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longwindedliterary · 3 years
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Finished May 16, 2021. Three stars.
Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck
For Christmas my mom gave me an assortment of used books and ever so often texts me asking if I've read any yet, so I decided to start with a Steinbeck and a road trip book! He's writing in the sixties, so it's kind of tumultuous in terms of the political landscape (what's new), and he works to understand Americans these days or whatever. I don't know, it was fine, he was funny sometimes, every so often he said something progressive for his day, but I really am not interested in takes on racism from a white man. That said, I am looking forward to reading more of his fiction, which I think I may like better, since I at least know I liked Of Mice and Men.
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longwindedliterary · 3 years
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Finished May 17, 2021. Three stars.
Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss by Margaret Renkl
This book had been on my radar for a very long time because of that striking cover. The yellow! The silhouette! The collage! It was calling my name. It's also published by Milkweed, who are one of my favorite publishers, so I had a feeling I'd get along quite well with this book.
I was previously unacquainted with Renkl's work, so her writing style was totally new to me and it took me quite a while to get into the groove. The book is structured in loosely themed vignettes that jump around in time and place and even narrator, which is fine, I just...I can't quite put my finger on why this book didn't really click with me. One thing I did absolutely love was the illustrations that Renkl's brother did for the beginning of each section, which were cool collages. I'm still going to think about this book every once in a while, but it isn't a new favorite as I hoped it would become.
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longwindedliterary · 3 years
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Finished April 28, 2021. Three stars.
Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson
You simply cannot go wrong with a Jacqueline Woodson book, you cannot! I read this book in two different sittings, both while in the bath (my new favorite way to read books) and I think it helped with fostering an immersive experience, transporting back to 1970s Bushwick. After reading two books in a row set in California, it was nice to spend some time on the other coast. One of my favorite things (and saddest?) about New York is that it's constantly changing, and you can never go back to the time before. So this is a vignette, of this time and space, told by one woman reflecting on her adolescence and her friend group. As much as I love the vignette form, I did feel like I wanted more from this slim lil book, but at the same time I think it works exactly as it is.
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longwindedliterary · 3 years
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Finished April 25. 2021. Five stars.
Godshot by Chelsea Bieker
If you're anything like me, you'd find yourself absolutely magnetized by this cover, especially if it's in the "new in paperback" section of an independent bookstore's website and it's 3 AM because you had insomnia from drinking coffee too late in the day. Obviously I bought it (as well as some other things, of course) and WOW I had no clue this book would swoop me into it's world and steal my heart.
You say the words "teenage girl" "cult" and "desert" and I am THERE dude, which is how this book hooked me in but it is so much more than that. Lacey May is this fascinating character and narrator who regularly changes her mind about life, is deceitful, doing her best, and also abused. She is so many things at once, as we all are, and I think Bieker really excels at showing how the trauma Lacey May has endured shapes every ill-advised or downright reckless decision she makes. There's also this incredibly sensory experience of the desert and the drought in the town, which for my lil Vegas heart just...it speaks to me. Which is not to say that I've endured anything Lacey May went through, but that it's hard to spend your childhood and adolescence in the desert and not feel the possibility of danger lurking in every corner. That's one of my favorite things about this book, that the desert is also one of the characters--more than just a place, there but only menacingly, but part of your every day and your physical body nonetheless. It's exquisite.
There's always this feeling of sensationalism surrounding cults or religious extremist groups, and I think Bieker does a really good job of normalizing that experience. Not in the sense that it's endorsed, just that you're lulled into this same feeling that all the GOTS-ers have, that you're in pure desperation mode, you have nothing else, you know nothing else, you're holding out for one breath of hope and this dude throwing glitter on you and preaching about salvation and the coming flood all while wearing weird wizard robes and taking breaks on a dog bed is...you know, all you have. These are people at their wits end, the textbook definition of desperation.
Also worth mentioning is of course the fierce group of women that Lacey May meets and oh my goodness all my love to Hazel the doula who is LITERALLY everything I want to be in life. Truly.
By no means is this an easy book to read, especially if you're sensitive about religious discussion and pregnancy/mother stuff. I've heard some people say they struggle with the pacing and plot of this book, that it drags and nothing happens or it's slow and I simply disagree. For me, the structure of the book mirrors Lacey May's experience of that time in the desert--grueling, relentless, dripping slowly like molasses, one day blurring into the next until one day goes by and one month goes by and then it's been a year. I thought it was really well done and I absolutely adore this book.
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longwindedliterary · 3 years
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Finished April 17, 2021. Four stars.
The Mothers by Brit Bennett
I have been holding onto this book for so long that not only has her second book been released, but basically all of the hype for it has died down (though I think it recently got nominated for an award?). It was absolutely worth the wait, though. I've not read anything like this, let alone a book that manages to take such care and respect in regards to the characters' problems and traumas. The word I kept thinking of while reading this was 'held'--that's how I felt reading it, and that's how the characters feel. On the outside, it's easy to say that this is a book about mothers, pregnancy, abortion, grief, but it is so much more than that. I mean, Bennett does not hold back on some of the realizations that her characters come to. I'm trying not to be too terribly spoiler-y, but it's hard to praise specific things without giving away plot. I also really enjoyed seeing the examination of religious communities and how they play different roles for people, even if they all attend the same church. The genius of the title doesn't fully hit you until the end of the book, and the perspective of the book, the way it's written, is so well done. It's hard to believe this is someone's debut, but goodness it makes me excited to read The Vanishing Half. If you like to press on bruises and then let go and catch your breath, reading this book is that experience.
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longwindedliterary · 3 years
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Finished April 12, 2021. Four stars.
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim
The more I look at this cover the more I hate it. The red is just so harsh and not at all indicative of the levity and brightness of the story and setting. Anyway, cover complaints aside, I really enjoyed this book! It's been on my radar for quite a while (shout out to Rookie Mag ily forever rip) and I happened to find a used copy at Books A Million and have been saving it for this month. I really wanted to read something super spring-y and this DELIVERED! It follows two women who both want to leave London and go to Italy to stay in a castle (that they saw advertised in the paper) and they eventually enlist two other women to come along with them. I think this was published in the 1920s and my goodness the humor, the subversiveness, the incisive comments about being a woman, being married, being lonely--I was astounded constantly. The party of four has an older woman with them--I think she's 60 or something (though the way everyone (including herself) talk about her you'd think she was 100)--and she makes all these comments about "back in my day" and "ladies these days" and it's just so funny. One thing that I couldn't shake for the entirety of this book was the feeling, every time I picked it up, that I was a Julia Roberts movie character. You know the type? Either a divorcée or a married woman who doesn't much like her husband, wants to travel and find herself, etc. Perhaps because the book takes place in Italy (as many of Ms. Roberts' movies do), or perhaps because I read most of the book while lounging in the bath, reading by candlelight. I don't know, but it was a very fun experience, I loved this book, and I will absolutely be rereading come next spring!
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longwindedliterary · 3 years
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Finished April 10, 2021. Four stars.
Poemcrazy: Freeing Your Life with Words by Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge
The cover of this book is a fairly accurate representation of the content inside: light-hearted, playful, and just a little woo-woo. Wooldridge writes of all these techniques and exercises for how she gets into the poetry mindset and it’s not at all prescriptive--some chapters are just vignettes of her experiences that felt like poetry or later turned into a poem or got her into that frame of mind, not necessarily prompts or exercises on how to write poetry itself, though there is a decent amount of that as well. Her take on poetry is one that’s somehow both reverent and laid back. For Wooldridge, poetry is where she asks questions, digs deep into herself, expresses herself. One of the things that I love about reading about poetry is the reminder that it really is a mindset. I remember when I taught one class of ninth graders about poetry, to open the unit I asked what poetry was or wasn’t and one very smug kid was like “it’s everything so it’s nothing” and I was like YES let’s keep that energy even though I know you’re being sarcastic and fake deep!!! But like, that’s kind of the point of Wooldridge’s exercises and book? The thing only becomes poetry when you pay attention to it. Dang, if only I had read this book before I taught that unit.
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longwindedliterary · 3 years
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Finished April 10, 2021. Two stars.
My Mother Was a Freedom Fighter by Aja Monet
Oh I am so so sad about this one. I bought this last year when Haymarket Books (who publishes this and so many other poetry collections and nonfiction) did a Black History Month sale and I was SO excited for it! Unfortunately, I found the vast majority of it to be really lackluster. Honestly I feel like maybe I missed something because the blurbs on the back of this are from powerhouses like Carrie Mae Weems and Terrence Hayes and Roxane Gay loved it and I just...did not. Some of Monet’s language was lyrical and rhythmic and I really liked those parts, but they were so few. Most of the time I felt underwhelmed. I think I’m gonna hold onto this and wait a bit and give it another try down the road.
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longwindedliterary · 3 years
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Finished April 1, 2021. Three stars.
Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters
I’m pretty sure I’ve had this book since my senior year of undergrad, that I bought it on Independent Bookstore Day when Books Are Magic did their soft opening. Not that anyone cares other than me, just that this one has been languishing on many a shelf, floor, and tote bag in many different states. As much as I wanted to love this book (as it seems everyone else does) it was kind of just meh for me? All things considered, now was probably the best time to have read it, since I am actually reading and enjoying historical fiction now! And I’m certainly glad I read it, but it didn’t blow me away.
The story is I guess what many would call a “coming of age” novel, though maybe not quite? I won’t go into my problems with the notion of coming of age narratives, but my point is just that we meet our main gal Nancy when she’s 18 and right as she decides to embark on a new life after having this transformative experience at the theater. Personally, this first act of Nancy’s story was the most compelling and interesting to me. She’s not only coming into her own, but she’s also literally upending her life to do so, and challenging herself all the while. I think I just relate to the impulsiveness of leaving your life behind due to a meaningful encounter with someone or something. Also I cannot deny my theater kid roots--I loved hearing about all of the theater and hall performances, the backstage, the dressing rooms, it made my heart swoon. But once Nancy leaves that life, I kind of started to lose interest, not just because of the loss of this really rich and vibrant setting, but because Nancy just...she starts to really change as a person. Understandably so, after the trauma that Kitty puts her through, and I have nothing against her time as a sex worker (called “renters” in the book)--actually that was one of the most interesting and compelling parts of the book too, I thought. Waters has a lot of interesting things to say about sex work and queer desire and how queer folks end up in sex work--but once she links up with Diana it’s like goodness gracious Nancy have one thought of your own and care about one thing other than how you look. Of course, I get that abuse and control and all of the terrible things Diana did to her definitely messed her up, but it just seemed like she was hell-bent on self-destructing. Which is why by the third act I just didn’t really care. Or I guess I cared enough to finish the book, but was kind of tired of Nan’s shenanigans. Her she-NAN-i-nance. But, like everything else I’ve said about parts I didn’t love, I thought Florence and Nan’s relationship was pretty interesting primarily because Waters does a really good job illustrating the ways in which found families are formed in a queer context, as well as this interesting scenario Nan is in where she’s a lesbian but doesn’t really have any knowledge of the lesbian community because of the specific ways in which she encountered queer culture previously? That was really well explored, I thought. Which is why I’m definitely going to keep reading Sarah Waters’ work, to see what else her brain has pumped out, and hope that it resonates with me more deeply.
Also--I absolutely spent 75% of this book thinking “okay I know the movie Carol is based off of one of her books but I can’t remember which one it is!” and only realized after seeing a Garth Greenwell tweet of a Patricia Highsmith quote that I was thinking of Patricia Highsmith. So I guess that’s my cue to get my hands on some Highsmith.
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longwindedliterary · 3 years
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Finished March 31, 2021. Four stars.
The Crown Ain’t Worth Much by Hanif Wllis-Abdurraqib
I found this lil gem on a used book cart at Books A Million and after years of seeing Abdurraqib’s name and work all over the internet it seemed like the perfect time to finally check him out! I am so glad I did, this is his first collection and I just kept thinking of that fact as I read because his style just seems so fully rendered and self-assured to me. The interplay of different genres of music, violence against Black men (and women), and meditations on love and grief hold this book together and make it so strong. One of my favorite parts of this book were the titles of the poems, which often felt like poems in and of themselves, kind of like hymns? It was this thing where you’d go on a ride just in the space of the title or you’d be invited into this world and start reading the poem and realize it’s a lot heavier than you thought it might be. Lots of these poems will stay with me, but the one that’s a play on Montell Jordan’s “This Is How We Do It” will linger probably forever. I’m really in awe of Abdurraqib’s skill and can’t wait to read more stuff from him.
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longwindedliterary · 3 years
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Finished March 30, 2021. Three stars.
Magic to Brew (Moonstruck #1) by Grace Ellis and Shae Beagle
This graphic novel has been on my radar for a while and it was just as cute and queer and magical as I expected! The art style really is charming and the various body types and skin tones and hairstyles (do snakes count as hair??) really make it special. Where the story struggles is in plot and some of the characterization. For example, one of the side characters Chet is a more fully fleshed out and compelling character than the main character Julie. It’s odd, that there’s so little explanation of the world we’re in, the rules of it, or explaining what is actually happening at the end. Even so, I love a magical coffee shop and will definitely be reading more in this series because it’s cute and heartwarming. 
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longwindedliterary · 3 years
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Finished March 19, 2021. Four stars.
I Am I Am I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death by Maggie O’Farrell
One of these days I’m just going to start a shelf of books I read because Jen Campbell recommends them, of which this is one. Maggie O’Farrell’s most recent book Hamnet has been getting lots of buzz lately, but I feel like lots of her buzz has stayed in the UK? I haven’t seen much American press or booktubers talking about her work. Anyway, this is such a shining example of why I love memoir and how expansive of a genre it is and can be. She takes this concept of times she’s almost died and brought such thoughtfulness and insight to these moments, and it just feels so powerful, I suppose, not only seeing the way she deals with gender-based violence, chronic illness, birth complications and more, but also to see her come back from all of these things. It is kind of thrilling, to be worrying about her at every moment, worrying about her daughter, even though of course she’s fine because the book has been written--but it also leaves you with this almost menacing or haunting realization that you can never be quite so sure that she (or you)’ll make it back from the next one, or that those encounters won’t change or shape your life, as they tend to do. I really really enjoyed this one, and O’Farrell has such a gorgeous way of writing.
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longwindedliterary · 3 years
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Finished March 20, 2021. Five stars.
Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie
Wow wow where to start with this one. Perhaps the highest praise I can give it is that the night I finished it I was lying in bed thinking “oh I’ll just read a bit and then go to sleep, I’m not gonna stay up and finish this” but I sure as heck did, folks, and when I finished it I whispered “holy” aloud to my empty room and looked around a bit to get my bearings. 
I have no clue about Antigone, which this is a retelling of? or something of the sort, so I was just along for the ride and honestly I think that was for the best, because it meant I was just totally absorbed and wanted to see where we’d end up. One of the strengths of this book is that it’s told from multiple viewpoints, or focalized through different characters, not told by them, and it’s not only crucial towards moving the plot along and making it fully twist and turn, but gives this really rich tapestry of five very different ways to be Muslim. Absolutely a timely novel, and one that as a white American pushes me (you?) to confront the dangerous and imperialist notions of war and religion we hold as a country, despite the fact that this is a British novel. In that way it is not by any means an easy novel to read, but gosh is it an important and moving one.
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longwindedliterary · 3 years
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Finished March 19, 2021. Four stars.
How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease by Michael Greger, MD
Another day, another hard time trying to review vegan nutrition books. I will say that Dr. Greger makes it a little bit easier because he is just such a cool and upstanding dude. In the health/vegan space it’s really easy to find folks just trying to make a buck, and Dr. Greger is absolutely not that man. Truly, he just wants to spread the good word of science and the benefits of eating a plant-based diet. I view this book as an extension or culmination of his YouTube channel (NutritionFacts), to which he posts every day, as well as his podcast, which is also frequently posted--neither of which he does sponsorships or ads on because he just wants people to have the information. Even all of the money from the sales of this book are donated to charity, and NutritionFacts is a nonprofit too. All of that to say, my mans is not making any money off of this info, and he (like many plant based and vegan doctors/medical professionals before him) has been made fun of and pushed out of the medical community as well. So I love him, his clarity of meaning, his rigorous standards, and his copious citations of studies he’s referencing (dude has like 150 citations a chapter on average, gotta love it).
One of my favorite things about this book is that it’s not just focused on disease and ailments, the latter half of the book goes step by step through Dr. Greger’s Daily Dozen (which is just very smart, imo) and tells you what and why you should be incorporating plant foods into your diet and how to do that. This book isn’t written for vegans, it’s for the average American (or Brit, in my case, because I accidentally bought the UK version) and he goes out of his way to both lay out the facts as they are as well as kind of level with people and say well this isn’t great but if it’ll get you to eat more greens, do it. It’s a really approachable and valuable text and I think everyone should read it, especially my mom (even if his stance on soy and breast cancer is controversial!). 
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longwindedliterary · 3 years
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Finished February 26, 2021. Five stars.
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
This chunk of a book has been on my shelves for a while, waiting for me to find the right time to really dive in and dedicate the time to all of the stories contained in here, and I finally found that time and I’m so glad I did. Wilkerson is so skilled in weaving the stories of the three people followed throughout the book together with bits and pieces of stories from other people’s lives. Each of the three is picked to represent these kind of archetypes of migrants, to be composite characters essentially, representing all the millions of Black people who moved during that time. It’s really just a stunning work of art shedding light on an event that really isn’t remarked upon (well now it is, but I think we have Wilkerson to thank for that) and brings so much emotion and strife and triumph to light. It kind of reminded me of Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, but nonfiction. It really is worth all the hype and is a good read for anyone looking to get a more nuanced portrait of America, the Jim Crow era and the time before that, or who loves seeing a historian at the top of their game. I can’t wait to read her new book Caste. 
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longwindedliterary · 3 years
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Finished March 6, 2021. Two stars.
Flapper: A Madcap Story of Sex, Style, Celebrity, and the Women Who Made America Modern by Joshua Zeitz
[long exhale] ughhhhhhhhhh this book. Listen, I’m a sucker for a book about the twenties and I live for any and all mention of my fave problematic literary couple the Fitzgeralds but BOY does this book really miss the mark. It is absolutely impossible to read this book about women and not notice that it’s written by a dude. If it was done well I wouldn’t care but man this guy just is so WEIRD about everything! My dude over here talking about the changing social mores and how young women in the twenties were having more orgasms than their mother did at their age and ????? I don’t...how do you even get the data? I don’t want to know. It just made me uncomfortable every time he talked about women’s sex lives and women’s behavior because he made everything seem so sexy and scandalous and like...just say what they did and don’t put a spin on it with your weird hush hush telling a secret incredulity about it. Not to mention I felt like the book was repetitive, spent a lot of time talking about men (considering it’s billed as being about the women of the era...), and he had nothing to say about Coco Chanel’s Nazi sympathy other than #girlboss basically, but made room for mention of racist comments and acts without condemning them. I just did not like this very much at all and I don’t think it’s well written, well organized, or thought through.
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longwindedliterary · 3 years
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Finished February 22, 2021. Four and a half stars.
The Logan Notebooks by Rebecca Lindenberg
FOLKS, I have been hankering for some dang poetry like no other these days, and I’ve had this one lying around for a while now. Did I purchase it just because it had “notebooks” in the title and was about the West? YUP, you betcha! I regret nothing.
This was a phenomenal collection that I would not have otherwise come across. It made me yearn for the desert and all of its idiosyncrasies and harshnesses and gifts. The way Lindenberg called her significant other “my guy” throughout the collection made my heart soar, as did the poems about the Spiral Jetty and the Sun Tunnels. I simply want to live in Lindenberg’s poetry. So good.
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