Valerie Loveland

Super fast read has lots of photos/diagrams/drawings of women sick in bed. I hadn't really thought about the way women in old books were always sickly. I thought it was just the characters in the books, but it sounds like it was upper class women, in general. Interesting read, wish it were longer.

This book was really short, so it felt like a piece of a book. I thought it was good but not as good as other things written by LeGuin. (I was having a nasty day when I read most of it, and also the print is really small, so I was being unfairly hard on it).

What a great book. I love her complex titles, I liked her line breaks, I liked her tone and sense of humor. One thing I didn't like about the book was the font (oh well).

My favorites in the book:

Boys Boys Boys
I'm Not Like the King of Black People
Great Pacific Garbage Patch
She has a couple poems called Poem that are great too.

I felt like I was trudging through this. It was like somehow boring history text listing events and names. I didn't like how each character started the story over and could have been interwoven better. I do like that there was a very small part of it about Beat women, but I wish it was longer, and the book did point out the flaws of the writers along with what was good about them.

Super appealing art style, don't like the story.

Love the style, but I don't like the cruel attitude, I wish it was less gritty.

I know why this book is on so many to read list suggestions–it is really well written and I liked it, even though it is not scifi, it is fantasy. From the first page, I was drawn to Jemisin's style of storytelling. I don't love fantasy, but the writing was so good that I was compelled to finish. The only problem is now I am wrapped up in a fantasy story that has multiple volumes and it is exhausting.

This would be fantastic if it were 10-20% less bro. I thought a lot of the ideas were fun and unique and creative, but it was just too bro for me.

I picked this up on a whim because the library had a graphic novels section. OF COURSE I like it because of all the cat related comics. I wish there was even more in the book. I also really enjoyed the comics with the main character's boyfriend. The whole thing was cute.

There is a tension the whole time I am reading when it is a biography that I know has a sad ending.

I have mixed feelings about this. There were certain parts that were fantastic but others that I couldn't stand. I almost stopped reading a few times when I got to the child exploitation parts. Not sure if I am going to read the other two in the series. I keep going back and forth about it–I guess it depends on how many scenes of child exploitation are in the other books. It seems like the story is just getting started.

Edit: As time goes on, I am forgetting what I don't like about it and remembering what I do like about it.

I can't believe how few people I know on Goodreads have read this book/posted this book on their good reads library.

I like how the description of the book says this is “confessional nature poetry.” It is a interesting phrase, but I don't think it captures the creepiness of the speaker in these poems. I enjoyed the dark tone of the poems, which was consistent throughout the bbook.

There are a lot of titles that were repeated, which usually bothers me, but I think it was well-suited in the collection. There are also a lot of poems that almost have the same title.

My favorite poems in the book:

Do Not Say Timber

Sorry Was In the Woods


After the Timber the (middle of the page)

The Plans Caution

This is the first book that I read that mixed dystopian future with Caribbean magic. I know almost nothing about this kind of magic so I don't know how much of this is based on myth and how much is made up by Hopkinson. I love when magic is mixed into a modern day or future setting. The protagonist was a breastfeeding single mother. I would classify this as fantasy probably. It is easier to just say speculative fiction because it covers every kind of book like this without having to decide if this is more magic or dystopia or what makes a book scifi.

I wish there were more description of the world they live in and more of the main character's grandmother, who was the smartest and most capable throughout the book.

The main character having Tourettes allows for a lot of interesting wordplay (although I would like to read a review from someone who has Tourettes). I was glued to the book, and kept thinking about the storyline after.

This book dealt with family relationships in a unique and interesting way. The book was sectioned by subject, and every time I got to a new section, I was annoyed because I wanted more of the previous section. I thought the new section wouldn't be as good as the previous. I was wrong every time–the whole thing was great.

Really really fun for most of the book but then trips at the end.

I wish I read this when I was younger instead.

This is my first Octavia Butler book and she is as good as everyone says she is. She created a world so realistic, I lived there for the two days it took for me to read it.

Loved it but it was too short!

I needed some escapist reading to help me with my nasty commute. This was absolutely perfect. I love this series. I was disappointed that some issues that were presented in the book were not resolved by the end, but I liked the book so much I am not going to be too sour about that.

So fantastic and inventive. The language and tone in the poem was completely unique. I wish the whole thing was longer. I wish there was more creativity like this in poetry books.

When I went to a huge poetry marathon with SO MANY poets, Huffman was one that I marked most emphatically in my notes that I needed to find their books. The audience loved him, and his book was also great. There was one section (a long sprawling poem) I could have done without, but the rest of the book was smart and enjoyable.

This was a hard book to get through at times because it is so honest about the family dynamics involving addiction. She is such a strong writer, I can't wait to read what she writes next.

This took forever to finish because I have been swamped. I started a few pages months ago, then read most of this on the way to the poetry festival and the rest today.

I really like the style. It is prose poems, tiny ones, or medium ones broken into small prose poem stanzas. The poems are surreal and has repeating subjects (birds, sisters). I enjoyed seeing the subjects appear over and over.

I like the titles, but I don't feel like they are super specific to the poems, especially with all the repeating. I like the shorter poems slightly better than the longer poems.

My favorites from the book: (Couldn't find links)

Wondering Why Her Skin Feels Like Sand
Dearest Sister, I Can Feel Your Digits in the Stopping of My Watch,
At First, You Were Miniature
I can't Picture Myself,

I like the batch of Plath biographies that are coming out now that the archive opened up. So many biographies focused on the same things, I've been enjoying the more specialized biographies. The boys who were just mentioned in passing get more fleshed out in this book. (Especially Eddie Cohen)I liked the view of what it meant to date in the 50's.