NOVEMBER '25 READS
all the books I ate up this month
NOTE FROM THE WRiTER
The rating scale is completely subjective—it arguably means nothing to anyone but me. It simply shows where a book stands in the LEVi LOPEZ LiBRARY. I recommend looking at the other descriptors and the passage to see which book you would enjoy.
MY STRUGGLE: BOOK ONE
by Karl Ove Knausgaard
SYNPOSiS
A raw excavation of ordinary life. Karl Ove manages to turn the everyday into something transcendent—jumping back and forth from his childhood in rural Norway to his present day domestic routine in Sweden. He shows us how the smallest moments stack together into the architecture of the self.
WHY i READ/CONNECTED
My novel is heavily laced with narratives of the self emerging from the unlikeliest of places. I learned a great deal from Karl Ove about how to make that honest but still cinematic.
FOR FANS OF
Autofiction, Marcel Proust, Boyhood
HiGHLiGHTED PASSAGE
RATiNG
THE PROPHET
by Kahlil Gabran
SYNPOSiS
A poetic meditation on the pillars of a spiritually fulfilling life. It takes the form of a final dialogue between a prophet and the townspeople seeking his last wisdom. A simple book that echoes with a powerful moral pulse.
WHY i READ/CONNECTED
It’s like asking why you connect with the Bible or the Quran or the Torah. If you have an open heart, you will be moved.
FOR FANS OF
Spirituality, Rumi, The Ten Commandments
HiGHLiGHTED PASSAGE
RATiNG
HOLLYWOOD
by Charles Bukowski
SYNPOSiS
A cynical and hilarious journey following late career Bukowski as he turns his autobiographical screenplay into a film. You get a behind the scenes look at the moviemaking industry with his infamous misanthropic POV, but laced with a newfound tenderness and vulnerability. Bukowski reminds us why we ought to root for the outsider, especially in their refusal to compromise their art.
WHY i READ/CONNECTED
This is my most read book of all time. The masterful dry, observational humor is something I aspire to—in my own flavor of course. You can read my deeper review of it here.
FOR FANS OF
Dirty realism, John Fante, Adaptation
HiGHLiGHTED PASSAGE
RATiNG
CHERRY
by Nico Walker
SYNPOSiS
A brutal novel about an Iraq war veteran who comes home with PTSD and begins robbing banks to fund his opioid addiction. It captures the bleakness of post 9/11 Midwestern suburbia. Nico wrote this while serving his prison sentence—which gives it an electrifying undercurrent.
WHY i READ/CONNECTED
One of the recent hits in contemporary fiction, I love any kind of art that is dark and contradictory. Nico taught me how to be cruel and tender on the same page.
FOR FANS OF
War lit, Denis Johnson, Good Time
HiGHLiGHTED PASSAGE
RATiNG
MARTYR
by Kaveh Akbar
SYNPOSiS
A lyrical book about a newly sober young writer raised by a single father in the Midwest, grappling with the existential calling he inherited from his Persian roots. It has a hallucinatory feel—the poeticism, humor and grief blending into an unforgettable tale. Akbar manages to craft one of the most impressive plot twists I’ve ever experienced.
WHY i READ/CONNECTED
Recommended to me on TikTok by a commenter, I’m really glad I took the suggestion. Another recent hit in the market, I admired Akbar’s hazy narrative construction.
FOR FANS OF
Poetic lit fic, Ocean Vuong, The Fountain
HiGHLiGHTED PASSAGE
RATiNG
CATALiNA
by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
SYNPOSiS
A campus novel about an undocumented Ecuadorian Harvard student. Karla births a fierce main character that is at times disturbingly vulnerable. The story is both hyper-contemporary yet also mythic and cuts to the bone with its exploration of diasporic wounds.
WHY i READ/CONNECTED
My novel is also a campus novel, and also deals with class struggle. Karla helped me understand how to better develop a women character who is insecure but still autonomous.
FOR FANS OF
Coming of age, Valeria Luiselli, Dear White People
HiGHLiGHTED PASSAGE
RATiNG
THE LAST TYCOON
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
SYNPOSiS
Fitzgeralds unfinished novel—a magnum opus in progress. They say some musicians only have one song, some writers only one book…Fitzgerald is the classic example of this and here was perfecting his signature creation. It is a glittery, romantic portrait of a Hollywood mogul who is adored by all but deeply estranged from himself.
WHY i READ/CONNECTED
This book came to me in a dream. Seriously. I don’t know why but I woke up one day and felt immediately compelled to look up F. Scott’s other novels, and when I stumbled upon this one and saw it was unfinished,—I knew it was for me. This book blew me away because you get to see his outlines and notes to himself. Most importantly, you see the difference in the passages that were already golden, and those that were definitely going to need more work. As always—a reminder that masterpieces take time, drafts, attention to detail…but they all carry some magic from the very beginning.
FOR FANS OF
Tragedies, Edith Wharton, Babylon
HiGHLiGHTED PASSAGE
RATiNG
THE WAY OF ZEN
by Alan Watts
SYNPOSiS
One of the original gateways for Western readers to Eastern thought. Watts traces the lineage of Zen Buddhism and in the process begins to infiltrate your mind with deceptively simple sageness. The irony of this book, as he reminds us, is that words ultimately fail in helping us dissolve the self and letting our natural freedom flow.
WHY i READ/CONNECTED
I had this personally recommended to me by someone who seems to have some sort of otherwordly timing and understanding of my spiritual journey. And like any truly transformative piece of media, the lessons I’ve learned from this book absorb further and further into my soul with every passing day. If Christianity is my moral and directional foundation, Zen was the missing piece to unlock the rhythmic and perceptual flow I needed to fully unlock myself.
FOR FANS OF
Eastern Philosophy, D.T. Suzuki, Samsara
HiGHLiGHTED PASSAGE
RATiNG
THE MAKiNG OF PRiNCE OF PERSiA
by Jordan Mechner
SYNPOSiS
A creator’s diary that captures the multi-year self doubt, grind and breakthroughs behind making an iconic video game. You get an intimate look at true artistic obsession. Mechner makes you feel like you’re staying up with him as he slowly loses his mind bringing his vision to life—and shares in the ecstasy when it succeeds beyond his wildest dreams.
WHY i READ/CONNECTED
Also a book I’ve reread a great deal of times, it never fails to inspire me. You see that bringing anything great in the world takes equal part tyrant, equal part child, and equal part monk.
FOR FANS OF
Diaries, Shigeru Miyamoto, Halt and Catch Fire
HiGHLiGHTED PASSAGE
RATiNG
MY FRiENDS
by Hisham Matar
SYNPOSiS
A captivating book chronicling the lives of three Libyan exiles in London as they navigate their inner turmoil at having abandoned their home country and loved ones. Tracing their lives from the 1980s until the Arab Spring, each man plays a distinctive role in the dismantling of the government’s oppression. As the title suggests, it is heavily reflective—even mournful as to the power and fragility of friendship.
WHY i READ/CONNECTED
Another TikTok recommendation, under my glowing Martyr review, several people suggested I would therefore enjoy this one. Honestly this book was so fucking good and deep, it made me feel a little guilty that I don’t have as much to say politically as other authors lmao. But I suppose you can’t force that—I do care deeply, I am just drawn to other ways of liberating the world.
FOR FANS OF
Exile literature, Tayeb Salih, Paradise Now
HiGHLiGHTED PASSAGE
RATiNG
