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We actually have a weekly what are you reading thread you can have a look at if you're curious! This week's will go up in about 30 minutes I think.

1. Kind of difficult to have favourite characters in this one, the narrator isn't very likeable and we see everybody else through her eyes. The scene with Paul and baby Ellie and Grace was pretty intense though.

2. Some obvious lines from Macbeth. Miranda's wound and dip in the sea are tickling my brain.

3. I'd like to think Miranda learnt something. It's hard with her as an unreliable narrator to know if anybody else did or not. And if Miranda's pain is going to come back, who knows how long anybody's newfound sympathy will last.

4. Problem play for sure. In the simplest definition, nobody got married or died. But it's also hard to say whether this is a happy ending or not.

5. Not sure I know of anything else quite like this one!

Please post recommendation requests in /r/suggestmeabook or the weekly thread. There are also some related subreddits you might find interesting in our wiki.

Please post recommendation requests in /r/suggestmeabook or the weekly thread. There are also some related subreddits you/she might find interesting in our wiki.

I'll be stepping in for XBreaksYFocusGroup for the discussion threads this month; here are the dates and reading schedule. As the discussion threads go up the links will be added to this comment.

January 6th: Chapter 1 - Chapter 6

January 13th: Chapter 7 - Chapter 16

January 20th: Chapter 17 - Chapter 24

January 27th: Chapter 24 - Chapter 31 (end)

AMA with Mona Awad: February 7th

Parts will be inclusive for the dates so please be aware that the discussion threads will contain spoilers for everything up to the end of the selected chapters.

Please post recommendation requests in /r/suggestmeabook or the weekly thread.

Please post recommendation requests in /r/suggestmeabook or the weekly thread.

This subject has been very popular in the past. Please check out the FAQ.

Just the cover. The story will be the same either way.

My favourite short story collections are Looking for Jake by China Miéville, Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner by Alan Sillitoe and if you don't mind going quite a bit older, The Stolen Bacillus by H G Wells.

You're usually going to be looking for more recent works and women authors for that kind of thing. Are there any particular genres you had in mind?

A Christmas Carol of course.

Many of these are UK specific. If ordering from outside the UK, bear in mind there are several planned Royal Mail strikes (with knock on effects on other couriers) so order early as your stuff will probably take longer to get out the UK. I have personal experience with all of these sellers.

Homeware, clothing and accessories

Bookishly
Literary Emporium

Clothing and accessories only

Popsy
Joanie
Rooby Lane

Posters

Spineless Classics

Books and giftcards

Your/their local independent bookshop
National book tokens (UK only)
Bookshop.org
Waterstones at least pay some UK tax

Subscriptions

Graphic Novel Station
The Petersfield Bookshop patreon
Their favourite author's patreon

Charity donations

Your/their local library
The Reading Agency
Book Trust

> Easton Ellis portraying how materialistic the yuppies were with his narrations is engaging too. Learnt more high end brands reading this book. And the other thing is where most of them confuse Patrick Bateman with someone else I think it’s a nod by Ellis saying that most yuppies are unrecognizable from each other, living the same identical life, and making the yuppie lifestyle their whole identity (just my guess btw).

Don't downplay your interpretation, it's a really good observation!

Ellis (Easton is a middle name FYI) uses Bateman's obsession with the minutiae of the brands he wears as a way to show us how desperate he is to fit in. Bateman even tells us precisely what brands he uses in his skincare routine, and how many of his peers are going to notice that? It's all about buying into the eighties consumerism idea that certain brands will give you a certain lifestyle. It's not an idea that's really gone away either, cf. influencers.

You might have seen as well the theory that all the murders and violence are in fact in Bateman's imagination and didn't really happen. I'm not sure which side of this debate I'm on, but ultimately I don't think it matters that much. Whether he's a serial killer or "just" deeply mentally ill, his so-called friends don't care as long as he's fitting in. On quite a few occasions he tells them things he's done (or thinks he's done) and it's not often clear that he's been heard, and even when he has, his friends joke about and misinterpret his comments. He wears the right clothes, eats at the right restaurants, and takes the right drugs, so who cares about the odd little murder or psychotic break?

What drew you to write your novels on these topics, and do they relate to your non-fiction writing at all?

Please post recommendation requests in /r/suggestmeabook or the weekly thread.

Please post recommendation requests in /r/suggestmeabook or the weekly thread.

Please post recommendation requests in /r/suggestmeabook or the weekly thread.

Please post recommendation requests in /r/suggestmeabook or the weekly thread.