andymascola's reviews
674 reviews

Running the Light by Sam Tallent

dark sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Billy Ray Schafer is a detestable, washed up road dog standup with a cocaine problem. We watch him do shitty sets and try to score coke and get laid. He’s destroyed his marriage, and one of his two sons won’t talk to him. Well written but deeply cynical. Just OK.

Street-Level Superstar A Year With Lawrence by Will Hodgkinson

emotional funny informative medium-paced

5.0

The writer spends a year with the eccentric frontman for the bands Felt, Denim, Go-Kart Mozart, and Mozart Estate. Lawrence is odd but likable and authentic. Will talks to Lawrence, his ex-girlfriends and bandmates. Loved this book.

Outline by Rachel Cusk

reflective relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

A novelist travels to Greece to teach a writing course. The female protagonist talks with people on planes and at restaurants, learning about their lives through listening. There are no villains in the story. The book is more a meditation on life. I really loved it. 

Inadvertent by Karl Ove Knausgård

informative inspiring reflective relaxing medium-paced

4.5

A ninety page essay in which the author describes how he got into writing, his failures and successes, inspirations, and thoughts on his critics. KOK pulls examples from literature to demonstrate when he thinks a writer has done something well. Liked it.

Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie

emotional hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

5.0

A memoir that works as a love story and a life story. In 2022, Rushdie was stabbed 15 times onstage by a radicalized Muslim extremist. Knife is Rushdie recounting the event and his subsequent miraculous recovery. Salman Rushdie is a literary hero. I loved this book.

The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi

funny lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Karim, a mixed-race teen in 1970’s England, explores his sexuality and creative passions amidst racism and a crumbling family. Karim’s dad, a lazy charlatan, has an affair and is suddenly in demand as a guru. First half was better than the second. Just OK.

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

adventurous dark emotional inspiring sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Texas, 1921, a young lady gets pregnant before marriage. She moves in with the baby’s dad’s family. By the 1930s, drought has all but destroyed their farm. The lady and her kids head west, become migrant workers, and fight for fair pay. Heavy stuff. I liked it.

Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte

dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Holy shit, this fucking book. A collection of loosely-related first-person narratives. The first 120 pages were shocking and blackly funny. The characters are detestable, but that’s the point. Look, if you read novels to escape social media, this ain’t for you.

Lost Empress: A Novel by Sergio de la Pava, Sergio de la Pava

funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

The owner of the Dallas Cowboys hands the team over to his son and leaves his genius daughter, Nina, a lowly indoor league football team called the Patterson Pork. B story involves a criminal mastermind attempting to steal a Dalí from Rikers Island. I liked it.

Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski

5.0