I’m going through a slump, both personally and in literature. I’ve been laid off from my job, am feeling melancholy, and am realizing this is one of the few times in my adult life I can get in to a book that will make me ugly cry alone for hours a day.
I’ve read 18 books this year and the only 5 star has been Demon Copperhead. Previous year’s 5 star reads have been Circe, The Book of The Unnamed Midwife, Moon of the Crusted Snow & The Ministry for the Future.
I’m mainly an audiobook reader
My only big NO is no books with pets dying as the main theme.
by CompleteSpinach9
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The road
When breath becomes air
Kaiju: battlefield surgeon – broke my heart into fragments
And believe it or not, Dungeon Crawler Carl – ugly cried multiple times in this series.
For me what broke my 10 year reading slump was dungeon crawler Carl.
You will not find a better narrator for the audiobook series either.
It’s recommended all over here for a good reason.
It’s a sci-fi book series, it’ll be 10 in total, 8 books are out now. It’s hard to describe in a way that doesn’t sound unhinged but I’ll try.
For the tone of the books, book 1 feels kind of silly, and by book 7 it’s insane action and heavy narrative.
Book 1 also leans heavily on video game jargon but that really falls away quickly, and I know a TON of non-gamers that are as obsessed with it as I am.
My favorite things about the book series is the character development, it’s absolutely incredible. I’ve laughed and also genuinely cried because of how compelling the characters are. The author does a great job of discarding tropes too which I love, and writes honest and complex characters.
It’s often compared to hitchhikers guide meets hunger games meets maze runner but it’s definitely of its own thing.
I’d highly recommend the audiobooks, a single voice actor does an incredible range of voices, easily exceeding 30-40 voices across the series.
In short, it’s about an alien corporation that seizes earth to mine its mineral resources, and gives the survivors a chance to regain control of earth by completing a challenge course called the world dungeon. The course is 18 floors and is televised to the galaxy which drives profits for the corporation. The protagonist Carl enters the dungeon with his cat who >! Gains human level intelligence !< and fights alongside him.
It’s a cool mix of sci-fi – aliens taking over earth, and fantasy – the characters use magic, etc.
Ive listened to the series easily 10 times. The fan base is amazing and the author is kind and engaging. It’s very cool.
I also love this persons take on the author and series:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/DungeonCrawlerCarl/s/NjyFFPXFHC](https://www.reddit.com/r/DungeonCrawlerCarl/s/NjyFFPXFHC)
I also adored Demon Copperhead and Circe
I think you would really enjoy “I Cheerfully Refuse” by Leif Enger. I absolutely loved it, and in an interview he said he was really influenced by The Ministry for the Future while writing it.
In recent years I wept a bit in public while reading Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith.
Pachinko
Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx