At a certain point, I had to be honest with myself and say that I don't really like historical fiction.
It is, by and large, boring. Most of the storieAt a certain point, I had to be honest with myself and say that I don't really like historical fiction.
It is, by and large, boring. Most of the stories are about the same thing (World War II). Most of the characters are just boring old people. Well, not old at the time, but would be old now. And I am young and full of life and have, like any other living person, read a lot about World War II already.
But this book...well, this was cool as hell.
It's about WOMAN SPIES in WORLD WAR II in FRANCE. What more could you ask for?!
AND there were multiple perspectives and I could actually tell them apart.
A real diamond in the rough of the genre, if you ask me.
Bottom line: This took me two years to get to and that is my grave error!!
-------------- pre-review
turns out historical fiction is actually...good sometimes?
review to come / 4 stars
--------------
i'm going to be canceled for reading ARCs two years after they're published. this i know
thanks to the publisher for the ARC, though. i mean it...more
Less than one month ago, when I finished this book, all I had to say about it was the following:
"you know when you read a book and you can already telLess than one month ago, when I finished this book, all I had to say about it was the following:
"you know when you read a book and you can already tell you're not going to remember a thing that happened during it?
yeah.
somewhat of a review to come"
And now, approximately twenty-five days later, I remember almost nothing about it.
When I was a kid, I had an Anastasia obsession prompted by the excellence of the animated movie, a penchant for fairytales, and an interest in conspiracy theories and mysteries. And even though any chance of Anastasia's magical survival were brutally murdered in the late 2000s, I truly didn't learn of that until, humiliatingly, like 2 years ago.
That embarrassing blow, alongside my turn to anti-capitalism and lack of interest in wealthy monarchs the world over, killed any remaining curiosity I had.
Just in time for me to read this book.
This was a fine, unmemorable entry into the young adult canon, and I will probably never think about it again.
Bottom line: Not my cup of tea! Sorry!
--------------- tbr review
well, i started using netgalley.
my tbr should fear me.
update: i waited 2 years to even start reading.
---------------
challenging myself to read as many review copies as possible this month because i'm addicted to projects!
reading a book in one day, and then writing a report on it the same day, and then turning that paper in the next day? it's called THRIVING
anyway maybereading a book in one day, and then writing a report on it the same day, and then turning that paper in the next day? it's called THRIVING
anyway maybe it's that i was reading this with an ~Analytical Eye~ so i can write a bunch and tear it to shreds, but i thought this was so poorly structured. also, unbelievably boring considering how objectively fascinating the subject matter is.
if Joyce and Hemingway and Fitzgerald in a Parisian bookstore in the 1920s (not to mention the Nazi shutdown of said bookstore during WWII) can't keep my attention, something is wrong.
bottom line: meh!!! (i have a paper to write.)...more
It's who I am. I'm critical. My compliments come with caveats and the most enjoyable media to me is what I can talk sh*t aboIn my heart, I am a hater.
It's who I am. I'm critical. My compliments come with caveats and the most enjoyable media to me is what I can talk sh*t about. I go into books expecting, at best, one or two things, however insanely specific they may be, for me to detest with my whole heart.
Even this book, which is part of the aforementioned Entertaining Feminist Nonfiction Collection Of Badass Women From History subgenre I devote myself to entirely - I expected a three star experience.
And in many ways, I got more than I expected. This goes out of its way to tell the hard and important stuff that most books like this glaze over. It has way more diverse and little-known stories than similar collections, and while it to some extent has that same quirky joke-attempt-heavy writing style I often find cringey, this was better.
But there is one thing, one reverse-gift this book gave me, that I could never have predicted. And I suppose I, as a seasoned hater, should be grateful for that. Finding a new thing for myself to dislike after decades of full-time loathing is like a chef trying a new flavor, or suddenly becoming one of those crazy shrimp that can punch through glass and see a bajillion colors.
Because I hated approximately fifty percent of this book, and that half was this:
The goddamn motherf*cking illustrations.
I can't even tell you the number of opposites of this review I have written. The number of books where the only nice thing I could say was about the pretty pictures. I said it yesterday, even!
But...here we are.
I hate the illustrations. It takes some of the wind out of my sails to see all these women depicted with Disney Princess faces, down to the lil button noses and eyes that take up half their faces. They were all smoothed over and pretty-fied, and their bodies were often shrunk and curvy, and seeing these dumb basic images of ladies next to these intelligent and opposite-of-basic badasses' stories was a damn bummer.
And thus, my hateful task is complete. There's my complaint.
Bottom line: A good book with a huge downside! C'est la vie.
3.5
------------------- pre-review
god damn it. how many times can i get more than i bargained for?!
review to come / 3.5 or 4 stars
------------------- tbr review
i've said it before and i'll say it again: I Will Read Every Entertaining Feminist Nonfiction Collection Of Badass Women From History That Exists In The World.
this is my quest and i'm sticking to it.
clear ur shit book 30 quest 14: read a book with a purple cover find the other books here...more
"We do not have the ideal world, such as we would like, where morality is easy because cognition is easy. Where one can do no right with no effort bec"We do not have the ideal world, such as we would like, where morality is easy because cognition is easy. Where one can do no right with no effort because he can detect the obvious."
A few years ago, I watched the first season-ish of the TV show adaptation of this book. Here is what I remember: - scary Nazi man with family - San Francisco - the phrase "the man in the high castle" uttered very ominously - lady leaving her husband, or the home where she lived with him or something - torture stuff - a VERY smooth move performed on aforementioned lady by a non-husband man in which she was crying and sitting on the curb and he, in one motion, wrapped her in his jacket and also IN HIS ARMS!!!
As you can tell, 17-year-old me was most impacted by that last one.
What I don't remember: - an in-depth exploration of morality as it relates to empires, and whether any one side of a war is better than the other; whether it really matters who wins a war, or if we'd be wrapped up in moral complexity and evil and bigotry either way; and how and if humans can steer themselves toward the moral right, and if it really matters if it does.
This book is a game changer for me. At first, I didn't like it. It was slow, and racist, and sexist, and the biases show in it probably even outside of the ways they're intended to.
But...the only way I can describe it is that this book opens up. You know how sometimes you're listening to a song and it gets big? Hannah Hunt by Vampire Weekend, or Titus Was Born by Young the Giant. Just a normal song, and then suddenly - huge and loud and overpowering.
This book did that. It takes everything it's been doing for 150 pages or so, and shows you that something else, something huge, has been happening all along.
I felt really overcome when I finished this book, which was about 8 seconds ago. So I still do.
I had to raise this rating.
Bottom line: This book is tough and difficult and punishing, but it is worth the work....more
There is an old cliché that goes, "Laughter is the best medicine."
In a literal sense, this is wrong, because the best medicine is a combination of ibuThere is an old cliché that goes, "Laughter is the best medicine."
In a literal sense, this is wrong, because the best medicine is a combination of ibuprofen, junk food, and complaining. There is no illness that this all-star lineup cannot solve.
And in a figurative sense, it is also wrong, because while I am a huge laughter stan the actual best medicine is a book getting into your hands right when you are best equipped to appreciate it.
In other words, I am sorry to everyone in the comments who agreed with my original three-star review, because it turns out this book is actually perfect.
I read this book for essentially no reason, in 2019, when the world was okay (not awesome but not on fire) and I was young and innocent and my favorite genre was still, somehow, against all odds, YA contemporary.
Why, I do not know. Seems a recipe for disaster.
Now, three years later, this book has returned to my mind due to the fact that it sounds so up my alley the universe may have prescribed it to me. Character-driven, almost-boring, beautifully written literary fiction about complicated (read: annoying) women is all I want to read.
So I picked this one up.
And holy Moses. (Is that an expression?) This one hit me hard.
Every year I build a favorites shelf of every new-to-me read I five star in that year. I never add rereads, even if they're newly five stars, because it's so specific to that year in my head.
This one got added to favorites-2022 (and thus broke the rules I made up) so fast it broke the sound barrier. Sorry to dogs and fireworks appreciators for startling you and getting your hopes up, respectively.
This was just so exactly what I needed.
I don't know that I've ever annotated more, or savored a book more slowly, or felt so seen and still learned things. This book is riddled with underlines, and I read it in a matter of pages per day, and I never wanted it to end. It made me feel so normal and so seen and so okay.
And it gets better. Because for some reason there's a sequel???
Just when this couldn't be any more perfect for me right now, it turns out the universe decided to give me more. I picked this up for a reread completely arbitrarily only to learn it's getting a sequel 6 years after publication, right after I five starred it.
Everything is perfect.
Or actually everything is pretty bad, but the universe is being really nice to me about it.
Bottom line: I don't know what to say about this, really. It's beautifully written, it's incredibly real, it is the ibuprofen/junk food/complaining of books, for my broken brain.
--------------- original three-star review
Sometimes, I finish a book and I don’t know how I feel about it.
This happens a lot of times, in fact. And I have two main strategies for dealing with it. In one, I rate it approximately, confidently say review to come, wait four months (I’m in the midst of a major backlog, okay, I’m not any more a fan of it than you are. In fact I’m probably way less of a fan, because it spares you from having to experience my reviews - a definitively good thing - while it only makes me aware of the fact that I have, like, 100 pages of review-writing ahead of me. And it’s the kind where I can’t remember the book. A true nightmare), then maybe change the rating and post the review.
That’s the good method. (Hard as it may be to believe. The standards are low.)
The bad method, and the one I employed here, is not even rating it. Not even giving it a temporary rating. Just...leaving it in weird review purgatory.
Out of pure laziness and an inability to employ my critical thinking skills.
This was a strange book to read, and, true to form, it’s a strange book to review.
This is one of those slightly radical literary fiction reads with a unique way of looking at the world and a unique style to match that always end up changing my internal monologue for 7-10 business days.
The main reason I don’t read literary fiction (beyond the fact that I spend most of my time reading and trashing YA contemporary) is that, whether I like it or not, I basically live inside it while I’m reading it and for days after.
That’s debilitating.
For this book, which is sad and intense and basically unsatisfying as a rule, that was nothing short of consistently mildly to severely unpleasant.
But I don’t think it’s a bad book, necessarily. I think the writer is very good, and I was fairly consumed by this start to finish. (Obviously.)
It’s just...at the end, I was left feeling a bit, well, awful. And I couldn’t figure out what the point of it was - me feeling that way, or the book, or any of it.
Not a promising way to feel about a book.
Bottom line: I still don’t know any of the answers to any of these questions, so...three stars.
---------------
well now i'm all melancholy.
review to come / rating also to come
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it is with great sadness and regret that i must inform you...
this book stole the working title of my autobiography...more
It is with immense regret and massive trepidation that I must say...
I don’t really get the hype.
I really and truly don’t. Why do you guys like this boIt is with immense regret and massive trepidation that I must say...
I don’t really get the hype.
I really and truly don’t. Why do you guys like this book so much? I am going to go through one potentially good thing by one ultimately disappointing thing and see if any of them click.
1) Because it’s a cool retelling? This is why I was excited for this, as someone who loves retellings. Recycled plots? Old-timey magic and Revenge and mean dads and royalty and dashed love stories that make women turn witchy? Sign me the hell up! But this wasn’t really a retelling. It felt like if I were like “I’m going to rewrite American history, but from the perspective of some random chick who happened to be there for/sexually involved in a bunch of it.” It didn’t feel like one cohesive story at all. It felt like me writing a series of vignettes about a woman who had a crush on multiple founding fathers.
2) Did you all like Percy Jackson? Is this Percy Jackson for the now-kind-of-grown-ups who once read Percy Jackson? Were you all the weird 11-year-olds who thought they were Greek mythology professors because they read about Logan Lerman’s quirky sea-based summer camp misadventures? (Sorry I mentioned the movie. I know you guys hate that.) I read those books in elementary school, too, but even then I was extremely cool and quirky and unique and had tons of unpopular opinions and wasn’t a big fan. So maybe it’s that?
3) Let’s talk about Greek mythology except with one woman instead of a bunch of men? This is another reason I was excited about this, because I cannot think of a single instance in which a single witchy woman is not a million jillion times better than 100 interchangeable White Men Of History Or Fake Magic History. Well, now I can think of a single instance. If that woman spends the whole book basically on one island, even if that island is near monsters, even if that woman gets the occasional visit from a minor god or two, that is so much more boring. Because even with some significant editorializing, that woman is still witnessing maybe 7% of what’s going down. And it’s not really the fun 7%.
4) Let’s talk about Greek mythology except make it feminist and take out the girl hate? Another thing that I was excited about and then all of the excitement was brutally eked out of my soul over the course of like 400 hours of listening or however long this book was. Circe f*cks a married man or two in this book, and uh. Last time I checked...not the most feminist? Also, she’s not exactly awesome to the spouses of these dudes. Double also, I feel like Penelope (Odysseus’ wife) was a pretty blank slate and could’ve been made into a real badass. Instead she, like so much of this book, was boring as hell.
5) Because there’s a badass female protagonist? This was like the single biggest selling point to me, and therefore THE MOST WRENCHING DISAPPOINTMENT. I truly feel -- and maybe I’m the only one who feels this way -- like this was not so much a badass female protagonist as a woman who spends an (immortal, neverending) lifetime with a series of men. I did not want a series of romances. I wanted a badass, vengeful woman with witchy magical powers.
Bottom line:
What I wanted: Feminism! Mythology! Retelling! Badass cool protagonist!
What I got: Boring. Island. More island.
---------- currently-reading updates
me: ok time to write an essay!
this traitor book: or - and here me out on this one - you could not do that and read instead
JOHN GREEN, PAY ATTENTION. This is how you write a cool mystery-y book with quirky teens without making me want to die.
Okay, John Green, you can stop JOHN GREEN, PAY ATTENTION. This is how you write a cool mystery-y book with quirky teens without making me want to die.
Okay, John Green, you can stop reading now. I think it would make me uncomfortable if you read the rest of this review, considering the mean things I’ve said and the mean things your fans have said to me in the comments of my mean things. We just have too much backstory.
Now, for the rest of you!
WHAT A FUN RIDE.
As soon as I heard this book was “unsolved murder mystery at boarding school,” I was in. When I heard the elaboration “unsolved rich people murder mystery from History mixed with current boarding school murder mystery plus true crime aficionado,” I was EXCITED.
And whoa mama was that excitement warranted.
This was not a perfect read for me by any means. I think the quirkiness was wayyy extraneous at some points (even if it wasn’t John Green-level - but truly what is), and it took away from the pacing and the believability. It kind of felt surreal at times. (Like, can we stop talking about the girl who somehow has her dirty unshowered hair in a million tiny ponytails tied with baby socks and get to the murdering, please?)
Also, the pacing of this was weird just because it’s a three-book series with one or two main mysteries. So you get answers at some points in this book, but not a lot of them and not really any that matter.
A very unsatisfying experience.
I think if I could have read all three books at once and pretended they were one very long book, I would have liked this more. As is, it’s a solid three point five.
Also, I already forget what happened in the second book. But that’s unrelated.
Bottom line: This was fun and promising! But weird stuff prevented it from being any more than that.
------------- reread review
hell yeah.
rounding up to 4 (instead of down to 3) upon reread
------------- reread updates
THERE'S GOING TO BE A FOURTH BOOK??!
i just picked this up for a reread on basically a whim and now i find out there's another installment out in 2 months. i think i'm god.
------------- pre-review
baby, let me tell you...I GOT WHAT I CAME FOR.
review to come
------------- tbr review
i am ready for INTRIGUE. i am ready for SUSPENSE. i am ready for CRIME and MURDER....more
There are certain books that tell a story so important that it overrides other aspects of itself, and thThis is a very, very difficult book to review.
There are certain books that tell a story so important that it overrides other aspects of itself, and therefore can overcome certain narrative shortcomings. The Hate U Give, for example, may not have been the most well-written thing I’ve ever read, nor will the characters stay with me forever - but the story will.
I’m in a similar situation here.
This is the story of Lale, a Jewish man who became the tattooist at Auschwitz and used the relative privileges this position allowed him to feed himself and others, fall in love, make friends, and ultimately survive.
Lale is a real man, and this is a true story, but in spite of the fact that Heather Morris interviewed Lale in order to capture it, this is still categorized as historical fiction. And that categorization shows.
I read a lot of reviews of this in order to figure out how to explain my inability to fall in love with it, and a line Amanda’s resonated with me: “I can't help but wonder if viewing concentration camps with the rose colored glasses Lale seemed to wear is damaging to the way some readers will think of the holocaust experience.”
Like many modern readers, I’ve read lots of stories of the Holocaust, and been shocked and horrified by each one. This is the first I’ve encountered that didn’t seem to focus first on the suffering and evils of it.
Above all, this is a love story. And while that’s beautiful, and for many may inspire faith in humanity and the human experience, I felt some small amount of discomfort.
The Tattooist of Auschwitz skips and glosses over some of the greatest horrors of the Holocaust (one of the most nightmarish events in human history) and of Lale’s time in one of the most gruesome concentration camps, and instead focuses, unrelentingly and always, on the romance.
I think Lale’s remarkable, miraculous story deserved to be told, and I’m happy Heather Morris did so, and often did so adeptly, but I worry about upholding stories of the Holocaust in which the major takeaway is love and joy and happily ever after.
There are upsides to this, but we should never forget the truth of what it was.
Bottom line: Lale is a remarkable man who likely saved an unknowable number of people, and I’m grateful I now know his story. I just wish I’d read it in a work of nonfiction.
Here are the things I knew about this book before starting it: 1) Its original title (and current UK title) was The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Well, yikes.
Here are the things I knew about this book before starting it: 1) Its original title (and current UK title) was The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, which, in pure coincidence, is very very similar to The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, and was therefore changed in the US. (I think this is awesome.) 2) It’s a murder mystery with quite possibly the coolest conceit of any book ever. (I think this is awesome.) 3) It’s teeming with gratuitous fat shaming. (I think this is one of the less awesome things I've ever heard in my life.)
Add to that list that the style is extremely overbearing and unyielding over the course of 480 pages (which feels like many more), and you have my list of major takeaways from this reading experience.
Let’s go in order.
NUMBER 1: TITLE THING Well, we basically already covered this.
But it says a lot that I still think this is the most interesting thing about this book, and it has nothing to do with its contents.
NUMBER 2: PLOT THING The idea for this book is SO COOL. Which is why it’s extra lame that I found the first 300-ish pages to be very, very boring, and also found the Big Reveal to be - while not predictable - also boring, and generally speaking was very bored by this whole thing.
Also, the fact that the conceit of this book is what it is (meaning, a guy wakes up in a different person’s body every day with the task of solving the murder of Evelyn Hardcastle) means there must be Magic involved.
Cool! Who doesn’t love magic?
Um, apparently this author, because this Magical World goes largely unexplained and then is halfheartedly told at one point but is clearly not the Main Issue.
Which is extra, extra lame.
NUMBER 3: FATPHOBIA THING Reading this author say that he did not intend to shame fat people in this book is the stupidest, dumbest, most useless excuse for blatant hatred I’ve ever heard.
It’s actually worse if the fat shaming in this book is not intended, because the idea that someone could go around subliminally thinking things as hateful as this is absurd. The way the fat character in this is written - traitless but for the fact that he is very fat, and therefore lonely and abhorrent and disgusting - is so awful. It’s to the point of being basically unreadable.
This book got better towards the end, but I still wish I had DNFed it at this point.
NUMBER 4: STYLE THING I could tell within a couple dozen pages that this style - extremely overwrought, extremely overbearing, and extremely present for the whole book - was not going to work for me.
It never did.
Bottom line: The only cool thing about this book was the idea behind it, and everything about the execution was a major bummer.
------------- pre-review
well, i didn't hate this as much as i expected.
what a rave review.
rtc / 2 stars
-------------
42 pages into this and already brutally sick of the style. YET ANOTHER PROMISING READING EXPERIENCE...more
what i was hoping to get out of this, and what it seemed like i would get out of this, was a half biographI WISH MY FEELINGS ON THIS WEREN'T SO MIXED.
what i was hoping to get out of this, and what it seemed like i would get out of this, was a half biography/half philosophical summary/all graphic novel fun bonanza. in some ways, i did get that. but also what i got was way more biography than philosophy, to the point that the philosophy explanations felt rushed and crammed in, and also so so so so many footnotes with tiny text and weird grammar.
it made my head hurt. (both trying to understand huge concepts in 2 or 3 cartoon frames and the teeny tiny biographical information of various historical figures.)
this was a really cool idea and i liked parts of it but also...not even a fraction as many parts as i wanted to.
bottom line: i don't have the particular interests to read swaths of dense philosophy but this kind fo made me wish i had done that instead!!!
-----------
a historical graphic novel that will teach me about something i know very little about??? sign me the hell up
this is like if tumblr circa 2011 wrote a book. and god help us if tumblr circa 2011 ever gains the sentience to do something like that.
all of ughhhh.
this is like if tumblr circa 2011 wrote a book. and god help us if tumblr circa 2011 ever gains the sentience to do something like that.
all of the language in this is extreme Tryhard Quirky Internet Slang, and it's grueling. also, grating. also, trivializes the incredible work of 25 women who suffered and struggled to make a difference in one way or another.
and like...if it trivializes the work of the women it's supposed to be upholding and praising...what is the goddamn point, pray tell?
bottom line: this was VERY DISAPPOINTING.
-------
will i ever get tired of reading anthologies of powerful women in history? let's find out...more
For some reason, I didn't think I was going to like this.
Probably that had something to do with the disturbingly low average rating, or the fact that For some reason, I didn't think I was going to like this.
Probably that had something to do with the disturbingly low average rating, or the fact that I've heard next to nothing about it, or the way it gathered dust on my literal, physical to-read shelf for years.
But what I forgot in the intervening time is that this is a prettily written work of literary fiction about books and sex and murder.
And no matter how boring or slow or self-indulgent a story is, if it falls within that description, I will of course like it.
Bottom line: A rare win for the good guys! (The good guys being me.)
--------------- pre-review
not going to lie: at one point i really wanted to read this, but i can no longer remember why that was
okay i remembered. it's because this is about literature and sex and murder. duh.
review to come / 3.5 stars
---------------
challenging myself to read as many review copies as possible this month because i'm addicted to projects!
It’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, plus Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, plus a ton of critical analysiTHIS BOOK IS MY DREAM.
It’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, plus Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, plus a ton of critical analysis and fun facts and biographical info and poetry and background and cultural and period information and bonus illustrations and basically all you need or could ever want to know, except if you’re me and your love for and curiosity about Alice and Lewis Carroll and Wonderland will never be satiated.
And also it’s about a square yard and the font is tiny and it weighs about 30 pounds and takes an eternity to read.
I loved this so much that it made my heart hurt to finish it. My version of paradise is probably something like this, where I’m alternating between reading the original text I love more than anything and eloquent, wise, humorous elaboration on things I had never known. The more I learned, the more I wanted to know.
I guess you could say I grew…curiouser and curiouser.
I love myself.
Anyway, my bookmark for this book was a folded-up sheet of lined paper on which I wrote down the titles and works of art and research queries I wanted to know more about as I read. I filled up both sides of that sheet.
Absolutely every aspect of this book is gorgeous and curated and fascinating. I don’t really know how to review this because it basically transcended reading for me.
It was just a perfect experience.
Bottom line: If you love Alice like I do, or really really like it, you need to read this book. It’s a gift. That’s all I can say.
----------- pre-review
i have never, in my entire life, cried in public over a book.
in place of a review of this whole book, i'm just going to write about this single line in Inferno that i full on cannot stop twhoa this book is wild.
in place of a review of this whole book, i'm just going to write about this single line in Inferno that i full on cannot stop thinking about. warning: this is completely nasty. blame Dante. also: all credit goes out to my literary foundations professor. i'm essentially regurgitating his argument.
in Canto XXXIII, the pilgrim encounters Count Ugolino. Ugolino, a former governor of Pisa, is feasting on the neck of Archbishop Ruggieri. in life, Ruggieri betrayed him, leading to his imprisonment. Ugolino was trapped in a tower along with his four sons. as days passed and Ugolino and his sons began to hunger, Ugolino bit into his own hands. his children bade him to eat them before he'd eat himself: "Father, it would be far less painful for us if you ate of us; for you clothed us in this sad flesh it is for you to strip it off."
on the fourth day of imprisonment, the first of his sons died. the remaining three died over the next two days. Ugolino concludes: "Then hunger proved more powerful than grief."
CAN. YOU. BELIEVE. THAT. DOUBLE. MEANING.
either this guy should have died of his grief, but rather died of starvation, or - you know what's coming - homeboy ate his sons.
I MEAN.
that's impressive stuff, but it's not even over!!
Dante is often called a "theological poet." however, theology and poetry are opposed when it comes to the trajectory of Inferno. if it's a theological work, then we should feel less compassion for the people we encounter as we progress, because Dante is descending in hell and meeting more and more sinful people. but if it's a tragedy (or poetic), then we should feel more compassion, because the peak of pity has to occur toward the end of the work for the sake of catharsis. so which side of Dante is the dominant side when it comes to Inferno? it's been the subject of scholarly argument for centuries.
the really impressive, unbelievable, can't-stop-thinking-about-it thing: this entire argument comes down to this single line - Canto XXXIII, line 75: "Then hunger proved more powerful than grief."
because either Ugolino is a story of immense tragedy, a story of near-faultless suffering, and we should pity him immesnely - or he's committed the horrifying, grotesque sin of eating the bodies of his children when cannibalism would not aid his long-term survival, and we should be largely unable to pity him! and it's completely ambiguous. we'll never know.
I have read books like this one, and this was not my favorite.
Recently, a whole bunch of Feminist Anthologies Of Badass Women In History have come outI have read books like this one, and this was not my favorite.
Recently, a whole bunch of Feminist Anthologies Of Badass Women In History have come out. They always have pretty art, and they always try to be funny, and they usually have the same lineup of women with a few newbies in each one.
The first book I read like this was Brazen, which was the f*cking best. The art is beautiful, and the writer is knowledgeable, and it’s all around a meaningful fun aesthetically pleasing empowerment-fest.
Then I followed that up with The Little Book of Feminist Saints, which was also good, mainly because the title is awesome and the art is also reallyreally pretty.
And then I read this one.
The art is still pretty, but...that’s about the nicest thing I can say.
The whole tone of this is...how can I put this...like that one person on a politician’s social media team who’s always insisting on trying to use memes to get a political message across, and it just never works and is always cringy. This book uses a ton of Tumblr-y outdated try-to-relate-to-the-teens slang in an attempt to seem, I assume, witty and amusing and charming, and instead it seems really condescending to these amazing women. It feels like making a mockery of the suffering and labor and pain of these people, and that’s the complete opposite of what this is supposed to do. (It's also the same thing Wonder Women did.)
The only other nice thing I can say is that this includes Isabella Stewart Gardner, my favorite person ever, in history, living or dead, and a true goddamn saint.
Bottom line: What I recommend is this: Look at this cover for a few minutes, Google Isabella Stewart Gardner, and then read Brazen instead.
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FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER, I FORGOT TO MARK A BOOK AS READ ON GOODREADS.
...Who am I?? What have I become?
review to come, once I get some mild existential crises done with (1.5 stars)
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Starting off the new year the way I basically spent the entire last one: By reading a gorgeously illustrated anthology of powerful women in history.
Okay. Let’s get the important stuff out of the way:
READ THAT TITLE.
LOOK AT THAT COVER.
DO BOTH AGAIN!!! PREFERABLY REPEAT STEPS 1-3 UNTIL YOU’RE SURE -Okay. Let’s get the important stuff out of the way:
READ THAT TITLE.
LOOK AT THAT COVER.
DO BOTH AGAIN!!! PREFERABLY REPEAT STEPS 1-3 UNTIL YOU’RE SURE - REALLY SURE - YOU HAVE APPRECIATED EACH TO BOTH YOUR FULL CAPACITY AND THE DEGREE TO WHICH THEY DESERVE APPRECIATION.
When done, feel free to continue reading. Or don’t - we’ve already done what really matters here.
Basically this book is teeny and gorgeous and smart and creative and unique and I love it so much. I read it right after the high of reading Brazen, one of my favorite books of the year/another amazing feminist book about badass ladies in history, and it held up pretty well. It’s not AS good, but nothing is and it’s pretty close!!!
Also please look at the cover again and then think about the title because I’m just sure you’re capable of further appreciation.
Bottom line: This book is teeny and cute inside and out! And those are my aspirations right there. (Hoping ending on that note makes this review seem cute in addition to teeny.)
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what? oh, sorry, i only read nonfiction anthologies of the stories of under-discussed badass women from history alongside beautiful art now.
my skin is clear. my gpa is up. spring has come early. i'm hydrated. i have been cured of my nearsightedness.
i could not have d r e a m e d up a more my skin is clear. my gpa is up. spring has come early. i'm hydrated. i have been cured of my nearsightedness.
i could not have d r e a m e d up a more perfect book.
this book contains: trans women, gay women, bi women, straight women, pan women, black women, asian women, native american women, middle eastern women, white women, autistic women, disabled women. there are living women and dead women and women who are so dead that it's like, maybe she was born around the year 350? there are women i've heard of and women i've long obsessed over and women i'd never heard of because SOCIETY IS UNJUST.
the art is beautiful, whether it's the comic-style panels that make up most of the book or the two-page spreads at the end of every entry, all of which i want to Frame And Hang But Also Print On The Backs Of My Eyelids.
i've been struggling to read a bit this month — no book could catch my attention. i opened the package containing this yesterday, and must have kept it in the back of my mind since, because i picked it up today without thinking. and didn't put it down. through dinner or cleaning or cookie-baking or anything else.
i needed this book in childhood, and i needed it as a teenager, and i need it now and i'll continue to need it forever. i know absolutely that i'll return to this book always.
this is going on my all-time favorites list. this is a book that i will recommend to all women, and all men, and all people of all genders because it is so important and beautiful and necessary.
as i finished this book, i got choked up. because it's over, and because it is such a gift.
at the end, Pénélope Bagieu includes a list of 30 more badass women, and oh my god if this world is worthy of loving Bagieu will write a book for them, too.
bottom line: maybe i will come back and write more later, because i have the feeling i will never be done talking about this book.
thank you, thank you, thaaaaank you to fierce reads for the ARC...more
who knew i'd find a nonfiction account of the epidemiological history of cholera more interesting than most YA fantasy??
this book was disgusting. it wwho knew i'd find a nonfiction account of the epidemiological history of cholera more interesting than most YA fantasy??
this book was disgusting. it was also SO FUN. well, the first hundred or so pages were the funnest ever (five star level for real). then the next one hundred were like...eh. and the last fifty were "uhhh i think i'm just going to skip this i'm here for plagues and infectious disease not self-indulgent waxing romantic on the future of the city as a concept?????"
but still.
lot of question marks today, huh. even more than usual.
this is an impressive book and you should, at the very least, read the first hundred pages of this and then john snow's wikipedia page or something.
bottom line: i guess i like historical nonfiction sometimes?? who knew!!!!!...more
Ahem. (Picture me gently clinking a knife on the side of a wine glass, or whatever that classy thing is people do before they give toasts at swanky diAhem. (Picture me gently clinking a knife on the side of a wine glass, or whatever that classy thing is people do before they give toasts at swanky dinner parties.)
Hello, everyone. If I could get your attention. I just want to say a few words.
So you all know Emily, yes? Emily Henry? The writer of this very book?
I only “met” Emily for the first time in June of last year, when I read her book A Million Junes. And as soon as I picked it up, I knew. It wasn’t just the pretty cover or the compelling synopsis - it was deeper than that. This was love.
But, you know, I thought I’d known before, so I waited it out. I finished the book before I made any announcements. And it was just as I had thought and hoped and dreamed it would be: a beautiful, truthful magical realism with wonderful, funny characters, strong female friendship, a happy family, a charming romance that didn’t take over the narrative, and above all, perhaps the loveliest writing style I’d ever encountered in YA. I was hooked.
Love at first sight turned out to be true love. <3 <3 <3
Still, love is a bumpy road. So I waited six months to be sure before I picked up her first book. With a pretty low average rating, complaints of a slow plot and instalove, I knew this would be the ultimate test of my affections. I entered with trepidation.
From the start, I should have known I needn’t have worried. It was another gorgeous cover, another compelling synopsis. As I began reading, I discovered the same wonderful magical realism, sense of humor, full and lovable characters, friendships, and that irresistible writing that had made me fall in love in the first place.
The romance was a little much comparatively, it’s true, but who has time to be bothered by love being laid on a little thick when there’s time travel and parallel universes and Native American folklore and coming of age and the most nostalgic, caring depiction of the end of high school I’ve ever read?
I guess The Love That Split the World isn’t for everyone, but it is for me. Looks like it’s a question that split the world! I kid, I kid.
In short, Emily Henry, I loved your second, underrated-but-acclaimed book, and I loved your underloved debut. I love the brilliantly done magical realism, the banter, the characters, the friendships and family relationships that aren’t left by the wayside, the realness of the emotions, and above all, the gorgeous writing.
So…(picture me getting on one knee here, or something)...Emily, I have a very important question to ask you:
Will you be the only YA author on my all time favorite authors list?
(Here is either where I’ll insert a SHE SAID YES!!! Or just leave this parenthetical here in the event that she doesn’t respond. I have to be honest with myself and say it’s probably going to be the latter.)
Bottom line: Apparently this book isn’t for everyone. BUT DON’T YOU EVER COME INTO THIS HOUSE AND INSULT MY WIFE FAVORITE YA AUTHOR.
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A series of things of which I am totally convinced:
- This book is achingly lovely. - I want to squeeze every character in it (in a loving way). - Everyone, straight up everyone, should read this (but only after reading A Million Junes) - Emily Henry sees the world differently from all of us, quite possibly in the best way possible, and I want to crack her head open and live inside it but only after I give her a big hug and perhaps a kiss on the forehead.
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