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The really strong message of this book got me from the beginning. The story not so much. But the more I read, the more I appreciated the characters and their connections. And I kept asking myself how far we are from a world like this? I, sadly, can picture a future where this is real. Makes me scared. Scared and angry.

A lot to digest in this book and ready to discuss during next weekend‘s book club. #aardvark
Book 55 of 2024

Takes place in an alternate world where prisoners can fight to the death on live TV in order to shorten their prison sentences…if they survive.

Gladiators ✨ Preachy ✨ Freedom

A fascinating concept that couldn‘t have been more boring. The Hunger Games did it better.

This was a good read with the current US prison system, our use of its resources (inmates), the train wreck of reality TV, and our society‘s willingness to rubber-neck enough to slowdown but so rarely stop, all rolled together. Love when speculative fiction rubs up against contemporary politics… put this next to Handmaid‘s Tale and wait until November.

A violent, fast-paced novel about the wrongs of the incarceration system in America. This gave me a lot to think about, packaged in an alternative future. 4 🌟

Utterly fantastic.

Although occasionally the message overpowers the story, and there are a couple of minor characters I'm not sure are necessary, overall this is a powerful story powerfully told. It's like Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow as a novel. The ending gave me chills.

I‘m still recovering from this one. I really enjoyed it, but it is wrenching. Great book 👍

April #Bookspin List!
@TheAromaofBooks

Speculative fiction, and yet one of the more powerful condemnations of the American penal system that I‘ve read since Michelle Alexander‘s nonfiction The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration… The author‘s footnotes are brilliant!

Prisoners, tortured into a complete lack of hope, are offered a chance at freedom by participating in state supported gladiator-like killing “games.” In the midst of the carnage, there is grace. Unforgettable characters.

so many questions. i keep re-reading the last few pages.

Had to force myself to finish this one. Not a fan.

1) Watch drunk people on YouTube and give feedback on classmates' commercial recordings.

2) So many (clown, mom, teacher, long-haul truck driver, firefighter), but for a long time I wanted to be a singer because I loved Linda Ronstadt.

3) Zion and Death Valley NP road trip this spring, then a 2-3 week trip in June either to Nova Scotia or to Seattle/Vancouver.

4) Tagged!

@Cupcake12 #MotivationalMonday

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ #Reread of my top book from 2023, but this time on audio.

OG review: An exposition of the US prison system, capital punishment, and reality tv, where prisoners compete in colosseum-like death matches. They are commodified, sexualized and idolized. Survive three years and you‘ll be freed, they‘re told, as they serve the community through torturous entertainment. Brilliant, impactful, factual footnotes.

Important and beautifully organized. This powerful book has a lot to say about our justice system and how we treat our prisoners today despite being set in the future. I found it tough to read at many points but I‘m glad to have done so—almost feels like bearing witness to a tragedy. Hamara, Loretta, and Sunset are so fully rendered and the footnotes pack a real punch… Just amazing

“Like Orwell‘s 1984 and Atwood‘s The Handmaid‘s Tale, Adjei-Brenyah‘s book presents a dystopian vision so upsetting and illuminating that it should permanently shift our understanding of who we are and what we‘re capable of doing…So raw and tragic and primal is Chain-Gang All-Stars that despite its futuristic elements, it has the patina of some timeworn epic…Shockingly intimate and moving.”

– Washington Post

I found myself absolutely compelled to go out and get this book after reading Scott's ( @vivastory ) recommendation/review about it! It sounds absolutely incredible and I'm really excited to start it! 🥰💕📚

Our Jan ‘24 picks!! We have our ‘23 Member's Choice 🏆 (Chain-Gang All-Stars!), an unflinching portrayal of high-paid sex work (Sugar, Baby 🍭), a page-turning mystery that‘s as addictive as a late-night Reddit binge (Rabbit Hole 🐇🕳️), a steamy paranormal romantic comedy (The Fake Mate 🌶️), “a dark and heady dream of a book” (Alix E. Harrow) (The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years 👻), and an intensely creepy tale of intrigue (Where You End 👯)!

I picked my #aardvark early this morning so I could get a signed copy of Chain-Gang. That means I can give my other copy to @StephMC82 for a buddy read!

Very pleased with the 170 books I read this year! 86 were nonfiction. It‘s the first time I‘ve hit 50%. It‘s not intentional, but I like to look back at year‘s end and compare fiction vs nonfiction for my own satisfaction, I guess. 🙂 Overall favorite was, without a doubt, Chain-Gang All-Stars. Best novel I‘ve read in years. YEARS.

#2023reads #topreads

It was probably a given that as someone who is pro abolishing the entirety of Americna prisons and cops and who's mood board on Storygraph is year after year half Emotional, Dark, Reflective, that this books would be completely in my wheelhouse. And it was.

I was blown away by this book. I loved how Adjei-Brenyah used footnotes to expand readers depth of knowledge of the current prison system, and how broken it is.

#FavBook2024

#12Booksof2023

May brought some more great reads, but this one blew me away. Fast paced, thoughtful, uncomfortable in just the right way.

@Andrew65

Made this snowman hat for the 10yo while listening to this amazing audiobook. So glad I accidentally put a hold on the audiobook instead of the ebook!

#tob24 finally got me to move this book off of I‘ll get to it someday status. Brutal and sadly seemingly all too plausible this book about an over crowded prison system resorting to televised inmate death matches read like a repeated punch to the gut. The nonfiction footnotes added to the jabs. I do wish that they had been fewer points of view. I understood the desire for different perspectives but for me it lessened the impact. A worthy contender

The top row are the 4 I‘ve read. Tagged is my favorite. The middle row are books on my shelves that I plan to read before the shortlist is announced. The bottom row are on my wishlist already. A whole bunch of them were new to me titles.

Looking forward to some good and some bizarre books when the short list is announced.

#TOB24

Today‘s the day! The National Book Awards are given out today. For the fiction list (which I found rather lackluster), the upper 5 are their shortlist while the circled books are mine. All my votes go to Chain-Gang, which I LOVED. And any “best of” the year list missing Jesmyn Ward‘s book just doesn‘t deserve that name. Hers is far better than most of these.

What an intense listen! Following Blood Sports of the prison system, this dystopian novel expertly portrays how society can detach from the prison system and see prisoners as nothing more than their crimes due for punishment instead of rehabilitation. My only issue was that there were so many characters which made it hard to follow at times. 4⭐️ for me! #litsylovereads

A near-future dystopian novel about the prison system being turned into reality death matches. Real life facts are mixed in with the fictional story of Thurwar and Staxx, stars of the games and lovers. The story, explores our fascination with violence, both punishing and rewarding it in different arenas. The multiple storylines were sometimes confusing and distracted from the main theme, but the overall impact was powerful & the message was clear.

Extraordinary! Somehow both violent & tender with prose, characters, & pacing that keeps you reading even while your heart breaks. A unflinching view of American incarceration & the ways that we celebrate and punish violence and death, often based on race/privilege. Everyone should read this book-it encourages & informs a more complex dialogue of crime and punishment and we can all benefit. Absolutely brilliant. Book 1 of October and 200 of 2023.

The NBA fiction longlist is here! Like last year, they seem to have opted for lesser known or less celebrated authors (no Ann Patchett or Jesmyn Ward here). I am THRILLED to see the tagged here, as I was floored by it. Should be interesting getting into this list!

This was an action packed thriller with strong commentary on the American Justice system. This book shows a not too distant future where reality TV and the prison system have teamed up to create a new extreme sport - basically ancient gladiators/Battle Royale.
The author has created some solid main characters that you grow to care about in spite of the horrific acts they commit. I wouldn‘t call this a fun read, but it was intriguing.⬇️

This searing, gut punch of a speculative novel imagines a future America where prisoners fight to the death for entertainment. The research on our current carceral state, as well as abolition, that Adjei-Brenyah incorporated throughout the story is impressive and eye-opening. I do think the structure, cutting between multiple POVs, detracted from the emotional force of the main story of two top women gladiators in love fighting for freedom.

“I thought of how the world can be anything and how sad it is that it's this.“
Lived up to the hype and translated the sharp short story instincts demonstrated in Friday Black to a novel. https://youtu.be/WiecOddgIpw

Wow! I‘m not even sure I know what to say about this book. A wild ride that may live in a dystopian future but clearly depicts the faults in our current prison system and maybe isn‘t so far outside the realm of possibility as it should be. 4.5 🌟

#WeeklyForecast

About 25% into Chain Gang and I wasn‘t sure at first but it‘s getting interesting. My Libby hold for Paris came in this morning so it will keep me company on my way home today. And I will get caught up with Lady Chatterley and finish in time for the final discussion next Sunday. As always my “next up” plan is subject to change but I do want to focus on the Booker long list.

This was *my* July #bookclub pick. So enjoyed discussing it with my mom friends this week. So much to unpack. Overall, we loved it! At this point in 2023, it‘s my top read. 🥇 Pick it up, y‘all, it‘s incredible!

#kindledailydeal 😁

The thing about dystopian fiction is it always has enough truth potential in it to make it scary shit. This does just that. An acceptance of this is definitely not too far fetched. What an author. The footnotes are annoying on kindle but definitely worth the read.
I may need a bit of a light read people!

Had a lovely evening listening to Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah discuss his new book. I was already excited to read this one, and even more so now. He was lovely and so smart.

This book has rightfully gotten raves from a lot of readers. It is well-written with vivid characters, and the use of footnotes (including real world facts about incarceration in the U.S.) is clever. But it was a tough read for me because it was much closer to real life than the Hunger Games. I appreciated it more than I enjoyed reading. But I have been thinking about it a lot since finishing it. This was my #BookSpin for June.

June was my best reading month of the year thus far! I had four 5-star reads (middle quadrant), with Chain-Gang All-Stars being my favorite! And it‘s my top read of 2023 so far!

#junereads

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Just… wow. It‘s an incredible gift when a book urges you to consider new perspectives. Chain-Gang unflinchingly compels readers to sit with the injustices and inequities of America‘s prison system - how the vulnerable are targeted, how the criminal is separated from the human. I‘ve seen this described as an adult “Hunger Games” meets “The New Jim Crow”. It was brutal - beautiful - and I was completely blown away by the ending.

This story was so brutal. I really had to gear myself up to pick it back up again each time, but wanted to see where the story went. It felt very disjointed at the start with multiple POV, but all wound together by the end. Good metaphor but very violent.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ An exposition of the US prison system, capital punishment, and reality tv, where prisoners compete in colosseum-like death matches. They are commodified, sexualized and idolized. Survive three years and you‘ll be freed, they‘re told, as they serve the community through torturous entertainment. One of the best books I‘ve read in a LONG time, possibly one of the best EVER. Just brilliant! Can‘t stop thinking about it. #bookclub