Book Club

[Yue]

I was born in Brazil, so we don't really study Shakespeare at school (a shame, indeed). I was postponing my Shakespeare's reading because I wasn't confident about my reading skills. But since last year I've been reading practically everything in English, so I decided it was time to start

Oh, that seems like an interesting series! I'll add it to my list!

Shakespeare is tough to read, definitely have to take your time!

 

[Yue]

About halfway through the book about Donald Trump. Thoughts: I hate him even more, but I have been learning a lot about him and his family. More people should try to educate themselves about him.

 

[Queen of Philosophy]

I've actually finished this one some time ago, as I mentioned in my very first post (as it was the reason why I read Finding Ms Write!) but since I'm still fascinated by this book, I thought I would write a proper post to share this masterpiece!

Shaken to the Core was the work that introduced me to German writer Jae - it was another case of love at first read! I didn't know much about this historical fiction/romance before start reading, only that Kate and Giuliana, two women from quite different backgrounds, would become "friends". A few pages in, I thought I knew where the story was heading but then the earthquake came and literally shook everything up! Jae was able to create a narrative that is frightening and at the same time loving and hopeful - and, in a way, it reminded me of our current struggle with COVID-19. The main characters are excellent, and the changes in PoV create a fun and striking dynamic between the two women. The slow-burn romance is so satisfying!

Now I'm hungry for bucatini con le sarde!

 

[Vesalius]

I was born in Brazil, so we don't really study Shakespeare at school (a shame, indeed). I was postponing my Shakespeare's reading because I wasn't confident about my reading skills. But since last year I've been reading practically everything in English, so I decided it was time to start

Oh, that seems like an interesting series! I'll add it to my list!

That’s awesome! Here’s my random Shakespeare story: while I was doing some genealogy research I discovered Sylvester Jourdain, who was a writer and sailor. Sylvester was part of the crew of the Sea Venture that was shipwrecked off of Bermuda. He wrote a book/pamphlet about the experience, and allegedly Shakespeare used it as part of his inspiration for The Tempest.

The Tempest I always felt sounded more exciting than it was. Lol

 

[Queen of Philosophy]

That’s awesome! Here’s my random Shakespeare story: while I was doing some genealogy research I discovered Sylvester Jourdain, who was a writer and sailor. Sylvester was part of the crew of the Sea Venture that was shipwrecked off of Bermuda. He wrote a book/pamphlet about the experience, and allegedly Shakespeare used it as part of his inspiration for The Tempest.

The Tempest I always felt sounded more exciting than it was. Lol

That's so cool! haha I still haven't read The Tempest. One day! This said, I was amazed at how many of Shakespeare's plays are based on some other story or event. Not that this diminishes his talent and importance in any way but it was interesting to discover this!

 

[Queen of Philosophy]

You know that kind of book that gives you a heartache - but a good type of heartache? That's how I feel after finishing Virginia Woolf's Orlando. This whacky, satirical and profound love-letter-turned-novel has so many layers and ideas that I really feel a bit dizzy. I'll certainly need to re-read it some day - probably a few years from now!

 

[PhilKenSebben]

Heh. Boob.

 

[Xeo]

I have been getting into horror novels more and more as I have gotten older. The only thing, is I feel like I read them too fast because I can’t seem to put them down.

That's how I am with any good book, really. I read a lot of books. I've got a metric fuck ton of great recommendations if you're ever interested. Horror is my thing, most especially of the literature variety. I read it, I study it. I write it.

 

[Queen of Philosophy]

That's how I am with any good book, really. I read a lot of books. I've got a metric fuck ton of great recommendations if you're ever interested. Horror is my thing, most especially of the literature variety. I read it, I study it. I write it.

Oh please, give me some horror recommendation! I want to explore more this genre but I don't really want to have only Stephen King on my list The last horror story I read was We Have Always Lived in the Castle and I thought it was awesome! I like the more psychological horror but nothing against monsters and gore either haha In short, anything that's not Stephen King or Shirley Jackson is appreciated x)

 

[Yue]

You know that kind of book that gives you a heartache - but a good type of heartache? That's how I feel after finishing Virginia Woolf's Orlando. This whacky, satirical and profound love-letter-turned-novel has so many layers and ideas that I really feel a bit dizzy. I'll certainly need to re-read it some day - probably a few years from now!

View attachment 820

I love books that you can go back and re-read every few years. I have like a list of 10 books that I tend to read again. I want to read Harry

 

[Xeo]

Oh please, give me some horror recommendation! I want to explore more this genre but I don't really want to have only Stephen King on my list The last horror story I read was We Have Always Lived in the Castle and I thought it was awesome! I like the more psychological horror but nothing against monsters and gore either haha In short, anything that's not Stephen King or Shirley Jackson is appreciated x)

Let me help you here. (Feel free to ask any question, or for further elaboration on anything mentioned. OR for more.)

Here's a list I recently recommended for someone on Dtoid proper.


You like cosmic horror? If so absolutely check out "The Fisherman" by John Langan. What a killer novel.

"I'm Thinking of Ending Things" by Iain Reid is one of my favorites in years. Excellent psychological horror. ("Foe" by him was really good too, but I don't think I'd call that one horror as much.)

MOST of Joe Hill's work is rock solid. If you haven't checked him out, you absolutely should. I found "Heart Shaped Box" my favorite by him. Though his first short story collection "20th Century Ghosts" was excellent as well. (Side note: If you're not in the know, Joe Hill's real name is Joe King. He's Stephen King's son. And they've written some short stories together as well.)

"The Troop" from Nick Cutter is another standout for me. Fuck, that was a good one. Felt like if Stephen King or Clive Barker did a take on Lord of the Flies. And if you like this one, his follow up "The Deep" was good too, a lot more of a slow burn, but also great.

"After the People Lights Have Gone Off", a short story collection by the excellent Stephen Graham Jones is a high recommendation from me as well. Some solid work within, particularly the title story. Which actually is probably my favorite modern ghost story. Jones is a Native American author/professor, and injects Native American folklore into a lot of his work to excellent results.

It's kind of a given in this genre by now, but if you didn't read "Bird Box" by Josh Malerman was pretty good. Certainly a helluva lot better than the lacking Netflix movie they based on it. I enjoyed Malerman's next book as well, "Black Mad Wheel". Overall a better novel, but a bit less straight up horror. Though it still is in a much more abstract psychological way.

Another favorite of mine that I only read last year was 2013's "Last Days" by Adam Nevill. This one was good enough that it made me start binging most of Nevill's work. He's excellent! Featuring one of the creepiest monsters from a horror book I've read in a good while. Damned good work. Can't say I've read a bad one from Nevill yet.

I hope this helps!

 

[modern_moron]

I tend to like horror short stories/anthologies the best.

• I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
• Born of Man and Woman
• Who Goes There?
• The King in Yellow (The story and the book)
• Eight O'Clock in the Morning

I was spurred to read most of those after becoming obsessed with their film/tv adaptations (and tributes in song form)

 

[Vesalius]

I tend to like horror short stories/anthologies the best.

• I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
• Born of Man and Woman
• Who Goes There?
• The King in Yellow (The story and the book)
• Eight O'Clock in the Morning

I was spurred to read most of those after becoming obsessed with their film/tv adaptations (and tributes in song form)

Was not expecting to see Born of Man and Woman. That Matheson seems to still be unknown for as prolific as he was is strange to me.

I can’t remember if I mentioned it earlier, but Machen’s “Great God Pan” is now public domain and is often cited as a very inspirational horror story.

 

[Queen of Philosophy]

Let me help you here. (Feel free to ask any question, or for further elaboration on anything mentioned. OR for more.)

Here's a list I recently recommended for someone on Dtoid proper.


You like cosmic horror? If so absolutely check out "The Fisherman" by John Langan. What a killer novel.

"I'm Thinking of Ending Things" by Iain Reid is one of my favorites in years. Excellent psychological horror. ("Foe" by him was really good too, but I don't think I'd call that one horror as much.)

MOST of Joe Hill's work is rock solid. If you haven't checked him out, you absolutely should. I found "Heart Shaped Box" my favorite by him. Though his first short story collection "20th Century Ghosts" was excellent as well. (Side note: If you're not in the know, Joe Hill's real name is Joe King. He's Stephen King's son. And they've written some short stories together as well.)

"The Troop" from Nick Cutter is another standout for me. Fuck, that was a good one. Felt like if Stephen King or Clive Barker did a take on Lord of the Flies. And if you like this one, his follow up "The Deep" was good too, a lot more of a slow burn, but also great.

"After the People Lights Have Gone Off", a short story collection by the excellent Stephen Graham Jones is a high recommendation from me as well. Some solid work within, particularly the title story. Which actually is probably my favorite modern ghost story. Jones is a Native American author/professor, and injects Native American folklore into a lot of his work to excellent results.

It's kind of a given in this genre by now, but if you didn't read "Bird Box" by Josh Malerman was pretty good. Certainly a helluva lot better than the lacking Netflix movie they based on it. I enjoyed Malerman's next book as well, "Black Mad Wheel". Overall a better novel, but a bit less straight up horror. Though it still is in a much more abstract psychological way.

Another favorite of mine that I only read last year was 2013's "Last Days" by Adam Nevill. This one was good enough that it made me start binging most of Nevill's work. He's excellent! Featuring one of the creepiest monsters from a horror book I've read in a good while. Damned good work. Can't say I've read a bad one from Nevill yet.

I hope this helps!

That's fantastic, thank you very much! I haven't read any of those (I didn't know about Joe Hill either haha), so I'm sure I'll have fun with these titles! I might start with "I'm Thinking of Ending Things" since the title and the premise are really good haha

Thanks again!

 

[Queen of Philosophy]

Was not expecting to see Born of Man and Woman. That Matheson seems to still be unknown for as prolific as he was is strange to me.

I can’t remember if I mentioned it earlier, but Machen’s “Great God Pan” is now public domain and is often cited as a very inspirational horror story.

Public domain? I like the sound of that!

 

[Xeo]

That's fantastic, thank you very much! I haven't read any of those (I didn't know about Joe Hill either haha), so I'm sure I'll have fun with these titles! I might start with "I'm Thinking of Ending Things" since the title and the premise are really good haha

Thanks again!

Word of advice on that book, don't do any research on it. Hopefully you haven't already. Go into that one as blind as you possibly can. I don't even want to try to give you a basic gist of the what the book is about. The less you know the better for that one.

It's the ONLY book I've read and then immediately decided to read again due to the new context the entire book will take on after finishing it. It's almost like reading two different books. Situations and scenes in previous chapters take on entirely new meaning and significance once you've finished it once.

I think that's why it stood out for me so much. Reid's very good at doing that. As he did it in FOE as well. Regardless, the barest of bones description given to me before I read it is this. "A young man and woman are driving in a car down country roads towards the man's parent's house. The book is set from the point of view of the girlfriend, whom is thinking of ending the relationship because it's not working out well. "

Don't read into it anymore than that. It's a trip, that's for sure.

 

[Queen of Philosophy]

Word of advice on that book, don't do any research on it. Hopefully you haven't already. Go into that one as blind as you possibly can. I don't even want to try to give you a basic gist of the what the book is about. The less you know the better for that one.

It's the ONLY book I've read and then immediately decided to read again due to the new context the entire book will take on after finishing it. It's almost like reading two different books. Situations and scenes in previous chapters take on entirely new meaning and significance once you've finished it once.

I think that's why it stood out for me so much. Reid's very good at doing that. As he did it in FOE as well. Regardless, the barest of bones description given to me before I read it is this. "A young man and woman are driving in a car down country roads towards the man's parent's house. The book is set from the point of view of the girlfriend, whom is thinking of ending the relationship because it's not working out well. "

Don't read into it anymore than that. It's a trip, that's for sure.

Fair enough I usually don't research any book I know I want to read - this happened with Shaken to the Core, a book that I knew was a historical drama but had no idea what the drama was despite it being mentioned on every synopsis of the book, and I was so surprised when things started to get "shaken" -, so I'm safe! x)

 

[Queen of Philosophy]

I read The Great God Pan since it was short and in the public domain. I can see why it got its fame, especially considering when it was released, but I cannot say that I felt anything substantial while reading it. There are uneasy passages and the mysterious is somewhat interesting but damn, the structure seems so unnecessarily confusing. I also couldn't empathise with the characters; it felt like they were all the same person with a different name. In any case, it's an interesting title to have on my collection!

 

[Yue]

I hope all you lovely bookworms have been doing well. I have been going through some stressful times lately, so my reading has taken a backseat. Hopefully healing and some new routines will help get me back on track.

I appreciate you all, and hope you keep reading and sharing!!

 

[Xeo]

I hope all you lovely bookworms have been doing well. I have been going through some stressful times lately, so my reading has taken a backseat. Hopefully healing and some new routines will help get me back on track.

I appreciate you all, and hope you keep reading and sharing!!

When shit hits the fan for me, like this week, I find solace in reading a book while soaking in a tub.