One, this concept - a set of four siblings who go to a psychic who tells them when they will die, and thenI have two sets of feelings about this book.
One, this concept - a set of four siblings who go to a psychic who tells them when they will die, and then following them one by one through the decades as the predictions come true - is the best book idea I have read in recent memory.
Two, HOW DARE CHLOE BENJAMIN MURDER MY FAMILY.
I cannot read a good book about a family - especially about siblings - without coming out the other side thinking they are really related to me, in real life.
Finishing a book that fits this description is a heartbreak in and of itself, because you're saying goodbye to your loved ones, if you're the same kind of insane that I am.
But this is even more heartbreaking than usual.
Not a perfect book, and a very painful one, but beautifully written and filled with characters I truly love.
I'm going to go cry quietly now.
Bottom line: NEVER AGAIN.
Just kidding. If you hear about a well written literary fiction book about siblings hit me up immediately.
------------------- pre-review
aaaaaaaaand now i'm tearing up.
god damn. i hate when books ruin my steely reputation.
review to come / 4 stars
------------------- tbr review
whenever i hear about someone reading on a bus or a train or in a park or whatever i picture them reading this book, which i have not read, and which i know nothing about.
not sure what that says about me, but it's true.
clear ur sh*t book 50 quest 23: opulent cover...more
i've done it again. another impeccable pun combining the title of a seminal work with the month it currently is. another pawelcome to...INVISIBLE MAY.
i've done it again. another impeccable pun combining the title of a seminal work with the month it currently is. another paragon of literature added to my currently reading. another several-week period that shall be spent reading it, one chapter at a time, daily.
if saying you want to read long classics counts as reading them, i'm the smartest girl in the world. and now i'm reading them, also.
let's get started.
PROLOGUE love to own a book for 8 years without ever picking it up and then immediately find it compulsively readable from the very first page. extremely cool nonsense behavior by me.
CHAPTER ONE clear from the prologue this would be a solid read for me. clear from chapter one that it is going to be brutal and excellent.
CHAPTER TWO the way the theme of what white people want and expect and reward in Black people here is shown and not told is brilliant. the dichotomy between how the intellectual student and the castout are treated by the millionaire...so fascinating.
CHAPTER THREE kind of cool that there was very little that could ail you in old times that couldn't be cured by a glass of whiskey at a strip club.
CHAPTER FOUR love a secret code.
CHAPTER FIVE the OTHER thing is that, on top of everything else, this also has some of the most gorgeous and visual descriptions i've read in recent memory.
CHAPTER SIX we're going to the big city!
CHAPTER SEVEN it is very hard to come up with my goofy little entries for each day of this project when i think each chapter is very good and i keep finding myself taking it very seriously.
very.
CHAPTER EIGHT okay cliffhanger!
it speaks to how invested i am in this that "something had to happen tomorrow, and it did. i got a letter" feels suspenseful to me.
CHAPTER NINE a rich white daddy's boy telling our protagonist that he's the one who's "freed" while this spoiled kid is trapped, and that he can be his valet, since he really wants to help...
sheesh. "I could hardly get to sleep for dreaming of revenge" is the proper reaction to literally all of this.
CHAPTER 10 he's working in the Liberty White Paint factory...folks, we have officially moved into metaphor city.
CHAPTER 11 nothing is horror-movie-level scary like medical malpractice.
CHAPTER 12 "the cool splash of sleep" — that's so good.
nearly as good as this mary character and the idea of dumping a bucket of mop water on an actively preaching reverend.
CHAPTER 13 we're getting into the invisibility origin story. and also my origin story of accidentally reinventing the word "invisibleness" through a combination of parallel thinking and it being monday.
CHAPTER 14 it's party time!!!!
and the party is mostly an induction into the revolution. which is the best kind.
CHAPTER 15 breaking ugly decorations in a home should be the right of every single human. it's called the betterment of society — look it up.
also to throw things away? i thought that went without saying but then i encountered the plot of this chapter.
CHAPTER 16 let's get fired up!!!!! it's speech time!
CHAPTER 17 watching the beautiful and pastoral color-based descriptions switch to the same language and style for violence and suffering...wow.
CHAPTER 18 the worst kind of sabotage is when the person f*cking your sh*t up is not malicious. just dumb.
there's no coming back from that.
CHAPTER 19 the Woman Question? sounds like me asking my boyfriend why he loves me at the exact moment he's about to fall asleep, am i right? this guy gets it!
"And I wanted both to smash her and to stay with her..." little did ralph ellison know that in the future those would be synonyms.
CHAPTER 20 folks, i believe we are beginning to witness the titular invisibility.
CHAPTER 21 never mind. not yet. getting ahead of myself i guess.
CHAPTER 22 this has that specific high school assigned reading feeling of "I Am Culturally Relevant In A Way That May Fit The Syllabi Of Both Your History And Your English Classes." which is a bizarre sense to have in the midst of adult life.
CHAPTER 23 ah yes, literature's favorite problem-solving tactic: There Must Be A Woman Who Can Do This For Me
CHAPTER 24 welp.
crazy how you can be absolutely and totally on board for an entire book only for the penultimate chapter to just about lose you entirely.
CHAPTER 25 if we don't get invisible now, when will we.
we have found the time. and i fear i may be back on board.
EPILOGUE and it all comes full circle.
OVERALL this is a very clever and very incisive and very allegorical but still compelling plotwise book, which had one chapter i hated and 24 i truly enjoyed. rating: 4...more
I am a book nerd in a way that is all-encompassing, not limited to any genre or niche but instead poisoning every cI try to read basically everything.
I am a book nerd in a way that is all-encompassing, not limited to any genre or niche but instead poisoning every category of literature (as well as books that could never be called literature even if you were being nice) in order to be absolutely as annoying as possible to both everyone I know in real life and everyone on this website.
That being said: 1) I have read less young adult stuff this year than ever in my life, and 2) recently I have decided to all but give up on historical fiction.
I can explain both, as I'm sure you are relieved to know. YES! you shout in the privacy of your own home. Another review from emma with an unnecessarily high word count!
I know. I'm excited too.
I read less and less YA because I am both legally and technically (and in no other ways) an adult now. I pay an electric bill sometimes, when my roommate Venmo charges me. I pay rent all the time. I am 23 years old physically, even as I vary between 12 and 74 emotionally.
Because I am a grumpy elderly person I get mad at teens. So when I read books about teens I get mad at the books. So it seems better for us all if I just stick to my General Fiction section where I am welcome in my curmudgeonliness.
The historical fiction part is because I cannot f*cking stand when modern writes write old-timey. I mentioned this in a wildly ranty review recently. I can't remember which. But if you're feeling like I'm repeating myself, a) you're right and b) get used to it because I am REALLY running out of review ideas.
Anyway.
All of this is to say that this is YA historical fiction and therefore everything in me advised against reading it and yet I liked it so much.
Very lovable characters. Very sweet romance. Very interesting and believable setting. It was good stuff.
I can't believe I read a million-page-long young adult historical and liked it to this extent. Thank you as always for knowing me and my reading taste better than I know myself, s.penkevich.
Bottom line: What a pleasant surprise, for once!
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hm okay so this is everything.
review to come / 4 stars
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upon further reflection, i'm stealing lily's idea and reading only books by asian authors this month!
For years, I have been punished for being what many would call "stupid." I read books by authors I have never enjoyed. IThis book is my divine reward.
For years, I have been punished for being what many would call "stupid." I read books by authors I have never enjoyed. I continue series whose first book I two starred. I pick things up based on hype, when that has historically never worked for me.
And in return, I read disappointment after disappointment, book I don't like after book I don't like, synonym after synonym.
UNTIL NOW.
I should not have liked this book. I shouldn't have picked it up ever, let alone preorder it. And yet.
AND YET.
Look at that rating!!!
This book was extremely good, to me!
I did not like the first book in the original Grisha trilogy much, and yet I picked up the second. I did not like the second (to the extent that I had to DNF it, which has happened approximately 10 times out of 1200 opportunities), and yet I read the first book in this duology. And I did not care for that book AT ALL, and still I paid human money for this one before it even had a cover!
And for my faith and loyalty, God Leigh Bardugo has seen fit to give me this present.
This was just so good.
Even though it had a million perspectives, and even though I historically didn't like any of the characters they followed, I enjoyed just about EVERY ONE this time. Even though in the last book, the pacing was off and nothing happened and even when it did I didn't care, this was NONSTOP FUN and ACTION. Even though the characters I hated in prior books appeared in this one, I WASN'T MAD.
Add in appearances from characters I actually did like, and a romance I was actually invested in, and politics that were compelling AND logical, and I'm a happy camper.
A happy camper who has no choice but to believe that the universe revolves around her, and that this book being specifically for me is the proof.
Bottom line: NEVER GIVE UP! Annoy everyone around you with your cynicism and grumpiness forever. You'll be duly repaid.
----------------- pre-review
in case it wasn't clear from the fact that i read a 600 page book in a day:
i liked this.
review to come / 4 stars?
----------------- currently-reading updates
a readathon in to finish as many of my unread books as possible seemed like a good idea.
then i remembered i own 80 of them and most of them are either extremely long or impenetrable classics. or both.
clear ur shit prompt 7: read a book with gold or silver on the cover follow my progress here
----------------- tbr review
i did not like the grisha trilogy. i did not like the first book in this duology. but i did preorder this, because i'm LOYAL....more
Attention to the following things: - raindrops on roses - whiskers on kittens - bright copper kettles - warm woolen mittens - etc.
You are officially ON NOTAttention to the following things: - raindrops on roses - whiskers on kittens - bright copper kettles - warm woolen mittens - etc.
Because you can no longer qualify as a few of ANYONE'S favorite things when Sarah Hogle is writing romance novels.
I almost never love anything. The idea of wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings can hardly bring even the ghost of a smile to my evil face. My average rating on this godforsaken website has been under three stars for more than three years. I eat pain for breakfast. And those are just three examples.
But one thing I did love is Sarah Hogle's debut, You Deserve Each Other. In fact, I loved it so much that I read it like a million times (okay, four, but honestly that's almost as shocking) and felt Emotion and Pangs To The Heart and Butterflies and otherwise feelings that tend to be the stuff of my nightmares every time.
And since lightning doesn't strike twice (lightning in this case being me acting like a normal person), I assumed this would be a three and a half star read, tops. Because I do not deserve happiness and have presumably been cursed by some sort of witch or creature with haunting capabilities or mean anthropomorphic pond dweller to ensure it.
And this isn't a five star read.
But it's pretty close.
I tend to like a little hatefulness in my romance novels. A little darkness. A little b*tchiness. That's why You Deserve Each Other, a book with several top reviews that are like "why are this people so mean," worked for me SO well.
And this is a VERY sweet book. A little too much so, for me. I like a daydreamer or a sweetiepie as much as the next person, but as it turns out I draw the line at elaborate romance-novel-within-a-romance-novel AUs.
But this is fun anyway.
Bottom line: Cure for cynicism discovered by Sarah Hogle! Yours for the low low price of like...under $20, or something. I don't know. It's worth it.
------------------ reread update
this particular reread was not EXACTLY what i needed, but this book was the first time i read it, so i'm (mostly) leaving the review and only dropping it a star.
also, when you're comparing something to the perfect romance, it's hard for anything to live up to it.
------------------ pre-review
a few things: 1) while reading this, i pressed my hand to my heart on multiple occasions, like an affronted victorian woman 2) i feel like my emotions and brain and soul just went through a blender, which it turns out is a good feeling 3) i might cry???? 4) i think this is the best romance i've ever read.
review to come / 5 STARS!!!!!!!
------------------ tbr review
I AM HOLDING MY MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR IN MY HANDS....more
If you like the following: - secrecy - words - wordplay - espionage - problem-solving - puzzles - codes - witticisms
You're in luck, because you are both a coIf you like the following: - secrecy - words - wordplay - espionage - problem-solving - puzzles - codes - witticisms
You're in luck, because you are both a cool person and alive in the time that Lemony Snicket is publishing books.
This was not quite as good as A Series of Unfortunate Events, but a) nothing ever is and b) it came pretty close and c) I liked the ending quite a bit, which is not something people say very often about A Series of Unfortunate Events.
Bottom line: I love to read, and I love a book that reminds me I love to!
-------------- pre-review
lemony snicket books are chicken soup for the reading slump.
Why did I enjoy this book, which is about a girl attempting to find love in spite of not knowing her father / living in a van witWhy was this so good?
Why did I enjoy this book, which is about a girl attempting to find love in spite of not knowing her father / living in a van with her complicated mother / finding romance built on a foundation of deceit (and ditto for her found family), so much?
Every single character in this is flawed almost to the point of being unlovable and I had a blast and a half.
I do not know why. This just instantly was a good and fun and pleasant read for me.
I'm not going to psychoanalyze that.
Bottom line: I read an ARC, I read it basically on time, and I liked it! Three things that never happen.
-------------- pre-review
i don't know what it says about me that this book, which is about how every human is deeply flawed and lives a life of suffering, was a nonstop funfest to read, but uh.
it was, so.
review to come / 4 stars
-------------- tbr review
secrets and spying and stealing oh my
thanks to the publisher for the ARC, which i am actually reading kinda sorta on time
--------------
reading all books with LGBTQ+ rep for pride this month!
Baby, when a book makes me tear up in public...that's how you know it's real.
I'm the type of emotionally unavailable where you've only one time cried Baby, when a book makes me tear up in public...that's how you know it's real.
I'm the type of emotionally unavailable where you've only one time cried in front of your best friend of several years, and also the only time you did was mostly by accident (a closed door was opened), and also that was in spite of the fact that you lived with said friend for three of those several years.
So for me to cry is already momentous. But in PUBLIC?! Now we're really getting wild.
Nina LaCour is like Emily Henry or Sarah Hogle or Sally Rooney in that she writes books that make me feel simultaneously better and SO much worse. For Emily Henry and Sarah Hogle, that is because they write these little perfect realistic worlds that are completely unattainable.
For Nina LaCour and Sally Rooney, that is because they perfectly capture how icky and tiring and cumbersome it often feels to be in my head and live my life, and then those characters sometimes get happy endings. (Sometimes they don't, because Sally Rooney is a monster I'm in love with, but usually they do.)
This is so hard to read, but in a good way and it made my heart hurt but in a mostly good way too.
Bottom line: Ouch!
(Note: I didn't want to detract from the ~flow~ I had going while writing this review to note what I didn't like, but I also hate four-star reviews that have nothing bad to say, so: I thought the first half of this kind of outweighed the second in terms of making things seem a-okay, and some horrible things happened that I don't think were given the proper time or consideration, and some of these relationships seemed to spring out of nowhere fully formed, as though from Zeus' forehead.)
(But this was mostly very good.)
------------------ pre-review
i didn't even have time to mark this book as currently reading.
for a status update obsessive like myself, that's high praise.
If you need a reminder of this site's delirious one of a kind unhinged-ness, take a gander and a scroll down the page of reviI love Goodreads so much.
If you need a reminder of this site's delirious one of a kind unhinged-ness, take a gander and a scroll down the page of reviews for this book. The top review, by the wonderful s.penkevich, is an excellent, well thought-out analysis of its meaning, citing sources and generally acting as publishable literary criticism (but more fun to read).
This is followed by a series of middling reviews by (mostly) men all but outright saying "I DON'T UNDERSTAND WOMEN AND I DON'T THINK THEY DESERVE 500 PAGES WRITTEN ABOUT THEIR TRAUMAS AND REPRESSIONS AND THE IMPACT OF SOCIETAL STANDARDS ON THEIR PSYCHES" and (mostly) women annoyed that this book is more social commentary than it is plot-driven. (I am desperate to avoid making this gender-based generalization, but unfortunately it's true.)
Then there's a few more good ones. And repeat.
I love slowly murdering my brain by spending uncalled for amounts of time on this hellsite and I will never ever leave.
Everything you need to know about this book before you get into it can be found in the title. An exploration of feminine gender roles in Japan, the first section (once a standalone novella) is all about BREASTS!!!! Accordingly, we spend this time examining women's society-given duty to be sexually appealing, and the struggle to maintain the illusion of constant adhesion to social standards as we age. It's excellent.
The second and longer section is all about EGGS!!!! And as length would indicate, this is a more complex look at the ties between the sexual societal responsibilities given to women in the previous book, and the enduring biological responsibility for women to have babies. Our protagonist, Natsuko, wants to have children, but she doesn't want to have sex, and the holy-sh*t-the-world-is-on-fire responses this warrants from the men (and women!) she tells is such an amazing (and as far as I know, one of a kind) way of looking at how distant the two definitions of sexual have become, even as we continue to expect them from women.
I think I'm done with being self-indulgent now. But isn't that what this site is all about?!
Bottom line: This book and the reviews of it are sooo worth the read.
--------------- pre-review
let's talk about gender, baby, let's talk bodily autonomy
let's talk about all the bad things and more bad things and...babies?
i'm going to read a chapter (or whatever the this-book equivalent of a chapter is — 100 pages? a normal size book?welcome to...sigh...LES MAYSERABLES.
i'm going to read a chapter (or whatever the this-book equivalent of a chapter is — 100 pages? a normal size book? undue suffering?) of this a day until i'm done, a process which will begin in may but end way after that.
i've been thinking about reading this book as a way to get into weightlifting, so. it's beach body season or whatever.
let's do this. i'm so scared right now.
BOOK ONE: A GOOD MAN oh, great. this is divided into 48 books. that's awesome. a book a day of this book alone. no worries, no problem. i'm not troubled. i have no regrets. it's fine that this bit is a million pages long and all of my above jokes are thus true.
sometimes i think i would never join a cult, but i feel like i just got radicalized by the hermit weirdo living in a hut 45 minutes away from society in this book, so. too close to call.
BOOK TWO: THE FALL yesterday i read an ebook of this because i couldn't run out to buy a copy, and today i am reading it physically. it is so goddamn heavy it's insane.
this jean valjean guy is kind of a bad vibe thus far. #blessed that the bishop was successfully able to be like..."get your act together my guy."
BOOK THREE: IN THE YEAR 1817 this one has a huge time jump, is half the length of the first two, and begins with a 6 page "here's what you missed on glee" style recap of pop culture since we last saw jean valjean. in other words it rocks.
only truer because it follows 8 really fun characters.
BOOK FOUR: ENTRUSTING SOMETIMES MEANS GIVING AWAY this book was as short as it was depressing. for being little more than the first part of cinderella it sure feels novel in how upsetting it is.
BOOK FIVE: THE DESCENT well, that doesn't sound good. i thought the place we were in was pretty low already.
so things did get much worse, and now they appear to be getting better, but this book has given me trust issues and i don't believe it's going anywhere good from here.
BOOK SIX: JAVERT get a load of this guy (derogatory). i don't know much of the story of les mis, in spite of its cultural prowess and the fact that i technically attended my sister's high school production of the musical (physically if not in spirit), but even i know this loser.
BOOK SEVEN: THE CHAMPMATHIEU AFFAIR i mean. i don't even know what to say about this chapter. the emotional range here...i have no choice but to stan.
i'm using humor as a crutch because this made me really sad lol.
BOOK EIGHT: AFTER-EFFECT this is the nicest possible way of saying "in which sh*t hits the fan."
ok. even with that expectation i was not prepared for the extent to which sh*t would hit the fan.
BOOK ONE: WATERLOO we have completed part one: fantine, and we move on to part two: cosette. i don't know why i feel like i have to avoid spoilers for this million year old classic but here we are.
okay so this was literally a 50 page recounting of the battle of waterloo. i guess in hindsight i don't know what i expected.
BOOK TWO: THE SHIP ORION it's kind of reassuring that even in the 19th century they were dealing with tabloids and fake news. but leave my boy valjean out of it...
is there anything more jean valjean than risking his own life to save a stranger's, and then also using that peril as a means of escaping prison? one thing about jean is my guy is going to escape.
BOOK THREE: A DEATHBED PROMISE IS HONORED okay, fine. i took multiple days off this project. in my defense reading this book is not conducive to busy days. i can't exactly haul a 1400-page tome around with me just in case i have a minute between social obligations.
hard to convey the extent to which i root for things to go well in this book, even though i know they're building me up just to break me back down again.
BOOK FOUR: THE GORBEAU TENEMENT i can't stress enough how much i live in fear at every moment. oh, the beggar that valjean has been generously giving money might be javert? can't surprise me. i was prepared for the worst from minute one.
BOOK FIVE: SILENT STALKERS IN THE DARK well, that doesn't sound good.
javert is operating on kendrick lamar levels of hatred...just picking up newspapers on a daily basis hunting for clues about a guy he straight up thinks is dead. another level of living in his mind rent-free.
BOOK SIX: PETIT-PICPUS you know things are getting crazy when even victor hugo is like "what i'm about to say has nothing to do with this actual story." this from the guy who spent the whole first 100 pages of the book on somebody who once had a sleepover with our protagonist.
BOOK SEVEN: PARENTHESIS oh my gosh. now this part is like "well, since i just spent 40 pages on one specific nunnery that isn't at all relevant, surely y'all won't mind if i write a quick 12 page essay about monasticism."
to be honest, my sir...i mind. get back to the good stuff.
BOOK EIGHT: CEMETERIES TAKE WHAT THEY ARE GIVEN [record scratch] [freeze frame on jean valjean inside of a coffin] you're probably wondering how i ended up in this situation
BOOK ONE: PARIS THROUGH THE STUDY OF ONE OF ITS ATOMS we have concluded part two: cosette, and begin part three: marius. and i have to say, this chapter is looking like a classic case of one of hugo's lengthy sociopolitical asides.
BOOK TWO: THE CONSUMMATE BOURGEOIS marked safe from back to back lengthy sociopolitical asides.
instead, this was another classic: a character study of a guy whose role we do not know yet and may never know.
BOOK THREE: GRANDFATHER AND GRANDSON today i am feeling: can you believe i'm not even halfway done this book. i know the goodreads review character limit can't.
kind of funny to be radicalized because you've become just completely obsessed with your dad.
BOOK FOUR: FRIENDS OF THE ABC throughout time, college students have always thought they are funnier and smarter and more revolutionary than they are.
but i still love them anyway.
BOOK FIVE: VIRTUE IN ADVERSITY all this talk of parisian revolutionary teens hanging around in cafes talking about politics was sounding familiar, and i was so proud of myself for actually paying attention during my sister's play, but then i realized i was thinking of that wes anderson movie the french dispatch.
BOOK SIX: THE CONJUNCTION OF TWO STARS in my mind this is going to be the marius x valjean meetup: two stars to me. let's see.
i didn't even consider this would be a meet cute between marius and cosette. i might be too much of a jean stan. if that's even possible.
BOOK SEVEN: PATRON-MINETTE quick sidenote for some inferno fanfiction and an intro to a crew of villains. i'd say "our villains," but that would be a crazy assumption for an author who just loves to introduce us to guys.
BOOK EIGHT: THE VILLAINOUS PAUPER to be totally honest with you, this 80 page section of a book written 150 years ago is one of the most exciting and unpredictable and satisfying scenes i've ever read.
jean valjean fan till i die.
BOOK ONE: A FEW PAGES OF HISTORY we have concluded part three: marius, and have broken out of our character titles and entered a little something called "part four: the rue plumet idyll and the rue st-denis epic." this part title and book title are not pairing up for what sound like an adventurous romp.
interesting to find out that victor hugo defines "a few pages" as 34.
BOOK TWO: EPONINE praying for the streets since this girl appears to be in them.
marius is giving me the same secondhand stress i got when harry potter wouldn't do his homework. please get a job and do it.
BOOK THREE: THE HOUSE IN RUE PLUMET you guys all know how i feel about jean valjean but even i can admit the man has to take a chill pill. descending into a deep depression because your adopted daughter has an un-acted-upon crush is crazy.
BOOK FOUR: HELP FROM BELOW MAY BE FROM ON HIGH if i saw an old man get attacked at night and then beat the hell out of his attacker, i'd clap too. i can't say that i would then steal the attacker's purse and give it robin hood-style to another conveniently located old man, but that's more for lack of skill than desire.
BOOK FIVE: WHICH DOES NOT END THE WAY IT BEGAN you know that thing of how if someone writes you a love letter, they love you, but if they write you a hundred love letters, they love writing love letters?
i feel like that automatically applies if the love letter in question is 15 pages long.
BOOK SIX: YOUNG GAVROCHE well, everyone...welcome to june. i've spent a full month with this book, and i've gotten just over halfway into it for my efforts.
if i were a little child criminal who was known for climbing anything, and i'd been asked to rescue my deadbeat dad at my own peril for no reward, i don't know if i'd be interested. but i guess that's why i'm me and not little gavroche.
BOOK SEVEN: SLANG something tells me we're in for another one of hugo's tangentially related 40 page essays.
BOOK EIGHT: ENCHANTMENT AND DESPAIR love that marius flirts by being like "i almost killed a veteran for you" and then refusing to elaborate when cosette asks him what the hell that means.
ok. i didn't feel enchanted but of course the despair hits.
BOOK NINE: WHERE ARE THEY GOING? victor, where are WE going. people are moving, riots are occurring, new characters are being introduced, and we have 500 pages left to go. which is of course 2 normal books worth, and about a third of this. we should be WINDING DOWN by now.
BOOK TEN: THE FIFTH OF JUNE 1832 at one point in this victor says "one last word before we rejoin the story," and then what follows is—and i'm not joking—11 more pages without rejoining the story.
BOOK ELEVEN: THE ATOM EMBRACES THE STORM "come along with me to take down the parisian government at the barricades" -courfeyrac if he was a vlogger
BOOK TWELVE: CORINTHE i did not expect to see the word "nark" in this book. but i am loving seeing it applied to javert as he is tied to a pole.
BOOK THIRTEEN: MARIUS ENTERS INTO DARKNESS we've crossed the thousand page mark. marius better not enter into anything he's not planning on leaving soon.
well. i fear he's on his romeo and juliet sh*t, and therefore may actually be leaving sans his mortal coil.
BOOK FOURTEEN: THE GRANDEURS OF DESPAIR the chapters with titles like this one are always pretty okay. it's the ones with titles like "let me tell you about 1842 paris" that casually include the most devastating sentence you've ever read.
not marius' sentimental ass entering the barricade like an action hero...
BOOK FIFTEEN: RUE DE L'HOMME ARME it's been roughly 200 pages since the last time we encountered jean valjean. what a sight for sore eyes (literally) (my eyes are sore from having read 1,031 pages of 19th century french tragedy with 400+ to go).
even if this is my least favorite version of jean: Weird Dad.
BOOK ONE: THE WAR WITHIN FOUR WALLS we are beginning part five: jean valjean. now i understand the title: the fact that i would have been thrilled to spend our remaining hundreds of pages with jean at any other time except this creepy overprotective obsessed father one is making me miserable.
jean and javert are truly having a serendipity-style series of rom-com coincidences and meet-cutes. how do these two keep finding each other.
BOOK TWO: THE BOWELS OF LEVIATHAN i think i've developed a pretty healthy sense of victor's priorities, but even i could not have expected that this chapter, which follows a climactic scene that killed off a dozen named characters, would be a lengthy diatribe about poop.
BOOK THREE: THE MIRE, YET THE SOUL possibly the most well-constructed joke of all time: 16 pages about parisian waste management followed by "Jean Valjean, it turned out, was in the sewers of Paris."
BOOK FOUR: JAVERT DERAILED oh my god. what the hell.
i should have expected that this evil goddamn book would make me feel sadness over even JAVERT!!!
BOOK FIVE: GRANDFATHER AND GRANDSON we've got a couple hundred pages to go and it seems like marius has his happily ever after. this isn't my first rodeo. 4 more chapters is plenty of time for victor to f*ck his sh*t up.
if you'll pardon the french.
BOOK SIX: THE SLEEPLESS NIGHT i did not expect this book to contain a closed-door sex scene.
then again 1400 pages is a lot to fill up.
BOOK SEVEN: THE LAST DROP IN THE CHALICE remember how jean valjean was originally stealing for a brood of interchangeable nieces and nephews we never saw again? this guy is just obsessed with forming familial bonds.
this one is pissing me off for so many reasons...how is it saintly for jean valjean to tell marius the truth but force marius to lie? how is marius' reaction of disgust and rejection supposed to be all good with me? why doesn't cosette get to know or be involved with anything besides repeatedly being described as a beautiful angel??? this is the first time where i'm like damn. this is old timey as hell.
BOOK EIGHT: THE WANING TWILIGHT if marius has a hundred haters i'm one of them. if marius has one hater it's me. if marius has no haters i'm dead.
BOOK NINE: ULTIMATE DARKNESS, ULTIMATE DAWN hi mtv and welcome to the final chapter of les mis.
i can't believe we made it. it's been 51 days, 1,275 pages, and 3-7 mental breakdowns, but we're here. and i have to say i couldn't have done it without you all, because quite literally if i didn't have your nice compliments and jokes in the comments i would have given up on this 41 days ago. anyway. enough kindness, it's off-brand for me. let's finish this.
OVERALL this book is: long. ridiculous. full of lengthy asides about sewage and waterloo and parisian geography, it is also full of unforgettable characters. it's almost unrelentingly sad, and yet the emotional impact of it is so heavy and real. it's beautifully written. it's one of a kind.
this is crazy to say about a book that will take nearly two months to read even if you're dedicating a significant amount of time to it every single day, but. i recommend it. rating: 4...more
turns out an unbearable lightness and an unsustainable heaviness aren't that different, after all.
anyway, this book is whip-smart and brain-expanding,turns out an unbearable lightness and an unsustainable heaviness aren't that different, after all.
anyway, this book is whip-smart and brain-expanding, a real pleasure to read. i don't even want to get into it - i'd prefer the pleasure stand on its own.
if you like feeling smart, working hard for your books, philosophical vibes, or books with cool titles...read this please!
bottom line: a book that speaks enough for itself!
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and the Greatest Title Of All Time award goes to............
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more like the unbearably HEAVY BURDEN of being am i right...more
It seems like there are probably 817 films, books, tv shows, and documentaries about Julia Child.
And that is completely appropriate, because she is thIt seems like there are probably 817 films, books, tv shows, and documentaries about Julia Child.
And that is completely appropriate, because she is the best.
Even if you have consumed all 817 pieces of aforementioned content, and even if you have made the boeuf bourguignon and watched Amy Adams make the boeuf bourguignon and mimicked the way she says "it's not just any BOUEF BOURGUIGNON, it's Julia Child'sBOUEF BOURGUIGNON," all of which I recommend, you should still read this book.
It's one of the greatest memoirs I think I've read! Funny, interesting, entertaining and also educational. Extremely yummy, and sometimes gross. And above all perfectly in that effervescent Julia Child voice.
For every moment I spent reading this book, I don't think my forehead relaxed once. I was a constant >:o emoticon, in turn perplexed and dismayed and For every moment I spent reading this book, I don't think my forehead relaxed once. I was a constant >:o emoticon, in turn perplexed and dismayed and angry and sad and above all riveted.
It's the kind of book that you have to interrupt yourself reading to look around and tell someone about it, both because you need a break from the unrelenting nature of it and because it's a story everyone should know.
I first added this book after reading Minor Feelings, in which it's recommended reading if you want to learn more about the killing of Latasha Harlins and the LA riots - a story I admittedly didn't know much about.
This is a fictionalized retelling, but to be honest, I think I learned more from it than I would have from a nonfiction account. The amount that I felt, the realness that stemmed from the hurt and the anger and the prejudices and the very genuine lives of all that were involved - I could never get that from the Wikipedia article. (But yes, I did read that too.)
Bottom line: I think everyone should read this.
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hard and real and excellent. wow.
review to come / 4 stars
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i never feel smarter than when i'm reading a book that another book recommended.
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taking lily's idea and reading only books by asian authors this month!
Currently filing a lawsuit with the Childhood Experience Department: Wondrous Fictional Classics Division over the fact that I didn't read this until Currently filing a lawsuit with the Childhood Experience Department: Wondrous Fictional Classics Division over the fact that I didn't read this until I was a full-on adult.
I love children's classics because they feel like eating candy that's good for you. They're sweet and fun and often magical but also written all old-timey so it counts are reading Classic Literature and it makes your brain bigger, guaranteed.
So I'm glad (as with Anne of Green Gables) that I got around to this one eventually...but what the hell was child-me doing that kept me reading this off the agenda? I had no friends, was a huge nerd, and read all the time. (Some things never change.) There's no excuse.
Anyway.
Bottom line: A delight for all ages and times!
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anyone else have this sneaking suspicion we're not in kansas anymore?...more
if you are in the sweet spot where you have somehow not seen 1 through 5 and therefore are not yet sick enough ofmy becoming-a-genius project, part 6!
if you are in the sweet spot where you have somehow not seen 1 through 5 and therefore are not yet sick enough of this to unfollow me, here's the situation: i have decided to become a genius.
to accomplish this, i'm going to work my way through the collected stories of various authors, reading + reviewing 1 story every day until i get bored / lose every single follower / am struck down by a vengeful deity.
this one is a little different because these bois are LOOOONG. and you can tell i picked up this version for the cover alone because damn that font is small. word per page count is hefty. but i've been meaning to read some Wilde forever and i am very brave, so onward we go.
DAY 1: LORD ARTHUR SAVILE'S CRIME hoo boy i can tell i am going to be skipping days like nobody's business. also, i forgot how much i love annotated editions - it's the next best thing to being in a lit class, and yes i am an absolute total full-on nerd. lady windermere is my girlfriend, this story is both funnily and beautifully written, the critiques of society and rich people are clever (and awesome), and in short we are off to a kickass start, my friends! rating: 4.5
DAY 2: LADY ALROY sticking with the nobility theme. i'm down. and a short one today woohoo! (i don't know why i'm excited considering the last one was fairly long and pure bliss. i can't explain my own actions, beyond saying old habits die hard, i guess. and boy did i dread the long ones in the poe section of this project - part 3.) anyway, is there anything better than a short story that still is textually rich and begs for analysis??? i'm not sure. rating: 4
DAY 3: THE MODEL MILLIONAIRE Hello My Name Is Oscar Wilde And You Can Tell By Title Alone That All Of My Stories Point Out The Fallacy Of Wealth And Nobility. personally i'm very into it. also realizing that none of these stories are actually very long - this book just has an incredibly lengthy introduction and appendix. i will obviously partake in neither. the commentary on charity from the rich in this story rules. the writing is comparatively lame, but that message though. i'm loving this. rating: 4
DAY 4: THE HAPPY PRINCE actually day 6 because Valentine's Day is for getting drunk with your friend and watching movies in an alternating divorce / romcom order, and because yesterday was busy. not sure if i'm planning on catching up or not. this is basically a fairytale written more beautifully than your average one, and for that reason i love it. plus i love a fairytale with a socialist bent. rating: 4.5
DAY 5: THE SELFISH GIANT actually day 7, but you get it by now. this is the first of these stories where the title doesn't immediately tell me we're about to make fun of rich people, so i'm ready for disappointment. turns out this is a critique of the concept of private property disguised as a children's fairytale, so i'm back on board. honestly i should have assumed "selfish" was indication enough. lost me with the part where Jesus is one of the children playing in the garden, but brought me back again a little with the fact that Wilde wrote this because he also hoped that the love of a child would allow God to forgive his sins (cough the gay affair he was having cough). that part is good. rating: 3.5
DAY 6: THE NIGHTINGALE AND THE ROSE it's still day 7! i'm catching up. mainly because birds and flowers are two of my favorite things so i can't pass this one up. turns out the bird and the flower are the losers of this story, so the true loss is mine. this read like a fairly typical fairytale. rating: 3
DAY 7: THE BIRTHDAY OF THE LITTLE PRINCESS i also love birthdays and small monarchs, so i am fully catching up today! it is now day 7 in every way. very into the subtext in one paragraph that indicates the willingness of nobility to marginalize, persecute, and murder certain populations, but to bemoan that storytelling for entertainment should ever be sad. this is thematically satisfying to me all around. rating: 4.25
DAY 8: THE PORTRAIT OF MR W.H. actually day 10 but you know the drill at this point. this story and the last one were loooooong so i made myself sit down and read them like a homework assignment. which is always a good sign when you're reading for pleasure. this one then also FELT like a homework assignment, because it should have been an essay. i think if anyone could enjoy flowery, homoerotic literary analysis posing as a work of fiction, i'd be in the top likelihood rankings, but this was a crime. rating: 2
DAY 9: THE FISHERMAN AND HIS SOUL still day 10, because i am powerful and brave. i was predisposed to like this one under the Anything Would Be Better Than Mr. W. H. Theory, and there was a quote from it i liked enough to write down - "Let me be as they are, I beseech thee, for their days are as the days of flowers" - but... maybe it was the fault of the migraine i started getting while i read this story that i didn't like it much. or maybe the story caused the migraine. a true chicken or the egg. rating: 3
OVERALL while i finished this collection with a bad taste in my mouth, ultimately it was very lovely and very anti-rich and -nobility and reminded me of two very important things: 1) i need to read more Oscar Wilde. 2) i am a nerd and i love annotations and analysis. rating: 4...more
This book should be required reading for everyone, but above all for white women.
The fact of the matter is that the easiest to swallow form of progresThis book should be required reading for everyone, but above all for white women.
The fact of the matter is that the easiest to swallow form of progressiveness is white feminism, and the ease of indulging in mugs that say "#GIRLBOSS" and T-shirts with RBG's face on them is tempting to many of us. It's much more difficult to bring intersectionality into your feminism than it is to retweet vaguely anti-sexist awards acceptance speeches made by beautiful blonde women.
But the kind of feminism that upholds body hair and free tampons (while both are important) without working to ensure that everyone's top concerns are equal is racist.
That racism originated in this era, an era when white women owned slaves and yet have managed to make it to the 21st century under the perception that they were merely unwilling participants in their husbands' evil.
It's not true.
Awareness is part of this, and it's our responsibility as white women to engage in that in order to include antiracism as part of our feminism.