melissa

This one is my favourite Mary Oliver book so far. I always like to pick up a random Mary Oliver book when I feel idle, it gives me a peaceful feeling; but this one was more poignant than usual. There are so many poems that I wanted to share from it, but here's my favourite:

Of the Empire

We will be known as a culture that feared death
and adored power, that tried to vanquish insecurity
for the few and cared little for the penury of the
many. We will be known as a culture that taught
and rewarded the amassing of things, that spoke
little if at all about the quality of life for
people (other people), for dogs, for rivers. All
the world, in our eyes, they will say, was a
commodity. And they will say that this structure
was held together politically, which it was, and
they will say also that our politics was no more
than an apparatus to accommodate the feelings of
the heart, and that the heart, in those days,
was small, and hard, and full of meanness.

I liked it, but I kept feeling I was too old for misanthropic rants. Might be the Americanised translation of this edition.

It's a really well made book, complete and thorough, however John Lennon is not one to wax lyrical in letters. It's a bunch of stream-of-consciousness piece of papers, filled with inside jokes between him and himself, with doodles. He talks about the influence of The Goon Show on him and Britain, and it feels like he always speaks in that voice. There are only a couple of genuine letters, one to Paul, one to Cynthia, and some to his cousin Liela, but mainly it feels like he's throwing random words on postcards and sending them to people all over the world.

Anyway, this book can be read as a John Lennon biography (as it was written by the writer of The Beatles' official biography, and a friend of John) it goes through all the phases of his life, with letters as documentation, and gives a lot of insight into the Beatles disintegration, his family life (in all its forms), and his (very brief phase of) activism.

I used to be obsessed with John Lennon (before I've even heard a Beatles album), I remember downloading a compilation of his work online, just to check him out, and having that album on loop for the next 6 months, and my love for his music just kept getting bigger and bigger. But, I'm glad I read this book, after I got a bit over him as a person, cause he's really so flawed, however good his intentions may be. I guess the book just shows how normal he was, however eccentric he might've seemed.

Loved it. I'm a big fan of Budnik's drawing style, and the vignettes are very touching.
Recommended.

Definitely a funny read. PG Wodehouse is one of the rare authors that make me laugh out loud. It's absurd, and random and good story telling.

It was a really nice enjoyable book to read and relax. Asmita in this book is sharing her thoughts and feelings, and it feels like a discussion, wether you agree or not, it's definitely nice to think about the issues she broached. The drawings capture the poems really nicely and the book flows smoothly from start to finish.

It was a very interesting read, though a bit repetitive through the middle. Kartini's push for education for girls, her critic of the Javanese culture, and a lot of questions about the glorification of the colonizers, and their “open-minded” culture, while faced with their racism and destruction in your own land. The letters read as a continuous search for answers, sadly Kartini died at the age of 25, four days after childbirth.

Loved it. I enjoyed the story, from the style it feels like someone is recounting the tale and it really made me nostalgic. Also the illustrations are the damn beautiful. Officially one of my favourite illustration books.

I would give the first half (formation of the state of Lebanon till the early 70s) 5/5
And I would give the second half (the civil war from 1975 till 1986) 2/5

The first half is really informative, really puts into perspective the coming of the war, it was not out of the blue but a war already discussed by israel since the 50s, by the western powers in this context, and bound to happen the way the west created the contradictory state that is Lebanon.

However, the second half is just really not accurate. I will give the author the benefit of the doubt as she had published the book in 1986, so with no real in hindsight analysis. She had no idea Syria will never normalize relations, and will protect the Resistance so efficiently it kept growing until liberation (in the book she keeps eluding to this Syria-israel peace deal), that the Muslim Resistance will lead the liberation of Lebanon and form a Resistance axis (and not the PLO) and that Arafat at the first chance he gets, will sign a peace deal with Israel and sell the cause.

A main problem is the whitewashing of both Jumblatt's and Arafat's History, who were both using the Palestinian cause to gain power, and vilifying whomever stood against them (another thing time would've proven that those who stood against him, were the ones still fighting israel -unlike Fatah- obviously not speaking of Kataeb) and another problem is vilifying any religious movement, however revolutionary in the Lebanese context it were (Mousa Sadr was bad, Hezb is anti-semitic and not anti-zionist, the irani revolution brought fundamentalism to the area not wahhabism etc...), and then she offensively only spoke of the PSP as left and completely ignored the Lebanese Communist Party, the PFLP, the SSNP and other more genuine leftist and resistance movements. She even skipped over some ethnic cleansing instances, cause it wouldn't fit her narrative, cause “christians bad”. I will not list all my problems with the book, but these were my main issues.

So in summary first half is great, second half could only be used as a chronological reference point but very simplistic and at times erroneous analysis of those years.

I enjoyed this one so much. The characters are really interesting, the story is really cool, not all fast paced and action filled, which is something i prefer, and i found it really funny. The whole British guy in France making all these faux pas in the French Language is hilarious to me.

I always have a problem with translated poems, which made this edition the perfect introduction to Rumi's work. It's a collection of his poems written originally in Arabic, accompanied by an English translation. Wasn't a fan of the style of the translation, but needed the extra help understanding the more difficult Arabic words. I absolutely loved the poems, no surprise there.

It was such a lovely read. A book to be read while surrounded with nature.

This book reads more as a collaboration than a translation. LeGuin took some artistic liberties with her interpretations, but explains her thought process through out. Also very interesting read if you're into the different way the book has been translated and explained, she's as usual very thorough.

It was fun, but really could not find the point to this story. Also very cringe on-going reference to the Palestinian cause, to the point that I had no idea if the writer was making fun of it or not.

I really enjoy Shrigley's illustrations. They seem random and absurd then somehow on point. There's nothing extra in comparison to his instagram page, however always support your favourite artists.

This is a beautiful book. It's cute, the illustrations are poetic, and the poem describing the science behind flowers is lovely.

Definitely an interesting read. Had to fact check along the way, see what was proven and what was a theory. But even on cases that are complete conjecture, the official files are built on nonsense, so foulplay is very easily called in. Either way, we know cointelpro happened, so did MKultra and operation chaos, the fact that a similar thing influenced the fate of “unruly” musicians is not a stretch in my opinion. Until more files are declassified basically.

I loved his style and that's the only reason I kept reading. Sologub is a surrealist poet, and that does not make for the most consistent plot it seems, or really even the existence of a plot. I read some analysis about the book, and it's supposed to be read as a dream? Like a series of events that are not connected yet do have a chronology to them? Also seems like it should be read as the antithesis of Sologub's The Petty Demon? I don't know, I just know that I would definitely read more by Sologub, I am definitely intrigued, but maybe not a novel next time.

It's exactly what the title describes. The short stories are not overtly surreal, but with an underlying eeriness. I enjoyed all the shorts in the collection, they're like a “Psychological ghost story”.

I always enjoy Peanuts, weirdly Snoopy is really not my favourite character. I had picked this one up at a used book market, so not a bad find, it made me laugh.

I agree with her on the importance of Optimism and hope, that the pessimist is a traitor to his race, that defeatism has no place in the human experience. Pessimism is being used in our age to destroy the human spirit, better to control the masses, that tends to happen when secularism seems lauded and no one believes in something bigger. But i digress, the low-ish rating is for the colonialist language taking over the examples in that essay. To believe that America is a land of the free when it was built on genocide and slavery is quite embarrassing, and that's one example. This essay is written early on in her life, and i've read some of her later works which are very different in sentiment in regard to America's past. So basically good message, great writing as usual, but arguments built on colonialist delusions.

That was the most unhinged thing I ever read.

i first thought it was a romcom fiction book (cause that's what the adaptation is) and i was 20% in before I realized i was mistaken. It was still a good read, having been stung and tortured by loving a cursed football team i could only empathize, even though I have never been interested in English football or know any of their players. There is a realization that watching football has nothing to do with entertainment and thus comes the book to wonder why so many people go through it. And even though I have decided to quit caring about football (the semi-final loss of Brazil against Germany 7-1 can do that) i still did name my cat after a Brazilian footballer cause really you can never stop caring.

This went from “this is the worst John Green book”, to “actually this is the best” to “ffs John can u please write a complete ending for once not one that feels like someone ripped the last 10 pages of the book”

Anyway it was fun, 3.5/5
Took me a bit to remove Cara Delavigne's face from my mind when imagining Margo, then everything worked out.

Truly bad. Maybe would've been more bearable if i'd read it in its original language, the French translation was just cringy, there's a limit to how many literally translated American idioms i can take, and the word “bled” thrown around by supposed Americans was not something i enjoyed. But i do doubt it would've been any better in English, there's just no point to it.

Then every speech bubble is like some tweet take, guess they wanted to be “informative”. It being a webcomic makes more sense, and maybe keep the takes for twitter, or a pamphlet. The dialogue was so bad i dnt think i'll get over it.