skiesbeyondearth

Litfic, old Russian novels, Steinbeck lover, also love a good fantasy/romantasy, scifi, play, greek retelling, graphic novel. I like to read and I haven't read enough!

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skiesbeyondearth commented on a post

kurtthecat62

Movie vs Book

Question for those who have both read the book and watched the movie. Would you consider the movie a good adaptation? I plan on watching it when I’m done reading and I’m finding myself getting more and more excited the farther through I get. However, I’ve been let down many a time and would like to mentally prepare myself if the movie sucks. And if it is not faithful to the text, is it still good on its own?

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Dungeon Crawler Carl (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #1)

Matt Dinniman

52%

skiesbeyondearth commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

tired_gremlin

Persuade me please

I have almost 150 books on my tbr and can't decide what to read because I want to read all of them right now but also don't want to read any of them right now. It's driving me insane and I'd really appreciate some help, if any of you have read and recommend some books on my tbr it would be really helpful because I can't decide.

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acidicchaos

AYoWaP Day 7 Book 1 Chp 7 2% (page 24)

A Year of War and Peace Day 7 Book 1 Chapter 7 Link to Project Gutenberg Chapter 7 Maude Translation Here

Today, Tolstoy gives us and Pierre a front row seat to watch a martial spat between Andrei and Liza!

Final Line of Chapter 7: “Good night, Liza,” said he, rising and courteously kissing her hand as he would have done to a stranger.

Discussion Questions

The chapter opens on Andrei's expression becoming the same one he wears in Anna Pavlovna's drawing room. What do you think this means and why do you think Tolstoy pointed this out?
What are your thoughts on Pierre's role in this martial spat?
What are your thoughts on Andrei and Liza's marriage/dynamic after this chapter? What do you think this fight reveals about the couple or the bigger picture of the novel?
Andrei is described as consistently polite and restrained throughout this chapter, why do you think Tolstoy is characterizing him this way?
The chapter ends with Andrei kissing Liza's hand "as he would have done to a stranger." How did this final image affect your reading of the chapter?

As always, these are just a starting point! Feel free to respond to any or all of the questions above, pose your own, highlight quotes you liked, ask questions, there are no wrong takes here!

Minor Housekeeping: Starting tomorrow I'm going to leave the "includes spoilers" tag on. If you are having a hard time finding the posts on pagebound, search "AYoWaP Day #" for whatever day number you are looking for and it will jump you there! I'll always keep that part of the title consistent!

I have also been posting in the discord channel each day when I upload the daily post if you want a notification reminder. Link to join the Discord Here

To help with the different translation version, here's the last line of the next chapter for tomorrow: Day 8 Book 1 Chapter 8: “On my honor!”

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War and Peace

Leo Tolstoy

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250 points

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Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (Aristotle and Dante, #1)

Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Dante can swim. Ari can't. Dante is articulate and self-assured. Ari has a hard time with words and suffers from self-doubt. Dante gets lost in poetry and art. Ari gets lost in thoughts of his older brother who is in prison. Dante is fair skinned. Ari's features are much darker. It seems that a boy like Dante, with his open and unique perspective on life, would be the last person to break down the walls that Ari has built around himself. But against all odds, when Ari and Dante meet, they develop a special bond that will teach them the most important truths of their lives, and help define the people they want to be. But there are big hurdles in their way, and only by believing in each other―and the power of their friendship―can Ari and Dante emerge stronger on the other side.

Post from the Middlemarch forum

skiesbeyondearth

Thoughts from 86% (page 720)

spoilers

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guacamoll33 set their yearly reading goal to 25

guacamoll33's 2026 Reading Challenge

3 of 25 read

Mistborn: The Final Empire (Mistborn, #1)

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Middlemarch

George Eliot

84%

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Intimacies

Katie Kitamura

73%

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The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York

Robert A. Caro

One of the most acclaimed books of our time, winner of both the Pulitzer and the Francis Parkman prizes, The Power Broker tells the hidden story behind the shaping (and mis-shaping) of twentieth-century New York (city and state) and makes public what few have known: that Robert Moses was, for almost half a century, the single most powerful man of our time in New York, the shaper not only of the city's politics but of its physical structure and the problems of urban decline that plague us today.In revealing how Moses did it--how he developed his public authorities into a political machine that was virtually a fourth branch of government, one that could bring to their knees Governors and Mayors (from La Guardia to Lindsay) by mobilizing banks, contractors, labor unions, insurance firms, even the press and the Church, into an irresistible economic force--Robert Caro reveals how power works in all the cities of the United States. Moses built an empire and lived like an emperor. He personally conceived and completed public works costing 27 billion dollars--the greatest builder America (and probably the world) has ever known. Without ever having been elected to office, he dominated the men who were--even his most bitter enemy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, could not control him--until he finally encountered, in Nelson Rockefeller, the only man whose power (and ruthlessness in wielding it) equalled his own.

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Not "A Nation of Immigrants": Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, and a History of Erasure and Exclusion

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

Debunks the pervasive and self-congratulatory myth that our country is proudly founded by and for immigrants, and urges readers to embrace a more complex and honest history of the United States Whether in political debates or discussions about immigration around the kitchen table, many Americans, regardless of party affiliation, will say proudly that we are a nation of immigrants. In this bold new book, historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz asserts this ideology is harmful and dishonest because it serves to mask and diminish the US’s history of settler colonialism, genocide, white supremacy, slavery, and structural inequality, all of which we still grapple with today. She explains that the idea that we are living in a land of opportunity—founded and built by immigrants—was a convenient response by the ruling class and its brain trust to the 1960s demands for decolonialization, justice, reparations, and social equality. Moreover, Dunbar-Ortiz charges that this feel good—but inaccurate—story promotes a benign narrative of progress, obscuring that the country was founded in violence as a settler state, and imperialist since its inception. While some of us are immigrants or descendants of immigrants, others are descendants of white settlers who arrived as colonizers to displace those who were here since time immemorial, and still others are descendants of those who were kidnapped and forced here against their will. This paradigm shifting new book from the highly acclaimed author of An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States charges that we need to stop believing and perpetuating this simplistic and a historical idea and embrace the real (and often horrific) history of the United States.

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acidicchaos

AYoWaP Day 6 part 1:6 2% (page 22)

A year of War and Peace Day 6 Part 1 Chapter 6 Link to Project Gutenberg Chapter 6 Maude Translation Here

Final Line of Chapter 6: "What for? I don't know. I must. Besides that I am going..." He paused. "I am going because the life I am leading here does not suit me!"

Today the party comes to a comes to a close, but it feels like the real characters are just starting to show up, not the masks they have been wearing.

Discussion Questions

Pierre is physically awkward and socially clumsy, yet almost everyone seems fond of him. Why do you think Tolstoy leans so hard into this contrast?
How did you interpret Prince Andrei's behavior at the end of the party differ from how he acts once he's alone with Pierre?
What do you make of Pierre's beliefs about war? Naive? Admirable? Both?
What about Prince Andrei's response to Pierres beliefs about war? What you think Tolstoy is presenting with this response?
What do you think of Prince Andrei's final confession at the end of the chapter?

Not really a discussion prompt, but why do I love Hippolyte so much? He is so awkward, but I just love him haha

To help with the different translation versions, here's the last line of the next chapter for reference. Day 7 - Part 1 Chapter 7 : “Good night, Lise,” said he, rising and courteously kissing her hand as he would have done to a stranger.

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blairie

Edited

Thoughts from 22% (page 131)

i know this is supposed to be some biblical retelling but for the life of me i can't figure out what cathy is meant to be a symbol of

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The Nobel Women Authors Project

by page.witch

18 books

A year-long reading project dedicated to the women who won the Nobel Prize in Literature. By reading one book from every Nobel laureate woman, this project celebrates intellectual courage and the lasting impact of women’s words across cultures and generations.

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