#nyt book review

[clonerightsagenda]

Spotted the word "blorbo" in The New York Times book review. Listen NYT romance reviewer, I really do not think your paper's audience is going to recognize that one

[deermouth]

What are you taaaaaaalking about!!!!! *gritting my teeth* people are allowed to have differing opinions from your own

[doubledaybooks]

"It’s Lagos noir—pulpy, peppery and sinister, served up in a comic deadpan…. This book is, above all, built to move, to hurtle forward—and it does so, dizzyingly." -The New York Times on MY SISTER THE SERIAL KILLER

[mariainesgul]

Spot for The New York Times magazine, Oct 22 2023

[sea-changed]

This review is very bad--its conclusion is, essentially, "but I don't like having to think about books I read"--but I am especially mystified by this, which was in fact the exact opposite of the question I walked away from Cahokia Jazz with.

[thank-you-phipps]

Anthony Lane

I've been reading the same Anthony Lane book reviews over and over, and damn it, The New York Times Book Review got to it first: "Lane writes prose the way Fred Astaire danced; his sentences and paragraphs are a sublime, rhythmic concoction of glide and snap, lightness and sting." Reading his reviews is a perpetual fizz, driving you insane with satisfaction.

I hate the tendency in amateur writers to presume sentiment equals good writing. In an attempt at poignancy, they feel the usual fare just won't cut it (This is O' Death we're talking about, and that calls for the good silver). Truthfully, the usual fare doesn't cut it, but nothing more fattening will either. These wannabes keep serving up progressively sweeter morsels, trying with increasing desperation to articulate an idea with no success. They think the sweeter they get the closer we come to being moved, but truthfully the air in here is close and we are green in the face.

In the end, John Green... ahem, I mean, these types either get near enough to the core of the idea and settle, or believe they've cracked it. Anthony Lane's writing, by contrast, is healthful, fresh, and so tart you pucker. He takes a crack at the mighty walls around and idea, and they buckle as eggshells must. He's indecently good at it.

[thatalmostopsorceress]

[Review] I Hope This Doesn't Find You by Ann Liang [240308]

I just finished binging I Hope This Doesn't Find You by Ann Liang in a day. It was absolutely amazing. I loved every second of it.

The way the author captures every emotion Sadie feels is so captivating, so realistic, so... perfect. I found myself tensing up with when she was worried; I found myself staring intently at the screen of my tablet, my brows furrowed; I found myself smiling along with her.

It was so satisfying reading this novel: the misunderstanding trope wasn't dragged out or annoying, every scene played in my mind exactly like a movie would, and the imagery used was nothing short of spectacular, flowing with the scenes and written in the perfect tone.

The character development was absolutely lovely – something very refreshing and satisfying – they were the opposite of cardboard-plank characters, they all had a purpose to serve and they acted as real humans did, they weren't too childish, too mature, too plain or too flashy.

As I kept reading, I found myself falling in love with the characters more and more – the vanity of Julius, the relatable-ness of Sadie, everything about Abigail... One thing I found especially delightful was how, even though Julius and Sadie were enemies, they were quite the same. [Spoiler Starts] They both loathe the thought of someone pitying them, they both try so hard to be so perfect, they both are equally as obsessed with each other, they make each other feel alive – they just live their lives in different ways. [Spoiler Ends]

Being of Chinese descent, I Hope This Doesn't Find You was even more fun due to the 汉语拼音 embedded within the text – I could hear every word spoken out so smoothly, it was truly an enjoyable experience that evoked immense joy within my heart.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel! 10/10! I feel the constant need to gush about it.

Some of my favorite annotations that I made reading it (I'll add my fav quotes another day):

Chapter 1: slay Julius | young and rich, tall and han- | ah girl u ok ah

Chapter 2: girlie what | um girl you're a bit tad bit teeny bit uh obsessed | sus

Chapter 3: I love this guy he's so silly | RIP Sadie, rest in peace our soldier | #relatable I have hot hands

Chapter 7: #slay | HSHAHAHA

Chapter 8: he can scrub !

Chapter 9: oh no! hee hee

Chapter 10: i like how we finally have a normal ml w/o tragic backstory

Chapter 11: liar you're obsessed too <3 | he's so silly how jelly | CS student aye #relatable | we like em cats

Chapter 12: ew

Chapter 13: yoi

Chapter 14: YOI!

Chapter 16: jelly season 2. | haHA | I love this woman :)

Chapter 17: I LOVE ABIGAIL T-T!!!! | ♡ chill gal

Chapter 18: aw not salty? | yeah. salty. | GIRL WAKE UP. U. P. UP | oh my god can't you SEE | oh Abigail how I love you lol

Chapter 19: awie | slay Rosie | SHE'S REFORMED!!! | Julius is just like Sadie aeaeaergh

Chapter 20: OH MY GOD IT'S HAPPENING YALL!!!!!!! | hee hee

Chapter 21: SLAY MAX!!!!!! | ♡ character development | !!!!AEAEAE | bro prolly took 9 min & 40s crying and squealing & blushing | ♡[scribble]♡♡♡♡♡ | Stan julius for clear skin ♡

One question kept popping through my mind as I read this novel.... Where is my Julius Gong? I'm a top student (sadly, I'm not any kind of athlete or leader, though I do work out). I get good grades. Relatively. So, uh, God, where can I order a Julius Gong? dfjkdshjfksdf (I'm an agnostic, by the way)

[lenin-it-to-win-it]

its officially autism awareness day and given that im up past midnight having fits of rage over how limited and/or terrible most of the "analysis" im able to find about the luzhin defense is, its safe to say i am very aware of my autism right now

[yourworldiseternallycomplete]

getting undepressed 😬👍

[clonerightsagenda]

The blorbo post has escaped containment and I now have people condescendingly saying that not everyone on tumblr is too young to have a job. I literally read this NYT book review at my job.

[romaniaroxme]

An interesting tale of a bookseller!

Author:Gabrielle Zevin Genre: Contemporary/Drama “No matter how hard the past is, you can always begin again.” Buddha I am glad to announce that we turned five! Yes, you read it right. The Expression Hub is 5 years old. I am super grateful and super thankful to everyone who has been a part of this journey. This is because without you, this would not have been possible. It is your love, your…

[spicebiter]

I'm really glad I filled in the holes in the Wheel of Time series when I did cause I'm at Barnes and Noble and the new editions aren't anywhere near as fun :[ Truly I feel the death of cover art

[macrolit]

The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century.

As voted on by 503 novelists, nonfiction writers, poets, critics and other book lovers — with a little help from the staff of The New York Times Book Review.

NYT Article.

*************

Q: How many of the 100 have you read? Q: Which ones did you love/hate? Q: What's missing?

Here's the full list.

100. Tree of Smoke, Denis Johnson 99. How to Be Both, Ali Smith 98. Bel Canto, Ann Patchett 97. Men We Reaped, Jesmyn Ward 96. Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments, Saidiya Hartman 95. Bring Up the Bodies, Hilary Mantel 94. On Beauty, Zadie Smith 93. Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel 92. The Days of Abandonment, Elena Ferrante 91. The Human Stain, Philip Roth 90. The Sympathizer, Viet Thanh Nguyen 89. The Return, Hisham Matar 88. The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis 87. Detransition, Baby, Torrey Peters 86. Frederick Douglass, David W. Blight 85. Pastoralia, George Saunders 84. The Emperor of All Maladies, Siddhartha Mukherjee 83. When We Cease to Understand the World, Benjamin Labutat 82. Hurricane Season, Fernanda Melchor 81. Pulphead, John Jeremiah Sullivan 80. The Story of the Lost Child, Elena Ferrante 79. A Manual for Cleaning Women, Lucia Berlin 78. Septology, Jon Fosse 77. An American Marriage, Tayari Jones 76. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin 75. Exit West, Mohsin Hamid 74. Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout 73. The Passage of Power, Robert Caro 72. Secondhand Time, Svetlana Alexievich 71. The Copenhagen Trilogy, Tove Ditlevsen 70. All Aunt Hagar's Children, Edward P. Jones 69. The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander 68. The Friend, Sigrid Nunez 67. Far From the Tree, Andrew Solomon 66. We the Animals, Justin Torres 65. The Plot Against America, Philip Roth 64. The Great Believers, Rebecca Makkai 63. Veronica, Mary Gaitskill 62. 10:04, Ben Lerner 61. Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver 60. Heavy, Kiese Laymon 59. Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides 58. Stay True, Hua Hsu 57. Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich 56. The Flamethrowers, Rachel Kushner 55. The Looming Tower, Lawrence Wright 54. Tenth of December, George Saunders 53. Runaway, Alice Munro 52. Train Dreams, Denis Johnson 51. Life After Life, Kate Atkinson 50. Trust, Hernan Diaz 49. The Vegetarian, Han Kang 48. Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi 47. A Mercy, Toni Morrison 46. The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt 45. The Argonauts, Maggie Nelson 44. The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin 43. Postwar, Tony Judt 42. A Brief History of Seven Killings, Marlon James 41. Small Things Like These, Claire Keegan 40. H Is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald 39. A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan 38. The Savage Detectives, Roberto Balano 37. The Years, Annie Ernaux 36. Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates 35. Fun Home, Alison Bechdel 34. Citizen, Claudia Rankine 33. Salvage the Bones, Jesmyn Ward 32. The Lines of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst 31. White Teeth, Zadie Smith 30. Sing, Unburied, Sing, Jesmyn Ward 29. The Last Samurai, Helen DeWitt 28. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell 27. Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 26. Atonement, Ian McEwan 25. Random Family, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc 24. The Overstory, Richard Powers 23. Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage, Alice Munro 22. Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Katherine Boo 21. Evicted, Matthew Desmond 20. Erasure, Percival Everett 19. Say Nothing, Patrick Radden Keefe 18. Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders 17. The Sellout, Paul Beatty 16. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon 15. Pachinko, Min Jin Lee 14. Outline, Rachel Cusk 13. The Road, Cormac McCarthy 12. The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion 11. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz 10. Gilead, Marilynne Robinson 9. Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro 8. Austerlitz, W.G. Sebald 7. The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead 6. 2666, Roberto Bolano 5. The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen 4. The Known World, Edward P. Jones 3. Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel 2. The Warmth of Other Suns, Isabel Wilkerson 1. My Brilliant Friend, Elena Ferrante

[neil-gaiman]

A gift link to the NYT review of Miracleman The Silver Age.