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The pages of this book feel haunted. I feel as if I’m drifting between reality and a Rene Magritte painting.

I'm actually reading this again. It's been a good read but I'm not sure I'm fully invested in the plot. That said, van den Berg's imagery and descriptions of emotion are really powerful. Even if I don't fully connect with the story, I think she has immense writing talent. The reviews for this books are embarrassingly bad.

Almost done. I've appreciated the structure of the story, but it's more of a thriller than it is a thematically compelling work. Nothing wrong with that.

Listening on audio book. Let's face it, the only way I hit my book goal is if I turn my work commutes into audio book time. It's wild how much time I spend commuting. Anyways, this is a fun story but it is nothing crazy so far. I feel like NYT oversold it a bit.

I've been enjoying myself but I can see where this is heading.

Really loving it so far. It's fun page turner that has not yet done something so stupid that it ruins my experience.

Honestly, I've been blown away by this book so far.

I can't believe I'm not done yet but here we are. The book isn't fun. Yet I kind of have a magical feeling about it. There's something about Pynchon's mythological portrayal of pre WW2 Europe that feels so relatable. The book is seeped with dread that something awful is coming. The mythology kind of makes me feel like it's an attempt to cope with the reality.

There's a point where objects start vanishing in thin air and no one in the story knows if it is a trick or real magic but it certainly FEELS like real magic. In Shadow Ticket there's so many bizarre things happening that you don't up from down. I think I read Pynchon because he perfectly captures that feeling of being completely out of control of your own life with his use of hyper-reality. Enjoying it so far.

DNFing this one.

Here's a question: if you're a bad person and your memory gets wiped and you try to live a good life after that, are you still a bad person?

If I had summer breaks as an adult, this is the kind of book I could read in 4 days. Alas it's going to take another 2 weeks. Loving it so far.

I like the concept of this book in theory but my pet peeve in story telling is stories about people who love to read. It's almost as bad as movies about people who love movies or people who make movies.

I never got to read this in high school. Mainly because I was a burn out who didn't give a shit about school but also because even when I did try, I really didn't give it my all reading many of the other books I was assigned to read.

Anyways I like the voice a lot but it's bit of a meandering novel. I just hope that I don't walk away from this like feeling like I did when I walked away from On The Road.

Officially in the final part of the book. You can sort of see where things are going and while I'm highly interested on Kathy to finally give us a clue on how this world works, I'm deeply interested to see how these small personal interactions have such large reactions. I'm impressed again and again by Ishiguro's incredible display of real emotions.

I've been trying to figure out why this book is so captivating and I think I've come up with two reasons. Ishiguro's description of emotional and tender moments feel like the kind of real and genuine thing I've been craving in fiction for what feels like my entire life. Second is this ongoing theme throughout of being curious and finding out information that is painful to know. Yet Kathy's curiosity persists.

I'm starting to think this isn't any normal boarding school. /s

I'm loving the books first person perspective as Kathy gets nostalgic about her up brining. She's jumping around from one event to another event in the past with great frequency that mimics how I think about the past. The book simulates the involuntary memory process of remembering something from high school then elementary school then middle school.

The whole Keane/Raffi story line is great. Evelyne’s story is great. I’m just not feeling comfortable that Powers is going to tie this together brilliantly in the final 60 pages. Still really liking it overall. Great reflections on life itself as we enter the age of AI and climate change.

Characters like Evelyne and Rafi are really being fleshed out in such an interesting way. I love how their lives are intertwining with hints of future conflict. However, I'm beginning to detect a really uninteresting plotline emerging. Hoping it doesn't take up too much page time.

I've started getting through this one over the last week or so. Great story telling. I love Powers exploration of many individual stories to create one larger story. Also the way Powers writes about the ocean really brings the passion the characters have to life. My only criticism so far is that I think it's a bit annoying to have every main character be some sophisticated brilliant person. Where are the normies?

Been making my way through this one. It honestly started out pretty rough but it's just gotten better and better as I go through it. I'm not sure I'm really absorbing those post WWI themes everyone keeps talking about. Unless of course Jake's great attempt to find a way to just get by in life is the post WWI theme. In that case glad to know we've been stuck in that ever since 1918.

Sadly it seems that I have come to find Nora guilty of millennial cringe.

Really enjoying it so far even if the character work is a little 2 dimensional.

I'm far enough that I feel confident in saying that Broom of the System has a major pacing issue that makes it incredibly difficult to read. I love the little vignettes but they do not feel like they are accumulating to anything. I almost feel like it's a series fictional conversations, that are mostly insulated, that could be read as short stories connected by the same characters. It's good but it's no page turner.

I won't be finishing this in 2024 sadly. Wallace's meta text is just too hard to make for a casual read. I've enjoyed it a lot though but I also have no idea where it is going. This makes it hard to return to when it feels like the story only makes minimal progress every 50 pages or so. I'm using story in the loosest of ways.

I really started this back in June but had to stop to study for the bar. I've read about 50 pages over the last week and I've really enjoyed it. It's got a sense of humor that I feel like I'm really connecting with. I love the theme of exploring patriarchy in the work place and how it permeates through all culture. It's especially interesting considering all we know about DFW. Hope I can finish this one in a month.

Some guy on Phish.net recommended it as a good novel to read before approaching Tremor by Teju Cole so here we are. Much like Antkind lured me in with it's of cinema as a commentary on the inner world of a character Third Hotel employs cinema to create a commentary on another character within the novel. So far I'm enjoying it.

A lot of my criticisms of Terry Prachett are applicable here. The story really feels almost like an improvised D&D game, which is almost exactly what I said about The Light Fantastic years ago. The difference however has been that Douglas Adams' satirical voice and humor have just been so excellent that I haven't minded that the story doesn't feel like it is going anywhere. My appetite though will require some payoff

started this the other day. Honestly it has me genuinely laughing out loud reading it. But I'm really into the general vibe of just letting things go and choosing not to worry. DON'T PANIC!