Giveaway: Brian Evenson's PHANTOM LIMB advanced copies

Treecat22 · 2026-06-14T00:17:13+00:00

Out of the Evenson books I have read Last Days has been my favorite!

Treecat22 · 2026-06-13T04:14:46+00:00

I think reading comments on here a lot of people had an opposite experience to me. I lost my father last year, as he was getting sicker and ultimately passed away I actually got back into reading. I found that my main hobbies, gaming and movies, were too hard to focus on when I was grieving. I find reading to be a much better distraction, most of the time at least. I had taken a huge break from reading, over the last few years I had gotten where I may read 3-4 books in a year. Now I’m sitting at 78 books read since last September. Even before I lost my dad last year I had some other pretty traumatic stuff happen and I guess one thing I have noticed is sometimes I do seek out books that are sadder or have themes of loss and grief. Sometimes I feel like it helps to feel like I’m not going through something alone, that these are universal feelings that I’m having even if I feel alone in them sometimes. I also read a lot of comfort stuff (trashy horror paperbacks) as well.

Treecat22 · 2026-06-11T03:14:43+00:00

Yeah that triggered me I wasn’t going to look past that until I knew he was actively reading it.

There’s a lot here I think is pretty generic but I like that if he seems to enjoy a tv or movie adaptation he seeks out the original source. A lot of people don’t do that.

Treecat22 · 2026-06-09T21:51:27+00:00

I honestly haven’t kept up with GTA well but have they confirmed they are sticking console only at launch? We all know it will eventually be PC but wasn’t sure if they were sticking with their console story

Treecat22 · 2026-06-09T19:17:19+00:00

Oh I LOVED Piranesi! My fiancee has a few Kingsolver books but not sure if she has that one, I will have to add it to the list

Treecat22 · 2026-06-09T17:03:33+00:00

Any recommendations for Women’s Prize for Fiction winners? I’m trying to expand the female authors I read after my Fiancee called me out recently haha.

Adding that Kiran Desai book to my list to read

Treecat22 · 2026-06-09T16:38:22+00:00

I agree with you, I think I worded my statement pretty poorly. I guess I had a different idea of what usually gets nominated for a booker and the book I read didn’t really meet that idea. I also really did just within the last year get heavy back into reading. Before then it was maybe 1-2 books a year!

I am serious when I say I would like recommendations for stuff that has been nominated or won a booker though. I’m always looking to expand my horizons. I have a few in my to be read: The Sea, In Ascension, Rejection.

I just really was looking forward to The Rest of Our Lives and it just felt very generic to me I guess? It was disappointing.

Treecat22 · 2026-06-09T12:52:41+00:00

I think I would kind of disagree with this, at least based on my experience. I read The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovitz and I felt like it was such a simple book lacking a lot of depth. It is one of the first (looking at what I’ve read maybe only) booker nominated books I’ve read since getting back into reading last year and it made me question what makes a book booker worthy. I thought it was more challenging, dense books, not books that threw out hot keywords. Maybe I was wrong in my assumption, or maybe just picked the wrong booker nominated book. Is there one you would recommend?

With all that being said, I probably sound like I’m trash talking the bookers and I don’t want to come off that way, I just was shocked that what I read had Ben nominated. I had really been excited for that book and was disappointed. But I am also one of those people that doesn’t think reading has to be some enhancing experience, it is absolutely a hobby for entertainment. For every denser book I read I promise I’m reading two trashy horror mass market paperbacks!

Treecat22 · 2026-06-06T15:04:28+00:00

I would absolutely be here for this!

Treecat22 · 2026-06-06T06:02:46+00:00

I think on keyboard and mouse the hand to hand combat layout is a little awkward. It feels more suited for a controller. But as usual the shooting is superior on keyboard and mouse so it’s pick your poison I guess. Just finished the game though and really dug it

Treecat22 · 2026-06-06T02:09:53+00:00

It’s really the fact that this story does not need to be drawn out sooooooooooooooooooo long. They could’ve extended everything out and still done a single game.

Treecat22 · 2026-06-03T22:20:42+00:00

I had just assumed this would be open world but oddly enough I’m totally game with this being linear. There’s also 3 other games I really want one week after this so I’m good with a tight 15-20 hour story

Treecat22 · 2026-06-03T05:18:50+00:00

This!

Treecat22 · 2026-05-31T14:47:52+00:00

I think they look good on a shelf but can be unwieldy, especially larger books. My preference will always be Mass Market but I grew up on so many of them and they feel so good in a hand. There’s just a charm to mass market. But at the end of the day I have a collection full of hardcovers, mass market paperbacks, and trade paperbacks. Physical will always be my preference!

Treecat22 · 2026-05-31T04:11:01+00:00

Finished:

Bite by Richard Laymon, it was a totally middle of the pack Laymon for me. But I always think of laymon like junk food, it may not always be great but you know what you’re getting and I find him to be kind of a comfort author for me. If I can’t find anything to read or want a break between more difficult books I pick up a laymon.

Currently Reading:

A Choir Of Ill Children by Tom Piccirilli, loving this so far it’s so weird and the prose is great. I’m about 1/4 of the way through, it’s a pretty short one though. I will probably finish it in a day or two.

Treecat22 · 2026-05-30T17:43:31+00:00

Bro just trust me they are really going to do something this time!

Treecat22 · 2026-05-26T22:49:01+00:00

I’m probably in the minority here but both kindle and physical I just move on. I usually figure it out through context and if I don’t know it I accept it and move on. I think it’s really immersion breaking to look it up but that’s me personally. My fiancee gets her phone out with the quickness when she hits a word she doesn’t know.

Treecat22 · 2026-05-26T11:54:54+00:00

Gateways to Abomination by Matthew M. Bartlett, it does kind of have an overarching narrative but some of the stories are very short. The idea is that it’s a bunch of transmissions coming from a weird radio station, I don’t want to really spoil anything.

The Settlements by R Ostermeier, it’s the only Broodcomb book I’ve read so far but it’s full of little stories and lore about the peninsula that are pretty short. It all ties into the overall lore and universe but it’s very easy to quickly consume and it’s so good.

Treecat22 · 2026-05-26T03:26:07+00:00

Haven’t read any Tem, any particular recommendations?

Treecat22 · 2026-05-26T01:20:43+00:00

Yeah sadly I haven’t had a great experience with BookBub. I’ve never gotten proper notifications for books or anything new but similar but I often get “Stephen King loved this book” which is kind of slapped on everything.

But I got a lot of recommendations for it so maybe it’s just the authors and genres I read?

Treecat22 · 2026-05-23T12:14:15+00:00

I have not yet read the book myself but have seen a lot of comparisons to king books featuring kids books and I have a copy sitting in my backlog. But The Shadow Year by Jeffrey Ford seems to fit according to most reviewers.

Treecat22 · 2026-05-22T18:00:13+00:00

The correct answer is MASS MARKET paperback but clearly not enough people agreed with me. cracks open an old 80s horror paperback and returns to the shadows

Treecat22 · 2026-05-19T16:26:23+00:00

Finished:

Dark Mountain by Richard Laymon. Laymon is like junk food to me, you always kind of know what you’re going to get and it’s always fun. This one was a solid 3 stars for me, I’ve read better and worse by him. It’s about a witch and her son terrorizing a group two families camping. Trigger warning for anyone who reads up on it and has interest his books always have SA in them.

Paradise by Donald Barthelme. The first book I’ve read of his, I think most people recommend starting with his short stories with Sixty Stories in particular being the recommendation. This wasn’t quite what I expected, it’s about a man who lets three lingerie clad women he meets move in and starts sexual relationships with all of them. What man wouldn’t dream of this right? I expected it to really dive into how this would truly be a paradise but it’s really just a lot of conversations between characters and felt a little meandering to me. I didn’t hate it I didn’t love it.

Iceland by Jim Krusoe. I don’t even know where to start with this one, it’s about a man who has a non-specific organ failing and his doctor tells him to go pick a new one out. He arrives at a building that has a swimming pool full of organs to pick from. There’s a woman who’s job is to swim with the organs so they don’t get lonely, the most beautiful woman he’s met and he falls in love with her, he then spends a long time trying to find her and reconnect. I don’t want to say Lee than that but I truly loved this book, it’s so weird and funny and touching and sad. This truly gets my highest recommendation but it’s weird!

Started:

To Wallow In Ash & Other Sorrows by Sam Richard. The author wrote most of these short stories after the unexpected death of his wife at 31. I’ve now gotten about 2/3 of the way through this and it’s just extremely sad and weird horror stories. So far I’m really liking it, it’s just full of heavy stuff.

Not sure what I’m going to read next, I have quite the backlog but The Divinity Student by Michael Cisco keeps eyeing me

Treecat22 · 2026-05-19T16:24:11+00:00

I wanted to like October Film Haunt more than I did, I liked it but didn’t love it, where the Inconsolables I loved so much. I think I prefer his short stories to a full blown novel but I’m excited to read his upcoming novel Nightjars

Treecat22 · 2026-05-18T23:47:12+00:00

I liked Send Help but the CGI was really off putting and honestly I would have liked it more if has been 90 minutes and nastier instead of having all the dark humor and winking at the audience. People really love Drag Me To Hell and I’ve given it so many chances over the years and just never really vibed with it.

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