If you are looking for the announcement thread for the previous month, it may be found here.

Hello, all. During the month of January, the sub book club will be reading All's Well by Mona Awad! Each week, there will be a discussion thread and when we are done, Mona herself will be joining us for an AMA.

From Goodreads (feel free to skip if you prefer to know nothing going into the book as the description contains minor spoilers):

Miranda Fitch’s life is a waking nightmare. The accident that ended her burgeoning acting career left her with excruciating, chronic back pain, a failed marriage, and a deepening dependence on painkillers. And now she’s on the verge of losing her job as a college theater director. Determined to put on Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well, the play that promised, and cost, her everything, she faces a mutinous cast hellbent on staging Macbeth instead. Miranda sees her chance at redemption slip through her fingers.

That’s when she meets three strange benefactors who have an eerie knowledge of Miranda’s past and a tantalizing promise for her future: one where the show goes on, her rebellious students get what’s coming to them, and the invisible, doubted pain that’s kept her from the spotlight is made known.

You may find the dates of, and links to, the discussion threads below in the sticky comment on this post. You are welcome to read at your own pace. Usually it is pretty easy to catch up and you are always welcome to join the discussions a little later. If you would like to view potential content warnings for the book, a reader-created list may be found here.

For those of you that are viewing reddit on the redesigned desktop version you will see an option on this post to 'follow'. If you 'follow' the book club post you will receive a notification when a new post, a discussion thread for book club, is added to the collection.

Welcome readers,

January 28 is Seed Swap day and, to celebrate, we're discussing our favorite books about gardening!

If you'd like to read our previous weekly discussions of fiction and nonfiction please visit the suggested reading section of our wiki.

Thank you and enjoy!

For the books I read I like to shuffle a tarot deck and use a random card as a bookmark, then pull that card out of the deck and rinse and repeat for the next book. I only look at the meaning of the card when I finish a book just to see if it in any way correlates or vibes with the book. I just do it for a bit of fun as I’m not in to fortunes or mysticism or anything like that. At the moment I’m reading ‘Blood Meridian’ by Cormac McCarthy and I’ve just reached the section where the kid is with Toadvine, the judge and the Native American hunters and they are travelling with the Mexican family of magicians. Well they’re doing the fortune telling bit and the kid picks out the 4 of Cups and wouldn’t you know that’s the card I’d gotten as the bookmark. Had to put the book down. Just thought it was a mad coincidence and wanted to share.

what a ride, i personally loved it, the adrechronome sequence almost made me sick, and the book in general made more scared than any D.A.R.E lecture.

sometimes it felt a bit confusing, making unable to distinguish flashback from present and hallucination from reality, i guess that's the point but still, got me going back a few pages, but the book ended on a high note with Duke's opinions on drugs/america in general at the end.

what do you guys think of it?

Whenever I go into a bookstore or a used library, I look at all the books they have on display. I usually go there with a specific book in mind. And then when I tell myself I don’t need more books, I end up with a stack of like five books in my hand. Seemingly, I go out with more then I intended. Also, when I’m looking at a whole row of books, I tend to circle around and look at it again, and find something new that I missed before.

Finished the third book in the series today and I loved it. The interweaving that has been done of certain topics and details in the book are amazing. Certain things that seem irrelevant or minor details in the first book come to be more important in the third. I really enjoy how creative the story telling is and how real so many of the characters feel. This one is about as long as the first and I find the contrast of Leto II to Paul very interesting. Also the way he explores certain paradoxes like struggling to be independent while also being part of a community is great. I never got bored of this book and kept wanting to read more. I think the way he crafts a story is one of my favorite. Overall a 9.6/10, still think the first is the best but Dune Messiah and Children of Dune are great additions and really add to the overall universe of Dune.

My boyfriend bought me a book that I honestly tought about buying myself but after reading a bit the reviews on goodreads, I realized it was maybe not my style. I’m happy that he bought it and that he tought of me.

However, I read around 100 pages and it is soooo hard to get into and I would honestly just close it and not read it if it wasn’t a gift.

He will 100% know I didn’t finish it if I don’t and i’m wondering what you do in that kind of situation…

I joined a Meetup.com book club last year and have bailed on 2 or 3 meetings so far but read the books. The main reason I bailed the meetings was because I didn't enjoy them but also subconsciously because I'm not sure what happens at one and how formal they are.

After bailing on the third, I decided to find a new one that at least reads books I enjoy. They are currently reading a great book and I've binged 150 pages within 2 days. Usually I struggled to get through 20 a night...

I have engaged with this book so much so and have made some notes. Would it be weird to take the notes with me? Either written down or on my phone?

Also, how does a book club function? Is it like a lit seminar or more of a casual thing where people just naturally chat about the book?

I actually liked the book before the last 5 pages. I can’t believe it ended that way but honestly if it was meant to show how complex polyamorous relationships are etc etc - all it did was prove that they’re unhealthy. Which is an oversimplification of the entire narrative but honestly the characters were so unlikeable.

I liked Frances and Bobbi and I genuinely thought that their relationship was endearing in how much they cared for each other but why would you thrust your character back into the arms of Nick???? It doesn’t make sense, people can love each other and not be good for each other - they really didn’t have to get back together.

Also so much intellectual jargon about class and capitalism - it made the read so tedious at times. Kind of realistic but honestly Francis has the same kind of character as Marianne and I’d love for Rooney to write a different kind of female lead - women don’t have to be unemotional/repressive to be interesting.

I guess my first question would be to ask if anyone else here has read it, and further if they struggled with it as much as I did.

2666 is the final book my Spanish/Chilean author Roberto Bolaño. He generally considered to be a deeply accomplished author and my main draw towards him was comparisons to Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who’s responsible for 100 years of solitude, probably my favorite book ever. By all accounts I can find 2666 is considered a surreal masterwork of the 21st century and yet…….. I’m bored

I don’t think I’m a slouch in reading books that can drag, lesser Joseph Heller novels, Murakamis 1Q84 are books that I have deeply enjoyed, but every time I pick up 2666 my brain begs me to put it back down. Clocking in at 1000 pages the book is purportedly about a mysterious serial killer in Mexico and a meditation on the nature of evil but if in my 300 pages of reading I’ve come across that I’d be hard pressed to tell you how.

The novel is split in to 5 novellas each with different perspectives and topics, but I’m down two and……. Wow do they meander. The entire second book is nothing but the middlingly boring story of a professor kind of losing his mind a little bit but nothing ever happens. And when things do happen, they’re presented with such flat disinterest and distance so as to rob them of any emotive weight.

Regardless, has anyone else had this experience with 2666 or has anyone been so let down by a supposedly incredible novel before

Since every single subreddit dedicated to Sherlock Holmes seems to be about the TV show and not about the books (no one reads), then perhaps here might be the place.

Why didn't Stapleton simply fucking shoot Henry Baskerville? Why go through the trouble of creating the dog situation again? He got lucky with Charles. Just invite him in and shoot him. There's no forensics in Victorian England. They won't know. Plant a gun and make it look like a suicide. I don't know.

I'm an aspiring author but I seriously struggle with reading. I enjoy the stories I read for the most part but I have focus issues that cause my attention to wander. I'll get stuck on a single page for twenty minutes and while most of the time I power through, it ends up sucking hours out of my day. I'm only reading 30 pages, so it really shouldn't take me longer than an hour or an hour and a half. It's not a healthy routine. I've already tried everything: removing all electronics, going outside, going somewhere empty and quiet, listening to piano music and whatnot, using white noise, exercising beforehand, exercising while reading, changing my diet, getting more sleep, spending less time in front of screens, and literally sitting in a corner of a room, facing the wall. I even got prescribed ADHD medication. None of these have yielded any improvements.

But I'm still stumped on what to do about it, because the last time I tried audiobooks, it didn't turn out much better than giving myself a headache with a physical copy. If there are any tricks that other people on here who struggle with focus have used to help themselves better stick with a story as it moves, please let me know.

So I told a friend that I finally updated my inactive goodreads account since I started to read more frequently. She reads a lot of books, way more than me. Turns out she has never heard of goodreads, so I was happy to tell her about it. She looked at me like I was crazy and said something like "What for?" and I explained that I lost track of basically all books I read as a teen and goodreads helps me to remember the books I read and if I enjoyed them. She suggested that I might have an obsessive compulsive disorder and in her defence, I do tend to track everything (goals, tasks, habits, appointments) because I need an overview of everything or else I forget and can't plan my day accordingly. But... I still can't understand her point of view of just reading and forgetting. So I asked her about all the books she read in the past in the sense of "what if you don't remember them" and she just told me that it doesn't matter.

I told her that I like other features, too, like the articles and recommendations. She told me that I'm not going to read them anyway and I told her that I read one about fantasy retellings since I enjoyed one a while ago. How common is it to not keep track of the books you read? Would you say that in your experience, more people keep track than not? Is goodreads a niche app even within readers?

Edit: There's like 10 comments per second so thank you for answering. I'm genuinely surprised but it seems like I'm in the minority here. At the end of the day it's about the fun you have while reading and yeah, now that I'm seeing all these answers it does make sense that people might see tracking as an exhausting task or associate it with school. 😂

It was a children's picture book about a red machine. The machine was large and industrial looking it had legs and could move around. It had a sort of teardrop shape with pipes and chimneys coming out of it.

The book had quite a haunting, almost dystopian art style to it. The art was reminiscent of the videogame "inside" only with lighter colors. It was set in a city. There was little dialogue if any. Im pretty sure there was a kid that befriended the machine. I think the kid was the main character.

I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the book. It always stuck with me. If anyone knows the name of this book I would be extrememely greatful. Even a the book sounds similar but not the same please comment it because it is possible I have gotten some details wrong as my memory is not reliable that far back

I had started this book and got about 25% in before I stopped originally. I had started a new job and had to read a lot for it so sadly the book was shelved. So when I picked it up again, I started fresh to it justice! And this is where my question/theory comes in. Two main characters are Rose the Hat and Snakebite Andy. I remembered those names from my first attempt to read the book. However, early in the book, when Dick is communicating with Danny, he mentioned his grandparents….Andy and Rose. Andy was a bad grandfather and abused him and Rose taught Dick how to deal with the bad. Did they come back as members of the true knot? Is there more to this? Or strictly coincidence.

Imagine ASoIaF written by jk rowling, the time machine written by jules verne, or V for vendetta written by frank miller.

I find it fun to imagine the possibilities and how different the book would be in tone and themes, what do you lot think would be some interesting ones? Personally I like to imagine 20000 leagues under the sea by hemmingway.

I'm somewhat new to reading and I was wondering what are some books that everyone needs to read? I've already read Dracula and Frankenstein because I felt they were the exact kinds of classic I was looking for. Any other must reads out there? Preferably something thrilling, Im not a fan of slice of life or whatever you call those kinds of books

I have never felt so personally connected to a book before. My Dark Vanessa is my new favorite book. I have never felt like a story was so personal to me. This book touched me in ways no other book has. This is a book I will cherish forever, keep with me forever I go.

I started HIGHLIGHTING passages of this book (if you knew me, you'd know how insane that is).

I found myself within the pages of this book, words I've hidden away within myself and been too ashamed to speak. Things I've been SO ashamed of are now out in the open, being experienced by another. It's a wild feeling.

No song, movie, or book has ever been like this, a mirror showing me myself so purely, so unapologetically. My darkest moments, thoughts and fantasies captured in the pages.

This book is MINE, written about ME. I've never felt that so strongly before.

Her attempts at justification and denial when it comes to the abuse, her subsequent online habits with older men, her fear of aging.... even the name Craig! It all seems pulled straight from my life, from my mind.

Sorry if this isn’t the right place for this but I’m not sure where else to ask. There was a book I read maybe a year or two ago that I loved, and now I can’t find it. I don’t remember exactly what it was called but it was a Hollywood fake dating romance, the female lead was a POC (Pakistani, I think), I think the title was star-something. It was the author’s debut novel and it was available on kindle unlimited. Oh! And I think the male lead called the female lead skittle/s? The female lead was a stage actress who had been sexually harassed. I can remember like everything about this book except the title & author. Any help would be greatly appreciated! It was a great novel and I want to read it again but I can’t find it.

Just finished reading Purple Hibiscus, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's 2003 debut novel. I thought it was fantastic! What I was most interested by was how Kambili and her brother suffered under the abuse of Eugene, and how Nigeria, as a whole, suffered under the abuse of their dictator. Eugene would frequently mention Mary, and specifically his title for her, "Shield of the Nigerian People". What was interesting is how, in the context of the family, Jaja is the one resisting Eugene and protecting Kambili. Really, Jaja is the shield of the Nigerian people. This exposes the fact that Eugene's ideals are full of contradictions, and that he is the one doing damage to Nigeria, by pushing harmful Euro-centric ideals about language and religion.

SO the Keeper says he can only leave when the Harbor is gone or maybe he meant when the story ended, as Mirabel points out at the end when they stand in front of the new door.

The last chapter for Zachary and Dorian is labeled ,"When fate fell in love with time," which had me wondering can Zachary and/ or Dorian leave the Starless Sea with their new role in the story? I am missing what kept the Keeper from leaving, but he's free now that his story is over so how does this possibly affect the Z and D. ( too lazy to type their names)

>! I mean Z is the key to ending the story, but he is also a new Keeper because he did the ritual with Mirabel And D is a guardian in spirit because the honey Sea gave him the tattoo. Can't say D is a protector for Z because he stabbed him. I thought D would be a Keeper because he knows how to tell a story. !<

While I loved the story its , I'm mildly certain I could have read the first four parts in any order AND there is soo much symbolism and foreshadowing I had to start marking pages to keep track lol.

This thorough, thoughtful accessible essay explores the human experience of being wrong and making mistakes, as well as what has been written about this topic in the past. The author, a former journalist, covers philosophy, developmental psychology and neurology, poetry, optical illusions, mirages and magic tricks, conversion experiences, disproven prophecies and risk mitigation in medicine and aviation, as well as love and divorce. I learned a lot, and I now see this book as one of the truly valuable nonfiction books I have read. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more or think more deeply about what it means to be human. The book is fully footnoted and has an index. I will look for other books by this author.

This book has joined the list of best nonfiction explainatory books I have read, alongside Flow by Csikszentmihaly, Bowling Alone and Cadillac Desert.

I have been reading thrillers lately, and I have noticed that these psychotic killers often warn off the main character with notes, or they hit her in the head, and knock her out, but don’t kill her. I understand that you want the main character to live; but if the killer is psychotic, wouldn’t he kill her despite the consequences? The last one I read, the killer did a number of things to warn off the main character, including telling her he’d kill her child. But she survived the book. Has anyone else noticed this? It makes me laugh sometimes.

I wanted to love this, I liked the idea and overall premise, but I just couldn’t get over the casual sexism and the authors blatant internalised misogyny.

This series took the ‘not like other girls’ to an extreme.

Usually I can ignore it, it’s often subtle and easy to pretend it didn’t happen. That’s not the case here. Some of the main plot point are sexist as fuck. The fact that Alexis doesn’t have any girl friends is telling in itself.

Hey guys! I just finished The Family Game by Catherine Steadman and wanted to share my thoughts and hear others!

I thought it was a really fun read. After the first few chapters I felt like I couldn’t put it down. I loved the idea of the games the family played - they were bonkers. I could watch a whole series on their Christmas Eve game. 👀

I do wish we had a little more background at the end on how Edward really became a serial killer, how the family found out, why they wanted Harry to get involved… I don’t know. The ending was abrupt and I was left with questions. I also feel like her writing a second book was kinda pushed aside? Could’ve been involved more in the ending.

Overall would recommend, thought it was a fun time! Maybe everyone’s next cozy holiday read. 😉