recent reads + spring tbr kinda

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-05

[00:00:03]Hi, I'm Hunter and I've played Crank It about 600 times over the last week. Um, it's really an all-time low for me. I still don't know any of the lyrics, but Crank It, I stay straight, I stay bad, I keep my finger on the trigger, period. I want to talk about a couple books that I read recently. Um, as well as this big stack here that I'm kind of calling my spring TBR. I recently added two or three more books to this list. It's definitely been a very slow reading year for me. Got a lot going on. So, these are the two that I read recently. Am I in focus? Probably not. Okay, so most recently I read Carnality by Lena Wolf.

[00:00:41]Um, I bought this a really long time ago and it's been sitting on my shelf how long? Truly 5 years, maybe. I've had it forever. Obviously, the cover is super striking, which is admittedly what uh drew me to this book in the first place.

[00:00:55]Um, the concept also as as I was reading the back of it just recently before I finally picked it up, um, I was kind of questioning why I ever bought this because I guess my taste has changed over the last like 5 years cuz it doesn't really sound like something that I would love. Um, basically we're following this writer from Sweden. I guess it's a it's translated from Swedish, translated by um, Frank Perry.

[00:01:22]And the main character in here is a Swedish writer and she goes to Madrid on this like writing grant for some company. They're sending her there to write about Madrid, I guess. And while she's there, she meets this guy who starts telling her this really wild story about some like shady underground TV show on like the dark web um where people go on the show and tell these two people and this nun about a problem they have. So someone will go on and be like, I have this this problem that I can't solve. And then the two people plus the nun will try to solve the problem for them. In the case of the man who is telling this story, um his problem is that he cheated on his wife, she left him, and he's like devastated. So this guy is telling this writer his story.

[00:02:14]Um, and it kind of gets kind of wild, but it felt like the author of this book was more was convinced that her story was really crazy and insane, but the story isn't that crazy or insane. As we learn more about this like dark web TV show and everything surrounding it, it's written as if everything we're learning is really wild and crazy, but it's not that wild and it's not that crazy. And so the characterser's reactions, the things that they decide to do don't really make sense because they're acting as if it's a really insane situation, but it's not that insane, if that makes sense. The book is um sometimes pitched as exploring morality and like the the kind of blurry line between right and wrong. I can see some of those elements in this story, but none of it really worked for me ultimately. Um there was kind of the suspension of disbelief problem because these characters were acting in ways that didn't really make sense given the situation. Um but at the same time I it was really readable for some reason. It unfolds at like a pretty a pretty quick pace even though not a lot happens in it. Um I don't know kind of a weird one. I'm probably not really going to think about it much more now that I finished it. but it was unique enough that I'm not really mad at the reading experience, I guess. So, yeah, this one I have a little more to say about. Um, this is Not a River by Selva Almada, translated from Spanish, um, by Annie McDermott. This follows three men, um, two older men and one young man, maybe older teenager. He's he's much younger. The three of them go on this fishing/amping trip, um, on this island.

[00:03:58]I think it's in Argentina. And it it opens up with this kind of harrowing not harrowing um just this really immersive scene where the three of them are catching this manta ray this big creature in the ocean or in the yeah I guess in the ocean. Um and as they're pulling it to the surface, one of them pulls out a gun and shoots the animal.

[00:04:21]They end up dragging this ray to the shore and like stringing it up in a tree. Um, and that's when some locals on this island show up and they like take note of the ray and there's kind of this weird tense interaction between the three men and some of the local people on this island. And from there, the story unfolds as this kind of breathless dreamlike um almost surreal story about the men and their experience on this island and some of the other people living there.

[00:04:52]Um, it's hard to talk about what happens in this book because it's super short and also because some of the main plot points uh are spoilers. Like if you discuss them, you're kind of spoiling the book automatically. But I think generally we're looking at themes of recklessness and the danger of succumbing to desire.

[00:05:14]Um, I think there's also some some themes of generational trauma and the way that trauma can kind of seep throughout a community, especially violence. Um, violence from men directed at women and the way that it can kind of spread through this this small island community. It's a very tense book, even though there's not a lot of like active there's not a lot of actively tense things happening, but the way that it's written is very tense and um yeah, it's like hot and breathless and it's like a fever dream almost kind of on a a hot summer afternoon or something. This was really fantastic. It was um yeah, shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2024, so I think a lot of people probably know about it. I don't really follow literary awards at all. Do you? I don't know. I kind of don't care about them, but this was a good book, so maybe I should read more from the Booker short lists that are out there. Next, I want to talk about some books that are my spring TBR. Um, these aren't really my spring TBR, I guess, but they're books that I've purchased this spring kind of recently, and I want to get to them eventually.

[00:06:25]Yeah. All right. I picked up Homesick for Another World. This is Otessa Mshve Fegs. Um I believe it's her debut book, maybe. I'm not sure if it's her debut, but it's her short story collection. Um I read My Year of Rest and Relaxation when it was big and popular and liked it quite a bit. I need to read it again. I might have different thoughts on it now.

[00:06:46]Um I also read Eileen, which I think was really fantastic and I think I would still like it. Um, as well as death in her hands, which I also liked. I think Moshf at her best can be a little bit audacious. Um, I like it when she when she gets crazy and when she um I I think she's an author who can subvert your expectations pretty well or at least subvert the expectations of a literary work. That sounds really pretentious, but um this is her short story collection. So, yeah, I'm really interested in it. We've got characters who are tripped up by their baser impulses and existential insecurities, which sounds like classic mosh vague fair or whatever. So, I'm also going to read at some point um That's All I Know by Eliza Levy. This is translated from the Spanish by Christina Mcweeny.

[00:07:36]This is about a 19-year-old who lived in a small rural town near a forest. Um, and it says, "On the first day after the end of the world, she warns a stranger not to go into the forest. The people who enter the forest never come out. She tells him about the burning in her gut, a winding tale of love, loss, and desire." The book is structured as one long monologue, which I think is really interesting. Kind of a kind of a maybe audacious uh form structure for the book. That's All I Know explores the toll of caring for those who who cannot care for themselves, the fear of the unknown that anchors people to unfilling lives, and the bravery it takes to give in to longing. I also picked up to The Friend Who Did Not Save My Life by Oh my goodness, this is a French name.

[00:08:26]How do you pronounce it? H E R V E G U B E R T. I'm so sorry, I cannot pronounce that. This was first published in the '9s in France. Um, and it was pretty I think it was pretty controversial at the time. It says, "The novel scandalized the French media um because it follows a character who was recently diagnosed with AIDS. It's described as being devastating and darkly comedic um exploring uh 3 months in the penultimate year of the narrator's life as he goes from one doctor to another seeking treatment as he tells his friends about the diagnosis." Yeah, really interested.

[00:09:03]This was translated by Linda Coverdale.

[00:09:07]Um, this is like a whole series of of maybe French publications that are translated into English. Semiot text.

[00:09:18]I'm saying that wrong too, I'm sure. But I like this uh this series of publications. I like how it looks. So, two more I picked up. Um, Hyper by Agri Ismael, I want to say. Um, something about this reminded me or sounded a little bit like Berlin Atomized, which I really, really loved last summer when I read it. Um, I don't know if it's the same, but it sounded similar and I'm interested in this. So, this book follows the founder of the Communist Party of Kurdistan who has fled Tehran and settled down in London. Um, then we're also following his daughter, it looks like, who's living who escapes an unhappy marriage in Baghdad before going to live in Dubai. And then we have his oldest son who is climbing the corporate ladder in London and the youngest who lives a contactless digital life in a condo near Wall Street. So it looks like kind of this family story of people who maybe have like um political or financial prominence in the world in some ways and all of them living these different lives. So that seems really interesting to me. What do y'all think of the cover though? I I have mixed feelings on it. I don't know if I like it. Lastly, I picked up my heavenly favorite by Lucas Reniv.

[00:10:35]Oh my goodness. I really prefer lately to read authors who are not from the US, but the name difficulty. I don't want to get the names wrong. It can be so hard to find like authors saying their own names, though. I can never find interviews with authors saying their own names. I heard about this first from Steven on Instagram. He remains like my go-to Bookstagram friend for recommendations. He didn't recommend this directly, but I mean following his account and seeing everything that he posts, I yeah, he has really great taste. So this um I let me read the flap or whatever it's called. That's a gross word. Flap. It says, "A confession, a lament, a mad gush of grief and obsession. My heavenly favorite is the is the remarkable and chilling successor to the discomfort of evening. It tells the story of a veterinarian who visits a farm in the Dutch countryside where he becomes enraptured by his favorite, the farmer's daughter. She hovers on the precipice of adolescence and longs to have a boy's body. The veterinarian seems to be a tantalizing possible path out from the constrictions of her conservative rural life. I've heard that this book explores a lot of social cultural taboos and is quite disturbing.

[00:11:45]Um, I'm always interested in books that are audacious. Something about the cover of this is also in and of itself quite disturbing to me. So, I'm really interested to to read it.

[00:11:58]That's why I bought it cuz it's a book that I want to read. Okay, cool. I think that's all for today. Uh, thank you for watching. Let me know what you've been reading recently. Let me know if you have any recommendations or thoughts on any of these. All right, see you next