The Book Thread Book • Page 107

almost recommended this as well! read it last year and loved it

 

Last year I read How To Build A Girl by Cailtin Moran which is a funny semi-autobiographical novel about a music journalist, if that fits the bill. Being made into a movie too.

 

Stuff about genres would definitely be interesting. I recently read Meet Me in the Bathroom and enjoyed it a lot.

Thanks everyone! I definitely have some stuff to check out.

 

Started “A Brief History of Seven Killings” four days ago and I’m already 300 pages in. Mindblowingly good book.

 

I really want to re-read this. It's excellent but I was a little confused at the ending. Always wondered if I missed something or if it's intentionally a little vague, would be curious if you feel the same! I never met or discussed with anyone else who's read it lol

 

Will hit you back when I finish — at this rate it shouldn’t take too long lol. I’m just now in the aftermath of the pivotal historical moment the first few hundred pages were leading to, so very curious to see where things go from here with another 400 pages left.

 

Randomly got into vampires haha

Finished Salem’s Lot in the fall, but now reading The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix.

I’ve purchased a few more vampire fiction books. No idea why I had this sudden kick?

 

where should I start with Jennifer Egan?

I'm thinking Look at Me

 

This is a longshot: I remember reading a book years ago, I think it was considered magic realism, and in it there's a scene where I believe the grandfather flies away in a chair or is carried away by birds/balloons or something like that and I can't for the life of me remember what it was and was curious if this strikes anyone's memory.

 

I've only read A Visit from the Goon Squad, but I was totally captivated the whole way.

 

just finished Brit Bennett's The Vanishing Half and I really loved it. such a layered, complex, emotional story and one I found myself thinking about a lot while going about my day-to-day this last week. I devoured Bennett's The Mothers last year and while that one was excellent too, I think she really knocked it out of the park with this one and I'd definitely recommend it

before that I finally finished Angie Cruz's Dominicana, which I had read about 100 pages of last year before getting distracted. I liked the story and I thought the perspective—of a 15-year-old girl who was pushed into marrying and moving to New York from the Dominican Republic in the '60s—really important and insightful. But it wasn't quite as propulsive as I would have hoped and I found it to drag toward the end.

before that I read James Baldwin's One Day When I Was Lost, which I picked up earlier this year out of curiosity looking to follow up Giovanni's Room, which I read last year and loved. it's a screenplay he wrote as kind of an adaptation of The Autobiography of Malcolm X. This was a quick and poetic overview of the history of Malcolm X and it was kind of cool to read, would have been really cool to see it produced but I can't seem to find a lot of information about it and if that was ever even a possibility.

Now I'm continuing to work through The End of Policing and I also have an ebook of Angela Davis's Are Prisons Obsolete on deck as far as nonfiction goes. Kind of itching to pick up a bigger book to follow up Ducks, Newburyport, so I may finally crack open Gayl Jones's Mosquito, which has been on my shelf for a while. I also have Morrison's Jazz which I've been wanting to read for a long time so I might do that first. I took a little break from Énard's Compass (in part—and I know this is ridiculous—because the pages and cover are so brittle and my hands were so dry from so much handwashing!) but I do plan on circling back and it seems like something it'll be easy to slip back into.

anyway that's my monthly infodump hope you're all good

 

Starting Max Brooks’ Devolution.

 

you make me feel like the laziest reader. everything you read sounds so complex.

 

This is on deck soon for me

 

Imagine how I feel vast majority of the time

 

don't feel bad, y'all

I haven't read a book this whole year

 

I just picked up ducks Newburyport and on earth we’re briefly gorgeous. Wish me luck

 

I’ve seen your book list I would never call you a lazy reader!!

Loved both of these

 

Me 2

 

Let me know what you think of it!

 

Just finished Brief History of Seven Killings. Wow. Best book I’ve read in quite some time. It’s super dense with a lot of characters and voices, many speaking in Jamaican patois, but goddamn it was such a ride I had no problem plowing through the 700 pages in just under 2 weeks. The characters in this book will stick with me for a long time.

Thoughts on the ending, major spoilers obviously:

I definitely thought the ending was a bit ambiguous but purposely so. Josey Wales is dead after seeming untouchable for the majority of the book. The New York gangster Eubie had him (and Weeper earlier) killed and replaced him as the top dog. Eubie makes the journalist Alex Pierce edit his New Yorker story so it doesn’t include anything about the current Jamaican drug business in NY. And Nina (who changed her identity to Kim, then Dorcas, then Millicent — that stuff was a little confusing) sees the news report that Josey Wales, who has haunted her since she was at the Marley house shooting, is dead and that motivates her to finally call her sister.

The ending for me was bleak but with a tiny glimmer of hope in that it inspired some positive change in the Nina character. But I thought the real message of the book came in the later stuff with the journalist character. He’s warned that he shouldn’t write about this shit until everyone involved is dead, but he ignores that and ends up nearly getting killed because of it. The irony is that the story never really ends — Josey Wales replaced Papa Lo and was the head honcho for years, but then he too got replaced by someone even more cunning and ruthless, and so on and so on. Reminded me of The Wire in that regard.
Anyway, masterpiece of a book. It’s shockingly brutal in parts — there is one chapter that bothered me more than anything I’ve ever read — but also funny and thrilling and thought-provoking and relevant.

 

Thank you, the chapter that had me confused was with Alex Pierce and Eubie, I didn't quite understand who had taken over and thought it was Eubie but wasn't exactly sure so appreciate that! I do want to re-read it again soon. It is a great book. I am also considering reading Marlon James' newest one, "Black Leopard, Red Wolf" though I understand that one is more of a fantasy novel.

 

Definitely have that one on my list now! I’ve read a lot of different opinions, some people love it and some say they couldn’t finish it because of the storytelling style and graphic content but I think a lot of those people came to it because of the fantasy angle and hadn’t read Seven Killings.

Also they’re making Seven Killings into an HBO show which sounds fucking perfect. I can already picture people talking about Josey Wales as one of the great TV characters.

 

Nice, I didn't know that about HBO, seems like they're really into turning novels into TV series lately, Seven Killings would be great

 

Finished Devolution last night during a bout of insomnia. Really enjoyed it.

Now to return and finish Network Effect, which I got about halfway through before the Brooks' book released.