we all have soulmates. mine is short literary fiction.
anyone can write a long book and make you care about characters when they have hundreds of pageswe all have soulmates. mine is short literary fiction.
anyone can write a long book and make you care about characters when they have hundreds of pages to do it. managing to make me love three people so much in 84 pages that i cry to say goodbye to them, when i've spent barely a magazine in their company, is magic.
this is a short book, but it is perfect. i loved every page of it in a year where i barely seem to find books i like.
i am a big fan of liz bruenig's writing and a huge opposer of the death penalty, so the existence of this book is enough to make me read nonfiction—ani am a big fan of liz bruenig's writing and a huge opposer of the death penalty, so the existence of this book is enough to make me read nonfiction—and adore it.
the entire system of punishment in this country is intended to dehumanize those that reside within it, and numb the emotions of those that witness it.
this book is the antidote to that.
it is incredibly painful and consuming. i felt such deep sorrow while reading this, and such helplessness, and such disgust for the world that we live within. i felt grief.
but i also felt incredible gratitude, that bruenig continues to bring these topics that so many would see buried to light. and i felt love for the people depicted here. and i felt forgiveness.
when i first finished Old Flame, i rated it four stars.
then i spent hours upon hours trying to pick it back up, my brain absolutely rejecting the concwhen i first finished Old Flame, i rated it four stars.
then i spent hours upon hours trying to pick it back up, my brain absolutely rejecting the concept that i had finished it. i had a series of work calls, and after each i wanted to continue reading. i had a series of tasks, and i without fail attempted to stop doing them in order to read.
i could not stop thinking about this book!!!
so boom. 5 stars it became.
part of me prickled at the conceit of this, which is that creating a human life is an act of creation that is radical and artistic and important, and that nothing is taken from the strength and passion motherhood takes by virtue of its being societal default. i didn't think that going in, and i didn't really want to think it through most of my reading experience.
but that's part of why i am a good reader for this book. because it convinced me.
and on top of that gorgeousness, this is funny and sharp and populated with unforgettable characters. it's two distinct stories, and i loved both, which feels like the rarest thing ever.
this is in many ways about how it is a huge act of generosity to love someone, and maybe the most valuable thing you can do in this life.
and i love women and this book loves women and i love this book.
bottom line: love! life! jokes about capitalism! what more could you want.
------------------- reread update
i love this book too much.
------------------- tbr review
literary fiction about what it means to be a woman...yeah this is up my alley
the best thing a book can be is: - about family - written by ann patchett
the other best thing a book can be is: - among the absolute fraction of things the best thing a book can be is: - about family - written by ann patchett
the other best thing a book can be is: - among the absolute fraction of things i read that magically, miraculously, divinely qualifies as 5 stars.
this is both.
i had no idea it was the great dream of my life to have three daughters and spend my days with them and my husband and a rescue dog picking cherries and telling stories in our orchard in michigan, but this was too damn dreamy for that not to be the case.
it's too auspicious, encountering my second beloved michigan cherry book. plus they're my favorite fruit. i will hereby be retiring from the review game in order to dedicate my life to google maps-ing "fruit trees accompanied by white farmhouses near lakes."
this book was strange and imperfect, kind of bumpy and (bizarrely) poorly edited and uncompelling in spots, but...i never stopped wanting to be reading it.
whenever i'm in my dear lovely favorite independent bookstore, i have a careful(ish) allowance. i can buy as many books from the on-sale rescue-these-books-from-remainder-table as my charitable heart desires, but i can only buy one full-price hardcover.
this was that one.
i chose really, really well.
bottom line: sometimes you think you'll love a book, and then you do. that feeling never gets old....more
i highly recommend reading this five hours into a six hour wait at an airport for an increasingly delayed plane, slowly feeling that overpriced-salad i highly recommend reading this five hours into a six hour wait at an airport for an increasingly delayed plane, slowly feeling that overpriced-salad identical-not-very-bookish-bookstores busiest-starbucks-in-world-history layover rage give way to an incredibly irritating fondness for everyone you see.
if you've been here a bit you may have seen me say my absolute favorite books remind me that life is magical, that even its mundane moments are filled with love and beauty.
this is that on every page.
this read couldn't have come at a better time for me, as i both marked the time between five star reads in months and navigate the growing seriousness of being super crazy stupid cheesy boring capital I capital L In Love for the first time—the scariest thing i've ever done.
this soothed me on both and made my heart feel full.
it's another title + month based pun, it's another classic on my currently reading list, it's another PROJECT LONG CLwelcome to...SEPTEMBERHOUSE-FIVE.
it's another title + month based pun, it's another classic on my currently reading list, it's another PROJECT LONG CLASSIC installment, a project by which i take on classics i've been procrastinating reading in itty bitty sections to make them seem manageable.
this one isn't long, but i did only add it to my want to read list because i somehow have a bookmark that says "everything was beautiful and nothing hurt" and i feel like a poseur.
so similar in impact.
let's get into it.
CHAPTER 1 i think this book has like 10 chapters, so i'll just read one a day till it's done and call it the world's worst project selection in terms of accuracy.
to be honest i just want an excuse to read it immediately.
CHAPTER 2 "The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist. The Tralfamadorians can look at all the different moments just that way we can look at a stretch of the Rocky Mountains, for instance. They can see how permanent all the moments are, and they can look at any moment that interests them. It is just an illusion we have here on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone it is gone forever."
i mean. holy moley.
CHAPTER 3 this book has a character who briefly appears and in his short time with us says that if you're writing an anti-war book, you may as well write an anti-glacier book for how effective it will be. both war and glaciers are here intended as timeless and permanent parts of human life.
with climate change now making glaciers a much more impeachable concept, this statement acts as one of strange and ironic and twisted hope.
CHAPTER 4 "Well, here we are, Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why."
if i have to get abducted by aliens i hope they're also wise.
CHAPTER 5 it's always fun to see another book you've enjoyed or want to read mentioned in a book you're actively reading and enjoying. like a special guest star appearance.
CHAPTER 6 do you know the meme where a book / movie / tv show / romping good time / limited series / human life has to end when they say the title?
anyway. this book would've just ended.
CHAPTER 7 one of those books where you're like "i could write a whole paper about this" every other page.
CHAPTER 8 this book is somewhat unique in antiwar books for its admission that war is intended to make shells out of heroic people, and that "one of its effects" is to prevent people from being "characters."
it seems there is an impulse to think antiwar media will be more effective if this truth is ignored, but i've never found that to be the case. the most disturbing part of war, after all, is its anti-humanity.
CHAPTER 9 a while back my boyfriend was flipping through my copy of this book and laughed pretty hard, but i didn't ask why because he appeared to be fairly close to the end and i didn't want to be spoiled.
i have to say, i gave him more literary benefit of the doubt than he was entitled to for laughing at what i now realize was a drawing of boobs.
CHAPTER 10 welp.
OVERALL this book was mind melting and funny and smart and touching and painful, as was realizing that the quote i love so much that it inspired me to read this book is not meant sincerely.
not everything is beautiful. a hell of a lot hurts. we shouldn't respond to death with nonchalance—we should never accept that that's how it has to go, not all of the time, not right then. war is evil, and things mean things, and we should keep life close to us even when it's tempting to release it, to pull your hand back as if from a hot stove.
and the hurting makes the beautiful more beautiful anyway. rating: 5...more
sure, reading is subjective, and yeah, art can mean something different to everyone who encounters it, and of course, criticism comes down to opinion sure, reading is subjective, and yeah, art can mean something different to everyone who encounters it, and of course, criticism comes down to opinion the vast majority of the time.
but who cares about any of that, because the following two things are true: 1) i am always right, and 2) the best thing a book can be is about how life is lovely, and humans are imperfect, and loving each other and doing our best is what makes life worth living.
guys...this book is excellent. my first 5 star of the year!
this is so beautifully written, and populated by gorgeous, unforgettable characters. it has one of my (many) pet peeves, in that it has tons of perspectives, and yet all of them are stunning and worthwhile.
and all of it is unified by the power of books, how a story can change everything again and again, how the magic of literature just goes on and on, lasting hundreds of years, transforming those who meet it all the way.
it is, in other words, just perfect.
bottom line: wow.
----------------- pre-review
oh my god.
review to come / the first 5 star of the year!!!
----------------- tbr review
one thing i can promise: if there's a bandwagon, i'll be on it...more
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