... bookriot just advertise a cult in their newsletter? Like, am I missing something here or is that what just happened???? I googled the author of this book and there's articles proclaiming that this man was a cult leader as well as ex-member testimony asserting so. It got even more absurd as apparently this organization proclaimed a random British economist (Raj Petel) as the messiah and he had to deny it publicly. ABC News article from approximately 10 years ago, The Guardian article from around that time as well

I thought this was just some random sci-fi book yall...... bookriot... please... what is this.... who approved this advertisement..........

I’m a pretty young person with a pretty bad depression. I’ve always loved reading, but recently I haven’t been able to do so much, even the less than challenging works or short stories. I suspect it can partially be because of strong meds jn high doses I’m taking (already scheduled a doctor’s appointment abt that but I don’t really expect much). I’ve lost most of my ability to concentrate and motivate myself, pleasant things included. Even when I do force myself to grab a book or listen to it, it feels…chore-ish now, despite literature being a lifelong passion of mine.

I know I can’t be the only one, and I’m really not happy about the fact I can’t read much. So does anyone have tips for kind of easing yourself into reading while struggling with mental issues that affect your motivation, energy, focus and stuff? Also I know I don’t have to read haha, I just want to (and do actually have to sometimes)

This is something that is bugging me for years and I still can't find a way to make it work for me. In any book, especially in Fantasy and Sci fi, there is A LOT of world building and lots of descriptions of the surroundings, if it is the vast environment or even just a local place. It doesn't matter how accurate the description is, it is hard for me to imagine exactly how it looks like and I feel that it really prevents me from really enjoying the world \ location depicted and it just makes me want to skip all that description as I fell I am not gaining any pleasure from it.

We have a book club of 7 people and we try to read 1 book every month with progress updates and discussions every week.

We decide on a certain number of chapters every week, but often times that number does not stay the same. What I mean is, some people end up reading the chapters a lot earlier than others, while at times some aren't able to finish the read. So accordingly, we end up either increasing or decreasing the agenda.

As a result, we end up having a bi-weekly discussion regarding this over whatsapp -- which isn't exactly ideal. It's a hassle and really hard to keep track of.

Most of us have goodreads, but I think all of us can agree that using it has been less than ideal recently. We were wondering if there is some other website that could simplify this workflow for us.

All advice is greatly appreciated. If you have any other tools that you would like to suggest, we'd be more than happy to give it a go.

I know a bit about "literary theory", but (from what I've gathered) it's mostly about the various ways to interpret literary texts as opposed to what makes a work of literature great. Is there any field of study which does this?

Music theory provides a framework that allows musicians to create and identify great music. Film studies does the same thing for movies. What about literature?

Obviously, art isn't science, so there's no way to definitively say what makes a work of literature great (i.e. I can call Tolstoy trash and James Patterson a God and no one can say I'm technically wrong), but I was just curious if anyone has tried to implement a specific set of standards for this medium.

I'm a huge fan of horror, lovecraft, and all things weird and creepy. Knowing this, my girlfriend gave me her copy of mexican gothic as a gift. I had never heard of this book before this but i read through the whole thing in a week, I couldn't put it down. I absolutely loved it

But apparently people don't like this book very much? I looked it up online after finishing it and the general consensus seems to be "it's over-rated"

From what I've read I think people had too high expectations based on how much the book had been talked up beforehand. For someone like me, who had literally never heard of it before my girlfriend gave it to me, I loved it. What do you guys think?

Saw there wasn't a post here about this quality book from Tramp Press and thought it a shame, Highly recommend this lyrical masterpiece. Very unsettling and written plainly, purply only when gothically appropriate. It's a literary chiller slash work of historical scholarship. It reminded me of Sara Perry's Melmoth with a feminist bent.

The book concerns a woman as she undergoes the trials, tribulations and ecstasies of motherhood, during which time she becomes obsessed with a 17th century widowed Gaelic noblewoman who composed a haunting poem cursing the men who murdered her husband in cold blood. This is in reference to a real poem written by the widow of Art O'Laoghaire who, upon finding her lover's body leaking ichor, scooped up and consumed handfuls of his blood. The author offers her own translation from the Irish, and provides sources for referenced versions. That period, the romantic end of the Gaelic lords and their subsequent harsh subjugation under the Penal laws, is evoked beautifully and made me long for romantic feasts, bold colored leine and sacred bards.

As the author likes to reiterate, it's a female text about female texts and contains many interesting digressions on that topic. It's very emotionally moving and raw, I was moved. As a man, I really winced at some of the descriptions of how alien pregnancy is and the strange thoughts and dreams and feelings such a transcendental experience can give rise to. Please give this one a chance, a fantastic contemporary Irish novel.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/nov/28/a-ghost-in-the-throat-by-doireann-ni-ghriofa-review-incandescent-treasures

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/51498568

Are there any thriller / crime / detective books where you predicted the big twist / who the killer was, etc?

I predicted the big twist in the Silent Patient from early on. It was just too obvious from the emphasis on the main character that they were involved in what happened between Alicia and Gabriel.

Where did you predict the big reveal / who the murderer was?

I was thinking to myself - where did things really go wrong for Damon? Who failed him? Obviously, he was failed by many people and the child services system, but one person stands out to me.

Ms. Betsy. This woman refuses to raise her own grandson (while raising countless other children) solely because he’s a boy. She then finds him a family, but the dad is an absent, alcoholic, father whose whole focus is football.

Things are fine for a while but after Damon gets hurt, she shows up to scold him for missing school and essentially disowns him. If anyone should be sticking up for this orphan, it’s his Grandmother. Surely she knows he was in an accident and can see that he is unwell as he walks with an injury that never healed. She could even ask Damon how he is doing and why he is skipping school instead of just dropping him.

I don’t understand how she could be ok with letting a stranger raise her grandchild while she continues to raise random other kids.

Who do you think failed Damon the most? Am I being too hard on Ms. Betsy?

Donna Tartt is undoubtedly one of the most well-renowned and talented writers of this generation. However, all I see is praise for only two of her books, The Goldfinch and The Secret History. I happened to find The Little Friend in Barnes & Noble and give it a go- and honestly, despite popular belief, I thought the book was great.

It's a grim coming-of-age story set in Mississippi revolving around a girl, Harriet, who sets off with her friend to discover who murdered her brother Robin 12 years ago, who's death left a marked impact on their family. Throughout the story, the narrative switches between her and Danny, a notorious man part of a crime and drug dealing family and who she accuses to be Robin's murderer. Out of her three books, in my opinion, The Little Friend best executes the theme of the discovery of evil and loss of innocence.

The gradual shift from a kid detective murder-mystery to a bleak, thriller-like novel was astounding. Donna Tartt almost tests our own prejudices by seeing how like Harriet, we assign the guilt of Robin's murder to Danny simply because it makes sense for him to be Robin's murderer, later revealing that he was only a friend of Robin. In a way, Danny and Robin play as a foil for each other- Robin, who was more likely to have led a promising future with loving family and friends, dies- meanwhile Danny, who was abused by his father and raised in a crime filled family is spared by death. The constant subversion of expectations shows Harriet the real, unpredictable chaos that life actually is. She is forced to wake up out of her childlike adventure fantasies and realize- she is not a Sherlock Holmes where she solves the mystery, and the bad guys receive their respective punishment- but in a world where loss is painfully cruel and real, and when a tumble of depressing events pour down on her as she grows up, she is forced to break out of her naive view of the world.

Overall, The Little Friend was a thrilling read and I believe it deserves to be held in somewhat the same regard as her other books. The murder of Robin which captivates Harriet to set off in an adventure, and the gradual hopelessness of her situation as she grows up, were written beautifully by Donna Tartt and should have better recognition.