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Shut Up You're Pretty
Shut Up You're Pretty | Ta Mutonji, Tea Mutonji
21 posts | 17 read | 23 to read
A high-wire collection of darkly humorous stories about a young woman floating in and out of her skin, trying on identities imposed on her by others.
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review
Nebklvr
Shut Up You're Pretty | Ta Mutonji, Tea Mutonji
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Mehso-so

I really didn‘t like this but I have horrible luck with short stories so it is probably my own bias. Grim and gritty, these stories leave the reader gasping for mercy

review
JacqMac
Shut Up You're Pretty | Ta Mutonji, Tea Mutonji
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Pickpick

I wasn't expecting to like this one. But I do. I don't know why they marketed it as short stories. It's more like pieces of a life. It's not a memoir, but it reads like one. It's about a girl struggling to find herself and her place in the world. It's very raw and real. There‘s a lot of trauma in this one. It‘s not my favorite from the shortlist, but it‘s pretty close. #CanadReads2024

ChaoticMissAdventures I love this title, it reminds me of drunk girls in bar or concert bathrooms hyping each other up. 2mo
41 likes1 comment
review
BookishTrish
Shut Up You're Pretty | Ta Mutonji, Tea Mutonji
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Pickpick

I have a few questions about this one. First I‘m curious why it‘s been marketed as short stories when it holds together as a novella. Second, why Canada Reads shortlist this year? I‘ll be keen to see the debate on how this book moves us forward and how long it takes for the thematic/setting twinning with Scarborough to come up.

review
TheKidUpstairs
Shut Up You're Pretty | Ta Mutonji, Tea Mutonji
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Pickpick

An exceptionally raw, dark, difficult collection of stories that visit Loli at various points in her life. Themes of belonging, immigration, grief, poverty, and sexualization leave a pit in the stomach. This collection is well written, and engaging, and I'm glad to have read it, but it is a difficult one to recommend because it is unrelenting in its grit and dark. I didn't feel any glimpses of hope or light to balance.

cont'd in comments...

TheKidUpstairs While I'm glad to have read this, and it worked for me on its own merits as a story collection, as a #CanadaReads selection, it did not work. The theme this year is “One book to carry us forward“ and I didn't feel anything in this collection to move us past the story at hand, past the stagnant present of Loli trapped by history, unaddressed traumas, and societal circumstance. cont'd in next comment... 2mo
TheKidUpstairs I also feel like, two years after Scarborough by Catherine Hernandez was a finalist, featuring another Galloway book rubs me the wrong way. I used to live in Scarborough, my husband is from there (blocks away from the neighbourhood these books take place in). People who aren't from Scarborough hear the name, and Galloway is what they often think of: low income, crime riddled area. But Scarborough is so much more (cont'd in next comment...) 2mo
TheKidUpstairs ...Scarborough is the size of the rest of Toronto's boroughs combined. It is an incredibly diverse part of the city. And featuring a second Galloway-set book so soon after Scarborough in some ways plays into the stereotypes that people have about it. And I don't see how that can move us forward.

It will be interesting to see how this one is championed!
2mo
59 likes3 comments
blurb
xicanti
Shut Up You're Pretty | Ta Mutonji, Tea Mutonji
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Throwback to yesterday, when I finished Téa Mutonji‘s interconnected short story collection. She has a lot of good stuff to say about sexual relationships, sexually charged friendships, and family ties—but for all the pluses, I found her Americanized school language a disappointing distraction. I spent at least as much time considering why it bothers me so much as I did mulling over Loli‘s experiences growing up in Scarborough.

xicanti And here‘s why it bugs me: a non-American writer who uses grade nicknames has either catered to American readers, many of whom believe they‘re a universal practice instead of something intimately tied to how their country performs high school, or has bought into the idea of America as the global default. Either one of those options makes me sad and angry in equal measures. (edited) 13mo
TieDyeDude Sounds like an interesting book. Disappointing about their Americanization. If I'm reading a foreign writer, I want to read their voice, not what they think I want to read. 13mo
xicanti @TieDyeDude to be fair to Mutonji, she doesn‘t Americanize anything else. It was still a glaring issue for me, as it always is when it crops up. 13mo
35 likes1 stack add3 comments
blurb
Lindy
Shut Up You're Pretty | Ta Mutonji, Tea Mutonji
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Nice pairing at this Starfest event: Tea Mutonji and Zalika Reid-Benta. 😊

review
JustReadingJess
Shut Up You're Pretty | Ta Mutonji, Tea Mutonji
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Pickpick

This book was so good and intense. Review coming soon.

56 likes2 stack adds
blurb
JustReadingJess
Shut Up You're Pretty | Ta Mutonji, Tea Mutonji
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Today‘s NetGalley approvals. I‘m excited for all these books! My first Simon and Schuster approval.

britt_brooke Nice!! 4y
JustReadingJess @britt_brooke it was an exciting day! 4y
46 likes2 comments
blurb
cleoh
Shut Up You're Pretty | Ta Mutonji, Tea Mutonji
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Today turned into a crappy and unproductive day, so I‘ve given up on everything and am curling up to ignore the world.

LiteraryinLawrence Good! You need a break! 4y
cleoh @LiteraryinLititz thank you! Tomorrow will be better. 4y
Bookishlie Love that! That was my day Tuesday:) I felt better yesterday. Tomorrow is a new day😃 4y
59 likes2 stack adds3 comments
quote
shawnmooney
Shut Up You're Pretty | Ta Mutonji, Tea Mutonji
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Cinfhen Hi, friend!!! I love that sentence😊 4y
sprainedbrain What a quote! 🔥 4y
33 likes2 comments
quote
Lindy
Shut Up You're Pretty | Ta Mutonji, Tea Mutonji
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In Galloway, Mrs Broomfield was legend for witnessing the Rwandan genocide. Her attitude so much positivity and optimism, like, “This is a war, child, it‘s not going to last.” I liked to apply that to everything else: this world is a war, this neighbourhood is a war, this street, this house, this body, this person, this feeling, this war.

36 likes1 stack add
review
Lindy
Shut Up You're Pretty | Ta Mutonji, Tea Mutonji
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Pickpick

Interconnected short stories follow Loli, a Canadian Congolese immigrant, from age 13 to 26, as she blunders through sexual encounters with boys & men, supported and confused by intense female friendships. Raw, surprising and unforgettable.

48 likes6 stack adds
blurb
Lindy
Shut Up You're Pretty | Ta Mutonji, Tea Mutonji
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I was standing in line at the Tim Hortons on campus when I saw Jonas. He was ordering, leaning forward over the counter and whispering his order to the cashier. She blushed, covered her mouth with her free hand. Her hat was red. If Patty were here, she would have said, “Women dressed in red are more sexually attractive to men.“

(Internet photo plus another Timmies reference for my collection)

quote
Lindy
Shut Up You're Pretty | Ta Mutonji, Tea Mutonji
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Henry had more hair than I expected. On his top lip, a pair of bushy brows, an entire grass field slapped across the bottom half of his face. When he got out of the car and waved, I gave Jolie a look that said, You didn‘t tell me he was a hundred years old. In turn, she gave me a look that said, Stand up straight and stop acting your age.

quote
Lindy
Shut Up You're Pretty | Ta Mutonji, Tea Mutonji
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We once saw a man at the intersection of Galloway & Lawrence with a small teardrop tattoo. It meant he had killed someone, Theresa told me, and lost the love of his life because of it. Detailed, I thought. Didn‘t understand how she could get all of that from a tattoo.
(Internet photo)

tpixie Yeah, hate those tear drop tattoos! 💦 4y
Lindy @tpixie To each his own, I guess. I can‘t help but think people regret facial tattoos at some point in their lives. This passage is a good example of the central character‘s personality: always following an older girl‘s lead and believing what she‘s told. 4y
tpixie @Lindy sounds like some good lessons in that book. ( I don‘t like the Teardrop because of that Murder Connotation). 4y
35 likes3 comments
quote
Lindy
Shut Up You're Pretty | Ta Mutonji, Tea Mutonji
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He just talked and talked and talked. I think my father had enough words in him to rewrite Don Quixote. His favourite book. Because he believed in so many of his stories, I never knew which one belonged to either one of us.

marleed My dad loved this book too. Whenever I walk past a copy at a book display. I think of him. Someday I‘ll read it. All I really have is having seen Man of La Mancha a few times - which I love. 4y
Lindy @marleed Good to have memories like that. I listened to it in audio last year and by the end it felt like a marathon, but I‘m glad I finally got to it. 4y
Annl I studied Don Quijote in Spanish during college, many, many years ago. It has become my favorite through movie interpretations and stage plays/musicals. It may be one of those rare stories where watching the movie first helps foster a love for the main character. 4y
Lindy @Annl I also enjoy encountering a story in multiple formats & retellings. I‘ve seen Don Quixote as a ballet and an opera and I‘m about to embark on 4y
33 likes4 comments
quote
Lindy
Shut Up You're Pretty | Ta Mutonji, Tea Mutonji
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The next morning, he was still dead, but not like an exclamation point, like a set of ellipses.

36 likes1 stack add
blurb
Liberty
Shut Up You're Pretty | Ta Mutonji, Tea Mutonji
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The view from my hammock: Spending this gray Sunday reading in my library. (I‘ve been meaning to paint this room a better color since we moved in five years ago, but that would cut in on my reading time.?) I‘m currently reading SHUT UP YOU‘RE PRETTY by Téa Mutonji. What are you reading today? ?❤️?

SarahHarts_books Wow! That's an amazing collection of books you have!! 😍📚 📖 5y
LiteraryinLawrence Great view! I‘m reading The Department of Sensitive Crimes this morning. 5y
Minimalgrl Sunny day here in Seattle .. so taking advantage of it and reading The Devils Punchbowl by Greg Iles while sitting on my balcony and sipping my coffee 5y
See All 9 Comments
Cailey_Mac Oooo love it! I actually really like the color of the walls, btw! 5y
LibrarianRyan We have the same style of library. That orange sherbet is not a bad color. Gives it lots of light. 5y
Susanita I love the wall color. 5y
JSW I mean, just fill the walls with books and you won‘t have to see the color. 🤷🏻‍♀️ 5y
TheLudicReader That is The BEST. 5y
ChristianClark88 Love that coral color!!! 5y
128 likes1 stack add9 comments
review
RebeccaH
Shut Up You're Pretty | Ta Mutonji, Tea Mutonji
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Pickpick

This is a collection of closely-linked short stories about a girl/woman growing up near Toronto, living some tough stuff and trying to make sense of it all.

blurb
RebeccaH
Shut Up You're Pretty | Ta Mutonji, Tea Mutonji
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I‘d say my current reading is...varied.