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#menopause
review
TamTracy
All Fours | Miranda July
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Panpan

There were a few things about this book that I just could get past. Not for me. ⭐️⭐️

CarolynM Nor me😩 1d
55 likes1 comment
quote
geodynamical_nonfiction
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blurb
RaeLovesToRead
All Fours | Miranda July
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https://youtu.be/YOYkqdVEbXk?feature=shared

Who will win the Women's Prize today????

AmyG I loved The Safekeep. So 🤞🏻 1w
BarbaraBB Echoing @AmyG 🤞🏽 1w
Deblovestoread Adding my vote to 1w
49 likes3 comments
blurb
RaeLovesToRead
All Fours | Miranda July
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I JUST RECORDED FOR 50 MINUTES. THEN WHEN I WATCHED THE VIDEO BACK MY MIC HAD SWITCHED OFF 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

So I had to do it all over again but EVEN MORE TIRED.

And now it's 2am and I need to edit them so can post on time before Women's Prize announcement.

On the plus side I think I was a lot less rude about some of the books the second time 🤣🤣

TheBookHippie 🫣😩 I‘m pretty petty and salty about All Fours hatred 🤣 still.. 1w
Prairiegirl_reading Oh no!! That sucks! 1w
kspenmoll I am with you @TheBookHippie I didn‘t finish it. 1w
See All 9 Comments
kspenmoll Sorry you had to redo- I have enjoyed your book talks. 1w
Roary47 Oh no! 1w
IriDas :( 1w
RaeLovesToRead @TheBookHippie You may enjoy the All Fours part of my prediction video when it drops tomorrow morning 😅😅 I was in a bit of a salty mood full stop 😅 1w
RaeLovesToRead @Prairiegirl_reading @Roary47 @IriDas Thank you 💕 I have re-recorded, edited and uploaded my video to launch this morning. It's now 5am 😵😵😵 (I also re-recorded my review of Fundamentally but I was so tired by that point that it was just nonsensical burbling. Will have to redo if I'm gonna post it 🥴🫠) 1w
RaeLovesToRead @kspenmoll Awww thanks! 🥰🥰 Version 2 (only slightly less salty than version 1) will be live in 4 hours 🤣 I'm going to sleep haha 1w
62 likes9 comments
review
andrew61
All Fours | Miranda July
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Pickpick

A book I finished last weekend as I try and read the women's prize shortlist. Interesting to be in the head of a 45 year old artist who hits a mid life crisis as she goes on a cross country drive to NY but stops halfway where she renovates a motel room + has a non consummated sexual encounter with a ynger man. What follows is the exploration of her sexual encounters as she rationalises her life. Its taken me a week to process, + still not sure.

BarbaraBB It‘s such an impactful read, whether you like it or not. Glad that you did! 2w
45 likes1 comment
review
Eggbeater
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Pickpick

This Canadian doctor is funny and thorough and not patronizing. I was a bit overwhelmed, but the information was useful. I now know what questions to ask my doctor. I would recommend it to anyone currently going through the menopause transition who feels like there's a lot of junk information to sort through.

For anyone else confused or mortified by this whole process, I feel your pain.

ChaoticMissAdventures My own gyno recently asked me if I had heard of her and recommended reading her. I have seen her speak before and she is really personable. I am glad she is getting her messages out. 1mo
Desha I just finished this book about a week ago before my gyno appointment…it really helped! I also recommend The New Hot by Meg Mathews and Next Level by Stacy T. Sims and Selene Yeager! 1mo
43 likes1 stack add3 comments
review
JillR
All Fours | Miranda July
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Pickpick

Nearly didn‘t read it, glad I did. This is not *the* mid-life novel; the protagonist‘s life bears no resemblance to mine, nor that of any other woman I know. She is the most self-absorbed, self-indulgent person you‘ll probably ever hear from yet despite that I found this utterly compelling, with a knowingness I suspect you‘ll recognise if you too are mid-40s. I also found the absurdity quite good fun in a way I didn‘t expect.

BarbaraBB Great review! 1mo
Cathythoughts Yes, great review. I havnt been drawn to it , but your review is tempting me. 👍🏻❤️ 1mo
JillR @Cathythoughts I was exactly the same, I only read it because it was on the WP short list and I could get it from the library. Nice to be surprised! 1mo
JillR Thank you @BarbaraBB ! 1mo
29 likes1 stack add4 comments
review
CSeydel
All Fours | Miranda July
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Mehso-so

I had a lot of issues with this book but as you can see I also marked a LOT of sentences/passages for future reference. I ran out of book darts and had to start using Post-it flags! I‘m still not completely sure this wasn‘t satire - the MC was so comically pretentious and self-absorbed that I think she may have been intended as a sly parody of a certain type of artsy hipster grappling with middle age. In that light it almost worked.
#shelfsweeper

CSeydel I just couldn‘t relate a woman feeling the way she did with a child as young as hers - 7 years old. It‘s one thing when your kids are grown and you turn 50 and suddenly realize that not only are you no longer “mom” but it‘s also too late to go back to the sexual image you had of yourself before becoming mom/wife. But she has her child‘s whole life ahead of her and she‘s not at all interested - she‘s solely fixated on her sexual identity. 1mo
CSeydel I also found it off-putting the way she milked the drama of her child‘s traumatic birth. She has this whole thing about not knowing whether the baby would live or die, and in that moment reality split and she had two babies, one alive and one dead, and she “refused to play favorites” between them. But her child didn‘t die. She doesn‘t seem to care about the actual child, just the attendant trauma as a formative thing that happened to *her*. 1mo
CSeydel In other words - she‘s shockingly ungrateful for all the blessings and privileges she has had in her life. This is common of course, we all take so much for granted, but someone as navel-gazing as this unnamed protag should at least recognize all these good things, even if she can‘t emotionally connect with gratitude. 1mo
See All 17 Comments
RaeLovesToRead It's difficult to tell with autofiction how much of the writing is a caricature and an outlet for the unpalatable aspects of their character, how much is self-aware satire, and how much is in earnest. This one felt like all the awful crap that society tells women (voiced concisely and depressingly in Susan Sontag's On Women, for example) came to life in an explosion of awfulness. Which I found mesmerising and despair-inducing. 1mo
TrishB Well done on finishing for all the reasons outlined. 1mo
RaeLovesToRead If you want to torture yourself further with a narcissistic, sex-obsessed MC whose antics make you feel grotty, I recommend The Pisces by Melissa Broder. You won't thank me 🤣🤣 1mo
CSeydel @RaeLovesToRead Oh, I like how you put that! It is rather hard to pin down and that‘s an interesting lens through which to view it. I‘ll be pondering it, certainly, even though I can‘t say I enjoyed it. It was at least well-written. And I‘ll keep The Pisces in my back pocket for now - I‘m in need of a palate cleanser next, but who knows? Maybe I‘ll read it later, just to see 👀 1mo
CSeydel Thanks @TrishB ! I couldn‘t help myself - I had to find out where it was going 1mo
TrishB I can‘t remember at what point I bailed- I just knew wherever it was going I wasn‘t going! 1mo
charl08 I'm about two chapters in and got distracted by other shiny new books. Nor sure if I'll pick it up again before it's due back at the library... 1mo
BarbaraBB Kudos for finishing it and all the notes taken. Great review. I totally agree on the mc being selfish and unlikable yet I was also strangely intrigued by her. I think Miranda July has been able to write a book that affects everyone who read it in one way or another and I admire her for that 1mo
RaeLovesToRead Hahaha I was joking... do NOT read the Pisces haha. It will make you feel even WORSE than All Fours. NO PALATES WILL BE CLEANSED! 1mo
CSeydel @BarbaraBB Absolutely! It was certainly well-written, and thought-provoking. (edited) 1mo
Lesliereadsalot I really liked this one, crazy as the story was. Great review! 1mo
CSeydel @Lesliereadsalot Certainly a lot to think about! 1mo
Sparklemn @cseydel As much as I despised the character for the many of the reasons you stated, I found that I liked the version of her after the time jump at the end of the book. Time and distance had helped her grow to some degree. Not much. Just a little. 😁 3w
55 likes17 comments