jelly
Read and reviewed: Aug 17, 2021
Chapter 1-2: The story intrigued me from the very first page, as I wanted to know what was the cause of the elbow incident, and who had been part of it. I love how vivid her descriptions of the town are, and how easy it is to visualize each street already. Wow, that teacher has such an inferiority complex and really loves asserting her power over ‘weaker' people than her! Also, I only realized at the end of chapter 3 that the narrator was a girl! So impressive that she learned to read and write mostly on her own!
Final thoughts after finishing the book: I loved it so so much! 5 stars! One of the best reads of the year. I couldn't find anything to change, this book is just excellent. It's interesting how her draft for this book was so different from the final version. (this is the synopsis for the sequel, and a spoiler if you intend to read it blindly): with Scout as an adult coming back to her home town and trying to reconcile with her father who is actually a racist in this version. But to come back to To Kill a Mockingbird, I don't even know what to say! It's always easier for me to write pages and pages for the books I disliked, than for the books I liked. The book had a good moral at the end, that most people are nice, and you need to take the time to get to know them.Somehow, I thought that the character of Dill would be more explored, as he somehow disappeared from the last part of the book, but it still makes sense. It was good to keep the final events enclosed in themselves. Scout, Jem, Atticus and Boo, I am going to remember these characters for a long time. I wonder if there is a slight chance that Jem or Boo killed Bob Ewell...
Read and reviewed: Aug 08, 2021
I finished Pride and Prejudice! This book was such a treat! It's definitely one of my favorite books of the year and on my top 3 favorite books of all time! I didn't know that I had a soft spot for romance from the early 19th century, but now I'm all in! I need to collect my thoughts before writing a full review, as all I can say now is that I'm so happy the novel revolved around Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, and that it had such a happy ending. Also, Elizabeth was so strong during her altercation with Catherine, wow!
Part of a buddy read. I am so happy to come back to George's reading. I don't know why exactly I call him by his first name. It's just George :). I put off this book for years because I thought it would be violent and hard to read. About the violent part, I think it is going to come very soon. And it's actually easy to read. I am excited to finish it!
Update: I just finished Animal Farm. I liked it. It was successful at being a political and social satire of power and hierarchical societies. Very deep critic of populist movements, among them communism. The lower class wants to become the middle class, which wants to become the higher class. And once the power has been seized, to reinforce signs of divide (power, schedule, rations, appearances, political decisions, housing, titles...). And the manipulation of history, the manipulation of their memories, the use of ‘self-scapegoating' leading to death, the use of lingering fear by announcing that spies live among them... Everything went down after the milk was first stolen. After the pigs were first self-proclaimed more intelligent, after the populist vision was proclaimed and followed. It was an exercise well executed by George Orwell. It was a sad story.
Chapter 5: Of course the pigs would seize all power, including the extra milk and apples, and use the excuse of needing to stay in good health to prevent Jones from coming back. I have a feeling that they are going to leverage this fear of Jones' return anytime they need to shut down a debate to their advantage.
Chapter 5: ““One false step, and our enemies will be upon us. Surely, comrades, you do not want Jones back?”” Aaarrg this manipulation! It's going to turn for the worst, especially now that Napoleon succeeded at his coup to evict Snowball and reign with terror and violence. And of course, the decisions are now made only between the pigs... It's not going to end well...
Chapter 7: omg it has become so sad
It's interesting, I picked up this book a few months ago, and I read the first chapter or two, and I thought it was too stereotypical and dropped it. But then, it appeared on the buddy read, and I told myself: “Why not?”. I had just finished East of Eden, and I think I needed a light-hearted novel, like a romance. Well, I read the first 5 chapters and I am not sure it is going to be a light-hearted novel... More like a sad and dark one. There are already parts that I don't like, but writing a comment on each chapter and reading people's impressions makes it quite pleasant. I know I have many physical books I also want to read, now that I have actually started to create my own collection, but yes, this one will be read at this end of July.
Six Pieces Op. 51, TH 143: 6 Valse sentimentale Tempo di Valse - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Update: I just finished it! I would give it 3 or 3.5 stars. It took me a long time to read it because it was quite triggering, but I'm happy I finished it. I like that Raymond and Eleanor are friends in the end, and that there was no need to create a romance. But I feel like the plot was quite linear and predictable. Also, Raymond was such a stereotypical IT guy, that annoyed and irritated me profusely! And I couldn't believe that Laura and Raymond would be dating, even for a short period of time. I feel like it was just to stir some emotions in Eleanor, just for the plot. The fact that the mother was actually dead and that the phone calls were a ritual organized by Eleanor was a plot twist that surprised me, but I understand. A way to connect and not be fully alone. I don't know, I feel like only Eleanor was a complex character. And the ending dragged for too long. 3 stars. 8/7/21
I got this book on sale for $3 at the Library Bookstore. It was on display, and after having loved Of Mice and Men so much, I immediately bought it. It's a big book, over 600 pages long, but I already love it so much. I am at chapter 8 out of 55. I have a feeling this is going to become one of my favorite books. I read it and I already feel like I am going to re-read it.
Update: I finished East of Eden two days ago and I haven't gotten to writing a review yet. First, it is my favorite book ever. I know I didn't like as much pages 500 to 550, but it is still so good. Okay, so I am going to start listening to classical music, and see if it helps. The love and hate between siblings, the ideal of a love dressed over someone's personality, the philosophy of life, the changing landscape of California at the turn of the 20th century, the repeated trauma and patterns from generations to generations, the exploration of psychopathy, the exploration of idealists, the nature of truth and virtue and what we expect from others, and what we expect from ourselves. The trades. Can you explore and escape your name? What is the nature of choices? Can you hear someone beyond their appearances? What is richness? What is friendship, and age? Do thoughts develop with age, or are we all fully thinking from an early age? Is truth always good to tell, and how, with how much softness? How to embrace people's choices? Yes, how to...
13 Pieces for Piano Op. 76: 2. Etude - Jean Sibelius
Read and reviewed: Jul 19, 2021
Our Home book club with Cory and me, following the theme: ““Banned book in the US””. I actually don't know why it was banned. I read the first few pages yesterday evening and the writing style surprises me. Intrigues me. Who is this mysterious Gatsby living in his mansion? What sort of adventure will they be drawn into?
Update: So, I just finished the book and I had to immediately turn on my computer and write down my thoughts. It is the story of a man absolutely lost in love, who couldn't marry his love at the time because he was too poor, and purposely and methodically built a successful life to one day go back in time and ask her to marry him. It is also the story of what jealousy can do to a man and how far people can go to protect their family and their name. It is finally about the solitude of a man who was always surrounded, but never truly loved.
It's interesting to think that Nick, the narrator, was the last friend to stand before him, even if in the end, he never liked Gatsby. Where did this honesty and absence of judgment learned from his father lead him?
It is not easy for me to give a rating to this book. It is considered such a classic, studied at school, and beloved by so many people. At first, I thought it was simply a story focused on isolated life of the upper society in Long Island, then it became about love and betrayal, and the strength of a dream to carry a man, but in the end it became a thriller and the gloomy portrayal of the decisions people make to protect their mistakes and their names, even and especially at the expense of others. It's about what connections really are in extreme circumstances, and what people do to survive. Also, how people move on. And how they were all from the West, installed temporarily in the East, and how they never fully fitted in.
One can never recreate one's past.
Did I enjoy reading this story? Fairly so, but the chapters were very unequal, the ones happening outside of Egg Island usually not well written. Did I think Gastly is a memorable character? Fairly so. Do I think it's a successful way to portray a man lost in love, lost in the reality of what is really happening? I would say so. Did Daisy really understand that Gatsby made money out of selling alcohol illegally and making fake stocks? Yes, but she still drove back to Egg Island with him, because Tom ordered them to. So I guess, the fake stocks was what Gatsby was about to suggest, when he talked to Nick, who immediately dismissed the idea of taking more work. Interesting. Quick illegal money meant he could court Daisy quicker and win her back faster. His mansion was gigantic and he said he bought it with 3-year work of money. Only.
I keep writing my thoughts and pondering about this book. I guess it touched on many topics. It was quite a short book to have executed all of that. The hit and run was so badly written, though. Still an interesting idea, well written at times.
Update after talking about the book over with P: So, in the end, it's a summer book and not a monument of American's literature. It's about a man's drive for money to regain a woman's love, and his tragic end in solitude. But for real: it's about a boy who falls in love with a rich woman and then becomes completely obssessed with her, to the point of becoming a criminal to be part of the upper society, but mostly, he is a creep who buys a mansion facing Daisy's house, who throws parties in hope of her showing up, and who never dare sending her a letter or calling her to invite her for tea. Instead, he is a creep and follows her every move. Also, Fitzgerald! Ah, Fitzgerald! He is not a good writer. He knows how to write about the upper class and the parties because he was part of them, but the rest? O.M.G. The mistress and the garageman and the photograph and the thriller and this cheesy murder at the pool are just too much! It's just a summer read, really. And it could have been a short story. It drags on and on and on. Gatsby is a creep and Fitzgerald doesn't know how to write about things he never lives for himself. Also, Daisy never loved him and I'm not surprised she was so creeped out and shaken when she learned who Gatsby really was.
TL;DR: I just finished the book. To me, The Great Gatsby is about the story of a man who methodically built a successful life to be able to marry the woman he once loved. It's also the story of what jealousy can do and how far people can go to protect their family and their name. Finally, it's about the solitude of a man who was always surrounded, but never loved.
To go into the nitty-gritty, it's about a creep who got obsessed about a woman, followed her every move, bought a house facing her house, threw parties in hope of her showing up, and who never got the courage to call her or send her a letter, even if they knew each other before. It's about a criminal who got wealthy by selling alcohol illegally and making fake stocks. It's about a man who clinged to a false dream all his life and died alone.
The thing is, Fitzgerald is fairly good at writing about what he experienced, namely the life of the upper society, but is terrible at writing about anything else. The mistress, the garage man, the hit-and-run accident, and the murder in the pool were all SO cheesy and badly written and just fell like a cheap thriller novel. His pacing is also quite awful. I understand some people could be fascinated by Gatsby, but I don't understand why it is considered a masterpiece. There are many books about this topic and this era that are better constructed and written. Well, now at least I know what this book is about.
Read and reviewed: Jul 12, 2021
I just finished
Part 1: Bradbury's writing style is not that good, and he is only saved by his original ideas. Oh, I miss Le Guin or Orwell's writing quality! The first half was quite contrived and the society that he portrays seems too flat and lifeless, like it's an idea of a world but not a world that humans would design and live in. I like Clarisse a lot, for her intelligence and the way she looks at the world from a different perspective. It's sad that she died, if she did die. She represents a way for Montag to come to realize the life he has been living. Now, they are reading books, and I wonder where it will go. Also, it makes no sense that because they covered the houses with a piece of fireproof plastic, there is no more need for firefighters!
Part 2: this book is weirdly elitist and feels fake. Montag just realized what friendship is by reading a book about friendship?!? Like, no! You don't need to read a book to understand friendship. And they removed the front porch so that people no longer talk or sit in silence. Ha ha ha that's ludicrous. And a lot of people don't read books and will never read a book in their entire lifetime and they still have intense, complex and meaningful conversations with others. This book rubs me the wrong way, but I'm going to keep reading...
I just read the part where we learn that the last liberal arts college shut down years ago. That doesn't make any sense. Humans LOVE stories. And in that world that Bradbury imagines, TV is everything, which means we need actors and designers and sound engineers and all kinds of artists. That really makes no sense facepalm
What I meant by fake in that case is that the dystopian world that Bradbury imagines doesn't rely on the way humans behave, that it doesn't feel probable. It feels too far stretched out, to the point of being ridiculous. People still remember the moments they once cherished, even if they watch ads and are on the phone all day long with their family while watching tv. Why would those have to exclude each other?
So, the decision to burn books didn't come from the government, but there are no more Bible or religious books to be found? That's just absurd. Religion is so important to people, that would never happen, unless a totalitarian government imposes it. In which world, Bradbury?
“Number one, quality of information. Number two: leisure to digest it. Number three: the right to carry out actions based on what we learn from the interaction of the first two.”
Part 3 and ending: I had to force myself to read the last part. I was no longer interested in the story and the chase didn't feel realistic. I liked the idea that they kept the books in their heads, but at the same time, they seemed isolated enough to be able to keep some writing with them. I wonder if they ever write. It was never mentioned, but are people allowed to keep diaries, or lists, or anything written?
Overall, I'm glad that I finished the book, as it's a classic and I wanted to know why. I really liked Clarisse, and I understand why she couldn't stay in the story. Mostly, I didn't like Bradbury's writing skill, and I thought the story was just okay. It could have been a short story instead.
Read and reviewed: Jul 10, 2021
A few days ago, I went to the Friends of the Aliso Viejo Library, looking for new books to get for free. It was their grand new reopening, and many people were already in. As you can imagine, the free book section was quite barren this time, as the morning crowd came before me. So, I explored the other aisles. And came to the Classics, which I'd never seen before. What a treat, what a splendor. Niched in a corner, there they were, two tiny rows of classics, from Dickens to Shakeaspeare. I looked for a few books, and set my mind on A Tale of Two Cities, Frankenstein and Of Mice and Men. So here I am, rediscovering the pleasure of reading a paperback novel. I just finished it an hour ago. It's interesting that I read Flowers for Algernon just a few days prior, as I can see so many similarities. Here, it is the story of two migrant workers in California in the 1930's, going from ranch to ranch to find some work, dreaming of a farm to settle down someday. It's a powerful story of friendship and loss, of aspirations and faded dreams, and of what it means to want the best for someone. This was my first Steinbeck and I am looking forward to reading another one, probably East of Eden.
“and I knew I was not a woman but a series of movements, not a life, but a shake.”
I know I created a very detailed reading planner for the month of July. And I'm supposed to be reading 15 books this month. But then, Reddit sent me a recommendation for books about feeling good about being on your own, and I had to open it up. And I found this book. And instead of reading The Great Gatsby or Fahrenheit 451, I opened this one. And somehow, it reminds me of Proust. These long sentences when she is in her head and at the end comes back to the source of her first thought. I highlighted quite a few sentences already. There is something in her writing that rings so true, so close to me. Also, it's about a woman, Elyria, who decides to leave New York and her husband and move to New Zealand, without telling him first. And it's supposed to be a little bit like the antagonist to Eat, Pray, Love, like her depression is going to get worse, things are going to get harder, and I don't know, I'll see.
Update: I am writing this update a few days after finishing this book. Somehow, it was the perfect book at this time of my life. Upon finishing it, I decided I was responsible for my own happiness and started working on my coding assessment, to jump start my career. And I worked tirelessly for the next 3 days. Now, it is Saturday and the project has been submitted. I read Of Mice and Men in the meantime. But I wanted to come back to this review to give my final thoughts on it, my rating, and copy all the quotes that I highlighted from this book. It was a sad story. But the way her mind works feels so much like my mind. It was somehow captivating. It felt like reading Proust, with those long and intricate sentences where, at the end, they finally come back to the core of the idea. I don't know how to explain this book. Going to New Zealand and coming back home worst than you were before. Worst is subjective, but worst it is in this case. It's about the impossibility of let go of the mourning of her dead sister, it's about the husband who strangles her in his sleep, regularly, it's about the feeling of being off from your own life, it's about the incapacity to understand your own feelings, only when they materialize themselves in the tone of your voice, it's about wandering and never being lost with yourself, but being lost at the same time. I don't know. I guess it's about what I don't want to happen. This lente deterioration, this descente into the darkness of one's own mind, and the incapacity to truly connect and express oneself anymore.
◆ Chapter 11
▪ As the years went on I sometimes could have sworn that the existence of my husband and the whole complicated mess of him in my life was everything that was wrong with being alive and if I only extracted myself from him everything might go back to making sense the way it had when we had been new to each other
▪ redemption—because that's the thing: people can't really redeem people and I don't know what redeems people, what keeps people good, what keeps people in the sense-making part of being a human instead of the senseless, the unwell, the wildebeests that everyone has
▪ Isn't everyone on the planet or at least everyone on the planet called me stuck between the two impulses of wanting to walk away like it never happened and wanting to be a good person in love, loving, being loved, making sense, just fine?
▪ because to be people is to be breakable, to know that your breaking is coming
▪ and to love someone is to know that one day you'll have to watch them break unless you do first and to love someone means you will certainly lose that love to something slow like boredom or festering hate or something fast like a car wreck or a freak accident or flesh-eating bacteria
▪ and I thought about what I was thinking about and I worried that I was slipping away from making sense, but I gripped hard on that sense and said, Oh, nothing, just how I love you, and I twisted my toes under the sheets and told myself to be a woman who lives normally, being loved and loving—and I could be her—couldn't I? Couldn't I?
◆ Chapter 13
▪ As I fell asleep that night on a floor it didn't matter what I feared or imagined my husband knowing or saying he knew because there was so much in me that he could never know and he would never know enough about me, and I wasn't really certain of that, but See if I care, I whispered, to nobody, to my husband, to my own self, see if my self cares, self, see if it cares.
◆ Chapter 14
▪ I was being pushed by currents, by unseen things, memories and imaginations and fears swirled together—this was one of those things you figure out years later
▪ I did leave, and it seems the wildebeest was what was wrong with me, but I wasn't entirely sure of what was wrong with the wildebeest
◆ Chapter 15
▪ I went outside after my beer and looked down into the ocean and saw a stingray flapping in the water, a jagged C torn into his body and ribbons of blood running out, same color as mine, as anything's, and I knew that stingray had been chewed by something because that is all the ocean is—a big hole full of things chewing each other—and it's odd that people go to the beach and stare at the waving water and feel relaxed because what they are looking at is just the blue curtain over a wild violence, lives eating lives, the unstoppable chew, and I wondered if any of those vacationing people feel all the blood rushing under the surface, and I wondered if the fleshy, dying underside of the ocean is what they're really after as they stare—that ferocious pulse under all things placid
◆ Chapter 18
▪ and I think that's the thing about fiction, that you live in it totally for a little while but you must forget it, sometimes totally forget it, in order to go about the rest of your life
◆ Chapter 21
▪ branches—no, time is a thing that is always almost a thing that is never here and never gone and never yours and never anyone's and we're all trying to get a hand clutched tight around time and no one ever will, so can't we call a truce, now, Time? I am not asking, I am just saying—I'm calling a truce with time. Truce
▪ because I'd be fine if I could keep staying here, still and goal-less and husbandless and pastless and peopleless, because when I was here I was both here and not here—I was a person made of things that were fine, no wildebeests, just tomato plants and pumpkin vines and mulch made of seaweed and dirt, a pure piece of earth
▪ and all I could think was how there would be more weeds tomorrow and wouldn't it be easier for the world if everything just stayed still, just stopped growing altogether? Maybe it would, but we won't do that, we won't stop, plants don't, people don't, we keep showing up and living and trying to do something and dying and what was it that all these vines and leaves were struggling toward year after century after eternity?
◆ Chapter 26
▪ I wanted to tell Jaye about the inaudible noise but there was no good way to explain it without shedding too much light on the inaudible noise, overexposing it, bleaching it white and lifeless
▪ that I needed to get it together, to get a life together, to get myself together, to get myself. I hadn't gotten myself in a while and I maybe wasn't going to get myself, it seemed, because my self had been, somehow, ungotten or forgotten or not getting it, whatever it was, or is, or had been, or would be that I didn't get
◆ Chapter 29
▪ I'm not a person who needs people, but I am the kind of person who needs to be near people who don't need me
◆ Chapter 30
▪ shift—when love or kindness or inaudible noises turn into boredom or disappointment or minor chords
◆ Chapter 31
▪ babies, those pre-people people and all their warm, slimy wanting and their embarrassingly exaggerated needs, their screaming red-faced hunger and their bloody-murder nap-needing, and how those needs are just the same as ours, only magnified and reflected back at us
▪ I am asking you, I know, to suffer, to stand very still and feel as little as possible
◆ Chapter 32
▪ You can choose how you feel or you can let your feelings choose you
▪ I would never, no matter what I did, be missing to myself
▪ There was just something real in my head—a rescue boat in a sea where there was no one left to save
◆ Chapter 33
▪ I walked toward the ocean, my brain somehow calm and empty, sick of itself, taking a sick day
◆ Chapter 35
▪ Everyone wants to be needed so badly that if we were to withhold ourselves from that person who needs us so, we would leave them so empty of their need they'd become completely irrelevant to the world, unable to go on in a normal, functional, just-fine, forward-moving fashion, and the short of it was this: my husband was a mess, and even though I knew I was also a mess, I also knew he was messier, at least in some ways, and I realized I no longer had any interest in taking responsibility for him, the crumple and grunt of him, my husband, this life I had wedded and welded myself to
▪ I had a general feeling of needing to leave, of needing to be the first to go, of needing to barricade myself from living life the way everyone else seemed to be living it, the way that seemed obvious, intuitive, clear and easy, and easy and clear to everyone who was not me, to everyone who was on the other side of this place called I
▪ Moment, stay
◆ Chapter 37
▪ I didn't want to love anything. I was not a person but just some evidence of myself
◆ Chapter 38
▪ and I wanted to just be on the way somewhere, I wanted to be on the way forever without ever getting there because that was what I really wanted, maybe, to go and go and keep leaving and leave and leave and go and leave and be going and never arrive
◆ Chapter 40
▪ and I can't seem to stop seeing everything quivering all the time
▪ No one is anything more than a slow event
▪ and I knew I was not a woman but a series of movements, not a life, but a shake”
Read and reviewed: Jul 05, 2021
This short story was selected by the Organized Book Club Server. P read it in high school. I just read it. I don't know what to make of it. Tradition. Superstition. The lesser of two evils in order to have a plentiful harvest that year and feed the whole village. A fear of what would happen if the ritual stops. Even if other villages around have already stopped it. But the story: Each year, at a lottery, a member of the community is selected at random to be stoned (probably) to death. And everyone has prepared their stones in advance.
When I saw on Goodreads that Emily May calls this book her favorite romance book ever, I had to give it a try. And well, I've only put it down when I had to, or else I would still be reading it. I am half way through it right now and it's good! Like, very good! Like I am so excited that there are two more books after that 0_0! It's about Stella, a successful, smart, beautiful woman who loves her job as an econometrician, but also happens to have autism. She struggles with relationships and sex, and with most social interactions. One day, she decides to improve her skills and who better than a professional escort to help her? The plot might be cheesy but the book is so good. It's cute, tender, and realistic. The sex scenes are really good. I really love the two characters and their chemistry. I don't know, it's a good book that makes me giggle huhuhu.
Update: So, I just finished the book. I loved it, I loved it, I loved it! And I am so happy that they are both happy and successful at the end :). I knew that this book was part of a series, but I am surprised that it doesn't follow their adventure, but instead, the lives of other members of their families. I guess that makes sense. They have been through enough drama together haha. And now, I just want them to be happy.
It was so gooood! I read it in one sitting and I loved it. I don't even remember how I found it. On the common wall of my friends and followers on Goodreads? Well, I'm glad I did and gave this YA a chance! That's officially the first YA I liked since I was a young adult. It was just so sweet and satisfying. Got all the romance and the drama. The diverse set of characters and the reality checks. And the ending was just right. Not too long, not too short, didn't drag on. I really had a good time reading this book.
About a brown queer teen growing up in London and going to Uni studying English and performing at a drag show.
Read and reviewed: 2021-06-13
Read and reviewed: Jun 07, 2021
This book was selected for the book club. I've wanted to read it for quite some time, but I didn't realize it would be so gripping. I read it in 3 days. Could barely put it down. Spent my full Friday in bed reading it. The book is divided into three parts. Life under Big Brother. The revolution. The Ministry of Love. Great universe creation on the first part. The second part is getting long when all you do is reading the book, and it feels like reading 50 pages in a row of political essays. It is interesting, mind you, but it was still a lot to digest in this form. Not the biggest fan of how women are treated in this part. And then, there is part 3. And wow, that was difficult to read. For the actual torture. I read The Kite Runner and Po-on just before, but I found this part harder to read than anything I read in those last two books. And then, this ending. I am satisfied with it. With the extension of Oceania by winning the war, if it is even true, and the final love for Big Brother, the tear of idolatry and realization.
Now, really, what I think about the book. Really well written. George has this capacity to summarize and explain systems with such clarity. To understand the layers of internalized manipulation and control. The way it modifies behaviors and interpersonal interactions. Identity, pride and sense of belonging. It's frightening, when you no longer know what is real or not, what can really be refuted. The book was written more than 70 years ago, and is so relevant right now. I don't think I would have wanted to read it or study it in high school. But at the same time, I watched A Clockwork Orange, even if very different.
Now for some spoilers. Of course, O'Brien would be on the Brotherhood. Of course it would be a way to trap, target and magnetize dissidents. How brilliant. Now, the question is, is there still another resistance beyond the fake resistance lead by Big Brother? And is Winston really completely empty inside? Playing chess and drinking alcohol at the coffee, not really talking to anyone, besides a few hours at work each week? What is still happening inside? There is still this fight. The fond memories with his mother. Of course, they are immediately delegated to doublethink, to fake memory, but there is this tension, still. Not to her, of course, after such torture. But still. Does everything that constitute him really disappear?
I understand why it is a classic and considered a necessary read. There is sadness. Because this has been real, is and will be, to some degrees, to some people. You know, the world, today. 4.5 stars
A graphic novel about a high school girl, Elle, who has DID Dissociative Identity Disorder. Her alters manifest when she is stressed or angry, or too shocked to process information or emotions. The first tome is good, but the art is better than the writing. I wish they didn't make Linotte such an absent-minded person, who confuses “Saturday and Sandwich”. Let's have all female characters strong for once, especially as she is blond. The cast is quite diverse, but could be even more inclusive and diverse. Like, both the main character and the love interest are white. And people of colors are secondary characters... I will read tome 2. I don't know if I like the images of the alters being trapped and chained, nor the weird feeling of a white explorer when set in different parts of the world. Could have improved on that. The artist is very good at capturing human expressions and body language.
Thank you NetGalley and Le Lombard for providing me with a free digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
Read and reviewed: 2021-04-29
This is the first book chosen for the Discord book club since I took it over. Suggested by Jae or Rezz. I have been listening to it while cross-stitching, cosy under my blanket on the couch. So far, I like it a lot and I am looking forward to discovering the rest of the story. I watched Miyazaki's adaptation years ago and I only remember glances of it, some images here and there, and I like that it colors the way I imagine and remember the story. Very enchanting. Strong characters. Very original setting. 3 daughters. Sent to apprenticeship. Two exchanged places in secrecy, one stuck at the hat's shop working for nothing. Trapped under a spell created by a witch after hurting her ego. Now an old lady, employed at the castle that terrorizes the neighborhood, creating a pact with the Fire Demon Lucifer in order to revert the spell she is trapped under. Interesting, interesting!
Update: I finished it. The audiobook. The -almost- full book. I missed some parts from being distracted, falling asleep or being too tired to really listen. But I finished it. And I loved it a lot. It reminded me of Anne of Green Gables. It has this classic children literature quality. One that creates wonder. One that stays with you long after you finish it. Like, I could imagine it being a comfort book, to just open and read a little bit from, when I would feel like it. Which is not something I really do. But this book has this quality to it. Only a few books have this 5/5 stars. Intemporal.
Update: After reading The Kite Runner, Po-On and 1984, I can't give this book a 5/5 stars. So 4 it is. Like, I fell asleep several times and I completely missed the flying whales. It became too fantastical for me, and too long. So 4 stars, which is still a high rating for me, who doesn't read fantasy books anymore. 6/7/21
Read: 2021-03-10
This book makes me feel all sorts of things. It is a true romance book and I was waiting with anticipation any new moment I could read the book and know more about what would happen next. The last two chapters are the weaker point and would have needed to be re-edited. It is way too repetitive and this Jesse doesn't feel like a real person. I wish the author could have based this character on someone she knows to give him more consistency. Also, it was an interesting choice to bring Henry into her world when she hasn't met him at the hospital. Meaning that they were meant to meet, one way or another, either friends or lover. Same with Ethan in the parallel version, I guess. I liked it better than After I do, but still not as much as The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, which was so well written. I just found on her instagram that her new book Malibu Rising will be out on June 1st! Excited!
Edit: It's available on netgalley and I requested it! I might read it earlier than I thought huhuhu ^^
But to come back to Maybe In Another Life, it is the story of this 29 year old woman who has been living in many cities and decides to come back to her hometown Los Angeles. She stays with her best friend Gabby and meets again her first love Ethan at a bar. In one instance, she stays the night with him, in the other, she goes back home with Gabby. In the first instance, she ends up pregnant with her ex-married-man-boyfriend-in-new-york, gets a job, and a car, and separates with Ethan before going back together. In the other, she got hit by a car, lost her baby, and fell in love with her night nurse, until finally marrying him. And Gabby in both instances get a divorce and goes back with her high school crush. That part I didn't like, but it was just to close the loop and make sure everyone was happy. And there were a lot of cinnamon rolls huhuhu. I liked this part ^^
She is not very good at talking or describing people of colors or queer people, but well, at least she is trying and actually includes a diverse cast in her books.
Read and reviewed: 2021-02-27
Where to start, what to say except that this book is life changing and that upon finishing it, I was ready to start reading it again, as I knew I would grasp new concepts that I didn't fully understand before. Instead, I started reading Conversation with God: Awaken the species, Book 4, as it was published shortly in 2017, shortly after I finished the first 3 volumes. The timing is always right and today was the day. That day was the day.
Read and reviewed: 2020-12-20
Le Journal d'un fou, Le Manteau et autres nouvelles
Le Manteau - 3.5 stars
The story of a bureaucrat happy with his life. Pushed by social norms and bullies, he decides to order a new coat, even if it would mean enduring privations for months. But then, you know it's not going to end well, it's a Russian novella. And the tragedy rolls bigger and deeper, until it becomes pure fantasy. I love the novella all the way until the party. And then I stopped reading, only savoring the quality of the writing. But I knew I had to finish it. And this was when the story went dark. I didn't like this part as much. And the ghost part left me quite indifferent, and I was starting to fall asleep.
Remarkably read in French by René Depasse.
Read and reviewed: 2020-11-20
The first poem Piedra del Sol is magnificent, then we have short poems that are quite boring. The middle of the book is all about orientalism after a trip to India, and the poems are not good. After his letter to Leon, the quality rises again, as he comes back to the sun, elements, transparency and the original. His last poem, Blanco, is great. Throughout the whole collection, the themes that are coming back are sun, transparency, women, ideé fixe, duality, eyes, bodies, sex, death.
Read and reviewed: 2020-10-31
It was an interesting recollection of the author's life as an Asperger person. The childhood part was very interesting, but I found the parenting part quite long and boring.
Update: Omg I have such a bad memory sometimes! I read this book for the popsugar 2021 challenge for the ‘ugliest cover prompt' and I just reread it. At one point, I could recall the incident with the girls asking her to drive them to the mall, and the creepy guy at the university, and the red-dye hair, but it took me so long to remember that I had already read this book. And not even a year ago!
The story intrigued me from the beginning and I like how it's written. The back and forth between Alicia's diary and the narrator's voice is quite smooth. I know that at this point, Alicia still doesn't talk, so the diary is a way for us to know her past, but I feel like sometimes her writing doesn't feel natural. More like a way for the writer to give us, readers, information. Especially in part 2, it's quite constructed.
I feel like so far, the characters are quite complex and they all have a solid, deep and complex background. I hope that the writer is going to keep exploring their backgrounds and make them even more complex.
Also, I didn't realize that the book would be so focused on psychotherapy, but I like it. To me, it's not at all a horror book. But I might be speaking too soon...
Update: I finished the book. To start with, it's not a horror book but a pure thriller, and reads like a detective novel. I got hooked and pretty much read the book in one day. The ending twist left me so surprised, I didn't see it coming! I feel like after Alicia's confession of her version of the murder, the writing dropped a little, but I was still shocked by the reveal. It's like I need to reevaluate all that I read before! I really liked the ending scene, and I found it very poetic -him letting a snowflake melt in his hand, then another one. One for Kathy, one for Alicia.
Read and reviewed: 2020-10-10
Oh my god this book was so badly written that I abandoned it after chapter 1. According to other reviewers, it was a gross book full of stains, pee, fluids, and super triggering as well, so I'm glad I didn't go further.
That was my original comment for the book club: So far I feel like the writing is not that great, and that the dialogues are the weakness of the writer, but I'm still intrigued to see where the plot might lead us. I didn't like the part “not to mention a rather romantic outlook on kissing people in their sleep.” They were strangers to each other, right? So kissed without consent is romantic? So far, it feels like a classic bad and mysterious character VS a more polite and listening character. I need more complexity but we'll see : ).
Read and reviewed: 2020-09-09