Alexander
A four star read that I know I'll later think “wait a minute, that absolutely should've been five stars, it was so freaking good”.
A Rooney-esque new adult rom-dram disguised as a memoir about oil rig workers. A very nice surprise, but I gotta admit, I was more excited to read it when I thought it was just gonna be about the workers and their lives bereft of women.
accessible to the point of being boring and mundane. no surprise that the highlights of the book are the chapters that don't even really focus on her own life.
Pretty enjoyable if you ignore the upsettingly formulaic beginning and super corny ending.
this book's lack of dedication to any one single genre, plot-line, or character is somehow both its greatest strength and weakness. the vagueness and mystery enthralled me many times throughout the book, but things can only be so eerie and intriguing for so long.
A love letter to the life, battles, and determination of Shehadeh's father in the face of immense adversity, and a tragic reminder that the fight to abolish Israel's stranglehold on Palestine that began 75 years ago is still being fought today.
I don't even remember enjoying the first volume of this series very much, but this one was just so expertly paced and well-written. Read it in one sitting because I literally couldn't put it down.
This feels like it was created by a machine designed to hit every romance trope I enjoy, cover relationship aspects that I hadn't really read about before, and perfectly blend the realism and surrealism that makes the genre so much fun to read.
If I ever get to “start a relationship with my elderly, former schoolteacher” levels of lonely and horny, I pray the other people in my life do something to help me.
A cute little story about change and loneliness. A little too short and sparse to be memorable, but I enjoyed my time with it.
Lou the dog is one of the funniest characters I've ever read and I'll never forget about him even though he's in this book for like 8 pages.
this was intriguing, but not interesting; boring, but not annoying. the story starts nowhere and ends somewhere that feels too close, but far enough. it's the phenomenal internalizations of the narrator, and terrifically imagined supporting characters, that keep this book afloat and made me want keep reading despite a lack of enthusiasm over where the story was going. excited to see what this author can do in the future.
so short yet so dense with abstract poeticism that most of it just went in one eye and out the other. a more patient person will surely get more out of this, but i spent each page ready for it to be over.
Moshfegh is the perfect person to write a short story collection because she's so skilled at creating cruel characters that I don't want to spend more than 40 pages with
took awhile to get going, but it only got better and better as it raced toward its finale. despite that there were many moments throughout that were written so plainly and not complementary of the grand personal story it was trying to tell. an empty museum of a book that toys with your heart when you know it could've absolutely annihilated it.
this memoir quickly devolved into a shapeless short-story collection, but it's all so well written and connected ENOUGH that i still really enjoyed it.
Gradually became less inspiring, but that beginning was some of the best nonfiction writing I've read in awhile.
