Ohhh Stoner! I actually read that. Loved it.

As for Irving I do agree with your assessment. It can feel like reading the same book over and over with the same motifs. I think that all writing in fiction is in someway and in varying levels inherently autobiographical, however, I think he may lean into his experience is too much if that makes sense?

All that said, I found Owen Meany to be one of my favorite pieces of fiction, but after reading that I felt overwhelmed by the rest. I imagine it may be a similar experience, regardless, of which work of his you start with. Like you said, he has a very distinct style that he rarely deviates from.

I got an arc of the sequel before this all dropped. The first book was great. The second book wasn’t as good. If that makes you feel better.

Tartt utterly impressed me with The Secret History. However, she left me more disappointed than possibly ever before with The Little Friend. The two books are extremely different in tone, topic, themes, language, character (and quality) in a way that Irving hasn't demonstrated in what I've read of him. The disappointment from The Little Friend has largely kept me from The Goldfinch thus far, but I haven't written it off completely.

I've found that Irving has too little variety in the themes or possibly the emotions his novels draw up. I'll happily defend Until I Find You, but none of his other novels have really blown me away (with the exception of a particular episode and the follow up in The World According to Garp). Oddly, I found that Garp lacked an overall focus and headed in the direction of being 'sprawling and meandering' to some extent, although I'd stop short of describing it as 'messy'. It didn't feel like Irving was building up to a specific conclusion throughout the story, while I've definitely seen that, to at least some extent, in his others.

Would definitely turn to Irving for coming-of-age novels though. For better or worse, he seems to be very much in his element there.

Irving's latest is The Last Chairlift. Haven't read it, but geez, is there a less intriguing title possible?

Oddly, one book I associate with the work of Tartt (The Secret History and the academic world it creates) and Irving (probably more for The Cider House Rules than any other) is Stoner by John Williams. It had a drastic critical reevaluation a few decades after it was published. Might be one for you?

In hindsight, I feel like most real-world young adult romances are tacked on, even though all the ones I was involved in seemed incredibly central to my life story at the time.

GRRM has said he doesn't want anyone to finish the series if he dies tho. I'm pretty sure he said he would go so far as to burn his notes

At this point, pretty sure the Doors of Stone has been axed

I’ve said it before, I’ll probably say it again. If you force fed an AI r/im14andthisisdeep then asked it to write a book, you’d get something a lot like the alchemist.

It's because Americans are stupid and wrong, but Europeans are cultured and chic.

Yeh, let’s do/try nothing and let the publisher digital monopoly destroy reading. Good plan for that well-informed citizenry /s.

“Repeating nonsense” the article you shared literally states from the publisher she was being racist and she was dropped from Penguin. If you’re gonna argue you could at least use a source that doesn’t argue for my side. Everything I said I was true 🤣 go be dumb elsewhere. The book is cancelled. She told some fan on her IG that it was coming out late 2022 and it never did. The book is done.

A lot of covers of Wheel of Time fit this description, but most particularly Lord of Chaos. It looks like the cover of a romance novel not some fantasy epic 6 books deep

I mean it really sucks that you borrowed a rare book documenting some iconic commercial designs, and then lost it. Now none of the other patrons of your library will ever be able to enjoy or benefit from that volume. They'll have to find one of the other increasingly rare copies, or else go without.

Your carelessness is depriving your community of good things. I'm so very much not sorry that paying the fine might not be in your budget. I wish very very much that you had thought about that more carefully before you lost the book.

Also, when you fuck up, it's customary to use language that clearly identifies the actor in the scene. "I lost the book." Not "the book is lost." I'm not asking you to excuse your behavior, but I do wish you'd fully own it.

This book doesn’t have depth or hidden meaning. Depth-wise, this is the book equivalent of someone jumping into an empty pool

“Was it all kosher? No”

Then that’s all they need to hear?

Reading the quote, it makes so much sense now. Thanks a lot.

I do know how life changing the right book at the right time can be. At 17, I read Colette's "Claudine at School." Then the other 3 Claudine books. She became a guiding light for me, getting me through a depression and rethinking my mother's deeply flawed teachings on life, sex and autonomy. I recognized myself in the character and she has been a little kernal inside me for 40+ years.

Dont worry, if you are not familiar with philosophy already, this is a great entry level book imo. The bad reviews come from older/more accomplished readers expecting more then a teen level intro to the topic of deep thinking. Its all about expectations, I read it when I was 12yo and it was pretty mind blowing for a 12yo in the 90s.

‘I thought this was good because I usually read books that I myself describe as generic’ is a very honest review of Alchemist.

The Familiar by Mark Z. Danielwski was planned to have 27 parts, but only 5 were released.

Aside from that, there are a bunch of HP Lovecraft stories that were canceled, in a sense. Things like Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath or The Case of Charles Dexter Ward were only released posthumously because HPL thought they weren't good enough to see the light of day.

If it’s the one I’m thinking of, it’s bad even if it WAS for a romance novel.

OK. I was talking in the US, for printed books. Since this article was based on a us lawsuit

The universe doesn’t know about you or care, and it’s certainly not secretly helping you. You are describing wishful thinking and survivorship bias. I doubt the homeless panhandler with no legs by my house would agree the universe is secretly trying to help

Books connected to existing IPs get cancelled all the time. There's a bunch of cancelled Star Wars books for example https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Canceled_novels

The Expanse book covers are almost like too zoomed in. They just kind of look like vaguely sci fi nothing.

Like I've read the first 4 books so far and I'm still not exactly sure what the covers of each are supposed to be.

love it. Create a little book club for the both of you! it'll be awesome.