10 out of 10 is a score i rarely assign because it's usually for the books that literally altered my brain chemistry. but i have some of these in my list! so of course i have something to say about them.

- Scott Atran's work absolutely blew my mind. i have read it a while ago while i was still an agnostic with a certain bias towards religion, and this book drastically changed my perception. it was also important for me to hear about empathy and its role when working with radical groups. i am not the most educated person on this topic, but nonetheless this book was amazing. it really taught me a lot.

- The Piano Teacher and Lolita are different books, of course, but they kind of belong to the same category for me. both works are about deep perversion, and they evoke similar thoughts and feelings in me. they were both fascinating and extremely morbid. after reading them, something about how i view people has changed. not sure how to explain it.

by the way, i love Nabokov's work in general. his writing is... mesmerizing, this is the best word i can find to describe it. i really want to read more of him!!!

- i already wrote about The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. excellent book about war written with such a compassion. as a person who lives in a country in a state of war like, right now, it healed something inside me.

- What My Bones Know is just a really profound work about complex trauma and various aspects of it. the first chapters break your heart, but you are slowly healing when reading to the end.

- The Hunchback of Notre-Dame would be 10/10 if not these looooooong paragraphs about Paris. i'm sorry Hugo :"D this is just not my cup of tea i guess. aside from that, this novel was just phenomenal. it was surprisingly funny sometimes, and the characters and their stories were so well-written, so interesting and tragic. i never thought i would be so interested in this book, but while reading i always wanted to get back to the book while i was living my life and doing chores lol

i just finished this book and i did not like it.

so i became aware that this book is often compared to Fredrick Backman's work, but for me that is a stretch. i have read some of Backman's books and my impressions vary from "that's okay i guess" to "this is a really profound work about human's psyche, this is great". Fried Green Tomatoes tries to achieve the same kind of atmoshpere but it's done very poorly imo. i mean, the descriptions of the cafe and its food are extremely appetizing, the vibe is nice, and the characters are kind and funny. but that's literally it. when you try to dig deeper, the book provides nothing.

the protagonists are absolute angels without any real flaws, with only some cosmetic defects that do not affect the story. this especially applies to Idgie who does only good and is beloved by absolutely everybody, and also Ruth (everybody says how nice and kind she is, but she literally does nothing that shows her kindness). but if there are anragonists, they are Absolute Evil(tm) with no sign of good (Ruth's ex). i mean, the story still works with characters like that, but i expected something more nuanced idk? especially in a book like that, where such difficult topics are touched upon. oh yeah, about that.

the same problem applies to the themes of the book. it tries to tackle absolutely everything, but inevitably fails. especially this applies to racism, because the book itself, ironically, is a bit racist. but this was written in 1987, so i guess we can forgive that? im not sure. anyways, i feel really weird.

i believe that books written in Russian and books written in English are extremely different to read, and i definitely think that this type of storytelling sounds kind of poor when translated into Russian. so maybe that is the translation's fault. but either way, i feel conflicted. it's nice and cozy, but i Did Not like this book.

some people perceive this book as a sort of "hopeful story", where everything is just great and you feel better when reading it because it provides you with hope that you lack in real life. that's absolutely okay. people have different reading needs. i just do Not have this exact reading need. i want books to properly investigate into difficult topics, to disturb me before i get comforted. i don't want just a happily-ever-after story, i want a proper exploration.

i think it would be better if the author chose just a few topics to explore - for example, Idgie and Ruth's relationship and how the social climate affects it + racism - and decided to delve Deep into them. that would be more than enough. but alas...

our book club was reading The Bookshop of Forbidden Books by Marc Levy.

in the most respectful way possible, the author has no idea what he is writing about. everything is just so... shallow. living like this affects the person in more ways than the author imagines it doing. all these little moments of the soul who is silently dying inside are not present in the book at all, and that really dissapointed me. i didn't even expect it to upset me this much lol.

later i started The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. that book totally charmed me, and i can't help but compare it with The Bookshop of Forbidden Books.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is not about the authoritarianism, of course, but it's about war, and you know, two things go hand in hand in some cases *coughs*, and obvious restrictions for normal life are still present. this book is so funny and light-hearted, and at the same time it handles difficult topics with such grace. it feels like full of compassion for ordinary people, and i can really relate to the characters who try to stay optimistic in such conditions. this book is amazing.

i have read Man's Search for Meaning back in 2019-2020, and just now i realize how much it helped me through the hardest times. i highly recommend it (or at least just learning about Victor Frankl's story in general). this is absolutely insane.

in 2022 i decided to get back to it but i really was not mentally prepared. now i think i'm ready for a re-read. really curious to see how my perception of Frankl's work will change because my own worldview has changed drastically throughout these years.