The Bibliophile's Compass

Title : Project Hail Mary Author : Andy Weir Publication Year: 2021 Rating : ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Pages : 496 Source : audiobook @storytel.tr Genre : science fiction Awards : winner of the Dragon Award, Goodreads Choice Awards, Audie Award, & Seiun Award Best Translated Long Work; Finalist for the Canopus Award, Hugo Award, Xingyun Award, & Premio Italia International Science Fiction Novel Finally, I listened to PHM and joined the fan club. This book is ridiculous levels of fun. Our main guy, Ryland Grace, is basically a Deadpool-ish chaos ex-academic now a high school teacher, but with actual degrees, better manners, and a lab coat. He’s wildly scientific, absurdly resourceful, and somehow still spends half the book roasting himself so hard I was giggling out loud. The two “voices” of Grace—especially the self-deprecating one—had me belly-laughing while he’s out there, you know, casually trying to stop the end of the world on an interstellar field trip. Did I immensely enjoy the b...

1837  Ralph Waldo Emerson gives his famous "The American Scholar" speech to Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, declares American literary independence from Europe 2020 Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi The novel follows 28-year-old Gifty, a PhD candidate in neuroscience in her fifth year at Stanford University, and her Ghanaian-American mother, who is suffering from a deep depression. Longlisted for the 2020 Prix Médicis Longlisted for the 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence Longlisted for the 2021 Aspen Words Literary Prize Shortlisted for the 2021 Women's Prize for Fiction 2021 My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones published Two Dutch tourists are murdered while skinny-dipping in Indian Lake near the small town of Proofrock, Idaho. Winner of the 2021 Bram Stoker Award Winner of the 2021 Shirley Jackson Award Finalist for the 2022 British Fantasy Award Nominated for the...

1847  Charlotte Brontë sends the manuscript of her novel "Jane Eyre" to publisher Smith, Elder and Co., in London under her pen name "Currer Bell" (UK) It is a bildungsroman that follows the experiences of its eponymous heroine, including her growth to adulthood and her love for Mr Rochester, the brooding master of Thornfield Hall. 2021 The Women of Troy by Pat Barker published (UK) Largely unnoticed by her captors, the one time Trojan queen Briseis, formerly Achilles's slave, now belonging to his companion Alcimus, quietly takes in these developments. She forges alliances when she can, with Priam's aged wife the defiant Hecuba and with the disgraced soothsayer Calchas, all the while shrewdly seeking her path to revenge. 2021 The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers It explores the history of an African-American family in the American South, from the time before the American Civil War and slavery, through the Civi...

2021 Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead It is the follow-up to Whitehead's 2019 novel  The Nickel Boys and is a work of crime fiction and a family saga that takes place in Harlem between 1959 and 1964. Finalist for the 2021 Kirkus Prize for Fiction 2022 Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence by R. F. Kuang is published Babel is set in an alternative reality in which Britain's global economic and colonial supremacy are fueled by the use of magical silver bars. 2022 Winner of the Blackwell's Books of the Year 2022 Nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award 2022 Listed for the Best of Kirkus Reviews 2022 Winner of the Nebula Award 2022 Shortlisted for the New England Book Award 2022 Shortlisted for the Waterstones Book of the Year 2023 Winner of the Alex Award 2023 Winner of the British Book Award 2023 Shortlisted for the Dragon Award 2023 Shortlisted for the Ignyte Awards 2023 Winner of the Locus Award 2023 Shortli...

Title : Treacle Walker Author : Alan Garner Publication Year: 2021 Pages : 152 Rating : ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Genre : Fantasy, Magical Realism, Myth, Folklore Awards : Shortlisted for 2022 Booker Prize and Shortlisted for British Fantasy Award for Best Novella Source : Audiobook @everand_us Before getting into this literary rabbit hole, I skimmed some reviews and was greeted with a chorus of bewildered exclamations: “What did I just read?” Oh boy, I knew I was in for a ride! This was not just a casual stroll through the pages; I was about to embark on an adventure through the land of “What on earth is happening?” Now, don’t get me wrong—this isn’t the “What am I reading?” of despair; it’s more of a delightful “Wow, this is bizarre but oddly beautiful!” As I flipped through the pages, I tried to decipher the enigma, and naturally, I sought out more reviews and articles for some guidance! Welcome to “Treacle Walker,” a tale that masquerades as a children’s book but is definitely w...