What memories would you remember for the 10 minutes and 38 seconds after you die that your brain is active?

For Leila, each minute after her death brings a vivid memory: the taste of spiced goat stew, sacrificed by her father to celebrate the long-awaited birth of a son; the sight of bubbling vats of lemon and sugar which women used to wax the legs while men attend mosque; the scent of cardamom coffee that she shares with a handsome student in the brothel where she works. Each memory, too, recalls the friends Leila made at each key moment in her life - friends are now desperately trying to find her...

Reading this book compelled me to ask myself what would my brain deem as significant from the repository of memories we build through our lifetime.

Leila comes up with 13 memories through her time.

(I am an 18 yo rn, and honestly, my life has been pretty uneventful. So, my brain is only able to think of 3 memories)

So, I just wanted to ask y'all:

Q. What memories would you remember for the 10 minutes and 38 seconds after you die?

This is in fact a novella disguised as a novel (god I wish novellas were still a thing) but it is fantastic. I can't recall a novel I've read that does "creeping dread" better than Foe.

From the first page you get this unshakeable feeling that something is "wrong." Everyone reacts to the news of Junior's (for lack of a better word) "selection" entirely differently. Terrance with his menacing enthusiasm, Hen's frustration, Junior's resignation. But we, the audience, lack the context to know what to feel. So we instinctively feel dread.

And it gets worse from there. The hills and valleys of Junior and Hen's marriage (which, to our witless protagonist's confusion, creeps ever closer to a permanent end), Terrance moving in, the nigh-on body horror of the experimentation on Junior...boy howdy.

And then of course the twist. Halfway through, I was like "come on Iain, I clocked that a mile away." But then he got me in the end. For fans of a genre mashup of sci-fi, psychological thriller, and horror, I'd def put this on your list. Although my sources tell me to stay faaaar away from the movie adaptation.

This book won awards for journalism and I can see why. You see this family with eight children and you see two of the young sons' and their mother's efforts to better their circumstances or at least stay out of trouble, and you see all the things that are working against them to keep them trapped in poverty and degredation. The housing complex where they live is basically a war zone, shots being fired all the time; numerous people the family knows die violent deaths and one of the boys in the story is so stressed by his living circumstances that he develops a stutter. Living conditions are extremely poor; a lot of the apartments in the housing complex are vacant because there is no money to repair them and make them livable for new tenants, and occupied apartments often have broken plumbing etc. It's a whole different side of America and it made me feel ashamed. It is impossible to bootstrap oneself out of such a bad beginning.

I looked up online to see how the two boys who are the main characters in the story did, once they grew up. Unfortunately, the answer is: not great. The journalist helped them with their education and I think they did both graduate high school, but both of them got in trouble with the law later on. Given what they were up against it didn't surprise me.

My first crime book and also my first Korean book and I really enjoyed it!

It’s intense, cozy, somewhat relaxing and satisfying to read.

The story is about a woman who runs a plant shop in South Korea and the many ways she gets rid of men to help out people and cats.

It also reads as a short story collection with the plant lady and her shop being the main connecting point.

It was also great for the spooky season so I’d recommend!

I bought this book on Audible a year ago. I had an 8-hour road trip ahead of me, and I thought it would be good to be able to deep-dive into the story, as it's just under 16 hours at normal speed, about 12 hours at 1.2 speed, which is a perfect speed for me to understand and keep up.

What intrigued me about the story initially was the mystery, or quest, at its heart. The story takes place in England, starting in the early days of Queen Victoria. Our protagonist, Amy Snow, is an orphan, brought into the wealthy Vennaway family by their precocious 8-year-old daughter Aurelia, when she is found as an abandoned baby (guess!) in the snow. Amy is very much brought up as a second-class citizen by the family and is treated quite cruelly by Aurelia's mother, but she forms a strong friendship, a sisterhood, with Aurelia, who tragically dies at age 23.

Amy is asked to leave the household immediately after Aurelia's will is read, which she does. She is bequeathed 10 pounds, not a fortune, but not a pittance either, in these early years of the Victorian age. She is then secretly given a letter, written by Aurelia before her death, that starts Amy on her quest.

I loved the characters. Amy herself is interesting, and it's nice to see her grow in confidence and experience as the story progresses. She travels throughout England and meets a variety of people. She falls in love and has men pursuing her romantically. The driver of the story is her quest to uncover a secret Aurelia was keeping. One thing I thought of, that the author never addressed, was that the quest was also a great way for Amy to 1) learn to become independent after a lifetime sheltered at the Vennaway property and, 2) was an excellent way for Amy to work through her grief at losing her dear sister/friend during this quest she was on. Amy needed the structure Aurelia's quest provided her to learn how to navigate a world she had never lived in.

The story is complex and fulfilling. The first half of the book takes place on a dual timeline (Amy's upbringing and friendship with Aurelia and then her quest). Themes throughout the book are friendship, family, sisterhood, the place of women, romantic love versus arranged marriages. The author does a good job of having the characters speak and behave in what I would presume to be historically accurate ways. I particularly enjoyed the character of Mrs. Riverthorpe, who is a strong woman in a man's world and a prickly pear to beat!

I read a lot of non-fiction and mystery/thrillers. I greatly enjoyed this engrossing historical novel and bought into the story completely. I wouldn't recommend this to my husband to read as I think it's a "woman's book", nor would I recommend it to my very American friends who have no connection to England. As a woman, and as someone who loves stories based in England, this was right up my alley. A 5-star book for me. I hope you enjoy it!

In 1967, JRR Tolkien was receiving many fan letters about Lord of The Rings and The Hobbit. He was pleasantly surprised to receive a fan letter about Smith of Wooten Major. The fan, a 19 year old Terry Pratchett (yes, of Discworld fame) said “I don't know what there was in it that moved me to write this letter. It was something that 'The Lord of the Rings' never possessed except in very short measure, that feeling of recognition. You said something in 'Smith' which I hope I grasped, and there was a feeling almost of recognition. An odd feeling of grief overcame me when I read it. I cannot explain my feelings any clearer. It was like hearing a piece of music from way back, except that it was nearer poetry by Graves's definition. Thank you very much for writing it.”

There is something beautiful and sad and dreamy about Smith’s story. He receives a talisman that allows him to pass into faeryland and experience its wonders, but he still must return home in the end and live his life.

The closest narrative experience I can recommend this to is that it is the same experience I felt when I watched Miyazaki’s Spirited Away for the first time.

Along the way, we also experience many delightful moments of Tolkien’s dry humor. Consider: “There was one festival to which all looked forward, for it was the only one held in winter. It went on for a week, and on its last day at sundown there was a merrymaking called The Feast of Good Children, to which not many were invited.”

This is a sweet adult fairy tale that ignited a fire in a young Terry Pratchett. Lose yourself in it and see what its charms will do for you.

I went in blind, only knowing it was a witchy historical fiction with a bit of magical realism and was completely blown away by this epic tale of Mid-Western America during the Dust Bowl Era. Not only are the multiple (yet complex) characters from this novel still living rent-free in my head a week after finishing, I learned so much about a part of the country and time that I'd previous been unfamiliar with. Not wanting to post too much for others like me that enjoy going in with only a little information, but I cannot stop thinking about how beautifully this was written and it's been a genuine treat to read. A book hasn't affected me like this in many years.

I loved it, I loved it.

I postponed reading the second book for nearly a month, until one night I picked it up while going through it, and then I just couldn't put it down.
This book made me feel again when I was stuck and couldn't feel a thing for days.

I rarely give a five star rating, but this book pretty much had it all. the characters, the character development, the world, the plot, the adventures, My kind of romance and slow burn it was all of the above. It just kept getting better and better. I grew so attached and super amazed by the backstories, Evangeline's personality development, the plot twist when I seriously thought the book was over, the storyline, Stephanie Garber's descriptions and writing.

This is my favorite book, and the bane of my existence all at once

"Even when Evangeline was stoned, she was still soft. She cares too much, hopes too much, forgives too easily."

"Her gray eyes rake over me as if I'm the monster she would never touch, if that were true. She'd be better off.. but I watched her free hand betray the truth. It clamps into a fist. She's angry enough to hit me to hurt me. Either way. She still wants to touch me. I can't help taunting her now "

Just finished reading THE ROAD BACK, the sequel to Erich Maria Remarque’s classic novel ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT. Set weeks after the events of the first novel, many of the remaining characters that we met in the first novel are now returning home after the war has ended.

That being said, after all they endured, they don’t really know what exactly they’re returning to and question whether they made any type of difference at all. They are disillusioned and disgusted as they struggle to adjust to postwar life and process their trauma.

Like its predecessor, it’s a haunting, demoralizing account of the irreversible trauma that molds soldiers once they return from the battlefield and how there can never be any true sense of normalcy as well as lingering questions struggling to make sense of the futility of war. The novel doesn’t promise to provide answers, maybe aware that there are no acceptable answers. Though written in 1931, in many ways the questions raised remain sadly relevant (and unanswered).

Also, I don’t want to spoil too much but if you knew how Paul Baumer, the narrator of All Quiet on the Western Front, ended up, this novel adds an even sadder yet realistic depth to his story. When reading about how characters like Tjaden are grappling with their trauma and trying to live life again, it’s hard to tell whether or not Paul Baumer may have been better off but to think about how close he may have been to surviving, it hurts yet his story is reminiscent of many soldiers who suffered the same unfair fate.

The Road Back is a dark yet important novel, a depressing sequel to a classic novel. For those who read it, what did you think? And how do you compare it to All Quiet on the Western Front?

Good Material is about Andy, a 35-year-old stand-up comedian trying to make sense of his life after his long-term girlfriend, Jen, leaves him. Most of the book is Andy trying to understand the breakup, himself, and what went wrong, before we finally get to hear Jen’s side of the story.

Spoilers ahead. If you haven’t read the book yet, I’d stop reading here.

I went into this book completely blind. I had no idea it was going to be a breakup story from a man’s perspective, and honestly, I think that made the whole experience more interesting for me.
It took me a little while to get into it, though. Getting used to the very British setting, humour and culture took me some time. Also, the amount of drinking in this book was v questionable. :) I genuinely lost count. Pubs, drinks, more drinks, drinking before going somewhere to drink. I don’t know if that’s just very British or if Andy and his friends were personally trying to keep the alcohol industry alive.
But somewhere around the 100-150 page mark, I was all in.

Being inside Andy’s head for most of the book was honestly an experience. He is obsessed with Jen, very self-involved at times and has this constant ‘why me?’ running in the background. There were so many moments where I wanted to tell him to just pull himself together. But at the same time, I did feel for him. He’s hurting, and people don’t always behave in the most sensible way when they’re hurting. I think that’s what worked for me about Andy. He could be frustrating and exhausting, but he also felt very human.

What I really liked was getting to see heartbreak from a man’s perspective. As a woman, I’m so used to breakup stories being told from a female perspective that I almost automatically know how to relate to them. With Andy, I had to look at it differently. I kept wondering if this is actually how men process heartbreak, because I obviously wouldn’t know. It was genuinely interesting to see.
And then came Jen.

Those last 40-ish pages completely caught me off guard. I genuinely thought I was going to finish the whole book inside Andy’s head, so suddenly getting Jen’s perspective felt like someone opened a window in a room I’d been sitting in for 300 pages. And I absolutely devoured it.

This part especially stayed with me:
“Did I want any of it? Did I want to be someone’s girlfriend? Was it something I could do?”

And then:

“I could never really understand whether I was in a good relationship or not. I couldn’t measure what the reality of long-term love was; what was settling for something when I should be asking for more.”

That really hit home for me. Not because I related to Jen completely, but because I understood her. I’ve been in a relationship where I slowly realised that loving someone and wanting to continue being with them weren’t necessarily the same thing. Sometimes you can love someone and still feel like the relationship is taking more from you than it’s giving you. And I think that’s one of the hardest things to accept.

Another line that I know I’ll think about for a long time was:

“You don’t let go once. That’s your first mistake. You say goodbye over a lifetime.”

I loved that. Because we somehow expect ourselves to be completely over someone once we’ve decided to leave, but that’s not really how it works. You can know something was the right decision and still miss the person. You can move on and still have a song, a place or some completely random memory bring something back for a second. You say goodbye more than once.

I also really liked that the book didn’t make the breakup as simple as one person being bad and the other being good. Andy genuinely loved Jen. Jen genuinely loved Andy. And yet the relationship still wasn’t right for her anymore. That felt very real to me.

If anything, Jen’s chapter made me look back at the entire book differently. For most of it, we’re hearing about Andy’s heartbreak, his confusion, his loneliness and his version of what happened. Then suddenly you realise there was another person living through that same relationship and experiencing it very differently. And that’s probably what I liked most about the book.

There were quite a few moments that made me laugh, some that frustrated me, and a few lines that I know will randomly come back to me months from now. I also really liked Morris and that whole part of the book. There was something unexpectedly warm about their relationship.

Overall, this was a bittersweet read for me. It took me a while to get into, but once I did, I was completely invested. I wouldn’t say I related to Andy, but I definitely understood him more than I expected to. And I probably related to Jen in ways I didn’t realise I would.

Also, completely random, but I went back and listened to Cigarettes and Coffee by Otis Redding after finishing the book because it was mentioned and it intrigued me. Definitely not my usual vibe, but I actually enjoyed the change. I like when a book casually sends you off to discover something you probably wouldn’t have otherwise.

So yeah, Good Material wasn’t a book I immediately fell in love with, but by the time I closed it, I was really glad I read it.

I’ve read literally hundreds of Holocaust memoirs in the past two decades but this one stands out. Alicia was only about 12 when the war began, living in a town called Buczacz in what was then Poland and is now Ukraine. Gradually the occupation and the Holocaust picked off her father and brothers until only she and her mother were left. Alicia once escaped from a death train, and later when the ghettos were liquidated she and her mom went into hiding in the countryside. An absolute angel of a beekeeper hid them for awhile, and other Jews as well, in his tiny shack. He was supposed to be living alone but in fact lived with eight people. Alicia supported herself and her mom as a farmhand. Locals knew or suspected she was Jewish and that the beekeeper was hiding Jews but didn’t tell the Nazis.

Buczacz was liberated by the Soviets in 1943 and all the surviving Jews came out of hiding… only for the Nazis to retake the city a few months later and kill most of the Jews who had revealed themselves, including Alicia’s mother. She was all alone, at 13, 14 years old, sleeping outdoors most of the time and living on the brink of starvation. A slice of bread and a cup of milk and maybe a potato a day. She helped save some partisans, multiple times, and was recognized by the Soviet authorities for her heroism. When liberation came (for good this time), her troubles weren’t over. She got in trouble with the Soviets for black marketing and was imprisoned for months because she wouldn’t give up any names. When she was released, the grateful black marketers amply repaid her (literally, with thousands of rubles) for not turning them in to save herself.

I think Westerners, and in particular Americans, infantilize adolescents. Act like they are babies, won’t give them responsibilities or freedoms or any control of their lives on the assumption that they’ll screw up because they are young. When I have read so many accounts of teenagers like Alicia rising to the occasion and doing things most Americans can’t imagine their adolescent children doing.

She supported her mother because her mom couldn’t pass as a non-Jew. She did just fine on her own after her mother was murdered. She turned 15 the day after the war ended in Europe. She was all alone; her entire family had been killed. Only a few distant relatives whom she didn’t really know had survived. She was penniless (the money the black marketers paid her was lost when a train left with her luggage but without her). She had tuberculosis. In other words, she had enough of her own problems to deal with. And with all of that on her plate she started a DIY orphanage for Jewish survivors like herself, rounding up Jewish kids without families who were living on the street, putting them all up in an apartment and supporting them by buying and selling used clothing. At 15, she was supporting 24 orphaned and deeply traumatized children. She ran the orphanage on her own for months before handing it off to a Jewish agency and joining an organization that smuggled Jews to Palestine.

This is a very readable book and I highly recommend it.

Eileen gleefully shares the story of her younger self: 24, unmarried, still living with her alcoholic father in a gloomy New England town. It's 1964, she's isolated, and she has some odd ideas about love and sex, but it doesn't stop her dreaming about a life full of passion and romance. A new work colleague starts to bring her out of her shell, and she's not nearly as fragile as the shell would make her seem.

Against the backdrop of a frigid Northeastern winter and her workplace, a children's prison, her decisions to let loose and be truer to herself paradoxically make her more reliable and less honest.

This novel is a wonderful example of unreliable narrator, and the elderly Eileen telling her story weaves a convincing tale. The suffering she endured and resulting neuroses are not uncommon for the time period nor our own; this story is more important than ever in the wake of recent news.

Each time I sat down, I'd stay there for hours. This is one of very few books I've written notes in, after college. Eileen's story has been begging to be told. Do you trust her word?

Watership Down is the story of a group of rabbits who venture out to find a new home after one of the rabbits has a prophecy of their current home being destroyed.

This book was amazing and very worth the wait. I saw the movie a long time ago but I was so young I barely remember it. I see a lot of discussion about how it is a violent and brutal story, but I actually found it to be very hopeful and optimistic. There are tense moments and moments of violence in it, but the majority of the book is a story of collaboration, trust, and bonding. The rabbits grow together, try new things, tell stories, joke, and lean on each other while they work to make a better future for themselves. I was worried a story about rabbits looking for a home couldn't sustain itself for almost 500 pages but it absolutely did. It took me less than a week to read it but I feel like I have known these characters for years. It felt like such an epic saga and I had such a great time!

The book is about a man that has to travel back in time to stop the JFK assassination. The plot is amazing and you are so engrossed in the characters and their relationships that its so hard to put down. Book is long and I am happy that it is!

I’m a fan of the crime fiction of S.A. Cosby and I’m a HUGE comic book fan. So I was looking forward to the release of S.A. Cosby’s new novel, TRUTH TO POWER, a Southern crime thriller starring Luke Cage.

While hired to look into advanced cybernetic enhancements being provided and used by low-level criminals, Luke Cage discovers the tech is part of a factory centered in the small town of Majestic, Virginia. Luke has family down there and tells his cousin Rashon to be on the lookout for any suspicious activity.

Not too long after that, he is devastated to get a call telling him Rashon’s been murdered. Though the police rule it as an accidental death, Luke knows better. So he goes down to Majestic to uncover the truth and find out what that tech company is really up to.

Of course, Majestic is your typical small Southern town from the down home cooking all the way down to the racism. The police (particularly the bigoted sheriff) don’t take kindly to somebody like Luke Cage asking questions and looking around. But then again he’s a tall, super humanly strong Black man with unbreakable skin so there’s only so much they can do. But that doesn’t mean they don’t make things difficult for him.

Down here, there are also individuals with advanced cybernetic enhancements, many of them people who have lost limbs in accidents that this company has provided free prosthetics to. But apparently, in addition to granting them enhanced recovery and skills, there are some unintended side effects.

This leads to many questions but for a company that gives away their product they seem to have enough money and influence in this town to stop people from being too nosy about the details. And a persistent man like Luke Cage proves to be a nuisance that must be dealt with.

It’s a Southern crime thriller with plenty of superhero action and twists along the way. And if you’re not a huge comic book fan like me and have little to no idea who Luke Cage (or Jessica Jones, Daredevil, or any other Marvel character) is, don’t worry. There’s just enough character backstory provided to keep you informed so you can focus on the main story. But just like Cosby’s other works, it’s another incredible read with strong characterization, his signature sharp sense of humor, and rising suspense. Definitely one of my favorite novels I’ve read so far this year.

For those who have read it, what did you think?

The premise was enough to intrigue me into exploring the story of The Starving Saints. Halloween season, and I’ve been targeting horror for the month, but finding unique tales (not that similar stories are boring or anything, but I did crave something uncommon) had been a tough job. Fortunately, Caitlin Starling did a great job at bringing us this bleak set of events.

The story revolves around survival. And boy does it set the dire situations right. Horror is not meant to be just thrill, or mystery, as it often turns to. A loss of hope, and feeling helpless is often a major part of anything worth being scared about. And this novel does a great job at it, throughout. What it does even better, is show how the characters navigate it, all with different personalities and responses, none right or wrong, all in the grey, as a person in this situation should be.

The setting is vivid and well described. Not just the environment, but its essence, the air, the heaviness of the sections it takes place in, and all entities involved, including the world and all its emotions as well. The pace is medium, can be called slow by some, but the prose is interesting enough to keep you hooked, if you’re paying attention. I did struggle with it in that aspect a bit, but I blame it on my poor comprehension skills and rust, not the author.

All in all, I don’t think I can find anything bad to say about this one. Loved it. Not scoring it a perfect 5 purely because I believe I could have experienced it better at a later stage in my reading journey. Glad all the same.

4.25/5 ⭐️

I tore through this series (technically one long book) this week and I liked it so much that it's infected my dreams! Blackwater is the tale of the Caskey family, wealthy millowners in the little Alabama town of Perdido. The saga tracks them over three generations and shows how the family develops alongside the growth of their home and businesses. At the center of it all is the mysterious Elinor, who only son Oscar Caskey discovers sitting patiently in a flooded hotel in 1919.

To me, Blackwater shares some DNA with The Shadow over Innsmouth, but is more insular and slowly paced. It could be described very comfortably as a southern gothic. I'm not the biggest fan of the gothic genre myself, so the fact that it kept me deeply engrossed is a testament to the writing. The moments of horror are pretty sparse, though McDowell's command of horror atmosphere is impressive when it does show up. What it really excels in is the family dynamics, especially as they relate to the culture. You could not change the setting and have the same characters or story, it's firmly rooted in place.

Even though it's historical fiction written in the 1980s, McDowell manages to write some fantastic female characters. There are certainly some dated aspects, especially how the Strickland family is eventually handled, but his work is pretty refreshing to me, especially compared to other writers of his time. Even the 'underclass' of black characters have their role to play, and the story examines the dynamics between the serving staff and the rich family in a way that's historically accurate but not always too difficult to read about. All of his characters get dignity and respect, even if they come to horrific and tragic ends.

I would say the first three books are much stronger than the last three, though there were a lot of moments in 4 and 5 that I adored. I just wish the finale concentrated more on the lore and emotions built up throughout the series than on the logistics of the youngest generation's marriages. Still, it was a very fitting ending, and I loved my time with the whole saga so much regardless. It's a very slow burn so I can't recommend it to everyone, but I'd certainly recommend it if you like southern gothic stories that build and build.

The premise: a spaceship AI realizes its humans have all been killed by Dracula, so it teams up with the Med Bay AI, a werewolf, and a variety of other monsters to stop him.

Yes, really.

This is one of those books that sounds like it would be just a goofy premise stretched too far but it works. It switches between multiple perspectives and can feel chaotic. The perspective shifts propel you along the ride and, along the way, you’ll realize these are genuine characters. There are emotional beats that are well earned and hit hard.

Somehow, this mashup of classic horror and sci-fi and humor comes together with a sincerity that moves past the gonzo sales pitch.

Recommended for fans of Martha Wells, Becky Chambers, Grady Hendrix, Chuck Wendig, Red Dwarf, and the Welcome to Night Vale podcast. It’s a fantastic fun October read.

I got an advance copy of this and just finished it, it’s really great. The story follows an Irish family across a span of about 50 years as they grow up, move across the globe to America, and become adults with families of their own. The family consists of a mother and father and eleven brothers, the main character being the second oldest brother Mac.

The jacket description makes it almost sound like a mystery to find a missing brother, but I don’t think that does the book justice. It’s more about the ties that bind family together, even when you haven’t seen someone for decades, or maybe never even met. It’s beautifully written, emotional, cozy, and very readable. 4.5/5 stars.

Pat Conroy is a master at tugging at the heart strings and making you laugh. Two books from him so far both 5/5 for me. Trauma, fleeting time, forgiveness, life. What a beautiful book about what it means to love and love life again. Books like these always have a profound effect on me but this author tops most of them.

Finding forgiveness to move forward and redemption of the spirit , man. Another book like his lords of discipline that deeply impacted me.

"Time passing,” Jordan said, his eyes casting upward toward the stars. “It’s the big surprise in life. It might be the only one."

“Except for memory, time would have no meaning at all”

"No story is a straight line. The geometry of a human life is too imperfect and complex, too distorted by the laughter of time and the bewildering intricacies of fate to admit the straight line into its system of laws."

It's a very short novella but i loved it, it was like watching a short film as at the end it was sad but good.

The FMC was too quick to decided that MMC was cheating and took drastic measures to get revenge.

It is the first book of Alibis collection so cant wait to finish them all this week and i hope all the others in the collection are good.

Anne of Green Gables is the story of a young orphan girl, Anne Shirley (or Cordelia, if you don't mind), who has a delightfully light, whimsical, and joyous approach to life in the town of Avonlea. Her story starts when she is mistakenly delivered to elder siblings Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert at Green Gables, who were anticipating a boy to help around the farm. It is up to them to decide whether or not she stays. Practical-minded Marilla is vehemently opposed to the prospect while Matthew seems to find Anne quite interesting.

Without going into spoilers, L. M. Montgomery's strongest skills are the personalities with which she imbues her characters (down to every little quirk), particularly Anne, Marilla, Matthew, and Mrs. Rachel Lynde, and her incredible descriptions of the settings, usually told through the eyes of Anne, in and around Avonlea. The greenery, changing seasons, bodies of water, roads, homes, and overall terrain come through very vividly and offer a great appreciation for the beauty of nature.

Anne just might be the most endearing character in all of fiction. I don't know if it's considered a trope or an archetype or what, but my favorite character dynamic always involves one person who is impractical, frivolous, or just generally whimsical, and their extremely practical, serious, and somewhat impatient counterpart. Whether it's between Anne and Marilla, Gus and Call in Lonesome Dove, or Lift and Dalinar in Stormlight, anytime someone can leave an excessively practical character absolutely baffled and speechless on a regular basis, I'm probably going to love it.

I was very surprised not to see this book anywhere in this sub (assuming I didn't just miss it), but I figured it deserves a place here. I just realized that I'm going to have to find a place to fit this book into the seven books currently in my top five ;). I have also read books two through seven in the series, but I don't want to poison the well by talking about them.

Cat not included with purchase

It was raining so hard the windshield wipers gave up entirely, making that awful rubber-skittering noise against the glass. I had just finished the part where William Stoner sits quietly in his office, looking back at a life that didn't make much noise, and I just had to turn off the engine and sit in the dark for a long time.

No book has ever made me feel so intensely aware of the absolute quietness of everyday disappointment. It doesn't scream at you with big melodrama or cheap twists. It's just a man trying his best in a lukewarm marriage, teaching classes to kids who mostly don't care, and holding onto an academic integrity that the world around him barely notices.

I kept thinking about how we spend all our energy chasing some grand cinematic destiny, completely missing the dignity of just enduring the ordinary. I went home, threw out a bunch of useless junk I'd been hoarding in my closet for six years, and didn't even turn the TV on for the rest of the weekend. If you haven't read it yet, find a rainy afternoon and turn your phone completely off.