Tariana
O livro se vende como uma fantasia baseada em mitologia sul-americana mas pouco se fala dos assuntos. Os seres fantástico são descritos de forma breve, única coisa que sei é que Reina é de uma espécie que tem rabo e que Eva tem chifres e ambas espécies são cada vez mais raras. Mas há pouca apresentação dos seres fantásticos e até desenvolvimento de personagens. Os diálogos parecem escritos por um aluno de ensino fundamental, sem descrever emoções ou ações, apenas falas soltas. A resolução da história é também corrida e simplista. Exceto pelo capítulo final que soaram como 100 páginas de dois personagens falando nada com nada. Até que gostei das personagens e se a história tivesse sido melhor desenvolvida eu até pensaria em pegar o restante da trilogia para ler.
What an amazing journey of self discovery, healing and freedom. I still have no words to describe how this book has changed me but I know it did. It opened my mind and taught me different ways of living, different relationship dynamics, different ways of experimenting sex and aging. It has also broken my heart with so many stories of abused women, some of them while still little girls, some of them with the consent of their own mother, who should know better and protect, and stories about the prejudice african women suffer when living abroad, being seeing as good women to have sex with but not to be married with, even by african men. This book is a reminder that violence against women is very real and still present on our society.
The book just kept me anguished but I couldn't stop reading it. The ending was difficult, I felt nauseated, unhopeful and once again, anguished. I had to take many pauses, I could only complete it after I told my husband that I needed to share everything that was happening so I could put out my feelings. Well done, RF Kuang, I missed reading books with so well written characters and I'll certainly miss Rin, Kitay, Venka, the Trifecta and the Cike. Now let me go grab a lighter book to read so I can emotionally recover from this.
What a heartwarming story even though it is about a murder. Or it seems to be about a murder until you realize it's about much more than that: it's about friendship, about encouragement, about not taking people for granted. It's really inspiring, some notes she makes about the Chinese culture, like kids looking after parents advice not because they need but as a sign of respect and to make them feel useful, really got into me. I grew up with this urge to do things by myself, always hated when people tried to help as I'd see it as lack of competence of my part and that people was doubting of my capabilities trying to teach me how to live. So it was good to have a fresh point of view of life. I really need to have fresh pov.
On another note, I am in love with the style of the writing, I wish one day I'll be able to write something with the same style, sarcastic and audacious.
I don't even know where to start talking about this book. I read it through my French Class Book Club, recommended by a fellow student. I hated the main character all the way through it up to the epilogue. She lacks communication skills, she is super emotionally dependent of her husband, she is mean, she has “Bentinho” vibes, and she is a bad mother (if you decide to have kids for whatever reason, own your responsibility and take good care of them, they didn't ask to be born).
Despite all of that, the book really kept my interest through its writing, there's a dark mysterious tone that makes you curious about what is going to happen, specially because the story is narrated through a week of the characters life, as the days pass you get more excited about the plot.
Long before Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, there was Carole King, Joni Mitchell and Carly Simon. Their feminist lyrics won over young women in the 60s and 70s, at the height of the hippie movement and female sexual liberation. If today it is still difficult for a woman to be successful in the music world and remain relevant after the age of 30, just imagine what it was like for them. Although their lives were made easier because they were all from middle to upper class families, they still suffered society's prejudices, the impositions of how they should behave as women, mothers and wives. And I felt sad to realize that the world simply forgot about them and I keep wondering what the future will be for the current generation of feminist singers. Will they still be able to stay relevant after 40? Or are they doomed to oblivion? The younger generations know who Madonna and Cindy Lauper are.
In addition to these questions, observing their behavior in relation to their partners, parents, children, friends made me question my own stance and try to be more emotionally independent and take control of my life without expecting others to take any attitude towards myself.
What an intense book! I had no idea about the history of Jamaica, now I'm about to deep dive on it. The only reason for giving it 4 stars is that I though the end confusing: how did Gillian knew where to find Irie when it says that Irie itself didn't know where the club was? Also it doesn't explain how Kojo died, how Gillian's family heard about her death, how they reacted, if they retaliated somehow, and why the radio station was called Irie?
Listening to that was a lot of fun. An adventurous nonsense inside a virtual world, a self conscious NPC causing havoc on the system just because it wanted to have friends. Meanwhile, Faith, Derek, Ramona and Beasley grow closer while trying to figure out what is wrong. Derek is the one who grows the most, having growing inside this virtual world, it is heartwarming to see him realize he has friends on the real world.
I am loving this series. It brings some reflections regarding human x robot and what makes as human, but that is very thin, the story is mostly focused on the adventures. A new character was added, Art, which I loved, and I hope Art will be back on the next adventures, their partnership was amazing.
Le dernière volume... c'était très intéressant témoigner la guérison de Marjane après tout qu'elle a vécu en Autriche. Et quelle relation saine elle entretient avec sa famille, l'influence de ses parents et de sa grand-mère sur son processus de maturation est remarquable, comme leur soutien tant dans son mariage, même qu'ils savait que ce serait un échec, que dans son divorce.
I couldn't wait for it to be over. I understand the book was written in early 2000s and the world was different then, however I was astonished about how homophobic, racist, elitist, and chauvinist this book was. It is way more retrograde than books I have read from classical writers, like Dickens. Let's not even get into the problematics of a naked man showing up to a 7 years old girl and asking her to keep it secret. Beyond that, some parts of the book sounded like the author was lazy, it was like reading someone's diary, no deep nuances or details, just a quick description about facts of the day. I should also mention that what Claire did to her friend in the past and then again in the future made me nauseated, no level of suffering can justify her bitchiness.
Giving 1 star because it can't be lower and after all the book distracted, even if it made me mad.
À mon avis, c'était le meilleur livre de la série. Marji est une adolescente immigrée seule dans un pays qu'elle ne connaît pas, et elle est loin de ses parents, sans le soutien de sa famille. Tous le jugent selon son origine, personne ne lui donne un coup de main dans la charité. Être adolescente est déjà une période très intense dans la vie, alors imaginez comment les choses se sont passées avec Marji qui n'a plus ni sa famille à proximité ni les privilèges que l'on voyait dans les premiers livres.
Once and again, learned so much with Julia Evans zines. This topic is pretty dense, it is not something you can easily understand or that you'd see on a daily basis while working as a programmer. But it helped me understand other topics and gave me tools and the path of where to look at if I ever get bugs related to it.
Once and again McCarthy delivers a masterpiece where hopelessness and emptiness reign. I am still impressed. Some characters political remarks throughout the book made me unsure about what to think/feel, some made me feel uncomfortable and at the same time question their need on the book. But later it felt right, it contributed to the feeling of hopelessness. Also, while researching about the author I found that he was never clear about his political beliefs and on his works they always depended on the point of view of the reader, turning his works even more interesting.
