booknook

Welcome to booknook, made because a lot of the reading comms on DW seem pretty dead and/or focused on getting you to read.

This is made to be a general reading community. Hopefully there'll be a few regular posts:

RIP (Read In Progress) Wednesday
Monthly themed rec post (to be clear, inviting other people to rec books that fit the theme in the comments, not me reccing books)

(If you realize I've missed a regular post, you're more than welcome to post it in my place! My memory can at times not be relied upon.)

Members of the comm are able to post whenever they want. A few suggestions are things like reviews, discussions about a particular book/author/series, reading challenges, reading memes, asking for recs, recomending books, news about upcoming books you're excited about (or dread; there can be a lot of feels about books!).

While you need to be a member to post, you do not need to be one to comment.

General Posting Guidelines

The subject line should always make it clear what kind of post it is; IE, it should state if it's a review, recommendation, request for recommendations, discussion post etc.
All posts should be tagged. If the tag you need doesn't exist, use the tag [!] non-existent tag. If the amount of tags is overwhelming (I know it can be), then use the tag browsing feature on the post creation page, at which point there will be an option to search for tags. Use that to search for the tags you need and ignore the rest. And don't worry; as the admin, I can add/remove tags as needed!
If your posts includes NSFW material, whatever that may be, adjust the post's age restriction. The default is no restriction. There's also NSFW and SFW tags; these are voluntary.
Review posts should include headers with all necessary information; title, author, genres, content warnings etc.
Crossposting is allowed! But if you're crossposting a post here, do please post it in its entirety, don't just go "and you can continue reading at..."
All spoilers (no matter how old the book is!) should be behind a cut or an accordion. These are both HTML functions.

HTML Code for a read more cut:

<cut>this is where the text behind the cut goes</cut>

HTML Code for a read more cut with a custom 'read more' text:

<cut text="you can write whatever here and it'll replace the generic 'read more' bit">this is where the text behind the cut goes</cut>

HTML Code for accordions:

<details><summary>This is where you say/warn for what's inside: you can think of it like a subject line</summary>This text is hidden until you click it open!</details>

This is not a self-promo community for authors, but in the interest of there being clear rules about that, here are those:

One (1) promotion post per title OR one (1) promotion post per series. It should be clearly tagged as self-promotion, and the subject line should go like this: [Self-Promo] your books title (Genre, Sub-Genre)
You are not allowed to rec your books unless a person is asking for recs that your book specifically fits.

quillpunk

Hello, hello!

booknook is (again) tossing its hat in the ring for

3weeks4dreamwidth in the form of a friending meme :D

This is the same meme as last year, as I do not have the brain-space to make a new one, but who knows! You're answers might have changed! You might not have seen the newest entries! You might have completely forgotten to check it out at all, even though you're the admin and you really should have. So let's do this again! <3

Copy and paste the text from the little box below into a new comment on this post. Feel free to remove the questions that aren't relevant for you! (If you want to fill this out in a post somewhere else, you're welcome do so, simply credit

booknook :D)

falkner

A little late, but... What are you reading?

Current Music: Snow Man - Natsuiro Hanabi

rocky41_7

Title: Consent: A Memoir
Author: Vanessa Springora
Genre: Nonfiction, memoir

We're back to the "Women in Translation" rec list, with book #10: Consent: A Memoir by Vanessa Springora, translated from French by Natasha Lehrer. This autobiographical novel is the story of Springora's sexual abuse as a young teenager at the hands of Gabriel Matzneff, a well-regarded and prolific French writer, who was in his late forties when he entered a romantic and sexual relationship with Springora (called "V" in the book).

The rest of this review is under the cut, given the nature of the content.

( Read more... )

rocky41_7

Title: The Goblin Emperor
Author: Katherine Addison
Genre: Fantasy

I first read The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison last year, but I never got around to reviewing it, in part because I didn't know what to say about it. My friends had loved it, and while I'd found it enjoyable, I was still percolating on what I liked (or didn't!) about it. Listening to The Witness for the Dead, a book in the same universe, got me thinking about TGE again, so this month I gave it a re-read. This time, it all clicked.

This book is truly such an enjoyable read. The basics of Maia's tale are not unfamiliar—a seeming nobody is thrust into a position of power no one ever expected them to have—but Addison puts her own fascinating spin on it. It has the same feeling I got from The Witness for the Dead, where the story prioritizes doing the right thing and many if not most of the characters in it are striving to be good people (whatever that means for them). It makes a nice contrast to the very selfish, dark fantasy where you know from the start every character is just in it for themselves (and I do enjoy those too, not to say one is better than other!) The protagonist Maia in particular is put in any number of positions where he could misuse his power for personal gratification—such as imprisoning or executing his abusive former guardian, Setheris—but he, with conscious effort, chooses differently. That is not the kind of person—not the kind of emperor—Maia wants to be. And honestly—there is very gratifying fantasy, particularly today, in the idea of someone obtaining power and being committed to some kind of principles of proper governance, of having some code of honor above their own personal enrichment.

( Read more... )

rocky41_7

Title: The Sapling Cage
Author: Margaret Killjoy
Genre: Fantasy, young adult (imo)

Oof. Today I threw in the towel on Margaret Killjoy's The Sapling Cage because I'd rather be alone with my thoughts than sit through another three hours of this book. This is a fantasy book about a "boy," Lorel, who disguises herself as her female friend to join a witches' coven (She's a transgirl, but her journey on that understanding is part of the book, and she refers to herself as a boy for much of the story.)

First, I will say that I think Lorel is a protagonist written with love; clearly Killjoy wanted her to be relatable and sympathetic, and someone eager for a trans fantasy protag may be willing to forgive the book's many weaknesses for that. That said...

I was shocked to realize this book is not categorized as Young Adult/Youth literature. Lorel is 16 at the start of the book and she's very sixteen. She makes all the sorts of stupid, immature mistakes you would expect from a teenager, which makes her a realistic character, but also deeply frustrating to read as an adult, particularly since the first-person narration puts us right in her head. The book feels young even for a sixteen-year-old; it reads more like a preteen novel about teenagers.

( Read more... )

olivermoss

Wednesday has returned. What are you reading?

rocky41_7

Title: The Once and Future Witches
Author: Alix Harrow
Genre: Fantasy

On Monday I finished The Once and Future Witches by Alix Harrow, about a trio of sisters in the American city of "New Salem" in Massachusetts in 1893 who take it upon themselves to revive witches' magic.

The Once and Future Witches dovetails historically with the movement for women's suffrage, creating some parallels between seeking the right to the vote and seeking the right to practice magic. I would have liked to have seen this carried more through the latter half of the novel, but I suppose I can see why it wasn't, particularly given it would be another nearly thirty years before the passage of the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote. The suffragettes played a long game.

The core focus of the novel is sisterhood, both blood and otherwise. Harrow presents a beautifully wounded and layered portrait of siblinghood in the relationship between the three protagonists: Bella, the oldest; Agnes, the middle child; and Juniper, the youngest. Raised without a mother (she passed birthing Juniper) under the thumb of their abusive and alcoholic father in rural poverty, all three girls learned early on what they would do to ensure their own survival. And while there is great love between them, there is also great hurt, and by the start of the book, the three are not on speaking terms. Harrow did a great job with the complexity here, and watching their relationships develop and begin to heal was very enjoyable.

( Read more... )

zenigotchas

This has been on my mind for a while since I've been slowly nibbling away at Friedrich Nietzsche's Beyond Good And Evil over the present 3 months. I'm on the last chapter and have enjoyed it way more than I expected to, even if I think a lot of his conclusions are straight up intellectually or even morally wrong, it is good to see a very different perspective from my own. It has been helping me sharpen my OWN critical thinking skills and my own personal philosophy–Being the philosophy babey that I am, I am not as familiar with the fields of philosophy or how many other good and fun books are in there, but this has been giving me an appetite for this kind of book and to keep exploring.

For those reasons I would definitely say it is worth reading, but mostly because it's so fun.

What philosophy books have YOU utterly devoured or thought were things everyone should try?

sixbeforelunch

Can anyone recommend a non-fiction book about the Napoleonic Wars that's more focused on the sociology and politics of the era than the nitty gritty of the battles? High level overviews of the various engagements are fine but my eyes glaze over when confronted with twenty pages of detailed battle descriptions and military tactics. Unfortunately most people who write war histories tend to want to talk way more about that sort of thing than I have patience for.

valoise

Horror is generally out of my comfort zone, but I recently watched Sinners, a movie set in an African American community in the American South. This was such a unique and extremely well done perspective on vampires that I decided to try another unusual vampire POV story - The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones.

The narrator at the beginning and end is a struggling academic in 2012, but the bulk of the book is a diary written 100 years earlier by Arthur Beaucarne, a Lutheran pastor in Miles City, Montana. He is approached by a Blackfeet man named Good Stab who wants the pastor to hear his confession.

The author does such a fantastic job of capturing the style of each of his subjects. The use of language is spot on:
A native person whose understanding of the world around him is shaped by centuries of history and told in English in way that embodies both him and his culture; the elderly, academically-trained white pastor who writes in the formal way you encounter in writing of that era; the modern woman struggling towards tenure in the 21st century - the story of these people was so compelling.

spiralsheep

If you read a "Raynor Winn" book and enjoyed it or it helped you in any way then I'm extremely glad for you (especially because any positive result came 100% from you yourself) - but you might want to stop reading here because the remainder of this post is not positive about the author or her books.

The real Salt Path (link to The Observer): how a blockbuster book and film were spun from lies, deceit and desperation.

( The Salt Path-ological liar, The Wild Lies, and Landlies )

quillpunk

Same exact deal as last year! XD

This is the sign-up post for the 2025 October Review-a-Thon I’m hosting here in

booknook! To sign up, simply comment on this post with what day(s) you’re claiming.

Each day claimed equals one distinctive review, so if you’re claiming three days, you’re signing up to post three different reviews. You can claim up to five days. You can claim a day that’s already claimed, but you must claim different days for each review. You do not need to mention what book(s) you intend to review. You can claim more days up to the max at any time, simply make a new comment and claim more. You can unclaim a day at any time. Sign-ups are open until Oct 30.

Good luck!

Claimed Days

( Days to Claim )

Posting Guidelines (click the arrow!)

We’re not doing any specific rules regarding the reviews for the events. Your post just needs to adhere to any General Posting Guidelines that applies: this means including a clear header with information regarding the book’s title, author, and any applicable content warnings.

Any spoilers (no matter how old the book is) need to be behind a cut or an accordion (this is an accordion!)

If your review is not suitable for all ages, adjust the age restriction of the post.

The subject line should clearly state that it’s a review. Please tag for at least format, age group, and genre.

The review needs to be posted in its entirety, don’t just go ‘and you can keep reading on…’

You need to be a member to post to the comm.

Questions and Concerns

I will make a top comment on this post, please leave any questions and concerns about the event as a reply to that comment to easily keep everything in one place. This post will not be sticky, as I think we’re already on max on that, but I will link it in the sidebar under the new ‘Quick Navigation’ heading.

What if I don’t make it to my claimed day?

If you don't post a review on the day you signed up for, nothing will happen :D This is intended to be a low-pressure, fun event, and not meant to put undue pressure on you. Again,

booknook is always open to reviews! You can post it later, or not at all. You also would not be required to mention in your sign-up which book you intend to review so you can change your mind until the very last second. There are no repercussions for not posting anything on your claimed day!

What if I’m not signed up but I want to post a review in October?

booknook is open to reviews 24/7 and that would not change. You’re absolutely still allowed to post a review during this month (even on a claimed day) without signing up!

What kind of books can I review?

Any kind of books! Fiction, non-fiction, poetry, webnovels, short stories, etc. If you think it counts, it counts. Likewise, it doesn't matter how old the book is; a 200-year-old book is just as welcome as one that was just published two weeks ago. Here, it's just all about the books! :D

How does reviews work?

In general, a review should contain an introduction of the book and what you think about it and whether it's something you would recommend to others. Here's a few quick links I found searching (if you've got resources for tips on writing reviews, you're welcome to share them and I can add them to the list):

https://reedsy.com/discovery/blog/book-review-examples

https://thewritepractice.com/how-to-write-a-book-review/

https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/book-reviews/

It's time for the Fake Internet Deadlines to shine! :D

rocky41_7

Title: The Tyrant Baru Cormorant (The Masquerade series #3)
Author: Seth Dickinson
Genre: Fantasy

Today I finished the latest book in the Baru Cormorant series (fourth book remains to-be-released), The Tyrant Baru Cormorant. Y'all, Baru is so back.

! Spoilers for books 1 & 2 below ! (Book 1 review) (Book 2 review)

If you've looked at other reviews for the series, you may have seen book 2, The Monster Baru Cormorant, referred to as the series' "sophomore slump." I disagree, but I understand where the feeling comes from. The Monster feels like a prelude, a setting of the board, for The Tyrant. The Monster puts all the pieces in place for the cascade of schemes and plays that come in The Tyrant. They almost feel like one book split into two (which is fair—taken together, they represent about a thousand pages and would make for one mammoth novel).

( Read more... )

anehan

Title: Censored: A Literary History of Subversion and Control
Authors: Matthew Fellion and Katherine Inglis
Genre: non-fiction

As a consequence of realising that hey, interlibrary loans exist and are actually pretty cheap, I've been reading a book called Censored: A Literary History of Subversion and Control by Matthew Fellion and Katherine Inglis.

The book is a survey of the history of censorship of literature mainly in the UK and the US, presented through case studies of individual censored works, though many of the chapters discuss censorship of similar books more broadly. The oldest case is the censorship of the early English translations of the Bible; the newest the censorship of Chicanx literature in Arizona in the 2010s.

The book takes a broad view of censorship. It doesn't just deal with censorship by the state, but also other forms of censorship, such as self-censorship and the chilling effect that censorship exerts on the literary landscape as a whole.

I'm not going to talk about it in any great detail. It's really well-written -- very accessible to a lay reader, without feeling like it's been dumbed-down -- so go read it if the topic interests you.

( Some thoughts on censorship of literature based on this book )

spiralsheep

When you're bookish then every day is "reading Wednesday".

What are you reading?

drawnecromancy

I've discovered this author through my parents, who'd read several of his books while they were in their 20s in university - specifically the Elric and the Hawkmoon series. Of course I got curious, because my parents enjoyed those books, and despite their warning that it "probably does not hold up in 2025", I've read all of Hawkmoon (or at least, all the french translations my mom had).

It wasn't... great. Sometimes it was really really bad (the orientalism at times is... something.). But it was also really entertaining and funny. There seems to be between 2 and 50 plot points per book, which are all 200 pages or less, and Hawkmoon's chief motivation is "I want to go home to kiss my wife" which is a mood, honestly. The whole "Eternal Champion" thing in the last 3 books was a bit... not to my tastes, although there were some very fun passages of it. Overall you can tell it's old and that you could just say words back then. I wouldn't recommend this series exactly, but it's pretty fascinating. I'm considering getting my hands on Elric at some point just to see if it's the same kind of batshit.

Have you ever read a book from Michael Moorcock ? If so, what did you think ? Would you have anything to recommend ?

I'll say my favorite part of the Hawkmoon books are the giant pink flamingos from Kamarg, that are used as mounts, including during war. It is really cool to picture guys flying to combat on flamingos of all things.

quillpunk

it is once more stuff your kindle day! https://www.romancebookworms.com/kindle

(https://www.romancebookworms.com: If you prefer to read ebooks on another platform, we have pages for some of the same free deals at the following retailers as well: Google Play, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble Nook, or Kobo.)

spiralsheep

What are you reading?

spiralsheep

What are you reading?

silversea

Happy June!

What are you reading?

spiralsheep

What are you reading?

Weds is the time, is the place, is the motion,
Weds is the day we are reading....

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Page Summary

quillpunk - About, Rules & Posting Guidelines
quillpunk - Booknook Friending Meme, Take 2
falkner - RIP (Read In Progress) Wednesday
rocky41_7 - Book review: "Consent" by Vanessa Springora
rocky41_7 - Book review: "The Goblin Emperor" by Katherine Addison
rocky41_7 - Book review: "The Sapling Cage" by Margaret Killjoy
olivermoss - RIP (Read In Progress) Wednesday
rocky41_7 - Book review: "The Once and Future Witches" by Alix Harrow
zenigotchas - [Discussion] Philosophy books you think are worth reading
sixbeforelunch - rec request
valoise - The Buffalo Hunter Hunter
spiralsheep - The pinch of Salt Path by Sally "Raynor Winn" Walker
quillpunk - [Sign-Up Post] October Review-a-Thon 2025
rocky41_7 - Book review: "The Tyrant Baru Cormorant"
anehan - Review: Censored: A Literary History of Subversion and Control
spiralsheep - RIP (Read In Progress) Wednesday
drawnecromancy - Discussion : Michael Moorcock
quillpunk - [Sale Promotion] Stuff Your Kindle
spiralsheep - RIP (Read In Progress) Wednesday
spiralsheep - RIP (Read In Progress) Wednesday
silversea - RIP (Read In Progress) Wednesday
spiralsheep - RIP (Read In Progress) Wednesday

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Admin Post: Sticky: About, Rules & Posting Guidelines

General Posting Guidelines

Sticky: Booknook Friending Meme, Take 2

RIP (Read In Progress) Wednesday

Book review: "Consent" by Vanessa Springora

Book review: "The Goblin Emperor" by Katherine Addison

Book review: "The Sapling Cage" by Margaret Killjoy

RIP (Read In Progress) Wednesday

Book review: "The Once and Future Witches" by Alix Harrow

[Discussion] Philosophy books you think are worth reading

rec request

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter

The pinch of Salt Path by Sally "Raynor Winn" Walker

[Sign-Up Post] October Review-a-Thon 2025

Claimed Days

Book review: "The Tyrant Baru Cormorant"

Review: Censored: A Literary History of Subversion and Control

RIP (Read In Progress) Wednesday

Discussion : Michael Moorcock

[Sale Promotion] Stuff Your Kindle

RIP (Read In Progress) Wednesday

RIP (Read In Progress) Wednesday

RIP (Read In Progress) Wednesday

RIP (Read In Progress) Wednesday

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