William Styron’s book the Darkness Visible is a #memoir of acute depression. It got me thinking a lot about how #mentalhealth is and is not represented in literature. #bookreviews #bookrecommendation #nonfictionbooks

Seth Wang’s Essay on R.O. Kwon’s ‘Exhibit,’ is a case-study in literary #criticism and #bookreviews done right. #literarytok #reading #writingadvice

Some thoughts on the #Cornell #cornell7 and 57 and #masculinity and #accountability and #feminism and the scope of collective responsibility and why this problem is way worse and way more widespread, and what happens when you try to stop. Be normal in these comments or whatever

Euclides da Cunha’s 1902 book ‘Rebellion in the Backlands’ is one of the strangest books I’ve ever read, a near-contemporary #history of a conflict between the Brazilian republic and the residents of the Sertao. ‘Os Sertoes,’ as it is titled in Portuguese, is written with that early 20th century

Whats a book that changed your opinion of an author? I really liked Rachel Kushner’s ‘The Flamethrowers,’ and found it much more exciting than ‘Creation Lake.’ Always fun to see someone writing a novel that does a convincing job of depicting radical politics. #book #bookrecs #booktok #bookre

My first advance review copy of a book. 53 Days by Timothy Ryback from Grove Atlantic. A #history #book about the consolidation of power in #Germany in 1933. #booktok #reading

Why I think Christopher Nolan’s #odyssey flubs its portrayal of #troy and why I think Curzio Malaparte has a more complex take on the problems of portraying conquest. #booktok #history #bookrecs

Curzio Malaparte’s novel “Kaputt” is one of the most interesting #books to come out of the Second World War. #history #bookrecs #classicbooks #germany

Pretentious is a largely useless phrase in #booktok discourse. #reading #bookrecs #books #education

You can tell it was a bad #reading month because I look completely chopped. Whatever. In May, I read Angela Flournoy’s The Wilderness, Eleanor Catton’s Birnam Wood and Walter Miller Jrs A Canticle for Leibowitz (again) this last for a piece I was #writing . #bookrecs #books #newbooks

Need a big #book to read this summer? Try War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, Black Reconstruction by WEB Dubois, Clarissa by Samuel Richardson, Mimesis by Erich auerbach, or The Structures of Everyday Life by Fernand Braudel. Stick around to the end of the video for a secret sixth #bookrecs #readin

In April I read six #books : The Rules of Attraction Bret Easton Ellis, The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen, My Education by Susan Choi, Mao II by Don DeLillo, On the Beach by Nevil shute, Dispatches by Michael Herr. #booktok #bookrecs #reading #classicbooks

Why is #AI everywhere? Part of the reason is that its core uses are unprofitable, so #tech companies are desperately searching for ai use cases that will justify some of their trillion dollar Capex. That and they want to replace human experience with endless dull consumption of generated slop.

Nevil shute’s 1957 #book “On The Beach” is a haunting case study in the power of resignation and narrative reservation. #bookrecs #reading #booktok #scifi

Here are 5 #bookrecs under 200 pages for when you need a small read to break you out of a #reading rut. 1. Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, 2. Fraternity by Benjamin Nugent. 3. Hiroshima by John Hersey. 4. Knight’s Move by Viktor Shklovsky. 4. By Night in Chile by Roberto Bolano. #boo

Mike Davis’ “City of Quartz” is the book against which I measure all other urban #history #bookrecs #booktok #losangeles #classicbooks

Mike Davis’ “City of Quartz” is the book against which I measure all other urban #history #bookrecs #booktok #losangeles #classicbooks

In March I read Lorrie Moore’s “Self-Help,” Vendela Vida’s “The Diver’s Clothes Lie Empty,” Rachel Kushner’s “Creation Lake,” Mike Davis’ “Late Victorian Holo Causts: El niño famines and the making of the third world,” Emily Nemens’ “Clutch,” and Gore Vidal’s “Burr.” All quite interesting #books

Emily Nemens’ #newbook CLUTCH is an interesting example of how polyphonic novels can approach realism and the social totality. #bookrecs #reading #fiction #Booktok

I did not enjoy Rachel Kushner’s 2024 novel ‘Creation Lake,’ because of small choices made in prose style that undermined the novel’s genre concerns and sense of action. #booktok #reading #writing #bookreview #fiction