pickLoved this. The narrative voice is amazing, really enjoyed the characters. It reminded me quite a bit of Derry Girls in its tone and humor.
Her writing about motherhood, in both this book and in The End We Start From… just amazing.
“You can put ideas on and off just like moccasins. You can wear them and set them aside, hold on to those you find meaningful … someone telling you that you‘re wrong and only they know the truth. Such boasting is evidence of a fool, perhaps a dangerous one.”
pickI really enjoyed Goodbye Vitamin, so I was excited to read her new one. This one is much longer, more sweeping. It‘s a multigenerational story told from multiple points of view, from the reeducation during Mao‘s Cultural Revolution to modern day US.
We broke 80 degrees for the first time ever for February today. Seems like a good day to start a book about the climate.
We don‘t walk down the same street as the person walking beside us. All we can do is tell the other person what we see. We can point at things and try to name them. If we do this well, our friend can look at the world in a new way. We can meet.
Some of my favorite non-fiction from this year. When Crack was King definitely hit the top of the list!
Some of my favorite fiction from year. Absolutely loved the scathing, yet hilarious, Erasure. Can‘t wait to see the movie!
Book delivery day! Gift cards mean you open presents twice! Definitely starting with Skippy Dies- have never read it and The Bee Sting was my absolute favorite book from this year.
so-soThere were stories here I really enjoyed. Jack's dad - the reason that drove him to Facebook to find Jack, his radicalization and how that ended. Jack & Elizabeth's path from young idealism to (sub)urbanity.
But, there was so much going on that I think it took away from these stories. I don't know that the whole Kate & Kyle thing was necessary to highlight how "sad" the other relationships were; just more side characters I wasn‘t invested in.
What to make of this narrator? She seems to be the victim of abuse, definitely by her brother. She talks about being smart, knowing the answers in school, but being knocked down and silenced. And later she says she knows nothing, knows little. Is that sarcasm, or has she internalized the abuse? All this, plus her speech at the end make me wonder if she really is a witch? Is this all revenge for her ancestors?
“She was happy. That was the trouble. She was so happy that she forgot to be sad.”
Great book talk today at Homestead National Historic Park.
Fields of goldenrod blowing in the wind…
As the parent of a physics major, this gave me a good chuckle. The kid agrees, btw 😂
If we are not in someone else‘s memory, do we even exist at all?
pickInteresting book. This takes the murdered woman trope and flips it on its head. Set in a not too distant future (she doesn‘t tell us, but technology is familiar, yet advanced), it‘s a bit speculative fiction, a bit mystery. Fast paced- I easily read it in one sitting yesterday afternoon.
“The first weapon I ever held was my mother‘s hand.”
What an opening line!
Taking advantage of a rare 50 degree February day!
so-soI have mixed feelings about both this book and The Passenger. McCarthy is a hell of a writer, there is no doubt about that. There were phrases in both books that made you stop an appreciate his skill. I appreciate McCarthy's curiosity, but I really related to the psychiatrist in Stella Maris. He frequently responded to Alicia's musings with "You lost me" or "I don't follow". Yeah dude, you and me both.
Favorite fiction part II. Read a handful from the Booker shortlist and enjoyed them all, particularly The Colony.
Favorite fiction part I. The Trees was probably my top book of the year. The Feast I picked up after seeing it here on Litsy and I‘m so appreciative of those that posted about it.
My favorite nonfiction this year! Particularly enjoyed We Don‘t Know Ourselves and Orwell‘s Roses.
I read Hamnet in January and absolutely loved it. Picked up Heatwave and Esme Lennox. Loved those too! So I just grabbed the rest 😂 Finished the last one just in time for her new one next week. (Hamnet is definitely my fav)
Congressman- “All I know is that we just spent a lot of damn time learning nothing of consequence except what it feels like to get your ass handed to you by a goddamned librarian!”
I love that the hero in this story is a librarian!! 🥰
pickPhenomenal book! The story and characters were great, but I also learned so much about deaf culture and deaf history. In the Author‘s Note, she writes that she hopes this book to be rallying call for allies and I think this novel can achieve this.
pick⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Olivares details his experience working with families separated at the border in 2018, interspersed with his own experiences as an immigrant. He does a great job explaining complex intricacies and history of our immigration system.
Walked into the bookstore today and picked up four intriguing, but unknown to me, titles. Can‘t wait to dig in! Where to start??
Don't miss this captivating look into the Exodust movement, as freed African Americans established Black communities across the Great Plains during the late 19th century. At once a look at the diversity of Great Plains history as well as an opportunity to consider history as a catalyst for art, author and professor DeMisty D. Bellinger explains how these migrations informed her forthcoming novel, New to Liberty.
(National Cather Center)
pickEntertaining and thought provoking, just like her last collection. The essay on self care is so on point- definitely my favorite in this book.
pickReally enjoyed this one on audio- each story uses a different narrator, with Levar Burton reading the first one! Loved the title story and “Buying a House Ahead of the Apocalypse”.
Read these amazing books this weekend and while they could not be more different, they are both ultimately about plagues. One biological, one social.
Wasn‘t sure what to read next so I went with a color theme. 😄
If war has an opposite, gardens might sometimes be it…
pickSo dark and weird and hilarious. And the commentary is spot on.
Every man you ever meet is nothing but the product of what was withheld from him, what he feels owed.
Listening to this on audio before the author talk.
Turned out to be a fitting publication day.
There are so many ways of being despicable... But the way to really be despicable is to be contemptuous of other people‘s pain.
Focus on you. On the things that make you happy and calm. The things that make your heart beat faster and slower. This is how you will learn who you are, and what you are supposed to do in this life.
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