é's bookshelf: all en-US Tue, 22 Apr 2025 15:54:53 -0700 60 é's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Requiem for a Dream 46945
Entranced by the gleaming visions of their futures, these four convince themselves that unexpected setbacks are only temporary. Even as their lives slowly deteriorate around them, they cling to their delusions and become utterly consumed in a spiral of drugs and addiction, refusing to see that they have instead created their own worst nightmares.

"Selby's place is in the front rank of American novelists . . . To understand Selby's work is to understand the anguish of America." —The New York Times Book Review]]> 279 Hubert Selby Jr. 1560252480 é 0 currently-reading 4.11 1978 Requiem for a Dream
author: Hubert Selby Jr.
name: é
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1978
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/22
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> And Then There Were None 16299
"Ten little boys went out to dine; One choked his little self and then there were nine. Nine little boys sat up very late; One overslept himself and then there were eight. Eight little boys traveling in Devon; One said he'd stay there then there were seven. Seven little boys chopping up sticks; One chopped himself in half and then there were six. Six little boys playing with a hive; A bumblebee stung one and then there were five. Five little boys going in for law; One got in Chancery and then there were four. Four little boys going out to sea; A red herring swallowed one and then there were three. Three little boys walking in the zoo; A big bear hugged one and then there were two. Two little boys sitting in the sun; One got frizzled up and then there was one. One little boy left all alone; He went out and hanged himself and then there were none."

When they realize that murders are occurring as described in the rhyme, terror mounts. One by one they fall prey. Before the weekend is out, there will be none. Who has choreographed this dastardly scheme? And who will be left to tell the tale? Only the dead are above suspicion.]]> 264 Agatha Christie 0312330871 é 3 4.28 1939 And Then There Were None
author: Agatha Christie
name: é
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1939
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/20
date added: 2025/04/20
shelves:
review:
It's iconic - but it didn't really wow me...
]]> <![CDATA[The Godfather (The Godfather, #1)]]> 22034
Almost fifty years ago, a classic was born. A searing portrayal of the Mafia underworld, The Godfather introduced readers to the first family of American crime fiction, the Corleones, and their powerful legacy of tradition, blood, and honor. The seduction of power, the pitfalls of greed, and the allegiance to family—these are the themes that have resonated with millions of readers around the world and made The Godfather the definitive novel of the violent subculture that, steeped in intrigue and controversy, remains indelibly etched in our collective consciousness.]]> 448 Mario Puzo é 3 4.39 1969 The Godfather (The Godfather, #1)
author: Mario Puzo
name: é
average rating: 4.39
book published: 1969
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/11
date added: 2025/04/13
shelves:
review:
Good - but it's just what the movie was.
]]> The Waves 46114 The Waves introduces six characters—three men and three women—who are grappling with the death of a beloved friend, Percival. Instead of describing their outward expressions of grief, Virginia Woolf draws her characters from the inside, revealing them through their thoughts and interior soliloquies. As their understanding of nature’s trials grows, the chorus of narrative voices blends together in miraculous harmony, remarking not only on the inevitable death of individuals but on the eternal connection of everyone. The novel that most epitomizes Virginia Woolf’s theories of fiction in the working form, The Waves is an amazing book very much ahead of its time. It is a poetic dreamscape, visual, experimental, and thrilling.]]> 297 Virginia Woolf 0156949601 é 4 favorites 4.17 1931 The Waves
author: Virginia Woolf
name: é
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1931
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/04
date added: 2025/04/13
shelves: favorites
review:
I love you Virginia. I have no idea what's going on most of the time - but I know it's good.
]]> <![CDATA[The Story of the Lost Child (Neapolitan Novels, #4)]]> 25242224 The Guardian about the Neapolitan novels in 2014. Against the backdrop of a Naples that is as seductive as it is perilous and a world undergoing epochal change, Elena Ferrante tells the story of a lifelong friendship between two women with unmatched honesty and brilliance.

The Story of the Lost Child is the concluding volume in the dazzling saga of two women � the brilliant, bookish Elena, and the fiery, uncontainable Lila. Both are now adults, with husbands, lovers, aging parents, and children. Their friendship has been the gravitational center of their lives. Both women fought to escape the neighborhood in which they grew up � a prison of conformity, violence, and inviolable taboos. Elena married, moved to Florence, started a family, and published several well-received books. In this final novel she has returned to Naples, drawn back as if responding to the city's obscure magnetism. Lila, on the other hand, could never free herself from the city of her birth. She has become a successful entrepreneur, but her success draws her into closer proximity with the nepotism, chauvinism, and criminal violence that infect the neighborhood. Proximity to the world she has always rejected only brings her role as its unacknowledged leader into relief. For Lila is unstoppable, unmanageable, unforgettable.

The four volumes in this series constitute a long remarkable story that readers will return to again and again, and each return will bring with it new revelations.]]> 473 Elena Ferrante 1609452860 é 4 favorites
I just. Am speechless. I don't think I can write a coherent review for these books. Actually insane. The story of two women in Naples. That's all it is - but it has bewitched me and made me want to tear my hair out. Superb writing with a gorgeous authorial control and voice. This has seriously been such a great reading experience - and I am sad to never be able to read this for the first time again.]]> 4.47 2014 The Story of the Lost Child (Neapolitan Novels, #4)
author: Elena Ferrante
name: é
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/28
date added: 2025/03/28
shelves: favorites
review:
Extreme crash out rn.

I just. Am speechless. I don't think I can write a coherent review for these books. Actually insane. The story of two women in Naples. That's all it is - but it has bewitched me and made me want to tear my hair out. Superb writing with a gorgeous authorial control and voice. This has seriously been such a great reading experience - and I am sad to never be able to read this for the first time again.
]]> The Seed 3778151 82 Kate Mulvany 0868198269 é 3 3.78 2008 The Seed
author: Kate Mulvany
name: é
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/23
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves:
review:
Pretty good - would be great to see performed live
]]> The Signal-Man 22700038 28 Charles Dickens é 4 3.64 1866 The Signal-Man
author: Charles Dickens
name: é
average rating: 3.64
book published: 1866
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/16
date added: 2025/03/16
shelves:
review:

]]> The Metamorphosis 485894 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 0553213695 / 9780553213690

"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. He was laying on his hard, as it were armor-plated, back and when he lifted his head a little he could see his domelike brown belly divided into stiff arched segments on top of which the bed quilt could hardly keep in position and was about to slide off completely. His numerous legs, which were pitifully thin compared to the rest of his bulk, waved helplessly before his eyes."

With it's startling, bizarre, yet surprisingly funny first opening, Kafka begins his masterpiece, The Metamorphosis. It is the story of a young man who, transformed overnight into a giant beetle-like insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man. A harrowing—though absurdly comic—meditation on human feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and isolation, The Metamorphosis has taken its place as one of the most widely read and influential works of twentieth-century fiction. As W.H. Auden wrote, "Kafka is important to us because his predicament is the predicament of modern man."]]> 201 Franz Kafka 0553213695 é 3 Ok Kafka 3.90 1915 The Metamorphosis
author: Franz Kafka
name: é
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1915
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/14
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves:
review:
Ok Kafka
]]> The Haunting of Hill House 89717 182 Shirley Jackson 0143039989 é 4 favorites
Hello why has nobody forced me to read this before now...

Loved this! It has everything I love from the genre - the haunted house, the female relationship, the gothic tension - such a rich book dripping with imagery and symbolism. Ms Jackson is a genius - and a superb writer.

I think my fav part was the ending though, it gave me chills right up my spine. And those final lines are perfect - echoing in my head even now, like Hil House is calling.

I'm a fan.]]> 3.85 1959 The Haunting of Hill House
author: Shirley Jackson
name: é
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1959
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/09
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: favorites
review:
(4.5)

Hello why has nobody forced me to read this before now...

Loved this! It has everything I love from the genre - the haunted house, the female relationship, the gothic tension - such a rich book dripping with imagery and symbolism. Ms Jackson is a genius - and a superb writer.

I think my fav part was the ending though, it gave me chills right up my spine. And those final lines are perfect - echoing in my head even now, like Hil House is calling.

I'm a fan.
]]> Northanger Abbey 50398 Northanger Abbey is often referred to as Jane Austen's "Gothic parody." Decrepit castles, locked rooms, mysterious chests, cryptic notes, and tyrannical fathers give the story an uncanny air, but one with a decidedly satirical twist.

The story's unlikely heroine is Catherine Morland, a remarkably innocent seventeen-year-old woman from a country parsonage. While spending a few weeks in Bath with a family friend, Catherine meets and falls in love with Henry Tilney, who invites her to visit his family estate, Northanger Abbey. Once there, Catherine, a great reader of Gothic thrillers, lets the shadowy atmosphere of the old mansion fill her mind with terrible suspicions. What is the mystery surrounding the death of Henry's mother? Is the family concealing a terrible secret within the elegant rooms of the Abbey? Can she trust Henry, or is he part of an evil conspiracy? Catherine finds dreadful portents in the most prosaic events, until Henry persuades her to see the peril in confusing life with art.

Executed with high-spirited gusto, Northanger Abbey is a lighthearted, yet unsentimental commentary on love and marriage.]]> 260 Jane Austen 1593082649 é 3 3.85 1817 Northanger Abbey
author: Jane Austen
name: é
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1817
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/26
date added: 2025/02/26
shelves:
review:
Not the most interesting - but I have yet to study it so my opinion may well change...
]]> <![CDATA[Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay (Neapolitan Novels, #3)]]> 23156040 418 Elena Ferrante é 4 4.38 2013 Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay (Neapolitan Novels, #3)
author: Elena Ferrante
name: é
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/05
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves:
review:
Ugh. This series is going to break my heart. Also can Nino be publicly executed please and thank you.
]]> <![CDATA[The Story of a New Name (Neapolitan Novels, #2)]]> 17465515 My Brilliant Friend introduced readers to the unforgettable Elena and Lila, whose lifelong friendship provides the backbone for the Neapolitan Novels. The Story of a New Name is the second book in this series. With these books, which the New Yorker's James Wood described as "large, captivating, amiably peopled ... a beautiful and delicate tale of confluence and reversal," Ferrante proves herself to be one of Italy's most accomplished storytellers. She writes vividly about a specific neighborhood of Naples from the late-1950s through to the current day and about two remarkable young women who are very much the products of that place and time. Yet in doing so she has created a world in which readers will recognize themselves and has drawn a marvelously nuanced portrait of friendship.

In The Story of a New Name, Lila has recently married and made her entrée into the family business; Elena, meanwhile, continues her studies and her exploration of the world beyond the neighborhood that she so often finds stifling. Love, jealousy, family, freedom, commitment, and above all friendship: these are signs under which both women live out this phase in their stories. Marriage appears to have imprisoned Lila, and the pressure to excel is at times too much for Elena. Yet the two young women share a complex and evolving bond that is central to their emotional lives and is a source of strength in the face of life's challenges. In these Neapolitan Novels, Elena Ferrante, the acclaimed author of The Days of Abandonment, gives readers a poignant and universal story about friendship and belonging.]]> 471 Elena Ferrante é 4
I LOVED THIS!!

Even more than the first one! The characters, and the voice, and the flow, and the tenderness and truth are sooo gorgeous. I have completely reworked my book reading order and will be moving straight away into the next one :)]]> 4.47 2012 The Story of a New Name (Neapolitan Novels, #2)
author: Elena Ferrante
name: é
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/31
date added: 2025/01/31
shelves:
review:
4.5

I LOVED THIS!!

Even more than the first one! The characters, and the voice, and the flow, and the tenderness and truth are sooo gorgeous. I have completely reworked my book reading order and will be moving straight away into the next one :)
]]> Death in the Afternoon 4648 Death in the Afternoon is an impassioned look at the sport by one of its true aficionados. It reflects Hemingway's conviction that bullfighting was more than mere sport and reveals a rich source of inspiration for his art. The unrivaled drama of bullfighting, with its rigorous combination of athleticism and artistry, and its requisite display of grace under pressure, ignited Hemingway's imagination. Here he describes and explains the technical aspects of this dangerous ritual and "the emotional and spiritual intensity and pure classic beauty that can be produced by a man, an animal, and a piece of scarlet serge draped on a stick." Seen through his eyes, bullfighting becomes a richly choreographed ballet, with performers who range from awkward amateurs to masters of great elegance and cunning.

A fascinating look at the history and grandeur of bullfighting, Death in the Afternoon is also a deeper contemplation of the nature of cowardice and bravery, sport and tragedy, and is enlivened throughout by Hemingway's sharp commentary on life and literature.]]> 496 Ernest Hemingway é 3
The final pages were great, but that doesn’t fully save the book for me. I just don’t know enough about bullfighting to be invested in this sorry bae... Like I love his passion, but I do not speak this language.]]> 3.71 1932 Death in the Afternoon
author: Ernest Hemingway
name: é
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1932
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/25
date added: 2025/01/25
shelves:
review:
2.5

The final pages were great, but that doesn’t fully save the book for me. I just don’t know enough about bullfighting to be invested in this sorry bae... Like I love his passion, but I do not speak this language.
]]> <![CDATA[Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream]]> 7745 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is the best chronicle of drug-soaked, addle-brained, rollicking good times ever committed to the printed page. It is also the tale of a long weekend road trip that has gone down in the annals of American pop culture as one of the strangest journeys ever undertaken.]]> 204 Hunter S. Thompson 0679785892 é 0 to-read 4.08 1971 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream
author: Hunter S. Thompson
name: é
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1971
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Holy Bible: King James Version]]> 1923820 Kršćani Bibliju proučavaju kao svoju normativnu, za život smjerodavnu knjigu u kojoj oni nalaze poruku - riječ Božju. No, Biblija je uz to i spomenik historije čovječanstva, jedna od najstarijih knjiga, u kojoj je genij Hebreja na svoj način asimilirao i dalje obogatio razmišljanje i mudrost drevne Mezopotamije i Egipta, da je onda, obogaćenu grčkim genijem, po Novom zavjetu i daljnjem kršćanskom razmišljanju unese u tadašnji grčko-rimski svijet. Po postanku i jeziku, po sadržaju i stilu, po slikovitosti i metaforici, Biblija nije jedna knjiga, nego zbir knjiga koje su nastajale u razdoblju od 13. st. pr. Kr do 2. st. po Kr.
Biblija je za kršćane sveta, inspirirana i kanonska knjiga. Za svakog čovjeka Biblija je istovremeno zbirka povijesnih isprava i književno djelo izvorne i neprolazne umjetničke snage. Ona pripada zajedničkoj kulturi čovječanstva.
Stari zavjet u Bibliji Stvarnosti plod je mnogostruko udruženog rada hrvatskih bibličara i književnika. Kao polazišni tekst izabran je prijevod Antuna Sovića, s tim da je Petoknjižje preveo Silvije Grubišić, Psalme Filibert Gass, a Pjesmu nad pjesmama Nikola Miličević. Novi zavjet preveo je Ljudevit Rupčić.]]> 1590 Anonymous é 0 to-read 4.44 1611 The Holy Bible: King James Version
author: Anonymous
name: é
average rating: 4.44
book published: 1611
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/23
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Second Sex 457264 746 Simone de Beauvoir 0679724516 é 0 currently-reading 4.16 1949 The Second Sex
author: Simone de Beauvoir
name: é
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1949
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/23
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Letters to Milena 88340 Letters to Milena, which begin essentially as a business correspondence but soon develop into a passionate "letter love." Milena Jesenská was a gifted and charismatic woman of twenty-three. Kafka's Czech translator, she was uniquely able to recognize his complex genius and his even more complex character. For the thirty-six-year-old Kafka, she was "a living fire, such as I have never seen." It was to her that he revealed his most intimate self. It was to her that, after the end of the affair, he entrusted the safekeeping of his diaries.

Newly translated, revised, and expanded, this edition contains material previously omitted because of its extreme sensitivity. Also included for the first time are letters and essays by Milena Jesenská, herself a talented writer as well as the recipient of these documents of Kafka's love, anxiety, and despair.]]> 298 Franz Kafka 0805208852 é 3
Gosh he is so me.]]> 4.10 1952 Letters to Milena
author: Franz Kafka
name: é
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1952
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/23
date added: 2025/01/23
shelves:
review:
KAFKA?! You are the knife I turn inside myself???!!! This is love!:82)&/&/@??!

Gosh he is so me.
]]> <![CDATA[Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar]]> 40605640 Author and historian Tom Holland returns to his roots in Roman history and the audience he cultivated with Rubicon—his masterful, witty, brilliantly researched popular history of the fall of the Roman republic—with Dynasty, a luridly fascinating history of the reign of the first five Roman emperors.

Dynasty continues Rubicon's story, opening where that book ended: with the murder of Julius Caesar. This is the period of the first and perhaps greatest Roman Emperors and it's a colorful story of rule and ruination, running from the rise of Augustus through to the death of Nero. Holland's expansive history also has distinct shades of I Claudius, with five wonderfully vivid (and in three cases, thoroughly depraved) Emperors—Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero—featured, along with numerous fascinating secondary characters. Intrigue, murder, naked ambition and treachery, greed, gluttony, lust, incest, pageantry, decadence—the tale of these five Caesars continues to cast a mesmerizing spell across the millennia.]]> 496 Tom Holland 0385537905 é 3
I'm so interested in this era of history - can we please bring back Rome]]> 4.19 2015 Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar
author: Tom Holland
name: é
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/23
date added: 2025/01/22
shelves:
review:
3.5

I'm so interested in this era of history - can we please bring back Rome
]]> In Our Time 4652
"In Our Time" provides key insights into Hemingway's later works.]]> 156 Ernest Hemingway é 0 to-read 3.74 1924 In Our Time
author: Ernest Hemingway
name: é
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1924
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/21
shelves: to-read
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]]> To Have and Have Not 4630 To Have and Have Not is the dramatic story of Harry Morgan, an honest man who is forced into running contraband between Cuba and Key West as a means of keeping his crumbling family financially afloat. His adventures lead him into the world of the wealthy and dissipated yachtsmen who throng the region, and involve him in a strange and unlikely love affair.
Harshly realistic, yet with one of the most subtle and moving relationships in the Hemingway oeuvre, To Have and Have Not is literary high adventure at its finest.]]> 176 Ernest Hemingway é 0 to-read 3.55 1937 To Have and Have Not
author: Ernest Hemingway
name: é
average rating: 3.55
book published: 1937
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories (Scribner Classics)]]> 4645 The ideal introduction to the genius of Ernest Hemingway, The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories contains ten of Hemingway's most acclaimed and popular works of short fiction. Selected from Winner Take Nothing, Men Without Women, and The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories, this collection includes "The Killers," the first of Hemingway's mature stories to be accepted by an American periodical; the autobiographical "Fathers and Sons," which alludes, for the first time in Hemingway's career, to his father's suicide; "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber," a "brilliant fusion of personal observation, hearsay and invention," wrote Hemingway's biographer, Carlos Baker; and the title story itself, of which Hemingway said: "I put all the true stuff in," with enough material, he boasted, to fill four novels. Beautiful in their simplicity, startling in their originality, and unsurpassed in their craftsmanship, the stories in this volume highlight one of America's master storytellers at the top of his form.

]]> 144 Ernest Hemingway 0684862212 é 0 to-read 3.90 1936 The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories (Scribner Classics)
author: Ernest Hemingway
name: é
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1936
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Bee Sting 62039166 From the author of Skippy Dies comes Paul Murray's The Bee Sting, an irresistibly funny, wise, and thought-provoking tour de force about family, fortune, and the struggle to be a good person when the world is falling apart.

The Barnes family is in trouble. Dickie’s once-lucrative car business is going under―but rather than face the music, he’s spending his days in the woods, building an apocalypse-proof bunker with a renegade handyman. His wife Imelda is selling off her jewelry on eBay, while their teenage daughter Cass, formerly top of her class, seems determined to binge-drink her way through her final exams. And twelve-year-old PJ is putting the final touches to his grand plan to run away from home.

Where did it all go wrong? A patch of ice on the tarmac, a casual favor to a charming stranger, a bee caught beneath a bridal veil―can a single moment of bad luck change the direction of a life? And if the story has already been written―is there still time to find a happy ending?]]> 645 Paul Murray 0374600309 é 4 favorites
Families are so messy and complicated and this book was just a great testament to that. Dark and twisted and funny and terribly tragic - I was impressed by how Murray was able to create four complex individuals and interweave all the plots and timelines so flawlessly. I would've liked a little more from the ending but that final page made me tear up.

Love. Love has always been the answer ugh.]]> 3.92 2023 The Bee Sting
author: Paul Murray
name: é
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/22
date added: 2025/01/21
shelves: favorites
review:
Loved this.

Families are so messy and complicated and this book was just a great testament to that. Dark and twisted and funny and terribly tragic - I was impressed by how Murray was able to create four complex individuals and interweave all the plots and timelines so flawlessly. I would've liked a little more from the ending but that final page made me tear up.

Love. Love has always been the answer ugh.
]]> Tamarisk Row 5131898 [Back-cover blurb]]]> 188 Gerald Murnane 0207160236 é 0 to-read 4.07 1974 Tamarisk Row
author: Gerald Murnane
name: é
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1974
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Border Districts 35259552 A bittersweet farewell to the world and the word by the Australian master

"The mind is a place best viewed from borderlands . . ."

Border Districts, purportedly the Australian master Gerald Murnane's final work of fiction, is a hypnotic, precise, and self-lacerating "report" on a life led as an avid reader, fumbling lover, "student of mental imagery," and devout believer--but a believer not in the commonplaces of religion, but rather in the luminescence of memory and its handmaiden, literature.

In Border Districts, a man moves from a capital city to a remote town in the border country, where he intends to spend the last years of his life. It is time, he thinks, to review the spoils of a lifetime of seeing, a lifetime of reading. Which sights, which people, which books, fictional characters, turns of phrase, and lines of verse will survive into the twilight? A dark-haired woman with a wistful expression? An ancestral house in the grasslands? The colors in translucent panes of glass, in marbles and goldfish and racing silks? Feeling an increasing urgency to put his mental landscape in order, the man sets to work cataloging this treasure, little knowing where his "report" will lead and what secrets will be brought to light.

Border Districts is a jewel of a farewell from one of the greatest living writers of English prose.]]> 132 Gerald Murnane 0374115753 é 0 to-read 3.62 2017 Border Districts
author: Gerald Murnane
name: é
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Plains 1593668
Twenty years later, he begins to tell his haunting story of life on the plains. As his story unfolds, the novel becomes, in the words of Murray Bail, 'a mirage of landscape, memory, love and literature itself'.]]> 111 Gerald Murnane 1930974280 é 0 to-read 3.78 1982 The Plains
author: Gerald Murnane
name: é
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1982
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Scarlet Letter 12296 279 Nathaniel Hawthorne 0142437263 é 2 3.43 1850 The Scarlet Letter
author: Nathaniel Hawthorne
name: é
average rating: 3.43
book published: 1850
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/13
date added: 2025/01/13
shelves:
review:
I mean, the story is iconic - but this is not really an enjoyable read (in my humble opinion)
]]> Boy Swallows Universe 37558445
Brisbane, 1983: A lost father, a mute brother, a mum in jail, a heroin dealer for a stepfather and a notorious crime for a babysitter. It's not as if Eli's life isn't complicated enough already. He's just trying to follow his heart, learning what it takes to be a good man, but life just keeps throwing obstacles in the way - not least of which is Tytus Broz, legendary Brisbane drug dealer.

But if Eli's life is about to get a whole lot more serious. He's about to fall in love. And, oh yeah, he has to break into Boggo Road Gaol on Christmas Day, to save his mum.

A story of brotherhood, true love and the most unlikely of friendships, Boy Swallows Universe will be the most heartbreaking, joyous and exhilarating novel you will read all year.]]> 474 Trent Dalton 1460753895 é 3
I love love love the universes Dalton can create in his books. The characters, the imagery, the DETAILS - just sublime.

Didn’t like this book as much as Lola in the mirror though…]]> 4.31 2018 Boy Swallows Universe
author: Trent Dalton
name: é
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/11
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves:
review:
3.5

I love love love the universes Dalton can create in his books. The characters, the imagery, the DETAILS - just sublime.

Didn’t like this book as much as Lola in the mirror though�
]]> Orlando 18839 Orlando 'The longest and most charming love letter in literature', playfully constructs the figure of Orlando as the fictional embodiment of Woolf's close friend and lover, Vita Sackville-West. Spanning three centuries, the novel opens as Orlando, a young nobleman in Elizabeth's England, awaits a visit from the Queen and traces his experience with first love as England under James I lies locked in the embrace of the Great Frost. At the midpoint of the novel, Orlando, now an ambassador in Constantinople, awakes to find that he is now a woman, and the novel indulges in farce and irony to consider the roles of women in the 18th and 19th centuries. As the novel ends in 1928, a year consonant with full suffrage for women. Orlando, now a wife and mother, stands poised at the brink of a future that holds new hope and promise for women.]]> 336 Virginia Woolf 0141184272 é 3 3.88 1928 Orlando
author: Virginia Woolf
name: é
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1928
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/06
date added: 2025/01/06
shelves:
review:
Very cool and I can see what Woolf was trying to do. Just not the book for me tbh.
]]> Intermezzo 208931300 An exquisitely moving story about grief, love, and family—but especially love—from the global phenomenon Sally Rooney.

Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common.

Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties—successful, competent, and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their father’s death, he’s medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women—his enduring first love, Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke.

Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined.

For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude—a period of desire, despair, and possibility; a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking.]]> 454 Sally Rooney 0374602638 é 3
I liked this more than I thought I would!

So I have this thing with Rooney where I am convinced she is just writing the same book every single time and changing the names... but this one was refreshingly quite different. I loved it conceptually - the two brothers procesing their shared grief and learning to accept each other (which ultimately means accepting themselves!). I loved the parallels, contrasts, the dialogue etc.

But - It just doesn't reach the 4 star mark for me. That is because I hated the Joyce mimicking (emulating as Rooney would like to believe) in some sections (Peter's POV). It just grated on my nerves... It's probably a Me problem and I am willing to admit that - but I was cringing physically at some points.

Also some plot points were a little much for me. Plus! The ending didn't really affect me or give me much to reflect on - maybe it's just not for me and that's okay.

Overall I ended up liking this book - but not being amazed by it (my usual experience with Sally Rooney whoops)]]> 3.87 2024 Intermezzo
author: Sally Rooney
name: é
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/05
date added: 2025/01/05
shelves:
review:
3.5

I liked this more than I thought I would!

So I have this thing with Rooney where I am convinced she is just writing the same book every single time and changing the names... but this one was refreshingly quite different. I loved it conceptually - the two brothers procesing their shared grief and learning to accept each other (which ultimately means accepting themselves!). I loved the parallels, contrasts, the dialogue etc.

But - It just doesn't reach the 4 star mark for me. That is because I hated the Joyce mimicking (emulating as Rooney would like to believe) in some sections (Peter's POV). It just grated on my nerves... It's probably a Me problem and I am willing to admit that - but I was cringing physically at some points.

Also some plot points were a little much for me. Plus! The ending didn't really affect me or give me much to reflect on - maybe it's just not for me and that's okay.

Overall I ended up liking this book - but not being amazed by it (my usual experience with Sally Rooney whoops)
]]> A Room of One’s Own 18521 A Room of One's Own is an extended essay by Virginia Woolf. First published on the 24th of October, 1929, the essay was based on a series of lectures she delivered at Newnham College and Girton College, two women's colleges at Cambridge University in October 1928. While this extended essay in fact employs a fictional narrator and narrative to explore women both as writers and characters in fiction, the manuscript for the delivery of the series of lectures, titled Women and Fiction, and hence the essay, are considered nonfiction. The essay is seen as a feminist text, and is noted in its argument for both a literal and figural space for women writers within a literary tradition dominated by patriarchy.]]> 112 Virginia Woolf é 4 favorites
"Now my belief is that this poet who never wrote a word and was buried at the cross–roads still lives. She lives in you and in me... for great poets do not die; they are continuing presences; they need only the opportunity to walk among us in the flesh."

It is all worth while... my little pieces of writing that I can offer this world - Woolf reminds me that it is really the bringing back of poets before me :)]]> 4.22 1929 A Room of One’s Own
author: Virginia Woolf
name: é
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1929
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/28
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves: favorites
review:
4.5

"Now my belief is that this poet who never wrote a word and was buried at the cross–roads still lives. She lives in you and in me... for great poets do not die; they are continuing presences; they need only the opportunity to walk among us in the flesh."

It is all worth while... my little pieces of writing that I can offer this world - Woolf reminds me that it is really the bringing back of poets before me :)
]]> Run River 7831
Everett McClellan and his wife, Lily, are the great-grandchildren of pioneers, and what happens to them is a tragic epilogue to the pioneer experience—a haunting portrait of a marriage whose wrong turns and betrayals are at once absolutely idiosyncratic and a razor-sharp commentary on the history of California.]]> 272 Joan Didion 0679752501 é 0 to-read 3.83 1963 Run River
author: Joan Didion
name: é
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1963
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Book of Common Prayer 422 A Book of Common Prayer is the story of two American women in the derelict Central American nation of Boca Grande. Grace Strasser-Mendana controls much of the country's wealth and knows virtually all of its secrets; Charlotte Douglas knows far too little. "Immaculate of history, innocent of politics," she has come to Boca Grande vaguely and vainly hoping to be reunited with her fugitive daughter. As imagined by Didion, her fate is at once utterly particular and fearfully emblematic of an age of conscienceless authority and unfathomable violence.]]> 272 Joan Didion é 0 to-read 3.83 1977 A Book of Common Prayer
author: Joan Didion
name: é
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1977
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Where I Was From 423
Combining history and reportage, memoir and literary criticism, Where I Was From explores California’s romances with land and water; its unacknowledged debts to railroads, aerospace, and big government; the disjunction between its code of individualism and its fetish for prisons. Whether she is writing about her pioneer ancestors or privileged sexual predators, robber barons or writers (not excluding herself), Didion is an unparalleled observer, and her book is at once intellectually provocative and deeply personal.]]> 240 Joan Didion é 0 to-read 3.87 2003 Where I Was From
author: Joan Didion
name: é
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[South and West: From a Notebook]]> 32842454 The Year of Magical Thinking two extended excerpts from her never-before-seen notebooks--writings that offer an illuminating glimpse into the mind and process of a legendary writer.

Joan Didion has always kept notebooks: of overheard dialogue, observations, interviews, drafts of essays and articles--and here is one such draft that traces a road trip she took with her husband, John Gregory Dunne, in June 1970, through Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. She interviews prominent local figures, describes motels, diners, a deserted reptile farm, a visit with Walker Percy, a ladies' brunch at the Mississippi Broadcasters' Convention. She writes about the stifling heat, the almost viscous pace of life, the sulfurous light, and the preoccupation with race, class, and heritage she finds in the small towns they pass through.

And from a different notebook: the "California Notes" that began as an assignment from Rolling Stone on the Patty Hearst trial of 1976. Though Didion never wrote the piece, watching the trial and being in San Francisco triggered thoughts about the city, its social hierarchy, the Hearsts, and her own upbringing in Sacramento. Here, too, is the beginning of her thinking about the West, its landscape, the western women who were heroic for her, and her own lineage, all of which would appear later in her acclaimed 2003 book, Where I Was From.]]> 160 Joan Didion 1524732796 é 0 to-read 3.69 2017 South and West: From a Notebook
author: Joan Didion
name: é
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Let Me Tell You What I Mean 53308149
Here are six pieces written in 1968 from the "Points West" Saturday Evening Post column Joan Didion shared from 1964 to 1969 with her husband, John Gregory Dunne about: American newspapers; a session with Gamblers Anonymous; a visit to San Simeon; being rejected by Stanford; dropping in on Nancy Reagan, wife of the then-governor of California, while a TV crew filmed her at home; and an evening at the annual reunion of WWII veterans from the 101st Airborne Association at the Stardust Hotel in Las Vegas. Here too is a 1976 piece from the New York Times magazine on "Why I Write"; a piece about short stories from New West in 1978; and from The New Yorker, a piece on Hemingway from 1998, and on Martha Stewart from 2000. Each one is classic Didion: incisive, bemused, and stunningly prescient.]]> 149 Joan Didion 059331848X é 0 to-read 3.85 2021 Let Me Tell You What I Mean
author: Joan Didion
name: é
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Slouching Towards Bethlehem 424 The first nonfiction work by one of the most distinctive prose stylists of our era, Joan Didion's Slouching Towards Bethlehem remains, decades after its first publication, the essential portrait of America—particularly California—in the sixties.

It focuses on such subjects as John Wayne and Howard Hughes, growing up a girl in California, ruminating on the nature of good and evil in a Death Valley motel room, and, especially, the essence of San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury, the heart of the counterculture.

It contains Didion's famous essay, "Goodbye to All That".]]> 238 Joan Didion é 0 to-read 4.20 1968 Slouching Towards Bethlehem
author: Joan Didion
name: é
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1968
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Blue Nights 10252302
Blue Nights opens on July 26, 2010, as Didion thinks back to Quintana’s wedding in New York seven years before. Today would be her wedding anniversary. This fact triggers vivid snapshots of Quintana’s childhood—in Malibu, in Brentwood, at school in Holmby Hills. Reflecting on her daughter but also on her role as a parent, Didion asks the candid questions any parent might about how she feels she failed either because cues were not taken or perhaps displaced. “How could I have missed what was clearly there to be seen?� Finally, perhaps we all remain unknown to each other. Seamlessly woven in are incidents Didion sees as underscoring her own age, something she finds hard to acknowledge, much less accept.

Blue Nights—the long, light evening hours that signal the summer solstice, “the opposite of the dying of the brightness, but also its warning”—like The Year of Magical Thinking before it, is an iconic book of incisive and electric honesty, haunting and profoundly moving.]]> 208 Joan Didion 0307267679 é 4 favorites
This book is so raw - reading that ending felt like I was being stabbed repeatedly in the chest. Which is Amazing.]]> 3.92 2011 Blue Nights
author: Joan Didion
name: é
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/27
date added: 2024/12/26
shelves: favorites
review:
Oh Joan... :((

This book is so raw - reading that ending felt like I was being stabbed repeatedly in the chest. Which is Amazing.
]]> <![CDATA[Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow]]> 58784475 In this exhilarating novel, two friends—often in love, but never lovers—come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality.

On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn't heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won't protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts.

Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before.]]> 401 Gabrielle Zevin 0735243344 é 4 favorites
Also - I knew zero about the plot and it was sooo fun to be immersed into a whole video game world that I knew nothing about beforehand.

Obviously this is very well written, researched and loved by the author - which is always a pleasure to feel through the pages. It does however lose one star from me because I wasn’t a fan of the second half of the book. I get the point being made (love the Macbeth quote which ties the plot together as well) but it just did not hit as hard as I feel it could’ve…]]> 4.12 2022 Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
author: Gabrielle Zevin
name: é
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/23
date added: 2024/12/23
shelves: favorites
review:
I was pleasantly surprised by how much I ended up liking this book. The characters were my favourite part - I could just see them and it was the most wonderful thing ever.

Also - I knew zero about the plot and it was sooo fun to be immersed into a whole video game world that I knew nothing about beforehand.

Obviously this is very well written, researched and loved by the author - which is always a pleasure to feel through the pages. It does however lose one star from me because I wasn’t a fan of the second half of the book. I get the point being made (love the Macbeth quote which ties the plot together as well) but it just did not hit as hard as I feel it could’ve�
]]> <![CDATA[The Autobiography of Malcolm X]]> 92057
Through a life of passion and struggle, Malcolm X became one of the most influential figures of the 20th Century. In this riveting account, he tells of his journey from a prison cell to Mecca, describing his transition from hoodlum to Muslim minister. Here, the man who called himself "the angriest Black man in America" relates how his conversion to true Islam helped him confront his rage and recognize the brotherhood of all mankind.

An established classic of modern America, "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" was hailed by the New York Times as "Extraordinary. A brilliant, painful, important book." Still extraordinary, still important, this electrifying story has transformed Malcolm X's life into his legacy. The strength of his words, and the power of his ideas continue to resonate more than a generation after they first appeared.]]> 466 Malcolm X é 4
I read this in Year 8 and it completely opened up my eyes to American history - which was not really a core focus in Australian history classes.

It’s just as raw and honest as I remember. There are moments in which Malcolm X is almost a prophet for the future of American racial struggles� I admire anybody who can speak up and take a stand against entire systems and ideologies. I don’t agree with everything Malcolm X says - but his core values and his iconic speeches have built so much of modern American politics - and for that I will always commend him.

Rest in power X.]]> 4.35 1965 The Autobiography of Malcolm X
author: Malcolm X
name: é
average rating: 4.35
book published: 1965
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/22
date added: 2024/12/21
shelves:
review:
3.5

I read this in Year 8 and it completely opened up my eyes to American history - which was not really a core focus in Australian history classes.

It’s just as raw and honest as I remember. There are moments in which Malcolm X is almost a prophet for the future of American racial struggles� I admire anybody who can speak up and take a stand against entire systems and ideologies. I don’t agree with everything Malcolm X says - but his core values and his iconic speeches have built so much of modern American politics - and for that I will always commend him.

Rest in power X.
]]> <![CDATA[The Waste Land and Other Poems]]> 400412 Librarian Note: Also available as an Alternate Cover Edition.

“And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you
I will show you fear in a handful of dust�

When The Waste Land was published in 1922, initial reaction to the poem was decidedly negative. Critics attacked the poem's "kaleidoscopic" design, and nearly everyone disagreed furiously about its meaning. The poem was even rumored to a hoax. Eventually, though, The Waste Land went on to become what many regard as the most influential poem written in English in the twentieth century.

"In ten years' time," wrote Edmund Wilson in Axel's Castle (1931), "Elliot has left upon English poetry a mark more unmistakable than that of any other poet writing in English." In 1948, T.S. Eliot was awarded the Nobel Price "for his work as a trail-blazing pioneer of modern poetry."

In addition to the title poem, this selection includes "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," "Geronition," "Ash-Wednesday," and other poems from Eliot's early and middle work.

Includes:
- The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
- Preludes
- Gerontion
- Sweeney Among the Nightingales
- The Waste Land:
I. The Burial of the Dead
II. A Game of Chess
III. The Fire Sermon
IV. Death by Water
V. What the Thunder Said
Notes on 'The Waste Land'
- Ash-Wednesday
-J ourney of the Magi
- Marina
- Landscapes:
I. New Hampshire
II. Virginia
III. USK
- Two Choruses from 'The Rock']]> 88 T.S. Eliot é 4 Pretty great. 4.24 1922 The Waste Land and Other Poems
author: T.S. Eliot
name: é
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1922
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/19
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves:
review:
Pretty great.
]]> Jazz (Beloved Trilogy, #2) 37398 229 Toni Morrison 0452269652 é 4
I'm definitely the millionth person to say this - but that final line is just. Perfect.

Now that's out of the way - I loved the writing style of this + the concept. Unfortunately it didn't (in my case) deeply impact me in the way Beloved did. So, basically Jazz is like my younger child whom I hold to incredibly high standards... whoops. ]]> 3.90 1992 Jazz (Beloved Trilogy, #2)
author: Toni Morrison
name: é
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1992
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/18
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves:
review:
3.5

I'm definitely the millionth person to say this - but that final line is just. Perfect.

Now that's out of the way - I loved the writing style of this + the concept. Unfortunately it didn't (in my case) deeply impact me in the way Beloved did. So, basically Jazz is like my younger child whom I hold to incredibly high standards... whoops.
]]> Bunny (Bunny, #1) 42815544
But everything changes when Samantha receives an invitation to the Bunnies' fabled "Smut Salon," and finds herself inexplicably drawn to their front door--ditching her only friend, Ava, in the process. As Samantha plunges deeper and deeper into the Bunnies' sinister yet saccharine world, beginning to take part in the ritualistic off-campus "Workshop" where they conjure their monstrous creations, the edges of reality begin to blur. Soon, her friendships with Ava and the Bunnies will be brought into deadly collision.

The spellbinding new novel from one of our most fearless chroniclers of the female experience, Bunny is a down-the-rabbit-hole tale of loneliness and belonging, friendship and desire, and the fantastic and terrible power of the imagination.]]> 307 Mona Awad 0525559736 é 3
I am so conflicted by this book. I liked it? I think???

The idea was great, the writing was good, the plot was fun. But also - I didn't really connect with it on a deeper level - I don't think it's really possible to do that with a book like this. I finished it and felt not just confused - but worse - unaffected. So, I guess I am like all the other girls in the writing workshop - I wanted more. ]]> 3.53 2019 Bunny (Bunny, #1)
author: Mona Awad
name: é
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/13
date added: 2024/12/13
shelves:
review:
3.5

I am so conflicted by this book. I liked it? I think???

The idea was great, the writing was good, the plot was fun. But also - I didn't really connect with it on a deeper level - I don't think it's really possible to do that with a book like this. I finished it and felt not just confused - but worse - unaffected. So, I guess I am like all the other girls in the writing workshop - I wanted more.
]]> Heat and Light 22654549
Heat and Light presents an intriguing collection while heralding the arrival of an exciting new talent in Australian writing.]]> 232 Ellen Van Neerven 0702253219 é 3
The second part was not really my thing and I was quite confused the entire time. Likewise, I didn’t really get the third part.

Still a really cool read that highlights where Australian fiction is going.]]> 3.78 2014 Heat and Light
author: Ellen Van Neerven
name: é
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/10
date added: 2024/12/10
shelves:
review:
I really liked the first part of this book (Heat). I loved the way it was written and the characterisation etc

The second part was not really my thing and I was quite confused the entire time. Likewise, I didn’t really get the third part.

Still a really cool read that highlights where Australian fiction is going.
]]> Heart of Darkness 4900
A reflection on corruptive European colonialism and a journey into the nightmare psyche of one of the corrupted, Heart of Darkness is considered one of the most influential works ever written.]]> 188 Joseph Conrad 1892295490 é 3 3.43 1899 Heart of Darkness
author: Joseph Conrad
name: é
average rating: 3.43
book published: 1899
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/08
date added: 2024/12/08
shelves:
review:
Some magnificent moments of imagery and dialogue. But it’s not a world changing book for me�
]]> If We Were Villains 30319086
As one of seven young actors studying Shakespeare at an elite arts college, Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress, ingenue, extra. But when the casting changes, and the secondary characters usurp the stars, the plays spill dangerously over into life, and one of them is found dead. The rest face their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, and themselves, that they are blameless.]]> 354 M.L. Rio 125009528X é 0 4.11 2017 If We Were Villains
author: M.L. Rio
name: é
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/07
shelves:
review:

]]> The Stand 87591651
For hundreds of thousands of fans who read The Stand in its original version and wanted more, this new edition is Stephen King's gift. And those who are listening to The Stand for the first time will discover a triumphant and eerily plausible work of the imagination that takes on the issues that will determine our survival.]]> Stephen King é 3
I adored the premise of this story. This is suspense writing at some of its finest. There are so many moments in here that make me just hold my breath - eg. the walking through the tunnel in the dark (a new fear).

The imagery was yummy (I will always eat up religious allegories) Plus the characters are memorable and distinct. And the ending with the A-bomb was so perfect - I had to laugh - King really is the king at black humour.

However! This was too long. 1200 pages?! I did not appreciate that before starting. The middle dragged for me... So I've deducted half a star. Soz.]]> 4.42 1978 The Stand
author: Stephen King
name: é
average rating: 4.42
book published: 1978
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/08
date added: 2024/12/07
shelves:
review:
3.5

I adored the premise of this story. This is suspense writing at some of its finest. There are so many moments in here that make me just hold my breath - eg. the walking through the tunnel in the dark (a new fear).

The imagery was yummy (I will always eat up religious allegories) Plus the characters are memorable and distinct. And the ending with the A-bomb was so perfect - I had to laugh - King really is the king at black humour.

However! This was too long. 1200 pages?! I did not appreciate that before starting. The middle dragged for me... So I've deducted half a star. Soz.
]]> <![CDATA[The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde]]> 50680 Publishers Weekly "This is an amazing collection of poetry by . . . one of our best contemporary poets. . . . Her poems are powerful, often political, always lyrical and profoundly moving."�Chuckanut Reader Magazine "What a deep pleasure to encounter Audre Lorde's most potent genius . . . you will welcome the sheer accessibility and the force and beauty of this volume."�Out Magazine]]> 489 Audre Lorde 0393319725 é 5 favorites
Audre Lorde has always been such a poetic inspiration for me - ever since I was a fourteen years old and discovering my own voice. Her poems still enchant me. They seem to be alive, drawing me in, weaving together the images and textures of her inner and political worlds.

I've been reading this collection of poems very slowly, savouring the unique flavour of each one. Finishing this feels like hearing a call from Lorde. From one poet to another. I will forever hear her words echoing in my mind: "Your silence will not protect you."

A magical collection, truly.

]]> 4.44 1997 The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde
author: Audre Lorde
name: é
average rating: 4.44
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/04
date added: 2024/12/03
shelves: favorites
review:
4.5

Audre Lorde has always been such a poetic inspiration for me - ever since I was a fourteen years old and discovering my own voice. Her poems still enchant me. They seem to be alive, drawing me in, weaving together the images and textures of her inner and political worlds.

I've been reading this collection of poems very slowly, savouring the unique flavour of each one. Finishing this feels like hearing a call from Lorde. From one poet to another. I will forever hear her words echoing in my mind: "Your silence will not protect you."

A magical collection, truly.


]]> Giovanni’s Room 406235 178 James Baldwin é 0 to-read 4.40 1956 Giovanni’s Room
author: James Baldwin
name: é
average rating: 4.40
book published: 1956
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> L.A. Woman 1587010 Vanity Fair) - and she has influenced a generation of writers and readers with her sophisticated, witty, and delightful work. L.A. Woman is quintessential Babitz, the story of Sophie, a twenty-something blonde Jim Morrison groupie gliding through a golden existence in L.A. and Lola, a German immigrant who settles in Hollywood in the twenties to drive Pierce Arrows recklessly down Sunset Boulevard and who knows that Maybelline mascara cakes and Rudolph Valentino are the essence of life.]]> 160 Eve Babitz é 0 to-read 3.53 1982 L.A. Woman
author: Eve Babitz
name: é
average rating: 3.53
book published: 1982
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> To the Lighthouse 59716
As time winds its way through their lives, the Ramsays face, alone and simultaneously, the greatest of human challenges and its greatest triumph—the human capacity for change.]]> 209 Virginia Woolf é 4
Absolutely beautiful writing from Woolf who has written such a dense book which is conveyed in a subtle yet magnificent way.

This will defintely be a text which I will appreciate more with time / analysis.]]> 3.81 1927 To the Lighthouse
author: Virginia Woolf
name: é
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1927
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/28
date added: 2024/11/28
shelves:
review:
The start was hard to get through/confusing BUT I locked in for the last 100 pages and it went from 3 stars to 4...

Absolutely beautiful writing from Woolf who has written such a dense book which is conveyed in a subtle yet magnificent way.

This will defintely be a text which I will appreciate more with time / analysis.
]]> Mansfield Park 45032 488 Jane Austen é 2 3.86 1814 Mansfield Park
author: Jane Austen
name: é
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1814
rating: 2
read at: 2022/07/23
date added: 2024/11/28
shelves:
review:
maybe i’m just not meant to be a jane austen fan. the character of fanny price is incredibly insufferable and, dare i say - boring.
]]> Dissolve 58293343
Having lived through the humiliation and bewildering complexity of heartbreak in her twenties, Nikki Gemmell eventually resurfaced, reclaimed space for herself and found her voice. Decades later she has written a deeply personal, profoundly intimate reflection on love and female creativity, and what happens when the two collide in a man's world.

Dissolve is a conversation. A conversation with the young women of Gemmell's teenage daughter's generation, and of course with men.

'Reading this memoir is like therapy for the soul' ArtsHub

'one of the most enriching, yet debilitating reads I've experienced... tremendous, moving writing' Jessie Tu, Women's Agenda

'Nikki Gemmell wrote this book for me, and I suspect there will be many women who feel the same way... Each page is imbued with startling self-awareness and profound wisdom... Vulnerable, honest and raw' Better Reading]]> 224 Nikki Gemmell 0733646042 é 2 4.01 Dissolve
author: Nikki Gemmell
name: é
average rating: 4.01
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2024/11/21
date added: 2024/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> Orbital 218505320
Contudo, mesmo tão distantes do mundo, os seis astronautas não conseguem escapar à sua constante influência. Chegam notícias da morte de uma mãe, trazendo pensamentos de regresso e de saudades de casa. A fragilidade da vida humana torna-se um tema central nas suas conversas, nos seus medos e nos seus sonhos.

Apesar de tão longe da Terra, nunca antes se haviam sentido tão protetores dela, tão parte dela. Começam a refletir: o que será a vida sem a Terra? O que será a Terra sem a humanidade?]]> 137 Samantha Harvey é 0 to-read 3.77 2023 Orbital
author: Samantha Harvey
name: é
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Pet Sematary 33124137 This is an alternate Cover Edition for ASIN: B00K3NEE56. When the Creeds move into a beautiful old house in rural Maine, it all seems too good to be true: physician father, beautiful wife, charming little daughter, adorable infant son-and now an idyllic home. As a family, they've got it all...right down to the friendly car. But the nearby woods hide a blood-chilling truth-more terrifying than death itself-and hideously more powerful. The Creeds are going to learn that sometimes dead is better.]]> 580 Stephen King é 5
Oh boy I have some thoughts about this book.

Firstly: this was great - and I’m annoyed that it took me so many years to finally read it. It's been on my to-read list for a long time now. My dad loves this book - he swears it is still the scariest story he has ever read. Moreover, in interviews (and the Foreword) Stephen King recognises this as his scariest novel. After reading, I’m inclined to agree with both my dad and the author.

I’m not a huge fan of horror and I never have been. But what King does so wonderfully well is force the reader to see horror in everything. Fear starts to seep into the mundane facets of family life; the cozy American town, making breakfast, even a much-loved cat (and I adore ALL cats so getting me to be disgusted by Church is no small achievement!)

This story is so deeply personal. It is an emotional book for King - but in a way, the story moves from personal to universal. The frightening plot is one that can resonate with us all. Because the death of those we love is everyone’s biggest fear really. Seeing a killer clown with an axe on a dark street corner does not even come close to the bottomless terror which arises when I think about a headstone with a loved one’s name on it. Because death is horribly real - and close. It is always right before us, behind us, following our every move. Death is natural, yes. But that doesn't mean that it isn't evil, and awfully unfair.

Horror when done like this can take us right into the situations it presents - however 'unbelievable'. It carves a space for us to experience this - to sacrifice ourselves to the gut-wrenching and sanity-stealing process of your youngest child dying much too soon. I audibly gagged at the scene in which Louis recounts his son, slipping past his fingers, headfirst into the oncoming truck. It's just. So. Horrible. And King writes it so that it is a reality that we all face - just for that moment.

And the very very worst part of this fear-fest is that it doesn't end with that last chilling page. The questions it asks linger - like a rancid scent... I read most of the time with my cat curled up on top of or beside me. And after finishing what really is the ultimate warning that Dead is best left dead - I still put the book down, looked at my cat, right into her green eyes and knew that I would do the same thing for her. Without hesitation. Would I do the same for my sister? Yes. My brother? Yes. My best friend. Yes Yes Yes - and a million times over, Yes. What does that mean??? Perhaps the true horror occurs when we step outside of our minds - and see with a clear knowledge - the evils that we have the capacity to commit, the depths to which we can descend. Or maybe that's just me�

Anyways, let's hope death - Oz the Gweat and Tewwible - does not reach my door for a while more - because I fear that Louis Creed and I have a little too much in common.

In conclusion: I agree with King and my dad - this book is freaking terrifying.

]]> 4.21 1983 Pet Sematary
author: Stephen King
name: é
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1983
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/20
date added: 2024/11/20
shelves:
review:
4.5!

Oh boy I have some thoughts about this book.

Firstly: this was great - and I’m annoyed that it took me so many years to finally read it. It's been on my to-read list for a long time now. My dad loves this book - he swears it is still the scariest story he has ever read. Moreover, in interviews (and the Foreword) Stephen King recognises this as his scariest novel. After reading, I’m inclined to agree with both my dad and the author.

I’m not a huge fan of horror and I never have been. But what King does so wonderfully well is force the reader to see horror in everything. Fear starts to seep into the mundane facets of family life; the cozy American town, making breakfast, even a much-loved cat (and I adore ALL cats so getting me to be disgusted by Church is no small achievement!)

This story is so deeply personal. It is an emotional book for King - but in a way, the story moves from personal to universal. The frightening plot is one that can resonate with us all. Because the death of those we love is everyone’s biggest fear really. Seeing a killer clown with an axe on a dark street corner does not even come close to the bottomless terror which arises when I think about a headstone with a loved one’s name on it. Because death is horribly real - and close. It is always right before us, behind us, following our every move. Death is natural, yes. But that doesn't mean that it isn't evil, and awfully unfair.

Horror when done like this can take us right into the situations it presents - however 'unbelievable'. It carves a space for us to experience this - to sacrifice ourselves to the gut-wrenching and sanity-stealing process of your youngest child dying much too soon. I audibly gagged at the scene in which Louis recounts his son, slipping past his fingers, headfirst into the oncoming truck. It's just. So. Horrible. And King writes it so that it is a reality that we all face - just for that moment.

And the very very worst part of this fear-fest is that it doesn't end with that last chilling page. The questions it asks linger - like a rancid scent... I read most of the time with my cat curled up on top of or beside me. And after finishing what really is the ultimate warning that Dead is best left dead - I still put the book down, looked at my cat, right into her green eyes and knew that I would do the same thing for her. Without hesitation. Would I do the same for my sister? Yes. My brother? Yes. My best friend. Yes Yes Yes - and a million times over, Yes. What does that mean??? Perhaps the true horror occurs when we step outside of our minds - and see with a clear knowledge - the evils that we have the capacity to commit, the depths to which we can descend. Or maybe that's just me�

Anyways, let's hope death - Oz the Gweat and Tewwible - does not reach my door for a while more - because I fear that Louis Creed and I have a little too much in common.

In conclusion: I agree with King and my dad - this book is freaking terrifying.


]]> Ulysees 28020855 857 James Joyce é 3
Was it worth it? I don’t know. I loved parts of this book. I adored the stream of consciousness thing Joyce has going on. I loved all the fantastical imagery and allusions (I didn’t understand them but hey). For the most part I liked the characters & I thought the plot was cool in how it revolves around one day. Joyce is taking the mundane and he is giving it cosmological importance.

But! Despite the beauty and life of the book, I just couldn’t immerse myself into it. That is because Ulysses is a supremely boring book. And while I do love books which progress what the act of reading can do for humans� I just couldn’t always appreciate what Joyce was doing. Maybe my opinion of this book will shift through study or a reread�

Ultimate I liked it as a challenging experience which forced me to read more deeply. But it was just too much in some sections� I had to literally force myself to finish - by the end I was reading with an online guide open on my laptop in front of me.

With this criticism finally off my chest, I will just say that I think this book does not deserve hate for being weird and confusing. Yes, it is a book which can never be truly understood. But that is the nature of any book in our world, and it is something which I treasure. So I’m not finished with Ulysses and I suspect this book is not finished with me.

Three stars for a fun and chaotic week of reading. Maybe next time we meet I will understand just a little bit more…]]> 3.68 1922 Ulysees
author: James Joyce
name: é
average rating: 3.68
book published: 1922
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/16
date added: 2024/11/16
shelves:
review:
Ok so. Here’s the deal� this is a hard book to read. Which is why it has sat on my bookshelf untouched for nearly two years. But I can’t die without having read Ulysses - and if not now then when?

Was it worth it? I don’t know. I loved parts of this book. I adored the stream of consciousness thing Joyce has going on. I loved all the fantastical imagery and allusions (I didn’t understand them but hey). For the most part I liked the characters & I thought the plot was cool in how it revolves around one day. Joyce is taking the mundane and he is giving it cosmological importance.

But! Despite the beauty and life of the book, I just couldn’t immerse myself into it. That is because Ulysses is a supremely boring book. And while I do love books which progress what the act of reading can do for humans� I just couldn’t always appreciate what Joyce was doing. Maybe my opinion of this book will shift through study or a reread�

Ultimate I liked it as a challenging experience which forced me to read more deeply. But it was just too much in some sections� I had to literally force myself to finish - by the end I was reading with an online guide open on my laptop in front of me.

With this criticism finally off my chest, I will just say that I think this book does not deserve hate for being weird and confusing. Yes, it is a book which can never be truly understood. But that is the nature of any book in our world, and it is something which I treasure. So I’m not finished with Ulysses and I suspect this book is not finished with me.

Three stars for a fun and chaotic week of reading. Maybe next time we meet I will understand just a little bit more�
]]> ’Salem’s Lot 11590 Librarian's Note: Alternate-cover edition for ISBN 0450031063

Thousands of miles away from the small township of 'Salem's Lot, two terrified people, a man and a boy, still share the secrets of those clapboard houses and tree-lined streets. They must return to 'Salem's Lot for a final confrontation with the unspeakable evil that lives on in the town.]]> 483 Stephen King 0450031063 é 4
This is going to rekindle my vampire obsession I can tell. Great work Mr King - the ending sucked but I forgive you cause I loved how well the Lot was characterised. I know first hand the evil that lurks in small country towns� This book kept me up at night I will admit.]]> 4.06 1975 ’Salem’s Lot
author: Stephen King
name: é
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1975
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/09
date added: 2024/11/09
shelves:
review:
AH!

This is going to rekindle my vampire obsession I can tell. Great work Mr King - the ending sucked but I forgive you cause I loved how well the Lot was characterised. I know first hand the evil that lurks in small country towns� This book kept me up at night I will admit.
]]> By Any Other Name 203337138 From the New York Times bestselling co-author of Mad Honey comes an “inspiring� (Elle) novel about two women, centuries apart—one of whom is the real author of Shakespeare’s plays—who are both forced to hide behind another name.

Young playwright Melina Green has just written a new work inspired by the life of her Elizabethan ancestor Emilia Bassano. But seeing it performed is unlikely, in a theater world where the playing field isn’t level for women. As Melina wonders if she dares risk failure again, her best friend takes the decision out of her hands and submits the play to a festival under a male pseudonym.

In 1581, young Emilia Bassano is a ward of English aristocrats. Her lessons on languages, history, and writing have endowed her with a sharp wit and a gift for storytelling, but like most women of her day, she is allowed no voice of her own. Forced to become a mistress to the Lord Chamberlain, who oversees all theatre productions in England, Emilia sees firsthand how the words of playwrights can move an audience. She begins to form a plan to secretly bring a play of her own to the stage—by paying an actor named William Shakespeare to front her work.

Told in intertwining timelines, By Any Other Name, a sweeping tale of ambition, courage, and desire centers two women who are determined to create something beautiful despite the prejudices they face. Should a writer do whatever it takes to see her story live on . . . no matter the cost? This remarkable novel, rooted in primary historical sources, ensures the name Emilia Bassano will no longer be forgotten.]]> 528 Jodi Picoult 0593497228 é 0 to-read 4.12 2024 By Any Other Name
author: Jodi Picoult
name: é
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Bush Studies 1961204 236 Barbara Baynton 020718948X é 3 3.34 1902 Bush Studies
author: Barbara Baynton
name: é
average rating: 3.34
book published: 1902
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/04
date added: 2024/11/04
shelves:
review:
My bad for never finishing all these stories until now. Love love love - Baynton is my Australian gothic queen
]]> Lola in the Mirror 167582092
'Mirror, mirror, on the grass, what's my future? What's my past?' A girl and her mother are on the lam. They've been running for sixteen years, from police and the monster they left in the kitchen with the knife in his throat. They've found themselves a home inside an orange 1987 Toyota HiAce van with four flat tyres parked in a scrapyard by the edge of the Brisbane River � just two of the 100,000 Australians sleeping rough every night. The girl has no name because names are dangerous when you're on the run. But the girl has a dream. Visions in black ink and living colour. A vision of a life as a groundbreaking artist of international acclaim. A life outside the grip of the Brisbane underworld drug queen 'Lady' Flora Box. A life of love with the boy in the brown suit who's waiting for her in the middle of the bridge that stretches across a flooding and deadly river. A life far beyond the bullet that has her name on it. And now that the storm clouds are rising, there's only one person who can help make her dreams come true. That person's name is Lola and she carries all the answers. But to find Lola, the girl with no name must first do one of the hardest things we can sometimes ever do. She must look in the mirror. A big, moving, blackly funny, violent, heartbreaking and beautiful novel of love, fate, life and death and all the things we see when we look in the mirror. All of the past, all of the present, and all of our possible futures. 'Mirror, mirror, please don't lie. Tell me who you are. Tell me who am I.']]> 512 Trent Dalton 146071332X é 4 favorites
It took me over an hour to read the last 50 pages of this book because I just could not stop crying.

Life really is about noticing the small things - seeing art in everything. Facing our monsters. Loving life, despite it all.

We are all so lucky.]]> 4.37 2023 Lola in the Mirror
author: Trent Dalton
name: é
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/04
date added: 2024/11/04
shelves: favorites
review:
Loved.

It took me over an hour to read the last 50 pages of this book because I just could not stop crying.

Life really is about noticing the small things - seeing art in everything. Facing our monsters. Loving life, despite it all.

We are all so lucky.
]]> <![CDATA[Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver]]> 34272476
“No matter where one starts reading, Devotions offers much to love, from Oliver's exuberant dog poems to selections from the Pulitzer Prize-winning American Primitive, and Dream Work, one of her exceptional collections. Perhaps more important, the luminous writing provides respite from our crazy world and demonstrates how mindfulness can define and transform a life, moment by moment, poem by poem.� —The Washington Post

“It’s as if the poet herself has sidled beside the reader and pointed us to the poems she considers most worthy of deep consideration.� —Chicago Tribune

Throughout her celebrated career, Mary Oliver has touched countless readers with her brilliantly crafted verse, expounding on her love for the physical world and the powerful bonds between all living things. Identified as "far and away, this country's best selling poet" by Dwight Garner, she now returns with a stunning and definitive collection of her writing from the last fifty years.

Carefully curated, these 200 plus poems feature Oliver's work from her very first book of poetry, No Voyage and Other Poems, published in 1963 at the age of 28, through her most recent collection, Felicity, published in 2015. This timeless volume, arranged by Oliver herself, showcases the beloved poet at her edifying best. Within these pages, she provides us with an extraordinary and invaluable collection of her passionate, perceptive, and much-treasured observations of the natural world.]]> 456 Mary Oliver 0399563245 é 5 favorites 4.58 2017 Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver
author: Mary Oliver
name: é
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/04
date added: 2024/11/04
shelves: favorites
review:
Nothing much to say. These poems have, and will continue to save my life. I adore you Mary Oliver.
]]> When We Were Orphans 28923
Christopher Banks, an English boy born in early-twentieth-century Shanghai, is orphaned at age nine when his mother and father both vanish under suspicious circumstances. Sent to live in England, he grows up to become a renowned detective and, more than twenty years later, returns to Shanghai, where the Sino-Japanese War is raging, to solve the mystery of the disappearances.

The story is straightforward. Its telling is remarkable. Christopher's voice is controlled, detailed, and detached, its precision unsurprising in someone who has devoted his life to the examination of details and the rigors of objective thought. But within the layers of his narrative is slowly revealed what he can't, or won't, see: that his memory, despite what he wants to believe, is not unaffected by his childhood tragedies; that his powers of perception, the heralded clarity of his vision, can be blinding as well as enlightening; and that the simplest desires--a child's for his parents, a man's for understanding--may give rise to the most complicated truths.

A masterful combination of narrative control and soaring imagination, When We Were Orphans is Kazuo Ishiguro at his best.]]> 320 Kazuo Ishiguro 0571225403 é 3
Perfect narrative voice - as was to be expected. Really liked the ending� but just was not immersed for the first half. Still amazingly written of course.]]> 3.53 2000 When We Were Orphans
author: Kazuo Ishiguro
name: é
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2000
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/04
date added: 2024/11/04
shelves:
review:
3.5

Perfect narrative voice - as was to be expected. Really liked the ending� but just was not immersed for the first half. Still amazingly written of course.
]]> The Wild Iris 76546 Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature

From Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Louise Glück, a stunningly beautiful collection of poems that encompasses the natural, human, and spiritual realms

Bound together by the universal themes of time and mortality and with clarity and sureness of craft, Louise Glück's poetry questions, explores, and finally celebrates the ordeal of being alive.]]> 65 Louise Glück 0880013346 é 0 to-read 4.22 1992 The Wild Iris
author: Louise Glück
name: é
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1992
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Brothers Karamazov 4934
This award-winning translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky remains true to the verbal inventiveness of Dostoevsky’s prose, preserving the multiple voices, the humor, and the surprising modernity of the original. It is an achievement worthy of Dostoevsky’s last and greatest novel.]]> 796 Fyodor Dostoevsky 0374528373 é 5 favorites
The characters are just glorious. Three brothers: kind Alyosha, brash Dimitri, and cunning Ivan - all with their own struggles and views. All with a horrible father. At times they display the darkness of humanity and yet they all love each other. They really do! It is in love that they are redeemed and remembered.

I can’t say much more. I just love this book. I have spiritually linked myself to it. Hurrah for Karamazov! Hurrah for Dostoevsky!

(My favourite quote):

“Love all God’s creation, both the whole and every grain of sand. Love every leaf, every ray of light. Love the animals, love the plants, love each separate thing. If thou love each thing thou wilt perceive the mystery of God in all; and when once thou perceive this, thou wilt thenceforward grow every day to a fuller understanding of it: until thou come at last to love the whole world with a love that will then be all-embracing and universal.”]]> 4.36 1880 The Brothers Karamazov
author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: é
average rating: 4.36
book published: 1880
rating: 5
read at: 2023/04/07
date added: 2024/10/27
shelves: favorites
review:
This is essentially a masterpiece of a book. Dostoevsky has painted the grandeur of Russia and her people in complexity and colour. It’s his best novel and there’s really not much too critique it on.

The characters are just glorious. Three brothers: kind Alyosha, brash Dimitri, and cunning Ivan - all with their own struggles and views. All with a horrible father. At times they display the darkness of humanity and yet they all love each other. They really do! It is in love that they are redeemed and remembered.

I can’t say much more. I just love this book. I have spiritually linked myself to it. Hurrah for Karamazov! Hurrah for Dostoevsky!

(My favourite quote):

“Love all God’s creation, both the whole and every grain of sand. Love every leaf, every ray of light. Love the animals, love the plants, love each separate thing. If thou love each thing thou wilt perceive the mystery of God in all; and when once thou perceive this, thou wilt thenceforward grow every day to a fuller understanding of it: until thou come at last to love the whole world with a love that will then be all-embracing and universal.�
]]> Homesick for Another World 30079724 An electrifying first collection from one of the most exciting short story writers of our time

Ottessa Moshfegh's debut novel Eileen was one of the literary events of 2015. Garlanded with critical acclaim, it was named a book of the year by The Washington Post and the San Francisco Chronicle, nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award, short-listed for the Man Booker Prize, and won the PEN/Hemingway Award for debut fiction. But as many critics noted, Moshfegh is particularly held in awe for her short stories. Homesick for Another World is the rare case where an author's short story collection is if anything more anticipated than her novel.
And for good reason. There's something eerily unsettling about Ottessa Moshfegh's stories, something almost dangerous, while also being delightful, and even laugh-out-loud funny. Her characters are all unsteady on their feet in one way or another; they all yearn for connection and betterment, though each in very different ways, but they are often tripped up by their own baser impulses and existential insecurities. Homesick for Another World is a master class in the varieties of self-deception across the gamut of individuals representing the human condition.

But part of the unique quality of her voice, the echt Moshfeghian experience, is the way the grotesque and the outrageous are infused with tenderness and compassion. Moshfegh is our Flannery O'Connor, and Homesick for Another World is her Everything That Rises Must Converge or A Good Man is Hard to Find. The flesh is weak; the timber is crooked; people are cruel to each other, and stupid, and hurtful. But beauty comes from strange sources. And the dark energy surging through these stories is powerfully invigorating. We're in the hands of an author with a big mind, a big heart, blazing chops, and a political acuity that is needle-sharp. The needle hits the vein before we even feel the prick.

Bettering myself --
Mr. Wu --
Malibu --
The weirdos --
A dark and winding road --
No place for good people --
Slumming --
An honest woman --
The beach boy --
Nothing ever happens here --
Dancing in the moonlight --
The surrogate --
The locked room --
A better place]]> 294 Ottessa Moshfegh 0399562885 é 0 to-read 3.63 2017 Homesick for Another World
author: Ottessa Moshfegh
name: é
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The White Album 421 The White Album records indelibly the upheavals and aftermaths of the 1960s. Examining key events, figures, and trends of the era—including Charles Manson, the Black Panthers, and the shopping mall—through the lens of her own spiritual confusion, Joan Didion helped to define mass culture as we now understand it. Written with a commanding sureness of tone and linguistic precision, The White Album is a central text of American reportage and a classic of American autobiography.]]> 224 Joan Didion 0374532079 é 4 favorites
I didn’t gel with all the essays - but the ones I did love really struck me. Seriously can’t get Didion out of my head.]]> 4.06 1979 The White Album
author: Joan Didion
name: é
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1979
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/08
date added: 2024/10/25
shelves: favorites
review:
This was pretty great.

I didn’t gel with all the essays - but the ones I did love really struck me. Seriously can’t get Didion out of my head.
]]> The Remains of the Day 28921 Librarian's note: See alternate cover edition of ISBN 0571225381 here.

In the summer of 1956, Stevens, a long-serving butler at Darlington Hall, decides to take a motoring trip through the West Country. The six-day excursion becomes a journey into the past of Stevens and England, a past that takes in fascism, two world wars, and an unrealised love between the butler and his housekeeper.]]> 258 Kazuo Ishiguro é 5 favorites
Perfect. And unbearably sad.

Ishiguro is a master at these melancholy narratives riddled by nostalgia and self deception. Books that make me stare at my wall once they’re finished - reassessing everything. Like. Wow.

And that narrative voice! Never once did I not hear the English butler. Every line was executed wonderfully.

I will need time to digest this one.]]> 4.14 1989 The Remains of the Day
author: Kazuo Ishiguro
name: é
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1989
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/11
date added: 2024/10/25
shelves: favorites
review:
4.5

Perfect. And unbearably sad.

Ishiguro is a master at these melancholy narratives riddled by nostalgia and self deception. Books that make me stare at my wall once they’re finished - reassessing everything. Like. Wow.

And that narrative voice! Never once did I not hear the English butler. Every line was executed wonderfully.

I will need time to digest this one.
]]> <![CDATA[Annihilation (Southern Reach, #1)]]> 17934530 Annihilation, the first volume of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach Trilogy, we join the twelfth expedition.

The group is made up of four women: an anthropologist; a surveyor; a psychologist, the de facto leader; and our narrator, a biologist. Their mission is to map the terrain, record all observations of their surroundings and of one another, and, above all, avoid being contaminated by Area X itself.

They arrive expecting the unexpected, and Area X delivers—but it’s the surprises that came across the border with them and the secrets the expedition members are keeping from one another that change everything.]]> 195 Jeff VanderMeer 0374104093 é 0 to-read 3.79 2014 Annihilation (Southern Reach, #1)
author: Jeff VanderMeer
name: é
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Gentleman in Moscow 34066798 The mega-bestseller with more than 2 million readers—Now a Paramount+ with Showtime series starring Ewan McGregor as Count Alexander Rostov

From the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Lincoln Highway and Rules of Civility, a beautifully transporting novel about a man who is ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a luxury hotel

In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery.

Brimming with humor, a glittering cast of characters, and one beautifully rendered scene after another, this singular novel casts a spell as it relates the count’s endeavor to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a man of purpose.]]> 462 Amor Towles é 3
But then I just adored the ending for some reason - I loved how everything came together.

So, a bit of a mixed opinion of this. I remain on the fence. I think I liked it?]]> 4.28 2016 A Gentleman in Moscow
author: Amor Towles
name: é
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/06
date added: 2024/10/06
shelves:
review:
I really did not like reading this book for about 75% of the process. I just couldn’t get into the narrative voice� and none of the characters seemed real to me.

But then I just adored the ending for some reason - I loved how everything came together.

So, a bit of a mixed opinion of this. I remain on the fence. I think I liked it?
]]> <![CDATA[This is Not the End of the Book]]> 8664814
These days it is almost impossible to get away from discussions of whether the book will survive the digital revolution. Blogs, tweets and newspaper articles appear daily on the subject, many of them repetitive, most of them admitting they don't know what will happen. Amidst the twittering, the thoughts of Jean-Claude Carrière and Umberto Eco come as a breath of fresh air. There are few people better placed to discuss the past, present and future of the book. Both of them avid book collectors with a deep understanding of history, they have explored through their work, both written and visual, the many and varied ways in which ideas have been represented through the ages.

This beautifully produced book, an object of desire in itself, is the transcription of a long conversation between the two men in which they discuss a vast range of subjects, from what can be defined as the first book, to the idea of the library, the burning of books both accidental and deliberate, and what will happen to knowledge and memory when infinite amounts of information are available at the click of a mouse. En route there are delightful digressions into personal anecdote about everything from Eco's first computer to the book Carrière is most sad to have sold.

Readers will close this book feeling that they have had the privilege of eavesdropping on an intimate discussion between two great minds. And while, as Carrière says, the one certain thing about the future is that it is unpredictable, it is clear from this conversation that, in some form or other, the book will survive. After all, as Eco says: like the spoon, once invented, it cannot be bettered.]]> 320 Umberto Eco 1846554519 é 4 4.05 2009 This is Not the End of the Book
author: Umberto Eco
name: é
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/04
date added: 2024/10/04
shelves:
review:
They sound like the most pretentious men alive� I NEED to be part of this conversation
]]> <![CDATA[Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind]]> 23692271 512 Yuval Noah Harari é 3
Some parts were more interesting than others.]]> 4.33 2011 Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
author: Yuval Noah Harari
name: é
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/02
date added: 2024/10/02
shelves:
review:
3.5

Some parts were more interesting than others.
]]> <![CDATA[Burning Questions: Essays and Occasional Pieces, 2004 to 2021]]> 58210662
� Why do people everywhere, in all cultures, tell stories?
� How much of yourself can you give away without evaporating?
� How can we live on our planet?
� Is it true? And is it fair?
� What do zombies have to do with authoritarianism?

In over fifty pieces Atwood aims her prodigious intellect and impish humor at the world, and reports back to us on what she finds. The roller-coaster period covered in the collection brought an end to the end of history, a financial crash, the rise of Trump and a pandemic. From debt to tech, the climate crisis to freedom, from when to dispense advice to the young (answer: only when asked) and how to define granola, we have no better guide than Atwood to the many and varied mysteries of our universe.]]> 496 Margaret Atwood 038554748X é 4 I love Atwood. 4.08 2022 Burning Questions: Essays and Occasional Pieces, 2004 to 2021
author: Margaret Atwood
name: é
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/04
date added: 2024/09/04
shelves:
review:
I love Atwood.
]]> <![CDATA[The Swerve: How the World Became Modern]]> 13707734
Nearly six hundred years ago, a short, genial, cannily alert man in his late thirties took a very old manuscript off a library shelf, saw with excitement what he had discovered, and ordered that it be copied. That book was the last surviving manuscript of an ancient Roman philosophical epic, On the Nature of Things, by Lucretius—a beautiful poem of the most dangerous ideas: that the universe functioned without the aid of gods, that religious fear was damaging to human life, and that matter was made up of very small particles in eternal motion, colliding and swerving in new directions.

The copying and translation of this ancient book—the greatest discovery of the greatest book-hunter of his age—fueled the Renaissance, inspiring artists such as Botticelli and thinkers such as Giordano Bruno; shaped the thought of Galileo and Freud, Darwin and Einstein; and had a revolutionary influence on writers such as Montaigne and Shakespeare and even Thomas Jefferson.]]> 356 Stephen Greenblatt 0393343405 é 0 to-read 3.88 2011 The Swerve: How the World Became Modern
author: Stephen Greenblatt
name: é
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women in the World, Vol. 1]]> 2884699
The internationally celebrated author of The Women’s Room , Marilyn French spent over fifteen years with a team of researchers and prominent historians examining women’s lives and activities in civilizations and societies spanning the ages.

Beginning in prehistory, Origins moves on to examine women’s lives in ancient Egypt, China, India, Peru, Mexico, Greece, and Rome. In her reconstruction of wars, laws, and other activities affecting both women and men, French also traces the worldviews underpinning them. She also depicts how women’s relationship to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam changed for good and bad over the centuries.

“She backs up even her more controversial theories with an impressive accumulation of academically accepted historical, anthropological and sociological sources . . . Written in concise, understated language, this is a significant addition to literature on women’s studies and history.� � Publishers Weekly]]> 336 Marilyn French 1558615652 é 0 to-read 4.03 2003 From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women in the World, Vol. 1
author: Marilyn French
name: é
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Frozen in Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition]]> 832619
The Franklin expedition was not alone in suffering early and unexplained deaths. Indeed, the expeditions of both Back (1837) and Ross (1849) were forced to retreat because of the rapacious illness that stalked their ships. The authors make the case that this illness was due to the crews� overwhelming reliance on a new technology: tinned foods. This not only exposed the seamen to lead, an insidious poison, but also left them vulnerable to scurvy.

The revised "Frozen in Time" will also update the research outlined in the original edition, and will introduce independent confirmation of Dr. Beattie’s lead hypothesis, along with corroboration of his discovery of physical evidence for both scurvy and cannibalism. In addition, the book includes a new introduction written by Margaret Atwood, who has long been fascinated by the role of the Franklin Expedition in Canada’s literary conscience.

Includes never before seen photographs from the exhumations on Beechey Island and rarely seen historical illustrations.]]> 288 Owen Beattie 1553650603 é 0 to-read 4.06 1987 Frozen in Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition
author: Owen Beattie
name: é
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1987
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Feast for Crows (A Song of Ice and Fire, #4)]]> 13497 Crows will fight over a dead man's flesh, and kill each other for his eyes.

Bloodthirsty, treacherous and cunning, the Lannisters are in power on the Iron Throne in the name of the boy-king Tommen. The war in the Seven Kingdoms has burned itself out, but in its bitter aftermath new conflicts spark to life.

The Martells of Dorne and the Starks of Winterfell seek vengeance for their dead. Euron Crow's Eye, as black a pirate as ever raised a sail, returns from the smoking ruins of Valyria to claim the Iron Isles. From the icy north, where Others threaten the Wall, apprentice Maester Samwell Tarly brings a mysterious babe in arms to the Citadel.

Against a backdrop of incest and fratricide, alchemy and murder, victory will go to the men and women possessed of the coldest steel and the coldest hearts.]]> 1060 George R.R. Martin 055358202X é 4 AHHHHHHHH. 4.16 2005 A Feast for Crows (A Song of Ice and Fire, #4)
author: George R.R. Martin
name: é
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/25
date added: 2024/08/25
shelves:
review:
AHHHHHHHH.
]]> Child of God 293625 197 Cormac McCarthy 0679728740 é 3 3.82 1973 Child of God
author: Cormac McCarthy
name: é
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1973
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/14
date added: 2024/08/14
shelves:
review:
I don’t know how to interpret this book. This was hard for me to read and I honestly don’t know if I really understood it�
]]> <![CDATA[Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human]]> 20942 New York Review of Books. A landmark achievement as expansive, erudite, and passionate as its renowned author, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human is the culmination of a lifetime of reading, writing about, and teaching Shakespeare. Preeminent literary critic-and ultimate authority on the western literary tradition-Harold Bloom leads us through a comprehensive reading of every one of the dramatist's plays, brilliantly illuminating each work with unrivaled warmth, wit and insight. At the same time, Bloom presents one of the boldest theses of Shakespearean scholarships: that Shakespeare not only invented the English language, but also created human nature as we know it today.]]> 745 Harold Bloom 157322751X é 3
Some really cool ideas in this. But Bloom has some hit and miss essays� I like MOST of what he says.
]]> 4.03 1998 Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human
author: Harold Bloom
name: é
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1998
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/14
date added: 2024/08/14
shelves:
review:
3.5

Some really cool ideas in this. But Bloom has some hit and miss essays� I like MOST of what he says.

]]> <![CDATA[Phosphorescence: On Awe, Wonder and Things That Sustain You When the World Goes Dark]]> 52541673 320 Julia Baird 1460710894 é 4 3.75 2020 Phosphorescence: On Awe, Wonder and Things That Sustain You When the World Goes Dark
author: Julia Baird
name: é
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/08
date added: 2024/08/08
shelves:
review:
Got me through a tough week - for that I am grateful.
]]> <![CDATA[Augustus: First Emperor of Rome]]> 20949792
"A fascinating study of political life in ancient Rome."—Nick Romeo, Christian Science Monitor

Caesar Augustus� story, one of the most riveting in Western history, is filled with drama and contradiction, risky gambles and unexpected success. Thrusting himself into Rome’s extremely violent politics while yet a very young man, Augustus skillfully maneuvered his way through twisting alliances during years of civil war. Named heir to the murdered Julius Caesar, he outwitted and outlasted far more experienced rivals like Antony and Brutus.Ruling supreme, he reinvented himself as a benevolent man of peace and created a new system of government.

In this highly anticipated biography Goldsworthy puts his deep knowledge of ancient sources to full use, recounting the events of Augustus� long life in greater detail than ever before. Goldsworthy pins down the man behind the a consummate manipulator, propagandist, and showman, both generous and ruthless. Under Augustus� rule the empire prospered, yet his success was never assured and the events of his life unfolded with exciting unpredictability. Goldsworthy captures the passion and savagery, the public image and private struggles of the real man whose epic life continues to influence Western history.]]> 624 Adrian Goldsworthy 0300178727 é 4 I &lt;3 Augustus. 4.26 2014 Augustus: First Emperor of Rome
author: Adrian Goldsworthy
name: é
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/08
date added: 2024/08/08
shelves:
review:
I <3 Augustus.
]]> <![CDATA[My Brilliant Friend (The Neapolitan Novels, #1)]]> 52717097 My Brilliant Friend is also the story of a nation. Through the lives of Elena and Lila, Ferrante gives her readers the story of a city and a country undergoing momentous change.]]> 331 Elena Ferrante é 4
I liked it. I want to read the rest of the series. ]]> 4.11 2011 My Brilliant Friend (The Neapolitan Novels, #1)
author: Elena Ferrante
name: é
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/08
date added: 2024/08/08
shelves:
review:
Finished this ages ago but forgot to log�

I liked it. I want to read the rest of the series.
]]> A Little Life 29408433 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER � A stunning “portrait of the enduring grace of friendship� (NPR) about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. A masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century.

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST � MAN BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST � WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE �

A Little Life follows four college classmates—broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition—as they move to New York in search of fame and fortune. While their relationships, which are tinged by addiction, success, and pride, deepen over the decades, the men are held together by their devotion to the brilliant, enigmatic Jude, a man scarred by an unspeakable childhood trauma. A hymn to brotherly bonds and a masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century, Hanya Yanagihara’s stunning novel is about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves.]]> 723 Hanya Yanagihara 1447294831 é 3 favorites
let’s start with the good things:

i loved the writing style. i loved the fact that we were slowly shown judes life as the story went on and began to understand who he was. the thing that hurt me the most was that this story places us as merely spectators in judes life. in a way we are just like his friends, we have to watch him slowly destroy himself and be unable to help, we want to, but we can’t.

it had a good enough plot to be drawn out over 720 pages. though at times it become repetitive.
did i mention how beautiful some of the quotes and pages were?

and now the bad:

i hated how it try’s to tell the audience that once bad things happen to somebody they can never heal and never find happiness again and the only possible way out is death�

i hated how laughable some of the plot point were, let’s review the villains for this book: pedophiles from a monastery who ALL condone and the abuse of children, a psychopathic man who is a literal sadist, and a whole array of rapists, abusers, liars, predators, doctors, and one bad friend. yeah ok.

i hated how the book borders on voyeurism and felt close to fetishising jude and his past.

and i despised that fact that nobody helped him. sure they tried but none of them actually understood. even willem didn’t really get it. and it hurts me more than any death or plot point in this book; none of them were able to help him, his fate was to die miserable and alone and i hate it so much.

overall a little life was a book that highlighted the impact trauma has over us and the inescapability of childhood and life itself. it was graphic and a heavy read. i didn’t like some of the plot and felt it became repetitive and unbelievable. while i can acknowledge amazing writing and interesting prose, this book was not for me.]]> 4.36 2015 A Little Life
author: Hanya Yanagihara
name: é
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2021/08/11
date added: 2024/07/01
shelves: favorites
review:
you know when you cry so much that you can’t breath and your face becomes sticky and you felt like you might just burst into a thousand little rain drops? yeah this is the feeling you get reading a little life

let’s start with the good things:

i loved the writing style. i loved the fact that we were slowly shown judes life as the story went on and began to understand who he was. the thing that hurt me the most was that this story places us as merely spectators in judes life. in a way we are just like his friends, we have to watch him slowly destroy himself and be unable to help, we want to, but we can’t.

it had a good enough plot to be drawn out over 720 pages. though at times it become repetitive.
did i mention how beautiful some of the quotes and pages were?

and now the bad:

i hated how it try’s to tell the audience that once bad things happen to somebody they can never heal and never find happiness again and the only possible way out is death�

i hated how laughable some of the plot point were, let’s review the villains for this book: pedophiles from a monastery who ALL condone and the abuse of children, a psychopathic man who is a literal sadist, and a whole array of rapists, abusers, liars, predators, doctors, and one bad friend. yeah ok.

i hated how the book borders on voyeurism and felt close to fetishising jude and his past.

and i despised that fact that nobody helped him. sure they tried but none of them actually understood. even willem didn’t really get it. and it hurts me more than any death or plot point in this book; none of them were able to help him, his fate was to die miserable and alone and i hate it so much.

overall a little life was a book that highlighted the impact trauma has over us and the inescapability of childhood and life itself. it was graphic and a heavy read. i didn’t like some of the plot and felt it became repetitive and unbelievable. while i can acknowledge amazing writing and interesting prose, this book was not for me.
]]> Carrie 10592
Make a date with terror and live the nightmare that is...Carrie
--back cover]]> 272 Stephen King 1416524304 é 4
I love Carrie White and I forgive her for everything by the way.]]> 4.00 1974 Carrie
author: Stephen King
name: é
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1974
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/08
date added: 2024/06/08
shelves:
review:
Psychomachia!!!

I love Carrie White and I forgive her for everything by the way.
]]> Cloudstreet 343881 Cloudstreet exemplifies the brilliant ability of fiction to captivate and inspire.

Struggling to rebuild their lives after being touched by disaster, the Pickle family, who've inherited a big house called Cloudstreet in a suburb of Perth, take in the God-fearing Lambs as tenants. The Lambs have suffered their own catastrophes, and determined to survive, they open up a grocery on the ground floor. From 1944 to 1964, the shared experiences of the two overpopulated clans -- running the gamut from drunkenness, adultery, and death to resurrection, marriage, and birth -- bond them to each other and to the bustling, haunted house in ways no one could have anticipated.

]]> 426 Tim Winton 0743234413 é 3 4.02 1991 Cloudstreet
author: Tim Winton
name: é
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1991
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/01
date added: 2024/06/01
shelves:
review:
I love this conceptually. The entire premise is so me. Winton is a gorgeous author and the interweaving of all the stories came together so magically. Yet, I just couldn’t get into this book. I had to force myself to read it at times� perhaps that is a me problem though.
]]> Hamnet 43890641 Hamnet is a luminous portrait of a marriage, at its heart the loss of a beloved child.

Warwickshire in the 1580s. Agnes is a woman as feared as she is sought after for her unusual gifts. She settles with her husband in Henley street, Stratford, and has three children: a daughter, Susanna, and then twins, Hamnet and Judith. The boy, Hamnet, dies in 1596, aged eleven. Four years or so later, the husband writes a play called Hamlet.

Award-winning author Maggie O'Farrell's new novel breathes full-blooded life into the story of a loss usually consigned to literary footnotes, and provides an unforgettable vindication of Agnes, a woman intriguingly absent from history.

A New York Times Notable Book (2020), Best Book of 2020: Guardian, Financial Times, Literary Hub, and NPR.]]> 372 Maggie O'Farrell 1472223799 é 3
Really not sure how i feel about this.

To be honest, it wasn’t really my thing. I love Shakespeare and I adore the idea of giving a voice back to the people who surrounded him, but I don’t like how it was executed. ]]> 4.16 2020 Hamnet
author: Maggie O'Farrell
name: é
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/15
date added: 2024/05/15
shelves:
review:
2.5

Really not sure how i feel about this.

To be honest, it wasn’t really my thing. I love Shakespeare and I adore the idea of giving a voice back to the people who surrounded him, but I don’t like how it was executed.
]]> <![CDATA[An Artist of the Floating World]]> 28922
Now, as the mature Ono struggles through the aftermath of that war, his memories of his youth and of the “floating world”—the nocturnal world of pleasure, entertainment, and drink—offer him both escape and redemption, even as they punish him for betraying his early promise. Indicted by society for its defeat and reviled for his past aesthetics, he relives the passage through his personal history that makes him both a hero and a coward but, above all, a human being.]]> 206 Kazuo Ishiguro 0571225365 é 4
Actually excited to study this in school.]]> 3.79 1986 An Artist of the Floating World
author: Kazuo Ishiguro
name: é
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1986
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/27
date added: 2024/04/27
shelves:
review:
Ishiguro is a master at interweaving past and present. I loved his use of an unreliable narrator to explore the zeitgeist of post war Japan.

Actually excited to study this in school.
]]> For Whom the Bell Tolls 46170 For Whom the Bell Tolls. The story of Robert Jordan, a young American in the International Brigades attached to an antifascist guerilla unit in the mountains of Spain, it tells of loyalty and courage, love and defeat, and the tragic death of an ideal. In his portrayal of Jordan's love for the beautiful Maria and his superb account of El Sordo's last stand, in his brilliant travesty of La Pasionaria and his unwillingness to believe in blind faith, Hemingway surpasses his achievement in The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms to create a work at once rare and beautiful, strong and brutal, compassionate, moving and wise. "If the function of a writer is to reveal reality," Maxwell Perkins wrote to Hemingway after reading the manuscript, "no one ever so completely performed it." Greater in power, broader in scope, and more intensely emotional than any of the author's previous works, it stands as one of the best war novels of all time.]]> 471 Ernest Hemingway é 4 3.98 1940 For Whom the Bell Tolls
author: Ernest Hemingway
name: é
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1940
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/18
date added: 2024/04/18
shelves:
review:
This is a good book. Hate on Hemingway all you want but this man knows his craft!
]]> Crush 96259 Crush, selected as the 2004 winner of the Yale Younger Poets prize, is a powerful collection of poems driven by panic and obsession. Siken writes with ferocity, and his reader hurtles unstoppably with him. His poetry is confessional, gay, savage, and charged with violent eroticism. In the world of American poetry, Siken's voice is striking. In her introduction to the book, competition judge Louise Glück hails the “cumulative, driving, apocalyptic power, [and] purgatorial recklessness� of Siken’s poems. She notes, “Books of this kind dream big. . . . They restore to poetry that sense of crucial moment and crucial utterance which may indeed be the great genius of the form.”]]> 80 Richard Siken 0300107897 é 4
After years of reading this book via tumblr posts, I have finally sat down and actually absorbed the words. There are some truly sensational poems in here� some just remind me too much of drarry web weaving though - which I suppose is my own fault.]]> 4.35 2005 Crush
author: Richard Siken
name: é
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/01
date added: 2024/04/01
shelves:
review:
Poetry is best when it is obsessive.

After years of reading this book via tumblr posts, I have finally sat down and actually absorbed the words. There are some truly sensational poems in here� some just remind me too much of drarry web weaving though - which I suppose is my own fault.
]]> <![CDATA[On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft]]> 10569 (back cover)]]> 320 Stephen King 0743455967 é 4 4.33 2000 On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
author: Stephen King
name: é
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/31
date added: 2024/03/31
shelves:
review:
Feeling emotional about writing right now� I’m so grateful to have words :)
]]> Dark Places 5886881
Since then, she has been drifting. But when she is contacted by a group who are convinced of Ben's innocence, Libby starts to ask questions she never dared to before. Was the voice she heard her brother's? Ben was a misfit in their small town, but was he capable of murder? Are there secrets to uncover at the family farm or is Libby deluding herself because she wants her brother back?

She begins to realise that everyone in her family had something to hide that day... especially Ben. Now, twenty-four years later, the truth is going to be even harder to find.

Who did massacre the Day family?]]> 424 Gillian Flynn 0307341569 é 4
Flynn is such a freaky genius. I love me a complex and messed up female narrator! The twist wasn’t as crazy this time, and the ending was quite nice - Libby I love you.

A solid read that was easy to escape into.

]]> 3.95 2009 Dark Places
author: Gillian Flynn
name: é
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/31
date added: 2024/03/31
shelves:
review:
3.5

Flynn is such a freaky genius. I love me a complex and messed up female narrator! The twist wasn’t as crazy this time, and the ending was quite nice - Libby I love you.

A solid read that was easy to escape into.


]]> The Shining (The Shining, #1) 11588 497 Stephen King 0450040186 é 4
And! I even cried at the end� maybe the true ghosts were the friends we made along the way <3]]> 4.28 1977 The Shining (The Shining, #1)
author: Stephen King
name: é
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1977
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/24
date added: 2024/03/24
shelves:
review:
This was??? So good???? Sorry I am totally a Stephen King convert. Better than the Kubrick adaptation by miles, The Shining is essentially a book about family, memory, and love. I felt genuine terror from certain scenes and the characters really came to life for me.

And! I even cried at the end� maybe the true ghosts were the friends we made along the way <3
]]> How to Read and Why 20943 Shedding all polemic, Bloom addresses the solitary reader, who, he urges, should read for the purest of all reasons: to discover and augment the self. His ultimate faith in the restorative power of literature resonates on every page of this infinitely rewarding and important book.]]> 288 Harold Bloom 0684859076 é 3 3.63 2000 How to Read and Why
author: Harold Bloom
name: é
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2000
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/19
date added: 2024/03/19
shelves:
review:
I love how Bloom is just shameless in his reverence of Shakespeare and the Canon� mad respect.
]]> Do Not Say We Have Nothing 31549906
Master storyteller Madeleine Thien takes us inside an extended family in China, showing us the lives of two successive generations—those who lived through Mao’s Cultural Revolution and their children, who became the students protesting in Tiananmen Square. At the center of this epic story are two young women, Marie and Ai-Ming. Through their relationship Marie strives to piece together the tale of her fractured family in present-day Vancouver, seeking answers in the fragile layers of their collective story. Her quest will unveil how Kai, her enigmatic father, a talented pianist, and Ai-Ming’s father, the shy and brilliant composer, Sparrow, along with the violin prodigy Zhuli were forced to reimagine their artistic and private selves during China’s political campaigns and how their fates reverberate through the years with lasting consequences.

With maturity and sophistication, humor and beauty, Thien has crafted a novel that is at once intimate and grandly political, rooted in the details of life inside China yet transcendent in its universality.]]> 474 Madeleine Thien 039360988X é 4
]]> 3.90 2016 Do Not Say We Have Nothing
author: Madeleine Thien
name: é
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/18
date added: 2024/03/18
shelves:
review:
I love art! Seriously, it's books like these that remind me of the beauty of history, music, writing, and survival. While the start of the novel was at times confusing to follow, by the end i was so completely wrapped up in the story and characters. A very interesting exploration of modern Chinese history and heritage. I would recommend .


]]> Little Fires Everywhere 34273236
In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is meticulously planned � from the layout of the winding roads, to the colours of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules.

Enter Mia Warren � an enigmatic artist and single mother � who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenage daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than just tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother–daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past, and a disregard for the rules that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.

When old family friends attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town � and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia's past. But her obsession will come at an unexpected and devastating cost . . .]]> 338 Celeste Ng 0735224293 é 3 4.05 2017 Little Fires Everywhere
author: Celeste Ng
name: é
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/03
date added: 2024/03/02
shelves:
review:
Not highbrow or revolutionary in any way - but an entertaining read that got me through a very stressful week lol
]]> <![CDATA[Stella Maris (The Passenger, #2)]]> 60526802
1972, BLACK RIVER FALLS, Alicia Western, twenty years old, with forty thousand dollars in a plastic bag, admits herself to the hospital. A doctoral candidate in mathematics at the University of Chicago, Alicia has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, and she does not want to talk about her brother, Bobby. Instead, she contemplates the nature of madness, the human insistence on one common experience of the world; she recalls a childhood where, by the age of seven, her own grandmother feared for her; she surveys the intersection of physics and philosophy; and she introduces her cohorts, her chimeras, the hallucinations that only she can see. All the while, she grieves for Bobby, not quite dead, not quite hers. Told entirely through the transcripts of Alicia’s psychiatric sessions, Stella Maris is a searching, rigorous, intellectually challenging coda to The Passenger, a philosophical inquiry that questions our notions of God, truth, and existence.]]> 190 Cormac McCarthy 0307269000 é 4 3.83 2022 Stella Maris (The Passenger, #2)
author: Cormac McCarthy
name: é
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/24
date added: 2024/02/24
shelves:
review:
Liked it more than The Passenger. Super interesting discussion. And a really cool way of examining a character BUT I just can't stomach the incest plot - I'm sorry it's just too weird.
]]> <![CDATA[The Passenger (The Passenger #1)]]> 60581087
Traversing the American South, from the garrulous barrooms of New Orleans to an abandoned oil rig off the Florida coast, The Passenger is a breathtaking novel of morality and science, the legacy of sin, and the madness that is human consciousness.]]> 385 Cormac McCarthy 0593535227 é 3
Liked some parts better than others. The ending was beautiful. As always, McCarthy is a master of dialogue.]]> 3.58 2022 The Passenger (The Passenger #1)
author: Cormac McCarthy
name: é
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/20
date added: 2024/02/24
shelves:
review:
3.5

Liked some parts better than others. The ending was beautiful. As always, McCarthy is a master of dialogue.
]]> Beloved (Beloved Trilogy, #1) 6149 Staring unflinchingly into the abyss of slavery, this spellbinding novel transforms history into a story as powerful as Exodus and as intimate as a lullaby.

Sethe, its protagonist, was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. And Sethe's new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved. Filled with bitter poetry and suspense as taut as a rope, Beloved is a towering achievement by Nobel Prize laureate Toni Morrison.]]> 325 Toni Morrison é 5 favorites
Morrison is a master of creating haunting imagery which lingers in your brain. I can truly say I don't think I will ever forget the characters of this book - and the horrors they endured. Yes, it's a book about the terror of American slavery, but it's also a book about ghosts, about mothers, about daughters, about the type of love that consumes. My heart still hurts from this story - beloved.]]> 3.96 1987 Beloved (Beloved Trilogy, #1)
author: Toni Morrison
name: é
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1987
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/14
date added: 2024/02/13
shelves: favorites
review:
This is the best kind of book. One that rips you apart so completely and then forces you to reconstruct your entire world with a new understanding of life, pain, and love. I finished this book a few nights ago and had to emotionally recover just to even log this on here.

Morrison is a master of creating haunting imagery which lingers in your brain. I can truly say I don't think I will ever forget the characters of this book - and the horrors they endured. Yes, it's a book about the terror of American slavery, but it's also a book about ghosts, about mothers, about daughters, about the type of love that consumes. My heart still hurts from this story - beloved.
]]> Prophet Song 158875813
On a dark, wet evening in Dublin, scientist and mother-of-four Eilish Stack answers her front door to find the GNSB on her step. Two officers from Ireland’s newly formed secret police are here to interrogate her husband, a trade unionist.

Ireland is falling apart. The country is in the grip of a government turning towards tyranny and Eilish can only watch helplessly as the world she knew disappears. When first her husband and then her eldest son vanish, Eilish finds herself caught within the nightmare logic of a collapsing society.

How far will she go to save her family? And what � or who � is she willing to leave behind?

Exhilarating, terrifying and propulsive, Prophet Song is a work of breathtaking originality, offering a devastating vision of a country at war and a deeply human portrait of a mother’s fight to hold her family together.]]> 259 Paul Lynch é 3
That being said, the narrative style created an emotional distance between the reader and the characters, which I didn't like too much]]> 4.03 2023 Prophet Song
author: Paul Lynch
name: é
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/11
date added: 2024/02/10
shelves:
review:
Oh gosh this was so sad. A moving insight into a piece of history which I hadn't learnt much about.

That being said, the narrative style created an emotional distance between the reader and the characters, which I didn't like too much
]]> Diaries, 1910-1923 17686 These diaries cover the years 1910 to 1923, the year before Kafka’s death at the age of forty. They provide a penetrating look into life in Prague and into Kafka’s accounts of his dreams, his feelings for the father he worshipped, and the woman he could not bring himself to marry, his sense of guilt, and his feelings of being an outcast. They offer an account of a life of almost unbearable intensity.




From the Trade Paperback edition.

The Diaries of Franz Kafka 1910-13 translated from the German by Joseph Kresh
The Diaries of Franz Kafka 1914-23 translated from the German by Martin Greenberg with the cooperation of Hannah Arendt]]> 521 Franz Kafka 0805209069 é 3 Okay. Freak. 4.29 1949 Diaries, 1910-1923
author: Franz Kafka
name: é
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1949
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/03
date added: 2024/02/02
shelves:
review:
Okay. Freak.
]]> A Moveable Feast 4631 192 Ernest Hemingway é 4 4.04 1964 A Moveable Feast
author: Ernest Hemingway
name: é
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1964
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/28
date added: 2024/01/28
shelves:
review:
This is essentially just a travel guide - a chance for Hemingway to show off his masterful sentence structures and Romantic early career. No plot as such, literally nothing happens. But I liked it. I truly am a sucker for Paris...
]]> All the Light We Cannot See 18143977
In a mining town in Germany, Werner Pfennig, an orphan, grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find that brings them news and stories from places they have never seen or imagined. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments and is enlisted to use his talent to track down the resistance. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another.

From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, the stunningly beautiful instant New York Times bestseller about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.

An alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here]]> 544 Anthony Doerr 1476746583 é 4 4.31 2014 All the Light We Cannot See
author: Anthony Doerr
name: é
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/29
date added: 2024/01/28
shelves:
review:
I liked this more than I thought I would. Very beautifully constructed. I agree with many criticisms on it's portrayal of the war and lack of deeper nuance. But I still felt captivated by the narrative, despite its flaws.
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