Category: Literature

I was on the verge of DNF’ing Babel by R. F. Kuang so many times. I don’t know what compelled me to finish; I seem incapable of DNF’ing a book any longer. I have no idea how this book is so hyped and awarded. It’s the worst book I’ve read so far this year.  I […]

“…my lies, those lies born of pity, had made her happy; and to make a person happy could never be a crime…a lie that made others happy was more important than truth itself.” Or was it? In Beware of Pity, Stefan Zweig explores this question and comes squarely on the side that unless it’s entirely […]

Emily Henry’s Book Lovers is good for a romance novel. I understand why she’s popular. The genre of feel-good rom-coms is just not my favorite for books. I prefer it in films. I’ve yet to read a feel-good, non-literary fiction romance novel that I couldn’t find faults with and didn’t get annoyed by. I wish […]

After reading, I felt like I had to write things down in order to process it, so this post will be split in half: an in-depth summary and the review.  Summary Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling was largely written as a response to a prevalent philosophical theory at the time expounded by Hegel, who believed that […]

This short novel is broken up into two sections, titled Franny and Zooey respectively. Shocking given the title of the book, I know. I think they were originally published separately as a short story and novella. I really liked Franny’s section. If the entire book was like it, my impression of the book might be […]

I read The Handmaid’s Tale and then almost immediately forgot about it. It was an enjoyable read to a degree, but I didn’t find the book profound or the world particularly well-conceptualized. For me, it was more of a fever dream world than a poignant or prophetic dystopian world. It’s not nearly as timeless or […]

Adored it. Loved it. Murdered by it. I was so taken in by these characters. I think the women in the Epanchin family and Nastasya Fillippovna are the best female characters in classic Russian literature that I’ve read.* Lizaveta P in particular has my heart with her direct manner and a heart that’s quick to […]

I was compelled to grab the sequel, Either/Or, immediately after reading The Idiot, despite not knowing whether I had truly enjoyed the first book. I said in my review of The Idiot that I was under some sort of spell.  The structure of Either/Or is very similar to that of The Idiot. The first half […]

I was really looking forward to reading Batuman’s The Idiot because I had heard such good things, but I’m still not sure how I feel about it. It somehow had an emotional pull on me before I even realized I was invested, but I’m still not sure I can call it a “good” book.  There […]

I grew up watching Roy Rogers and John Wayne, and throughout middle school, I read a ton of Louis L’Amour, because my brother was growing a healthy collection of his novels. So it’s really no surprise that this is my brother’s book and I only borrowed it. He gave it to me because it’s considered […]