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caitfish4311

caitfish4311

Joined August 2016

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Her Body and Other Parties: Stories by Carmen Maria Machado
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A Loving, Faithful Animal by Josephine Rowe
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caitfish4311
The Power | Naomi Alderman

You have been taught that you are unclean, that you are not holy, that your body is impure and could never harbor the divine. You have been taught to despise everything that you are and to long only to be a man. But you have been taught lies. God lies within you, God has returned to teach you, in the form of this new power. Do not come to me looking for answers, for you must find the answers within yourself.

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caitfish4311

Even the circus freak side of my face-my damaged half-was better than the alternative, which would have meant death by fire. I didn't burn to ashes. I emerged from the flames like a little phoenix...I didn't burn, Mummy, I thought. I walked through the fire and I lived.
There are scars on my heart, just as thick, as disfiguring as those on my face... I hope some undamaged tissue remains, a patch through which love can come in and flow out. I hope.

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caitfish4311
Sunshine State: Essays | Sarah Gerard
Mehso-so

I have to admit, this was a bit of a slog. I like personal essays a lot, but a couple of these were pretty boring. I enjoyed the most personal ones, like the one about growing up in the late nineties (I can relate), and the one about her grandparents. I enjoyed this book moderately, but wouldn't especially recommend it.

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caitfish4311
Memetic | James Tynion IV
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📖Favorite Hobby: reading, obvs
📖 Favorite Drink: White Russians
📖 Favorite Food: Anything sweet
📖 Favorite Color: Purple
📖 Favorite City: Austin TX
📖 Where My Dream House Would Be: Probably in a suburb of Austin
📖 Favorite Accessory: Black choker
📖 Favorite TV Show: Twin Peaks
📖 Last Movie I Watched In Theaters: The Huntsman: Winter's War
📖 Currently Reading: Eveningland, Radium Girls

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caitfish4311

I just cannot read this book anymore. Too desperately sad. Maybe I'll read it another time, but for now, it is too much.

mrozzz It's intense. I'm also hesitating to keep going. I'm also pleasantly distracted with 3 other books. Maybe one chapter per week/month? 7y
4 likes1 comment
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caitfish4311

60 pages in, and this book already breaks my heart. My mentally ill peers were burned at the stake, beaten, and tortured hundreds of years ago, and society still fears us. I'm so lucky to live in an age where medications allow me to have a normal life. It still devastates me that we are subject to such stigma. Not a book to read if you aren't prepared to be sad and/or very angry.

Notafraidofwords I'm staying away. I just know that'll it make me angry and upset. 7y
caitfish4311 @Notafraidofwords yeah it is rough. I might have to stop early because it is so upsetting. 7y
6 likes2 comments
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caitfish4311
All Birds Have Anxiety | Kathy Hoopmann
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YUP

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caitfish4311
Amberlough | Lara Elena Donnelly
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Got this at the library today. Not sure how much I'll like it, but the cover really got my attention.

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caitfish4311
Mehso-so

This book is good for what it is. A quick read about the presence of arsenic in everyday items during the Victorian period, especially in wallpaper. There are many examples of this wallpaper interspersed between chapters. It is a visually lovely book, but I guess I feel like it was more style than substance.

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caitfish4311
Moonglow | Michael Chabon
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New book haul from the library!

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Recent library haul!

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caitfish4311

The turtle lay a long time on the bottom of the pond, resting. Then she turned, her eyes upon some flickering nearby as, without terror, without sorrow, but in the voracious arms of the first of the earth's gods, she did what she must, she did what all must do. All things are meltable, and replaceable. Not at this moment, but soon enough, we are lambs and we are leaves, and we are stars, and the shining, mysterious pond water itself.

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caitfish4311

May I be the tiniest nail in the house of the universe, tiny but useful. May I stay forever in the stream. May I look down upon the windflower and the bull thistle and the coreopsis with the greatest respect.

8leagueboot Manifesto 🌻 7y
5 likes1 comment
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caitfish4311
Bailedbailed

I would have liked more info about Vita Sackville-West. Instead, the author dedicates the most room to her life and that of her mother. While this is kind of understandable, it wasn't enough to keep me interested.

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caitfish4311
Bailedbailed

Full of amusing vignettes, but after finding out the author was 17 at the time of writing, I couldn't take it seriously as a "memoir," and had to stop reading.

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caitfish4311
Pickpick

This book is a very, very sad expose of the mental health care "system" in this county. It was written 10 years ago, so one only hopes that conditions have improved and the recent reforms to the system will make a difference. This book shows me how fortunate I am to not have fallen through the cracks like so many of my peers, and I am so grateful.

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caitfish4311

But deep down, we really don't want to believe that's true. Because if we did, we would have to admit: It could happen to us. It.could happen to me. I could become the sniveling, deranged creature hiding under the steel bunk nibbling on day-old orange peels. And that is such a frightening thought that we quietly search though explanations to prove that the mentally ill really aren't like us and somehow deserve the torment they suffer.

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caitfish4311
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This is a good book.

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caitfish4311
Morgue: A Life in Death | Ron Franscell, Dr. Vincent DiMaio
Mehso-so

I didn't really appreciate some of the value judgements projected onto defenders of Trayvon Martin, which weren't very flattering. I find this ironic because Di Maio talks about always wishing to remain objective. Otherwise, a fascinating look into the determination of many notable forensic cases.

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caitfish4311
Morgue: A Life in Death | Ron Franscell, Dr. Vincent DiMaio
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Starting this next; probably this week. Looking forward to it a lot! I tend to like somewhat morbid books a lot. :P

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caitfish4311
Arcadia | Lauren Groff
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All done, but still going strong!

Bookzombie Congrats!!🎉🦄 7y
LauraBeth Nice! 🎉🍾👏⭐️ 7y
Merethebookgal Yay!! 🎉 7y
5 likes3 comments
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caitfish4311
All Is Not Forgotten | Wendy Walker
Mehso-so

I can't decide whether I really like this book a lot or just liked it. The story is intriguing, but everything was wrapped too neatly at the end. I'd like to have been left wondering what happened, I think.

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caitfish4311
Pickpick

Doyle provides case studies of women in history to show that the "trainwreck" is nothing new: she is always "too much," and must be punished for it in a society where womanhood is still meant to be constrained and quiet. In this, she celebrates women's humanity in a world that doesn't allow for it.

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caitfish4311
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This book is so freaking good.

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caitfish4311
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:(((((

BookishMarginalia Harsh. (But true) 7y
2 likes1 comment
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caitfish4311
Pickpick

Although I disagree with him politically, Vance's story helped me understand some things about my family and those around me. I enjoyed it.

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caitfish4311
Mehso-so

So well-written, but it would take me more than one read to catch all the nuances of her writing. While it is a good read, I can't see reading it again.

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The Girls: A Novel | Emma Cline

Here at the Texas Book Festival, about to see Emma Cline and Robin Wasserman!

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caitfish4311

Like Harlow's monkeys, I would have curled up with a wire doll if I thought it would love me back.

Notafraidofwords This : I want to read so badly! 7y
caitfish4311 @Notafraidofwords It is really well-written! 7y
3 likes2 comments
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caitfish4311
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Almost done!

Bookzombie You will get there! Yay! 🙂🦄 7y
caitfish4311 @Bookzombie I know! I'm on 43 rn and at the rate I'm going i should just make it! 7y
3 likes2 comments
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caitfish4311
Mehso-so

I enjoyed this book, but would have liked more background into the Maharishi and the cult. I understand why she kept the story more personal, though; after all, it is a memoir.

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caitfish4311
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Today's library haul!

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caitfish4311
Half Wild: Stories | Robin MacArthur
Pickpick

A collection of intertwining short stories that are mostly melancholy to some degree. Not a bad thing. The characters are full of bad memories and have a tendency to repress things, not unlike you or I. The title links up with the last story, but also speaks to our human condition. We are full of strong currents of emotion, wild to a degree, and so are the characters in these stories.

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caitfish4311
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New books from the library!

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caitfish4311
Half Wild: Stories | Robin MacArthur
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Pineapple shisha and a good book. Happy Saturday. :)

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Half Wild: Stories | Robin MacArthur
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Two pages in and already a paragraph I love.

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caitfish4311
Lab Girl | Hope Jahren
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My back porch is a mess but I can still relax and read there. :P

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The After Party: A Novel | Anton DiSclafani

Intriguing for the mystery at the center of the book, but some of the characters' motivations are amorphous and hard to pin down. Still good on a mostly superficial level, and difficult to put down.

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caitfish4311
The After Party: A Novel | Anton DiSclafani
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Hookah and a book, again! Enjoying it.

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caitfish4311
Pickpick

A page-turner for sure.

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Using my hookah for the first time and reading a very intriguing book!

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caitfish4311
The Turner House | Angela Flournoy
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Just barely started this one tonight. Off to a strong start.

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caitfish4311
Modern Lovers | Emma Straub
Pickpick

So funny and human. A reminder that we never can predict where our lives and our passions may lead us.

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caitfish4311
The Virgin Suicides | Jeffrey Eugenides
Pickpick

So dreamy and puzzling, and finally maddening as one figures out the narrator is not as reliable as one might hope. It seems that despite all the energy the people around them put into trying to understand them, the one thing they forget is that the Lisbon girls are human, not figures onto which to project one's own thoughts and feelings.

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caitfish4311
The Virgin Suicides | Jeffrey Eugenides
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Starting this one tonight.

6 likes1 stack add
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caitfish4311
Modern Lovers | Emma Straub
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I have so many books out from the library that I don't know how I'll finish them all, and yet I got another one today! I have a problem, but it's a fun one, I guess.

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caitfish4311
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Starting this one next. Interested to see how it is.

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caitfish4311
When We Were Animals | Joshua Gaylord
Mehso-so

I don't completely know what to think about this one. In some respects I feel the story is hackneyed, with tired symbolism and unnecessary dualism, but on the other hand, the language used is beautiful and the story is highly original. In any case, a page-turner.

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caitfish4311
When We Were Animals | Joshua Gaylord
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My favorite book store in Texas is also its largest. Austin's BookPeople has everything. #getindie #austin

Gottabook Totally agree! ? Wish I lived closer, but thank goodness they have a great online presence for me to "browse" their shelves! 8y
danielle_framed We were just there this weekend. I could have spent hours looking around! 6y
7 likes2 comments
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caitfish4311
Mehso-so

I would have liked this a lot more if it had more firsthand accounts of the harm fracking has done to the environment and people's health. Instead it's about a campaign to ban fracking from Denton's city limits. This is to be expected from the book cover, I suppose, but the story had so many obvious rhetorical devices that they kind of brought me out of it.