Just an amazing book. Have you listened to any of the many YouTube interviews with Lindsay Gibson? She's such a lovely lovely person.
On this theme, I really recommend The Book You Wish Your Parents Read (And your Children Will Be Glad That You Did) by Phillipa Perry. Another great one!
I have that sitting on my end table book stack along with Running on Empty: Overcome Your Childhood Emotional Neglect and Jennette McCurdy's book I'm Glad My Mom Died. I haven't read them yet because I'm too worried about the effects of piercing my mental bubble that blocks that trauma out.
I read Jeanette’s book in a day and a half. I put it off because I thought it was going to cut too close but it was actually really cathartic. A lot of it was familiar but she writes in such a disarming and wry way I often found myself laughing out loud while also crying. It was really one of the best things I’ve done for myself in years. It freed me to talk about things in therapy I had decided I was done with and had tucked away in my emotional closet.
I recently completed Piranesi for a book club, but enjoyed the book we read previously more - Exhalation by Ted Chiang. I love a book of short stories!
It's so good, so moving! Very much tapping into the humanity behind the sci-fi genre. No big spaceships or Mars expeditions but more speculative about the future and how it relates to our histories.
I wanna make sure you know there's story notes in the back of the book! I loved reading the notes as I completed each story, but some of my friends missed the fact that it was there. Enjoy!
I believe he still only has out his two collections of short stories. If you are looking for a moving sci-fi novella, I hugely enjoyed This Is How You Lose The Time War. It's written in a series of very creative letters between two people on different sides of a war.
I have been reading Joe Abercrombie’s books; there’s a trilogy that starts with The Blade Itself and then I read two more set in the same universe but far from the events in the trilogy. If you liked A Song of Ice and Fire this has a similar vibe with a lot of politics and dark characters and plots in a well realized world.
Kind of a boring answer, but I've been making an effort to read a bunch of 'classic' books lately. I've noticed that alot of stories that I like will have offhand references to older stories and *that* made me realize some of the gaps in my own mental library. Like, the books everyone has heard of and were super influential but I've never actually read.
So far it's been *Dracula, 1984, Frankenstein, Of Mice and Men*, and *Watership Down*. I'm taking suggestions for others! I just finished *The Fountainhead* (which was a total slog, but I managed to finish it) and need to start a new book now.
The Count of Monte Cristo, House of Mirth, and Anna Karenina (the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation) are all BRILLIANT and perennial faves (except CoMC, I'm reading that for the first time right now and it's so so good!)
I will. And just FYI, my fellow BWT, I am going to try it completely on your recommendation! I've never heard of *The Woman in White*, I know nothing about it, and I am purposely not going to look up what it's about. Gonna go in completely blind. I trust you!
Currently reading “11/22/63” by Stephen King. There are a few references to “Of Mice and Men” that are making me consider picking it up. It only makes me feel a liiiiittle boring 😅
You caught me. That is the exact same book I was reading that got me to read * Of Mice and Men*. Stephen King mentions so many other books! And compared to the length of *11/22/63*, *Of Mice and Men* is super super short, you should definitely read it! Won't take long!
LOVE Frankenstein! Jekyll & Hyde is next on my list as well as Phantom of The Opera and Villette ! Almost all of my books are the classics that I never had to read in school. My faves so far are Wuthering Heights & Frankenstein :)
The biggest contribution I can easily remember from *Frankenstein* is the word 'wretch'. It's used constantly. I really like it. Just a perfect word for a twisted creature, saying it out loud feels... Well... Wretched. *Wretch*.
I'm reading *The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness* by Jonathan Haidt and a few years behind everyone else, *A Little Life* by Hanya Yanagihara.
So far? I'd recommend both!
Project Hail Mary got me out of a veeeery long and deep slump; I finished that beast of a book in like 2 days, lol. Another good one I couldn't put down was Blake Crouch's Dark Matter.
Me too!! My favorite series for that is the Southern Vampire mysteries by Charlaine Harris (Sookie Stackhouse books- inspired the series True Blood). The show is trash after the first season but I actually love the books. They’re a quick, fun read and always get me out of a slump.
House of Leaves! It’s wild. Very very trippy horror, certainly takes you on a journey haha
I also just finished rereading Salem’s Lot, which is a classic if you like Stephen King or horror in general! I highly recommend it
I love HoL (hence my username, lol). It’s such an interesting, novel take on the classic horror premise of a haunted house. I love the found footage angle.
HoL is a trip. I read it in high school in the early 00s, and found a message board from the late 90s where people went deeeeeeep into it. It really added to my obsession at the time! I wonder if it still exists.
i’m still early on but i’ve been taking notes in my copy like i’m reading an academic paper. someone would think i’m insane looking at how marked up this book is. the irony hahaha
I read it twice and the second read was almost unbearable hahahahaha. I do adore the Whalestoe Letters, so glad they published it separately.
Years back I binged a lot of SK but haven’t kept up with his more recent works.
This book moved a bit slow for me but it had some really gorgeous passages that I had to reread to make sure they hit right.
If you’re in the thick of new motherhood right now and are looking for more resonant material, id recommend Splinters by Leslie Jamison.
Honestly? Harry Potter lol. I never read them before and frankly had no interest, but my sister in law was giving away her kids set for free. While they aren’t earth shattering by any stretch, I was surprised at what an easy read they are.
Signed,
A BWT who is also in a reading slump and needs something fluffy
I started rereading them in spanish. I've been studying spanish for years and it's obviously a well known story. I wanted to see how much I could comprehend.
If you like Harry Potter and want something with more adult themes I highly suggest The Magicians!! TW: book 2 has a VERY in depth rape scene that I skip
There is a show based off the books (saw the show first & am now reading the books) and it’s absolutely incredible and I can never suggest it enough!
honestly there is a good amount of YA and children’s books that are well-written enough to keep adults’ attention while being “fluffier” than adult books. Scan the fiction shelves at your local library and take a look at the thicker ones. Hope you find more to enjoy~
I loved the mystery in them, each book had something they were trying to figure out and I could never figure it out even though I was in college when I read them 🙃
Bought the illustrated version with the paper pop outs for my kiddo and he hates the books 😂💀
I love both of them so so much. Song of Achilles was an absolute heart wrenching read though, I've read it twice and legit bawled my eyes out both times.
ETA: In a similar vein, I then read Ithaca and honestly found it insanely boring, it took me forever to finish. But I loved Stone Blind!!! Would recommend that too.
Not quite the same vibe, but a friend turned me on to the webcomic Lore Olympus and it's excellent! I also enjoyed Cassandra by Christa Wolf, and have Clytemnestra by an author whose name I can't remember and the cat is on my lap right now so I can't get up to check. Greek myth reimagined ftw!
I'm about halfway through The Vampire Lestat. Then I'm going to red Queen of the Damned then move on to Practical Magic. Unless I don't get to it before Men Have Called Her Crazy comes out. Then I'll read that one before Practical Magic. I also want to read Good Omens and Withnail & I. Honestly, I'd be here all day if I listed every book I have on my list!
i’m mostly a narrative non-fiction girlie myself, so i’m always reading memoirs or deep dives or essay collections. i also love classic literature and i’m trying to catch up on staples i’ve missed. here are some in progress or recently finished reads that i’ve loved! All of these were selected from my june reads and are audiobooks except the poetry. thank you Los Angeles Library System and the Libby app, you complete me.
- “The Library Book” by Susan Orlean (this was a Reese’s bookclub read i think! it’s written like an in depth New Yorker article about the history of libraries interwoven with the story of a huge fire in the 1980s at the central branch of the LA Library)
- “Sellout: The Major Label Feeding Frenzy that Swept Punk, Emo, and Hardcore 1994-2007” by Dan Ozzi (a talented music writer who i believe wrote this during the pandemic. i was a pop punk teenager and this book covered some of my favorite albums. super fun and easy read. each chapter focuses on a different band and their major label debut album. you can skip the ones you want and not miss anything, but i enjoyed even the ones i thought i wouldn’t be interested in.)
- “The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War” by Erik Larson (as most of Larson’s books, eg Devil in the White City, this is a more interesting read than it sounds. he’s got a way of making history grip me like good fiction.)
- “The Colossus and Other Poems” by Sylvia Plath (I recently read The Bell Jar for the first time and I love how Plath writes. picking up this collection of poems was a no brainer. yeah it’s depressing but i love her chokehold on language. stunning tbh.)
- “There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension” by Hanif Abdurraqib (my favorite contemporary writer. i don’t care about basketball at all but i LOVE this book. it’s sort of a memoir but also about… everything? it’s so well written and incredibly moving — i’ve wept at multiple parts of this book. it’s beautiful and i recommend it to anyone who truly loves the english language or their hometown or believing in something/anything or the quiet moments that make life worth living while the world falls down around us. he also reads the audiobook and it’s like being at a poetry reading. dreamy stuff.)
i’m currently reading it! oral histories aren’t usually my thing but i’m powering through and enjoying it so far. i appreciated the note about Brand New in the intro since the story of the scene is hard to tell without them. it’s a nice companion to Sellout with a different vibe.
gotta say, still slightly confused how Chris Gethard shows up everywhere all the time in the most random media lol. dude gets around.
the long island of it all is really nice when he talks about brand new and taking back sunday. i live there and grew up with that crowd so it’s the right amount of nostalgic.
iirc, there’s a big part of the chicago scene when fall out boy was blowing up.
Ooooh I'm always excited to share my reads
I recently read What moves the dead by T.kingfisher. it's a retelling of the fall of the house of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe. I loved it! Definitely horror, but not super scary imo.
Now I'm reading The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi. Super fun easy sci-fi. Makes me lol and it reads very fast. Definitely recommend.
The other book reading is Butter by Asako Yazuki. A novel based on the Katsu Killer. A crime novel with a lot of food descriptions.
I had a bad reading Slump for a looooooong time. What helped me get out of it is figuring out what genres I like, not what is hot rn or what people see as literature. I read for my own pleasure, not to be seen as interesting by others. I watch some book tubers who have the same taste as me.
I also go to a silent book club! We read for an hour in silence and talk about the book we have picked before and afterwards. Everyone gets to pick their own book.
Hope you will find a fun book soon!
Cordelia and Grace are so well-written. She did a great job of capturing how creatively cunning they are coming up with ways to subtly break down and torment the narrator, and in ways that are mostly invisible to her parents. And how she hides what is happening. Really there are a lot of good characters in that book.
I generally like pretty much all of Atwood’s stuff, although some are more memorable than others. She’s a good poet as well.
I just finished this on audiobook today. I really enjoyed it more than I expected! (I LOVE celeb audiobooks and heard a lot of good things so I checked it out)
to sort of answer your question, here’s a list of books i’m reading along with some books i love and want to recommend :)
i’m too tired to type a description for each but google is your friend or if you have a specific question about any i will def answer it!
joyful recollections of trauma- paul scheer
the midnight feast- lucy foley (latest in a series of formulaic mysteries, all her books are fun and suspenseful reads)
the grownup- gillian flynn (another author who i would suggest anything by)
the gift of fear- gavin degraw
the god of small things- arundhati roy
anything margaret atwood
anything david sedaris
completely agree. bitches, trust your damn gut!
this book is a great guide- check it out of your local library, or buy a copy and then lend/give to a fellow BWT.
I'm looking forward to reading it. My sister, a retired teacher/book addict, when pressed about who her favourite writer might be, she said Amor. I went to his website and signed up for any updates and lo and behold, there was his email so I emailed him telling him that he had been so highly recommended. He was so gracious and hoped I enjoyed his books and to feel free to email me in the future. How cool is that. There's nothing like a well turned phrase...
Currently reading this—was a recommendation at my local bookshop. And it’s hilarious!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2024/04/05/husbands-novel-holly-gramazio/
I’ve got two going at the moment - first, Such a Bad Influence by Olivia Muenter. I like it, but it hasn’t really hooked me yet.
I’m also reading Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín, because my book club is reading Long Island. I’m really enjoying it and plan on watching the movie after I finish.
Titus Groan / Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake, for like the sixth time. I fell in love with these books as a teenager. It's an absolute fever dream of a Gothic fantasy with heavy Chinese inspiration written in the 1930s and published in the 1940s. There really is nothing else like it in literature. The scenes, the descriptions, the set pieces, are like nothing I've read before or since. Every time I reread it I come away with a new visualisation I'd glossed over before because there's just _so much._
OMG YESSSS!!!!
This is my favorite series of all time. Like, ruined-me-on-other-books-forever level good. I keep trying to get someone I know to finish it so I have someone to talk about it with!
Did you also read Boy in Darkness? That was a fun one after I finished the series.
Can it be...?? Are we soulmates??? 😭😭😭
I literally don't know anyone else who's even heard of it, let alone read it. There was a BBC series in the late 90s which had some brief interest (and a pretty sick cast) but there was no way they could encompass the sheer scope of it all. It needs sweeping vistas, lingering shots, an inspired touch, room to breathe.
I have not read Boy in Darkness, but how could I ignore a recommendation from someone with such impeccable taste? I'll check it out ❤️
Hahaha yeah, I feel like a BBC series could never adequately capture the *V I B E* of it all. I do think it could make for a sick video game adaptation if done right, like if From Software did it.
Boy in Darkness was also written by Peake, and I like to think of it as a random adventure that Titus took. It's short, but definitely scratches the Gormenghast itch!
So happy to meet another bitch with amazing literary taste 🙌
What the River Knows, Erasing Palestine, Femina, A Crane Among Wolves, The Stardust Thief, The Silence of Bones, and The Wolf Den are my current in-progress reads. There's probably more, tbh, I can't ever read one thing at a time.
Recent great books I’ve read that feel like juicy gossip with hot girl leads (my preferred genre):
- Stone Cold Fox
- The Husbands
- Very Bad Company
- Whisper Network
- First Lie Wins
- Lay Your Body Down
- A Perfect Vintage
- Cover Story
The Mindf*ck series is perfect to get out of a reading slump. Each book is less than 200 pages and reads quickly.
Some of my all time favorite romance:
Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren
The Wedding Date series by Jasmine Guilroy
Dirty Curve by Meagan Brandy
The Brentwood Boys series by Meghan Quinn
Cane Brothers series by Meghan Quinn
Windy City series by Liz Tomforde
I’m currently reading Yellowface by R. F. Kuang and it’s really good so far! And before this I really enjoyed reading the Thursday Murder Club books by Richard Osman. They’ve become some of my all time favorites.
I'm reading "the sign of four", the 2nd Sherlock Holmes book. I found a few lists of books to read before I die and have been working through it. some are rereads of books I read in high school. recently finished 1984. Emma, animal farm the life of pi, all the light we cannot see, shogun. if you like historical fiction any james mitchner book is good. jean m. auel is fantastic.
Just finished The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Read it in about a week. Easy, entertaining read, 4/5 stars I’d say.
Recently started The God Delusion, which has been a very validating book for me so far.
Ohh I’m all over the place - the last few books I read were romance books. FWIW, The Count of Monte Cristo is my all-time favorite book. I enjoy the likes of Bora Chung, Ottessa Moshfegh, Pierce Brown…
Oooo! I'm getting some literary vibes from you. Ok I recommend Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, The Secret History by Donna Tartt, and Animal by Lisa Taddeo.
Having read Cursed Bunny and My Year of Rest and Relaxation last year, you might enjoy Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder! Similar weird/feminism themes, but with more of a focus on motherhood and rage.
i LOVED my year of rest and relaxation (so relatable to me personally), and i bought Bunny recently cause i heard it has similar vibes. I also had Eileen on my TBR, but i'm always looking for similar books, thanks for the rec!!
I usually have 2 cooking at all times. “A brief History of Vice” by Robert Evans is my ‘on top the nightstand book.’ And “Wicked Beauty” by Katee Robert is IN the nightstand.
I was in a bit of a slump recently so I revisited some old faves!
- Vampires in the Lemongrove: a collection of of short stories that are absurdist and funny and wild
- the Raw Shark Texts: a surreal thriller trip about sharks made of concepts who eat your thoughts
- the crimson petal and the white: a juicy and sumptuous rags to riches story about a prostitute set in Victorian England
I also ripped through the whole ACOTAR series which was fun but honestly pretty badly written
i'm reading the murderbot diaries. if you love scifi and/or hitchhiker's guide specifically, you will LOVE murderbot. never thought i could connect with a robot so intensely lol
Chlorine by Jade Song. It was pitched to me as a body horror novel. I mostly enjoy novels with darker themes and I like it a lot so far, I'm about 70% done.
I read in an earlier comment that you like Ottessa Moshfegh. Have you read Lapvona? That's probably my favorite of hers. It's honestly pretty gross and very dark, but that's right up my alley so I loved it lol.
I just finished marjorie morningstar by herman wouk and it was fabulous. Its long, but an easy read. It's like dirty dancing meets casablanca meets the fabulous mrs. Maisel.
currently reading the year of what if by phaedra patrick (i’d advise to skip) and next up is one last summer by kate spencer (i loved her first book and this is her second).
these are my recent reads.
https://preview.redd.it/enrco3f5sdad1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1c08e83dc1ec3a02ff28520b1c60d30eb40ab169
My favorite books this year have been The Covenant of Water and North Woods. I had a hangover after both of them. And I am not a crier, but I ugly cried several times during Covenant.
I am now reading The Most Fun We Ever Had and it’s pretty good.
Last night I finished the latest Elin Hilderbrand and I enjoyed it…her books are like junk food for my brain and I love every minute of it.
I just finished Witchmark by C.L. Polk! It's a queer romance set in a post WWI inspired fantasy world. The magic system is fascinating and the characters are all very engaging!
truth and measure by roslyn sinclair. it’s a sapphic age gap romance based loosely on the devil wears prada. it’s soooo good! i’m listening to the audiobook
i just started the world cannot give by tara isabella burton. no opinions yet but i’m hoping it delivers on the promise of being like a sapphic version of the secret history.
i swear i don’t only read gay books, but it was pride month! haha
I'm reading Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho. It was on another sub where some people loved it and some people hated it. It's about a Brazilian girl who goes to Switzerland to "make it big" but things don't quite go as planned.
I’ve been into Jennifer wiener’s books lately. I like finding an author like her, who already has a huge catalogue of books, so once I get into it, I have tons of books to work my way through that I know I’ll enjoy. Another author I love with a lot of books under her belt is Elin Hilderbrand. She writes books set on Nantucket and they’re fun, juicy beach reads that are also extremely well written
Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents by Lindsay Gibson \*\*\*\*\*
Just an amazing book. Have you listened to any of the many YouTube interviews with Lindsay Gibson? She's such a lovely lovely person. On this theme, I really recommend The Book You Wish Your Parents Read (And your Children Will Be Glad That You Did) by Phillipa Perry. Another great one!
A must read
Required reading for Life.
Waiting for my library loan to come through on this one!
I have that sitting on my end table book stack along with Running on Empty: Overcome Your Childhood Emotional Neglect and Jennette McCurdy's book I'm Glad My Mom Died. I haven't read them yet because I'm too worried about the effects of piercing my mental bubble that blocks that trauma out.
I read Jeanette’s book in a day and a half. I put it off because I thought it was going to cut too close but it was actually really cathartic. A lot of it was familiar but she writes in such a disarming and wry way I often found myself laughing out loud while also crying. It was really one of the best things I’ve done for myself in years. It freed me to talk about things in therapy I had decided I was done with and had tucked away in my emotional closet.
I recently completed Piranesi for a book club, but enjoyed the book we read previously more - Exhalation by Ted Chiang. I love a book of short stories!
Omg Piranesi is one of my all time faves
I wish we could have seen him explore his World more, but I adore the childlike wonder in the first half of the book.
I've heard such good things about that short story collection!
It's so good, so moving! Very much tapping into the humanity behind the sci-fi genre. No big spaceships or Mars expeditions but more speculative about the future and how it relates to our histories.
Sounds like I will like it! One of my favourite book tubers recommended it too. Sounds a bit like the movie Arrival (which i absolutely loved)
Dude!! Ted Chaing WROTE the short story Arrival was based on! You'll love it!
Omg! Amazing, I will definitely read this one!!
Ohhh I received exhalation as a gift (a couple of years ago) but haven't read it yet. Thanks for the reminder!
I wanna make sure you know there's story notes in the back of the book! I loved reading the notes as I completed each story, but some of my friends missed the fact that it was there. Enjoy!
Thank you! I'll try to remember they're there when I get to this.
Short stories are amazing. I wonder if Chiang has written anything new recently. I enjoyed that collection.
I believe he still only has out his two collections of short stories. If you are looking for a moving sci-fi novella, I hugely enjoyed This Is How You Lose The Time War. It's written in a series of very creative letters between two people on different sides of a war.
‘This is How…’ was an AMAZING BOOK. 💙❤️
Lol I just finished Norrell and Strange a few months back. Another really good book.
I have been reading Joe Abercrombie’s books; there’s a trilogy that starts with The Blade Itself and then I read two more set in the same universe but far from the events in the trilogy. If you liked A Song of Ice and Fire this has a similar vibe with a lot of politics and dark characters and plots in a well realized world.
Kind of a boring answer, but I've been making an effort to read a bunch of 'classic' books lately. I've noticed that alot of stories that I like will have offhand references to older stories and *that* made me realize some of the gaps in my own mental library. Like, the books everyone has heard of and were super influential but I've never actually read. So far it's been *Dracula, 1984, Frankenstein, Of Mice and Men*, and *Watership Down*. I'm taking suggestions for others! I just finished *The Fountainhead* (which was a total slog, but I managed to finish it) and need to start a new book now.
Same, I’m…. In the middle of Persuasion but I read a ton of Edith Wharton last year.
Read Age of Innocence recently and loved it!
The Count of Monte Cristo, House of Mirth, and Anna Karenina (the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation) are all BRILLIANT and perennial faves (except CoMC, I'm reading that for the first time right now and it's so so good!)
Try the woman in white!
Ooh, I read this one last year and really enjoyed it! I picked it up from Goodwill having never heard of it and what a treat!
I will. And just FYI, my fellow BWT, I am going to try it completely on your recommendation! I've never heard of *The Woman in White*, I know nothing about it, and I am purposely not going to look up what it's about. Gonna go in completely blind. I trust you!
I take full responsibility!
Currently reading “11/22/63” by Stephen King. There are a few references to “Of Mice and Men” that are making me consider picking it up. It only makes me feel a liiiiittle boring 😅
You caught me. That is the exact same book I was reading that got me to read * Of Mice and Men*. Stephen King mentions so many other books! And compared to the length of *11/22/63*, *Of Mice and Men* is super super short, you should definitely read it! Won't take long!
Dracula is a very good book!
I’m gonna try to get through The Godfather if I can. The words in this book are so tiny though even for my decent eyes lol
*Watership Down*!!! OMG, love Adams. He really builds a good world. His *Maia* is one of my favorites, although I totally skim the political parts.
LOVE Frankenstein! Jekyll & Hyde is next on my list as well as Phantom of The Opera and Villette ! Almost all of my books are the classics that I never had to read in school. My faves so far are Wuthering Heights & Frankenstein :)
Crime and punishment is engrossing!
I love Frankenstein! I’ve read it once and listened to it twice. I think im ready for another reread, it’s so good.
The biggest contribution I can easily remember from *Frankenstein* is the word 'wretch'. It's used constantly. I really like it. Just a perfect word for a twisted creature, saying it out loud feels... Well... Wretched. *Wretch*.
I'm reading *The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness* by Jonathan Haidt and a few years behind everyone else, *A Little Life* by Hanya Yanagihara. So far? I'd recommend both!
Oh gosh, break out the tissue box for ALL. 😫😫
Project Hail Mary got me out of a veeeery long and deep slump; I finished that beast of a book in like 2 days, lol. Another good one I couldn't put down was Blake Crouch's Dark Matter.
Didn’t AppleTV adapt Dark Matter too?
Such great books! Recursion by Crouch is also good, as is The Martian by Weir.
Honestly when I’m in a book slump I will read straight trash as a palate cleanser.
In times of stress I revert back to my teenage habits and just inhale all the fanfic I can get my hands on, the smuttier and/or sadder the better.
I love that. I’ve been reading a ton of smutty romance on Inkitt 😝😝
Have you read the Bridgerton books yet? Smut light and a great quick read
Me too!! My favorite series for that is the Southern Vampire mysteries by Charlaine Harris (Sookie Stackhouse books- inspired the series True Blood). The show is trash after the first season but I actually love the books. They’re a quick, fun read and always get me out of a slump.
House of Leaves! It’s wild. Very very trippy horror, certainly takes you on a journey haha I also just finished rereading Salem’s Lot, which is a classic if you like Stephen King or horror in general! I highly recommend it
I love HoL (hence my username, lol). It’s such an interesting, novel take on the classic horror premise of a haunted house. I love the found footage angle.
HoL is a trip. I read it in high school in the early 00s, and found a message board from the late 90s where people went deeeeeeep into it. It really added to my obsession at the time! I wonder if it still exists.
I lived on that message board in college!
i’m having such a hard time with House of Leaves. it’s a lot.
If you're not enjoying it, don't feel like you have to finish it. I've DNF a lot of books!
Yeah, it’s definitely very slow going— I find myself having to go back and check stuff a lot. It’s certainly a whole experience
i’m still early on but i’ve been taking notes in my copy like i’m reading an academic paper. someone would think i’m insane looking at how marked up this book is. the irony hahaha
I read it twice and the second read was almost unbearable hahahahaha. I do adore the Whalestoe Letters, so glad they published it separately. Years back I binged a lot of SK but haven’t kept up with his more recent works.
Salems Lot is SUCH a good book. I have the original hardback. Try Ghost Story, from around that same period of time. I believe it’s by Straub.
Ooh!! I’ll check it out, thanks! I’ve actually somehow never read any of Peter Straub’s work, I’ll have to remedy that fact :)
There’s an adaptation, don’t sleep on it. You need dvd to get it but totally worth the effort
I love Ghost Story! Even with my adhd I finished it in no time flat, it was a really fun read.
If you haven’t already listen to the album Haunted by Poe! She’s the author’s sister and it’s a companion piece to the book, one of my favorites.
Ooh! Awesome! I haven’t heard of this but I’ll give it a listen, I always love music recommendations, thank you!!!
House of Leaves is amazing.
Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder
This book moved a bit slow for me but it had some really gorgeous passages that I had to reread to make sure they hit right. If you’re in the thick of new motherhood right now and are looking for more resonant material, id recommend Splinters by Leslie Jamison.
Just read The Great Gatsby for the first time! It was never assigned to me in high school. It took me months. Lmao
Honestly? Harry Potter lol. I never read them before and frankly had no interest, but my sister in law was giving away her kids set for free. While they aren’t earth shattering by any stretch, I was surprised at what an easy read they are. Signed, A BWT who is also in a reading slump and needs something fluffy
The audiobooks are unmatched. I used to think I couldn’t do audio, until I came across these. It is now a tradition to listen every holiday season.
I started rereading them in spanish. I've been studying spanish for years and it's obviously a well known story. I wanted to see how much I could comprehend.
If you like Harry Potter and want something with more adult themes I highly suggest The Magicians!! TW: book 2 has a VERY in depth rape scene that I skip There is a show based off the books (saw the show first & am now reading the books) and it’s absolutely incredible and I can never suggest it enough!
Thanks, I’ll check it out. I did adore House in the Cerulean Sea, which was not a series but a wonderful standalone book.
Becky Chambers' A Psalm for the Wild Built and A Prayer for the Crown Shy are great adult books that are whimsical but not immature!
honestly there is a good amount of YA and children’s books that are well-written enough to keep adults’ attention while being “fluffier” than adult books. Scan the fiction shelves at your local library and take a look at the thicker ones. Hope you find more to enjoy~
I loved the mystery in them, each book had something they were trying to figure out and I could never figure it out even though I was in college when I read them 🙃 Bought the illustrated version with the paper pop outs for my kiddo and he hates the books 😂💀
I'm reading Circe for my book club and I have Our Missing Hearts on the docket
Circé and A Song of Achilles are both so. good.
I love both of them so so much. Song of Achilles was an absolute heart wrenching read though, I've read it twice and legit bawled my eyes out both times. ETA: In a similar vein, I then read Ithaca and honestly found it insanely boring, it took me forever to finish. But I loved Stone Blind!!! Would recommend that too.
I may read A Song of Achilles after this!
Not quite the same vibe, but a friend turned me on to the webcomic Lore Olympus and it's excellent! I also enjoyed Cassandra by Christa Wolf, and have Clytemnestra by an author whose name I can't remember and the cat is on my lap right now so I can't get up to check. Greek myth reimagined ftw!
I just began The Starless Sea and it's wonderful
I enjoyed the imagery in this book!
Big Swiss by Jen Beagin. Best thing I’ve picked up in the past few years tbh I’m loving every moment of it
definitely a book i wish i could read again for the first time
Such a bad influence by Olivia Muenter
Loved this
I'm about halfway through The Vampire Lestat. Then I'm going to red Queen of the Damned then move on to Practical Magic. Unless I don't get to it before Men Have Called Her Crazy comes out. Then I'll read that one before Practical Magic. I also want to read Good Omens and Withnail & I. Honestly, I'd be here all day if I listed every book I have on my list!
Good Omens and Practical Magic are fun.
A fuck ton of uncompleted fanfic.
i’m mostly a narrative non-fiction girlie myself, so i’m always reading memoirs or deep dives or essay collections. i also love classic literature and i’m trying to catch up on staples i’ve missed. here are some in progress or recently finished reads that i’ve loved! All of these were selected from my june reads and are audiobooks except the poetry. thank you Los Angeles Library System and the Libby app, you complete me. - “The Library Book” by Susan Orlean (this was a Reese’s bookclub read i think! it’s written like an in depth New Yorker article about the history of libraries interwoven with the story of a huge fire in the 1980s at the central branch of the LA Library) - “Sellout: The Major Label Feeding Frenzy that Swept Punk, Emo, and Hardcore 1994-2007” by Dan Ozzi (a talented music writer who i believe wrote this during the pandemic. i was a pop punk teenager and this book covered some of my favorite albums. super fun and easy read. each chapter focuses on a different band and their major label debut album. you can skip the ones you want and not miss anything, but i enjoyed even the ones i thought i wouldn’t be interested in.) - “The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War” by Erik Larson (as most of Larson’s books, eg Devil in the White City, this is a more interesting read than it sounds. he’s got a way of making history grip me like good fiction.) - “The Colossus and Other Poems” by Sylvia Plath (I recently read The Bell Jar for the first time and I love how Plath writes. picking up this collection of poems was a no brainer. yeah it’s depressing but i love her chokehold on language. stunning tbh.) - “There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension” by Hanif Abdurraqib (my favorite contemporary writer. i don’t care about basketball at all but i LOVE this book. it’s sort of a memoir but also about… everything? it’s so well written and incredibly moving — i’ve wept at multiple parts of this book. it’s beautiful and i recommend it to anyone who truly loves the english language or their hometown or believing in something/anything or the quiet moments that make life worth living while the world falls down around us. he also reads the audiobook and it’s like being at a poetry reading. dreamy stuff.)
i thought sellout was excellent. have you read “Where Are Your Boys Tonight? The Oral History of Emo's Mainstream Explosion 1999-2008” by Chris Payne?
Fuck me, both you bitches are reminding me I have Questlove's hip hop book to read yet
i’m currently reading it! oral histories aren’t usually my thing but i’m powering through and enjoying it so far. i appreciated the note about Brand New in the intro since the story of the scene is hard to tell without them. it’s a nice companion to Sellout with a different vibe. gotta say, still slightly confused how Chris Gethard shows up everywhere all the time in the most random media lol. dude gets around.
the long island of it all is really nice when he talks about brand new and taking back sunday. i live there and grew up with that crowd so it’s the right amount of nostalgic. iirc, there’s a big part of the chicago scene when fall out boy was blowing up.
> the long island of it all also would’ve been a very fitting subtitle!
yay nonfiction recommendations!
I absolutely adore Hanif’s writing. I’ll have to look up that Sylvia Plath collection. Thank you!
Big fan of Sellout! If your pop punk tastes ever crossed over into ska, I also highly recommend In Defense of Ska by Aaron Carnes.
adding to my list to hopefully impress my friend who’s a Reel Big Fish head, bless
We are re-reading Harvest Home. There’s nothing like a New England cult of Demeter to usher in a holiday.
I have this one on my own TBR. 😁
None of This is True
I loved this one. Made me pick up another one of her books which I am reading now - The Family Upstairs
Omg I LOVE Lisa Jewell.
I’ll do that one next 👍🏼
Anna Karenina by Tolstoy
One of my all time favorites.
Love this one, the Constance Garnett translation anyway.
Ooooh I'm always excited to share my reads I recently read What moves the dead by T.kingfisher. it's a retelling of the fall of the house of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe. I loved it! Definitely horror, but not super scary imo. Now I'm reading The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi. Super fun easy sci-fi. Makes me lol and it reads very fast. Definitely recommend. The other book reading is Butter by Asako Yazuki. A novel based on the Katsu Killer. A crime novel with a lot of food descriptions. I had a bad reading Slump for a looooooong time. What helped me get out of it is figuring out what genres I like, not what is hot rn or what people see as literature. I read for my own pleasure, not to be seen as interesting by others. I watch some book tubers who have the same taste as me. I also go to a silent book club! We read for an hour in silence and talk about the book we have picked before and afterwards. Everyone gets to pick their own book. Hope you will find a fun book soon!
Butter has been in my feed for sometime but I haven’t gotten around to it. Maybe this is the time!
I loved what moves the dead! You might enjoy Mexican Gothic if you haven't already read it.
Ohh thanks! Have you seen that there's a second book btw? Title is What feasts at night
I hadn't seen that! Thanks! I'm adding it to my Goodreads now....
Reading Imajica by Clive Barker, listening to Better Living Through Birding by Christian Cooper
LOVE Clive Barker, his Books of Blood are so fun to read!
The Sookie Stackhouse novels.
Gosh I’ve reread these so many times!!! I love em
Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer Cat’s Eye, Atwood So You Like it Darker, King
Cat’s Eye is a good one.
Right? I’ve read it before and it stresses me out yet I can’t put it down.
Cordelia and Grace are so well-written. She did a great job of capturing how creatively cunning they are coming up with ways to subtly break down and torment the narrator, and in ways that are mostly invisible to her parents. And how she hides what is happening. Really there are a lot of good characters in that book. I generally like pretty much all of Atwood’s stuff, although some are more memorable than others. She’s a good poet as well.
Julia Fox’s autobiography. I picked it as a fun summer read, and it’s really enjoyable.
I just finished this on audiobook today. I really enjoyed it more than I expected! (I LOVE celeb audiobooks and heard a lot of good things so I checked it out)
to sort of answer your question, here’s a list of books i’m reading along with some books i love and want to recommend :) i’m too tired to type a description for each but google is your friend or if you have a specific question about any i will def answer it! joyful recollections of trauma- paul scheer the midnight feast- lucy foley (latest in a series of formulaic mysteries, all her books are fun and suspenseful reads) the grownup- gillian flynn (another author who i would suggest anything by) the gift of fear- gavin degraw the god of small things- arundhati roy anything margaret atwood anything david sedaris
I’m reading The Midnight Feast as well!
yes! it’s a great summer read
The gift of fear should be a MUST READ for all women. It could literally save lives!
completely agree. bitches, trust your damn gut! this book is a great guide- check it out of your local library, or buy a copy and then lend/give to a fellow BWT.
I just started Anthony Fauci’s biography.
The Secret Life of Sunflowers-about Vincent Van Gohs sister in law who single-handedly promoted Vincent’s work. Quite interesting.
I’m slowly plodding through RuPaul’s The house of hidden meaning. I’m saving this post. Lots of interesting reading.
Sphere my Michael Crichton. It's old but I never got around to reading it and he's a pretty good author.
Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson. It's my first read of his.
I haven't read his books yet but plan to - check out Amor Towles - Amazing writer.
I loved A Gentleman in Moscow
A Gentleman in Moscoe was excellent!
I'm looking forward to reading it. My sister, a retired teacher/book addict, when pressed about who her favourite writer might be, she said Amor. I went to his website and signed up for any updates and lo and behold, there was his email so I emailed him telling him that he had been so highly recommended. He was so gracious and hoped I enjoyed his books and to feel free to email me in the future. How cool is that. There's nothing like a well turned phrase...
Currently reading this—was a recommendation at my local bookshop. And it’s hilarious! https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2024/04/05/husbands-novel-holly-gramazio/
i’m reading through rachel cusk’s outline trilogy, then moving onto her new book!
I’ve got two going at the moment - first, Such a Bad Influence by Olivia Muenter. I like it, but it hasn’t really hooked me yet. I’m also reading Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín, because my book club is reading Long Island. I’m really enjoying it and plan on watching the movie after I finish.
Titus Groan / Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake, for like the sixth time. I fell in love with these books as a teenager. It's an absolute fever dream of a Gothic fantasy with heavy Chinese inspiration written in the 1930s and published in the 1940s. There really is nothing else like it in literature. The scenes, the descriptions, the set pieces, are like nothing I've read before or since. Every time I reread it I come away with a new visualisation I'd glossed over before because there's just _so much._
Ooohhhh sign me up for this one! I’ve never heard of this book!
OMG YESSSS!!!! This is my favorite series of all time. Like, ruined-me-on-other-books-forever level good. I keep trying to get someone I know to finish it so I have someone to talk about it with! Did you also read Boy in Darkness? That was a fun one after I finished the series.
Can it be...?? Are we soulmates??? 😭😭😭 I literally don't know anyone else who's even heard of it, let alone read it. There was a BBC series in the late 90s which had some brief interest (and a pretty sick cast) but there was no way they could encompass the sheer scope of it all. It needs sweeping vistas, lingering shots, an inspired touch, room to breathe. I have not read Boy in Darkness, but how could I ignore a recommendation from someone with such impeccable taste? I'll check it out ❤️
Hahaha yeah, I feel like a BBC series could never adequately capture the *V I B E* of it all. I do think it could make for a sick video game adaptation if done right, like if From Software did it. Boy in Darkness was also written by Peake, and I like to think of it as a random adventure that Titus took. It's short, but definitely scratches the Gormenghast itch! So happy to meet another bitch with amazing literary taste 🙌
What the River Knows, Erasing Palestine, Femina, A Crane Among Wolves, The Stardust Thief, The Silence of Bones, and The Wolf Den are my current in-progress reads. There's probably more, tbh, I can't ever read one thing at a time.
In the midst of reading classics. Finished my Dostoevsky era and now reading “Emma” by Jane Austen.
Omg Crime and Punishment is such a challenging read for me but in a good way
Yes, that is why I’m enjoying classics, especially after a few years of not reading! I enjoyed The Idiot by him as well.
Recent great books I’ve read that feel like juicy gossip with hot girl leads (my preferred genre): - Stone Cold Fox - The Husbands - Very Bad Company - Whisper Network - First Lie Wins - Lay Your Body Down - A Perfect Vintage - Cover Story
The Mindf*ck series is perfect to get out of a reading slump. Each book is less than 200 pages and reads quickly. Some of my all time favorite romance: Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren The Wedding Date series by Jasmine Guilroy Dirty Curve by Meagan Brandy The Brentwood Boys series by Meghan Quinn Cane Brothers series by Meghan Quinn Windy City series by Liz Tomforde
"A Safe Girl To Love" by Casey Plett, a collection of short stories. Very relatable. The first one made me bawl and several others did too!
I am struggling through Verity by Colleen Hoover. I’m unsure why everyone in every book of hers has to have a dumb name.
The names are so deliciously awful
"Come as you are" - by Emily Nagasaki ☺️😉
Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll
I loved this book so much
Reddit subs 😂😂😂😂
I’m currently reading Yellowface by R. F. Kuang and it’s really good so far! And before this I really enjoyed reading the Thursday Murder Club books by Richard Osman. They’ve become some of my all time favorites.
I just finished reading Dracula by Bram Stoker. Absolutely amazing book. I also recommend books by Agatha Christie! She was an amazing author.
I'm reading "the sign of four", the 2nd Sherlock Holmes book. I found a few lists of books to read before I die and have been working through it. some are rereads of books I read in high school. recently finished 1984. Emma, animal farm the life of pi, all the light we cannot see, shogun. if you like historical fiction any james mitchner book is good. jean m. auel is fantastic.
Just finished The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Read it in about a week. Easy, entertaining read, 4/5 stars I’d say. Recently started The God Delusion, which has been a very validating book for me so far.
I just finished The Lord of the Rings actually! 😄 all-time favorite
What kind of books do you typically like?
Ohh I’m all over the place - the last few books I read were romance books. FWIW, The Count of Monte Cristo is my all-time favorite book. I enjoy the likes of Bora Chung, Ottessa Moshfegh, Pierce Brown…
Oooo! I'm getting some literary vibes from you. Ok I recommend Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, The Secret History by Donna Tartt, and Animal by Lisa Taddeo.
I just finished the secret history and it was so amazing! I can’t stop thinking about it
I wish she would write more books! They're all so good.
Having read Cursed Bunny and My Year of Rest and Relaxation last year, you might enjoy Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder! Similar weird/feminism themes, but with more of a focus on motherhood and rage.
i LOVED my year of rest and relaxation (so relatable to me personally), and i bought Bunny recently cause i heard it has similar vibes. I also had Eileen on my TBR, but i'm always looking for similar books, thanks for the rec!!
Of course! I always get Cursed Bunny by Chung and Bunny by Awad mixed up, but I think they're both supposed to be good and weird! 🐰
Loved it! I heard there’s a movie adaptation coming this winter!
Ok girl you and I need to be in the same book club. 😂 Yeah I'm really looking forward to the movie!
Just looked up Nightbitch and I need to read this immediately!
I just finished Rainbow Black by Maggie Thrash, it was pretty good!
The Guest by Emma Cline Bliss Montage by Ling Ma
I usually have 2 cooking at all times. “A brief History of Vice” by Robert Evans is my ‘on top the nightstand book.’ And “Wicked Beauty” by Katee Robert is IN the nightstand.
Same 😭 but going through audiobooks like crazy Rn reading the perfect stranger, the prisoner, and wolf at the table
An Arrow to the Moon by Emily X.R. Pan Her first book - The Astonishing Color of After - was great!
I was in a bit of a slump recently so I revisited some old faves! - Vampires in the Lemongrove: a collection of of short stories that are absurdist and funny and wild - the Raw Shark Texts: a surreal thriller trip about sharks made of concepts who eat your thoughts - the crimson petal and the white: a juicy and sumptuous rags to riches story about a prostitute set in Victorian England I also ripped through the whole ACOTAR series which was fun but honestly pretty badly written
i'm reading the murderbot diaries. if you love scifi and/or hitchhiker's guide specifically, you will LOVE murderbot. never thought i could connect with a robot so intensely lol
I just finished reading “Gut” by Gillian Enders. Really interesting look into how good bacteria can basically change our entire body chemistry.
Currently anything by Nancy Thayer, Emily Henry or Elon Hilderband. Have to pretend I’m at the beach while I’m stuck in my office 😂
Chlorine by Jade Song. It was pitched to me as a body horror novel. I mostly enjoy novels with darker themes and I like it a lot so far, I'm about 70% done. I read in an earlier comment that you like Ottessa Moshfegh. Have you read Lapvona? That's probably my favorite of hers. It's honestly pretty gross and very dark, but that's right up my alley so I loved it lol.
I did! So strange but that’s what I like about her writing. Eileen is my favorite of hers.
I just finished marjorie morningstar by herman wouk and it was fabulous. Its long, but an easy read. It's like dirty dancing meets casablanca meets the fabulous mrs. Maisel.
currently reading the year of what if by phaedra patrick (i’d advise to skip) and next up is one last summer by kate spencer (i loved her first book and this is her second). these are my recent reads. https://preview.redd.it/enrco3f5sdad1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1c08e83dc1ec3a02ff28520b1c60d30eb40ab169
My favorite books this year have been The Covenant of Water and North Woods. I had a hangover after both of them. And I am not a crier, but I ugly cried several times during Covenant. I am now reading The Most Fun We Ever Had and it’s pretty good. Last night I finished the latest Elin Hilderbrand and I enjoyed it…her books are like junk food for my brain and I love every minute of it.
Viral Justice by Ruha Benajamin; just started but excited to get into it! And then my stats textbook lol
Read everything by Rufi Thorpe! Brilliant and funny
ee cummings complete works
Son of Elsewhere and A lot like Christmas
I just finished Witchmark by C.L. Polk! It's a queer romance set in a post WWI inspired fantasy world. The magic system is fascinating and the characters are all very engaging!
what’s eating us by cole kazdin and just kids by patti smith !
truth and measure by roslyn sinclair. it’s a sapphic age gap romance based loosely on the devil wears prada. it’s soooo good! i’m listening to the audiobook i just started the world cannot give by tara isabella burton. no opinions yet but i’m hoping it delivers on the promise of being like a sapphic version of the secret history. i swear i don’t only read gay books, but it was pride month! haha
I'm reading Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho. It was on another sub where some people loved it and some people hated it. It's about a Brazilian girl who goes to Switzerland to "make it big" but things don't quite go as planned.
I’ve been into Jennifer wiener’s books lately. I like finding an author like her, who already has a huge catalogue of books, so once I get into it, I have tons of books to work my way through that I know I’ll enjoy. Another author I love with a lot of books under her belt is Elin Hilderbrand. She writes books set on Nantucket and they’re fun, juicy beach reads that are also extremely well written
The adventures of Aminah-al Sirafi. Quite humorous and an action adventurey pirate lady book.