The Bibliophile's Compass

1988 | 📖 Man of the Moment by Alan Ayckbourn | United Kingdom | 104 pages | 2023 | 📖 The Orchid Hour by Nancy Bilyeau | United States | 340 pages | @tudorscribe

Title : Then the Fish Swallowed Him Author : Amir Ahmadi Arian Publication Year : 2020 Rating : ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Pages : 288 Source : audiobook @storytel.tr Genre : historical fiction, Iranian fiction, political fiction I cannot decide whether this is a 3.5-star or 4-star book, which feels strangely appropriate for a novel that left me unsettled rather than satisfied. Let’s start with the title and cover, because I was deeply curious about them. Then the Fish Swallowed Him immediately calls to mind the story of Jonah, the prophet swallowed by a fish until he learns his lesson and returns to the right path. Here, the main character is named Yunus — aka Jonah — and the parallel feels painfully ironic. Or maybe irony is too soft a word for it. I believe the author somehow subverts the story, though I am not entirely sure how to name it. If we consider Yunus as Jonah and the solitary cell as the fish, then what does that leave the despotic system to be? Yunus Turabi is an ordinary man: a bus ...

1854 | 📖 Walden by Henry David Thoreau | United States | 352 pages | 2011 | 📖 The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson | United States | 320 pages | 2016 | 📖 All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood | United States | 368 pages | 🏆🏆🏆 | @bryngreenwood 2016 | 📖 Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson | United States | 192 pages | 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 | @jacqueline_woodson 2016 | 📖 When Watched by Leopoldine Core | United States | 240 pages | 🏆🏆 | 2018 | 📖 Where Shall We Run To? by Alan Garner | United Kingdom | 194 pages | 2021 | 📖 An Eternal Audience of One by Rémy Ngamije | Namibia / Rwanda | 384 pages | @remythequill 2022 | 📖 Stay Awake by Megan Goldin | United States | 340 pages | @authormegangoldin 2022 | 📖 I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy | United States | 304 pages | 🏆🏆🏆🏆 | @jennettemccurdy 2026 | 📖 Codename: 61 by Alex Shaw | United Kingdom | 278 pages | @alexshawthrillerwriter

Title : Artful Author : Ali Smith Publication Year : 2012 Rating : ⭐⭐⭐💫 Pages : 203 Source : book Genre : literary fiction, nonfiction Awards : Best Book of Ideas Prize (2013), Goldsmiths Prize Nominee (2013) I take genre and classification very seriously. Perhaps too seriously. If a book is marketed as fiction and I open it expecting a novel, but suddenly find myself attending a lecture series, I feel not merely surprised — I feel personally betrayed by publishing. I usually don’t check too many details before reading a book, unless I get so confused within the first few pages that I have to investigate like a literary detective. Otherwise, there will be confusion, frustration, and a significant amount of cursing from the reading chair. Anyway, I picked up Artful thinking I was about to read a novel. How wrong could I be? Apparently: very. It started beautifully. The grief pulled me in immediately, and I was ready to be devastated in a controlled, literary way. But then, s...