LitQueuelitqueue

After

Blood at the Root

Patrick Phillips2016

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

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  • Killers of the Flower Moon

    David Grann2017

    Members of the Osage Nation are murdered for their oil wealth in 1920s Oklahoma, prompting an early FBI investigation.

    elegiac → tense, still history

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Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison

    Michel Foucault

    A philosophical history examines the shift from public torture to modern prison surveillance. It analyzes how power controls the body.

    elegiac → clinical, still history

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

  • The Gulag Archipeligo 1918-1956: An Experiment In Literary Investigation I - Ii.

    Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

    A history of the Soviet forced labor camp system based on survivor reports and the author's own imprisonment. It documents state-run repression.

    elegiac → bleak, still history

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

  • The Tin Drum

    Günter Grass1963

    A boy in 1920s Danzig decides to stop growing at age three. He observes the rise of Nazism and the war while screaming and playing a toy drum.

    elegiac → sardonic

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

To recover

3 more ↓

  • This Time Together: Laughter and Reflection

    Carol Burnett2010

    The comedian shares anecdotes from her career in television and film. The book is a series of short chronological reflections.

    elegiac → warm

    pace-1·prose-1·bleak-2

  • Redshirts

    John Scalzi2012

    Low-ranking crew members on a starship realize they are disposable characters in a sci-fi television show. They attempt to escape their fate.

    elegiac → playful

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-2

  • The Da Vinci Code

    Dan Brown2003

    A symbologist and a cryptologist flee the police while solving puzzles hidden in art. They search for a secret regarding the Holy Grail.

    elegiac → propulsive

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

Faster

3 more ↓

  • American Kingpin

    Nick Bilton2017

    This account follows Ross Ulbricht as he builds the Silk Road dark web market and the federal agents who spend years tracking him down.

    elegiac → propulsive, still true crime

    pace+1·prose0·bleak-1

  • The Sun and Her Flowers

    Rupi Kaur2017

    A collection of short, illustrated poems organized into five stages of growth. It covers themes of loss, trauma, and self-healing.

    elegiac → earnest

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

  • Pillow Thoughts

    Courtney Peppernell2016

    A collection of short poems and prose pieces organized by emotional state. It focuses on themes of heartbreak, healing, and loneliness.

    elegiac → tender

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

Slower

3 more ↓

  • The Frontier in American History

    Frederick Jackson Turner1920

    A series of essays arguing that the American character and democracy were shaped by the continuous expansion into the western wilderness.

    elegiac → clinical, still history

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak-2

  • Confessions

    Augustine of Hippo

    A 4th-century bishop writes a spiritual autobiography addressed to God. He recounts his sinful youth and his eventual conversion to Christianity.

    elegiac → meditative

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak-2

  • How to Read a Book

    Mortimer J. Adler1940

    This is a guide to active reading techniques for different genres. It outlines levels of reading from basic literacy to syntopical analysis.

    elegiac → mysterious

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak-1

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • A Thousand Lives

    Julia Scheeres2011

    This history follows the members of the Peoples Temple from their beginnings in Indiana to the mass murder-suicide in Jonestown, Guyana.

    elegiac → bleak, still history

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1

  • The Blood of Emmett Till

    Timothy B. Tyson2017

    A historical account of the 1955 lynching of a Black teenager in Mississippi. It uses new interviews and recently found trial transcripts.

    Same elegiac register, still history

    pace-1·prose0·bleak+1

  • The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II

    Iris Chang

    A historical account of the 1937 Japanese invasion of Nanking. It documents systematic mass execution and sexual violence.

    elegiac → bleak, still history

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1