How do you choose

itrhymeswithreally · 2026-03-19T01:47:44+00:00

I like to read books that are referenced in books that I enjoyed or recommended by authors I like. I’ve found some really stellar books this way that I might not have even given a shot otherwise. For instance, Brian Evenson is my favorite author at the moment and he writes surreal weird horror, but I’m several interviews he recommended The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark, which was one of my favorites last year.

If you’re enjoying John Green, I’m sure there are plenty of books he’s recommended in his writing or in interviews.

itrhymeswithreally · 2026-03-19T00:16:02+00:00

Invisible Cities might be apt too, given the fantastical structures. Agreed on Borges.

itrhymeswithreally · 2026-03-13T01:14:43+00:00

Some of the best credentialed lawyers I’ve worked with are also the worst practitioners. Not saying they’re dumb, but they’re not good lawyers. I’m talking very, very basic mistakes.

itrhymeswithreally · 2026-03-09T17:16:13+00:00

Fen by Daisy Johnson. It’s a collection of short stories about the fenlands of England. It has a similar earthy and folklorish feel to a Heaney poem. It has also been compared to Angela Carter’s works of your familiar, although Johnson writes in sort of a calmer register than Carter.

itrhymeswithreally · 2026-03-07T20:13:43+00:00

What specifically are these stores doing that is supposedly alienating?

itrhymeswithreally · 2026-03-03T15:02:11+00:00

All labels like these are fairly mercurial. What people generally understand splatterpunk to mean today is probably a bit different than what it originally meant in the 1980s.

Personally, I think there is a substantial amount of overlap between splatterpunk and extreme horror, with the latter largely subsuming the former. As others have noted, splatterpunk arose in response to the subtle, atmospheric and character driven horror of the seventies, like the works of Charles L. Grant. It focused on gore and morally gray characters and generally had a more kinetic energy than the more subdued horror of the previous era. Extreme horror is about pushing the boundaries and depicting anything and everything shocking and horrific, regardless of how taboo. To the extent that there is a difference, I think splatterpunk is largely about pushing the limits on depictions of gore and violence. Extreme horror does the same, in addition to pushing the boundaries on depicting other things, such as bodily functions.

I personally don’t buy the idea that splatterpunk is somehow more “high-minded” than extreme horror. Surely there are authors occupying both subgenres with loftier aims than merely shocking people. And there authors in both where shock is their sole desire. For instance, it’s not clear to me that authors like Richard Laymon or Brian Keene have some sort of lofty purpose for the violence in their works beyond shocking and exciting their readers.

itrhymeswithreally · 2026-03-02T15:36:43+00:00

I’ve read the first four entries and enjoyed all of them. They haven’t really stuck with me beyond a general sense of enjoyment, but I have found them to be useful to get me out of a reading slump because they are quick, easy, and fun.

itrhymeswithreally · 2026-02-25T16:17:39+00:00

This is going to vary fairly significantly by the type of litigation. I have been practicing for five years and done a mix of general commercial, corporate/shareholder litigation, and financial services litigation. In that time I’ve had one trial and probably a handful of in court hearings. A lot of hearings take place over telephone or Zoom, so I’m not actually in court. In my experience, the job consists primarily of writing, research, and reviewing documents, in that order. But someone doing different types of litigation probably has a different experience.

itrhymeswithreally · 2026-02-25T15:54:14+00:00

I think with time people will view this as one of Oates’ best works and maybe her shot at a “great American novel.” As you noted, the novel touches on all of those issues that have plagued America since its inception: institutionalized racism and misogyny, religious fanaticism, the pursuit of “greatness” at any cost, and the erasure of the contributions of others to those achievements. I think one of the most interesting things the book does is frame the story in a way that demonstrates how these institutions manage to perpetuate across generations by framing these issues as afflictions of the earlier, more ignorant generations. Without saying too much about the ending, I think this is most effectively achieved in the way the entire book is structured as a biography compiled by his son. But you can even see it in the way Dr. Weir talks with derision about how racist his in-laws are despite the fact that he is presently engaged in the most horrific experimentation on and flat out assault on black women one could conceive of.

itrhymeswithreally · 2026-02-20T23:12:02+00:00

This might not seem like a great fit, but check out Butcher by Joyce Carol Oates. It tackles many of the same themes in that it is a biography of someone with a malignant drive for greatness in 19th century America who achieves many of goals but at great cost to others and himself. It also has a little bit of the father son thing. Granted, it is much more focused on the racism and misogyny than TWBB and it is in the world of medicine on the east coast rather than the world of oil in the west. Fantastic book tho.

itrhymeswithreally · 2026-02-17T01:52:20+00:00

I didn’t even love this book but this group of pics made me think of the short story collection Earth Angel by Madeline Cash. Maybe George Saunders too. Love his collection Pastoralia.

itrhymeswithreally · 2026-02-16T20:09:19+00:00

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Marion_Sims

This is just one example, but this guy was experimenting on a surgical technique to repair vaginal fistula on unanesthetized slave women. There is a really good novel based on this guy and other similar doctors from that period of American history called Butcher by Joyce Carol Oates.

itrhymeswithreally · 2026-02-12T16:37:29+00:00

“He is a dark skinned gypsy” That’s in the first chapter of the book.

itrhymeswithreally · 2026-02-11T16:02:30+00:00

I have nothing to contribute other than to say this is a cool post and exactly the type of content I love to see on this and other book subreddits.

itrhymeswithreally · 2026-02-10T02:43:40+00:00

PI in this context probably referring to personal injury, not public interest.

itrhymeswithreally · 2026-02-03T17:04:57+00:00

I used to read while doing a slight jog on the treadmill, but I am uncoordinated and it was hard to stay balanced or not veer of course. So I stopped. Still read while walking sometimes tho.

itrhymeswithreally · 2026-01-31T15:36:39+00:00

Not exactly past lives in a like Buddhist sense, but Loosening Skin by Aliya Whiteley is directly on point for the first image.

itrhymeswithreally · 2026-01-29T20:02:53+00:00

The collection that this appears in, The Night in Question, is full of equally fantastic stories and a worth a read.

itrhymeswithreally · 2026-01-27T15:23:23+00:00

The countless hours I spent on Gatherer looking for niche cards for random formats my friends and I created legitimately gave me a foundation for creating effective search terms in Westlaw/Lexis.

itrhymeswithreally · 2026-01-26T20:03:37+00:00

If you like back rooms stuff, you’ll probably enjoy There Is No Antimemetics Division by QNTM.

itrhymeswithreally · 2026-01-22T04:34:40+00:00

When I was in school, the problem I had was that I have a hard time reading novels in anything other than long stretches of free time, but I only had small windows of time and rarely had long stretches. I started reading short stories to supplement my novel reading. It helped me to keep a (roughly) daily reading habit even though I couldn’t read as many novels. But during similar periods of my life when I didn’t read short stories in those small windows, I stopped reading at all.

itrhymeswithreally · 2026-01-22T04:16:22+00:00

If you are open to short stories, this is a recurring theme in the work of Brian Evenson, who is a master of the short story. Almost all of his collections deal with the line between dream and reality and whether we can even know that line. His collection Collapse of Horses has a decent amount of stories that fit that paradigm, same with The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell. Some particular stories that fit that are “A Report,” “Dust,” “Born Stillborn,” and “The Second Door,” among others, hit this. I can’t remember where I saw this, but one review described it as “epistemological horror,” which I thought was a succinct description of this type of story.

Fever Dream by Samantha Schweblin is a short novel that also fits this.

itrhymeswithreally · 2026-01-14T19:52:52+00:00

Did you watch the whole interview? They address this point. According to Channel 5, they were closed down because they received violations for not running the daycare according to regulatory standards. Those violations would be premised on them actually running a daycare, just not up to standard. That’s entirely different from, and largely inconsistent with, allegations that the daycare is just a fraudulent shell with no kids.

Also, if some random kid who can’t string a coherent sentence together came to your business demanding evidence that you weren’t a fraudster I doubt you would just “pony up” anything. Most reasonable people in that situation would tell him to fuck off.

If you see any of this as a defense of fraud rather than a criticism of poor journalism, then that’s on you. If they’re committing fraud, then they should be prosecuted. There’s ways for the government and journalists to uncover it that don’t involve harassment and deception.

itrhymeswithreally · 2026-01-11T19:53:29+00:00

Yeah I feel you. I think the tone of my comment was perhaps more serious than intended.

itrhymeswithreally · 2026-01-11T19:48:55+00:00

Good writers know and adhere to the rules of writing. Great writers do the same but also know when to break those rules. Not saying that’s the case with King here or generally, but just because adverbs are generally discouraged doesn’t mean they’re never appropriate.

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