I
grabbed this book because I wanted to watch the movie adaptation, but I ended
up finding my favorite book of the year, and the movie became a pale
afterthought.
The dreamy quality of this book really grabbed me, making me
intrigued to know the mysteries of this area the characters were exploring, but
completely content to wonder about the aspects that went unresolved.
The
imagery was striking and sometimes horrific; I read it in one sitting in a dark
apartment alone and would highly recommend that atmosphere to totally immerse
yourself in this world.
THE FIRST VOLUME OF THE EXTRAORDINARY SOUTHERN REACH TRILOGY - NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY ALEX GARLAND (EX MACHINA) AND STARRING NATALIE PORTMAN AND OSCAR ISAAC
For thirty years, Area X has remained mysterious and remote behind its intangible border - an environmental disaster zone, though to all appearances an abundant wilderness.
The Southern Reach, a secretive government agency, has sent eleven expeditions to investigate Area X. One has ended in mass suicide, another in a hail of gunfire, the eleventh in a fatal cancer epidemic.
If
there’s a theme with my favorite fiction books, it’s that I tend to read them
in one sitting. I read Hawk Mountain while waiting for and then on an airplane, and I cried, to the alarm of my seat partner.
Not for the faint of heart, this
is an incredible little novel that examines cycles of abuse, what repression
does to someone over time, and how it bleeds out and affects everyone around
them. This horror story about a man, his son, and the thoughts he won’t let
himself think until he’s confronted with a boy from his past is just
incredible.
If you’re averse to gore, pass this one by, but if you have the
stomach for it, this book is a moving portrayal of one very stunted man having
the worst possible reaction to what could have been a late-in-life gay
awakening.
Single father Todd is relaxing at the beach with his son, Anthony, when he catches sight of a man approaching from the water's edge. As the man draws closer, Todd recognizes him as Jack, who bullied Todd relentlessly in their teenage years but now seems overjoyed to have "run into" his old friend. Jack suggests a meal to catch up. And can he spend the night?
What follows is a fast-paced story of obsession and cunning. As Jack invades Todd's life, pain and intimidation from the past unearth knife-edge suspense in the present. Set in a small town on the…
As
someone who’s about to turn thirty and is thinking about adopting kids, this
story about an offbeat young woman and a couple of traumatized, weirdo kids
coming to love each other struck a chord with me.
Though I’d prefer if
the children I eventually adopt don’t regularly self-combust, but if they do,
hey, I don’t want to stifle their individuality. I found this book very sweet,
championing for the unusual without being too maudlin and with just a hint of
magical realism that I don’t think would put too many people off, even if they
generally dislike fantasy.
A New York Times Bestseller • A Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick!
Named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, People, Entertainment Weekly, USA Today, TIME, The A.V. Club, Buzzfeed, and PopSugar
“I can’t believe how good this book is.... It’s wholly original. It’s also perfect.... Wilson writes with such a light touch.... The brilliance of the novel [is] that it distracts you with these weirdo characters and mesmerizing and funny sentences and then hits you in a way you didn’t see coming. You’re laughing so hard you…
Based on newly examined archival
documents, my biography of Nathan Leopold doesn’t just tell the story of his
and his partner Richard Loeb’s murder of Bobby Franks, which made them
infamous.
It covers the entirety of his life, examining the mindset that
allowed him to kill as a teenager, the life he led in prison, and who he became
when he was paroled after 33 years.
