If a reader like me who is so far away from the USA becomes sad, gloomy and at a loss upon knowing this horror, what must have the family members of the murdered Osage members gone through and endured? If my blood boiled for the lack of justice in a place I have not even heard of, what must they have gone through for not getting any answers even after a century? The Osage must have felt they were better while living in the wilderness than coming under the shadow of the constitution that has only failed them.

This is a book everybody should read. This is a book about what humans can do to other humans even in civilized society when Governments turn a blind eye to the sufferings of a section of people. It is absolutely heart wrenching that Indians, to whom the very lands belong to, were subjected to such injustice by the greedy and such indifference by the government. What would have our World been if not for

This book is bound to change you, instigate you and silence you for a very long time. The fact that this is as good as an edge of the seat thriller is an added bonus. The author did a fantastic job in presenting the story in form of 2 layers. There is always a something that meets the eye(the investigations, trials, organizations etc) and then the "layer" that everyone misses.

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Have you ever wanted to ask something but you didn't feel like it deserved its own post but it isn't covered by one of our other scheduled posts? Allow us to introduce you to our new Simple Questions thread! Twice a week, every Tuesday and Saturday, a new Simple Questions thread will be posted for you to ask anything you'd like. And please look for other questions in this thread that you could also answer! A reminder that this is not the thread to ask for book recommendations. All book recommendations should be asked in /r/suggestmeabook or our Weekly Recommendation Thread.

Thank you and enjoy!

Speculative fiction is my favorite genre, and this book does exactly what I love about the genre perfectly. The way it strips down the material world to the point of being surreal in order to say something meaningful about humanity and human-ness is unlike anything else I've ever read.

5 stars. Highly recommend if you need 165 pages of existential milk and honey.

Hello,

This is a bit of an odd question. I’m not a conspiracy theorist at all, I don’t believe in lizard people or Qanon. However at the same time, there are some real conspiracies like Watergate, Epstein and so on.

My question is, is there a history of books being used as part of a conspiracy or propaganda campaign. Where a book is published and it appears to be innocent, but it later comes out that there was some dark money behind it, to inject a story. Were books used like this before the internet and podcasts?

The reason I ask is, a month ago I was in a shop and some old books were being sold for charity. I leafed through them and spotted one called ‘A Dream Too Far’. I read a bit, it’s a fairly generic thriller, an airport novel about a conspiracy involving the United States of Europe. Nothing too shocking and it seemed decent for what it was, a totalitarian state is a great plotline, I loved Handmaid’s Tale and 1984. However something about it felt weird. I had a strange feeling that the book was connected to UKIP, a UK political party which campaigned to leave the European Union.

I looked the book up, I thought I’d maybe find it was written by a UKIP counsellor or similar. I couldn’t find anything about the author, the book was self published by the author and I think his wife or sister. It was published in 1992, one year after UKIP was founded. Now, obviously the date could just be a coincidence. Perhaps the author heard a UKIP politician and it inspired him, or just an idea in the zeitgeist. Again, I’m not a conspiracy theorist, especially without evidence, but for some reason I have the strongest gut feeling that this book was a very quiet and subtle marketing gimmick for UKIP.

Then today I was listening to the BBC radio series ‘The Coming Storm’ which tracked how conspiracy theories like Qanon grew. In it they interviewed an author of a true crime book published in the 90s, which tangentially involved a politician. The author was a serious journalist, not some crank. When asked about the book, he was evasive and seemed to have very selective amnesia. Some of the book was unquestionably true, but also uncritically reported any rumour or drunken rambling. Reading between the lines it sounded like the author had been hired to smear certain politicians and that was the real aim.

Was this a thing that used to happen? Books secretly funded to subtly plant seeds? Or am I completely overthinking. If not, are there any other examples?

I just finished Slaughterhouse-Five around 2 weeks ago, thoroughly delighted with my first Vonnegut experience. Naturally, I immediately went to the store and bought more Vonnegut. Sirens of Titan was suggested by many as a great next read, and I'm now extremely glad that I took that advice!

I haven't finished it quite yet, but as I read through the passage below, it sounded alarmingly familiar.

He raised his hand to brush away the wetness on his cheek, and rattled the blue canvas bag of lead shot that was strapped around his wrist.

There were similar bags of shot around his ankles and his other wrist, and two heavy slabs of iron hung on shoulder straps-one slab on his chest and one on his back.

These weights were his handicaps in the race of life.

Immediately my brain reverts back to high school English, and I think to myself, "Huh, that sounds a lot like Harrison Bergeron."

Cue lightbulb moment.

I pulled out my phone and immediately search Harrison Bergeron, and what do you know? Published in 1961 by Kurt Vonnegut, 2 years after Sirens of Titan. I always had this nagging feeling that I had read Vonnegut before, but I could never determine what it was because I was only searching for novels and not short stories.

For any number of reasons, Harrison Bergeron has stuck with me for over a decade after reading it in High School. And now re-discovering that it was Vonnegut who wrote it absolutely tickles me.

I've heard a lot of love from Vonnegut fans about the ways he ties various parts of his works together, and I can safely say that I'm beyond hooked. There is no way that I'm ending the night without finishing the rest of Sirens of Titan, and I have Cat's Cradle on my shelf already, giving me Bambi eyes.

Just finished this book, and I really loved it. I know you had to take a lot of it with a grain of salt, and accept it for what is (a great story) and what it is not (scientifically believable), but I have a couple questions I’m hoping you can help me with:

.1. The big one - did Grace send ANY data back about his journey / meeting an alien race / how he accomplished what he did, or JUST the beetle with the mini farms? Seems you might want to detail your encounter with aliens but I didn’t see anything about any of that. Was he just hoping people would open up the tubes and figure it out?

.2. My own science expertise is lacking - but how could a blind species develop knowledge of microscopic particles? Is there a way to make that work?

Thanks!

Hello!

The Importance of Being Earnest was book #4 read for me so far this year, and I have to say it was quite good! A Victorian era farce at its finest! I have read that Oscar Wilde's play was a subject of influence for slapstick comedies such as Monty Python, and I can absolutely see it. It is cartoonish, ridiculous, not deep at all, and had me chuckling every page. This play is really well done. Oscar Wilde is brilliant.

The play itself has both nothing and everything to do with the value of earnest, and centers more around the name "Earnest". I don't really want to break it down and spoil the hijinks, but just know this is Oscar Wilde at his finest and most creative. The man invented wit. It is a not-so-subtle satire- an indictment on the upper classes of Victorian society- and it has no qualms it shaping this society out to be so absurd. This absurdity is reality, especially in the cases of love, courtship, marriage arrangements, and even the church. Our main "protagonists" Jack and Algernon, jump through hoops to maintain the strangest of falsities in hopes to lure and marry their beloveds, and keep their discreet pleasures alive and hidden. Everyone in this play is shallow as all hell, yet somehow I was left rooting for them all with the exception of Lady Bracknell (Gorgon!). And yet, these idiots often times display such wit. One liners such as “Oh! I don't think I would like to catch a sensible man. I shouldn't know what to talk to him about.”, run rampant throughout this work. I promise you that you will find lines both worth laughing about and reflecting over.

A word of advice: Read this book with audible or another audio book platform. And make sure you get a reader who specializes in performing different voices. Or a cast of narrators. I read along with the audio book narrated by Edward James Beesley, and he did a terrific job being consistent with the voices of all the characters. It made a world of difference, and added to the humor of the play. I think it brings out the more subtle nuances of some of the dialogue. Tell me what you think if you have read the play. And if you haven't read it, and are in the mood for something lighthearted and whimsical in these uncertain times, give it a try!

“Gwendolen, it is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that all his life he has been speaking nothing but the truth. Can you forgive me?”

“Never met such a Gorgon . . . I don't really know what a Gorgon is like, but I am quite sure that Lady Bracknell is one. In any case, she is a monster, without being a myth, which is rather unfair.”

I went into this knowing it wasn’t the most popular sequel. I don’t really like going into books with pre conceived notions. I was pleasantly at how much I enjoyed it despite being a much slower pace than Annihilation. I think the reason I enjoyed it so much is the fact that I love the inexplicable aspects of these stories.

The southern reaches mismanagement of Area X and Centrals real lack of caring about the issue is apparent in the southern reach HQ. It’s run down, clearly funds have been reallocated and mismanaged into things that are of larger concern to the government. Area X is an anomaly that has no clear motive, can’t be reasoned or negotiated with and is beyond our understanding, it “cleanses” areas and completely changes them. Through this mismanagement or some greater force at play the borders of Area X begin to grow out of the little bit of control they had over it.

My interpretation of this is that it represents our governments management of climate change. Their lack of care, the intentional reallocation of funds away from it and into wars and other pursuits. Through this lack of care the problem is growing beyond our control, It won’t be negotiated with it is simply a force.

I’m also so intrigued by the emphasis on the power of wording. When the 12th expedition went into Area X in Annihilation they were wiped of their real names and instead went by their job titles. Area X creates imitations of people and sends them out into the world. The idea is that by not using their real names you aren’t giving Area X access to a greater part of you, something personal. It doesn’t have that name to anchor itself into the world even further.

The idea that calling the edges of Area X a border gives it some level of control over where it ends its walls allowing it to expand.

The significance of the words used is also very present in the way the people on the 12th expedition choose to name the topical anomaly. They argue over whether it’s a tunnel or a tower. The idea that the perception between people can be so incredibly different giving the same thing a different meaning depending on what they choose to call it really emphasizes the significance of that in the grand scheme of things.

Lowry being revealed to be the Voice was crazy. I really thought it was cool that Control realized he was being hypnotized and wrote out all of the hypnotic commands from the previous director to use on whoever the voice was. Also the fact that it was so effective because Lowry has been on previous expeditions.

Whitby in the secret room all bunched up on the shelf amongst his insane art while breathing down Controls neck and then reaching out and touching him was such a scary mental image. Reminded me of “that scene” in the movie Parasite. Really sticks with you.

I really enjoyed the dynamic between Control and the imitation of the Biologist. It always felt like we were about to get an answer out of her yet we never really did. She was so mysterious but it had me “on the edge of my seat” just waiting for the right thing to be said.

The part where Control is looking at the small cabin he expects the biologist to be in through binoculars and after a long time starts to see the ground shifting revealing a sniper and then tons of other Central agents with guns surrounding the entire area was so scary to think about. Had he been less cautious he would’ve died or been captured.

Throughout the story you feel this presence right under the surface like something greater is at play. As Control investigates and slowly more things are revealed like whitbys scary room, the psychologists house, the plant and mouse in the drawer, the obsession with the lighthouse, the paint on the walls. It all comes together in a miraculous fashion in the end whenever the previous director appears yet again with the border expanding behind her. The moment when John looks at the photo of the lighthouse keeper and realizes it’s her in the background of the image based on some very specific posture gave me chills.

What in the world did the S&S brigade do? Are they entirely responsible for area X? Is that why the lighthouse keeper has become this crawler that’s scrawling words down the curving stairs of the topical anomaly? Will the border wall consume the entire planet? I have so many questions and I know most won’t be answered but I’m gonna read Acceptance anyways because I love the inexplicable. I love the feeling of dread and morbid curiosity that these books give me.

The ending was insane. The border expanding and Control fleeing for his life whilst the assistant director awaits it with pure bliss and loyalty, then the image of 2 jets flying overhead while control drives down the highway really emphasized the seriousness of it all. The fact that the spots the anthropologist and the surveyor returned to have become contamination zones was so scary. The idea that Area X could be elsewhere is terrifying. The image of a doorway into area X through the tide pool and them jumping in was chilling and such an ambiguous ending that left me wanting more.

There definitely will be some spoilers in this, so read with caution. I really enjoyed this short but impactful novel. However, I am trying to connect the message behind the trial & affair. There was so much focus on the affair that I felt like I was missing the bigger picture. Was it all to spark conversation on people and the choices they make and why they do something? I would love to see what others thought or how they interpreted the novel as a whole.

Before I delve into spoilers, I highly recommend Heaven as the perfect entrypoint into Mieko Kawakami's novels. It's short, sweet and perfectly captures the bittersweet humanity so potent in her stories.

Bullying is bad (duh)

I'm not sure if this is a "hot take," but I genuinely adore Heaven as a story about overcoming trauma and abuse. I've read so much praise about how "bleak" and "oppressive" the book feels, but I think those aren't even the book's strongest points The story even goes out of its way to showcase how pointless most bullying actually is.

Ninomiya, the main bully, does it purely to power trip. The book makes a point of having Ninomiya do these things in full view of the class, or his gang. Despite his "ace" status, he constantly needs validation from his peers to feel powerful. Meanwhile, his second, Momose, is a nihilistic edgelord that has no real motivation.

His interests are purely selfish, and is blunt about his thoughts on bullying. He doesn't do it for any real reason other than he can. When challenged on this perspective by the protagonist, he's confused that he cares this much, and I feel that's the turning point for the whole book. The realization that this is happening on the whims of fickle human beings is what's core to the truth behind bullying:

People are assholes, and there's no need to dignify pointless acts of cruelty.

Kill 'em with Kindness

And yet the book isn't as filled with cruelty as reviews make it seem.

More than half the book focuses on how relationships give people solace from the injustices they experience. Kojima, the dark-skinned girl with frazzy hair and allegedly bad hygiene, has so much compassion and empathy for the protagonist, it's so heartwarming. Every time the protagonist goes through something harrowing, Kojima is there to help after.

She gives him affection and validation for who he is, when the rest of the school is insistent on his worthlessness. The vacation date, where they explore "Heaven", encapsulates it perfectly. Even they, the outcasts, can have this beautiful moment, away from school, from bullies, from society's judgemental gaze. I also adore the letters they give each other, it's so cute and far removed from the cruelty of their lives.

While Kojima's unyielding optimistism and belief in "everything having a reason" does hurt her, it's still a source of strength. There's no "perfect" way to cope, and Kojima's character exists to highlight how kindness can both heal and hurt us. Too much kindess can mean letting people step on us for too long, but that's not to say it has no value. In the end, "value" is what we decide, and for Kojima, she's decided that suffering means something, and that's allows her to endure the abuse from her peers.

South of Heaven

In the end, the protagonist doesn't go down Momose or Kojima's path.

The protagonist's actual journey was about learning to open himself up to others and do what makes him happy. Is it simple? Yes, but simple answers weirdly have complicated paths. Throughout the whole book, the protagonist twists himselfs in knots, trying to find a reason for why he's bullied and why he lets himself get bullied.

He blames his lazy eye, yet Momose blatantly shoots down the idea, saying if it wasn't the eye, it would have been something else. Meanwile, Kojima believes the eye is a gift, as the abuse he receives is key to whatever journey life will take him on. A surprise third option appears in the form of a happy-go-lucky doctor, who the protagonist meets after being beaten up by bullies.

The doctor sees the protagonist's lazy eye, and notes that it would be cheap and easy to fix it. The doctor even offers to do it himself, which shocks the protagonist. Kojima hates the idea, as she has attached the value of their deep bond to the abuse he suffers due to his eye. Unbeknownst to her, the bullies do not care about the eye, at least not to the extent she believes. Had Momose heard about the surgery, he'd just laugh.

But neither opinion matters in the end. The protagonist gets the eye surgery, and cries from the joy of "seeing the world for the first time." It's crucial that this surgery happened AFTER the final bullying scene, because it means he's not doing it to escape bullies or prove Kojima wrong in her beliefs. He did it for himself.

Literally and figuratively, he gains a new outlook on life. His middle school bullies are gone and will likely not bother him ever again. Sadly, he also never sees Kojima again. But the important thing is that he built off those experiences and made his own decision. Despite his fears, he found the agency to change his life, talk about his trauma totally with a loved one, and fixed an insecurity he's had for a long time.

If that's not inspiring, I don't know what is.

I would love to discuss Heaven more in the comments, or even hear about books with similar themes!

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This is actually a companion book to a novel I read earlier this year called Isaac's Song. In that one, a young man named Isaac pens a series of personal diaries about growing up gay under his abusive father Jacob. DCFM is the reverse, with Jacob writing a series of letters to Isaac on his deathbed telling his life story from losing his brother as a child in rural Arkansas to married life in Kansas City and living alone after seperating from his wife. As you'd expect it's really sad to read. Jacob is well aware of how badly he's driven away everyone who loved him and as much as he wants to reconnect with his son, is too afraid of what might happen to actually reach out. Jacob is not a good person, he flat out admits it but he also tried really hard in his later years to be better and explain why he treated Isaac the way he did and whether or not he deserves forgiveness or even peace of mind is something left up to the reader in both novels. It's a book I definitely recommend, its just 300 pages so you can finish it in just a couple sittings, but these two books work best as a back to back set so if you read one, I'd say read both. My rating 4/5 💙📚

Just extremely baffled by the ending. Was Dick advocating for disabled people’s rights with John Isidore? I do agree that the book does bring up some amazing questions such as what makes us human and sequences that just made me blow my mind (the toad and the fake police station).

Or was it just a simple story of a man who was able to rekindle his failing relationship with his wife through emotionally traumatic events? I tried to see what he was saying about religion through Mercerism but I was just dumbstruck, especially that Oregon sequence. What was he advocating for and why did he write this book?

(There aren't really any plot spoilers in here, but I marked it as such because it's a general overview and I myself would want to avoid that if I hadn't cracked open the book yet) I wanted to love this book SO bad! When I saw the cover in my YA Lit class syllabus (I'm 27 and NOT one to hate a book just because it's required reading; for example, I hate poetry but the first novel we read in this class was in verse and I adored it) and read the prologue, I thought it was going to be AWESOME...

And then I continued reading. Oh my gosh, what a concept wasted on poor, boring execution. It could have been INCREDIBLE, but even I, a person who tends to enjoy being told rather than shown because the brain doesn't have to piece things together (I'm a tired college student okay?xD), quickly got tired of the info dumps. The author also seems to love using fragment sentences, and on more than one occasion I had to reread something to realize what they actually meant to say because it just didn't read right. The characters feel like stock characters-- the love interest, the nerdy science geek, the jock brother, etc. And the MC will feel one way one minute and then just COMPLETELY change within a page or two without anything triggering that change (like how she'll decide one thing about another character and then it's as if she never came to that conclusion based on what she does with them or says a page or two later). And... it's *boring*. Oh my word, is it such a slog to get through. Just when it gets exciting, it's back to running or back to basic hockey stuff or back to driving a vehicle with nothing else going on. It feels like it could have been at least one hundred pages shorter because so much of what I've read feels unnecessary to the actual point.

According to GoodReads, I'm 61% of the way through, but I'd honestly DNF it if I didn't have to read it for university. I'm trying to wrap my head around why so many people think it's such a great book. Like, of course it's great to see representation in books (another reason I was excited to read it), but aside from that... I just don't get it. Though I DO want a Grandma June spinoff, haha. Grandma June superiority!

I was thinking about when I was in 7th grade my teacher assigned us to read The Fault in Our Stars and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. He told us these were a few of his favorite books. I remember a lot of students hated The Fault in Our Stars and criticized the book during lectures. After all, he did decide to assign a teen romance novel to a bunch of middle schoolers so I assumed he was prepared or wasn't too bothered by the criticism. If I were a teacher, I don't think I would have my students read my favorite books unless it was a classic novel like Of Mice and Men or Animal Farm.

If you were a teacher, would you assign your favorite books to students? For those who are teachers, have you assigned your favorite book to your students and how did it go?

I don’t even know where to start with this book. Jacqueline Harpman’s I Who Have Never Known Men is one of the most quietly devastating things I’ve ever read. It’s not just bleak—it’s merciless. It takes everything you expect from a dystopian novel, strips it down to its rawest form, and then leaves you to sit in the silence of what’s left.

The setup is simple: thirty-nine women and one young girl are locked in an underground bunker. The women have fragments of memories from a world before; the girl only knows captivity. Their only contact with the outside world comes in the form of silent, indifferent guards. Then, one day, something happens that completely upends their reality—not into freedom, but into something even worse.

And that’s the thing about this book: it never gives you what you think it will. There’s no grand revelation, no satisfying resolution. Just an eerie, relentless meditation on loneliness, survival, and the sheer indifference of the universe. It’s not about rebellion. It’s not about hope. It’s about existence in its purest, most brutal form.

If you’re looking for a dystopian novel with answers, this isn’t it. Harpman doesn’t care about neat endings or catharsis. What she does, though, is burrow into your brain with questions that won’t leave. What makes us human? Is it love? Is it memory? Can you even be human if you’ve never been touched, never been loved, never even been acknowledged as a person?

This book is the literary equivalent of staring into the void. Some will find it profound. Others will find it unbearable. Either way, I don’t think I’ll ever shake it off.

If you’ve read it, I need to know—how the hell do you even process this?

The past year of reading has been my favorite year of reading since I’ve been alive and this book has confirmed that. Samuel Hamilton may be my favorite character in fiction ever. Steinbeck’s writing is beyond remarkable, so good you can feel in the writing even he knows it. I’ve laughed, cried, trembled in fear and felt hope and disgust within almost every couple chapters that would pass. This book’s theme and parallel to the Cain and Abel story is so devastating that the final pages of the book had me by the neck. I went to bible school in my twenties, and wrestled with the idea of free will so violently that I genuinely feel this book has healed some of the religious trauma of my past. Thank you John Steinbeck.

Timshel

Currently having one of the most special and profound experiences a reader can be blessed with: I’m about halfway thru East of Eden and I truly believe this will be one of if not one number one favorites of all time. There is no feeling that can match the insatiable desire to just go home and continue reading; I look forward to picking the book up every night after work. I’ve never really understood what people mean when they describe a book as “rich”, until now. Every detail, every morsel of this book is chok full of the most interesting little insights, character work, timeless wisdoms, and humorous quips. Ugh. I fucking love this book. I just know I’m going to wish I could go back and read it for the first time again so I’m savoring every bit of it before I can no longer experience it for the first time again.

What books have y’all had a similar experience with where you realize you’re reading an alll time favorite before even finishing?

Alright fellow bibliophiles, it’s confession time. I currently own 35 books, and… gulp... 18 of them are unread. I swear my books are starting to judge me from the shelves. I catch them side-eyeing me while I’m doomscrolling on my phone or rewatching Friends for the 27th time.

The guilt is real, folks. It’s like my bookshelf is haunted by the ghosts of plots unexplored and characters unmet. I’ve officially put myself on a book-buying ban (yes, even during the World Book Fair 2025 in Delhi—cue dramatic sob).

So, I need to know—how many unread books are too many? At what point do we go from “charming home library” to “dragon hoarding literary treasure”? Asking for a friend (okay, it’s me, I’m the friend).

Also, any tips on resisting the siren call of shiny new books while our TBR piles stare into our souls? Let’s support each other in this struggle!

Just wanted to share this story by Samantha Mills, which won the 2022 Nebula and Hugo awards. https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/rabbit-test/ It's very chilling to read in a time when abortion rights are being stripped away. I think that fiction can be a very powerful force for political movements, as it can help us understand people's personal experiences beyond slogans and statistics.

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Thank you and enjoy!

This book was so captivating. The genre of book is more of a suspense thriller for me. I mean there is enough drama in this but any time >!Anton Chigurh comes, I am up on my feet wondering what kind of hell is is this psycho going to do.!< The suspense and eeriness of >!Chigurh!< is appreciable. This book is more of a cat and mouse game with many cats and mice in a sprawl. >!Some cats made it some didn’t, but in the end no mice ever made it.!<

I wish the dialogues had more punctuation. At some points the dialogues were just boring but mostly it was good for me. This is such a must read book for me. The way the story is set makes this book more enjoyable.

I’m really enjoying the book so far. I’m about half-way through. But one thing that is bugging me is the MC Toru Watanabe. Why do female characters fawn over him so much? Am I missing something? He’s not particularly interesting, or likeable, yet almost every girl in the novel keeps fawning over him like he’s James Bond. It’s getting to the point where it’s taking me out of the book whenever Midori is on her hands and knees for this man after one date. Even Reiko lowkey wants to fuck him and even says she wants the deets about his cock right in front of Naoko.

I know this is a silly criticism, but am I missing something here?

(Please no spoilers).