An interesting meditation on faith, friendship, and family, most of us liked Lacey's meandering exploration of breakups through both memoir and fiction, but some of us were turned off by her choice of stylistic sloppiness.

A very disturbing and thought-provoking book about a middle-aged actor and her family. NUBClub enjoyed playing with Kitamura's puzzle.

Jones had some interesting themes and powerful symbolism in this historic horror story, but the framing and conclusion soured the book for some of us and ruined it for others.

A tight book about travel and mourning, most of us found it a compelling arc of closure although some of us thought it was too shallow and aimless.

Most of NUBClub found this novel of a woman's retreat into a monastery a powerful story of isolation and redemption, we also acknowledge it's a slow and small story about a character some of found unethical and unsympathetic.

A disappointing and ridiculous thriller about a rivalry between an elderly woman and a young child. There are ideas here that Bollen could have made a good novel out of, but there are so many impossible plot choices and just unbelievable moments that the few spots of solid writing and observation couldn't save it.

A well written but very confusing novel about love, loss, and the way deep relationships change up. There are truly beautiful passages in this book, but aside from the basic themes, we had no idea why Michaels was showing us the characters and scenes she chose and we all felt the novel could have been structured more tightly and clearly.

A tight and compelling read, Tokarczuk does a great job creating an interesting thriller with real social commentary that sticks the landing beautifully.

We had an overall positive response to van der Wouden's story about historic wrongs and living with past mistakes, although some people saw the plot coming and thought the story needed to give more context to what was a very specifically Dutch situation.

Most of us found this meditation of earth and space moving and extremely vivid, but there were some concerns that it leaned too much on thin characters and geography porn.

A challenging and powerful reimagining of Huck Finn, James had many good ideas and provocations even though almost all of us think he went too far in some parts. It's hard to imagine reading without the original, but Everett has written a fascinating companion piece that offers another aggressively distinct view of the story.

No one at NUBClub could argue about how well Twain wrote or how revolutionary the novel would have been in its historical moment, but we were torn about whether it remained brilliant and essential or whether it had outlived its value and was simply too uncomfortable to enjoy.

We're sorry to say this, but this follow-up to Orange's powerful There There is just not worth the read. Orange is a great writer in places, but this book lacks anything beyond a very flimsy throughline to explain the time jumps and different stories and all of the modern storytelling just loses the thread of what Orange is actually good at depicting.

There are some really good moments in Hendrix's tale of puppets and possession, including an amazing horror story in the center of the book, but it just felt like the author was just stuffing everything he liked into the book and it fizzles out at the end.

A general vote of confidence for Kushner's new novel from all readers. While we do wish Kushner had not assumed we knew so much about critical theory, when we unpacked Creation Lake, we found it a well-written and interesting story about theories of revolution and the false narratives that fuel social movements.

A genuinely scary novel at times, but not the best Tremblay we've read. Horror Movie is a solid Halloween read that we wish had a slightly clearer plot.

A generally well-liked novel by one of our most solid writers. The book contains believable characters and orbits around an interesting and complex theme of comets and gravity. While some of us had issues with extraneous elements and unlikely plots, the majority of us thought Perry creating an intricate, beautiful and moving story.

An ok novel about Russian history and historic grief. We felt Apekina had some nice stories about the moral challenges of the Russian Revolution, but the use of the medium character never really connects meaningfully with the protagonist and thus the story fails to cohere.

Mixed thoughts on this interesting but flawed novel about how innocents become recruited in war. Obioma has some very interesting ideas in the novel and offers an insightful view on an identity we rarely see, but then counteracts that with thin characters and simplistic plots that obscure the power of his more profound work.

A skillful and at time beautiful novel about a natural place and the humans that move through it, North Woods is let down by its shoddy cosmology and weak ending. Despite that, most NUBClubbers would recommend it for the sheer breadth of styles Mason deftly employs.

NUBClub thought this was a lesser work of Cusk's, too abstract and inconsistent to match her better novels. While there were some defenders, many of us didn't see the point.

A powerful and well written novel that has truly masterful moments, but manipulative in a way that we felt shortchanged its topic. We can't fully recommend it, but the conclusion is a simply stunning piece of writing.

A long discussion led us to generally liking Akbar's meditation on recovery, sacrifice, and what makes a meaningful life. A number of us had structural issues with the novel and wished it had been edited better, but the majority of us would recommend it for its powerful writing and at times poignant imagery.

A novel with an interesting premise that goes off a cliff at the end. Ko is a good writer and her theme is clear, but some of the worldbuilding and character choices just aren't believable or interesting.

A novel all of us found to be mixed in terms of quality. McBride has high points in his character depictions and creation of a believable town, and low points in his unfocused plotting and his occasionally meandering into angry-old-man ranting. None of us were compelled to recommend it, but there are definitely some good points if you choose to read it.

Oof. NUBClub did not like this novel. A not great start leads to a truly ridiculous ending. The writing is solid, but the plot is just laughable.

General praise for Murray novel about a flailing family in Ireland and the ways they are unknowable to each other. The writing is sharp and everyone found at least one character they loved, but we differed on which plot points we thought were necessary and about half the club had strong issues with the ending.

We had a mixed reaction to Zadie Smith's work about a civil controversy in 19th century England. The theme was certainly relevant to today and there were some very good ideas and well written sections, but all of us felt the novel really needed a strong edit and more focus.

A good but not great work about queerness and Palestinian history. The core story is very compelling, but Cypher has too many red herrings and abandoned plots for the novel to shine. It would have been better as a very tight short story.

An interesting work about artificial intelligence, art, and isolation, we liked the premise and the questions that Michaels was asking, but we felt he could have spent more time exploring the human side of the story.

A not scary book that's trying way too hard to frighten you, A Haunting on the Hill just takes too long to get nowhere interesting.

A disappointment from Groff, who we've generally really liked. It's a well-written book in places, but the main character makes no sense and we don't understand what Groff was trying to tell us with this urelenting flow of suffering and betrayal. It's not clear why this story needed to be told at all.

While an interesting concept, Ward's twist on a horror novel isn't successful. There are just choices in this novel that we can't make sense of or simply shouldn't have happened. It's engaging as an idea, but we have no idea how any author could have executed this well.

An interesting and innovative novel that didn't really land for most of us. Everyone thought that Barry did a great job of painting a view of dementia, but that led to plotting and tone decisions that were true but many of us found dissatisfying.

A short but interesting novel examining the experience of being a muse for an artist. It's a small work, but it makes interesting choices and hits its targets in a surprising way.

NUBClub found Covenant of Water a well-written but essentially thin work. The themes were very clear, but we were torn about whether the departure from the magically real beginning was a good one, and we bristled at some of the more ridiculous plot twists.

A detailed but fundamentally dumb book, we were a bit stunned by Kraus's simultaneous demand for accuracy in diving and whale biology and his inability to string that content together into an even remotely believable plot.

A subtle and intriguing book about power and boundaries and what exploitation is. Makkai sometimes creates moments that are a bit too on the nose, but I Have Some Questions for You generally does a good job of diving into a murky world of incomplete information and troubling manipulation and getting us to feel uncomfortable about the boundaries between bad behavior, harassment, and malice.

An interesting meditation on the value of questioning reality and recognizing mortality. Alexis does some solid writing and has some interesting twists in this fable about gods gifting intelligence on dogs to see if there's any value in being reflective.

A basically mediocre story that disappeared from our minds when we finished it. It's not bad, but we don't know why it was written.

Another mixed read from LaValle. Lone Women has some good characters and the western homestead setting is terrific, but the plot just doesn't hold together and the whole book falls apart at the end. We really really wish LaValle would trust his skill depicting internality and relationships and struggles with bigotry and leave out the half-formed fantasy and shoddy worldbuilding.

A profoundly deep and surprising novel about art, manipulation, and identity. Lacey delivers on all her potential here in a book that made some members' of NUBClub list of top reads ever.

We had vaguely positive but mixed reviews for Catton's latest environmental espionage story. Everyone felt Catton did a good job with characters and conflicts at the beginning, but some of us just felt she lost her way in the ending. How much you like the novel will depend on how much a somewhat nonsensical finale hurts you.

A funny and yet quite disturbing read, we applaud Jen Beagin's ability to make such a surreal bunch of characters into something not only believable, but at times moving.

Mixed reviews for O'Farrell's story of an arranged marriage in Renaissance Italy. There were definitely strong scenes and interesting characters, but the group was torn about whether the missteps of the ending and the all-too-often sledgehammer symbolism was enough to derail an otherwise well-written novel.

A deeply disappointing read, we felt that Schwartz's content was fascinating, but as a novel, it was both boring and confounding. It's not a good sign when everyone felt that an essay about the topic would have been better than your story, but all of us would have preferred this.

A truly bizarre book, we were all impressed by Garner's style and use of language. Where we were stumped was exactly what the meaning and point of the story were, but a number of us were compelled to re-read it to see what we could make of it.

Case Study is a novel that grew on us as we talked about it. An intricate weaving of a set of unreliable narratives asking questions about the flexibility of identity and the knowability of others, we left our discussion satisfied that Burnet is a great author and a true master of limited perspective.

A good premise from a promising artist, but there was really nothing notable about this story about a Japanese WW2 soldier who stayed at his post for decades. It's not a bad book; it just doesn't add anything particularly insightful, pretty, or original to the core idea.

An interesting and very intricate novel about how we are responsible to other people that half of us loved and half of us were indifferent about. This is a book of magical realism; set that in your mind early, because how much you enjoy this novel is basically a product of whether you spend your reading enjoying the absurdity or doubting the reality of the setting.

Lots of confusion around this novel, but we ultimately gave low marks to this conversational tour of New Orleans. McCarthy does some good writing in the book, but it's far too pretentious and random with too many unconnected elements and a couple of unforgivably boring chapters.

NUBClub generally liked Karunatilaka's fable about ghosts, redemption, and our marks on the world set in horrors of Sri Lanka's constant violence and corruption. There were some confusions and criticism about some tangential elements of the spirit world that some of us wanted cut, but overall we appreciated the original style, somewhat traditional plot arc, and the artful contrast between the humor of the spirits with the heaviness of the politics.

Fowler's historic look at another period of polarization and political violence largely worked for us. There were definitely criticisms about length and the necessity of certain storylines, but most of us thought it was a poignant and deeply important story about family conflict and the endurance of fascistic belief.

A horror novel that was an pretty read overall except for the horror parts. But a horror novel where you wished they had cut out all the horror is not a successful book.

A terrifically complex and uncomfortable view of the aftereffects of colonization of Ireland through the lens of a small island visited by an English painter looking to capture it visually and a French linguist looking to preserve its language. Magee masterfully shows how deeply all the relationships are distorted by the colonial history while still presenting us with rich and believable characters. It's rare that we disagree so much about our interpretations of a novel while still all enjoying it. Brava, Audrey Magee.

Wow was this book disappointing. The topic is both interesting and important, but the characters do not make sense, the author clearly doesn't understand some of the settings she's talking about, and the power of her political message is diluted by the ill-conceived fictionalization of elements of Puerto Rico. It's an important story that wasn't executed correctly.

Mixed results for Ali Smith's latest work. Most of us thought the line-by-line writing was beautiful and there were some terrific moments, but the plot didn't really add up. Your opinion of this book will largely be determined by how much it matters to you that the plot be tight and fully explained.

A pretty good but not excellent follow-up by Yanagihara. The worldbuilding in the novel was excellent as an experiment in queer revisionism, but all of thought the second section was pointless and way too long. A lot of your interest in this book will be determined by how much you can stand reading that many pages about such unmotivated and failed characters.

A contentious review with mixed takes on Diaz's story of perspectives and spin on wealth and talent. We agreed that the book had some good sections, but we disagreed about which they were, and everyone could find some issue that kept the book from being great. It's not badly written, but there is some central issue with the structure that led to all of us finding something lacking.

A overall good novel let down by a badly executed ending. Naga wrote a quick good story about insiders and outsiders, cultural collisions, and problematic relationships, so good in fact that she didn't need to explain it all to us in the conclusion.

A mediocre read for NUBClub with what we generally considered very good writing with very bad plotting. If Mandel had just made different story decisions, we would have loved it, but your mileage is going to vary wildly on how much you can ignore the very ill-thought-out time-travel.

An interesting and fun book about a midlife crisis and an escape from family, it's hampered only by a structural choice to have about a fifth of the book dedicated to another character's story that doesn't belong.

Ok but not great reviews for Doerr's many layered novel about the role a fragmented Greek fable plays in the lives of five people at different times in different world ending events. All of us thought that Doerr's writing was terrific in places and found at least one of the characters compelling, but no one could justify why he needed all of these protagonists and so much time to make his point.

A easy and quite enjoyable read that revealed fascinating consistency and depth when we analyzed it. It took us a while to connect all the dots between the two main stories, but when we did, we found this tale of women's struggles against limitation and questions of who controls a person's story very well structured and deeply moving. It's a remarkable book -- light to read but deep to analyze.

NUBClub found Harlem Shuffle a well-written book with good characters and interesting themes. It wasn't universally loved, as some of us felt the pieces didn't add up to something as compelling as they hoped, but everyone thought it was a worthy book in Whitehead's canon and many of us thoroughly enjoyed its take on ambition, crookedness, and hustling.

Those who read City of Girls found it entertaining but not profound or great. The writing was better than expected and some of Gilbert's characters were interesting, but the plot made no sense and the moral of the story is down right insulting.

Mid to low marks for this book about ownership, betrayal, and privilege. Every agreed that Galgut was a good writer and that the theme connecting the family drama and the history of South Africa was solid, but the perspective of the book was too confusing and the plot both too predictable and too simplistic in its perspective. The novel is just too much noise for what good signal there is.

A disappointing novel that lost half of us at the beginning and half of us at about the midpoint. Too many dad jokes, too thin characters, and an attempt at a bigger narrative than the Martian that ends up both seeming less important and ending way more stupidly.

NUBClub generally enjoyed Groff's historical re-imagining of Marie de France. Different members had different points in the plot to quibble about, but overall we enjoyed this interesting fictional hagiography of an alternate past, and found a lot to talk about it its depiction of politics, feminism, and the intersection of faith and power. It's not Groff's best work, but it's a novel in her canon very much worth reading.

An interesting take on our ignorance of environmental disaster, Fever Dream sketches its message in an interestingly vague form. It's a curious book that has a nice sense of dread, but it never really develops into anything significant. It's a thin gesture, but a well-executed one.

A generally positive take from NUBClub on this novel about social media, fractured experience, and the power of relationships. Where we differed was on what was good about the novel. Much of NUBClub felt the novel only made sense because of the plot twist in the second half, while others liked it the entire way. Nonetheless, all of us recommended this poetic look at modern connected life.

A book that everyone felt started well and ended poorly. How poorly the book ended basically determined one's opinion, and so Yoder's novel was ruined for some while others saw past the ending twist to find the meditation on motherhood, ambivalence, and rage compelling.

NUBClub does not recommend this half-baked mystery about a group of men who disappear from an isolated lighthouse. The room disagreed about whether the novel had promise at the beginning or whether it was boring the whole way through, but all of us were disappointed that Stonex didn't tie up loose ends, create satisfying conclusions, or resolve her own mystery plot.

We had a general positive take on Galchen's historical fiction about accusations of witchcraft in a world of small town politics and gossip. We all found it to be a potent depiction of age, social expectations, and minor betrayals, and we appreciated the way the Galchen established the network of power and connection in a past setting in such clear and believable terms.

Wildly different opinions in NUBClub about this short novella on a narrow view on a world crisis. If we are guides, your mileage will vary entirely based on whether you are looking for realistic characters or view the book as an absurdist metaphor.

Mixed response from NUBClub to Sathian's story of alchemy and model minority stresses. Everyone liked the mythology and the place of magic in the story, but a lot of the novel's success hung on whether you found the characters sympathetic, and we were pretty split on whether the problems of high-achieving high school students were compelling or not. There are strong themes, but some weak plot decisions, and so it's definitely a mixed bag that will depend a lot on how much you feel for the protagonists.

Nervous System was a big miss for us at NUBClub. Most of us couldn't finish it, and those could finish it were not impressed. The book is just too labored and heavy to get through.

Mixed bag NUBClub with some people loving the novel, and others finding it kind of clichéd and extraneously. There was a lot of heated debate about how Shakespeare and his plays were presented, what we were to make of Agnes's viewpoint and powers, and even what parts of the story were the good ones. I think NUBClub would recommend it at least for the skillful writing in places, but different people had very different praise and criticism of this quite opinionated and focused novel.

A fascinatingly weird little book from Cusk. We all liked the take on male privilege and the unpredictability of the book, but we were left with a lot of interesting questions about the narrator's motivations and the point of telling this story. Still, it's a very interesting and very compelling short read.

Our return to Nguyen's world of double agents and monologue was enjoyed by most of NUBClub, and we had fun dissecting its moral complexities, wry commentary on colonialism, and tongue-in-cheek look at misogyny and crime. A lot of one's enjoyment of the book depends on liking the narrator, and not all of us did, but no one gave the book low marks, and many of us found it genuinely funny and interesting to analyze.

We found it pretty hard to read Foundation given its anachronisms, both in terms of its storytelling and its outdated vision of the future. While we did appreciate the core idea Asimov had, we found the actual novel difficult to accept, and that led us to an interesting conversation about the lifespan of science fiction and how much we can accept older modes of writing in the modern day.

A refreshing good read, we generally liked Lee's look at identity, families, and the promises we make to others. Some of us had some issues with the character motivations and the end of the book kind of lost its way, but we all appreciated the absurdity and the vivid commentary of the novel.

NUBClub was mixed on this surreal take on Chinese-American experience. Some of us loved the raw weirdness and commitment to an idea of a movie themed world and formal jobs as stereotypes, but some of us couldn't make sense of whether Yu was parodying the real world or making up a fantasy one. Still, all of us enjoyed the satire, and it was a fun read even if we didn't all find it satisfying.

A very intense and at times very beautiful novel about poverty and addiction. As a picture of deep alcoholism, it's painfully true and it's hard to think of a more powerful depiction of that story. Some of us felt that the plot was convenient and manipulative at points, but no one argued that Stuart's ability to paint the moments of the story vividly was anything else than excellent. On the other hand, it's an extremely painful story, so while everyone felt it was a well-written book, not all of us enjoyed reading it or would recommend it.

Do you need NUBClub to tell you that Gatsby is incredible? We all thought it was an amazing novel, but the bulk of our conversation was about how differently we viewed the novel as adults and the new ways we understood Nick, Jordan, and the love story at the novel's center.

Wow, was this book a disappointment. This is probably the worst thing we have read from the Man Booker short list. It's a badly conceived, half thought-out and ridiculous depiction of unreal people and relationships. The best we can say is that there are a few good sentences in it. Do not read this book.

A decent vision of how AI works and what a connected future after climate change could be, but there was just a gaping hole where the plot should have been explained that we could not forgive.

An interesting but not great novel, we found Doshi's work about bad mothers and skewed perspectives to be well written and complex, but we mostly didn’t connect with the characters or find any reason to feel for their struggles. There were also questionable plot moves. We got a great conversation out of it, but none of us defended it very strongly.

We liked the sense of atmosphere and community that French brought to the story, but we didn't really get the kid's role in it, and we felt it fell short of French's other work in terms of how compelling it was. Honestly, it was just really slow.

A mediocre review from NUBClub for this book about a Black gay graduate student navigating the politics and drama of his labmates. The writing was undeniably beautiful and all the glimpses of the characters and interiority were very true and powerful, but when you put the characters and situations together, they just didn't add up to a cohesive whole. It's a painful book to read, and a few of us questioned what the point of it all was.

We did not like this take on the Orient Express set in the most pretentiously bro-y wedding ever conceived. There were a couple of interesting characters, but the plot was pretty obvious, the writing was boring, and the author fundamentally did not understand the protagonists. Sort of fun read was the highest mark it hit.

A well-written and largely compelling book about a self-destructive and lost young protagonist in a complex polyamorous family unit. Most of us liked this character study of desire and confusion, but if you don't like the characters, wow will you not like this novel.

A very contentious book in NUBClub, where most of us found it an interesting and deft genre piece about racism and misogyny, and a couple of us condemned it for gesturing at race while defending racist characters. Still, the majority of us thought the political messages of the book were very clear and very biting.

Mixed reviews of this novel. Many of us were very dissatisfied with Mengiste's picture of women soldiers in the war, finding it overly punishing and underwhelming. We had a lot of good arguments about what Mengiste was trying to say about morality through her characters, and exactly what she was arguing about representation and truth in war. But regardless of that interesting debate, all of us panned the disappointing ending.

What a disappointing read. None of us liked Gailey's post-apocalyptic queer adventure story. It was just underdone at every level: no interesting character, no detail or consistency to the storyworld, and no real reason to exist. Pass on this one.

The novel had some really good elements and began quite strongly, but it makes a bad choice halfway through and descends into predictable and not very interesting directions. And the end simply left us confused. There's a lot of potential the book never realizes.

A weak idea for a world executed in an uninteresting way. There are some interesting seeds in it, but some of the choices are just so cliched and cheesy that the book never comes together into anything compelling.

A good but not great novel about outsider prospectors in an impressionist American West. We liked the characters a lot, but we had issues with way it was plotted and real questions whether it was a fair representation of the time period it's critiquing.

Low marks for The Dutch House from NUBClub. We were puzzled by the choice of narrator, and aghast at the lack of perspective on the privilege of the characters. It's hard to understand how this book was written today, and why in 2020 we would care about this meditation on wealth and family betrayal.

The better of the books by Mandel we've read, we generally liked the character interactions in this novel, but we all found the coincidences of the novel's end ridiculous and there was disagreement about how Mandel handled the apocalypse.

Mixed house on Mandel's latest novel. Some of us enjoyed the look at how people committing evil acts can lie to themselves, while others found the plot stilted and obvious and the perspectives pointless. There were undoubtedly good passages and well-crafted plot points, but the novel just makes too many nonsensical jumps and bad choices to be great.

A good meditation on AI that goes really off the rails in the end. The core ideas about how artifical intelligence and human beings coexist are fascinating, but we just don't understand why Barry had to go so hard into action movie in the finale when he had such an amazing techno-horror story in his hands.

We did it! The room was generally positive about the book, although a few people hated reading it. That said, almost no one dismissed the importance of this profound meditation on motherhood, freedom, existential threat, and family. It's a beast, and most of us wouldn't recommend it to others because it's SO hard to read, but few of us felt it wasn't worth it.

Split opinion for Choi's study of truth and power. All of us were confused by the different stories, and while some of us found the ambiguity an interesting puzzle to solve, others felt it was overly complicated and overwrought.

Overall positive reviews from NUBClub for this dark and cynical book about the effects of abuse and how people enable and delude themselves in bad relationships. Not the best of the Man Booker's this year, but a solid work.

NUBClub gave largely middling marks to Evaristo for this study of different women of color. We all saw what Evaristo was attempting to do, and thought she succeeded in showing a picture of intergeneration experience of race and gender and how diverse an understanding of women can be. But there were a lot of issues with the lack of subtlety and the stylistic choices that left many of us wondering if Evaristo hadn't had a much better concept than she actually executed in this novel.

A generally negative review of Lanchester's parable about climate change and otherness. A few people argued for the power of the issue, but most of us found the setting and characters too underdeveloped to make the book worth it.

A good but not amazing revisiting of the world of The Handmaid's Tale. We generally like the take on Aunt Lydia and the continued worldbuilding Atwood did, but we all wished we had less Baby Nicole and that the story could be about more that a handful of people in what should be a massive population.

We had nothing but praise for Machado's harrowing and disorienting memoir about her experience as a survivor of domestic violence. It's a well-written and masterfully crafted look at the isolated perspective and turbulent rhythms of women in a deeply abusive relationship.

We had an overall positive response to this work about survivors and trauma. While some thought one or the other of the two plots should have been cut or that the author was manipulative in the way the story was told, the group generally agreed that the book gave a powerful look at the early AIDS crisis and had a phenomenal ending.

Our Halloween subread was basically a winner. Not everyone found it scary, but almost all of us who read it thought that the post-modern touches worked, and David pointed us to how deep the evil of the book actually ran. This review contains spoilers, so read with caution.

NUBClub was largely won over by the understated but powerful book about a less glamorous and more harrowing take on what the civil rights struggle was, as seen through the lens of a punishingly cruel juvenile penitentiary. Some of us felt it was too cold and hard to access, but most of the group found its story of thwarted idealism and subtle horror very effective.

Wow, was NUBClub not a fan of this book. A good number of us felt it was the worst book we've ever read. Unsympathetic characters, nonsensical plot, bad writing -- we actually spent most of the meeting trying to figure out what critics found funny or interesting about this book. Stay far away.

The small number of us who read this novel found it surprisingly direct about its theme and much more witchy than advertised. This was a good thing though, and it made Hustvedt's work a clever and enjoyable look at friendship and women's lives.

NUBClub generally liked this book about myths and desire in Victorian-ish England. Everyone thought the writing was excellent, but there were some questions about how the author wanted us to feel about the protagonist.

Not a NUBClub winner. While there was some defense of the depiction of class division in the book, most of us found the writing lacking and the plot overwrought and needlessly punishing.

A disturbing metaphor for toxic masculinity that impressed some of NUBClub and left some of us wondering what we learned from all that pain. All of us agreed it was well-written, but not all of us agreed we should have read it.

We were not a fan of this uncomfortable mix of historical tragedy, parody intellectualism, and confused redemption. Some of us could see the funny bits, but many of us were confused by the sharp tone shift at the beginning, and all of us hated the overwritten and insufferable voice of the narrator.

A good book that split NUBClub on how much we actually enjoyed it. Everyone liked the writing, but some people found the main character unlikeable and the book's details too random and disconnected, while others felt it was a beautiful and pointed depiction of grief and the surreality of solo travel.

A book of wasted opportunity, Murakami builds up a pile of pontentially creepy elements only to let them fizzle with bad humor, a nonsensical storyworld, and way too many uncomfortably sexist observations.

A torn NUBClub and a bit of malaise over this rewriting of the Oedipal myth. Opinions varied on quality of story and writing, but it wasn't anyone's favorite, and perhaps most damningly, most of us felt it would be much better off without all the Oedipus.

A solid majority of us loved this study of how systemic trauma shapes perceptions and behavior of communities seen through the lens of a stalked and isolated young woman. But a vocal minority found the narrator too insufferable to bear.

Opinions were all over the map about Ward's second book. Some thought the imagery and power of the theme were devastating, while others thought Ward dug too deep into her metaphors and told a clumsy and uninspiring story.

There was a unanimous positive response from NUBClub for this novel, and we all loved this deeply problematized look at science, morality, and responsibility, saw through the lens of a formerly enslaved person on a world-spanning adventure.

While we all found parts of the book interestingly themed and well written, most of us were turned off by the plot, particularly how Powers tried to tie the characters together. It's a interesting work of science fiction whose execution doesn't totally live up to its promise.

NUBClub appreciated the poem's imagery and the themes at work, but we feel the photo side of this long-form poem/photo work was a bit too sparse.

Very contentious NUBClub around this book. With a range of reviews from decent to utterly horrid, our discussion centered on our agreement on how the plot went completely wrong at the end of the book and our deep division over the quality (or profound lack thereof) of the literary style.

Generally positive reviews from the group about this meditation on habit and connection. There were debates about how intricate the book actually was and some quibbles with some clunky passages and shoddy worldbuilding, but overall we appreciated this ambiguous and dark look at an alienated woman in the midst of an world-destroying epidemic.

Everyone who had a chance to tackle this subread found it a funny, poignant, and profound story of love, heartbreak, and the need to appreciate oneself.

Split decision on Ondaajte's latest book about a torn and makeshift family in post-war London. Half of us found it an easy and compelling read, while the other half found it unbearably boring.

Decidedly mixed reviews for NUBClub on this book. Some of the group thought the book beautifully and powerfully portrayed the fractured and traumatized world of Native people in Oakland. Some felt that the story had potential, but it was hamstrung by too many characters, too much plot contrivance, and a lack of nuance in its depiction.

A mixed bag at NUBClub. We all appreciated the themes of this book and its metaphorical race into Australia's racist and misogynist hidden history, but half of us just didn't enjoy taking the journey.

Overall, we liked this story of reinvention in wartime NY, even if we didn't find all of the ending twists believable. It was a strong, but not stellar, work.

Those of us who took on the subread found it an incredibly dense and powerful world, with way deeper themes than anything this short has a right to have.

The majority of NUBClub ranked Auster's expansive vision of a life in four versions as one of the top things we've read. We were fascinated by the structure, and in awe of Auster's magical prose and dramatic take on history.

General consensus was that this was a disturbing but beautiful book about poverty, family, and growing up, although a couple of us had issues with the inescapable Medea references and the quite graphic animal violence.

We adored the ornate styling and beautiful romance sub-plot of this book about the fluidity and fixity of identity set in the Civil War west. There were some quibbles over plot, but this was one of the more universally loved books we've read together.

We were not fans of this experimental book about a 2 hour comedy set written in real time. The idea was interesting, but all of us felt it failed at implementation. The comedy just wasn't funny.

Not a winner. As a horror story about a magic world, it was compelling and we felt the experience of the main character was real, but his wife made no sense, the mythology was suspect, and no one would defend the island.

The book didn't make that much of an impression. Fridlund doesn't seem to think we know what Christian scientists are and thus the plot was obvious. But there were some good passages in this book about how we define family and how we grow up.

Generally very positive response with some meh reactions. The book is an amazing study of the self-importance and jealousy of a community of losers.

We don't understand why the word literary was used with this book. As a thriller about serial killers and psychology, the plot was fine, but all the stylistic flairs were dumb and the ending made us laugh.

Interesting book about male desire and relationships seen through an absurd experiment, but we weren't wowed by it. Still, there were good passages, and the protagonists were well-thought out.

Beautiful, beautiful book (although the more plot-focused NUBClubbers thought it slow) about the aftermath of Brexit and a May-December friendship that defies explanation.

Controversial book that started well and many of us felt trailed off. The consensus was the beginning was a powerful metaphor for diaspora, but the end loses its way in sloppy worldbuilding.

A generally well-received book about generational romances that featured some pretty passages and a terrific ending.

We split on this book, finding the exploration of grief and guilt interesting, but the tying up of the ending thoroughly implausible.

We unanimously liked this fairy tale about Lincoln and a graveyard of ghosts. Its storyworld was beautiful and moving, its plot was tight and clever, and the language was stunning in places. Bravo!

We generally liked this quasi-biographical flight of fantasy in the lives of Chabon's grandparents. Chabon certainly knows how to write and in this novel, he weaved a compelling fable of history.

Mixed review from NUBClub on this book about a nobleman imprisoned in a hotel through the Russian Revolution. There were some nice passages, but the story was just too sappy and missed too many chances to actually say something about its historical moment for most of our taste.

A frightening and horrifying Gulliver's Travels about the history of racism in America that hit us hard. A lot of our conversation explored how truth and history were twisted in this novel and why.

Interesting exploration of the paths life can take through the lens of sci-fi, but this was another book that fell apart when we tried to follow the logic of the storyworld.

Our Halloween read, and a good one. Well-written and fascinatingly open to interpretation, the novel sucked us into the question of what motivated the protagonist to kill a neighboring family.

Mixed review of this long and somewhat slow novel about Vietnamese agents during the US war, but the NUBClubbers who liked it were blown away by the absolutely stunning styling of the writing.

A fast and frenetic book about NYC restaurant culture that some people found too shallow to stomach and others found an amazing depiction of shallowness.

A weird and confusing fable about ethics and alienation that we didn't quite get. The obsession around vegetarianism being odd was something we just couldn't understand or empathize with.

Fascinating split opinion on this book along (almost) strict gender lines. The women thought the novel was an amazing depiction of the silencing of a woman; the men thought it was too subtle and wasted a chance to explore its Los Almos cold war setting more. All of us hated the manic pixie dream boy.

A long promised subread, those who read this book generally loved its strange rhythm and its convoluted, obsessive observations and pattern making.

We had mixed feelings about this fictionalized exploration of America, with some of us appreciating its dynamic plot but others of us unimpressed with its cultural lessons.

A generally liked book about (surprise from DeLillo) fear of death and the distance humans have from each other. All of us thought the prose was excellent.

A very emotionally powerful book about the scarring effects of abuse that some of us thought was a bit too sloppy and overplayed.

Ugh. Just not good science fiction, and not literary at all. We all rejected the ill-thought-out universe, the giant plot contrivances, and maybe the worst sex scene in NUBClub reading history.

An interesting dark comedy about race and privilege that left us mixed. We had a good conversation about the book's complexities, but the plot had some twists that we weren't thrilled with.

Mixed NUBCLub response to this satire, with half the room loving its dark take on misogyny and cowardise, and the other half hating its world and tone.

A fast-paced and powerful book about violence and community. Some of us were turned off by the stark brutality in the plot, but the rest of us loved its power and rich world.

The better of the Groff work we read, this book explores privilege in a beautiful, complex study of a couple seen from both skewed angles. One of our collective favorites.

A book whose theme was more interesting than the actual execution, we found it a keen study of identity and what people can choose, but it wasn't as strong in the delivery as it could have been.

Our discussion of this book was interrupted by a minor tragic accident involving both founders (one causing and one receiving), but the general thought was that a good study of family and responsibilities.

A well-written book about the competition and bonds between anthropologists in the 1930s that NUBClub generally found compelling. We really like the tension between the characters, and felt this was one of the better books about jealousy and rivalry we've read.

Interesting mixed response from the group. Everyone thought the book was well-written, but some thought it was an incredibly subtle character study and some were frustrated that nothing happened.

Safe to say this was the worst book NUBClub ever read and likely ever will. Bad writing, bad character, bad plot. At least it was fun to laugh at.

Only a couple of us subread this, and we found it a decent read about existential thoughts. Nothing spectacular, but pretty good writing overall.

Pretty good world, interesting take on magic, and study of relationships, but we at NUBClub didn't find the writing that interesting and the plot could have gone more interesting places.

Some of us found the book hard to get into, but those of us who enjoyed it had fun with the play of the language and the absurd twists of the plot.

Most of us were unimpressed with this take on a relationships and responsibility. The author tries some interesting stylistic things here, but we mostly felt they didn't work.

We found this book about a family dealing with suicide ok. Some of the relationships were strong, but characters keep insisting on doing things that did not make sense.

Most of us found this attempt at a modern fairy tale lacking. There were some good passages, but the book's bizarre world simply did not hold together or make sense.

Generally well liked book about a female artist's experiment to pretend her work was produced by other men. The variety of voices was very powerful and the style was incredible, although ironically we found the artist's own voice the weakest.

We felt this good but not great book told an interesting story about the journey of a man to love through suffering, but many of us found it hard to care about the main character.

Consensus was this was not Mitchell's best work. Some of us were won over by the beautiful writing and dense plot, but most of us thought the cinema-ready actions scenes and silly third act adventure were embarrassing.

Mixed response to this story about Nigerian immigrants to America. Some of us enjoyed the back and forth between the main characters, but most of us found the protagonist in America insufferable.

Some of NUBClub loved this slickly written examination of upbringing and what families are possible, but others felt the questions about the ethics of animal experimentation were obvious and on the nose.

We found this book about time travel to be pretty at the beginning and poignant at moments, but undone by a need to explain the physics of time travel when it could have left well enough alone.

A not very interesting book about trash and people looking to restart their lives. The humor didn't work for us, and the plot lacked power.

We universally loved this beautiful and powerful love story set in a magically real version of 19th gold-hunters in New Zealand. Maybe the most liked book in NUBClub history.

We thought the book was a good study in the contradictions and struggles of naïve belief in utopian communities, but wow does the book go off the rails at the end.

Our first discussion split the group about whether this book was a beautiful study of different revolutionaries in Futurism and NY Beat, or whether it was the story of a boring cipher bouncing off more interesting people.