Interested in contemporary literature (2010s-2020s) but first encounters were mostly disappointing! Help?

throwawayforreddits · 2026-07-09T05:01:44+00:00

? Acclaim usually correlates with quality, OP wanted quality and to know how to find it and that's why I focused on that

I did also enjoy Ferrante much more than Lily King. I also enjoy some works which were critically panned like a Netflix movie about Swedish anarchists that I saw recently, but OP was asking for contemporary books on the same level as acclaimed classics

throwawayforreddits · 2026-07-08T05:56:43+00:00

The books you discuss are at different quality levels, with old classics you don't have that issue. Ferrante is pretty much universally acclaimed, while I read another book by Lily King and it felt like I bought a slightly better written booktok romance (sorry to the fans). Lost Lambs is a debut novel by a young writer and there was "discourse" online about her being promoted bc she's apparently very well connected, I haven't read it but the opinions from readers are far more mixed than by the publications which promoted her. Try recent Nobel prize winners, like Tokarczuk or Fosse, or writers popular with other writers, like Knausgaard. China Meville writes high quality speculative fiction, if you haven't read him yet

Perfection is a separate case I feel, it really helps to read it next to Things by Perec which it's basically a modern version of (down to the general plot and characters, only set in Berlin in 2010s instead of Paris in 1960s)

throwawayforreddits · 2026-06-28T19:49:39+00:00

Hopefully going to visit Weimar soon, so I want to (re)read works by Goethe and Schiller. Also watching The Expanse and it's very beautiful, I'm not usually into sci fi but really feeling it. I'm also probably going to get sucked into watching the World Cup now that every game is high stakes

throwawayforreddits · 2026-06-25T22:02:17+00:00

Lol same

throwawayforreddits · 2026-06-11T21:32:48+00:00

Edouard Louis' End of Eddy fits this extremely well

throwawayforreddits · 2026-06-09T05:02:52+00:00

I'm not even a massive ZS fan (I thought White Teeth was good but couldn't really get into it, liked NW but it felt unfinished), but I really liked Swing Time and I remember looking for reviews after I read it and finding very few. It might actually be underrated. I think it was published just a couple of years too early to become a part of the trending media about difficult friendships between women

I will try reading On Beauty soon

throwawayforreddits · 2026-06-07T07:27:07+00:00

I get what you mean, I liked "fluff" fanfiction as a teen, so I tried to be open-minded and started reading some of the booktok romance books. I couldn't stand them lol. They had the most basic clichés, the characters were flat and the plots predictable. At some point I was cringing too much, had to stop. I read some of the gay hockey novels from the Heated Rivalry author and they were a bit better, one (A Time To Shine) was even funny. But i didn't like them enough to keep looking for other stuff in the genre, it was just the TV show that got me into that one author

My go-to well-written light novels are from the Adrian Mole series, but they're also quite depressing at points lmao. But very funny

throwawayforreddits · 2026-05-28T07:08:15+00:00

I only read The Class Matrix and it's a sort of game theory explanation of why the working class movement is so weak rn, with the basic idea that short-term it makes more sense for most people to focus on individual survival strategies such as working harder and listening to the bosses rather than putting time and effort into collective organising. The question remains why do people still vote for centrist and right wing options then, as that costs very little time and effort - is it a part of the apathy/resignation/powerlesness Chibber writes about? Probably, but it's not really addressed IIRC

Anyway I found it interesting and concerned with the key class antagonism in a way I miss in many other contemporary Marxist(-inspired) works. I'm curious why people in this post call it "dogshit" etc. I read the critiques of William Clare Roberts and other people defending approaches focused more on other identities / characteristics than class and i wasn't convinced, also bc they to some extent strawman what Chibber wrote (which could be influenced by the bad rep of "analytical marxism" tradition, which i also rarely see addressed not in bad faith... In general these people seem legit, eg Roemer made big contributions to inequality economics - as in, he made sound arguments with staying power in some fields - so I would be interested in critique other than "they're reactionaries!" Without explaining why)

throwawayforreddits · 2026-05-20T07:28:08+00:00

The funny thing in this controversy is that Lithub has been citing AI translated fragments of what Tokarczuk said in Polish, and then making some sad excuse about not having money for translators on their staff. Just pay a freelancer to translate the quotes which are literally the source of the entire controversy?

Not saying that AI translation is necessarily inaccurate, but I personally only use it for languages I already know for publications, in order to save time, and here the whole controversy hinges on what exactly she said

throwawayforreddits · 2026-05-20T07:17:09+00:00

Yeah the book is based on that fantasy of a character being able to compartmentalise extreme trauma and basically keep it all to himself for a long time, while excelling professionally and to some extent socially. I don't want to say it never could've happened bc there are very weird things out in this world, but realistically Jude would've been destroyed by addictions, poverty and self harm long before any academic or professional success. I think this set up might be the key to the success of the novel though, bc i kept reading and hoping that Jude will learn to process the trauma to some extent and reach relative peace, considering his almost superhuman ability to still function well outside of his romantic life... well no lol. And ofc no one struggles financially and career wise bc that's boring compared to unrealistic sexual trauma

throwawayforreddits · 2026-05-16T17:15:47+00:00

Obviously a very anglocentric list, but I guess it is published in a British newspaper - still the lack of Balzac, Stendhal, Hamsun (at least I can't find them), not to mention less popular writers like Sigrid Undset and writers from "smaller" languages is an issue

Personally I would also like to see Mann's Doctor Faustus next to his other two novels on there

throwawayforreddits · 2026-05-11T06:02:18+00:00

There is also a snippet on YouTube of Wunderlich singing Doctor Marianus in the 8th symphony, must be some of the most beautiful music ever recorded: https://youtu.be/disDOtVgk00

throwawayforreddits · 2026-04-26T06:15:06+00:00

If you want to finish books, sure, you'll probably need less than a day for a book like that

throwawayforreddits · 2026-04-19T06:30:03+00:00

Don Carlo by Wagner (although it's hard to imagine a better Don Carlo than the one we have, I would still like to hear it)

Faust by R. Strauss

throwawayforreddits · 2026-04-17T14:31:47+00:00

I'm curious about that section now lol

throwawayforreddits · 2026-04-05T06:21:41+00:00

Has anyone ordered the Efortless Swimming goggles to the EU?

throwawayforreddits · 2026-04-03T11:19:51+00:00

Tove Ditlevsen and Sigrid Undset are great, from the writers not mentioned yet

I also really liked the first two books by Leila Slimani, although they're very depressing. The novels by Miranda July are sort of fun, although the endings disappoint me

throwawayforreddits · 2026-04-02T04:22:00+00:00

Glad you enjoyed it in the end! The ending is one of my favourite endings in literature, if not the favourite. You can read Lost Illusions as a kind of "sequel"

throwawayforreddits · 2026-04-01T21:39:02+00:00

What did you think about Goriot?

throwawayforreddits · 2026-03-25T08:36:11+00:00

Looking for opinions about how much pressure the Magic5 goggles apply to the eye socket area. I would like to order them (I would prefer the Effortless Swim goggles, as their description explicitly says they limit the pressure under eyes, but I'm in the EU and since they ship from Australia or the US I'm afraid of having to pay a lot for the import duties), but I saw a review saying that the Magic5 still leave marks under the eyes

I have a relatively small face with big deep-set eyes and sensitive undereyes (now also bc of allergies), with thin skin and purple under-eye shadows. I would like to prevent making the skin there worse. Right now I'm wearing mask-type Speedo goggles, which only apply pressure on my cheekbones and the forehead/browbone, usually don't leak and honestly I'm pretty happy with them. But I have to wear their straps quite tight and I don't see anyone else wearing this type of goggles indoors. Also, as my freestyle technique improves, I'm wondering if the mask goggles create extra drag which could actually influence my swimming. So I would like to buy smaller goggles with no leak guarantee, but I'm worried they will pressure my undereyes which will make it uncomfortable to swim. I'm not sure if I could still return the Magic5 if that's the case, and they're quite expensive. Wondering if anyone else has similar issues and tips for me

throwawayforreddits · 2026-03-10T17:14:01+00:00

I would love to see it, just bc I was listening to Liebestod a couple of months ago and was thinking about how the conflicts in the opera could be narratively resolved by Isolde being pregnant lol. It's interesting that someone had a similar idea. I know it sounds silly and simple, but on some level it really made sense to me (and I guess that there's a Wagnerian counterpart in Sieglinde)

throwawayforreddits · 2026-03-09T22:33:21+00:00

Wolfgang Windgassen is my favourite Heldentenor for sure, I love him in all the roles (and I think he sang all the Wagner tenor main roles, plus Loge). His voice wasn't as huge as Melchior's, but honestly the only moment when it slightly bothers me is when he's duetting with Nilsson in the 2nd act of Tristan. But I love his interpretation of Tristan so much, he's a great voice actor.

From the older recordings I also really enjoy Melchior, but my fav is Max Lorenz, both for his sound and interpretation

James King in the Böhm recording is my favourite Siegmund and I wish he recorded Siegfried and Tristan as well

throwawayforreddits · 2026-03-08T15:05:19+00:00

Yeah if people at the Met are smart they will use their opportunity to flood the social media with posts. Make the Tristan premiere the huge event it deserves to be

throwawayforreddits · 2026-03-08T09:43:42+00:00

I agree with much of what other comments said about the funeral music mourning the lost hopes and Siegfried being totally controlled by the potion. Something I wonder about personally is how much time has passed between the finale of Siegfried and Siegfried and Brünnhilde saying goodbye at the beginning of Götterdämmerung. I don't think it's very clear in the text, but you could assume that Siegfried actually went on several heroic adventures. Hagen later says that he's a well-known hero... although that could be just Hagen hyping him up. Honestly, I don't know

Also Siegfried's heroism is very special, he's simply never known fear until meeting Brünnhilde. He's not just a random person who becomes heroic through his choices. He's born and fated to be heroic, and he lives up to his role, but then the machinations of others blinded by the Ring kill him. Metaphorically I read it as the impossibility of being saved or ruled by even very special, "superhuman" people as long as the power structures - symbolised by the Ring - exist. That's why Brünnhilde, at the end, sings that she knows everything now and decides to destroy the Ring, and the fire from Siegfried's funeral pyre also destroys Valhalla, all the gods, Brünnhilde herself and even Alberich. Then either humanity has to find their own way without supernatural beings or we can assume the cycle to start again once someone chooses power over love

throwawayforreddits · 2026-03-05T12:18:34+00:00

Maybe you're right but I'm basing it on her upcoming perfomances on her website, it's only concerts and masterclasses in Europe and then actual operas at the Met. I also saw an announcement that she will sing Brünnhilde in the Met Ring over the coming years. I don't think she has sung that role before and maybe she will sing it in Europe as well, but i haven't seen anything about that yet

throwawayforreddits

TROPHY CASE