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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.