pickles
...and then you read something that reminds you how GOOD ya can be and you feel bad for dissing it.
Seamus wants to be an artist, wants to be a somebody, and dreams of escaping to London as soon as he gets out of his private prep school that he can't pay attention to. His classmates are miserable to him, his teachers are miserable to him, his parents are miserable to him, but his dreams are encouraged by his one friend and his therapist. And school might be ending sooner then Seamus dreamed.
This book is all about the events to Seamus getting out, not how the escape itself works out... maybe there will be a sequel. I would have loved this book as a teenager. All the authorities are uniformly fucked up and the main character is escaping away. Although, from this vantage, and I think the reader's vantage you know just how much he doesn't know... but I was rooting for him anyway. Just because all the voices seem to council caution in the face of his crazy plan, I still kinda hope that it works out for him anyway.
Vacation reads #3
What the movie Atomic Blonde was based on, I liked the movie better but it was a neat read. I hadn't realized it was a graphic series so maybe that affects things as well.
I'm not sure what I think yet, I hunger for someone either a) familiar with Serbian culture or Serbian lit or just this guy's overall work to read and discuss this with me! I could look for Serbian reviews/criticism, but I'm afraid the google translate problem will interfere with my understanding. Anyway! The Cyclist Conspiracy is basically an absurdist take of secret societies and the ills of the human condition using a collection of fake literature - imagine you found a box in someone's personal papers that are just collected around the common reoccurring spector of the evangelical bicyclists. Fun at first, but I got a little exhausted at all the casual misogyny, I would have dropped it if it wasn't for the fact it is my bookclub pick.
Possessed writer writing historical lesbian intellectuals. “Subtly erotic” does not count for #bookclub4m erotic romance month. I have been led astray by inaccurate subject headings. Disliked the ending.
They only translated one out of a nine part series! D: Anyway, it's super slow and talky and creepy. I only finished it for bookclub and now it's going to give me nightmares :p
how strange and depressing, I think. Love seems impossible, or fickle and to no end.
(not many fiction book have end notes and a bibliography - although maybe the historical ones should) that was pretty gross.
Delicious take on a small portion of the Dracula story - with a author intro that just whew
delightful graphic memoir about the experience of bike touring from Tuscan to (almost) Georgia.
This actually improved my understanding of Clueless, since I have not (and seem unlikely to) read Jane Austin. Otherwise it was delightful plane reading while we were stuck waiting for the bathroom smoke detector to be changed.
fantastic series of short stories set in the same community. looking forward to reading some of the other collections for sure. brutal though.
20 years after a horrible poisoning occurs - a mix of interviews and perspectives speak about the case. Can the reader ever really be sure why the suspect may have done it?
I have to say I love the aesthetic of this book firstly, it makes me happy to look at. I struggled to read it - I can see what it's trying to do and for the most part yes - blah blah diet culture, intuitive eating, intuitive movement seems like an interesting framing. Definitely targeted at more beginner audience I think, I struggled to get through it.
Pair this with Hanne Blank's The Unapologetic Fat Girl's Guide to Exercise and Other Incendiary Acts for a more radical + accessable rethinking of adding movement to your life.
The most lovely thing. Read if you love reading, if you are curious about translation, just because.
Yes, I did just read another book about anorexia. Why? Because it was there.
I got mildly into a British reality series Superfats vs Superskinnies (or something) which Woolf was also doing a bit on anorexia during that season? The concept is pairing undereaters with overeaters and forcing them to eat each other's meals in order to confront them with their dysfunctions - very “can't look/can't look away” For her part Woolf talked to range of types of anorexics to show it's not just waify teenage girls who are affected.
Woolf did a weekly column on trying to work on recovering from anorexia after 13-14 years with the disease in the hopes of being able to conceive a baby with her BF. The book feels like the culmination of that particular project. It explores what it is like to have to fight your brain on very basic human needs. Woolf also claims to have other undiagnosed mental problems, but didn't seem to be undergoing care at that point. I was curious about her sudden flashes of rage as she starts to gain weight and experience more feelings. There seemed to be so much repressed - not that she must expose all in a memoir - but it did fuel some armchair psychology.
She does go on a weird rant about how obesity is somehow more destructive for children than other forms of malnutrition. Which seems like a great wallop of whataboutism in the middle of your completely unable to deal with food memoir. Log - eye - something something. YMMV.
Very neuroscience, some evolutionary and learning development - walking is good for your brain as well as your body! But how to we increase the walkability of our cities and professional lives? How do I convince my municipality that we need larger, nicer sidewalks and smaller roadways? How do I convince my colleagues to have a walking meeting if the sidewalks aren't plowed and there is nowhere to go?
Thrilling! I can see how some would compare this to Gone Girl but it is less convoluted.
Ah! So good! “I don't care what makes you happy, just stop being weird and do something I understand!?”
