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The Death of Ivan Ilyich

Leo Tolstoy

30% READ

Hailed as one of the world's supreme masterpieces on the subject of death and dying, The Death of Ivan Ilyich is the story of a worldly careerist, a high court judge who has never given the inevitability of his dying so much as a passing thought. But one day, death announces itself to him, and to his shocked surprise, he is brought face to face with his own mortality.

How, Tolstoy asks, does an unreflective man confront his one and only moment of truth? READ REVIEW

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The Death of Ivan Ilyich

Leo Tolstoy

☆☆☆☆☆

In progress...

Strangers on a Train

Patricia Highsmith

★★★☆☆

Guy Haines and Charles Anthony Bruno are passengers on the same train. Haines is a successful architect in the midst of a divorce, Bruno a mysterious smooth-talker with a sadistic proposal: he’ll murder Haines’s wife if Haines will murder Bruno’s father. As Bruno carries out his twisted plan, Guy finds himself trapped in Highsmith’s perilous world, where, under the right circumstances, ordinary people are capable of extraordinary crimes. The inspiration for Alfred Hitchcock’s classic 1951 film, Strangers on a Train launched Highsmith’s prolific career, proving her a master at depicting the unsettling forces that tremble beneath the surface of everyday life. READ REVIEW

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Strangers on a Train

Patricia Highsmith

★★★☆☆

This was bookbug's June 2024 pick. I'm a little behind on reading assignments but got through this one pretty quickly.

It's not the typical type of book I read. It's well written but the language and themes are dated. They misogyny in the book had me rolling my eyes. I loved being in Bruno's mind when he obsessed over Guy. That part felt real and powerful. The author did a great job describing Bruno's ache whenever Guy dismissed him.

I haven't seen the movie but I knew what was going to happen. I've heard the movie is better than the book so I'm excited to watch it.

Crying in H Mart

Michelle Zauner

★★★★★

As she grew up, moving to the East Coast for college, finding work in the restaurant industry, and performing gigs with her fledgling band—and meeting the man who would become her husband—her Koreanness began to feel ever more distant, even as she found the life she wanted to live. It was her mother’s diagnosis of terminal cancer, when Michelle was twenty-five, that forced a reckoning with her identity and brought her to reclaim the gifts of taste, language, and history her mother had given her. READ REVIEW

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Crying in H Mart

Michelle Zauner

★★★★★

I voted for this book on Bookbug but it didn't win the monthly reading. I decided to read it anyhow.

As an Asian American with an Asian mother, I heavily related to this book. My mom's love language is also food. Michelle's pain felt like my own. The first couple chapters are heavy hitters and left me weeping. I promptly listened to Japanese Breakfast - Psychopomp after reading this. In Heaven is now on rotation in my playlist.

The Guest

Emma Cline

★★★☆☆

Summer is coming to a close on the East End of Long Island, and Alex is no longer welcome.

A misstep at a dinner party, and the older man she's been staying with dismisses her with a ride to the train station and a ticket back to the city.

With few resources and a waterlogged phone, but gifted with an ability to navigate the desires of others, Alex stays on Long Island and propelled by desperation and a mutable sense of morality, she spends the week leading up to Labor Day moving from one place to the next, a cipher leaving destruction in her wake. READ REVIEW

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The Guest

by Emma Cline

★★★☆☆

It had an unexpected ending that left me wondering what happened. I have a love/hate relationship with books that don't end in a definitive way. Did she die? Did Dom find her? Was she a ghost all along? While I would love to have the answers, it's also the ambiguity that keep a book on my mind for days after I've finished it. The main character has the human nature of being a bad person but thinking themselves as good. I liked being in her mind while she did fucked up things. The author did a good job of walking the reader through the character's justification process.

Just Kids

Patti Smith

★★★★★

In Just Kids, Patti Smith's first book of prose, the legendary American artist offers a never-before-seen glimpse of her remarkable relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in the epochal days of New York City and the Chelsea Hotel in the late sixties and seventies. An honest and moving story of youth and friendship, Smith brings the same unique, lyrical quality to Just Kids as she has to the rest of her formidable body of work--from her influential 1975 album Horses to her visual art and poetry. READ REVIEW

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Just Kids

by Patti Smith

★★★★★

I loved the romanticisation of youth. The excuse of being too young to know any better. Struggling artists in a vibrant NYC supporting each other.

The Midnight Library

by Matt Haig

★★☆☆☆

Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life.

Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place. READ REVIEW

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The Midnight Library

by Matt Haig

★★☆☆☆

This book started off sad and I enjoyed that. It's January and the dark and cold always makes me melancholic. I liked reading about a woman who saw no hope or joy in anything because lately I've felt the same.

Her adventures into the multiverse exploring what would happened if she reversed the regrets in her life was a fun escape. I think we all play that mind game in our lives. If I did/didn't do X what would my life be like now? Sliding Glass moments, if you will.

The ending was endearing but the book left me unfulfilled. The whole thing felt done before. I was unimpressed by the generic self help messages that were peppered throughout. It was a good read but not a ride I would take again.

ACOTAR Series

by Sarah J. Maas

★★★★★

An adult fantasy series by American author Sarah J. Maas, which follows the journey of Feyre Archeron after she is brought into the faerie lands of Prythian. The first book of the series, A Court of Thorns and Roses, was released in May 2015. The series centers on Feyre's adventures across Prythian and the faerie courts, following the epic love story and fierce struggle that ensues after she enters the fae lands. READ REVIEW

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ACOTAR Series

by Sarah J. Maas

★★★★★

A Court of Thorns and Roses - This book hooked me! I'm a fan of romance and the way the book wove that into fantasy quenched my thirst. It was the perfect escape.

A Court of Mist and Fury - My favorite book of the series. The story took a turn in a direction that I didn't see coming. Speaking of coming, the sexual tension was fire.

A Court of Wings and Ruin - Lots of war. Stressful at times but the romance parts took the edge off.

A Court of Frost and Starlight - This book is the shortest and packs a punch for the development of the sister's relationship. I can't wait to read the next book.

A Court of Silver Flames - My second favorite book of the series. The sisters are terrible characters but provide a great contrast for the rest of the cast. I was disappointed on how Rhy's character shifted but it's whatever. Cassian's charcter development made up for it. Looking forward to a book about Azriel.

Giovanni's Room

by James Baldwin

★★★★☆

Set in the contemporary Paris of American expatraites, liasons, and violence, a young man finds himself caught between desire and conventional morality. James Baldwin's brilliant narrative delves into the mystery of loving with a sharp, probing imagination, and he creates a moving, highly controversial story of death and passion that reveals the unspoken complexities of the heart. READ REVIEW

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Giovanni's Room

by James Baldwin

★★★★☆

An exceptionally sad book. None of the characters were ever truly happy, even when they were with the people who were supposed to make them happy. There were no victors at the end of each relationship. V realistic in that sense.

Convenience Store Woman

by Sayaka Murata

★★★★☆

Keiko has never fit in, neither in her family, nor in school, but when at the age of eighteen she begins working at the Hiiromachi branch of “Smile Mart,” she finds peace and purpose in her life. In the store, unlike anywhere else, she understands the rules of social interaction―many are laid out line by line in the store’s manual―and she does her best to copy the dress, mannerisms, and speech of her colleagues, playing the part of a “normal” person excellently, more or less. Keiko is very happy, but the people close to her, from her family to her coworkers, increasingly pressure her to find a husband, and to start a proper career, prompting her to take desperate action… READ REVIEW

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Convenience Store Woman

by Sayaka Murata

★★★★☆

I liked this book! It was a quick read and had me chuckling at a few parts.

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room; Keiko is probably autistic. It’s never blatantly stated but the characteristics are there. I found it interesting to see the world from her perspective.

I appreciated Keiko’s practicality even thought it was jarring at times (ie, knife and baby throat.) Her attraction to the convenience store because of its continuity is relatable. I too am a creature of habit. At the convenience store she knows exactly what is going to happen and when. Routine is great.

Keiko’s relationship with Shiraha made me want to barf. Mostly because Shiraha reminds me so much of my brother. I’m glad she came to her senses soon enough.

The scene where she enters another convenience store and fixes their broken systems was *chef kiss.* As a former retail store manager, that has always been a day dream of mine. It was satisfying to read someone else live the dream.

I thought the ending was fantastic. I appreciate happy endings. All loose ends were tied up and I imagine her now, living happily ever after in a convenience store somewhere.

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