I have not tried the long Russian novels other than Crime and Punishment which I was assigned in school. I may tackle them in retirement.

I have read it several times. As for racism, he describes the reality of living in a segregated society, regardless of whether the segregation is de facto or de jure. I see the book as intended to subvert the worst of racist attitudes, but all members of such a culture are scarred and influenced by it and the author definitely has biases.

Edit, I have no doubt that the author is himself racist. But his intention and depiction is community between people of all colors and races. Given his era, for me, that is enough good faith and positive intent to not cancel the book.

I would contrast Lest Darkness Fall by L Sprague de Camp which leans into racism in an entirely unnecessary way, inserting it anachronistically into a plot about ancient Rome.

I agree. It is an excellent apocalyptic book.

Before I found reddit, I browsed shelves in bookstores and libraries. I read best books of the year articles. I paid attention to award winners.

Now I still do all that, but I also spend time on r/suggestmeabook, r/fantasy, r/printsf, r/historicalfiction.

Other people use r/romancebooks and r/horrorlit.

But every book is a bit of a gamble.

My favorite light reading is All Creatures Great and Small or something by Terry Pratchett, but not the first two Discworld books.

It was at least as early as biblical Paul, but it wasn't standardized across cultures and religions. Some cultures were more tolerant.

FOMO is a huge problem in the internet age because we have so many options. It is important to be ok with good enough experience, rather than needing the best possible, because that will be different for every person and impossible to predict. Monday morning quarterbacking is always perfect and never helpful going forward.

I use a complex mix of methods for choosing books. r/suggestmeabook, r/fantasy, r/printsf, r/romancebooks, r/yalit, r/horrorlit and r/historicalfiction all provide both a search function which can be used for words like best or favorite, and also the opportunity to request specific suggestions from long time readers.

I also use best of the year articles from reputable newspapers and lists of awardwinning books. I also have a local bookstore with a staff suggestions shelf that keeps me in touch with new releases. i have found some favorites there.

No, I mostly read at home. But it is a nice book store.

Edit I also read in coffee shops

I have a date with myself to read at least 30 minutes per day.

I also have an excellent local bookstore. I am buying fewer books now that I use the Goodreads want to read list to store books and authors that intrigue me. But it is a problem. Shopping is fun.

I have been like a kid in a candy store since discovering reddit book suggestion sites because I can learn what other readers love to read. These include r/historical fiction, r/romancebooks, r/horrorlit, r/fantasy, r/printsf, r/audiobooks.

I also check the staff picks shelf at my local bookstore. Best of the year articles from reputable newspapers. Lists of award winners.

I only use Goodreads to store my I might like to read this book list, because it is convenient to have the linked summary right there when I choose my next book.

Some books are harder than others. Check online for a summary of the book. r/homeworkhelp may have some ideas. If this is an ongoing problem, it may be your teachers or it may be a disability. You can talk to a school counselor or a doctor. Other people here will also likely have good advice.

Pick a story with a setting or profession that you want to learn about. Rumpole of the Bailey is funny but about an attorney in London and his cases. John Grisham wrote novels about lawyers in the US. The Call of the Wild is set in the Yukon Gold Rush. Graham's Sulee is about a young basketball player and has a lot of information about college basketball. My Name is Asher Lev is about the education of a young painter and contains a lot of art history. Pillars of the Earth is about building a cathedral.

I grew up spending many happy hours in the library and developed eclectic tastes based on explorations there. My favorites include historical fiction, fantasy, science fiction, classics and realistic contemporary. I also read some nonfiction, both explorations of topics and memoirs/biography.

I'm not a huge fan of romance or horror but I will make exceptions for a very good book if someone recommends it.

You can choose books that are less emotionally intense and thought provoking while you are in school. Anything described as cozy or light would work. Also journalistic nonfiction as long as the subject isn't tragic.

Try r/fantasy. People are trolling you with books nothing like your request and this isnt a book suggestion subreddit

It is silent regarding ADHD and executive functioning. It talks about effects of social media on attention and focus in neurotypical people.

The book Stolen Focus by Johan Hari was accessible on this topic.

That was an amazing book. I will never forget it.

I read all three as a child. I enjoyed them all. I think Little Women is the strongest in terms of quality of writing, but I agree with you Little Men is more fun for children reading it. Thank you for your review.

I believe there is a subreddit dedicated to audio books that can help you find good narrator experiences. From my perspective as a long time reader, the book was good but not over the top great. You are missing out on this one, but the supply of good books is far greater than our capacity. Thank you for warning other audio book listeners.

I would offer Elizabeth Moon's female characters in Deed of Paksenarrion and Vatta's War. Also, David Weber and Terry Pratchett are men who wrote female protagonists who are very interesting to me.

I don't read a lot of horror, but both romance and horror can be genres where the females are the opposite of heroic and I like to read about heroes.

It is amazing and wonderful when a book hits that way. Sometimes it's just the right book at the right time.

The ideals of what kind of writing is good writing shifted partway into the 20th century in favor of shorter, clearer sentences and paragraphs. I was taught that this was partly due to the influence of writers like Hemingway. You should have better luck with slightly more recent books.

Thank you for Last Chance to See. I started my love for books about animals with Willard Price children's books about collecting for zoos. I have followed this interest my entire life.

The first two discworld books in order are sub par. If you want to give it another shot, try something later like Going Postal or Small Gods. But Pratchett has a strong voice and it is not for everyone. The first two books are parody of very specific classic fantasy tropes and they don't hit the same way today.

East Bay here. We had it easy compared to the north bay. I've definitely seen storms with worse flooding but I guess it is too early to judge the impact. I feel horrible for the family in Occidental who lost their child.