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Mean
Mean | Myriam Gurba
42 posts | 15 read | 53 to read
Gurba grows up queer, chicana, and take no prisoners. Her story is a revelation, a delight, and an eye-opener.
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review
britt_brooke
Mean | Myriam Gurba
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Pickpick

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Brash, bold, and weirdly funny at times. This largely addresses Gurba‘s sexual assault by a serial offender who killed one of his victims. Gurba gives respect to the murdered girl who authorities wrote off as a transient, unhoused person; as if she didn‘t matter. I know it‘s difficult to read these things, but it‘s a reality for many. Content-wise, this is excellent, however, it‘s a little too literary for my memoir taste.

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Karmapen
Mean | Myriam Gurba
Pickpick

Just a gut punch of a memoir. Sharp and funny. It made me squeamish.

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ImperfectCJ
Mean | Myriam Gurba
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Pickpick

I mostly like how this memoir is written. I like Gurba's anger and her self-conscious edginess, even as it seems sometimes a little melodramatic. I guess that's a common side effect when someone writes about themselves, dramatizes their life through memoir. But I enjoyed it.

starlight97 Love the cover! 3y
43 likes1 comment
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ImperfectCJ
Mean | Myriam Gurba
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"When you smell good weed or good coffee, you know you are smelling drugs. You know that you are smelling something that will do fun things to your brain chemistry."

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ImperfectCJ
Mean | Myriam Gurba
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"Every pretty woman who lives a long life gets to perform an art project called 'watch my beauty disintegrate.' It's not revolutionary. It just happens."

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ImperfectCJ
Mean | Myriam Gurba
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My drink isn't bad, but I'm not sure if non-alcoholic gin is strong enough to pair with this book. (Angostura bitters, lemon juice, Monday Zero Alcohol Gin, sparkling water)

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effani
Mean | Myriam Gurba
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Pickpick

For a memoir that deals with such difficult topics - racism, molestation, rape - this was surprisingly readable. Gurba is unquestionably mean, as the title promises, and there's something in here to make just about any reader uncomfortable. She's also blackly hilarious, and I found myself laughing out loud several times.

This book won't be for everyone, but I recommend checking it out if the description sounds intriguing.

effani #ReadHarder2021: a memoir by a Latinx author 3y
22 likes1 stack add1 comment
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AlizaApp
Mean | Myriam Gurba
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Pickpick

A memoir about growing up mixed-race, queer, and surviving assault. Though the subject matter was serious, Gurba is a funny and confident writer. At the end I wished the book had been longer.

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AlizaApp
Mean | Myriam Gurba
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Everything in this book is extremely quotable but this this is the thing I want to get tattooed on my forehead.

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Lindy
Mean | Myriam Gurba
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I had sex with one more guy—he looked a little like Hugh Grant—and then my pussy became the Michigan Womyn‘s Festival. Every night was ladies night.

#queerbooks

(Poster is a piece of lesbian history on my bedroom wall.)

LeahBergen Cool poster! 6y
Lindy @LeahBergen Thanks! I bought it in 1981 at L‘Androgyne bookstore in Montreal. I always wanted to go to the Michigan Womyn‘s Festival but never did. Bechdel has drawn this same poster in one of her college scenes in 6y
ReadingEnvy So great 6y
Lindy @ReadingEnvy If you scroll through the posts under this book, you will think I had no restraint in posting quotes... but I held myself back! Really, I did. 6y
39 likes4 comments
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Lindy
Mean | Myriam Gurba
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Since I‘m susceptible to attractive book covers, I prowled thrift shop shelves and grabbed books with ascetic appeal. Sexy sloppy seconds with smooth jackets and pages that had been fingered so hard they‘d softened and swollen. I paid coin for Kazuo Ishiguro‘s An Artist of the Floating World so that I could double my pleasure: I could learn about Japanese art history while consuming a novel.

minkyb Great post! 6y
Lindy @minkyb 😇 6y
40 likes2 comments
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Lindy
Mean | Myriam Gurba
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Pickpick

I‘ve still got a handful of flagged passages, even after sharing a whole bunch on Litsy already. That‘s the kind of powerhouse writing you will find in this dark, intelligent and very funny #lgbtq #Chicana novel about dealing with trauma and about living in general. It opens with a gruesome crime, so be prepared for a few pages of violence. Be prepared to be amazed by where Gurba takes the story from there. It‘s outstanding.

Lindy @ReadingEnvy Thanks for recommending this! 😘 6y
Cinfhen Wow!! #stacked 6y
ReadingEnvy Ah I'm so glad you liked it. I think it takes a special reader but worth the effort. 6y
Lindy @ReadingEnvy What‘s not to love? Gurba tackles serious topics with the wit of Oscar Wilde. (edited) 6y
52 likes4 stack adds4 comments
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Lindy
Mean | Myriam Gurba
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I could tell you about meeting my wife, our courtship & our relationship, but I‘m not going to. This is not a coming-out story. This is not a romance novel. As René Magritte would say, “Ceci n‘est pas that kind of thing.” As Gertrude Stein would say, “There is no there there.”

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Lindy
Mean | Myriam Gurba
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I slouched behind my bible, which was propped upright on my desk. I skimmed The Communist Manifesto, which I‘d wedged into the Gospels. Vague as it was, I still preferred Marx‘s alms-for-everyone utopia to the snow-white heaven we got snapshots of in class. White is so hard to keep clean.

(Internet image)

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Lindy
Mean | Myriam Gurba
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“Oranges play a sacred role in the history of female starvation. Legend has it that every Friday, Saint Veronica, female starvation‘s patron saint, ate five orange seeds to commemorate Christ‘s five wounds.”

(Meanwhile, a white American doctor laughs at a mother‘s worry that her 80-lb daughter has anorexia. “She can‘t be.”
“Why?”
“Because you‘re Mexican.” His prescription? “Make her eat double.”)

marianese omg that quote. is there really a patron saint of starving women? 6y
Lindy @marianese There are a number of saints who apparently starved themselves. See : https://www.theguardian.com/society/2004/mar/04/mentalhealth.health 6y
marianese @Lindy Lady saints really knew how to do it. 🤐 6y
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Lindy @marianese The connection between religion and girls fasting is the subject of Donoghue‘s 6y
marianese @Lindy Do you recommend it? I enjoyed an excerpt I read in Granta. 6y
Lindy @marianese Yes, I think it‘s excellent. 👍 6y
marianese @Lindy Thanks for the rec! 6y
Lindy @marianese my pleasure. 😇 6y
37 likes8 comments
quote
Lindy
Mean | Myriam Gurba
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Every girl and her mother was wearing bicycle shorts then so everyone could, therefore, appraise the cloven heft of generation upon generation of camel toe. Camel toes were pleased that a fad had brought them into the light. Camel toes basked in the ultraviolet rays of 1989.

(Tasteful image courtesy of Internet)

batsy 😆 6y
Reggie Lol 6y
34 likes3 comments
quote
Lindy
Mean | Myriam Gurba
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I vowed to eat fewer tater tots so my bones could catch the light and reflect it in holy tomboy ways.

(Image: still from Carl Dreyer‘s The Passion of Joan of Arc, 1928.)

#tatertots reference for @MrBook

MrBook 😱😱😱😆👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻 6y
Bibliogeekery Love this quote! How is this book? #queerbooks 6y
Lindy @Bibliogeekery I‘m really enjoying it. I‘m at the midpoint now. 😁 6y
46 likes3 comments
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Lindy
Mean | Myriam Gurba
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One of my favourite things is when people misspell college. I like it when kids go online to announce they got into the collage of their dreams. It sounds so surreal. I imagine Salvador Dali on the admissions board.

LeahBergen 😂😂 6y
Soubhiville Sometimes my dreams feel like a collage! Lol 🤣 6y
batsy Gosh yes, that sounds wonderful 😄 6y
43 likes1 stack add3 comments
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Lindy
Mean | Myriam Gurba
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My fork stabbed my casserole and brought it to my mouth. I dropped it on my tongue. Its spices told unfamiliar stories, but I used my milk as a chaser and managed to choke it down without vomiting. The brussels sprouts were a different story. I scooped one into my mouth and realized its flavour: eternal damnation.

Libby1 😂 Eternal damnation! Excellent. 6y
Lindy @Libby1 I remember the first time I tasted brussels sprouts. I was about 5 and I thought they were tiny cabbage rolls, the kind my grandma made (tender sour cabbage, rice & dill inside). Unhappy surprise! I spit it out and never ate them again until adulthood. I love them now. (edited) 6y
43 likes2 stack adds2 comments
blurb
catiewithac
Mean | Myriam Gurba
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Thanks @Lacythebookworm for the amazing #sockswap box! I loved it 🤓 Believe it or not this is my first pair of Harry Potter socks! I‘m so excited to read these great books 📚 Thanks @JPeterson for organizing this fun book swap! Litsy is the best!!

Lacythebookworm I‘m so glad it arrived!! Enjoy 😊 6y
42 likes1 comment
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MarianLiberryan
Mean | Myriam Gurba
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This book is the current selection of KCPL/KS Star FYI Book Club & it‘s a speedy true crime ghost story memoir. Yeah you read that right.

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mrozzz
Mean | Myriam Gurba
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I read quite a few good books this month, but in the next I want to try to diversify my picks! Only read 3
non-Americans and 3 POC. Though I‘m quite satisfied with the total. #FebruaryStats

🥇Mean by Myriam Gurba
🥈Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead*
🥉Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

*Although Whitehead is an easy ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I was most impressed by the presentation of Gurba‘s memoir.

Jess7 Nice job!! (edited) 6y
RohitSawant Great month! 👏🏼👏🏼 6y
kspenmoll Well done! 🎉🎉 6y
mrozzz THANKS! 😄 @Jess7 @rohit-sawant @kspenmoll 6y
98 likes4 comments
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shutupsmalls
Mean | Myriam Gurba

Men like it if you let them talk. It makes them feel like teachers. That's all many men really want. To be womankind's teacher.

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shutupsmalls
Mean | Myriam Gurba

We act mean to defend ourselves from boredom and from those who would chop off our breasts. We act mean to defend our clubs and institutions. We act mean because we like to laugh. Being mean to boys is fun and a second-wave feminist duty. Being rude to men who deserve it is a holy mission. Sisterhood is powerful, but being a bitch is more exhilarating. Being a bitch is spectacular.

mrozzz I. Love. Myriam. ✊🏻 6y
3 likes1 comment
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ohyeahthatgirl
Mean | Myriam Gurba
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Already feeling this book. Nero likes it, too.

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mrozzz
Mean | Myriam Gurba
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Reminds me of Rupi Kaur... this is an appropriated word “poem” made from reports and articles of Sophia, a Mexican woman who was brutally assaulted and murdered in a field by the author‘s mother‘s school.

Ubookquitous I love concrete poetry- so difficult to form an image with words let alone connect it to the theme and still deal with word choice and rhythms and and and... 😀 6y
mrozzz @Ubookquitous agreed! This was a cool surprise. 6y
81 likes2 stack adds2 comments
review
mrozzz
Mean | Myriam Gurba
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Pickpick

I don‘t think I‘ve ever been so uncomfortable, enraged, and yet so enthused, & sometimes giggly at a memoir as dark as this one. Written in an often poetic style in fits and bursts of brutality and nostalgia— this book is going to make you FEEL.

Gurba‘s “Molack” (Mexican-Polish) POV and journey is too familiar... that‘s what makes hers an important one to hear & remember. Her cheeky style will stay with me. She‘s a fab woman.

~TW: Rape/Assault~

Leftcoastzen that sounds intense.love the subway tile. 6y
swishandflick Great review! I'm also loving that cover with the shadow title. Very neat! 6y
mrozzz @swishandflick Thanks! The cover is exactly what got me excited for it last year 😃 6y
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mrozzz @Leftcoastzen Thanks! And, it is! The rough parts totally sneak up on you too... so even though it‘s only 175 pages long I didn‘t want to read it all in one sitting. 6y
bookloo Great review Mel (told ya so). ☺️♥️ 6y
mrozzz Always appreciative of your thoughts @bookloo 😄💜 6y
JaclynW Great review! 6y
mrozzz @JaclynW Thank you! 😊 6y
82 likes5 stack adds8 comments
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mrozzz
Mean | Myriam Gurba
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Too right she is!!!!

“We act mean to defend ourselves from boredom and from those who would chop off our breasts. We act mean to defend our clubs and institutions. We act mean because we like to laugh.

Being mean to boys is fun and a second-wave feminist duty. Being rude to men who deserve it is a holy mission. Sisterhood is powerful, but being a b**** is more exhilarating. Being a b**** is spectacular.”

66 likes1 stack add
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mrozzz
Mean | Myriam Gurba
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And.... I obviously treated myself 🤷🏼‍♀️ GAH.

Didn‘t mean to— but I‘ve been looking all over for Mean per the recommendation from @bookloo and I‘ve been anticipating Green since 2017 (also I have a horrible time turning down signed editions). My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward was the real impulse buy. 😉 #BookHaul

JacqMac I impulse bought that one, too. It sounds good. 6y
AmyG My Lovely Wife is wild and tragic. Good read. 6y
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mrozzz @AmyG I‘m really into reading true stories of mental health stories so i was easily persuaded to pick it up... good to know it‘s an enjoyable, if tragic, read. 6y
bookloo YAY!!! Mean is so freaking good. I read a bit of My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward last night and it goes by pretty quickly for a memoir. ♥️ 6y
mrozzz @bookloo I‘m so excited for both! 😊💜 6y
96 likes6 comments
review
dutchbot
Mean | Myriam Gurba
Pickpick

I love this book. Exceptional, beautifully written poetic memoir broken into short stories that are connecting in their openness and vulnerability. Gurba's voice is unique and her wit is sharp. I highly recommend Mean.

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razmanda
Mean | Myriam Gurba
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Pickpick

This memoir is quite the feat: both deeply personal and universally relatable, Gurba lays out her traumas in ways that show you her vulnerability and her prickliness. She‘s at times unlikable, and a few times antisemitic, but that doesn‘t make her story any less worthwhile. Trigger warnings all over the place despite its brevity and the starkness of the narrative.

19 likes1 stack add
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razmanda
Mean | Myriam Gurba
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Friday night after a week of holiday travel.

RealLifeReading Mmm cake 6y
23 likes1 comment
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bookloo
Mean | Myriam Gurba
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Pickpick

I have fallen in love with four writers this year. Murakami for his desire, Emily Ruskovich for her empathy, Zinzi Clemmons for being that big sister, and now Myriam Gurba for being that girl whose honesty and witticism has left me speechless.
A memoir that starts with a rape/murder that connects both the victim and Gurba in such an unspeakable and horrifying way, yet Gurba was able to write this with humor and the barest of skins. I loved it. ♥️

mrozzz I‘m sold. 6y
catiewithac Stacked! 6y
bookloo @mrozzz It‘s a bit experimental like What We Lose! However, I‘m 95% positive you‘ll love this one. ☺️ 6y
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bookloo @catiewithac Woo! I can‘t wait to see what you think! 😍 6y
batsy Love your review! 6y
mrozzz Awesome! I believe you. Gotta get this one... 6y
bookloo Thank you @batsy !! ☺️♥️ 6y
bookloo @ReadOrDieRachel I think you‘ll like this one. ☺️ 6y
113 likes13 stack adds9 comments
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bookloo
Mean | Myriam Gurba
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“I have a deep respect for big-time liars. They create religions. They create poems. They make art. Liars move us.”

I think this is the most interesting memoir I‘ve read to date. ♥️

Also, I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. :)

#currentlyreading

Thorex Absolutely one of the best. Also would have to be my favorite book of 2017, it's just so real. 6y
bookloo @Thorex I agree! I‘m still left in awe of her honest writing. 😍 6y
94 likes6 stack adds2 comments
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dutchbot
Mean | Myriam Gurba
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Sometimes a book crush overtakes me quickly and by surprise, as this one did while reading this piece.

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Christine89
Mean | Myriam Gurba
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Just started this book and it is amazing!

TheWordJar Stacked! I love Coffee House Press! 6y
10 likes2 stack adds1 comment
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tamaria
Mean | Myriam Gurba
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Liberty
Mean | Myriam Gurba
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EDIT: The winner is @Titania 🎉🎉🎉

Reminder that you still have time to enter! To win, make a NEW post about a book you‘re giving as a gift, use the hashtag #BOOKFRIDAY2017, and tag me in the photo. Do this by 11:59pm EST Sunday, Nov. 26th, (That‘s today!) and I'll randomly select one winner. (US only, sorry.) 📚📚📚

JoeStalksBeck Gah! I can‘t ! @Tiffy_Reads will see it! 😭 6y
JessicaBates Done! 6y
125 likes2 comments
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Liberty
Mean | Myriam Gurba
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GIVEAWAY TIME! Black Friday? More like BOOK Friday! Enter to win a big stack of books, including several finished copies! (Hey-o, regifters.) To win, make a NEW post about a book you‘re giving as a gift, use the hashtag #BOOKFRIDAY2017, and tag me in the photo. Do this by 11:59pm EST Sunday, Nov. 26th, and I'll randomly select one winner. (US only, sorry.) Good luck! PS - Death by Coffee is rubbish, I just can‘t bring myself to throw it out. 😝

sprainedbrain Sip!!! I‘m definitely going to try for this stack. ❤️ 6y
Pamwurtzler I‘m SO glad you said that about Death by Coffee - I DNF‘d it. 6y
susanw I hated Death by coffee too, should have dnf‘ed. Perfectly good reading time, wasted on dreck. (edited) 6y
132 likes3 comments
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RebeccaH
Mean | Myriam Gurba
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Lololol. I'm loving Myriam Gurba's book MEAN already.

mcipher 😂😂Love this!! 6y
batsy Perfect! 6y
18 likes2 comments
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RebeccaH
Mean | Myriam Gurba
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Super excited about my next read.

24 likes2 stack adds
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Liberty
Mean | Myriam Gurba
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Afternoon reading. 💙🖤

98 likes1 stack add