For genre fiction recommendations I would say Fonda Lee's Green Bone Saga. Each successive book in the trilogy really builds/widens in scope in terms of the geopolitics of the world and the introduction of new technology. The first book focuses mainly on the gang war on an island where certain people can harness power from wearing jade. Her character writing is phenomenal, she has this really economical use of multiple povs of the main members of one of the mafia-like families, where she uses each one to showcase the role each of the main characters play in each others lives. She really gives a vivid and intimate look at who they are, their thought processes and motivations. In the first book alongside the clan war we are following the succession to the head or "pillar" of the family, the return of a sibling who left the island and the rift that has created between the main siblings (and how this affects their position in the war), as well as a drug that allows foreigners to use Jade which up-until now has been exclusive to people from the island (Kekon). It doesn't take place in a completely different world which makes it a great place for non-fantasy or sci-fi readers to start.
congrats on the sunny’s bookstore! 🎉 i also fell in love with Amina Cain’s Indelicacy! i’m excited to hear your thoughts on A Horse at Night 🤍 i hope you your back feels better soon!
Hope the back gets sorted soon. So thrilled for you opening Sunny's... onto the video. I shall have to read Indelicacy. Shame about Deborah Levy and Brandon Taylor... I wonder if sign ups were low as it's been so hyped people already had a copy, could be (and probably am) completely wrong. So gutted I couldn't make the Brutes discussion... that book had me a thinking and wanting to do lots of talking about it.
Feel better soon!! We are long overdue for a conversation and catch up! Hope to reconnect when things calm down a bit! 🎉❤ so delighted that you loved Aviv- and loved the Brutes book club!!
If you don't want to read a bunch of genre fiction you could follow some of the genre fiction booktubers on here who read and recommend a lot. It can at least give you a sense of the zeitgiest and main buzzwords about upcoming titles and significant authors. As far as publishers go, Tor and Orbit are good ones to watch. You can also try to stock authors who were nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, Stoker, and Le Guin prizes :)
Late to this video…. but the Gilead series isnt really epistolary, and i HIGHLY recommend them. especially if you loved Housekeeping. The first novel (Gilead) is written to the narrator’s son, but often feels like typical first person. The others are all third person. I believe you can read them out of order if you want to avoid the first one, but it really is spectacular.
Good luck with the Sunny’s opening!! As an Irby head I think Quietly Hostile is a lot more fun and fully leaning into the funny silly lightheartedness of her writing versus I think her previous books have a lot more heavy and tender bits baked in. I love both styles but I must say I really liked her leaning into full nonsense and humour
Lost in Summerland sounds so interesting! Bummed to hear about Brandon Taylor's newest; his short story collection was a favorite read of last year. Also re: Marilynne Robinson, I'm pretty sure Gilead is the only epistolary novel of the series and Home takes place concurrent with it and, in my opinion, was much more compelling. You could prob read a synopsis of Gilead and start with Home if you wanted to read more of her!
By no means am I a Samantha Irby head, but I had a similar experience listening to the audio for Quietly Hostile! For some reason it just resonated with me much more than the first book I read from her, not exactly sure why
I hate epistolary books too but Giliad did not feel like a letter at all. I actually think it's better than Housekeeping so if you liked that one, you definitely should reconsider.
Funny that Quietly Hostile did it for you, because I DNF'd it and it was a major disappointment for me because I love all of her previous releases. Couldn't suffer through that long ass Sex and The City chapter and gave up. If you wanna try with something older of hers I can recommend you to pick up We Are Never Meeting In real Life - the best one out them all imo, maybe because it's very memoir-y and she does have a lot of funny stories to tell from when she was in her mid 20s. I can definitely relate to disliking The Late Americans tho, what a pretentious load of bs that was lmao, and did not feel like it was on purpose at all. Sad because I picked that one over Real Life for my first Taylor book and now I feel like I'm never gonna get to it after all, and I've heard it's supposed to be awesome.
I usually love Irby but didn't think this one was for me. Far too much about her bowels etc. Just grossed me out. Don't recall laughing once and i was so pleased to get the arc. Also was let down by The hard Crowd... actually returned it and i don't do that often. With you on the Levy and Taylor also. Hope your back gets better soon x
the late americans was so weird. I think we are supposed to hate seamus??? I also thought he was the more interesting character, and I felt the other characters all had the gilmore girls treatment where every character speaks the same way and has the same niche references, very bizarre.
Hope you feel better soon CJ. ( What does the J stand for in your name? I’m hoping it’s Jacqueline) My best books of the year so far are Deluge by Stephen Markley ( audio advised) Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton The New Life by Tom Crewe Kala by Colin Walsh Crow Lake by Mary Lawson All That’s Left Unsaid by Tracey Chien My Fourth Time, We Drowned Fellowship Point We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves A Tale For The Time Being The Dinner Party by Sarah Gilmartin The Blackwater Lightship by Colm Toibin A Room With A View English Animals ☘️👋🍀📕📚☕️📖
CJ wanting to read Fourth Wing was not on my 2023 bingo card 😂
lmao def a crisis
I could not get past the kooky name character soup in “the late americans” lol
💀 at “i could fix him” 😂😂😂
my toxic trait fr
For genre fiction recommendations I would say Fonda Lee's Green Bone Saga. Each successive book in the trilogy really builds/widens in scope in terms of the geopolitics of the world and the introduction of new technology. The first book focuses mainly on the gang war on an island where certain people can harness power from wearing jade. Her character writing is phenomenal, she has this really economical use of multiple povs of the main members of one of the mafia-like families, where she uses each one to showcase the role each of the main characters play in each others lives. She really gives a vivid and intimate look at who they are, their thought processes and motivations. In the first book alongside the clan war we are following the succession to the head or "pillar" of the family, the return of a sibling who left the island and the rift that has created between the main siblings (and how this affects their position in the war), as well as a drug that allows foreigners to use Jade which up-until now has been exclusive to people from the island (Kekon). It doesn't take place in a completely different world which makes it a great place for non-fantasy or sci-fi readers to start.
We missed you too🧡🔆
i have been influenced 🫡 adding Lost in Summerland to my TBR!!
yes!!!
congrats on the sunny’s bookstore! 🎉
i also fell in love with Amina Cain’s Indelicacy! i’m excited to hear your thoughts on A Horse at Night 🤍
i hope you your back feels better soon!
indelicacy was one of my favs in 2022! also, congrats on the sunny's opening!! you are living my dream and im so excited for you~
Of course it’s ok! Here’s to your back getting better soon.
Hope the back gets sorted soon. So thrilled for you opening Sunny's... onto the video. I shall have to read Indelicacy. Shame about Deborah Levy and Brandon Taylor... I wonder if sign ups were low as it's been so hyped people already had a copy, could be (and probably am) completely wrong. So gutted I couldn't make the Brutes discussion... that book had me a thinking and wanting to do lots of talking about it.
Sending healing vibes! Also, really loving nonfiction this year. - love following along w/ Sunnys and all its updates! 🎉
lost in summerland - noted, excited for the sunnys grand opening!
Feel better soon!! We are long overdue for a conversation and catch up! Hope to reconnect when things calm down a bit! 🎉❤ so delighted that you loved Aviv- and loved the Brutes book club!!
If you don't want to read a bunch of genre fiction you could follow some of the genre fiction booktubers on here who read and recommend a lot. It can at least give you a sense of the zeitgiest and main buzzwords about upcoming titles and significant authors. As far as publishers go, Tor and Orbit are good ones to watch. You can also try to stock authors who were nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, Stoker, and Le Guin prizes :)
ok great idea!!!
Late to this video…. but the Gilead series isnt really epistolary, and i HIGHLY recommend them. especially if you loved Housekeeping.
The first novel (Gilead) is written to the narrator’s son, but often feels like typical first person. The others are all third person.
I believe you can read them out of order if you want to avoid the first one, but it really is spectacular.
Good luck with the Sunny’s opening!! As an Irby head I think Quietly Hostile is a lot more fun and fully leaning into the funny silly lightheartedness of her writing versus I think her previous books have a lot more heavy and tender bits baked in. I love both styles but I must say I really liked her leaning into full nonsense and humour
yes it just seemed sillier i loved it lol
Lost in Summerland sounds so interesting! Bummed to hear about Brandon Taylor's newest; his short story collection was a favorite read of last year. Also re: Marilynne Robinson, I'm pretty sure Gilead is the only epistolary novel of the series and Home takes place concurrent with it and, in my opinion, was much more compelling. You could prob read a synopsis of Gilead and start with Home if you wanted to read more of her!
Ugh The Mars Room was such a flop for me, I finished it and wished I didn’t waste my time. Def want to try out The Hard Crowd though
congratulations on the upcoming opening!,
By no means am I a Samantha Irby head, but I had a similar experience listening to the audio for Quietly Hostile! For some reason it just resonated with me much more than the first book I read from her, not exactly sure why
I hate epistolary books too but Giliad did not feel like a letter at all. I actually think it's better than Housekeeping so if you liked that one, you definitely should reconsider.
okay great to know!
Funny that Quietly Hostile did it for you, because I DNF'd it and it was a major disappointment for me because I love all of her previous releases. Couldn't suffer through that long ass Sex and The City chapter and gave up. If you wanna try with something older of hers I can recommend you to pick up We Are Never Meeting In real Life - the best one out them all imo, maybe because it's very memoir-y and she does have a lot of funny stories to tell from when she was in her mid 20s. I can definitely relate to disliking The Late Americans tho, what a pretentious load of bs that was lmao, and did not feel like it was on purpose at all. Sad because I picked that one over Real Life for my first Taylor book and now I feel like I'm never gonna get to it after all, and I've heard it's supposed to be awesome.
LOL that SATC essay was sooooo long
I usually love Irby but didn't think this one was for me. Far too much about her bowels etc. Just grossed me out. Don't recall laughing once and i was so pleased to get the arc. Also was let down by The hard Crowd... actually returned it and i don't do that often. With you on the Levy and Taylor also. Hope your back gets better soon x
the late americans was so weird. I think we are supposed to hate seamus??? I also thought he was the more interesting character, and I felt the other characters all had the gilmore girls treatment where every character speaks the same way and has the same niche references, very bizarre.
Hope you feel better soon CJ. ( What does the J stand for in your name? I’m hoping it’s Jacqueline)
My best books of the year so far are
Deluge by Stephen Markley ( audio advised)
Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton
The New Life by Tom Crewe
Kala by Colin Walsh
Crow Lake by Mary Lawson
All That’s Left Unsaid by Tracey Chien
My Fourth Time, We Drowned
Fellowship Point
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
A Tale For The Time Being
The Dinner Party by Sarah Gilmartin
The Blackwater Lightship by Colm Toibin
A Room With A View
English Animals
☘️👋🍀📕📚☕️📖
its jane!
the way i clicked on this so fast
and the threw-out-my-back Y2K photo booth is such a look
will def check out Lost in Summerland. need to get on my nonfiction run!
and shout out to Sue! oink oink bb!
😞 *promo sm*