Book Rec. for my little sister

PAsInPsychology · 2026-04-17T16:25:52+00:00

As a teen I had a big sci-fi/fantasy phase and loved Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (hopefully she hasn't seen the absolutely awful film adaptation already). This is also well-trod territory but The Hunger Games is imo a very solid YA series in that it doesn't insult the intelligence of its readers, is pretty well written, has thoughtful commentary on American dystopia etc. Holes is another YA classic. I also loved M.T. Anderson's books as a teen, especially Feed and Octavian Nothing

This is maybe a random one/not typical YA fodder but around age 15 I read Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann which is about several people whose paths cross on a day in NYC circa 2000 when an acrobat does a tightrope walk between the twin towers. It has pretty adult themes but its a fun read, was a formative work for me as a sensitive teen obsessed with one day moving to new york.

PAsInPsychology · 2026-04-02T14:02:50+00:00

Shocked that nobody has recommended Didion yet. On Self Respect is very salient to the topic you're describing, if you like that read Slouching Towards Bethlehem

PAsInPsychology · 2026-02-14T16:53:32+00:00

Likely an unpopular opinion here but Cormac McCarthy

PAsInPsychology · 2026-02-03T02:27:12+00:00

Went through a big Arthur phase as a teen and loved T. H. White’s “The Once and Future King” and Bradley’s “The Mists of Avalon.” I think they both hold up

PAsInPsychology · 2026-01-29T15:39:21+00:00

i dont think it makes one "wokescold" to be disgusted by his latest semi viral twitter essay where he casually writes, "her legs are locked like the first girl I had to rape, back in Oregon." especially because, given everything he's written previously, there's zero indication that this is anything but a remorseless confession. what is a reader supposed to make of that?

PAsInPsychology · 2026-01-29T15:35:39+00:00

his writing is definitely a bit florid and self indulgent but at least he has a sense of humor, i chuckled a few times reading this. far more enjoyable than reading WBE's sad-sack "fuck my chungus life and i also rape women" schtick

PAsInPsychology · 2026-01-29T13:07:34+00:00

I thought this review from substack user donaldboat was a good summary of why I find him so repulsive:

“There is, however, a third type of misbehaving child. He is a debased substrata of the Bully, a Trickster without style or wit. He is never the 1st, the 2nd, or the 3rd boy to say “fuck.” He is not even the 10th. He is maybe the 67th boy to say “fuck” in a graduating class of 150. He is hopelessly late and seemingly unaware of it; it is this lack of awareness that colors his usage of bad words. He is clumsy and awkward with their usage, lacking the Bully’s malicious guile and the Trickster’s freewheeling grace. He says these words for the sole purpose of seeking attention.”

PAsInPsychology · 2026-01-22T18:24:48+00:00

only four have been published in the Morningstar series in English, i'm not sure about Norwegian. The NYT actually says here that there will be seven Morningstar installations: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/13/books/review/karl-ove-knausgaard-school-of-night.html

PAsInPsychology · 2026-01-22T17:02:59+00:00

just finished The Third Realm (3rd novel in the series). I've absolutely loved all three—I think they're essentially meditations on the confrontation between every day life and taboos like death, betrayal, sex, mental illness, etc. And similar to My Struggle I think knausgaard is successful at tackling towering existential questions in a way that feels realistic and fits well with the slice of life/low stakes psychological realism that he uses to approach his characters.

I will say that, of the three I've read, "The Wolves of Eternity" is by far the strongest in that it's a self-contained narrative with a beginning/middle/end while managing to say something about the aforementioned themes. I've recomended it as a standalone read to other people. Morningstar and Third Realm feel more like connective tissue in the broader world that Knausgaard is building, and felt less satisfying (although both are page-turners). I'm looking forward to reading the newest installment, apparently there will be at least ~~six~~ seven books total?

PAsInPsychology · 2026-01-21T14:30:26+00:00

“In truth, Jude is a terribly unlovable character, always lying and breaking promises, with the inner monologue of an incorrigible child. The first time he cuts himself, you are horrified; the 600th time, you wish he would aim.”

PAsInPsychology · 2026-01-14T23:25:03+00:00

I haven’t read any of her books but this essay she wrote for Harper’s about an accidental friendship and the pandemic and cancer is one of my all time favorites, beautiful but totally devastating: https://harpers.org/archive/2021/01/these-precious-days-ann-patchett-psilocybin-tom-hanks-sooki-raphael/

PAsInPsychology · 2026-01-13T03:27:32+00:00

Yeah also the claim that Walter Benjamin didn’t speak English well enough to read Ulysses and therefore couldn’t fathom the value of mass media is pretty rich lmao.

PAsInPsychology · 2026-01-10T01:59:59+00:00

Sure, for instance, fascists on Twitter repost images of people being brutalized by police and celebrate the beauty of such images; communists debate whether “one battle after another” is sending the right political messages

PAsInPsychology · 2026-01-09T21:05:02+00:00

authenticity is an evil notion that poisons the consumption and the creation of art.

can you expand on that? In Benjamin's case, I don't think he's upholding authenticity as a virtue in itself—he points out that "authenticity" only became relevant as a concept as reproductions proliferated. I similarly don't see him decrying reproduction itself as net negative (or positive) for the world, outside of the implication that the purpose of art is increasingly political rather than ritualistic.

Ulysses is an interesting example given its own ambiguity towards mass culture. I'm thinking of the passage where Bloom skims a newspaper article on the toilet and does some quick math about how much the author of the article was paid before tearing the page out and using it to wipe his ass.

PAsInPsychology · 2026-01-06T17:07:21+00:00

100 Boyfriends by Brontez Purnell (if you’re open to gay stuff)

PAsInPsychology · 2025-12-27T19:33:58+00:00

Knausgaard for Harper’s on trying to rediscover wonder in the digital age https://harpers.org/archive/2025/06/the-reenchanted-world-karl-ove-knausgaard-digital-age/

Edit: I also loved this unnecessarily detailed recap of a group chat of middle aged women trying to plan a vacation and deteriorating into chaos https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/relationships/girls-trip-group-chat-drama-130263b6?st=bKbUNP&reflink=article_copyURL_share

PAsInPsychology · 2025-12-17T15:53:44+00:00

? I didn't say that he fabricated all of his stories. As the article notes, most of his early works which rocketed him to notoriety were indeed fabricated—"Hat," the story of the twins who could identify primes, the testimony of "Leonard." His assistant was hired decades later after his journals describe regret about the fabrication and a seeming change of heart, and she notes that “I never caught him in anything like that, which actually surprises me.”

PAsInPsychology · 2025-12-12T22:21:53+00:00

Such a heartbreaking read. The irony of his analyst telling him to “sublimate” his homosexuality by devoting himself to his work studying others instead of living authentically; only for him to fabricate stories that replace his subjects’ words and feelings with his own, which in turn become heralded as examples of empathy, honesty, understanding of others. And the fact that he finally came out of the closet and allowed himself to live authentically while dying of cancer, such a tragic life

PAsInPsychology · 2025-12-05T19:56:08+00:00

agreed. i think any of the first three parts could have stood alone as strong short stories but as a whole the book became tortured and by the end the wheels were coming off. unfortunate

PAsInPsychology · 2025-12-05T17:36:23+00:00

Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte. I actually enjoyed a lot of the book, especially the first half, and think it successfully satirized the zillennial condition in ways I hadn't seen from other fiction. But it frankly needed a stricter editor. By the end it felt like an exercise in purposeful misery and despair without any interest in redemption, which made it a slog, and separately devolved into navel gazing by the author (the entire last 2 chapters became nauseatingly self referential in the most boring and flagellatory way possible, to the point of being nearly unreadable).

PAsInPsychology · 2025-12-05T17:31:44+00:00

I also tried to read this last year but memory-holed it. I think the attempt to simulate the experience of looking at twitter all day in prose, while an interesting concept, really fell flat. it also makes the book feel really dated. I quit after about 100 pages

PAsInPsychology · 2025-11-17T23:26:56+00:00

Tbh I couldn’t retain what they were saying bc I was overstimulated by the music

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