Sleepy and bored and tired 😂

any book described as "horny" piques my interest⚛

I will definitely be checking this out

Glad you liked this! I finished it last week, and wasn’t as impressed. Part 1 intrigued me, but Part 2 bored me to tears, it almost seemed like an enemies to lovers trope romance, and I’m not a prude but at times it bordered on erotica. There was just too much. The writing and twist were good, but romance just isn’t my thing. (I guess I have a cold, cold heart. 😂)

Sounds like a good book, we love a good plot twist!😘

Thanks for the great review. I’ll add it to my TBR.

h o r n i e s t p e a r s

I think her name is pronounced like "vowden"

I’ve seen one review that puts Ms. van der Wouden in the same league as Patricia Highsmith, so that’s good enough for me. Unfortunately, the book is about $40 up here, so I’ve put a reserve on a copy at the local library. Also, as far as the novel having WWII reverberating in the background, I see that Ms. van der Wouden has written an essay on being Dutch and Jewish called, “On (Not) Reading Anne Frank”. I’ve found a copy online and the essay begins like this: “The first time someone told me I looked like Anne Frank was also the first conversation I had about pubic hair.” As Ms. van der Wouden explains in her essay, she was born in Israel and emigrated to the Netherlands with her family when she was ten. During her whole childhood and beyond, she was constantly told she looked like Anne Frank. Speaking of pears, if you want to see a sexy, sensual eating scene, you should check out the film, “Tom Jones", based on Henry Fielding’s 18th century novel. The film stars Albert Finney, Susannah York, and a number of other acclaimed British actors, and is just as fresh and funny now as the day it was released back in 1963. It won four Oscars that year, including Best Picture. There is one scene where Tom Jones sits down with a buxom Mrs. Waters to have a bountiful and seductive supper--including pears, I believe--at an olde English country inn, and what the two of them do with their food makes you think they should have rented a room. Actually, they do that, too, later on!

"I'm assuming there's going to be things that are worse, but who knows" *laughs in Headshot*

Can you review something at my reading level? Betty & Veronica's Digest, perhaps? 😆

ha ha ha i loved this review. i've been somewhat curious about this one and may still read it --- if so, i'll let you know if i file it under wondrously floating or overwritten + boring 🚀 i previously started harvey's book about insomnia but sort of fell off

Better late than never i found this! My son loved this book and I'm digging around for ideas of other books he might love... And happy to find this review from you as i enjoy following your content!

one less book I have read⚛

I just started this one And so far I'm wondering when the story is going to start...

Right now, I'm thinking about the KZbin video by Strange Lucidity that you posted on your July 21st newsletter, the one where she talks about a book by Pierre Bayard titled, "How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read".

You are dead inside. 🤣 Actually I agree with most of your criticisms but I ended up liking it more than you did. I do find it baffling it made the longlist. Unless they picked it because it was the most litfic SF book they'd come across so it ticked a genre box. It is at times like this that I again ask what books they rejected to put this longlist together. I do think it is written like that deliberately to reflect that professional calm attitude to crises that astronauts are trained to have.

Not my experience of book. I enjoyed and appreciated. Very philosophical and spiritual with effective descriptive writing. Not sure we were meant to connect w characters in such a short book of this type. No plot really and like all books, not for everyone . With no real plot, I was glad it was very short though:)

What a thorough review. Thank you!

I agree. What is it with Irish writers and their idea that disregarding the rules of grammar is clever? Sally Rooney and now Lynch. Sheesh, the pretentiousness lays heavily on this. Second sentence: 'How the dark gathers without sound the cherry trees' Did Lynch fantasise that he was writing a Haiku or is it a typo? The latter I could almost forgive.

*Apologies in advance, long rant ahead* Long time Jane Eyre fan here and I feel it can be difficult to retell the story in a modern setting due to the context of its 19th century backdrop. For myself, Jane is a strong and resilient character who faces lots of hardships but continues to try and find the best place for herself and makes the choices of her own accord. Still lessons we can keep with us today I feel. It’s an excellent story but put it in a modern setting exactly as is and it’s challenging especially with its Gothic elements. I would recommend Re Jane by Patricia Park and as someone says Jane by April Linder. While Re Jane is not a particular favorite, I found it to be a decent modern retelling of Jane Eyre as is Linder’s version. I also agree that reading Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea is good to get a look at Bertha’s perspective. While I view it as a retelling like other books (example: Longbourn about the Bennet Staff in Pride & Prejudice), WSS does give a good perspective on the Cerole elements mentioned in Jane Eyre. IMO, I feel Rhys, herself a Cerole, put a lot of her experiences into Bertha for WSS which is good as the stereotypes and discrimination on Ceroles continues to be very present in society. My only real issue with WSS is like what initiatinreallife states her comment about mental illness as I too have a history of mental illness in my own family, as such it also shaped my perceptions of Bertha. Long before reading WSS, I felt bad for Bertha as 19th century mental treatments were horrific in their own way and as such, she and the family who inherited the mental illness (if we are to go by Jane Eyre), never got a fair shake in real life. So, while WSS offers a reason for why Bertha may have gone mad, there is also the possibility she did have a hereditary mental illness like many in her time that could not be properly treated or managed. It is also important to note that I do not agree with Rochester’s methods from a 21st century perspective, however in the 19th century I can see why his decision to keep her in what he deemed a safer place than the mental asylums may have been viewed as better. At the same time, I also felt sad for her and Rochester as I feel both got screwed in the time and place of the 19th century. (It is also important to note that I am speaking about my family experience and book thoughts as a white woman from a mostly white family) This is why I do not feel Jane Eyre could be placed in the modern setting though my fanfiction, which I may never publish in online sites (who knows), feature my own experiences with mental illness and how loved ones handle it. I began writing one story in which Rochester was married to Bertha at a young age in the modern setting, but when diagnosed with mental illness there were many struggles that ultimately affected their marriage resulting in divorce and Rochester moving on but struggling with his own mental health. My mom was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in the early 1990s. I was a young child then and cannot recall if I ever saw her in a manic episode, if I did, I was too young to remember. She went in and out of mental hospitals for 6 years and never went back until 17 years later when she took a different medication from the bad advice of a new doctor, descended into mental breakdowns, and was put back in the mental hospital. It took a few weeks, but she was back to managing her symptoms with the right medication. I remembered from that time how jarring it was to see my mother in a manic episode where she was in a sort of confusion but aware of who we were, but going off to places without her phone or picking it up if it was on her, irritable but not violent. Then I recalled my father saying to my brother and I, “Now you see what I have been going through. At times I felt like a single parent.” I asked him years later, as I have been on a Jane Eyre kick, how he dealt with my mother’s mental illness. He responded: "One day at a time and stressful. You have to choose two options. Walk away or tough it out. I chose to tough it out because walking away would mean leaving the other person behind." Since then, I have done my own research into how mental illness affects everyone involved and it gave me good perspective. Obviously, we do not put people in attics today if they are mentally ill and advanced knowledge and resources are able to help us, but there are still challenges everyone faces with this and discussions on the body, medication, and more. My mom is doing fine but she will have bipolar disorder until her own passing and given its hereditary (whether it was previously in her family or not is unclear), it could be passed on to her future generations or the other side of the family genes (by this I mean in-laws). It's why I felt Jane represented a woman walking away from something that was ultimately wrong for her and only goes back because it’s where her heart truly lied, but only after she had some growth, made peace with her past, and inherited a fortune that could make her on a more equal stature with Rochester or anyone else. She also to me, seems a person who knows Rochester's character enough that he is a decent man despite his faults, such as financially providing for Adele, a child that is not his, and while is sympathetic to Bertha's mental illness, seems to understand that Rochester may have been trying to do right by her in the best way he knew how within the 19th century, especially when there appeared to be no help from the Mason family. Again, not saying I agree with his methods from the 21st century perspective. Edit: To be clear, I feel it is okay to be especially sympathetic to Bertha. And more importantly reach out to anyone you love and care for that is struggling with mental health. *I welcome all perspectives*

Splendid review! Sounds like a great book

I'm planning on picking up, James soon. I'm looking forward to it.

Great review! Thank you so much!

YOU GOT THIS!! xx

so glad you liked james hope it will win too. ⚛

I enjoyed reading “James” and consider it a worthy addition to the Booker Longlist. At first, I was going to read “Huckleberry Finn” alongside “James”, but then it became apparent that Everett was departing from Twain’s storyline in order to focus our attention on James, so that idea no longer made as much sense. I also wondered why Everett changed the time of his story from the 1830s or’40s, as Twain originally intended, to 1861, just as the Civil War is beginning. But that change only added an extra element of dramatic foreshadowing to the final scene of the novel. For James’s one-man attack on the Graham farm, where his wife and daughter are being held, represents only the beginning of the destruction of the slave system that will come about by the time the Civil War is over, with Northern victory having been won in part due to the 180,000 United States Colored Troops enlisted in the Union army, plus the 20,000 men of color who served aboard U.S. Navy vessels. Perhaps James was one of them.

In the ‘Translator’s Note’ by Katrina Dodson at the back of “The Complete Stories” of Clarice Lispector, Ms. Dodson discusses the author’s occasional habit of linking words that seem “contradictory or disproportionate”, resulting in combinations such as “delicate abyss” and “horribly marvelous”. I found another example of this type of Lispector wordplay in her short story “Excerpt”, when a young woman gets sick to her stomach while waiting in a bar for a male friend to arrive. The waiter politely directs the young woman to the ladies’ room and instructs her, “All you have to do is stick two fingers in the roof of your mouth.” Some time later, when the young woman returns to her table, “She leans back in her chair and feels miserably fine.” “Miserably fine” is an apt description of how one usually feels after a successful bout of vomiting. Strange to say, this was a stylistic device known to Jane Austen as well. In Chapter XXV of “Northanger Abbey”, Catherine Morland is staying with her friends, the Tilneys, when she receives a letter from her brother James informing her of the news that his engagement with Isabella Thorpe is off. Catherine is upset and wishes for some time alone to absorb the news in private. “She drew back … but was, with gentle violence, forced to return” to the consoling company of Henry and Eleanor Tilney. Now that I’ve started “Mansfield Park”, I’ll be on the lookout for any phrases similar to “gentle violence” that Austen might have used.

Besides a stream-of-consciousness approach, I would say that Virginia Woolf also uses an impressionistic style of writing in “Mrs. Dalloway”. Rather than have an omniscient narrator provide us with a comprehensive portrait gallery of Woolf’s characters, we become familiar with them as individuals through the accumulative effect of their own internal monologues, scraps of dialogue uttered by themselves and others, and the fleeting impressions they create upon the people around them, friends and strangers alike. After you’ve read far enough into the novel, you feel you are coming to know Clarissa Dalloway, Peter Walsh, Septimus Smith, and the other main characters as individuals, in the same way that stepping back from an impressionistic painting allows the artist’s assorted varicoloured brush-marks to take on the appearance in our mind’s eye of the French countryside under a summer sky, or Big Ben viewed by moonlight. The only difficulty this creates-in my experience, anyway-is that it can be very difficult to say anything categorically specific about the characters in “Mrs. Dalloway”. When Peter Walsh comes calling on Clarissa Dalloway near the beginning of the novel, Lucy the maid sees him as “the old man in the hallway”, yet only moments later, the same old man goes bounding up the stairs to see Clarissa like Tom Cruise in a Mission Impossible film. So, at age fifty-three, is Peter prematurely aged, or still physically fit? Even physical objects become mutable. We are given a description of a scene from thirty years earlier in which a garden patch of cabbages is referred to. Yet a few pages further on, and the cabbages have become cauliflowers. The cauliflowers are still cauliflowers the next time they are seen, but by the end of the novel they have reverted to cabbages again. In the process of participating in the online Virginia Woolf Reading Group, I read, reread, and thumbed through “Mrs. Dalloway” many times; yet even now, if I pick up the book and start looking through it at random, I’m almost sure to come across passages and pages that I don’t recall reading before. The effect is to create the sense that the text of “Mrs. Dalloway”-at least my copy of it-is still being revised and rewritten by Virginia Woolf from beyond the grave, as if she’s still not entirely satisfied with her work. In any case, as Alyssa mentions in her video, there is an online Virginia Woolf Reading Group, chaired by Tash, a young woman from New South Wales, Australia, which discussed “Mrs. Dalloway” this past June and July and involved people from around the world. This was my first-time taking part in such a venture, and I found it hugely enjoyable. And I wouldn’t have known about it if I hadn’t been a subscriber to Alyssa’s weekly newsletter.

OMG been asking myself this since having my first band

I am currently reading one. It is called "The Spell Shop " hope this helps!

Wow this is possibly the only good review I have heard.

the audio production of Dayspring was so magical!!

The audiobook for Violet Bent Backwards… does not contain all of the poetry. I’m not sure any of it would change your opinion, but I love the whole collection.

i think Strangers to Ourselves by Rachel Aviv would be a good follow up to committed

i'd say água viva as a next read -- breath of life is one of my favorite books of hers, and ever, but i think it benefits from having read more of her stuff. (admittedly, you have read a huge amount of her writing in the form of her short stories!) i think the life/death theme of a breath of life will be right up yr alley based on this discussion. i like the egg point, and it reminds me of a couple of her short stories, esp. "the egg and the chicken"

Thank you for recommendation! Can you also recommend a good Clarice Lispector book? What's the best to try first? Thanks!

to me the secret history is a modern classic though I'm not saying it's the best american novel of the past few decades. Currently reading ohio by stephen markley which sounds like a darker version of jonathan franzen and which got amazingly good reviews for a first novel when it came out but guess we'll have to see.⚛

If you liked Dayspring you should have a read of HIM by Geoff Ryman if you've not read it already. Nice list though.

I think Night Alphabet sounds like a unique approach for a retelling of someone’s life and trauma, through body ink. I will be checking that one out Booker regardless. Thanks for the suggestion

Hello When you said "you're the one who keeps going back to them so you need to work on you" isn't this classic victim blaming and you mentioning that she could have said who are these poems about and being better than TMZ. Normal people outsiders look at people like them for content and entertainment and forget they're humans too and I think that's what the book is trying to tell and shed light too but you did read but kinda missed the point Ig

My local independent bookstore didn’t have any copies of “Near to the Wild Heart” on its shelves, so I ordered one. It did, however, have Clarice’s “The Complete Stories”, so I’ve started right in on that and read the first three stories of the collection. For some reason, Cristina, the young female protagonist of the second story, “Obsession”, vaguely reminded me of the narrators of some of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories. It sounds odd, but there was something about the way she described her experiences of married life with her husband Jaime and her affair with Daniel that made me think of the way Poe’s male characters find themselves caught up in strange situations they can neither fully understand nor control. Cristina also reminded me of a girl I used to know who once told me she preferred relationships with guys who were more in love with her than she was with them, because it allowed her to remain in control. I thought of her again watching the interview with Clarice Lispector that you linked to when the author describes adults as becoming “sad and solitary” in later life. The first time I heard of Clarice was when Kaveh Akbar used a quote from her as an epigraph to his novel, "Martyr": "My God, I just remembered that we die." I'll be vigilant for signs that she influenced his writing. When the man in "The Fever Dream" begins to hallucinate while lying in bed, I couldn't help but think of the vision Cyrus and his friend Zee have while sitting on a park bench at the end of "Martyr". I would suggest that anyone having this collection read the introduction at the beginning of the book and then the Appendix, Translator’s Note, and Bibliographical Note at the end before tackling the stories themselves. The reader will then have a better understanding of the reasons for the idiosyncratic use of English in the translations, which only reflects Lispector’s creative use of Portuguese. It also seems that her stories sometimes appeared in slightly different versions as they were republished over the years. I also appreciated knowing the publication dates of the original stories, as it allowed me to better imagine in my theatre of the mind how her characters would have looked and dressed and how their surroundings would have appeared.

Re James. The Sellout was about as American as it gets!

I agree with everything you said. I feel like the author read some fascinating facts about time, space and math and decided to base an entire character on that minimal information. But this is a love story, it has nothing much to do with math itself, but it was thrown in like glitter to make this trauma bond look appealing. I am very conflicted about this book. The title is what drew me towards it. 2.75 stars for the concept. 3.5, for a few metaphors, emotions, and analogies that were written excellently.

I have read all or most of an abridged children's version of 'Black Beauty' by Anna Sewell. I have learning difficulties.