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#postmodernism
review
melissajayne
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Pickpick

4⭐️ I quite liked this book. Very introspective and informative. There were a number of things I liked about the book; would like to purchase a paperback copy when it comes out. And he mentions what he intended to say in regards to the Nikki Haley comment that lead to his firing #2024 #memoir #religion #nonfiction #politics

review
Soscha
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Pickpick

The title here is Pilgrims by M.R. Leonard, his literary debut. I‘d call it speculative scifi & when i describe it it sounds ludicrous.

Earth is under oppressive martial law awaiting a coming alien invasion. 🛸👽

The aliens land. The aliens are devout Catholics.🧐

Sounds like satire. It is not.

Our main character is a Latin teacher that discovers studying Classics in college was a crackerjack major after all. 🤯

Ruthiella Sounds good. Maybe I will nominate it for the next #LitsySciFiBookClub pick. 🚀 3mo
30 likes1 comment
review
The_Penniless_Author
The Crying of Lot 49 | Thomas Pynchon
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Pickpick

Pynchon is such a recognizable figure that it can be hard to remember that I'd never actually read anything that he'd written (until now). Rating a Pynchon novel feels like a loaded exercise, like I'm wading into a generations-old war between one side that believes he's the greatest writer ever to put pen to paper and another side that believes that everyone from the first group is a pretentious know-nothing masquerading as an intellectual. 👇

The_Penniless_Author This is the type of book where it helps to have a guide. I am glad that before I read this, I had the benefit of getting the great Sarah Churchwell's insights into the book's larger themes, recurring references, imagery, etc., a lot of which was hiding in plain sight (she's also a guest on the episode of Backlisted where they discuss this novel). In the end, I fall squarely into the "this is a masterpiece" camp. Like all great novels, at its ? 5mo
The_Penniless_Author ...root it's existentialist - is there a point to all this, or is it just meaningless, random occurrences? Are those moments of epiphany or paranoia where we think we perceive the hidden architecture beneath day to day life real or a trick of the mind? Given how surreal and conspiracy-minded real life has become I can't believe postmodernism ever went out of vogue (or maybe, on second thought, that's exactly why it did 🤔). 5mo
Suet624 This is quite the review! And I have to admit i haven‘t read any Pynchon. 5mo
34 likes1 stack add3 comments
blurb
The_Penniless_Author
The Crying of Lot 49 | Thomas Pynchon
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One summer afternoon Mrs Oedipa Maas came home from a Tupperware party whose hostess had put perhaps too much kirsch in the fondue to find that she, Oedipa, had been named executor, or she supposed executrix, of the estate of one Pierce Inverarity, a California real estate mogul who had once lost two million dollars in his spare time but still had assets numerous and tangled enough to make the job of sorting it all out more than honorary.

Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks That‘s a long sentence 🤣 5mo
29 likes1 comment
quote
anushareflects
Power | Michel Foucault
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If power were never anything but repressive, if it never did anything but to say no, do you really think one would be brought to obey it? What makes power hold good, what makes it accepted, is simply the fact that it doesn‘t only weigh on us as a force that says no; it also traverses and produces things, it induces pleasure, forms knowledge, produces discourses.

8 likes1 stack add
review
merelybookish
Nelly's Version | Eva Figes
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Pickpick

Picked this up at a used book shop on a whim & glad I did. It opens as Mrs Dean (an assumed name?) checks into a hotel. She has a suitcase full of cash & no memory of who she is or how she got there. She spends her days wandering the town, having awkward conversations & avoiding any attempt at deciphering her identity even though people show up claiming to be friends and family. Part of the fun was having no idea what was happening or how it 👇

merelybookish It would turn out. Figes was a minor feminist writer of the late 20th century. This book is about the stultifying lives of middle class women and the desire for escape. Not exactly a new theme but executed in an interesting way. 10mo
57 likes2 stack adds1 comment
blurb
The_Penniless_Author
White Noise | Don DeLillo
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#Two4Tuesday @TheSpineView

1. Much as I predicted a month ago, my favorite book of August was also my favorite for July - White Noise.

2. The casual mix of absurdism, wit, and existential dread.

Tag @RaeLovesToRead @BarbaraBB @Eggs @wanderinglynn @MegaWhoppingCosmicBookwyrm @ImperfectCJ @Leftcoastzen @Librarybelle @andrew61 @Vansa @CBee @dabbe

wanderinglynn Thanks for the tag! 😀 1y
Librarybelle Thanks for the tag! 1y
CBee Thanks for the tag, Randy 😊😊 1y
See All 12 Comments
BarbaraBB Wow, White Noise is your favorite! I read it too but a long time ago and I can‘t remember much! 1y
TheSpineView Thanks for playing!😍📖📚 1y
Eggs Thanks! Loved your True North book🥰 1y
RaeLovesToRead I have purchased White Noise. My fave this Aug was probably NPC tea because it was cute and cheerful. I can name a few books that DIDN'T make book of the month 😅 1y
The_Penniless_Author @eggs Thanks so much! That really means a lot to me. 😊 1y
The_Penniless_Author @BarbaraBB My favorite for July and August, anyway (although it would probably rank high on my all-time favorite list too). Luckily I read it over part of both months, because I haven't had time lately to read much else. 1y
The_Penniless_Author @RaeLovesToRead What's your anti-book of the month (and don't say mine 🤨)? 1y
dabbe Will do; thanks for the tag! 🤗 1y
Leftcoastzen Thanks for the tag! Love your answers! 1y
35 likes1 stack add12 comments
review
The_Penniless_Author
White Noise | Don DeLillo
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Pickpick

Death is everywhere - hovering in the air (the "airborne toxic event"), on the TV and radio (natural disasters, mass graves), even in the doctor's office ("concerning reports") - and our only answer is to buy more junk. I was hesitant to read WN because of its place in the PoMo pantheon and influence on writers I'm ambivalent towards (DFW, Eggers) or actively dislike (the Jonathans), but in the end I'm glad I did. Absurd, hilarious, and...?

The_Penniless_Author ...about as good an explanation as there is of how we got where we are today starting in the Reagan era. This seems to be quintessential "love/hate" book - either you think it's genius or trash (one person on Goodreads gave it one star for being "not a work of genius", which seems harsh ?). For this Gen X'er, though, it captures a certain feeling I've always had about the world better than just about anything I've ever read. 1y
41 likes1 comment
blurb
The_Penniless_Author
White Noise | Don DeLillo
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#Two4Tuesday @TheSpineView

1. The one I'm reading now, which will probably be my favorite book for August as well - White Noise
2. It's one of those books I've known about and have been meaning to read seemingly forever, then came across in a used bookstore when I had store credit to burn.

Tag @RaeLovesToRead @CBee @Leftcoastzen @eeclayton @MegaWhoppingCosmicBookwyrm @BarbaraBB @andrew61 @dabbe

dabbe Will do; thanks for the tag! 🤗 1y
TheSpineView Love used bookstores! Truth be told... any bookstore. 🌞 1y
36 likes1 stack add2 comments