en-US Sat, 02 Mar 2024 02:58:57 -0800 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 45974 The Book of Disquiet, an astonishing work that, in George Steiner's words, "gives to Lisbon the haunting spell of Joyce's Dublin or Kafka's Prague." Published for the first time some fifty years after his death, this unique collection of short, aphoristic paragraphs comprises the "autobiography" of Bernardo Soares, one of Pessoa's alternate selves. Part intimate diary, part prose poetry, part descriptive narrative, captivatingly translated by Richard Zenith, The Book of Disquiet is one of the greatest works of the twentieth century.]]> 544 Fernando Pessoa 0141183047 TheBookWarren 0 4.46 1982
author: Fernando Pessoa
name: TheBookWarren
average rating: 4.46
book published: 1982
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/02
shelves: to-read, fiction, medical-science-philosophical, classics, cryptic-or-puzzle-nonlinear-reads, eerily-scarily-inadvertently-prophe, fever-dream-narrative, novels-translated-to-english, portugese-literature, poetry, 20th-century-classics
review:

]]> 18339155
Daniel Kehlmann erzählt von drei Brüdern, die �� jeder auf seine Weise �� Betrüger, Heuchler, Fälscher sind. Sie haben sich eingerichtet in ihrem Leben, doch plötzlich klafft ein Abgrund auf. Ein Augenblick der Unaufmerksamkeit, ein Zufall, ein falscher Schritt, und was gespenstischer Albtraum schien, wird wahr.

Ein Roman über Lüge und Wahrheit, über Familie, Fälschung und die Kraft der Fiktion: ein virtuoses Kunstwerk �� vielschichtig, geheimnisvoll und kühn.]]> 384 Daniel Kehlmann 3498035444 TheBookWarren 0 3.72 2013
author: Daniel Kehlmann
name: TheBookWarren
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/10
shelves: to-read, critically-acclaimed-or-award-winni, cryptic-or-puzzle-nonlinear-reads, family-character-driven-drama, fiction, fiction-contemporary-drama, german-literature, novels-translated-to-english, literary-fiction, catholic-or-religious-fiction
review:

]]> 2204750 ~ ~~ ~
"The wanderings of the narrator's spirit through the limitless light-years of cosmic space and kalpas of eternity, and its witnessing of the solar system's final destruction, constitute something almost unique in standard literature."
~ ~~ ~
"Standard literature" indeed! This is also a classic twice over. It was written before the First World War (the author was a casualty of that conflict), and lost to print until Ace published this slim volume in 1962.]]> 160 William Hope Hodgson 0441045537 TheBookWarren 0 3.87 1908
author: William Hope Hodgson
name: TheBookWarren
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1908
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/09
shelves: to-read, cryptic-or-puzzle-nonlinear-reads, dark-satire, eerily-scarily-inadvertently-prophe, fantasy-sci-fi-futuristic, fiction, gothic, great-but-obscure-attn-warranted, horror-disturbing-and-the-eery, little-known-and-deserve-more-atten, long-out-of-print-and-forgotten, magical-realism, shortstor-novella-essay-graphic-nov, suspense
review:

]]> 2794 The Crying of Lot 49 opens as Oedipa Maas discovers that she has been made executrix of a former lover's estate. The performance of her duties sets her on a strange trail of detection, in which bizarre characters crowd in to help or confuse her. But gradually, death, drugs, madness, and marriage combine to leave Oedipa in isolation on the threshold of revelation, awaiting the Crying of Lot 49.]]> 152 Thomas Pynchon 006091307X TheBookWarren 5
One to stick hard-at, for there will be moments where all you can think is ‘abort, abort�� �� the rewards are stark and hard to quantify—for me at least—until the third read-through.

Pynchon was indeed on another level and as far as fiction goes is almost peer-less, but he certainly does stand alone when it comes to prose and a writer being able to emit their own true stylings onto the wider public not only without recourse, but where it furthers their work 10x fold.

This short-epic should be compulsory for all adults between the ages of 35-55 in my opinion, for it would result in an abundantly more awakened populace!]]> 3.70 1966
author: Thomas Pynchon
name: TheBookWarren
average rating: 3.70
book published: 1966
rating: 5
read at: 2019/12/30
date added: 2023/09/05
shelves: classics, fiction, fiction-contemporary-drama, shortstor-novella-essay-graphic-nov, top-shelf-reads, fav-authors, cryptic-or-puzzle-nonlinear-reads, conspiracy-fiction, literary-fiction, original-concepts-or-envelope-nudgi
review:
4.75 Stars - A masterful story, rendered generation-less & offers a redeemable poignant narrative on the Malady of any generation and society.

One to stick hard-at, for there will be moments where all you can think is ‘abort, abort�� �� the rewards are stark and hard to quantify—for me at least—until the third read-through.

Pynchon was indeed on another level and as far as fiction goes is almost peer-less, but he certainly does stand alone when it comes to prose and a writer being able to emit their own true stylings onto the wider public not only without recourse, but where it furthers their work 10x fold.

This short-epic should be compulsory for all adults between the ages of 35-55 in my opinion, for it would result in an abundantly more awakened populace!
]]> 75495002 When a father goes missing, his family's desperate search leads them to question everything they know about him and one another--both a riveting page-turner and a deeply moving portrait of a family in crisis from the award-winning author of Miracle Creek.

"We didn't call the police right away." Those are the first words of this extraordinary novel about a biracial Korean-American family in Virginia whose lives are upended when their beloved father and husband goes missing.

Mia, the irreverent, hyperanalytical twenty-year-old daughter, has an explanation for everything--which is why she isn't initially concerned when her father and younger brother Eugene don't return from a walk in a nearby park. They must have lost their phone. Or stopped for an errand somewhere. But by the time Mia's brother runs through the front door bloody and alone, it becomes clear that the father in this tight-knit family is missing and the only witness is Eugene, who has the rare genetic condition Angelman syndrome and cannot speak.

What follows is both a ticking-clock investigation into the whereabouts of a father and an emotionally rich portrait of a family whose most personal secrets just may be at the heart of his disappearance. Full of shocking twists and fascinating questions of love, language, race, and human connection, Happiness Falls is a mystery, a family drama, and a novel of profound philosophical inquiry. With all the powerful storytelling she brought to her award-winning debut Miracle Creek, Angie Kim turns the missing person story into something wholly original, creating an indelible tale of a family who must go to remarkable lengths to truly understand one another.]]> 387 Angie Kim 0593448200 TheBookWarren 0 3.72 2023
author: Angie Kim
name: TheBookWarren
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/05
shelves: to-read, critically-acclaimed-or-award-winni, cryptic-or-puzzle-nonlinear-reads, detective-crime-thriller, fiction, fiction-contemporary-drama, mystery-intrigue-puzzler, novels-translated-to-english, family-character-driven-drama, family-memoir, kirkus-picks, literary-fiction, suspense
review:

]]> 929
In "Memoirs of a Geisha," we enter a world where appearances are paramount; where a girl's virginity is auctioned to the highest bidder; where women are trained to beguile the most powerful men; and where love is scorned as illusion. It is a unique and triumphant work of fiction - at once romantic, erotic, suspenseful - and completely unforgettable.]]> 503 Arthur Golden 1400096898 TheBookWarren 0 4.31 1997
author: Arthur Golden
name: TheBookWarren
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/05
shelves: to-read, fiction, fiction-contemporary-drama, japanese-influences, literary-fiction, adult-fiction, books-adapted-to-film, cryptic-or-puzzle-nonlinear-reads, women-s-fiction
review:

]]> 58999261
In Time Shelter, an enigmatic flâneur named Gaustine opens a “clinic for the past�� that offers a promising treatment for Alzheimer’s sufferers: each floor reproduces a decade in minute detail, transporting patients back in time. As Gaustine’s assistant, the unnamed narrator is tasked with collecting the flotsam and jetsam of the past, from 1960s furniture and 1940s shirt buttons to scents and even afternoon light. But as the rooms become more convincing, an increasing number of healthy people seek out the clinic as a “time shelter”—a development that results in an unexpected conundrum when the past begins to invade the present. Intricately crafted, and eloquently translated by Angela Rodel, Time Shelter announces Gospodinov to American readers as an essential voice in international literature.]]> 304 Georgi Gospodinov 1324090952 TheBookWarren 0 3.59 2020
author: Georgi Gospodinov
name: TheBookWarren
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/15
shelves: to-read, bulgarian-literature, critically-acclaimed-or-award-winni, cryptic-or-puzzle-nonlinear-reads, fiction, fiction-contemporary-drama, kirkus-picks, literary-fiction, novels-translated-to-english, rcmnd-to-me-by-multiple-sources, time-travel-tropes
review:

]]> 55777360 I told you this was a thirst so great it could carve rivers.

This fierce debut from award-winning writer Evelyn Araluen confronts the tropes and iconography of an unreconciled nation with biting satire and lyrical fury. Dropbear interrogates the complexities of colonial and personal history with an alternately playful, tender and mournful intertextual voice, deftly navigating the responsibilities that gather from sovereign country, the spectres of memory and the debris of settler-coloniality. This innovative mix of poetry and essay offers an eloquent witness to the entangled present, an uncompromising provocation of history, and an embattled but redemptive hope for a decolonial future.]]> 112 Evelyn Araluen 0702263184 TheBookWarren 5
I was not expecting to be as enthusiastic about turning these pages, I figured it’d be a nice classy read that needed to go taken in the context of knowing that it’s more of a conscious flow of words and shape, than anything else.

But it most certainly isn’t, it’s breathtaking and beautiful. It’s unashamedly Australian and I can’t push a strong enough recommendation for anyone whom enjoys lyrically insecure prose that can be hypnotic as well as create a cogitator-fuelled narrative for any mood.]]> 4.11 2021
author: Evelyn Araluen
name: TheBookWarren
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2023/02/10
date added: 2023/02/11
shelves: aussie-aussie-aussie-authors, australia-s-best-literary-fiction, australiana-all-things-aussie, critically-acclaimed-or-award-winni, cryptic-or-puzzle-nonlinear-reads, poetry, shortstor-novella-essay-graphic-nov
review:
4.75 Stars �� An elegantly crafted book of prose that glides along like a poetic zephyr, Dropbear is captivating and inspiring without in any way being a novel that’s caught up in being merely verse or preaching social commentary on any particular agenda. It is just a sublimely written piece of literature that holds the readers full attention one sentence at a time.

I was not expecting to be as enthusiastic about turning these pages, I figured it’d be a nice classy read that needed to go taken in the context of knowing that it’s more of a conscious flow of words and shape, than anything else.

But it most certainly isn’t, it’s breathtaking and beautiful. It’s unashamedly Australian and I can’t push a strong enough recommendation for anyone whom enjoys lyrically insecure prose that can be hypnotic as well as create a cogitator-fuelled narrative for any mood.
]]> 37004370
When a young woman who is struggling to maintain her career as a novelist discovers that her editor is in danger from the Memory Police, she concocts a plan to hide him beneath her floorboards. As fear and loss close in around them, they cling to her writing as the last way of preserving the past.

A surreal, provocative fable about the power of memory and the trauma of loss, The Memory Police is a stunning new work from one of the most exciting contemporary authors writing in any language.]]> 274 Yōko Ogawa 1101870605 TheBookWarren 0 3.72 1994
author: Yōko Ogawa
name: TheBookWarren
average rating: 3.72
book published: 1994
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/24
shelves: to-read, characters-with-troubled-minds-and, comical-darkly-humorous-fiction, conspiracy-or-left-field-ideas-and, critically-acclaimed-or-award-winni, cryptic-or-puzzle-nonlinear-reads, fiction, fiction-contemporary-drama, highly-anticipated-much-hyped-novel, japanese-influences, japanese-novelists, kirkus-picks, literary-fiction, ny-times-100-notables, novels-translated-to-english
review:

]]> 57771216 A high speed and darkly comic road trip through a near future America with a big hearted mercenary, from beloved and acclaimed novelist Dan Chaon

��������ɲ�����’s hero, Will Bear, is a man with so many aliases that he simply thinks of himself as the Barely Blur. At fifty years old, he’s been living off the grid for over half his life. He’s never had a real job, never paid taxes, never been in a committed relationship. A good-natured henchman with a complicated and lonely past and an LSD microdosing problem, he spends his time hopscotching across state lines in his beloved camper van, running sometimes shady, often dangerous errands for a powerful and ruthless operation he’s never troubled himself to learn too much about. He has lots of connections, but no true ties. His longest relationships are with an old rescue dog with posttraumatic stress, and a childhood friend as deeply entrenched in the underworld as he is, who, lately, he’s less and less sure he can trust.

Out of the blue, one of his many burner phones heralds a call from a twenty-year-old woman claiming to be his biological daughter, Cammie. She says she’s the product of one of his long-ago sperm donations; he’s half certain she’s AI. She needs his help. She’s entrenched in a widespread and nefarious plot involving Will’s employers, and continuing to have any contact with her increasingly fuzzes the line between the people Will is working for and the people he’s running from.

With his signature blend of haunting emotional realism and fast-paced intrigue, Chaon populates his fractured America with characters who ring all too true. Gazing both back to the past and forward to an inevitable enough seeming future, Sleepwalk examines where we’ve been and where we’re going, and the curses and joys of being human that will never change, no matter how far we travel to dodge them, or how cleverly we hide.]]> 320 Dan Chaon 1250175216 TheBookWarren 0 3.61 2022
author: Dan Chaon
name: TheBookWarren
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/12/28
shelves: to-read, fantasy-sci-fi-futuristic, fiction, fiction-contemporary-drama, tension-building-thriller-fiction, action-adventure, eerily-scarily-inadvertently-prophe, futuristic-or-tech-thriller, critically-acclaimed-or-award-winni, cryptic-or-puzzle-nonlinear-reads, guardian-rcmds, pre-or-post-apocalypse-dystopian
review:

]]> 58210933 An unparalleled novel about money, power, intimacy, and perception

Even through the roar and effervescence of the 1920s, everyone in New York has heard of Benjamin and Helen Rask. He is a legendary Wall Street tycoon; she is the daughter of eccentric aristocrats. Together, they have risen to the very top of a world of seemingly boundless wealth—all as a decade of excess and speculation draws to an end. But at what cost have they acquired their immense fortune? This is the mystery at the center of Bonds, a successful 1937 novel that all of New York seems to have read. Yet there are other versions of this tale of privilege and deceit.

Hernan Diaz's TRUST elegantly puts these competing narratives into conversation with one another—and in tension with the perspective of one woman bent on disentangling fact from fiction. The result is a novel that spans over a century and becomes more exhilarating with each new revelation.

At once an immersive story and a brilliant literary puzzle, TRUST engages the reader in a quest for the truth while confronting the deceptions that often live at the heart of personal relationships, the reality-warping force of capital, and the ease with which power can manipulate facts.]]> 402 Hernan Diaz 0593420314 TheBookWarren 0 3.77 2022
author: Hernan Diaz
name: TheBookWarren
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/12/13
shelves: to-read, critically-acclaimed-or-award-winni, cryptic-or-puzzle-nonlinear-reads, fantasy-sci-fi-futuristic, fiction, fiction-contemporary-drama, literary-fiction, new-yorker-briefly-noted, new-yorker-featured-writing, ny-times-100-notables, historical-fiction, kirkus-picks
review:

]]> 194746 No Longer Human, this leading postwar Japanese writer's second novel, tells the poignant and fascinating story of a young man who is caught between the breakup of the traditions of a northern Japanese aristocratic family and the impact of Western ideas. In consequence, he feels himself "disqualified from being human" (a literal translation of the Japanese title).

Donald Keene, who translated this and Dazai's first novel, The Setting Sun, has said of the author's work: "His world �� suggests Chekhov or possibly postwar France, �� but there is a Japanese sensibility in the choice and presentation of the material. A Dazai novel is at once immediately intelligible in Western terms and quite unlike any Western book." His writing is in some ways reminiscent of Rimbaud, while he himself has often been called a forerunner of Yukio Mishima.

Cover painting by Noe Nojechowiz, from the collection of John and Barbara Duncan; design by Gertrude Huston]]> 176 Osamu Dazai TheBookWarren 0 3.99 1948
author: Osamu Dazai
name: TheBookWarren
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1948
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/11/24
shelves: fantasy-sci-fi-futuristic, fiction-contemporary-drama, to-read, critically-acclaimed-or-award-winni, cryptic-or-puzzle-nonlinear-reads, dirda-recommends, fiction, japanese-influences, japanese-novelists, kirkus-picks, modern-classic, best-read-in-one-session, rcmd-by-my-fav-authors, shortstor-novella-essay-graphic-nov, literary-fiction, novels-translated-to-english, post-modernism-quintissential
review:

]]> 58438554 Frankenstein, which brilliantly explores the eerie mysteries of childhood and the evils perpetrated by the monsters among us.

1978: at her renowned treatment center in picturesque Vermont, the brilliant psychiatrist, Dr. Helen Hildreth, is acclaimed for her compassionate work with the mentally ill. But when she's home with her cherished grandchildren, Vi and Eric, she’s just Gran—teaching them how to take care of their pets, preparing them home-cooked meals, providing them with care and attention and love.

Then one day Gran brings home a child to stay with the family. Iris—silent, hollow-eyed, skittish, and feral—does not behave like a normal girl.

Still, Violet is thrilled to have a new playmate. She and Eric invite Iris to join their Monster Club, where they catalogue all kinds of monsters and dream up ways to defeat them. Before long, Iris begins to come out of her shell. She and Vi and Eric do everything together: ride their bicycles, go to the drive-in, meet at their clubhouse in secret to hunt monsters. Because, as Vi explains, monsters are everywhere.

2019: Lizzy Shelley, the host of the popular podcast Monsters Among Us, is traveling to Vermont, where a young girl has been abducted, and a monster sighting has the town in an uproar. She’s determined to hunt it down, because Lizzy knows better than anyone that monsters are real—and one of them is her very own sister.

The Children on the Hill takes us on a breathless journey to face the primal fears that lurk within us all.]]> 338 Jennifer McMahon 1982153954 TheBookWarren 0 3.84 2022
author: Jennifer McMahon
name: TheBookWarren
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/10/29
shelves: to-read, critically-acclaimed-or-award-winni, cryptic-or-puzzle-nonlinear-reads, fiction, gothic, horror-disturbing-and-the-eery
review:

]]> 49090884
His wife has left him, his father is sinking into dementia, and Marcos tries not to think too hard about how he makes a living. After all, it happened so quickly. First, it was reported that an infectious virus has made all animal meat poisonous to humans. Then governments initiated the “Transition.�� Now, eating human meat—“special meat”—is legal. Marcos tries to stick to numbers, consignments, processing.

Then one day he’s given a a live specimen of the finest quality. Though he’s aware that any form of personal contact is forbidden on pain of death, little by little he starts to treat her like a human being. And soon, he becomes tortured by what has been lost—and what might still be saved.]]> 209 Agustina Bazterrica 1982150920 TheBookWarren 5
Right from the outset, it is abundantly clear that this is not your average bit of modern fiction. Even if you have some idea of the premise, it will challenge you. It will leak into your spine, affront your psyche and force you to stand at attention! There’s no avoiding the red-flashing, blackboard-screeching assault �� it’s best just to strap in, relax and go with the blood-curling flow.

Telling the story of a Marcos, who’s a professional human-slaughterer for the local meat-plant (yup), this provocative yet decidedly delicious novel (pun intended) is abhorrent and concurrently addictive thanks to its dystopian setting, whereby a virus has deemed all animals poisonous to humans �� ergo �� human substitute (or special meat as it’s called, oh dear) is afoot & all things meat are back in force, all the more valuable & vitamin enriched!!!

Told with a perniciously monotone-type narrative, I couldn’t put this down for a single minute, such was it’s appeal and despite its morose nature, the magic of it all is that it rarely if at all felt over the top.

The authors prose is stylish, has magnitude of epic proportions and fits the narrative and pacing like a racing glove. Not for the faint of heart, this cautionary tale of a world that whilst ridiculously far-fetched, all the while feels eery and Omnipresent. Perhaps it is the authors ability to highlight how it is that through language, as humans we can seemingly justify & normalise just about anything. Where this novel excels, is in the daunting, methodical nature in which the author is able to delve straight into the (pardon the pun) meat and potatoes of the narrative.

There’s no elongated, over-explanatory, wordy or detailed introduction that many novels taking on such a heavy, brutal, taboo-laden dystopian world �� would be tempted into. Instead we are just plonked into the madness and told ‘this is the way it is now, deal�� �� and for that I’m extremely grateful. The temerity is refreshing, bold and only hardened by the nonchalance for a lack of solemnity. It is Literature at its best, because the writer isn’t pandering or morally editing. He is just telling the story and disregarding whom might be reading it and how it may impact them.

A monumental feat of literature, this is my top-read of 2022 thus far as it stands.. marvellous!]]> 3.75 2017
author: Agustina Bazterrica
name: TheBookWarren
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2022/10/19
date added: 2022/10/21
shelves: fiction, fiction-contemporary-drama, novels-translated-to-english, critically-acclaimed-or-award-winni, cryptic-or-puzzle-nonlinear-reads, spec-fiction, comical-darkly-humorous-fiction, dirda-recommends, fantasy-sci-fi-futuristic, fav-cover-design, great-but-obscure-attn-warranted, guardian-rcmds, literary-fiction, original-concepts-or-envelope-nudgi, rcmd-by-my-fav-authors, rcmnd-to-me-by-multiple-sources, the-very-best-audiobooks, urgent-purchases-list, 2022-s-best
review:
5 Stars �� This us what we �� avid readers �� yearn for!!! A compelling, visceral, challenging, thought provoking & all-consuming Literary masterpiece, like ‘Tender is the Flesh��.

Right from the outset, it is abundantly clear that this is not your average bit of modern fiction. Even if you have some idea of the premise, it will challenge you. It will leak into your spine, affront your psyche and force you to stand at attention! There’s no avoiding the red-flashing, blackboard-screeching assault �� it’s best just to strap in, relax and go with the blood-curling flow.

Telling the story of a Marcos, who’s a professional human-slaughterer for the local meat-plant (yup), this provocative yet decidedly delicious novel (pun intended) is abhorrent and concurrently addictive thanks to its dystopian setting, whereby a virus has deemed all animals poisonous to humans �� ergo �� human substitute (or special meat as it’s called, oh dear) is afoot & all things meat are back in force, all the more valuable & vitamin enriched!!!

Told with a perniciously monotone-type narrative, I couldn’t put this down for a single minute, such was it’s appeal and despite its morose nature, the magic of it all is that it rarely if at all felt over the top.

The authors prose is stylish, has magnitude of epic proportions and fits the narrative and pacing like a racing glove. Not for the faint of heart, this cautionary tale of a world that whilst ridiculously far-fetched, all the while feels eery and Omnipresent. Perhaps it is the authors ability to highlight how it is that through language, as humans we can seemingly justify & normalise just about anything. Where this novel excels, is in the daunting, methodical nature in which the author is able to delve straight into the (pardon the pun) meat and potatoes of the narrative.

There’s no elongated, over-explanatory, wordy or detailed introduction that many novels taking on such a heavy, brutal, taboo-laden dystopian world �� would be tempted into. Instead we are just plonked into the madness and told ‘this is the way it is now, deal�� �� and for that I’m extremely grateful. The temerity is refreshing, bold and only hardened by the nonchalance for a lack of solemnity. It is Literature at its best, because the writer isn’t pandering or morally editing. He is just telling the story and disregarding whom might be reading it and how it may impact them.

A monumental feat of literature, this is my top-read of 2022 thus far as it stands.. marvellous!
]]> 11455485 Satantango is proof that “the devil has all the good times.��

The story of Satantango, spread over a couple of days of endless rain, focuses on the dozen remaining inhabitants of an unnamed isolated hamlet: failures stuck in the middle of nowhere.

Schemes, crimes, infidelities, hopes of escape, and above all trust and its constant betrayal are Krasznahorkai’s meat. “At the center of Satantango,�� George Szirtes has said, “is the eponymous drunken dance, referred to here sometimes as a tango and sometimes as a csardas. It takes place at the local inn where everyone is drunk. . . . Their world is rough and ready, lost somewhere between the comic and the tragic, in one small insignificant corner of the cosmos. Theirs is the dance of death.��

“You know,�� Mrs. Schmidt, a pivotal character, tipsily confides, “dance is my one weakness.”]]> 274 László Krasznahorkai 0811217345 TheBookWarren 0 4.19 1985
author: László Krasznahorkai
name: TheBookWarren
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1985
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/10/14
shelves: to-read, fiction, horror-disturbing-and-the-eery, novels-translated-to-english, batter-up-bought-not-yet-read, beautifully-or-awfully-strange, books-you-must-read-before-you-die, critically-acclaimed-or-award-winni, cryptic-or-puzzle-nonlinear-reads, hungarian-literature, kirkus-picks, literary-fiction, mystery-intrigue-puzzler
review:

]]> 135166 247 Andreï Makine 0140298428 TheBookWarren 0 3.45 1988
author: Andreï Makine
name: TheBookWarren
average rating: 3.45
book published: 1988
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/10/01
shelves: to-read, batter-up-bought-not-yet-read, beautifully-or-awfully-strange, characters-with-troubled-minds-and, cryptic-or-puzzle-nonlinear-reads, fav-authors, fiction, fiction-contemporary-drama, literary-fiction, long-out-of-print-and-forgotten, novels-translated-to-english, historical-fiction, mystery-intrigue-puzzler
review:

]]> 302666
But the more she tells them about the monster, the more her story unravels, until it isn't clear if the monster is even real, or if anything else is.

Richard Brautigan's classic surrealist novel has inspired for decades with its wild, witty, and bizarre encounters with western-themed psychedelia.]]> 216 Richard Brautigan 0671221566 TheBookWarren 0 3.86 1974
author: Richard Brautigan
name: TheBookWarren
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1974
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/04/27
shelves: to-read, action-adventure, comical-darkly-humorous-fiction, critically-acclaimed-or-award-winni, cryptic-or-puzzle-nonlinear-reads, dark-satire, fav-authors, fiction, fiction-contemporary-drama, modern-classic, southern-gothic, western
review:

]]> 49098216
As a secretary to a private detective, her life is pleasingly uncomplicated, filled with coffee runs, diary management and paperwork.

That is, until her boss takes on a new case. A case which turns out to be dangerous enough to get him killed. A case which means Wada will have to leave Japan for the first time and travel to London.

Following the only lead she has, Wada quickly realises that being a detective isn't as easy as the television makes out. And that there's a reason why secrets stay buried for a long time. Because people want them to stay secret. And they're prepared to do very bad things to keep them that way...]]> 372 Robert Goddard 1787630641 TheBookWarren 0 4.06 2021
author: Robert Goddard
name: TheBookWarren
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/03/15
shelves: to-read, action-adventure, cryptic-or-puzzle-nonlinear-reads, detective-crime-thriller, fiction
review:

]]> 53138203
In 1928, on a hillside overlooking the city of Florence, a dying author in exile races to complete his final novel. 'Lady Chatterley’s Lover 'is a sexually bold love story, a searing indictment of class distinctions, and a study in sensuality. It is also a vision of how society might heal following the devastation of war. But the author, D. H. Lawrence, knows his novel will be censored. He publishes it privately, loses his copies to customs, and dies bereft.

Thirty years later, in her last days before becoming first lady, Jackie Kennedy - in real life, a great admirer of D. H. Lawrence's novels - learns that publishers are trying to bring his long-censored novel to American and British readers in its full form. The government has responded by taking the book to court. Determined to enjoy the anonymity she has left and to honour a novel she loves, Jackie attends the trial. But there she is quickly recognized, and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover - in real life, an enemy of the novel - takes note of her interest and her outrage.

Ultimately a work of fiction, TENDERNESS is closely researched and based on historical events, many of them little-known or overlooked. Through the story of Lawrence’s writing of 'Lady Chatterley’s Lover,' the obscenity trial that sought to suppress it, and the men and women who fought for its publication, Booker Prize–long-listed author Alison MacLeod captures the epic sweep of the twentieth century from war and censorship to sensuality and freedom. Exquisite, evocative, and grounded in history, TENDERNESS is a testament to the transformative power of fiction.

A 'propulsive, addictive, joyous read�� Victories for freedom should be sung from the rooftops. That is what MacLeod has done.�� the Guardian

A ‘magnificent nonlinear spin on Lady Chatterley’s Lover and the censorship of literature during D.H. Lawrence’s life and beyond. . . . triumphant�� this places MacLeod among the best of contemporary novelists.�� Publishers Weekly

‘Powerful, moving, brilliant �� I’ve never read anything quite like TENDERNESS, and I doubt I ever will again. This is more than a book about a book; this is a book about living �� about really living, at the most dangerous and beautiful edges of the human experience. I stand in awe of Alison MacLeod. She is a novelist operating at the peak of her powers'. Elizabeth Gilbert, EAT, PRAY, LOVE]]> 640 Alison MacLeod 1635576105 TheBookWarren 0 3.81 2021
author: Alison MacLeod
name: TheBookWarren
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/12/12
shelves: to-read, batter-up-bought-not-yet-read, cryptic-or-puzzle-nonlinear-reads, fav-cover-design, fiction, fiction-contemporary-drama, fictional-truth-blended-fact-fictio, great-but-obscure-attn-warranted, historical-fiction, original-concepts-or-envelope-nudgi, post-modernism-quintissential, rcmnd-to-me-by-multiple-sources, readin-bout-writin
review:

]]> 52568660
Mrs Death has had enough. She is exhausted from spending eternity doing her job and now she seeks someone to unburden her conscience to. Wolf Willeford, a troubled young writer, is well acquainted with death, but until now hadn’t met Death in person �� a black, working-class woman who shape-shifts and does her work unseen.

Enthralled by her stories, Wolf becomes Mrs Death’s scribe, and begins to write her memoirs. Using their desk as a vessel and conduit, Wolf travels across time and place with Mrs Death to witness deaths of past and present and discuss what the future holds for humanity. As the two reflect on the losses they have experienced �� or, in the case of Mrs Death, facilitated �� their friendship grows into a surprising affirmation of hope, resilience and love. All the while, despite her world-weariness, Death must continue to hold humans�� fates in her hands, appearing in our lives when we least expect her . . .]]> 302 Salena Godden 1838851194 TheBookWarren 0 3.50 2021
author: Salena Godden
name: TheBookWarren
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/12/05
shelves: to-read, critically-acclaimed-or-award-winni, fiction, fiction-contemporary-drama, literary-fiction, guardian-rcmds, great-but-obscure-attn-warranted, original-concepts-or-envelope-nudgi, philosophy-spiritual-existential, cryptic-or-puzzle-nonlinear-reads, magical-realism
review:

]]> 18949650
The Bone Clocks follows the twists and turns of Holly's life from a scarred adolescence in Gravesend to old age on Ireland's Atlantic coast as Europe's oil supply dries up - a life not so far out of the ordinary, yet punctuated by flashes of precognition, visits from people who emerge from thin air and brief lapses in the laws of reality. For Holly Sykes - daughter, sister, mother, guardian - is also an unwitting player in a murderous feud played out in the shadows and margins of our world, and may prove to be its decisive weapon.

Metaphysical thriller, meditation on mortality and chronicle of our self-devouring times, this kaleidoscopic novel crackles with the invention and wit that have made David Mitchell one of the most celebrated writers of his generation. Here is fiction at its spellbinding and memorable best.]]> 595 David Mitchell 0340921609 TheBookWarren 0 3.96 2014
author: David Mitchell
name: TheBookWarren
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/11/24
shelves: to-read, critically-acclaimed-or-award-winni, cryptic-or-puzzle-nonlinear-reads, fiction, fiction-contemporary-drama
review:

]]> 20889856 16 Thomas Pynchon TheBookWarren 0 3.57 1960
author: Thomas Pynchon
name: TheBookWarren
average rating: 3.57
book published: 1960
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/07/15
shelves: to-read, cryptic-or-puzzle-nonlinear-reads, dark-satire, fav-authors, fiction, fiction-contemporary-drama
review:

]]> 27196 902 Thomas Pynchon 0099533219 TheBookWarren 0 4.04 1973
author: Thomas Pynchon
name: TheBookWarren
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1973
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/07/15
shelves: to-read, books-you-must-read-before-you-die, critically-acclaimed-or-award-winni, fiction, fiction-contemporary-drama, historical-fiction, batter-up-bought-not-yet-read, cryptic-or-puzzle-nonlinear-reads, dark-satire
review:

]]> 206553 334 Elmore Leonard 0060008776 TheBookWarren 0 3.54 2000
author: Elmore Leonard
name: TheBookWarren
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/07/15
shelves: to-read, family-character-driven-drama, fiction, fiction-contemporary-drama, original-concepts-or-envelope-nudgi, cryptic-or-puzzle-nonlinear-reads
review:

]]>