this is probably the most stunning exploration i've encountered of a fact of modern life that haunts me. inundated as we are with horrible news, we kethis is probably the most stunning exploration i've encountered of a fact of modern life that haunts me. inundated as we are with horrible news, we keep it all at a distance, our daily functioning relying on our shutting out that every murder, act of colonization, ongoing genocide is affecting or destroying or ending human lives as complicated and important as our own.
but the chance that a "minor detail" will strike us, as it strikes our protagonist when she encounters the story of the rape and murder of a palestinian woman by israeli soldiers that happened 25 years to the day before her birth, causes it all to collapse.
the connections it draws between our main character and the girl this violence happens to is also a disturbing, timely reminder of that same message. we are separated from those who are suffering only by minor details, in feeling and in chance.
this is a haunting and terrible story, and it's one whose twin in horror is occurring every day before our very eyes.
the least we can do is watch and feel and cry out no.
it has one of the best beginnings i've ever read, and it has one of the best endings i've ever read, and all of i need this book injected in my veins.
it has one of the best beginnings i've ever read, and it has one of the best endings i've ever read, and all of the middle parts are pretty damn good too.
its explorations of family, of naming, of the permanently unhealed wound of slavery, of gender and power, and of love are unforgettable.
i hate reviewing books i love at the best of times, and for this one in particular there is just no way i can do it justice.
bottom line: please, for the love of yourself, read it....more
halle said this book is the 70s equivalent of sally rooney, and she was completely right.
this is the kind of book that is so enjoyable for every seconhalle said this book is the 70s equivalent of sally rooney, and she was completely right.
this is the kind of book that is so enjoyable for every second it makes you want to go back and lower the rating of everything you've read of late.
it is so funny and so precise and so clever, and a page will have a random unshakable description that is so goddamn weird and right. i fell completely in love with these characters and with this book, and as the end of it approached i read slower and slower in the hopes i'd discover 100 or so pages had been stuck together and hiding.
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
once upon a time, i had a very long, very passionate review of this book uploaded, with very long, very passionate pages of comments, and generally itonce upon a time, i had a very long, very passionate review of this book uploaded, with very long, very passionate pages of comments, and generally it was one of my favorite reviews (and of one of my favorite books) with one of my favorite ensuing discussions.
i love ling ma and i want to kiss her on the face but that seems like a pretty major overstep so instead i'll just read everything she writes.
mini revi love ling ma and i want to kiss her on the face but that seems like a pretty major overstep so instead i'll just read everything she writes.
mini reviews for each story like i always do for collections when my weary brain allows me!
STORY 1: LOS ANGELES immediately i don't think i can review every one of these. this was too one of a kind, too striking, i'm speechless, and i have to do this EVERY TIME?!
about to give up already. rating: 4.25
STORY 2: ORANGES cover story. basically.
this doesn't have the same fervent originality as the first one but it's even more immersive and suffocating. rating: 4
STORY 3: G this allegory is so satisfying (if a little clichéd) it's like having a treat. rating: 4
STORY 4: YETI LOVEMAKING HELLO ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL METAPHOR THIS ONE NOT CLICHED AT ALL!!!!! rating: 4.25
STORY 5: RETURNING AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
i don't want this book to end ever.
a story about books and the themes of books and it has the themes and also more themes and also also also... rating: 4.5
STORY 6: UNIVERSITY hmmmmmm.
fun recurring theme becoming apparent of the complexity of desire (i.e., a sense of dissatisfaction too elaborate to pin on any one thing) making happiness impossible in modern life. rating: 4
STORY 8: PEKING DUCK these are just so rich. rating: 4
STORY 9: TOMORROW whoa. rating: 4
OVERALL brilliant and incisive, more knowing and intuitive on the subject of being young and getting older in the 21st century than just about anything i've ever read. i know i'm going to return to this one, countless times mentally and more than once for a reread.
significantly better than the sum of its parts, and the parts are damn good. rating: 5
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things i am willing to do in order to receive this book: - be nice (or try to be) - think about it a lot - ... - say please and thank you?
it worked. thanks to netgalley for the copy....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.
i’m a longstanding opponent of the not like other girls trope (i’m on the record since like 2015, which mei am never happier than when i feel special.
i’m a longstanding opponent of the not like other girls trope (i’m on the record since like 2015, which means this hatred significantly outlives most of my opinions, relationships, and sweaters), but i do like to be unlike other people. i turn the average meal-to-dessert ratio on its head. i stan dunkin over starbucks. i am in the midst of a lifelong quest to have the single most disturbing sleep schedule i can.
and of course, above all, i am an appreciator of a good unpopular opinion.
however.
i don’t think my opinion of this book should be unique.
this book has a devastating 3.19, and this is in spite of being complete perfection from beginning to end.
i picked up a library ebook of this, and while several of my very favorites in the world loved this book, i kinda expected to 3.5 it and move on into my resting state of complete forgetting as soon as possible.
instead, i found myself highlighting swaths of text, almost buzzing with that oh my god is this is a five star this might be a five star feeling, resonating with the emotions depicted and stunned by how lovely and clear the writing was.
and then i finished it, bought a copy, and reread and annotated it barely a week after reading it for the first time.
it’s really an easy five star, filled with taboo topics and fascinating characters and revealing dynamics. it’s about love and sex, gender and power, and how to find yourself or even know what that would look like. it’s about searching for happiness and meaning while being unable to admit that’s what you’re doing.
it’s everything that i think about the most.
bottom line: read it!!!
-------------------- reread update
nothing says five star read like rereading after a week
-------------------- pre-review
never happier than when i love a book everyone hates :)
review to come / 4.5 or 5 stars
-------------------- tbr review
the best thing that can possibly happen to a person is when they get very into a subgenre that is also simultaneously the single most trendy and common subgenre there is.
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
periodically, i have to check to see if i still dislike poetry. for character development.
unfortunately, this has had, in this case, an unforeseen sidperiodically, i have to check to see if i still dislike poetry. for character development.
unfortunately, this has had, in this case, an unforeseen side effect: THIS TIME, I DID.
i read this last month (okay, two months ago, what about it i’m terribly behind) and i felt this sneaky sinking feeling i should 5 star it. but not to worry, because i’m doing this new totally normal not at all deranged thing where if i want to give a book 5 stars, i have to reread it before i review it.
so usually i am reading said book twice in one month.
like i said - normal stuff.
so i read this again. it’s still a 5.
this is prose poetry, which in this case means a tiny little book divided into number paragraphs of stunning writing, not only doable for me but pretty ideal. generally it’s my favorite kind of book: lovely turns of phrase, filled with beautiful explorations of what it is to be human / to hurt / to feel / to love.
throw in a bunch of fun facts and interesting topics and observations about sex and i’m in love.
bottom line: i never in a million years expected to say this but…kind of a dream!...more
even at the best of times, when i am absolutely on the ball and everything is perfect and life is going my way ai do not know how to review this book.
even at the best of times, when i am absolutely on the ball and everything is perfect and life is going my way and i am organized and well stocked in cookies and persian cucumbers (the two best foods), the very best i can hope for in terms of how much time passes between when i read a book and when i review it is 3 weeks.
but that's beside the point, because we are firmly in the two month category on this one.
i just...don't know how to do it. i've never READ anything like this - how would i know how to write about it?
this is just so stunning. so lovely.
the simulation theory and the corresponding idea of SO WHAT, to put it as basically as possible, are two things that have always fascinated me, and now here i find them transcribed so lovingly???
at first i didn't know if i'd like this book - doubted i would, really - as characters from the glass hotel popped up but wow. how different. the two couldn't be more dissimilar.
which is a compliment.
bottom line: a really good book with a perfect ending.
(update: raising to 5 stars 6 months later because i can't stop thinking about this book)
------------------ reread update
doing the normal thing i do where i reread a book i think is a 5 star almost immediately as some kind of weird gobliny test
------------------ pre-review
oh, gosh. life is so lovely.
review to come / 4.5 or 5 stars
------------------ tbr review
will this be a perfect glorious beautifully written book i never stop thinking about (station eleven) or a confusing mess that makes me almost inexplicably mad (the glass hotel).
I, for example, come extraordinarily close, and even I have my flaws. I work too hard. I give too much to charity. I cannot, FOR THENobody is perfect.
I, for example, come extraordinarily close, and even I have my flaws. I work too hard. I give too much to charity. I cannot, FOR THE LIFE OF ME, WRITE A POSITIVE REVIEW.
I can write negative reviews all day, and have fun doing it. Give me a book that is offensive, or dumb, or just plain bad, and we'll have the time of our lives roasting each other up.
But when I love a book?
Hoo boy. Bad news bears.
The highest compliment I can give a book is that it reminds me of Sally Rooney, the author of my heart, and Brandon Taylor's clear and lovely style does that in spades. This book wrapped me up in it, affecting the language of my internal monologue and the nuances of my mood and refusing to allow me to put it down until I finished - keeping itself at the forefront of my mind even if I did manage to take a break.
I read the author's short story collection earlier in the month, and while I didn't completely love it, I couldn't really shake it. Reading this seemed like a foregone conclusion, and was almost exactly like reading a novel-length version of some of my favorite stories from it.
This story, of Wallace, a gay Black science grad student surrounded by whiteness and solitude, even when in the company of others, has so much to say about violence, about race, about loneliness, about sex and love and cruelty.
They say there's a first time for everything but I, as a member of the never shuts up community, doubtGotta tell you, I don't really know what to say.
They say there's a first time for everything but I, as a member of the never shuts up community, doubted this day would ever come.
So I will keep this quick!
Lately I've had a hard time feeling books - as in actually have them impact me emotionally - so I've read increasingly crazy lit fic to attempt to undo it.
This just shattered all of that and fixed it no problem. I teared up.
I'm not ashamed, even if this wrecks my badass image. This book is emotive and touching and I care about the characters so, so much.
But enough yearning on main.
Bottom line: A book so good it broke me!
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going to stare at the wall for the next couple of hours
review to come / 4.5 stars
----------------- currently-reading updates
can i still call myself a bookworm if it took me this long to read this?...more
Cookies are my favorite food, and yet I am extremely picky about them. I'm a Phoebe Bridgers fan. I am the dreaded rarity that It's not easy being me.
Cookies are my favorite food, and yet I am extremely picky about them. I'm a Phoebe Bridgers fan. I am the dreaded rarity that is a blonde adult.
And I hate writing positive reviews.
In some ways, I make this easier for myself, due to the fact that I am so critical, hateful, and generally unpleasant that it happens as infrequently as possible.
But this is a double-edged sword, because I also have no reason to ever attempt to hone or even improve this skill.
Here we find ourselves. I have to write at length (because if I'm one thing besides difficult, it's verbose) about a perfect book.
This is a nightmare situation for me.
And even worse: THIS BOOK MADE ME CRY. A lot! Lately I've been tearing up at endings a lot, probably due to some hormonal imbalance or debilitating illness and definitely not emotion (I don't have those). But this was not a glamorous single tear sliding down my cheek.
This was a full-on ugly cry. From me. I only cry twice a year: at my annual rewatch of About Time, and when I am somehow held down or arrested and unable to prevent myself from listening to the song The Luckiest / watching an animal video / thinking too hard about a nice tweet I saw four months ago.
How do I write about THAT.
This is my favorite kind of story, one about how hard it can be to be alive in an on-fire world with a semi nonfunctioning brain, but also about how beautiful life is, how wonderful people are. This book is very funny, and very sad, and above all so lovely.
I don't know what to say beyond that.
Can't the five stars speak for themselves???
Bottom line: I will never get better at being nice. But this book deserves me to be.
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i am ashamed to admit this, but:
i am sobbing right now.
review to come / 5 stars
---------------- currently-reading updates
this book is about me (girl in therapy and being weird about it)
---------------- tbr review
when i see a title like that, all i can do is hit that want to read button...more
i would like to apologize to all of the dinners i ruined with friends, my boyfriend, family, and other loved ones because i cofirst five star of 2024.
i would like to apologize to all of the dinners i ruined with friends, my boyfriend, family, and other loved ones because i could not stop talking about the brilliant, dark, vibe-ruining concept of this book.
this was my first toni morrison, my first new favorite of the year, and the first time in a long time i've been completely dumbstruck while reading.
beautifully written, cleverly constructed, populated with unforgettable moments and characters.
i don't know what to say!
bottom line: a book that makes me speechless. a nearly impossible feat.
-------------------- tbr review
by reading my first toni morrison i believe i will ascend into a higher plane...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
I like approximately four things in this world. One thing is cookies, and even those have to pass an extremely comprehensive test which the vast majorI like approximately four things in this world. One thing is cookies, and even those have to pass an extremely comprehensive test which the vast majority of baked goods fail with flying colors.
Another thing is coffee, and this has to be consumed with so much care and precision that if I were dropped back into the Middle Ages, if I didn't immediately perish from boredom / lack of running water / people smelling bad and being annoying, I could probably enjoy a fruitful career in alchemy. Lead into gold all DAY.
The third thing is books, and, in case you are somehow, mercifully new here, I don't like those too often either.
Fortunately, the fourth thing is a small number of witty, dark-humor British TV shows, most of which are created / written by / starring / formulated from the angelic and god like brain of Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
When you combine two of those four things into one book, it is a goddamn gift the likes of which come once in a generation.
Bottom line: What is there to say? Watch Fleabag. Read this. Or don't and be substantially less happy than you could be otherwise. See if I care.
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