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| 3.97
| 4,745
| Jan 14, 2020
| Jan 14, 2020
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liked it
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my becoming-a-genius project, part 28! the background: i have decided to become a genius. to accomplish this, i'm going to work my way through the collec my becoming-a-genius project, part 28! the background: i have decided to become a genius. to accomplish this, i'm going to work my way through the collected stories of various authors, reading + reviewing 1 story every day until i get bored / lose every single follower / am struck down by a vengeful deity. we're approaching the third anniversary of my commencement of this project and also i have not undertaken an installment of it in several months, so this is an exciting event. let's get into it. view project parts 1-27 here DAY 1: JOHN REDDING GOES TO SEA this had the unique unbelievably depressing / know-it-all combo of an old-timey fairytale. i for one think unrelated tragedy cannot be blamed on some guy's wife being like "if you wanted to leave and travel everywhere solo style you probably shouldn't have married me." rating: 2.5 DAY 2: THE CONVERSION OF SAM eek. another very moral and didactic one. which i guess i should have guessed from the title. rating: 2.5 DAY 3: A BIT OF OUR HARLEM feeling: hopeful. this story is all of 2 pages long and it seems like there's no way there'll be time to preach a lesson at all. never mind. it managed. rating: 3 DAY 4: DRENCHED IN LIGHT this one was...interesting. i love a free-spirited lowkey annoying kid as much as the next person but i don't know about the happily ever after being a potential adoption from a significantly more annoying white family. rating: 3 DAY 5: SPUNK if we have to get all Big Lesson, this is the way to do it. i'll take murderous ghosts and vengeance and gossip any day. rating: 3.5 DAY 6: MAGNOLIA FLOWER i have to say this is just not the collection i expected after their eyes were watching god at all. this one is giving disney princess. rating: 3 DAY 7: BLACK DEATH now THIS is what i'm talking about. if we're going to cast aspersions on those who sin, at least give me some sort of dark magic sorcerer to do the punishing! rating: 3.5 DAY 8: THE BONE OF CONTENTION this one was amusing. i will give it that. rating: 3.5 DAY 9: MUTTSY well this one was just depressing. the conversion of sam without the conversion part. rating: 2.5 DAY 10: SWEAT this story contains the insult "she don't look like a thing but a hunk of liver with hair on it," and therefore i stand with it in support for all my days. it's also a very well-deserved act of Womanly Vengeance, so that helps. rating: 3.5 DAY 11: UNDER THE BRIDGE the lesson of this story is that if you marry a much younger woman your hot son gets to fall in love with her and you can't even get that mad. rating: 3 DAY 12: POSSUM OR PIG? not a question i've had occasion to ask very often. call me crazy, but i am not loving these stories with strange morals involving slaves "wronging" white people. stealing a pig seems pretty low on the crime scale when compared with enslavement. rating: 2.5 DAY 13: THE EATONVILLE ANTHOLOGY this was the florida equivalent of olive kitteredge. just a bunch of sad people living unhappy lives in a small town. enjoy. rating: 3 DAY 14: THE BOOK OF HARLEM a lot of these stories have been biblical in a variety of ways. this one chose "language and format." rating: 3 DAY 15: THE BOOK OF HARLEM oh good. it's almost exactly the same as yesterday. down to the title. rating: 2.5 DAY 16: THE BACK ROOM fun little dorian gray situation here. if dorian gray could be told in 10 pages or less. rating: 3 DAY 17: MONKEY JUNK we're having fun with biblical formatting again. rating: 3 DAY 18: THE COUNTRY IN THE WOMAN i do think that the appropriate response to seeing your husband on his fourth side piece is to slow-walk toward them with an axe like a horror movie serial killer. the punishment fits the crime. rating: 3.5 DAY 19: THE GILDED SIX-BITS another moral. gosh these are depressing. rating: 3 DAY 20: SHE-ROCK biblical formatting alert. this contains a truly astonishing phrase (a beverage called "coon-dick") which i was so titillated by i immediately had to google and the only results i received were about raccoon penises. so now i feel like i got pranked by zora neale hurston on a decades-long delay. rating: 2.5 DAY 21: THE FIRE AND THE CLOUD i have to say, i thought a story about a talking lizard would have a little more going on. rating: 2.5 OVERALL i was really excited to read this collection, but unfortunately not many of these felt like they came from the author of their eyes were watching god, a book i loved. these stories had sparkling moments of brilliance and ones i truly enjoyed and some that just weren't my cup of tea. it was a lot more moralistic than i expected. it's neither a good nor bad book for me, and therefore in the exact middle it goes. rating: 2.5 ...more |
Notes are private!
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Feb 2024
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Jan 31, 2024
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| 0812993802
| 9780812993806
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| 3.98
| 77,472
| Jan 03, 2013
| Jan 08, 2013
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really liked it
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my becoming-a-genius project, part 28! the background: i have decided to become a genius. to accomplish this, i'm going to work my way through the collec my becoming-a-genius project, part 28! the background: i have decided to become a genius. to accomplish this, i'm going to work my way through the collected stories of various authors, reading + reviewing 1 story every day until i get bored / lose every single follower / am struck down by a vengeful deity. this one comes from taking phoebe bridgers' book recommendations, so. it better be good. DAY 1: VICTORY LAP well, we are off to a really good start. rating: 4 DAY 2: STICKS the really good start is continuing. you can tell i am really appreciating these stories because i'm scared to make jokes. it's like how in youth you fear your elementary school teacher out of respect but the second a substitute arrives it's free range. rating: 4 DAY 3: PUPPY this one was brutal and, guess what, also good. still no substitute teacher here. rating: 4 DAY 4: ESCAPE FROM SPIDERHEAD i feel like there is no way that a story with this title can be good. but at this point i'm ready for the unthinkable: being wrong. oh. it's a sci-fi story about how humans are inherently worthy of forgiveness, and the death penalty is therefore inhumane, and how big pharma is evil. in other words it's great. rating: 4 DAY 5: EXHORTATION finally, a moment's break from brilliance. (this was a pretty good story but i would have found it better had it come before yesterday's, which is a more impressive version-ish of this.) rating: 3.5 DAY 6: AL ROOSTEN this was a very educational look inside the mind of the worst kind of guy: the nice guy. rating: 4 DAY 7: THE SEMPLICA GIRL DIARIES this was very, very weird, and very, very long, and made 1 or 2 very interesting points in the meantime. rating: 3.5 DAY 8: HOME i'm going to be honest: i didn't really so super much get this one. that one's on me. rating: 3 DAY 9: MY CHIVALRIC FIASCO pro: this was a mostly funny story about a guy who gets promoted at some kind of medieval times situation and takes a pill that makes him think he's a knight. con: it kept explaining to us that that is why it was funny. other con: feels like sexual assault probably didn't need to be the main event. rating: 3 DAY 10: TENTH OF DECEMBER the title story / best for last combo. i have high hopes. and my god were they met. rating: 4.5 OVERALL i can't believe this was my first saunders. this was so weird and so funny and so clever and so one of a kind, even though one one of a kind story after another is not exactly SO one of a kind. anyway. it won't be my last! rating: 4 ...more |
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Apr 2024
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Apr 11, 2024
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Oct 22, 2023
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Hardcover
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| 0374126488
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| 0374126488
| 3.85
| 407
| Nov 03, 2020
| Nov 03, 2020
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liked it
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my becoming-a-genius project, part 26! the background: i have decided to become a genius. to accomplish this, i'm going to work my way through the collec my becoming-a-genius project, part 26! the background: i have decided to become a genius. to accomplish this, i'm going to work my way through the collected stories of various authors, reading + reviewing 1 story every day until i get bored / lose every single follower / am struck down by a vengeful deity. we're approaching the third anniversary of my commencement of this project and also i have not undertaken an installment of it in several months, so this is an exciting event. let's get into it. view project parts 1-26 here DAY 1: THE PARTY starting this whole thing off on a real "men are trash" note. and ending the first story (which had many witticisms and clever turns of phrase) on a real "cheesy dialogue" note. rating: 3 DAY 2: A PLACE IN THE COUNTRY hell is a teenage girl!!! rating: 3.5 DAY 3: VITTORIO the guiding philosophy of this story is one i agree with (that women are very beautiful and know everything nearly before it happens). rating: 3.5 DAY 4: IN ONE'S OWN HOUSE ignoring everything i'm supposed to be paying attention to in this one to be incredibly disturbed by the idea of being a wealthy widow whose two adult sons and daughter in law STILL LIVE IN HER HOUSE. rating: 3.5 DAY 5: VILLA ADRIANA lately everything i pick up seems like it's set in italy. at first this was fun because in 2ish weeks i'll be in italy, but now like anything else it's getting old. rating: 3 DAY 6: CLIFFS OF FALL well, it's been 3 weeks and i've taken a full whirlwind trip through europe during which i initially (delusionally) thought i'd be keeping up this project, but... obviously i didn't. but this was a nice way to resume! rating: 3.5 DAY 7: WEEKEND birthday story. this one has to be good. couples are so evil. you can spend your whole life single and then finally give in to a relationship and suddenly you're wickedly sympathetic to anyone who doesn't share your plight. rating: 3.5 DAY 8: HAROLD such a bummer to be on a good story streak and then have one that's incontrovertibly meh. it feels inappropriate to be able to obviously tell what a story is trying to do while seeing that it isn't doing it...like someone whose skirt is tucked up in their underwear. rating: 2.5 DAY 9: THE PICNIC a sequel story! to be honest i am blown away with myself for remembering the names of characters in a short story i read a month ago. rating: 3.5 DAY 10: THE WORST PART OF THE DAY hope the answer here is "waking up." in spite of the fact that this story says its title about 11 times (see day 8), none of those times is waking up. rating: 3 DAY 11: NOTHING IN EXCESS this is like a satire of corporate life if the satire had to keep excusing itself to explain itself to you. rating: 2.5 DAY 12: THE FLOWERS OF SORROW not a sequel story... rating: 2.5 DAY 13: THE MEETING well. it appears that this whole section (titled, a bit obviously, PEOPLE IN GLASS HOUSES) is a set of stories about the same people at the same company. god help me. rating: 2.5 DAY 14: SWOBODA'S TRAGEDY i confess to looking ahead to see how many stories i still have yet to spend in this terrible awful "Organization" and i am demoralized to see the answer is 5. i'll be tolerating these well into next week. rating: 2.5 DAY 15: THE STORY OF MISS SADIE GRAINE this is a story about a person's name who, when referenced in the last story, entered into a coquettish parenthetical about how sadie was a person in and of herself and we might be hearing HER story someday. sigh. lucky us. rating: 2.5 DAY 16: OFFICIAL LIFE i did appreciate this story for agreeing with what i've always said: that it's actually tuesdays (not mondays) that are the worst day of the week. but not for much else. rating: 2.5 DAY 17: A SENSE OF MISSION and so we beat on...boats against the current.... these never do stick the landing either. rating: 2.5 DAY 18: THE SEPARATION OF DINAH DELBANCO what joy...the final installment of this section. rating: 2.5 DAY 19: WOOLLAHRA ROAD with great relief and gratitude we move our way into the UNCOLLECTED / UNPUBLISHED section, and i hope i'm not soon saying "i see why." phew. rating: 3.5 DAY 20: FORGIVING this story should have been clichéd first and foremost, and maybe it was, but all i know is i felt completely charmed by it. rating: 4 DAY 21: COMFORT i really can't believe THESE are the unpublished / uncollected ones. after all we've been through... rating: 4 DAY 22: OUT OF ITEA okay...well this has already taught me a new word if nothing else. oh. never mind. it's a place, not a type of shrub. anyway this was fairly lovely. rating: 3.5 DAY 23: THE EVERLASTING DELIGHT that's what they call me. because of my unparalleled conversational skills, obviously. i love House Talk. rating: 3.5 DAY 24: THE STATUE AND THE BUST extremely cool to be a smart and effortlessly charming woman who manages to mildly embarrass some random guy while simultaneously not thinking of him at all... rating: 3.5 DAY 25: LEAVE IT TO ME this one felt needlessly confusing. but maybe i'm just irritable. rating: 3 DAY 26: SIR CECIL'S RIDE oh men and women and young and old and so on and so forth. rating: 3 DAY 27: LE NOZZE i'd love to someday love anything as much as shirley hazzard loves italy. this one was very romantic, and also not italian. whoops. rating: 4 DAY 28: THE SACK OF SILENCE what a nice note to end on: just banter city. rating: 3.5 OVERALL so much of this — the stories that feel like small captured moments of everyday life — is perfectly wonderful. unfortunately, bizarrely, inexplicably, a whole central swath of this book was what i can only refer to as the horrible corporate section. i enjoyed this, for the most part, except when i detested it utterly. rating: 3 ...more |
Notes are private!
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Oct 16, 2023
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Nov 10, 2023
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Sep 09, 2023
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Hardcover
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| 0241455650
| 9780241455654
| 0241455650
| 3.42
| 1,249
| Oct 03, 2019
| Nov 08, 2022
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liked it
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welcome to the becoming a genius project...CHRISTMAS EDITION! typically this project involves me picking up the collected stories of some literary tita welcome to the becoming a genius project...CHRISTMAS EDITION! typically this project involves me picking up the collected stories of some literary titan or other and reading one of them per day with the goal of achieving true brilliance. this is that except my goal is to get into the christmas spirit. let's do this. view past installments here STORY 1: THE FIR TREE BY HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN incredibly apt as getting my tree yesterday is what inspired me to start this now, instead of at a normal or appropriate time like december 1. ...this was the most depressing thing i've ever read in my life. rating: 2.5 STORY 2: THE CAT ON THE DOVREFJELL BY TWO NORDIC GUYS this one is one complete page in length and about partying trolls, so. let that speak for itself. we're back in the christmas spirit baby. rating: 3.5 STORY 3: A CHRISTMAS PARTY AND A WEDDING BY FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY it doesn't seem fair to be one (page) and done for the day, so i'm doubling up. aaaand it's another troubling one. rating: 3 STORY 4: ST. ANTHONY AND HIS PIG BY PAUL ARENE this is a story about how even the deliciousness of truffles cannot surpass the best friendship between a man and a pig. so it turns out i'm no saint. rating: 3 STORY 5: BOYS BY ANTON CHEKHOV i've read chekhov's short stories for another installment of this project, but more importantly i make chekhov's gun jokes 100 times per day in my daily life. so i am positioned to love this. just kidding. no one ask me what this is about. i won't have an answer and it'll just be embarrassing for both of us. rating: 3 STORY 6: MIDNIGHT MASS BY JOAQUIM MARIA MACHADO DE ASSIS this is essentially just a story of being 17 and having a crush on an older lady, and also midnight mass is kind of approaching while that's happening, incidentally. which i respect. rating: 3 STORY 7: REGINALD'S CHRISTMAS REVEL BY SAKI this is a whole story about being an annoying prankster and making a joke of the sanctity of death. so obviously it's my favorite one so far. rating: 4 STORY 8: THE LEGEND OF THE CHRISTMAS ROSE BY SELMA LAGERLOF this is about how robbers are cooler and closer to god than monks, and also flowers are lovely and magical. two thoughts i agree with. rating: 3.5 STORY 9: A CHAPARRAL CHRISTMAS GIFT BY O. HENRY hit me with it, henry. (or i guess i should say o...?) get me to that twist. okay, well. that felt seasonally phoned in. rating: 2.5 STORY 10: NOEL BY IRENE NEMIROVSKY i cannot stress enough that if my sister stole my rich boyfriend, unluckily pregnant or not, i would ruin christmas. justice for marie-laure. rating: 3.5 STORY 11: DANCING DAN'S CHRISTMAS BY DAMON RUNYON the title of this one sounds like the title of a made-up story from a movie. you know what i mean? this successfully convinced me that i cannot have a merry christmas without a hot tom and jerry, in spite of the fact that i have no idea what that is. between that and the fact that o. henry wishes he had what damon runyon has, this was swell. rating: 4 STORY 12: THE NECKLACE OF PEARLS BY DOROTHY SAYERS suddenly i kind of get the appeal of a seasonal cozy mystery. just this once. rating: 3.5 STORY 13: ONE CHRISTMAS EVE BY LANGSTON HUGHES langston!!!!!! god this one was heartbreaking. rating: 4.5 STORY 14: THE CHRISTMAS TURKEY BY MARIO DE ANDRADE i probably would have enjoyed this story more if it were about literally any other type of meat. but nobody's family is being brought together to experience christmas joy and love for the first time because of turkey. rating: 2.5 STORY 15: GREEN HOLLY BY ELIZABETH BOWEN the unthinkable is happening: it's a saturday and i haven't entirely abandoned reading as a concept. not particularly thrilled about it, though. rating: 3 STORY 16: CHRISTMAS MORNING BY FRANK O'CONNORwell. christmas morning is not a very magical time for childhood to end and the harsh reality of adulthood to sweep in. rating: 3 STORY 17: A CHILD'S CHRISTMAS IN WALES BY DYLAN THOMAS dylan thomas alert!!! hoping this story is a little bit christmas joy-y and a little less about going gentle into that good night. wish granted. rating: 3.5 STORY 18: THE LITTLE RESTAURANT NEAR PLACE DES TERNES BY GEORGES SIMENON a story that sounds so cute, and instead is about how it is literally better to get too drunk and arrested and throw up against a wall and spend the night in jail than to have premarital sex. rating: 2 STORY 19: THE GIFT BY RAY BRADBURY baby's first ray bradbury. some go for fahrenheit 451, but not me. i'm different. space christmas. rating: 3 STORY 20: A VISIT TO THE BANK BY SHIRLEY JACKSON shirley jackson i love you!!! save me shirley jackson!!! i've read her collected stories twice over and the real christmas miracle is i hadn't read this one. rating: 5 STORY 21: THE PRISONERS BY BIENVENIDO SANTOS well, this sounds cheerful. it was not. but it was very nice anyway. rating: 4 STORY 22: THE LEAF-SWEEPER BY MURIEL SPARK i would vote this story Least Likely To Seem Like It's Going To Be A Ghost Story When Halfway Through It. rating: 3 STORY 23: CHRISTMAS MEMORY BY TRUMAN CAPOTE do you guys think this one is also starring audrey hepburn? jeez louise. even the nice stories in this collection find their way to tragedy. rating: 3 STORY 24: THE LOAN BY WOLFDIETRICH SCHNURRE now THIS is a story about a christmas tree that doesn't make you want to die of moroseness. rating: 3 STORY 25: CHRISTMAS EVE BY SOPHIA DE MELLO BREYNER ANDRESEN i don't want to be rude...but we're arriving in the range of "too many names." this one was very jesus-y. rating: 2.5 STORY 26: THE LOUDEST VOICE BY GRACE PALEY i don't have anything to say about this one. sorry. rating: 2.5 STORY 27: A COLD CHRISTMAS WALK IN THE COUNTRY BY LAURIE LEE i'd like to go on a pre-huge dinner christmas walk that includes sliding across a frozen pond for upwards of an hour. suddenly i'm all "the world isn't the same as it used to be" about it. rating: 3 STORY 28: SANTA'S CHILDREN BY ITALO CALVINO not a name i expected to see in this book. but i've become accustomed to its surprises. and THAT'S how you critique capitalism. rating: 4 STORY 29: CHRISTMAS BY TOVE JANSSON TOVE JANSSON??? there are some real emma all stars in this collection. rating: 4 STORY 30: JUST BECAUSE OF XMAS BY CYPRIAN EKWENSI we're keeping the christ out of christmas. speaking of, happy xmas eve eve! the real holiday miracle is this project being on track. to be fair, the generosity that happens in this story is not "just because" of christmas. it's "because" our protagonist resembles the first wife of a polygamist chief who goes mad and thinks she's back from the dead. small difference. rating: 2.5 STORY 31: NOEL. TEXAS. 1956 BY LUCIA BERLIN lucia????? and tove??? and shirley??? was this made for me in a lab? what an author selection for our penultimate. rating: 4 STORY 32: THE GHOST SHIPS BY ANGELA CARTER strong way to go out. merry christmas everyone! rating: 4 OVERALL once i accepted that these weren't going to be whimsical and joyous-spirit-inducing, and began to accept Interesting, Impressive, or Christmasy as an alternative, i started enjoying this a lot more. of course, a good number of these weren't even that, but still. a fair number were! rating: 3.5 ...more |
Notes are private!
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Nov 29, 2023
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Dec 25, 2023
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Dec 29, 2022
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Hardcover
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| 0805210571
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| 0805210571
| 4.09
| 19,991
| 1915
| Nov 14, 1995
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really liked it
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my becoming-a-genius project, part 23! the background: i have decided to become a genius. to accomplish this, i'm going to work my way through the collec my becoming-a-genius project, part 23! the background: i have decided to become a genius. to accomplish this, i'm going to work my way through the collected stories of various authors, reading + reviewing 1 story every day until i get bored / lose every single follower / am struck down by a vengeful deity. i also just took a 5 month break from this project, so either i'm rested + rejuvenated + ready to start, or this is going to go very badly. let's find out. so kafkaesque. PROJECT 1: THE COMPLETE STORIES BY FLANNERY O'CONNOR PROJECT 2: HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIES BY CARMEN MARIA MACHADO PROJECT 3: 18 BEST STORIES BY EDGAR ALLAN POE PROJECT 4: THE LOTTERY AND OTHER STORIES BY SHIRLEY JACKSON PROJECT 5: HOW LONG 'TIL BLACK FUTURE MONTH? BY N.K. JEMISIN PROJECT 6: THE SHORT STORIES OF OSCAR WILDE PROJECT 7: THE BLUE FAIRY BOOK BY ANDREW LANG PROJECT 8: GRAND UNION: STORIES BY ZADIE SMITH PROJECT 9: THE BEST OF ROALD DAHL PROJECT 10: LOVE AND FREINDSHIP BY JANE AUSTEN PROJECT 11: HOMESICK FOR ANOTHER WORLD BY OTTESSA MOSHFEGH PROJECT 12: BAD FEMINIST BY ROXANE GAY PROJECT 12.5: DIFFICULT WOMEN BY ROXANE GAY PROJECT 13: THE SHORT NOVELS OF JOHN STEINBECK PROJECT 14: FIRST PERSON SINGULAR BY HARUKI MURAKAMI PROJECT 15: THE ORIGINAL FOLK AND FAIRY TALES OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM PROJECT 16: A MANUAL FOR CLEANING WOMEN BY LUCIA BERLIN PROJECT 17: SELECTED STORIES OF PHILIP K. DICK PROJECT 18: HIGH LONESOME: SELECTED STORIES BY JOYCE CAROL OATES PROJECT 19: THE SHORT STORIES OF ANTON CHEKHOV PROJECT 20: COLLECTED STORIES OF COLETTE PROJECT 21: JABBERWOCKY AND OTHER NONSENSE: COLLECTED POEMS BY LEWIS CARROLL PROJECT 22: COLLECTED STORIES BY GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ PROJECT 23: THE METAMORPHOSIS & OTHER STORIES BY FRANZ KAFKA DAY 1: CONVERSATION WITH THE SUPPLICANT this collection is going to get pretty complicated in terms of How Do I Divide All These 3 Page Stories Into A Reasonable Project, but it starts us off easy. one story, one section. the way god intended. i don't understand this but i did like reading it. rating: 3.25 DAY 2: MEDITATION this section is only like 30 pages long, but it has 18 separate stories in it. feels like i should just do the badass thing and knock them out... i will tell you what their titles are so you feel included as i speed through them. they are: CHILDREN ON A COUNTRY ROAD (good), UNMASKING A CONFIDENCE TRICKSTER (weird), THE SUDDEN WALK (so true and perfect), RESOLUTIONS (fun), EXCURSION INTO THE MOUNTAINS (hm), BACHELOR'S ILL LUCK (slay), THE TRADESMAN (sure), ABSENT-MINDED WINDOW-GAZING (perfect again), THE WAY HOME (nice), PASSERS-BY (yeah), ON THE TRAM (cool), CLOTHES (okay), REJECTION (love it), REFLECTIONS FOR GENTLEMEN-JOCKEYS (uh huh), THE STREET WINDOW (perfect x3), THE WISH TO BE A RED INDIAN (yikes), THE TREES (lovely), and UNHAPPINESS (i love ghosts!!!). rating: 4.5 DAY 3: THE JUDGMENT another good old-fashioned one section, one story, one day. this story comes immediately before the metamorphosis and features a protagonist named georg. seems designed to be confusing, and also reminds me of spiders georg. well goodness gracious. rating: 3.5 DAY 4: THE METAMORPHOSIS i know this is brilliant. but i've read it so goddamn many times. english professors get more creative 2k22. rating: 3.5 DAY 5: A COUNTRY DOCTOR, PART 1 another random section with a million (read: 15) stories that's also a million (read: 56) pages long. so i'm dividing it. today includes THE NEW ADVOCATE (whatever), A COUNTRY DOCTOR (titular! kafkaesque! no paragraph breaks!), UP IN THE GALLERY (nice), AN OLD MANUSCRIPT (not exactly topical and very disturbing), and BEFORE THE LAW (like a prototype of the trial). rating: 3 DAY 6: A COUNTRY DOCTOR, PART 2 not really feeling this today but i did finish the daily sections of the not one, but two other projects i'm doing because i'm incredibly brave and strong. so. here we are. today's: JACKALS AND ARABS (yikes), A VISIT TO A MINE (okay The Gold [Phoebe Bridgers version]), THE NEXT VILLAGE (literally one paragraph and also perfect), AN IMPERIAL MESSAGE (kafkaesque again), and THE CARES OF A FAMILY MAN (not starring nicolas cage). rating: 3.5 DAY 7: A COUNTRY DOCTOR, PART 3 the end of the country doctor saga. today's, which all seem unjustly long compared to the last 2 days: ELEVEN SONS (a rundown of some guy's sons), A FRATRICIDE (also what it sounds like), A DREAM (now that's what i call kafka), A REPORT TO AN ACADEMY (as boring as the title would indicate, but more ape-centered), and THE BUCKET RIDER (goofy). rating: 3 DAY 8: IN THE PENAL COLONY every time i hear the term penal colony (which, granted, is not that often), i think of this movie i saw with rami malek and some other guy solely because i had a crush on rami malek and my friend had a crush on the other guy, and also this was at a huge theater without assigned seats and we used to buy 1 ticket and see how many movies we can see. it was an upsetting film. this was likewise upsetting. rating: 3.5 DAY 9: A HUNGER ARTIST, PART 1 sounds like a really pretentious term for a chef. it feels like even with my best efforts, i am destined to finish this book in a single-digit number of days. dare i divide this little section in two? the answer...is yes. this is another multiple little stories in a section situation. first, appropriately: FIRST SORROW. desperately do i wish i was a trapeze artist whose biggest problem was wanting, like, more sh*t to swing on. numéro deux: A LITTLE WOMAN. immediately that's a tough title to live up to. but it's about a girl who is to her core a hater, so...i kind of have to love it. and finally (for today): the titular HUNGER ARTIST, which sounds like a really pretentious term for a chef. in fact it is very good and very sad and very metamorphosis-esque in some ways. rating: 4 DAY 10: JOSEPHINE THE SINGER, OR THE MOUSE FOLK the final story in the hunger artist section, and also the collection entirely, which just has too good of a title not to have a lil spotlight. "We all pipe, but of course no one dreams of making out that our piping is an art, we pipe without thinking of it, indeed without noticing it, and there are even many among us who are quite unaware that piping is one of our characteristics." i am not mature enough for this "Or it is a matter of nut-cracking, but it turns out we have overlooked the art of cracking nuts" HELP outside of opportunities for sex jokes, this is mostly about a woman who is universally admired and does not think that she is admired well enough, and for that i stan. rating: 4 OVERALL i do think kafka's style is best suited to the short novel, but these stories gave him an opportunity to show off (or me an opportunity to pay attention to) just how beautifully he can write and how wisely he can witness humanity. it made me want to read his journals more than anything else. (i think they're published, but i'll let it stand as a reflection on my nosy nature regardless.) rating: 3.5 ...more |
Notes are private!
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Nov 29, 2022
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Dec 08, 2022
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Jul 03, 2022
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Paperback
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| 0060932686
| 9780060932688
| 0060932686
| 4.17
| 8,567
| Sep 1983
| May 13, 2008
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really liked it
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my becoming-a-genius project, part 22! the background: i have decided to become a genius. to accomplish this, i'm going to work my way through the collec my becoming-a-genius project, part 22! the background: i have decided to become a genius. to accomplish this, i'm going to work my way through the collected stories of various authors, reading + reviewing 1 story every day until i get bored / lose every single follower / am struck down by a vengeful deity. i took like a 2 month break from this project because i decided to deal with my reading slump (and then spent 2 months forcing myself to read and ignoring it), and i'm happy to be back!!! also i want to read some marquez but i'm intimidated by the copy of one hundred years of solitude i've had for, well, a hundred years, so this seems like a good compromise. PROJECT 1: THE COMPLETE STORIES BY FLANNERY O'CONNOR PROJECT 2: HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIES BY CARMEN MARIA MACHADO PROJECT 3: 18 BEST STORIES BY EDGAR ALLAN POE PROJECT 4: THE LOTTERY AND OTHER STORIES BY SHIRLEY JACKSON PROJECT 5: HOW LONG 'TIL BLACK FUTURE MONTH? BY N.K. JEMISIN PROJECT 6: THE SHORT STORIES OF OSCAR WILDE PROJECT 7: THE BLUE FAIRY BOOK BY ANDREW LANG PROJECT 8: GRAND UNION: STORIES BY ZADIE SMITH PROJECT 9: THE BEST OF ROALD DAHL PROJECT 10: LOVE AND FREINDSHIP BY JANE AUSTEN PROJECT 11: HOMESICK FOR ANOTHER WORLD BY OTTESSA MOSHFEGH PROJECT 12: BAD FEMINIST BY ROXANE GAY PROJECT 12.5: DIFFICULT WOMEN BY ROXANE GAY PROJECT 13: THE SHORT NOVELS OF JOHN STEINBECK PROJECT 14: FIRST PERSON SINGULAR BY HARUKI MURAKAMI PROJECT 15: THE ORIGINAL FOLK AND FAIRY TALES OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM PROJECT 16: A MANUAL FOR CLEANING WOMEN BY LUCIA BERLIN PROJECT 17: SELECTED STORIES OF PHILIP K. DICK PROJECT 18: HIGH LONESOME: SELECTED STORIES BY JOYCE CAROL OATES PROJECT 19: THE SHORT STORIES OF ANTON CHEKHOV PROJECT 20: COLLECTED STORIES OF COLETTE PROJECT 21: JABBERWOCKY AND OTHER NONSENSE: COLLECTED POEMS BY LEWIS CARROLL PROJECT 22: COLLECTED STORIES BY GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ DAY 1: THE THIRD RESIGNATION this is like if someone rewrote an edgar allan poe story to be, like, better. controversial maybe. but i am not sorry. rating: 4 DAY 2: THE OTHER SIDE OF DEATH back to back stories about being obsessed with death. honestly it seems like more content should be about this. we are maybe too okay with the state of our mortal coil as a society. rating: 4.25 DAY 3: EVA IS INSIDE HER CAT immediately insane and i love it. a third death-obsessed story, but this one also about being a woman. these get better and better??? rating: 4.5 DAY 4: BITTERNESS FOR THREE SLEEPWALKERS confession time: i DID google "bitterness for three sleepwalkers analysis" to see if i got it. and in return i have discovered a class that each had to do a PREZI (!!!) on a GGM story. remember prezis??? rating: 4 DAY 5: DIALOGUE WITH THE MIRROR relatable by title alone. never mind. i've never looked in a mirror to see my dead brother looking back. rating: 3 DAY 6: EYES OF A BLUE DOG this is possibly the corniest last line of any short story ever. it reads like those reddit horror stories people post on twitter. rating: 3 DAY 7: THE WOMAN WHO CAME AT SIX O'CLOCK something you learn when you read a lot is that women are endlessly interesting, and men are, say, 8 times out of 10 very boring. even when it's an especially interesting woman, up to especially interesting things, if it has a male author and a male narrator...might be a bust. rating: 3.5 DAY 8: NABO: THE BLACK MAN WHO MADE THE ANGELS WAIT could tell by title alone this one wouldn't be my favorite. rating: 3 DAY 9: SOMEONE HAS BEEN DISARRANGING THESE ROSES now this title...this i like. this is giving alice's adventures in wonderland. kind of spooky and fun, if you've ever wanted a weird little ghost friend haunting your room and messing with your stuff. rating: 3.5 DAY 10: THE NIGHT OF THE CURLEWS kind of have to hand it to a story for being no plot, just bad vibes. rating: 3 DAY 11: MONOLOGUE OF ISABEL WATCHING IT RAIN IN MACONDO a woman talking uninterrupted at length is my idea of a good time. fictional or otherwise. also i am currently watching it rain, and am capable of saying a lot, so...this is going to be like an immersive 4D experience. it's important to remember that we are all always just one weird thing away from complete breakdown. rating: 3.75 DAY 12: TUESDAY SIESTA tuesday goals. nothing really happens here, which is cool. like this takes place mostly in a graveyard and it's by far the least spooky and death-obsessed story so far. the tie between siesta and death is fun, and very subtle, relatively. rating: 3.5 DAY 13: ONE OF THESE DAYS getting political! rating: 3.5 DAY 14: THERE ARE NO THIEVES IN THIS TOWN feels like where the last section was about death, this one is about "the idea of a town." rating: 3 DAY 15: BALTHAZAR'S MARVELOUS AFTERNOON title is giving roald dahl. content is giving john steinbeck. rating: 3.5 DAY 16: MONTIEL'S WIDOW "Their letters were always happy, and one could see that they had been written in warm, well-lit places, and that the girls saw themselves reflected in many mirrors when they stopped to think." damn that's good. this takes place in the same universe as the last one, which is fun. rating: 3.5 DAY 17: ONE DAY AFTER SATURDAY i do find myself consistently gripped by the stories in this section, even as they feel less...special? i don't know. plenty of days to think about it. rating: 3.5 DAY 18: ARTIFICIAL ROSES i love a short one. the analysis goes by quicker. rating: 3.5 DAY 19: BIG MAMA'S FUNERAL titular!!! well, for the section. the old ways do be dying and leaving garbage in their wake! rating: 3.5 DAY 20: A VERY OLD MAN WITH ENORMOUS WINGS part 3!! we're cruising right along. i think i've read this one before. i have vague memories of analyzing why this story, which is filled with SAT words, would have the subtitle "a tale for children." or maybe my brain is just giving me that false remembrance as a way to be b*tchy. anyway this is kind of basic-curriculum fodder but it is good. rating: 4 DAY 21: THE SEA OF LOST TIME i love this title extremely. this has everything i like: time, roses, the ocean, daily occurrences imbued with metaphorical significance. rating: 4 DAY 22: THE HANDSOMEST DROWNED MAN IN THE WORLD another alleged "tale for children." which is good because i have roughly 1/2 a brain cell to devote to this. the first recorded case of a parasocial relationship. rating: 3.5 DAY 23: DEATH CONSTANT BEYOND LOVE another short one! thank heaven for small mercies. (these are like...all short, but there's gotta be a big one coming.) view of woman starting to get supremely grating. rating: 2 DAY 24: THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE GHOST SHIP skipped a day. maybe 2 days. maybe 3 days. i am too tired to either figure it out or catch up. at least this story has ghosts in it (one of my top 5 favorite things). cruel and unusual for my fatigue day to include a story that is ONE FIVE-PAGE SENTENCE LONG. luckily it's stunningly written. rating: 4.5 DAY 25: BLACAMAN THE GOOD, VENDOR OF MIRACLES another cool and fun one... i am also doomed to never catch up because the next is the last story and it's a hundred thousand million pages long and, in other words, absolutely no way am i doing that right now. rating: 4 DAY 26: THE INCREDIBLE AND SAD TALE OF INNOCENT ERENDIRA AND HER HEARTLESS GRANDMOTHER last day! and this story is somehow even longer than its title implies. this story won me for the first 5 pages, then lost me for like 45, and then won me back in the last paragraph. rating: 4 OVERALL i don't feel like this was the best way to start with gabriel garcia marquez (not to contradict the nobel committee), but i did enjoy it, and it did make me even more excited (which is to say less intimidated) to get to a hundred years of solitude. rating: 3.5 ...more |
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Jun 08, 2022
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| 0997366648
| 9780997366648
| 0997366648
| 4.02
| 3,063
| Apr 28, 2017
| Apr 28, 2017
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really liked it
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my becoming-a-genius project, part 28! the background: i have decided to become a genius. to accomplish this, i'm going to work my way through the collec my becoming-a-genius project, part 28! the background: i have decided to become a genius. to accomplish this, i'm going to work my way through the collected stories of various authors, reading + reviewing 1 story every day until i get bored / lose every single follower / am struck down by a vengeful deity. terrible vibes from this cover, i can't wait to read it. DAY 1: THE DEBUTANTE a rich girl whose only friends are animals at the zoo so she has a hyena attend a party as her while wearing another person's face...this is off to an incredible start. rating: 4 DAY 2: THE OVAL LADY if all of these stories are about beautiful rich girls being weird and ugly and violent, we are in for a damn good time. rating: 3.5 DAY 3: THE ROYAL SUMMONS this level of madness is giving alice's adventures in wonderland, and that is the highest compliment i can give anything. rating: 4 DAY 4: A MAN IN LOVE we should all dream that one day we'll die but we'll be warm forever and we can be the site of chickens laying their eggs and fruit farms. rating: 3.5 DAY 5: UNCLE SAM CARRINGTON kind of a bummer to be corrected on etiquette by a talking horse who kicks you a lot. rating: 3 DAY 6: THE HOUSE OF FEAR back to back talking horse ones. another friendless girl becomes very close with a talking animal one. i'm loving the running themes here. rating: 3 DAY 7: AS THEY RODE ALONG THE EDGE in hindsight i should have realized surrealism would scratch the alice's adventures in wonderland itch for me much sooner. rating: 3 DAY 8: PIGEON, FLY talking sheep and mirror horror and more horses. but in a fun way. rating: 3.5 DAY 9: THE THREE HUNTERS i know i can't shut up about this but this is sooo giving a mad tea party...if the mad hatter, dormouse, and march hare were irishmen and the tea was replaced with sausages. rating: 3.5 DAY 10: MONSIEUR CYRIL DE GUINDRE well, i mean. this one, about vanity and beauty and attempted acts of potential incest, was a bit much. rating: 3 DAY 11: THE SISTERS leonora carrington has a uniquely evil mind when it comes to picking names. like what is "drusille." rating: 3.5 DAY 12: CAST DOWN BY SADNESS relatable. this story is about a girl showing feet and our protagonist thanking her so profusely that the girl kisses her profusely and is like "you're a genius. please live with me." if you can believe that we're just supposed to move past that and read about death. rating: 4 DAY 13: WHITE RABBITS i expected an alice heavy one from that title, and like all of them this was definitely alice esque. a lot stinkier, though. and more carnivorous. rating: 4 DAY 14: WAITING this story starts out with two old ladies physically fighting each other in the street at night and never gets less normal. awesome. rating: 4 DAY 15: THE SEVENTH HORSE new life goals is to have a garden that's so big that some weird feral girl-creature and her six horse best friends can live in there eating grass and watching birds without me even noticing. either that or to be the aforementioned girl-creature. rating: 3.5 DAY 16: THE NEUTRAL MAN this one is both more surreal and less surreal than the others. and also more british. rating: 3 DAY 17: A MEXICAN FAIRYTALE oh that's not — rating: 2 DAY 18: ET IN BELLICUS LUNARUM MEDICALIS this is a story about rats who can do surgery but it's no ratatouille. rating: 2.5 DAY 19: MY FLANNEL KNICKERS this is about how to avoid accidentally becoming a saint by being too hot. in other words, a very useful guide for me. rating: 3.5 DAY 20: THE HAPPY CORPSE STORY this is just such a great title. too great, even. rating: 3 DAY 21: HOW TO START A PHARMACEUTICALS BUSINESS this is about if you win the lottery in the future and win the toothbrush-sized corpse of stalin and eat one of his mustache hairs, thus discovering its medicinal practices. so fairly useful. leonora was pretty preoccupied by the soviet union. rating: 3.5 DAY 22: MY MOTHER IS A COW evocative. i don't know if these have gotten worse over time, or just pack less of a punch coming one after the other, but...it's a bummer. rating: 3 DAY 23: THE SAND CAMEL everyone knows that if you make a camel out of sand it's fine unless you mix butter in. then it's bound to decapitate a grandma. rating: 3 DAY 24: MR GREGORY'S FLY this one read like a picture book. hold the pictures. rating: 3 DAY 25: JEMIMA AND THE WOLF oh thank god. we're back to our weird rich girl x animals x violence roots to finish this out. rating: 4 OVERALL i enjoyed this so, so much at the beginning of the month, but the surreal power of these was dulled by me reading them one after the other. it doesn't help that the nature of "complete" stories means taking the good with the bad. i will certainly be revisiting this in the future, and think my feelings will only benefit from that. rating: 3.5 ...more |
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Mar 04, 2024
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Mar 28, 2024
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Apr 06, 2022
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Paperback
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| 0141195940
| 9780141195940
| 0141195940
| 4.15
| 5,739
| 1964
| Oct 31, 2012
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liked it
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my becoming-a-genius project, part 21! the background: i have decided to become a genius. to accomplish this, i'm going to work my way through the collec my becoming-a-genius project, part 21! the background: i have decided to become a genius. to accomplish this, i'm going to work my way through the collected stories of various authors, reading + reviewing 1 story every day until i get bored / lose every single follower / am struck down by a vengeful deity. my favorite book on earth is alice's adventures in wonderland, and my favorite editions on earth are the penguin clothbound classics, so this installment seems like a match made in heaven. emphasis on seems. regardless, more books should add "and other nonsense" to the end of their titles. PROJECT 1: THE COMPLETE STORIES BY FLANNERY O'CONNOR PROJECT 2: HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIES BY CARMEN MARIA MACHADO PROJECT 3: 18 BEST STORIES BY EDGAR ALLAN POE PROJECT 4: THE LOTTERY AND OTHER STORIES BY SHIRLEY JACKSON PROJECT 5: HOW LONG 'TIL BLACK FUTURE MONTH? BY N.K. JEMISIN PROJECT 6: THE SHORT STORIES OF OSCAR WILDE BY OSCAR WILDE PROJECT 7: THE BLUE FAIRY BOOK BY ANDREW LANG PROJECT 8: GRAND UNION: STORIES BY ZADIE SMITH PROJECT 9: THE BEST OF ROALD DAHL BY ROALD DAHL PROJECT 10: LOVE AND FREINDSHIP BY JANE AUSTEN PROJECT 11: HOMESICK FOR ANOTHER WORLD BY OTTESSA MOSHFEGH PROJECT 12: BAD FEMINIST BY ROXANE GAY PROJECT 12.5: DIFFICULT WOMEN BY ROXANE GAY PROJECT 13: THE SHORT NOVELS OF JOHN STEINBECK PROJECT 14: FIRST PERSON SINGULAR BY HARUKI MURAKAMI PROJECT 15: THE ORIGINAL FOLK AND FAIRY TALES OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM PROJECT 16: A MANUAL FOR CLEANING WOMEN BY LUCIA BERLIN PROJECT 17: SELECTED STORIES OF PHILIP K. DICK PROJECT 18: HIGH LONESOME: SELECTED STORIES BY JOYCE CAROL OATES PROJECT 19: THE SHORT STORIES OF ANTON CHEKHOV PROJECT 20: COLLECTED STORIES OF COLETTE PROJECT 21: JABBERWOCKY AND OTHER NONSENSE: COLLECTED POEMS BY LEWIS CARROLL DAY 1: USEFUL AND INSTRUCTIVE POETRY awesome. i love to learn, and i imagine i love to learn even more if i'm learning in the style of a 19th century tween reading a weird magazine. these all come with morals which is fun. more things should be more straightforward in my opinion. and sometimes the morals are just random phrases, like, "a present from Croft." and you're like, okay, i mean i guess he did warn me this was going to be nonsense. add one that's just making fun of shakespeare and we're in for quite a ride. rating: 3.5 DAY 2: THE RECTORY MAGAZINE tiny chunk today, which is ideal as i am working with a tiny chunk of time. very funny to picture the churchgoers picking up the rectory magazine expecting, like, jesus stuff, and just..."ugh. rector charles is writing his weird poems again." rating: 3.5 DAY 3: THE RECTORY UMBRELLA okay, so i missed a couple days. a few, even. see the WHOLE OTHER PROJECT I'M DOING SIMULTANEOUSLY for my various excuses. now we are arriving at the actual nonsense, which for right now is just real words spelled weird. there are also footnotes now which are very funny. i think if lewis carroll absolutely had to be okay with having his dumb silly poems explained, he would've been pleased to know the explanations were goofy. rating: 3.5 DAY 4: MISCHMASCH cutest funnest name. realizing today is world poetry day, and i should have just pretended i skipped former days in order to celebrate as thoroughly as possible. oh well. a poem in this has the word "muggle" in it. i am suing joanne rowling for every penny she is worth. ah the first stanza of jabberwocky is in here! is there a better nonsense word in history than "mimsy"? doubtful. rating: 3.5 DAY 5: OTHER EARLY VERSE mercifully, all three of these are relatively short. i don't deserve this but i do need it. like batman, or reverse batman, i can't remember. i am now also eating cake and drinking tea while reading, and feeling very alice-like. "Noodle dumb / Has a noodle-head / I hate such noodles, I do." what a way with words. gotta love poetry. and the last poem is about how cops are terrible at their jobs. lewis carroll said ACAB. rating: 3.5 DAY 6: ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND YESSSSSSSSSSSSS!!! i f*ckin' love the poetry from alice. for years i had the row row row your boat mnemonic poem memorized and i would doodle it in the margins of my notes in classes, because i am very cool and normal. that one is not in this section since it's from through the looking-glass, but this ruled all the same. i'm so far past due for a reread. rating: 5 DAY 7: PHANTASMAGORIA today's section is over 100 pages long and that's not what any of this is about. desperate times, desperate measures: we're dividing willy-nilly again. this poem is a little ghost postulating on the rules of the ghost lifestyle and as such i love it. rating: 4 DAY 8: ...AND OTHER POEMS in case you were wondering if i would have to endure a thousand-page long political poem before getting to part 2 of ghost antics: yes, and are you psychic? AND THEN IT WAS ULTIMATELY CORNY ANGEL STUFF. GOD. at least we got a little liddell sisters mention. hehe. little liddell. didn't have much fun with this one today. even if there WAS a christmas poem. these aren't nonsense, they're just cheesy. rating: 2, maybe 2.5 DAY 9: PUZZLES FROM WONDERLAND oh hell yeah. today's set is like 4 pages long and wonderlandy in nature. a dream. rating: 4 DAY 10: THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS AND WHAT ALICE FOUND THERE YAAAAAAASSSSSS. so many heavy hitters here. the aforementioned fav acrostic. tweedle dee and tweedle dum. the titular jabberwocky. walrus and carpenter feat those super cute oysters. 5 stars exponentially!!! rating: 5 DAY 11: OXFORD POEMS, WITH SOME MEMORIA TECHNICA well this sounds like a casual chill vibe. a fun time. the poetry equivalent of a tropical vacation themed darty thrown by a frat. rating: 3 DAY 12: THE HUNTING OF THE SNARK i am having trouble focusing today (sleepiness reasons) so i'm reading this out loud to myself like i am my own small child. can't tell if this poem is better than usual or if reading it aloud is just an exceptional idea but i'm having a blast either way. rating: 4 DAY 13: POEMS FOR FRIENDS, INCLUDING ACROSTICS, RIDDLES, 'CHARADES,' AND A CIPHER-POEM goddamn i hate riddles so much. they make me feel stupid constantly, and i build my life around opportunities to feel smart. when i was a camp counselor during high school summers, i once had a camper whose entire personality was riddles and i truly had to bite my tongue not to be some weird teenager snapping on a kid. a bit of an alternate villain origin story. let's see how this goes. i am firmly on the "don't judge historical figures by the socio-moral standards of today" side of things, but even i wish that bachelors hadn't been on childcare duty in the nineteenth century. lewis carroll wrote too many poems to and about little girls for my reading comfort, i'll say. not creepy. just annoying and boring. and i still have no idea what a double-acrostic is. rating: 2 DAY 14: SYLVIE AND BRUNO AND SYLVIE AND BRUNO CONCLUDED these are referenced a sh*t ton in the annotated alice, so i've always kinda meant to read them. let's see how it goes. well, now i've read all of the non-prose parts of lewis carroll's third-most and fourth-most seminal works. that's something. rating: 3 DAY 15: LATE COLLECTIONS just a handful more of the impenetrable confusing double acrostics written for specific small children to take us out. rating: 3 OVERALL lewis carroll has always been more of a one-off god-level artist of my heart than a favorite author, and reading this collection didn't change that perception for me, but it was still good to discover! and an important reminder that i have gone far too long without reading alice. rating: 3 ...more |
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Mar 17, 2022
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Mar 31, 2022
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Jan 05, 2022
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Hardcover
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| 0141192577
| 9780141192574
| 0141192577
| 4.19
| 2,761
| 1609
| Oct 01, 2009
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really liked it
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my becoming-a-genius project, part 26! the background: i have decided to become a genius. to accomplish this, i'm going to work my way through the collec my becoming-a-genius project, part 26! the background: i have decided to become a genius. to accomplish this, i'm going to work my way through the collected stories of various authors, reading + reviewing 1 story every day until i get bored / lose every single follower / am struck down by a vengeful deity. i'm meh about poetry, but i love complaining! so i believe this will be fun. let's get into it. PROJECT 1: THE COMPLETE STORIES BY FLANNERY O'CONNOR PROJECT 2: HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIES BY CARMEN MARIA MACHADO PROJECT 3: 18 BEST STORIES BY EDGAR ALLAN POE PROJECT 4: THE LOTTERY AND OTHER STORIES BY SHIRLEY JACKSON PROJECT 5: HOW LONG 'TIL BLACK FUTURE MONTH? BY N.K. JEMISIN PROJECT 6: THE SHORT STORIES OF OSCAR WILDE PROJECT 7: THE BLUE FAIRY BOOK BY ANDREW LANG PROJECT 8: GRAND UNION: STORIES BY ZADIE SMITH PROJECT 9: THE BEST OF ROALD DAHL PROJECT 10: LOVE AND FREINDSHIP BY JANE AUSTEN PROJECT 11: HOMESICK FOR ANOTHER WORLD BY OTTESSA MOSHFEGH PROJECT 12: BAD FEMINIST BY ROXANE GAY PROJECT 12.5: DIFFICULT WOMEN BY ROXANE GAY PROJECT 13: THE SHORT NOVELS OF JOHN STEINBECK PROJECT 14: FIRST PERSON SINGULAR BY HARUKI MURAKAMI PROJECT 15: THE ORIGINAL FOLK AND FAIRY TALES OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM PROJECT 16: A MANUAL FOR CLEANING WOMEN BY LUCIA BERLIN PROJECT 17: SELECTED STORIES OF PHILIP K. DICK PROJECT 18: HIGH LONESOME: SELECTED STORIES BY JOYCE CAROL OATES PROJECT 19: THE SHORT STORIES OF ANTON CHEKHOV PROJECT 20: COLLECTED STORIES OF COLETTE PROJECT 21: JABBERWOCKY AND OTHER NONSENSE: COLLECTED POEMS BY LEWIS CARROLL PROJECT 22: COLLECTED STORIES BY GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ PROJECT 23: THE METAMORPHOSIS & OTHER STORIES BY FRANZ KAFKA PROJECT 24: THE COMPLETE POEMS OF EMILY DICKINSON PROJECT 25: THE PAT HOBBY STORIES BY F. SCOTT FITZGERALD PROJECT 26: THE SONNETS AND A LOVER'S COMPLAINT BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE DAY 1: SONNETS 1-10 there are like, 152 sonnets, or something, and then there's a long complaint, which is relatable, so i'm going to do 10 sonnets a day and then see what happens. nothing matters. these are nice, though. DAY 2: SONNETS 11-20 "Against this cumming end you should prepare"...huh? celebrity sighting. it's shall i compare thee to a summer's day day. DAY 3: SONNETS 21-30 they really didn't update the language at all, huh...we'd know this is from old times without every verb having an e on the end, guys. DAY 4: SONNETS 31-40 i'll say it: i'm a sucker for celestial language. i'm no poetry fan, but throw a moon mention in there and suddenly i'm on board. DAY 5: SONNETS 41-50 there is so much saucy gay love triangle content to be found in this lil collection...hbo, get on the phone with Bill asap. DAY 6: SONNETS 51-60 sometimes i call books written, like, 40 years ago "classics," and then i read WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE writing ABOUT THE ILIAD and i'm like. maybe i need to learn new words. DAY 7: SONNETS 61-70 a self-love sonnet! the instagram infographic girls wish they got here as early as the man himself. DAY 8: SONNETS 71-80 big "if i die, just forget about me immediately so you're not even accidentally sad for one second" day. pretty rad. "So are you to my thoughts as food to life" = the original no thoughts, head empty. DAY 9: SONNETS 81-90 just got a phantom sense that i not only read one of the poems in today's set before, but wrote about and/or analyzed it at length for an assignment max 5 years ago. i used to be smart. i promise. DAY 10: SONNETS 91-100 saying someone's beauty grows like eve's apple...call me crazy but seems like a backhanded compliment. DAY 11: SONNETS 101-110 love the poem that's like "you can never be old to me, because i will always remember how young and full of life you were when i saw you for the first time (checks notes) 3 years ago." i guess that's kind of a while when the average lifespan is like 17 and a half. DAY 12: SONNETS 111-120 there's one sonnet in here that very elaborately and beautifully describes my preferred style of conflict resolution, which is just like "eh, we were both assholes, let's just move on." DAY 13: SONNETS 121-130 another celebrity encounter: that one poem that is basically "sure, my gf is stinky and her lips aren't that red and nobody and i mean NOBODY would confuse her with a goddess...but i like her <3" DAY 14: SONNETS 131-140 wow, today's set opening up with ANOTHER sonnet being like you're not that hot. but this one is also like in addition to that, you're evil and bad. so that's fun. back-to-back. STOP EVERYTHING. WILL/WILL PUN SEX JOKE POEM DAY 15: SONNETS 141-154 "Two loves I have of comfort and despair"—this is so me. obsessed with being either cozy or distraught. DAY 16: A LOVER'S COMPLAINT this title is so me... the poem itself: straight up nothing to do with me. none of my business, even. but that title, wow. so relatable. OVERALL i'm a bigger fan of shakespeare's plays — more tomfoolery, more wordplay, more d*ck jokes — but these are obviously exceptional and have lasted a bajillion years through a time period when books were greeting card-level durable and life was 99% mud for a reason. rating: 3.5 ...more |
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May 12, 2023
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May 29, 2023
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Dec 25, 2021
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Hardcover
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| 0060501197
| 9780060501198
| 0060501197
| 4.16
| 844
| Apr 01, 2006
| Apr 11, 2006
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liked it
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my becoming-a-genius project, part 18! the background: i have decided to become a genius. to accomplish this, i'm going to work my way through the collec my becoming-a-genius project, part 18! the background: i have decided to become a genius. to accomplish this, i'm going to work my way through the collected stories of various authors, reading + reviewing 1 story every day until i get bored / lose every single follower / am struck down by a vengeful deity. i was feeling like i might need a little break from this project, so instead i'm picking up a 700-page tome and signing myself up for a month-long installment. i may be trying to become a genius, but i never said i was smart. PROJECT 1: THE COMPLETE STORIES BY FLANNERY O'CONNOR PROJECT 2: HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIES BY CARMEN MARIA MACHADO PROJECT 3: 18 BEST STORIES BY EDGAR ALLAN POE PROJECT 4: THE LOTTERY AND OTHER STORIES BY SHIRLEY JACKSON PROJECT 5: HOW LONG 'TIL BLACK FUTURE MONTH? BY N.K. JEMISIN PROJECT 6: THE SHORT STORIES OF OSCAR WILDE BY OSCAR WILDE PROJECT 7: THE BLUE FAIRY BOOK BY ANDREW LANG PROJECT 8: GRAND UNION: STORIES BY ZADIE SMITH PROJECT 9: THE BEST OF ROALD DAHL BY ROALD DAHL PROJECT 10: LOVE AND FREINDSHIP BY JANE AUSTEN PROJECT 11: HOMESICK FOR ANOTHER WORLD BY OTTESSA MOSHFEGH PROJECT 12: BAD FEMINIST BY ROXANE GAY PROJECT 12.5: DIFFICULT WOMEN BY ROXANE GAY PROJECT 13: THE SHORT NOVELS OF JOHN STEINBECK PROJECT 14: FIRST PERSON SINGULAR BY HARUKI MURAKAMI PROJECT 15: THE ORIGINAL FOLK AND FAIRY TALES OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM PROJECT 16: A MANUAL FOR CLEANING WOMEN BY LUCIA BERLIN PROJECT 17: SELECTED STORIES OF PHILIP K. DICK PROJECT 18: HIGH LONESOME: SELECTED STORIES BY JOYCE CAROL OATES DAY 1: SPIDER BOY immediately i'm picturing a dollar-store superhero knockoff of tobey maguire, so this is off to a good start. i'm not out of my reading slump, but i am out of my much longer and far worse analytical slump, in which looking below the surface of any book took a ton of effort. what a relief to notice themes and motifs and double meanings again!!! the ending of this was kind of lame but overall i'm happy my slump ended here. rating: 4 DAY 2: THE FISH FACTORY another funny title that will probably once again give way to a very somber story. this was a correct premonition (immediately this is about a child's murder). OR WAS IT? rating: 3.75 DAY 3: THE COUSINS was hungover (emotionally, because i'd been to a phoebe bridgers concert the night before, and physically, because even though i didn't drink much and i did eat dinner and i did drink water, the world hates me) yesterday and when i'm hungover i forget how to read. playing catch up on a friday after completing only 2 days. this bodes well. i liked this anyway. rating: 4 DAY 4: SOFT-CORE i don't have patience for women who don't love their sisters. and as the eldest, i DEFINITELY don't have patience for younger siblings who are haters. rating: DAY 5: THE GATHERING SQUALL title could be the overall Bad Vibe and foreshadowing of destruction to come re: this project! because today is monday, and i did not pick this up on saturday OR sunday. it's a three-story day, but at least none of us can say we weren't warned by past me when i started this book. i almost never like the way sexual assault is written about, and this is no exception. rating: 2 DAY 6: THE LOST BROTHER there is a sibling preoccupation happening here. rating: 2.5 DAY 7: IN HOT MAY good/sad one to round out the bad/sad ones. rating: 3.5 DAY 8: HIGH LONESOME title story title story title story! i'm launching my high expectations like it's a spaceship in a sci-fi movie. flashing to establishing shots of the HQ at Houston, people pushing up levels and typing on sciency looking computers and talking into headsets. you get it. empathy is a real b*tch to have, and also there are some goddamn gruesome images in this. rating: 3.75 DAY 9: *BD*11 1 87 this story is already testing me with this complicated f*cking title. i should look at a title once to type it. ONE TIME ONLY. well this one was out of the typical oates wheelhouse. rating: 3.5 DAY 10: FAT MAN MY LOVE i don't know how many days behind i am - 3? 4? 1000? either way it's insurmountable on this day and i'll deal with it later. seems like today's order of business is A Reminder Of How Far We Have Come Fatphobia-Wise In The Last 15+ Years. i promise i do not make this claim lightly when i say stories like these are why people hate literary fiction. rating: 1 DAY 11: OBJECTS IN MIRROR ARE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR same day, because this is a teeny story and i can actually play a bit of catch-up!!! i liked the ending of this. also the title. rating: 3.5 DAY 12: UPON THE SWEEPING FLOOD we have suddenly moved to The 1960s from The New Stories, which seems like an odd construction but O.K. we have also done some math and determined that after this story, i will be just one behind. look at us go. a fun fact about me is that i find natural disaster stories very boring, which will surely prove to be my entertainment demise as the effects of climate change come for us all. rating: 3 DAY 13: AT THE SEMINARY have to read two stories to catch up today. i feel about as good about my chances of doing that as i do about my chances of cooking a healthy dinner: it's possible, but not likely. true to expectation i read one story and i'm eating chips for dinner. 1960s joyce carol oates was a different breed. rating: 4 DAY 14: IN THE REGION OF ICE i kind of can't stress enough how much more interesting 1960s-oates' way of writing is than the dreaded 2000s. rating: 3.75 DAY 15: WHERE ARE YOU GOING, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN i am both excited and scared to read this story, because i wrote one of the best papers of my life during one of my favorite times of my life on it a few years ago, and i loved it but at the same time a bout of nostalgia can take me down for 2-4 business days and i'm busy. excited and scared was a good combo. rating: 5 DAY 16: HOW I CONTEMPLATED THE WORLD FROM THE DETROIT HOUSE OF CORRECTIONS, AND BEGAN MY LIFE OVER AGAIN again with the title i have to read more than once in order to write it down. joyce, we talked about this........ i love when i read a story and it piques my interest from the first word and never lets me down. rating: 4.25 DAY 17: FOUR SUMMERS it's giving me sisterhood of the traveling pants. okay........a bit more going on thematically than the sisterhood of the traveling pants, i'll admit. rating: 4.25 DAY 18: SMALL AVALANCHES it's the 70s baby! groovy. we are too busy listening to disco and...wearing flared pants? to be sad at bidding 60s oates adieu. if there's a subgenre of badass girls f*cking over creepy weird men, i'd sure like to know. rating: 4 DAY 19: CONCERNING THE CASE OF BOBBY T. aaaaaand i'm 4 days behind again. i have become so fully weekend-illiterate. i'll count it as a win if i read even one story today. catching up seems an impossible task, my dear boy! this story is so ahead of its time it boggles the mind. rating: 4 DAY 20: THE TRYST still 4 days behind today. just going to...see what happens, i guess. i love when a story written by a woman really seems to nail the male perspective. i read so many optimistic romance novels, it always surprises me. rating: 4 DAY 21: THE LADY WITH THE PET DOG yeesh. two affair stories in a row. rating: 3 DAY 22: THE DEAD james joyce moment! i hope it is alike it only in name. it wasn't. that's enough for today. rating: 3.5 DAY 23: LAST DAYS it's the 1980s, baby! call it the last few days of my AP US history class in high school because we are just flying through these decades! i did...not fly through this story, though. mental breakdowns are like dreams - only your own are really interesting. rating: 3 DAY 24: MY WARSZAWA: 1980 i desperately want to quit for the day after that last one, but then i wouldn't be able to cross "catch up on Oates" on my to-do list and we can't have that. of course that would also mean the longest story yet is the next one. mental breakdowns are slightly more interesting when women have them, but the effect is reduced when the page count is doubled. rating: 3 DAY 25: OUR WALL really upping my weekend-off habit by taking thursday and friday off, too. if i have my sh*t together this will be a four-story day. thank you to ms. oates for making this one mercifully short. this is, no joke, like the maze runner. and i know that the maze runner was written decades after this but that doesn't change that i hate stories like it. rating: 2.5 DAY 26: RAVEN'S WING another short one! everything's coming up emma. i have to say, i don't get horse obsessions as a rule. i'm the anti-horse girl. i exist to balance them out in the universe. rating: 3 DAY 27: GOLDEN GLOVES there is nothing scarier on god's great green earth to me than boxing. rating: 3.5 DAY 28: MANSLAUGHTER okay fun title alert!!! this one spooked me out and i have no idea why. rating: 3.5 DAY 29: NAIROBI my main associations with Nairobi to this point are from the classic children's internet game poptropica. i hope this is even a quarter as fun and education as poptropica is. i have no idea what this was about, but there were certainly no puzzles OR mini-games. rating: 3.5 DAY 30: HEAT time to retire this as a title. like when good athletes have their numbers retired. welcome to the 1990s, baby! the end is near, both of the book and of civilization as we know it! i love when literary fiction writers write about genre fiction subjects. double interesting. rating: 3.5 DAY 31: THE KNIFE took a catastrophic 5 days off this project with just 6 stories to go. if i don't finish today or tomorrow i won't catch up ever. what a situation i have created! it's now 9 pm and i just finished my first story. for context, i do almost all of my reading for the day before 6 pm. and it was a goddamn doozy. rating: none DAY 32: THE HAIR the ending of this was so fun. best thing for a story to be great at is an ending, because it always kinda gaslights me into thinking i liked the whole thing. rating: 3.5 DAY 33: THE SWIMMERS gotta admire the title consistency. oh, i did like this one. admirable for a story to make you feel nostalgic for an experience you didn't live. rating: 4 DAY 34: WILL YOU ALWAYS LOVE ME? well, folks, if we can make today a three-story day, we'll finish this project up on time. somehow. crazier things have happened, i suppose, but not by the f*ckton. a real doozy once again. rating: 3.5 DAY 35: LIFE AFTER HIGH SCHOOL hm. so true. it do be going on. rating: 3.5 DAY 36: MARK OF SATAN the final installment! and what a title! bit anticlimactic but okay. OVERALL joyce carol oates is an insane twitter person and an insane writer person and i have found both entertaining to varying degrees. this collection had a lot of highs and lows for me (more like high LOWnesome oh my god), and the reliance on violence towards women got grueling (and was never as good as is was in where are you going, where have you been), but overall i'm still glad i picked this up. rating: 3.5 ...more |
Notes are private!
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Sep 21, 2021
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Oct 26, 2021
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Sep 21, 2021
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Hardcover
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| B0029ZZT1O
| 4.28
| 101,555
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| 1960
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really liked it
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my becoming-a-genius project, part 24! the background: i have decided to become a genius. to accomplish this, i'm going to work my way through the collec my becoming-a-genius project, part 24! the background: i have decided to become a genius. to accomplish this, i'm going to work my way through the collected stories of various authors, reading + reviewing 1 story every day until i get bored / lose every single follower / am struck down by a vengeful deity. i fully believe that when i get around to finishing this, i will transcend all known limits of humanity and finally become the most insufferable person in history. but also, this is 700 pages' worth of poems - 1,775 of them, to be exact - that are not divided in any way. not sure how i'm going to take this project on, but i don't have any other options. literally. i ran out of all my other short story collections. let's see what happens, i guess. PROJECT 1: THE COMPLETE STORIES BY FLANNERY O'CONNOR PROJECT 2: HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIES BY CARMEN MARIA MACHADO PROJECT 3: 18 BEST STORIES BY EDGAR ALLAN POE PROJECT 4: THE LOTTERY AND OTHER STORIES BY SHIRLEY JACKSON PROJECT 5: HOW LONG 'TIL BLACK FUTURE MONTH? BY N.K. JEMISIN PROJECT 6: THE SHORT STORIES OF OSCAR WILDE PROJECT 7: THE BLUE FAIRY BOOK BY ANDREW LANG PROJECT 8: GRAND UNION: STORIES BY ZADIE SMITH PROJECT 9: THE BEST OF ROALD DAHL PROJECT 10: LOVE AND FREINDSHIP BY JANE AUSTEN PROJECT 11: HOMESICK FOR ANOTHER WORLD BY OTTESSA MOSHFEGH PROJECT 12: BAD FEMINIST BY ROXANE GAY PROJECT 12.5: DIFFICULT WOMEN BY ROXANE GAY PROJECT 13: THE SHORT NOVELS OF JOHN STEINBECK PROJECT 14: FIRST PERSON SINGULAR BY HARUKI MURAKAMI PROJECT 15: THE ORIGINAL FOLK AND FAIRY TALES OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM PROJECT 16: A MANUAL FOR CLEANING WOMEN BY LUCIA BERLIN PROJECT 17: SELECTED STORIES OF PHILIP K. DICK PROJECT 18: HIGH LONESOME: SELECTED STORIES BY JOYCE CAROL OATES PROJECT 19: THE SHORT STORIES OF ANTON CHEKHOV PROJECT 20: COLLECTED STORIES OF COLETTE PROJECT 21: JABBERWOCKY AND OTHER NONSENSE: COLLECTED POEMS BY LEWIS CARROLL PROJECT 22: COLLECTED STORIES BY GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ PROJECT 23: THE METAMORPHOSIS & OTHER STORIES BY FRANZ KAFKA PROJECT 24: THE COMPLETE POEMS OF EMILY DICKINSON POEMS 1-50 if i read 50 poems a day, this will take me 36 days to finish. there is no earthly way i will read 50 poems a day, but some of these are like 4 lines long, so it's not AS crazy as it sounds. i would place considerable odds on the chances that i drop this down to 25 a day so fast it's like this never happened, but why not start off on a high note. i'm not going to rate these together because i've grouped them arbitrarily, but i will put my favorite of each day and post it on my instagram story! i'm @emmareadstoomuch if you want to see em. favorite: 41 POEMS 51-100 in many ways, this collection thus far is like a prank on me, because i keep thinking there are poems about sad girls or death or heartbreak and then in the last line they reveal themselves to be about sailing. it's a good joke...a great joke even... favorite: 57 POEMS 101-150 lotta roses and daisies happening here. but that's good with me - i'm a girl who reads poetry and therefore i like flowers. will take em any day over sh*t about ships. also, will probably be taking a 6 day break from this, because i'm going on vacation and ain't no way i'm hauling an 800 page hardcover with me. favorite: 111 POEMS 151-175 it was more like a 10 day break, to share my truth with you. "A sailor's business is the shore! / A soldier's - balls! Who asketh more" lol. cutting down to 25 poems, at least for now, due to sheer laziness and overbooked time!! (pun semi-intended.) my fav of this set is perfect for today, when i am returning from a sea- and river-filled vacation. favorite: 162 POEMS 176-200 might stick around in this 25-a-day zone. way more sustainable. also cramming 50 emily dickinson works into one measly 24 hour period seems unlawful. i'm not saying 190 is about hooking up with an ex but...i'm not NOT saying that. favorite: 191 POEMS 201-225 in 215, emily asks an eternal question - "do they 'hoe'" in paradise? favorite: 211 POEMS 226-250 get you a gf who will "harass God / Until he let you in!" to heaven. no capitalization on he, even. italicized threat for increased seriousness. badass as hell. favorite: 232 & 241 POEMS 251-275 wowww, hope is the thing with feathers day! all star lineup. i like the dark stuff though. i'm edgy. favorite: 255 POEMS 276-300 i do love that Nobody. favorite: 288 POEMS 301-325 it is becoming clear to me that my edition has different numbers than others. uh oh. favorite: 301 POEMS 326-350 i think with this one i'm going to be realistic about the days. i'm not going to try to catch up. it takes however long it takes. i mean, there's no hell like forcing yourself to read poetry when you don't feel like it. favorite: 347 POEMS 351-375 you've heard of first is the worst, now get ready for...first is the best. favorite: 351 POEMS 376-400 having a no-brain-cells day. favorite: 392 POEMS 401-425 well, it's been...8 months? i'm judging by the instagram story highlight i used to post my favorites in. anyway, hi. i paused this installment, then i finished all my short story collections again, so here we are. stubbornly. rested and rejuvenated. ready and able to read 25 poems a day for the next 50 consecutive days, i pray. favorite: 405 POEMS 426-450 today picking this up feels like an act of courage. favorite: 447 POEMS 451-475 well, after an incredibly brave and impressive 2 days i paused this again to wait for the new year. which it now is. happy 2023! biiiig death day. favorite: 465 POEMS 476-500 i wish emily dickinson wrote novels. it's almost like she wasn't writing for a random 25 year old reader 150 years in the future. favorite: 499 POEMS 501-525 choosing to accept that the days of this project will rarely if ever be consecutive. i really enjoyed doing this today!! and not just because there was a sexy love poem in this 25. although that didn't hurt. favorite: 506 POEMS 526-550 uh oh...had fun with this again today...with every passing year i grow more and more afraid i may find myself a Poetry Girl... favorite: 536 POEMS 551-575 crisis averted. today's another couldn't emily dickinson just have written em dash-laden books instead day. favorite: 561 POEMS 576-600 do you know the physical toll 25 poems a day can have on a person... just kidding. i read these out loud to myself like i'm having a whimsical breakdown (which, maybe) and have a jolly old time. favorite: 581, 584 POEMS 601-625 my New & Updated Poetry Strategy is that i only pick up this book when i feel like it, and not on a daily basis. in other words it's been 5 days and that pause ended in another 2-favorite day. everything i do is right. favorite: 613, 624 POEMS 626-650 just realized i totally forgot about the "share your daily favorite on your instagram story, emma, for the love of god" part of this project. does anyone care if i do that? if an arbitrary promise collapses in a digital forest, but no one is around to hear it, can i just move on like nothing happened? anyway. favorite: 629 POEMS 651-675 on my third consecutive day. is there anything i can't do. favorite: 657, 661 POEMS 676-700 file four consecutive days under things i can't do. found today's selection to be mercifully short but dreadfully meh. favorite: 686 POEMS 701-725 i was going to say same as yesterday, but then we had a visit from a celebrity. HAPPY BECAUSE I COULD NOT STOP FOR DEATH DAY TO ALL ACKNOWLEDGERS! favorite: 712 POEMS 726-750 this day had poems about how being a wife sucks AND poems about how sexy the moon is. a win. favorite: 732 POEMS 751-775 couldn't possibly guess how many days it's been since i picked this one up. spiritually a hundred years, literally probably less than a week. not my best day. favorite: 774 POEMS 776-800 can you believe we're not even halfway. i can't. in fact legally i don't let myself think about it. favorite: 777 POEMS 801-825 one of those I'm Making Up A Favorite days. favorite: 821 POEMS 826-850 emily dickinson knew about trinket girls a million years before twitter even existed. favorite: 841 POEMS 851-875 today's selection really aligning with my mood and general vibe today. (today's aesthetic is existential dread and a waning will to live.) favorite: 853, 869 POEMS 876-900 feeling pretty obsessed with a poem about birds eating worms after rain right now. favorite: 885 POEMS: 901-925 gotta love today's set. approximately 100 poems about death and hopelessness and then boom, my life is worth it if i've eased one bird's existence. favorite: 913 POEMS: 926-950 lots of poems about being mentally ill today. also one about being best friends with the stars as a concept. big fan. favorite: 932 POEMS: 951-975 i love this collection because there will be 40 gorgeous poems about life's biggest subjects - mortality, love, faith - and then tucked between them a perfect little capturing of the smallest moment. like this one about the feeling of walking alone down a street and seeing a slice of someone else's warm and crowded night as a door opens and shuts. favorite: 953 POEMS: 976-1000 can you believe it - we've hit triple digits! now no one check how close i am to the character count versus how far we have left to go. i'm warning you now it doesn't add up and will only alarm the crowd. favorite: 985 POEMS 1001-1025 a short day just when i needed her. including a 4-line poem that is literally nothing but a sick burn. favorite: 1006 POEMS 1026-1050 some days it's like...do you guys even know how brave i'm being by picking this up. and then some days you get a poem directed to bees from a fly. favorite: 1035 POEMS 1051-1075 i think the first and last poems may have been my favorites...which makes me concerned i just wasn't paying that much attention. favorite: 1075 POEMS 1076-1100 reaching a new 100 level feels less special now that we're over 1000. favorite: 1090 POEMS 1101-1125 the girl loves bees. favorite: 1106, 1116 POEMS 1126-1150 the 3 brain cells i appear to remain in possession of struggled with this one today. favorite: 1136, 1140 POEMS 1151-1175 you know that feeling when you're fighting off the beginning of a cold and you feel groggy and congested and bleh? it doesn't work well with poetry reading. favorite: 1165 POEMS 1176-1200 another making up a favorite day. favorite: 1198 POEMS 1201-1225 there is a poem about march today! and it is march right now! sign from the universe. i have no choice but to enjoy this set. favorite: 1220 POEMS 1226-1250 emily, you saucy little minx...you knew i hadn't picked this book up in seemingly one or two centuries and you made today a back-to-back favorite day... favorite: 1232, 1233 POEMS 1251-1275 fall poem fall poem fall poem!!! favorite: 1271 POEMS 1276-1300 i love short novels. i love short stories. i love short poems. either i'm lazy or i have a predilection. or both. favorite: 1287 POEMS 1301-1325 love poem to the month of march!!! spring poem i'm reading on the first full day of spring!!! crazy how this book was randomly assembled out of old papers and all of it was for me. favorite: 310 POEMS 1326-1350 emily dickinson is an astrology girl reveal!! favorite: 1338 POEMS 1351-1375 the rare I Can't Remember The Last Time I Picked This Up day x Making Up A Favorite day combo. favorite: 1367 POEMS 1376-1400 leaning way too hard on a smallish poem about inexplicable joy and the corresponding desolation today, when i am like kinda sick and being super dramatic about it. favorite: 1382 POEMS 1401-1450 it feels like lately i do one day per week of this project, so i'm doing a 50-poem day. to atone. and of course it was lovely and fun because the universe adores me. favorite: 1420 POEMS 1451-1500 double day so nice i did it twice. "The Booty and the Sorrow / Its Sweetness to have known"...lol. favorite: 1465 POEMS 1501-1525 there is no joy quite like reading an emily dickinson spring poem on the first truly warm day of the season. favorite: 1519 POEMS 1526-1550 see yesterday's note. i feel like if this collection was just 1700 stanzas of emily dickinson defining words and describing seasons, i'd be happy. favorite: 1530 POEMS 1551-1575 a lovely little poem about a woman that hastily throws the word friend in at the end...i see you, emily. favorite: 1568 POEMS 1576-1600 back to back short ones, one describing night as a gift and the other involving cake...bliss. favorites: 1577, 1578 POEMS 1601-1625 bunch of pretty dawn ones today. not emily dickinson getting me fully back on board just before the end of this project! favorite: 1618 POEMS 1626-1650 it's another make-up-a-favorite-at-the-literal-last-minute day, which is a long way of saying a monday. favorite: 1650 POEMS 1651-1675 perfect little poem about occupied minds being like occupied houses...we're so back. favorite: 1653 POEMS 1676-1700 no brain cell days are not conducive to this project. or is it vice versa? i don't know my mind is a mound of soggy cotton balls at this juncture. favorite: 1682 POEMS 1701-1725 sapphic sapphic sapphic sapphic sapphic favorite: 1722 POEMS 1726-1750 PENULTIMATE DAY. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT. DO I JUST FINISH NOW?! I NEVER THOUGHT THIS TIME WOULD COME, I'M FREAKING OUT. lovely little lines for this almost-goodbye: "Parting is all we know of heaven, / And all we need of hell." and a death of childhood poem...we're playing the classics now. favorite: 1738 POEMS 1751-1775 let's finish this! favorite: 1774 OVERALL this project was absolutely ridiculous, and it took me 3 months, and more often than not i thought i would never ever finish. but i'm so glad i did it. (and also so glad it's done.) i'm not a poetry girl, or at least i've always said i'm not, but i now love emily dickinson. even though the highs and lows of reading someone's collected works means taking the good with the bad and with a lot of mediocre. but still. poems about summer and bees and flowers interspersed with death and grief, with liberal amounts of word definitions and goof-off roasts and very, very gay love poems... what more could you ask for! rating: 4 ...more |
Notes are private!
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Jan 03, 2023
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Apr 13, 2023
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Sep 21, 2021
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Hardcover
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| B0DLT9LS8P
| 4.19
| 1,161
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| 1959
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really liked it
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my becoming-a-genius project, part 19! the background: i have decided to become a genius. to accomplish this, i'm going to work my way through the collec my becoming-a-genius project, part 19! the background: i have decided to become a genius. to accomplish this, i'm going to work my way through the collected stories of various authors, reading + reviewing 1 story every day until i get bored / lose every single follower / am struck down by a vengeful deity. as i began my last installment, i badly wanted a break and ignored myself. as that 700 page chunker drew to a close, i started wondering which of the ones on my shelf i should pick up next, because clearly listening to myself is not an option - and i heard the name chekhov three times in one day. seems like a sign, no? PROJECT 1: THE COMPLETE STORIES BY FLANNERY O'CONNOR PROJECT 2: HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIES BY CARMEN MARIA MACHADO PROJECT 3: 18 BEST STORIES BY EDGAR ALLAN POE PROJECT 4: THE LOTTERY AND OTHER STORIES BY SHIRLEY JACKSON PROJECT 5: HOW LONG 'TIL BLACK FUTURE MONTH? BY N.K. JEMISIN PROJECT 6: THE SHORT STORIES OF OSCAR WILDE BY OSCAR WILDE PROJECT 7: THE BLUE FAIRY BOOK BY ANDREW LANG PROJECT 8: GRAND UNION: STORIES BY ZADIE SMITH PROJECT 9: THE BEST OF ROALD DAHL BY ROALD DAHL PROJECT 10: LOVE AND FREINDSHIP BY JANE AUSTEN PROJECT 11: HOMESICK FOR ANOTHER WORLD BY OTTESSA MOSHFEGH PROJECT 12: BAD FEMINIST BY ROXANE GAY PROJECT 12.5: DIFFICULT WOMEN BY ROXANE GAY PROJECT 13: THE SHORT NOVELS OF JOHN STEINBECK PROJECT 14: FIRST PERSON SINGULAR BY HARUKI MURAKAMI PROJECT 15: THE ORIGINAL FOLK AND FAIRY TALES OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM PROJECT 16: A MANUAL FOR CLEANING WOMEN BY LUCIA BERLIN PROJECT 17: SELECTED STORIES OF PHILIP K. DICK PROJECT 18: HIGH LONESOME: SELECTED STORIES BY JOYCE CAROL OATES PROJECT 19: THE SHORT STORIES OF ANTON CHEKHOV DAY 1: A DAY IN THE COUNTRY more like day 1: a day in the city, am i right! because i am a city mouse! ahhhh. well this was nice. glass-of-lemonade-on-a-hot-day kinda story. i see the appeal of country mouse-dom. rating: 3.5 DAY 2: OLD AGE another short little perfect one that i loved. aging is the weirdest thing to fathom and live through. and i should know. i'm 24. rating: 4 update, 11/1/21: taking a lil break from this project because i'm trying to read as many books as i can off of my owned tbr before the year ends without slumping, which is a recipe for disaster already. DAY 3: KASHTANKA after a 3 month break, WE'RE BACK! i did this project without a break of more than a few days for a full-on year, and now it's been enough time it feels very strange to be starting it up again. but nevertheless we persist. #brave. this is a story about a dog, but really it's a metaphor, so i can forgive it. rating: 3.5 DAY 4: ENEMIES some titles are just better than others. seeing a name like this in the table of contents between sh*t like "kashtanka" and "rothschild's fiddle" is like finding a minifridge full of lemon smart water in the desert. too good to be true, and perfect for a hangover. this is a very upfront and unambiguous account of what grief in its varying forms does to people. it analyzes itself as it goes along, which is interesting. and not a lot of work for the reader. this is my favorite line from it: "He passed sentence on [...] all those who live in rosy semi-darkness and smell of scent." what a lovely and cutting way to describe rich people. sure, in the next paragraph, chekhov dismisses such thoughts as unworthy, but we can ignore that part. rating: 3.75 DAY 5: ON THE WAY ok so...i skipped three days of this project. but the very cool thing is i stopped doing it last time...AT THE THREE DAY MARK. so technically speaking i only have to read one bonus story and we're golden. can i do that today? good question. probably not. let's see. sometimes i question my own readings of classics, because i have an undying optimism that leads me to perceive women as being the best characters in every story, but it sure seems like this one is about a misogynistic character but is ultimately feminist to me. rating: 3.75 DAY 6: VANKA i WILL catch up today, because this story is like 4 pages long! everything is coming up emma. well. that'll teach me. huge little match girl energy. rating: 3 DAY 7: LA CIGALE this is a very english 101 kind of story, with very basic themes, but it's still fun to revisit that sort of thing. brings me back to my scholarly peak. rating: 3.75 DAY 8: GRIEF let me tell you, these teeny tiny stories are a real gift to my weekdays. suddenly i am remembering i read this in school but i could not tell you when. high school? college? the other college i went to after transferring from the first one? who can say. reading this collection is so funny because i often read the stories in the morning, so 9 times out of 10 i'm starting off my day with the knowledge that humans can never be truly good to each other and we will always feel lonely. rating: 4 DAY 9: AN INADVERTENCE immediately i can see that the owner of this book before me annotated the hell out of this one, which is roughly equivalent to overhearing someone talking about how good a show is right before you're about to start it. in other words, i expect to like this. i'd better like this. well, it's four pages long, which is a point in its favor. also, like most of these stories, it's the same theme i mentioned yesterday, except intended to be funny this time. rating: 3.5 DAY 10: THE BLACK MONK having a "micro-slump" (tired and forgot how to read because of it) so #blessed that this story is over 10 times as long as yesterday's. perfect timing i say. i love a challenge. the writing though! like: "The sun was already setting. The flowers, having just been watered, gave forth a damp, irritating fragrance. Indoors they began singing again, and in the distance the violin had the effect of a human voice." hallucinating a figure solely so it will give me compliments seems like something i would do so i'm back on board. (in all seriousness this is an excellent fascinating story and i loved it.) rating: 5 DAY 11: THE KISS i am now a comical 10 days behind on this project, but that's a struggle for a future version of me. plus, now i get to read this story on valentine's day, which is very thematically appropriate! we never would have gotten here if i was able to stick to things. this was actually more a reminder of how annoying men can be, which, while always thematically appropriate, is not my idea of a valentine's celebration. rating: 3 DAY 12: IN EXILE taylor swift x bon iver who. (folklore is the only taylor swift album i really know. and even then it's like 50%.) i feel like when i was in school the idea of siberia as a place of punishment was referenced a lot more than it is now. took me a second to get this. this is nice (in terms of its comments on what matters in life) and also sad (none of them have what matters, paltry as it is). rating: 3.5 DAY 13: A WORK OF ART let's go crazy and catch up a little bit. (it is, as i write this, actually day 21.) this was like a six pager and also a joke, so i guess we should keep going? man am i glad i'm alive now. people were just not that funny in the old times. rating: 3 DAY 14: DREAMS all my love and respect to chekhov, but he really comes up with some of the lamest story titles on earth. the next story is 50 pages, so...sorry, tomorrow me, but i'll leave that to you. another sad one about how we are all trapped by circumstance, often barred from that which we dream of regardless of social class or resources :) rating: 4 DAY 15: A WOMAN'S KINGDOM damn you, past me. always a bad sign re: my time management when a short story has f*ckin' chapters. also i find this title very foreboding...what are the chances some guy from early 20th century russia thinks this is a good thing. i'm too bugged to REALLY appreciate this but i think it was good. rating: 3.75 DAY 16: THE DOCTOR actually day 23. i'm taking this whole slow and steady thing to a whole 'nother level. and there are 7 stories left after this one so if i want to be on time i'd have to finish...today?! good god, that will never happen. fully bizarre but 5 pages long so i have to appreciate it at least a little. rating: 3 DAY 17: A TRIFLING OCCURRENCE finally, another fun title. i wanna incorporate this one into my lexicon. wait.........the title is, dare i say......a bit of a PUN!!!!! immediate bump to the rating. rating: 3.5 DAY 18: THE HOLLOW another 50-pager. how i suffer. what did i do to deserve not one, but TWO short stories with chapters when i am valiantly attempting to catch up. not my scene, not my bag. rating: 3 DAY 19: AFTER THE THEATRE doing the bravest thing any human can possibly imagine: continuing to try to catch up even though i just read a really goddamn long story i did not care for. universe has repaid me with a four page situation i really liked. girls rule. also this ends like a certain chapter of beautiful world, where are you, and as a feral sally rooney fan that is a plus for me. rating: 4 DAY 20: THE RUNAWAY four stories left and 150 pages to go. something horrible is going to happen. sorry, future me. often with these books i feel there is a true downturn in quality and i can never tell if it's real or i'm just an asshole who is getting bored. rating: 3 DAY 21: VIEROCHKA this sure showed me (by giving me a lovely one with pretty writing and a twist on my all time favorite theme). rating: 4 DAY 22: THE STEPPE now i am approx 49 days behind schedule because this story is ONE HUNDRED AND TEN PAGES LONG. what did i do in a past life to deserve this? ok also i did plenty to deserve it in this one but whatever. reading this in chunks because believe it or not i am an ADULT with a LIFE and a JOB. in the first 20 pages, four people have ridden in a wagon and napped. thrilling stuff. chekhov is a hell of an artist at writing description, but if that's all we're getting for the next 90 pages...slow going it shall be. another 20-page chunk down. the description, which made up roughly 70% of the first chunk, has now been proportionally replaced with anti-semitism. always startling how hateful these old books can openly be! 30 pages in this chunk so i can perfectly finish it in two more and...i am not having fun, folks! 20 more pages down. 20 more to go. we are deeeeeeep in a description of a storm and i still have no real idea what this is even about. it's not that this was bad, it's just that i'm relieved beyond human comprehension to have finished it. rating: 2.5 DAY 23: ROTHSCHILD'S FIDDLE let's finish this!!! life do be kind of pointless. rating: 4 OVERALL i'd read bits and pieces of chekhov before this, but nowhere near enough to know what a gift he had for description, and how rarely his stories, despite having oft-clichéd themes, veer into sentimentality. the last day of this nearly broke my brain but this was good anyway. rating: 4 ...more |
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| 0374126291
| 9780374126292
| 0374126291
| 4.12
| 1,140
| Jan 01, 1958
| Nov 01, 1983
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my becoming-a-genius project, part 20! the background: i have decided to become a genius. to accomplish this, i'm going to work my way through the collec my becoming-a-genius project, part 20! the background: i have decided to become a genius. to accomplish this, i'm going to work my way through the collected stories of various authors, reading + reviewing 1 story every day until i get bored / lose every single follower / am struck down by a vengeful deity. this particular installment has the following goals: - read however many stories i feel like, because there are ~100 - avoid loquaciousness for each installment, because there are ~100 - become a mysterious french intellectual and reach my peak PROJECT 1: THE COMPLETE STORIES BY FLANNERY O'CONNOR PROJECT 2: HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIES BY CARMEN MARIA MACHADO PROJECT 3: 18 BEST STORIES BY EDGAR ALLAN POE PROJECT 4: THE LOTTERY AND OTHER STORIES BY SHIRLEY JACKSON PROJECT 5: HOW LONG 'TIL BLACK FUTURE MONTH? BY N.K. JEMISIN PROJECT 6: THE SHORT STORIES OF OSCAR WILDE BY OSCAR WILDE PROJECT 7: THE BLUE FAIRY BOOK BY ANDREW LANG PROJECT 8: GRAND UNION: STORIES BY ZADIE SMITH PROJECT 9: THE BEST OF ROALD DAHL BY ROALD DAHL PROJECT 10: LOVE AND FREINDSHIP BY JANE AUSTEN PROJECT 11: HOMESICK FOR ANOTHER WORLD BY OTTESSA MOSHFEGH PROJECT 12: BAD FEMINIST BY ROXANE GAY PROJECT 12.5: DIFFICULT WOMEN BY ROXANE GAY PROJECT 13: THE SHORT NOVELS OF JOHN STEINBECK PROJECT 14: FIRST PERSON SINGULAR BY HARUKI MURAKAMI PROJECT 15: THE ORIGINAL FOLK AND FAIRY TALES OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM PROJECT 16: A MANUAL FOR CLEANING WOMEN BY LUCIA BERLIN PROJECT 17: SELECTED STORIES OF PHILIP K. DICK PROJECT 18: HIGH LONESOME: SELECTED STORIES BY JOYCE CAROL OATES PROJECT 19: THE SHORT STORIES OF ANTON CHEKHOV PROJECT 20: COLLECTED STORIES OF COLETTE DAY 1: CLOUK / CHERI this book is divided into four parts, and then each part is divided into some sets, and then each set is divided into some stories. this first set in the first part (early stories) is 24 pages, and so i will attempt to knock it out right away. already i'm being too wordy and i know it. the descriptions in this are amazing. the titular clouk is described as having a face of "pink butter." also, characters decide to be healthy and eat a bunch of pasta. it rules. rating: 4 DAY 2: DIALOGUES FOR ONE VOICE another day, another set! this sounds like a fancy way of saying "talking to yourself." and i respect that. completely bizarre...........these are dialogues with one half taken out? so it's just like this: "hey" "..." "not much, what's up with you." but you know...smart and french. rating: 2 DAY 3: MY FRIEND VALENTINE little bit of a longer set today but we're having SO much fun knocking them out, why not live a little? getting to the point where i can't even tell if i'm being sarcastic anymore myself. the best story of today is called "the cure," and it's about when you come out of a depression and suddenly the world is lovely again, like that one passage in beautiful world, where are you. if comparing everything to sally rooney is wrong i don't want to be right. anyway, this is mostly about how hot the titular friend valentine is, and i respect that. rating: 3.5 DAY 4: BACKSTAGE AT THE MUSIC HALL - ON TOUR, PART 1 i am so tired today and also so behind on yet another project (when will i stop giving myself projects) and also behind on my actual real job, so even though i know i SHOULD read this whole set today...i don't think i'm gonna. we'll see. i am eating Baguette™️ while reading today. for the immersion. this is very prettily written and i want to read it outside in the sun in the summertime. even though it would probably make my arms fall off (very heavy book). rating: 3.5 DAY 5: BACKSTAGE AT THE MUSIC HALL - ON TOUR, PART 2 yes i am 2 days behind today and no i will not be able to catch up today because yes i am so slumped it feels like it could be medically diagnosed. i love the style of all of these and have 0 interest in the content. it's a trying time. rating: 3 DAY 6: CHEAP-JACKS i desperately want to believe that today's content will be more interesting, but with a set title like "cheap-jacks" it's hard to have hope. still i am determined to catch up today. boat beating on against the current etc. the last story in this set was way better than the others but i won't let it trick me. rating: 3.25 DAY 7: FROM THE FRONT forget what i said about catching up - this set is 25 pages long even if i make the incomprehensibly long last story into a whole separate thing. going to leave the title below so i don't forget. tomorrow me can play catch-up. feel like i'm going to sue for reasons of this sounded like it would be war stories but it's just even more of the same. (the same, by the way, has been theater people and musicians and women who dance naked.) (this is as opposed to the first 3 days, which were all about horrible pretty people, one of my favorite subjects.) rating: 3 DAY 8: GRIBICHE it's been more than a day, i won't lie. in fact it is day 10. wow this is a very cool and awesome abortion story that i loved very dearly. i'll catch up tomorrow. (narrator: she probably will not catch up tomorrow.) rating: 4 DAY 9: VARIETIES OF HUMAN NATURE, PART 1 we have reached part iii, which is very ambitiously titled Varieties of Human Nature. lot to cover, there. doesn't bode well for my hopes of brevity for these sets. everyone chant "good instincts, emma": this section is 150 pages long. i am going to divide it willy-nilly as i go and call it a day. and no, i will not be catching up. i'm reading 5 pages today in fact. rating: 3.5 DAY 10-12: VARIETIES OF HUMAN NATURE, PARTS 2-4 now that i'm actually paying attention, this seems like it's going to be a bunch of very pretty and very short stories about people being people. and that is something i can get behind. let's put the very ambitious item of "Reading 60 Pages And Calling Us Caught Up" on the agenda. there is a story in the bunch i'm reading today called "the hand" that appears to be the first historical instance of a woman getting the ick. these are fun! finally. rating: 4 DAY 13: VARIETIES OF HUMAN NATURE, PART 5 resisting the urge to immediately fall behind again now that i'm caught up. bravery doesn't come naturally for most people, but it's effortless for me. i love this set. beautifully written stories about weird stuff people do!!! what a dream. rating: 4 DAY 14: THE SICK CHILD this story and the next are long ones, so i'm going to go wild and actually follow the established guidelines of this project and read one a day. this is nice and all but one of the corniest topics on earth. rating: 3 DAY 15: THE RAINY MOON this one is long as hell and i'm telling you now if it isn't good i am going to throw a public tantrum. i'm talking stomping, banging pots and pans, yelling nonsense words. i don't have a long disappointment in me today. everyone should feel immensely relieved. rating: 4 DAY 16: GREEN SEALING WAX never again will i do one of these projects where instead of reading 1 story i go by vibes. remind future me that i said that. this whole thing really is so prettily written and yet here i am setting myself up for disaster. rating: 3.5 DAY 17: LOVE, PART 1 folks, we are onto the last, longest, and least-interesting-sounding set: LOVE. are you impressed with my alliteration? i have to admit i am. it's no VARIETIES OF HUMAN NATURE but let's get into it. this is basically the same as the last set but a less interesting topic. rating: 3.5 DAY 18: LOVE, PART 2 this contains a rather long story i am treating myself to skipping entirely because it's about how an old man developed his "taste for young girls." no thanks! i read lolita already and no way you're handling this one better than nabokov. the other ones were pretty though. rating: 3 DAY 18: LOVE, PART 3 this was mostly kind of a snoozefest story about a guy who gets hit with a chandelier and then turns out the girl he's been doing a will they won't they with for 15 years is on team "they will." it's less interesting than it sounds. rating: 3 DAY 18: LOVE, PART 4 very long story. wasn't fun. rating: 3 DAY 18: LOVE, PART 5 today's section is a long, lovely story about the concept of post nut clarity. rating: 3.5 DAY 19: LOVE, PART 6 folks...it's the penultimate day of this project. and any chance to use the word penultimate means it's gotta be good. ANOTHER long story, sheesh. it's like colette knew i was building up goodwill and optimism through my own volition and was like...can't have that! "I stared at them with the avid curiosity I have always felt for people I run no risk of seeing again." see, that's so good! so hard to stay mad at you, colette. and: "She kept noisily sobbing: 'The swine, the swine,' and, at the same time, collecting the black from her lashes on a corner of her handkerchief." collecting the black! amazing. and and and: "When anyone's too nice to me, I don't know what I'm doing, I boil over like a soup." i mean. come on. also she describes her spouse as "the husband I was married to then." this sh*t's addictive when you're in the right mood. rating: 4.5 DAY 20: LOVE, PART 7 kind of a long one to take us home. one very long story, one teeny one, and we're done! and then i need to figure out what the hell i'm reading after this. "It is absurd to suppose that periods empty of love are blank pages in a woman's life. The truth is just the reverse. What remains to be said about a passionate love affair?...His presence obliterated all other presences." it's giving: MY LOVE FOR HIM WAS SO TOTAL AND SO ANNIHILATING IT WAS OFTEN IMPOSSIBLE FOR ME TO SEE HIM CLEARLY AT ALL. silliness altogether. rating: 3.5 OVERALL when they said collected stories, baby, they meant it! this is not best of or even just stories, but seemingly every scrap or grocery list or post-it note colette ever wrote. quality varied Greatly. her writing is stunning but the maturity level and the enjoyment factor of these could be anywhere when you started. a fun mystery in that way, minus the fun part. i'd like to read her novels someday...but in like 10 years. rating: 3.5 ...more |
Notes are private!
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| 0544040546
| 4.26
| 4,052
| 1982
| Apr 16, 2013
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my becoming-a-genius project, part 17! the background: i have decided to become a genius. to accomplish this, i'm going to work my way through the collec my becoming-a-genius project, part 17! the background: i have decided to become a genius. to accomplish this, i'm going to work my way through the collected stories of various authors, reading + reviewing 1 story every day until i get bored / lose every single follower / am struck down by a vengeful deity. i have strayed far away from my intentions by binge reading one book and reading several more that don't even pretend to meet this project's standards, so we're getting back to business. i love the man in the high castle so much i would kiss it on the mouth if it had one, and do androids dream of electric sheep? is also a book that exists that i have read, so this is exciting stuff. PROJECT 1: THE COMPLETE STORIES BY FLANNERY O'CONNOR PROJECT 2: HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIES BY CARMEN MARIA MACHADO PROJECT 3: 18 BEST STORIES BY EDGAR ALLAN POE PROJECT 4: THE LOTTERY AND OTHER STORIES BY SHIRLEY JACKSON PROJECT 5: HOW LONG 'TIL BLACK FUTURE MONTH? BY N.K. JEMISIN PROJECT 6: THE SHORT STORIES OF OSCAR WILDE BY OSCAR WILDE PROJECT 7: THE BLUE FAIRY BOOK BY ANDREW LANG PROJECT 8: GRAND UNION: STORIES BY ZADIE SMITH PROJECT 9: THE BEST OF ROALD DAHL BY ROALD DAHL PROJECT 10: LOVE AND FREINDSHIP BY JANE AUSTEN PROJECT 11: HOMESICK FOR ANOTHER WORLD BY OTTESSA MOSHFEGH PROJECT 12: BAD FEMINIST BY ROXANE GAY PROJECT 12.5: DIFFICULT WOMEN BY ROXANE GAY PROJECT 13: THE SHORT NOVELS OF JOHN STEINBECK PROJECT 14: FIRST PERSON SINGULAR BY HARUKI MURAKAMI PROJECT 15: THE ORIGINAL FOLK AND FAIRY TALES OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM PROJECT 16: A MANUAL FOR CLEANING WOMEN BY LUCIA BERLIN PROJECT 17: SELECTED STORIES OF PHILIP K. DICK DAY 1: BEYOND LIES THE WUB is this a pun or am i stupid? still not sure if it's a pun but i'll tell you what's not stupid - this kickass story! rating: 4.5 DAY 2: ROOG two days, two stories including talking animals and species names i hate the sound of. but also...two days with really fun and clever stories that make me :). so wins and losses. rating: 4 DAY 3: PAYCHECK i already skipped a day...slumping so hard i can't even read short stories if they're on the longer side. just take me out back at this point. hot damn the way PKD's mind works! rating: 4 DAY 4: SECOND VARIETY playing catch-up! okay damn it's another long one. the moral of this story is girls rule, boys drool. rating: 4 DAY 5: IMPOSTER i mean, the title kind of spoils the whole thing. rating: 3.5 DAY 6: THE KING OF THE ELVES you really do have to respect the fact that i have never once managed to read a story on a saturday. seemingly in the whole of this project. everyone thinks they want to be king of the elves but then they become it and it's all, oh no, my gas station, oh no, the quirky characters about town think i'm crazy, nooo, my best friend is a troll. enough already. rating: 3 DAY 7: ADJUSTMENT TEAM caught up on a sunday only to skip a monday and a tuesday. folks, we are falling apart. this is a whole ride, but the BEST part of the whole thing is the idea that dogs aren't barking at people coming - they bark to summon the event that IS a person's arrival. lit. rating: 4 DAY 8: FOSTER, YOU'RE DEAD feels like we'll be living this future within a year. we kind of already are. not a fun read, for that reason. rating: 4.5 DAY 9: UPON THE DULL EARTH PKD's sci-fi stories are like "we are in eternal war. technology is an alien force that will drive us apart and ruin the world around us." and his fantasy stories are like "what's the weirdest thing you can think of? is it this?" rating: 3.5 DAY 10: AUTOFAC sounds both robotic and inappropriate. knowing that a story is objectively interesting but still not being able to get into it...it's a weird feeling. rating: 3 DAY 11: MINORITY REPORT so while i've never seen the movie minority report, per se, i have seen the title approximately 1,000 times, and every single one of those times i assumed it was like, a business drama. because of the word report, i guess. file under no reason to be mind-blowing but still is that the movie is actually presumably based on a PKD story, which is actually presumably sci-fi-adjacent. even wilder that it's only thirty-eight pages long. also also, this continually refers to the army as "Army" and every time i think: [image] other than that i didn't actually like this much. rating: 3.5 DAY 12: THE DAYS OF PERKY PAT once again missed a saturday. baby, i'm nothing if not consistent. if you've ever wondered, "what if adults played dolls and took it so seriously it ruined their lives?" this is the story for you. rating: 3 DAY 13: PRECIOUS ARTIFACT nevertheless we persist. either i am getting tired of these or they're getting less fun or both. but maybe spending day after day reading about the inevitable apocalyptic ruin and dystopian future bearing down upon us wasn't my best idea. rating: 3.5 DAY 14: A GAME OF UNCHANCE it's honestly believable to me that all of human civilization could be taken down by an inability to resist a carnival. rating: 3.5 DAY 15: WE CAN REMEMBER IT FOR YOU WHOLESALE according to the dust jacket, this story is the basis for the film Total Recall. PKD was the master at writing stories that inspire well-known movies i've never seen. this was cool, but i couldn't shake picturing tom cruise, that creepy little elf. and he's not even in Total Recall. rating: 3.5 DAY 16: FAITH OF OUR FATHERS feeling a little and so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past rn. speaking of gatsby, to be honest i'm not typically a reader who really cares about how classic white male writers write women, but it is getting REALLY hard to ignore in this one. rating: 3 DAY 17: THE ELECTRIC ANT ok...adorable? oh. never mind. electric ant is a term for "organic robot," and i am disappointed beyond human comprehension. at least the idea of a currency called frogs is still cute. rating: 3 DAY 18: A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR US TEMPUNAUTS the singular female character in this story is simultaneously the most interesting one by a country mile AND a sex object who changes her appearance based on her boyfriend's request and drives him around while commentating on her own inability to drive as a woman. it is with grave disappointment that i say i'm looking forward to this being over. rating: 3 DAY 19: THE EXIT DOOR LEADS IN well, it's a saturday, and i'm actually doing this project. if that doesn't reflect my eagerness to finish this i don't know what does. this does contain the sentence "It was hell living in the twenty-first century." PKD, you don't know the half of it. this one finally broke the structure, which i appreciate. rating: 3.5 DAY 20: RAUTAVAARA'S CASE alien spaceship cannibal jesus!!! rating: 4 DAY 21: I HOPE I SHALL ARRIVE SOON the final day! i've been thinking both more fondly about this book (i saw an amazon commercial yesterday in which a man was paid to claim it was actually nice to work there and got to thinking about propaganda) and less fondly (i read PKD's wikipedia page and turns out all that on-page misogyny has a real-life counterpart!) so we'll see how this goes. i do think this is a great name for a last story, though. but that's more credit to the editor than PKD. solid closer. take me out before the human life span is ever 200 years. rating: 4 OVERALL another case where i can't tell if this starts out strong and gets less interesting, or if i just got sick of it. either way it's safe to say i care for PKD's novels over his stories - and that reading them one after the other gets you about sick to death of flat pretty love interest women and normal men thrust into sci-fi heroism and the same very present style. the rare case in which something is LESS than the sum of its parts. sheesh. rating: 3 ...more |
Notes are private!
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Hardcover
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| 0593318072
| 9780593318072
| 0593318072
| 3.54
| 44,866
| Jul 2020
| Apr 06, 2021
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my becoming-a-genius project, part 14! the background knowledge you will now be cursed with: i have decided to become a genius. to accomplish this, i'm g my becoming-a-genius project, part 14! the background knowledge you will now be cursed with: i have decided to become a genius. to accomplish this, i'm going to work my way through the collected stories of various authors, reading + reviewing 1 story every day until i get bored / lose every single follower / am struck down by a vengeful deity. PROJECT 1: THE COMPLETE STORIES BY FLANNERY O'CONNOR PROJECT 2: HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIES BY CARMEN MARIA MACHADO PROJECT 3: 18 BEST STORIES BY EDGAR ALLAN POE PROJECT 4: THE LOTTERY AND OTHER STORIES BY SHIRLEY JACKSON PROJECT 5: HOW LONG 'TIL BLACK FUTURE MONTH? BY N.K. JEMISIN PROJECT 6: THE SHORT STORIES OF OSCAR WILDE BY OSCAR WILDE PROJECT 7: THE BLUE FAIRY BOOK BY ANDREW LANG PROJECT 8: GRAND UNION: STORIES BY ZADIE SMITH PROJECT 9: THE BEST OF ROALD DAHL BY ROALD DAHL PROJECT 10: LOVE AND FREINDSHIP BY JANE AUSTEN PROJECT 11: HOMESICK FOR ANOTHER WORLD BY OTTESSA MOSHFEGH PROJECT 12: BAD FEMINIST BY ROXANE GAY PROJECT 12.5: DIFFICULT WOMEN BY ROXANE GAY PROJECT 13: THE SHORT NOVELS OF JOHN STEINBECK PROJECT 14: FIRST PERSON SINGULAR BY HARUKI MURAKAMI DAY 1: CREAM is it too soon to say i already like this more than i expected to? rating: 4 DAY 2: ON A STONE PILLOW it was slightly too soon, maybe. this one was more in line with my expectations. rating: 3.25 DAY 3: CHARLIE PARKER PLAYS BOSSA NOVA classically, yesterday was a saturday i barely read during so true to form it is actually day 4. but chances of me catching up today? slim! i don't care about jazz but i do care about divine coincidences! rating: 3.5 DAY 4: WITH THE BEATLES great...another music one... i CANNOT STAND when a story i found otherwise mediocre has a perfect ending. it discombobulates. rating: 3.5 DAY 5: CONFESSIONS OF A SHINAGAWA MONKEY step 1: google image "shinagawa monkey." step 2: discover that it is not a breed of monkey. just the title of the story. realize you are dumb. step 3: look at this little guy anyway: [image] step 4: after a good few minutes, read story. step 5: determine story is fine. rating: 3 DAY 6: CARNAVAL made me realize i have so purged my memory of Caraval that i can't even remember the title. this opens with a description of a woman as the ugliest the narrator has ever seen, even though that won't be easy for "readers, especially women readers, to accept." this is why people hate murakami. i, however, am a sucker for lines like this: "Happiness is a relative thing, don't you think?" so it evens out. rating: 3.5 DAY 7: THE YAKULT SWALLOWS POETRY COLLECTION i will not make the same mistake i made last time and google "yakult swallows" hoping for a species of bird. i will not. i will not. i did. they're a baseball team. that'll show me. whoa. the narrator of this is named haruki murakami. metafiction??? nonfiction??? we have fun. anyway. while i don't like baseball and think it's a punishingly boring thing to witness rivaled only by golf, i do like sports in general. basketball. football. hockey. soccer, sometimes. every olympic event. but this is about sports poetry. i can tolerate one or the other, even enjoy them sometimes, but...both? no. one of the poems is about butts, though, so you have to admire the artistry. rating: 2.5 DAY 8: FIRST PERSON SINGULAR titular time. hm. okay, yeah. yes i like this. rating: 4 OVERALL this was a kinda sorta super unfair to try Murakami for the first time, with a collection even his biggest fans call middling, but this was the only one available from my library and i'm nothing if not a slave to convenience. this did convince me to pick up more from him, though. so a win in the end. rating: 3.5 ...more |
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Jul 08, 2021
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Jul 16, 2021
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Jul 08, 2021
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Hardcover
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| 1101138874
| 9781101138878
| B002L4EX9C
| 4.32
| 10,254
| Jul 2009
| Jul 08, 2009
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my becoming-a-genius project, part 13! what you (dreadfully) need to know: i have decided to become a genius. to accomplish this, i'm going to work my wa my becoming-a-genius project, part 13! what you (dreadfully) need to know: i have decided to become a genius. to accomplish this, i'm going to work my way through the collected stories of various authors, reading + reviewing 1 story every day until i get bored / lose every single follower / am struck down by a vengeful deity. doing a modified version of this project where i attempt to read one short NOVEL a day, because a) i'm leveling up, b) i am a deeply unpleasant and insane person to be around, and c) i own this book and am running out of other genius project options. let's do this. PROJECT 1: THE COMPLETE STORIES BY FLANNERY O'CONNOR PROJECT 2: HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIES BY CARMEN MARIA MACHADO PROJECT 3: 18 BEST STORIES BY EDGAR ALLAN POE PROJECT 4: THE LOTTERY AND OTHER STORIES BY SHIRLEY JACKSON PROJECT 5: HOW LONG 'TIL BLACK FUTURE MONTH? BY N.K. JEMISIN PROJECT 6: THE SHORT STORIES OF OSCAR WILDE BY OSCAR WILDE PROJECT 7: THE BLUE FAIRY BOOK BY ANDREW LANG PROJECT 8: GRAND UNION: STORIES BY ZADIE SMITH PROJECT 9: THE BEST OF ROALD DAHL BY ROALD DAHL PROJECT 10: LOVE AND FREINDSHIP BY JANE AUSTEN PROJECT 11: HOMESICK FOR ANOTHER WORLD BY OTTESSA MOSHFEGH PROJECT 12: BAD FEMINIST BY ROXANE GAY PROJECT 12.5: DIFFICULT WOMEN BY ROXANE GAY PROJECT 13: THE SHORT NOVELS OF JOHN STEINBECK NOVEL 1: TORTILLA FLAT immediately this is a terrible idea. these stories are written in COLUMNS. columns! two blocks of text per page! also my copy is extremely old and i am concerned about handling it this frequently! perhaps i will do what i did with the poe collection and read online editions of each story due to terrible book formatting. i did that. and also switched to an edition where it's the more-accurate 600 pages, rather than the unholy 400 of my actual copy. currently about a quarter of the way into this and already feeling like if i have to read the words "gallon of wine" one more time i'll explode. halfway into this and deciding i'm going to read either one short novel or one HALF a short novel per day. DAY 2 back at it with little to no excitement. three quarters of the way done now and having almost no fun. am i a grump? do i misremember liking john steinbeck? is this not steinbeck-y? so many questions, none of them pleasant. currently our protagonist danny is depressed and i am finding it far and away the most relatable part of the story so far. ...aaaand danny's depression has now been cured by a party. never mind. okay wait now danny is dead? i can call you many things, steinbeck, but i can't call you predictable! or "not bigoted." god damn i hate when the end of a book is the best part. makes everything so confusing. the whole time i was at 3 but now i feel like i should go higher? no! i will not be fooled. rating: 3 NOVEL 2: THE RED PONY i have a terrible feeling about this. just finished the first chapter or whatever and what the hell? what the f*ck? i thought i was going to come here and just be like "man animal stories are boring am i right ha ha" but suddenly (view spoiler)[the horse is dead? (hide spoiler)] screw you, steinbeck. onto chapter two. this kid sucks. he didn't deserve to be friends with that pony, he doesn't deserve to have this lovely dog that he keeps hurting, and he DOES deserve to be named jody. HE JUST KILLED AND CHOPPED UP A BIRD. is this a serial killer origin story? what the hell is this, steinbeck? and like father like son because now daddy-o is talking about how old horses should be shot in the hopes that the old man he's talking to will realize the similarities. burn this goddamn ranch down, i say. that was the end of that chapter! it was like 5 pages of people casually being monsters and then it ended. what. the. hell. chapter three off to a rip-roaring start as a little boy watched two horses f*ck. THE HORSE HAND JUST SAID HE'S HALF HORSE BECAUSE HIS MOM DIED SO HE DRANK HORSE BREAST MILK INSTEAD OF HUMAN. EITHER THIS IS THE WORST THING I'VE EVER READ OR THE BEST I CAN'T TELL ANYMORE. end of chapter three and (view spoiler)[ANOTHER GODDAMN HORSE IS DEAD (hide spoiler)]. it's the worst thing, confirmed. chapter four. i'm dying. and it's over as suddenly as it began. and as pointlessly. rating: 1 NOVEL 3: OF MICE AND MEN i have loved this one ever since i read it in freshman year english and wrote a song parody of it (to the tune of I Knew You Were Trouble) for extra credit with my best friend and we had to perform it in front of the class at 7:35 a.m. it wasn't a project or anything. we made it up. in hindsight, not worth it. halfway done and forgot how intently john steinbeck hates women but it's like...those memes where it's like "the feminism leaving my body when i need my car fixed." that's me reading steinbeck. this story is just simply good as hell. OKAY I HAVE TO GO NOW DUE TO I'M CRYING. rating: 4.5 NOVEL 4: THE MOON IS DOWN many days have passed, to be honest. like...three of them. if i had not been busy celebrating the birth of our nation by getting drunk and sunburnt, i would have finished by now. (just kidding. i did not celebrate. i stayed inside because i'm depressed and the smartest people i know don't celebrate it.) anyway. 150 pages in a normal PDF version. let's do this. maybe if i'm brave i'll catch up. halfway done this. no way am i catching up. 3 stories in a day? no. this is already a war one that is either exactly the same as every war story or slightly different. i sure spent a lot of energy trying to like this, considering it includes the words "you may rape her." rating: 2.5ish NOVEL 5: CANNERY ROW got an icepick headache and i'm ready to rock and roll! oh, god. i'm not in the mood. i'm going to be reading this in teenytiny chunks for the entire day. true to form i am at like 20% after approx ninety minutes. love to assign myself homework. now i'm 11 teenytiny chapters in and starting to see the charm of it and wishing i was in a better mood damn it!!! 5 hours in and just hit the halfway mark. gotta pick up the pace, emma, what is this. knocked out the remaining half in under an hour and a half. she's still got it. kinda. i did end up liking this! just not as much as i like to complain. rating: 3.5 NOVEL 6: THE PEARL all right, folks. let's finish this out. this is both the shortest one and one of the most boring sounding ones (it sounds like a worse old man and the sea and i didn't even like that), so as always our trials come with tribulations. ugh. fairytales over fables every time. especially ones that describe all men as "half insane and half god." super glad i read this story, because otherwise how would i have ever known that money corrupts? so creative and important. rating: 2 OVERALL just read Of Mice and Men and spend the 500 pages you saved reading East of Eden. rating: 3 ...more |
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Jun 29, 2021
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Jul 07, 2021
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Jun 29, 2021
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Kindle Edition
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| 0802125395
| 9780802125392
| 0802125395
| 3.96
| 29,740
| Jan 03, 2017
| Jan 03, 2017
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really liked it
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my becoming-a-genius project, part 12.5! here is the accursed lowdown: i have decided to become a genius. to accomplish this, i'm going to work my way th my becoming-a-genius project, part 12.5! here is the accursed lowdown: i have decided to become a genius. to accomplish this, i'm going to work my way through the collected stories of various authors, reading + reviewing 1 story every day (in this case 2 a day - i'm allowed to break the rule because i made them) until i get bored / lose every single follower / am struck down by a vengeful deity. this is 12.5 (and not 13) because this project is allegedly one in which i read the COLLECTED STORIES of authors, not one collection. so i'm reading back to back roxane gay, baby. completionist as hell. PROJECT 1: THE COMPLETE STORIES BY FLANNERY O'CONNOR PROJECT 2: HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIES BY CARMEN MARIA MACHADO PROJECT 3: 18 BEST STORIES BY EDGAR ALLAN POE PROJECT 4: THE LOTTERY AND OTHER STORIES BY SHIRLEY JACKSON PROJECT 5: HOW LONG 'TIL BLACK FUTURE MONTH? BY N.K. JEMISIN PROJECT 6: THE SHORT STORIES OF OSCAR WILDE BY OSCAR WILDE PROJECT 7: THE BLUE FAIRY BOOK BY ANDREW LANG PROJECT 8: GRAND UNION: STORIES BY ZADIE SMITH PROJECT 9: THE BEST OF ROALD DAHL BY ROALD DAHL PROJECT 10: LOVE AND FREINDSHIP BY JANE AUSTEN PROJECT 11: HOMESICK FOR ANOTHER WORLD BY OTTESSA MOSHFEGH PROJECT 12: BAD FEMINIST BY ROXANE GAY PROJECT 12.5: DIFFICULT WOMEN BY ROXANE GAY DAY 1, PART 1: I WILL FOLLOW YOU i am embarrassed to admit i didn't really look into this book (i go into almost everything blind - more fun that way) and did not realize that this was a collection of short stories, not a collection of essays. this is a pleasant surprise. this story is very horrible in a way that is not...believable? this doesn't feel real, like real things that happened to real people. the "after" feels true but not the "before" or the "during." the writing, though. wonderful. rating: 3.5 DAY 1, PART 2: WATER, ALL ITS WEIGHT i mean...okay. rating: 3 DAY 2, PART 1: THE MARK OF CAIN guessing from the title alone this will be some fun, light reading. i, like...respect this story, i think? but i wonder if i will ever find one where the characters and their lives feel real to me. maybe a bit doom and gloom - this is only the third one. rating: 3.5 DAY 2, PART 2: DIFFICULT WOMEN weird placement for the title story but OK! this one didn't have characters or a story really and i finally really liked it. rating: 4.5 DAY 3, PART 1: FLORIDA hurray for another story without lasting characters or a narrative! rating: 3.75 DAY 3, PART 2: LA NEGRA BLANCA this was very horrible to read. good but very horrible. rating: 4 DAY 4, PART 1: BABY ARM all right. i am deeply hungover (spent last night wine drunk doing the following: watching a years-old super bowl; tweeting to bands like they're my friends; adding people on linkedin with overly familiar messages; questioning my sexuality) and i'm ready to rumble. also i might order domino's but that's up in the air. this was so weird but in a good way. i'm surprised roxane gay didn't like ottessa moshfegh's short story collection more. rating: 4.5 DAY 4, PART 2: NORTH COUNTRY drinking a Strawberry Parfait Breakfast Smoothie i forgot i bought. it's terrible. and so we beat on, boats against the current. sorry i'm treating this like a diary today. oh jesus this was way too nice. what the hell. why was this so nice. damn it roxane i can't deal with yearning today! rating: 4.5 DAY 5, PART 1: HOW ultimately i did order domino's yesterday, for anyone who is invested. i admire how much roxane gay is interested in both michigan and toxically close sister relationships. anyway i like this one. rating: 4 DAY 5, PART 2: REQUIEM FOR A GLASS HEART this was like...okay, this was like watching a critically acclaimed movie where you can sit there and be like "i understand that this is well done, even as it is not enjoyable for me to watch and is making me feel nothing." rating: 3 DAY 6, PART 1: IN THE EVENT OF MY FATHER'S DEATH i like this 50% more than i would have with a different title. it's a good title. rating: 3.75 DAY 6, PART 2: BREAK ALL THE WAY DOWN again! another one with no realness to it! it's so frustrating to me because i don't even know how to explain it in a way that will make sense. rating: 2.75 DAY 7, PART 1: BAD PRIEST really hoping this is the Fleabag kind of bad priest and not the Spotlight kind. although those are both in my top 10 favorite pieces of media. okay more the Fleabag kind thankfully but definitely not as hot. rating: 3 DAY 7, PART 2: OPEN MARRIAGE this is a one pager and a fun change of pace, especially considering my most common criticism of these stories. rating: 3.75 DAY 8, PART 1: THE PAT does anyone else remember that very short-lived TV show "The Slap"? easy winner for most unhinged trailer. anyway this title reminds me of that. obviously. i am obsessed with this story. it's f*cking brilliant. i don't even want to explain it, i just want everyone to read it. i guess i'll say this proves masterfully how little our pity for others has to do with them, and it does it in like 2 pages. rating: 5 DAY 8, PART 2: BEST FEATURES this one reminds me of the recent response to people who say things like 'dating is unpaid sex work': you don't have to date people you don't like. i guess the point of this story is that the protagonist feels like she has to, but i don't know. i just can't get into most of these characters. another good title though. rating: 2.75 DAY 9, PART 1: BONE DENSITY i really often dislike marriage stories, as a 23 year old who is still able to believe she's immune to it. the ending of this was pretty hit-you-over-the-head, to steal an -ism of my senior year english teacher's. rating: 2.5 DAY 9, PART 2: I AM A KNIFE sheesh. no thank you. rating: 2.25 DAY 10, PART 1: THE SACRIFICE OF DARKNESS lamer title than usual but okay. yeah i just didn't really like this one. not sure why. rating: 2 DAY 10, PART 2: NOBLE THINGS ditto for this one. maybe i'm just a grump. rating: 2 DAY 11, PART 1: STRANGE GODS this one is...mostly true? it's a lot to consider where the lines between reality and fiction intersect here. but i guess that's always true of stories. anyway. brutal and brilliant, this one. rating: 4 DAY 11, PART 2: PILGRIMS gah these stories are not easy. rating: 3.75 DAY 12, PART 1: WE ARE ALL SO HAPPY NOW so weird that some of these stories are impossible to feel anything about, and then some (like this one) appear so effortlessly provoking and immersive that i feel like i made the other ones up. rating: 4 DAY 12, PART 2: GLASS i get it and i don't. rating: 3.75 OVERALL this varied in quality like crazy for me!!! don't know what to do! don't know what to say! but i respect the stories even if i don't always like them so 3.5 it shall be!!! rating: 3.5 --------------- reading all books with LGBTQ+ rep for pride this month! book 1: the gravity of us book 2: the great american whatever book 3: wild beauty book 4: the affair of the mysterious letter book 5: how we fight for our lives book 6: blue lily, lily blue book 7: the times i knew i was gay book 8: conventionally yours book 9: the hollow inside book 10: nimona book 11: dark and deepest red book 12: the house in the cerulean sea book 13: the raven king book 14: violet ghosts book 15: as far as you'll take me book 16: bad feminist book 17: a song for a new day book 18: one last stop book 19: to break a covenant book 20: honey girl book 21: check, please! book 22: the subtweet book 23: if we were villains book 24: everything leads to you book 25: you have a match book 26: ziggy, stardust, and me book 27: all the invisible things book 28: heartstopper book 29: boyfriend material book 30: extraordinary birds book 31: every body shines book 32: you know me well book 33: difficult women ...more |
Notes are private!
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Jun 17, 2021
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Jun 28, 2021
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Jun 17, 2021
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Hardcover
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| 0062282719
| 9780062282712
| 0062282719
| 3.93
| 115,833
| Aug 05, 2014
| Aug 05, 2014
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really liked it
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my becoming-a-genius project, part 12! for those not yet in the know - sorry for the negative impact this will have on your life, and: i have decided to my becoming-a-genius project, part 12! for those not yet in the know - sorry for the negative impact this will have on your life, and: i have decided to become a genius. to accomplish this, i'm going to work my way through the collected stories of various authors, reading + reviewing 1 story every day until i get bored / lose every single follower / am struck down by a vengeful deity. last month, i read only books by asian authors, but i didn't think ahead enough and connect my genius project to that. this month, as i read only books with LGBTQ+ authors/rep, i will make NO SUCH MISTAKE. these are essays, not stories, but still. i make the rules and i say it counts. PROJECT 1: THE COMPLETE STORIES BY FLANNERY O'CONNOR PROJECT 2: HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIES BY CARMEN MARIA MACHADO PROJECT 3: 18 BEST STORIES BY EDGAR ALLAN POE PROJECT 4: THE LOTTERY AND OTHER STORIES BY SHIRLEY JACKSON PROJECT 5: HOW LONG 'TIL BLACK FUTURE MONTH? BY N.K. JEMISIN PROJECT 6: THE SHORT STORIES OF OSCAR WILDE BY OSCAR WILDE PROJECT 7: THE BLUE FAIRY BOOK BY ANDREW LANG PROJECT 8: GRAND UNION: STORIES BY ZADIE SMITH PROJECT 9: THE BEST OF ROALD DAHL BY ROALD DAHL PROJECT 10: LOVE AND FREINDSHIP BY JANE AUSTEN PROJECT 11: HOMESICK FOR ANOTHER WORLD BY OTTESSA MOSHFEGH PROJECT 12: BAD FEMINIST BY ROXANE GAY DAY 1: INTRODUCTION: FEMINISM (N) PLURAL i very very much liked this but also now "feminism" doesn't look like a word. rating: 4.5 DAY 2: FEEL ME. SEE ME. HEAR ME. REACH ME. this was kind of a weird mishmash of different things and felt all over the place. which is cool but maybe not ideal for the second entry in a collection of essays? i'm still trying to find my footing here, man. can't just throw me in the damn pool. (that happened to me once in my final year of swim lessons, which was the pre-swim team level. some lady literally pushed me into the pool. guess what? i didn't join the swim team.) (in fairness there is not a snowball's chance in hell i would've joined it voluntarily regardless, but amping up the scope of this trauma convinced my mom it would have been cruel and unusual to make me. so.) rating: 3 DAY 3, PART 1: PECULIAR BENEFITS i just realized there are like 42 essays in this story so...going to amp this up and read 2 a day. i don't have it in me to be reading the same book for a month and a half right now. this is, like...a good if not groundbreaking piece about privilege. rating: 3.25 DAY 3, PART 2: TYPICAL FIRST YEAR PROFESSOR i do not like the condescension toward what students wear in this - it's college? we're supposed to have grown out of high school dress code you're being distracting mentality. also it seems a little, uh, non-self-aware to use space in your essay collection about feminism to call out ways women don't dress appropriately in your eyes (sweatpants with words across the ass, bra straps exposed) that are actually kind of like. fine? anyway. if i'm not being persnickety and getting hung up on the contents of one paragraph i can admit i thought this one was very honest and sweet and good. rating: 4 DAY 4, PART 1: TO SCRATCH, CLAW, OR GROPE CLUMSILY OR FRANTICALLY "I approach most things in life with a dangerous level of confidence to balance my generally low self-esteem." goals tbh. turns out i enjoy reading about competitive scrabble. rating: 3.75 DAY 4, PART 2: HOW TO BE FRIENDS WITH ANOTHER WOMAN immediately i am nervous about this because never once have i needed instructions on this subject. this also fairly quickly includes the sentence "If you feel like it's hard to be friends with women, consider that maybe women aren't the problem. Maybe it's just you," which i agree with but also feels like an admission that this whole essay is pretty unnecessary. i don't know why i'm being grumpy. this is actually very sweet. rating: 4 DAY 5, PART 1: GIRLS, GIRLS, GIRLS the beginning of this i loved very much. i wish this was a little more autobiographical. then again i am addicted to memoirs, so it could be that. rating: 3.75 DAY 5, PART 2: I ONCE WAS MISS AMERICA this made me want to read the sweet valley high books, which is a statement i never expected to write. rating: 4 DAY 6, PART 1: GARISH, GLORIOUS SPECTACLES the first part of this is mostly talking about two books, but then i wanted to read the two books so i didn't want them spoiled for me, so i kind of skimmed it to avoid getting too much of the stories, but then the rest of it was using the lens just created using those two books to analyze reality TV, so i feel like i didn't quite get so much out of this as i could have. no rating DAY 6, PART 2: NOT HERE TO MAKE FRIENDS this is an essay in large part about how silly it is to say a character is unlikable as a criticism of a story - which is also something i've been thinking about a lot lately. as i get older, i appreciate unlikable characters more, and also less and less often think of an unlikable character as a negative aspect of a story. this makes me want to go through every review i've ever written and redo it. also it excerpts the gone girl cool girl monologue, which is always a plus in my book. rating: 4.5 DAY 7, PART 1: HOW WE ALL LOSE this essay really made me regret reading anything by caitlin moran. f*ck you, caitlin moran. this essay also made me feel very validated in how much i was unable to enjoy The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao because of the unconscionable and unrelenting sexism, which everyone in my freshman-year lit class hated me for pointing out. (this is probably the 100th time i've mentioned.) and thirdly, this essay made me really hope the lit-crit essays stop coming one after another. is that the whole book? go back please. rating: 3.75 DAY 7, PART 2: REACHING FOR CATHARSIS: GETTING FAT RIGHT (OR WRONG) AND DIANA SPECHLER'S SKINNY this was so excellent. we need more addresses of fatphobia like this. rating: 4.5 DAY 8, PART 1: THE SMOOTH SURFACES OF IDYLL "Sometimes, and especially as a writer, I feel like I have no idea what happiness is, what it looks like, what it feels like, how to show it on the page." to quote john mulaney: THAT'S THE THING I'M SENSITIVE ABOUT! rating: 4.25 DAY 8, PART 2: THE CARELESS LANGUAGE OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE bold move of me to spend my morning reading essays with titles like this one! what a way to start the day, and so on. this has some very good insights and a compelling thesis and it was so insanely short. rating: 4 DAY 9, PART 1: WHAT WE HUNGER FOR whoa. rating: 4.5 DAY 9, PART 2: THE ILLUSION OF SAFETY / THE SAFETY OF ILLUSION i find this a very outdated and deliberately inconsiderate view of trigger warnings - especially because people rarely, if ever, expect trigger warnings from the author themselves and will instead seek them out from readers. going out of your way to get irritated about something no one is asking for is very terminally online behavior (derogatory). rating: 1 DAY 10, PART 1: THE SPECTACLE OF BROKEN MEN this was kind of a presentation of facts, as far as these things go, but i'm not sure how one would even present an opinion on this. obviously famous athletes include violent criminals in their number; obviously this is a bad thing; obviously it's an inextricable part of professional sports and it's hard to imagine how to address something so pervasive. rating: 3.5 DAY 10, PART 2: A TALE OF THREE COMING OUT STORIES this one is weird because it literally says that supporting musicians like tyler the creator is wrong to do, because he uses homophobic slurs in his music. but tyler the creator is queer, so i'm not sure what i'm supposed to be getting out of this. no rating DAY 11, PART 1: BEYOND THE MEASURE OF MEN another good if very done-before discussion of "women's fiction" that made me glad i deleted my chick lit shelf recently. i just think the name chick lit is cute. rating: 3.5 DAY 11, PART 2: SOME JOKES ARE FUNNIER THAN OTHERS again, i mean, yeah. this is correct. rating: 3.5 DAY 12, PART 1: TO THE YOUNG LADIES WHO LOVE CHRIS BROWN SO MUCH THEY WOULD LET HIM BEAT THEM this one was very, very good. rating: 4.5 DAY 12, PART 2: BLURRED LINES, INDEED another excellent one. rating: 4.5 DAY 13, PART 1: THE TROUBLE WITH PRINCE CHARMING, OR HE WHO TRESPASSED AGAINST US my library loan of this expires tomorrow and even though there is a beautiful renew button it is merely a torture device i cannot use, so i'm going to try to finish this today. day 13 will have a lot of parts. honestly i wish this was more about fairytales and romance novels in general than just fifty shades, but this is still necessary criticism, i guess. though i think most people are already aware their dream relationship shouldn't be based off fifty shades? rating: 3.25 DAY 13, PART 2: THE SOLACE OF PREPARING FRIED FOODS AND OTHER QUAINT REMEMBRANCES FROM 1960S MISSISSIPPI: THOUGHTS ON THE HELP i read the help when i was in 5th grade and i loved it, something i now find (before reading this essay and to be honest even more so after) very embarrassing and will rectify with a reread and re-review soon. rating: 4.5 DAY 13, PART 3: SURVIVING DJANGO this was very f*cking good. i apologize for being cranky at how much of this is criticism - the author is truly great at it. rating: 5 DAY 13, PART 4: BEYOND THE STRUGGLE NARRATIVE i don't know if 12 Years a Slave, being as it is based on the actual story of a slave as he told it, is the best candidate for a lot of this critique, but the unwillingness of critics / awards ceremonies to praise Black movies that aren't about Black pain is a really goddamn needed one. rating: 3.75 DAY 13, PART 5: THE MORALITY OF TYLER PERRY when the critique is one of a kind and complex >>>> that's probably the dorkiest thing i've ever said. rating: 4.25 DAY 13, PART 6: THE LAST DAY OF A YOUNG BLACK MAN all right. i will come back to this and finish it either later today or tomorrow because bingeing all these stories like this is antithetical to the whole of the genius project!!! this was seemingly more summary than criticism? more time was spent detailing the events that occurred in fruitvale station than really analyzing them. rating: 3.5 DAY 13.5, PART 1: WHEN LESS IS MORE let's do this. (it's technically the night of day 13 but we will forgive that transgression.) (okay originally i labeled this day 14 but now i'm going back and changing it to 13.5.) i have never seen orange is the new black (my cultural ignorance is REALLY showing in this genius project) but this was a good critique of it. i think. rating: 4 DAY 13.5, PART 2: THE POLITICS OF RESPECTABILITY still night of day 13. there are 8 more stories. imagine how long this would have taken me if i'd done it normally. i don't really think it's my place to rate this one but i thought it was excellent. no rating DAY 13.5, PART 3: WHEN TWITTER DOES WHAT JOURNALISM CANNOT i am both twitter's biggest fan and biggest hater so i'm eagerly anticipating this one. also follow me on twitter. i'm on there even more than here. as expected i loved this. rating: 4.5 DAY 13.5, PART 4: THE ALIENABLE RIGHTS OF WOMEN i truly think that to be anti-choice is one of the least empathetic things you can be. i have known many people who quietly believe they know better than others, in broad strokes and in sweeping declarations. i have had very real feelings very recently (even maybe now) for people who feel that they know better than women at large, even as they are typically very caring and kind people. it is the most discombobulating thing. anyway. i'm on Nexplanon and i adore it even though it makes me bleed unpredictably from the vagina. such is the world we live in. rating: 4.5 DAY 13.5, PART 5: HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO i kind of lost the thread of this one, unfortunately. rating: 3.5 DAY 14, PART 1: A TALE OF TWO PROFILES okay. it's officially day 14; i am coming to you live from a moving vehicle but i took a horrific motion sickness pill so i will hopefully survive reading; i was wine drunk and reeling from a surprise loss to my basketball team of choice last night so i apologize if i were more R-rated than my typical PG-13. however it is important to me that i maintain my reputation as the cool book nerd who gets laid. the profile / profiling through line here is so satisfying and extraordinarily well done. rating: 4.5 DAY 14, PART 2: THE RACISM WE ALL CARRY the running theme of my experience with these stories is that they all feel like they were written very quickly and effortlessly by a very smart person - but with editing and further reflection they could be better. this story about the "rules of racism" describes the paula deen deposition and relates an anecdote, but there's very little in between and it's FRUSTRATING. rating: 3.75 DAY 14, PART 3: TRAGEDY. CALL. COMPASSION. RESPONSE. this one still fell under the irritating category i outlined above, but i liked it anyway. rating: 4.25 DAY 14, PART 4: BAD FEMINIST: TAKE ONE honestly i think the ways roxane gay claims to be a bad feminist are the ways that make her version of feminism so appealing. rating: 4 DAY 14, PART 5: BAD FEMINIST: TAKE TWO what i just said, but even more so. rating: 5 OVERALL this collection felt, at many points, half-baked to me, but it's to the credit of roxane gay that even when it seems as though she's not trying very hard to carry across a point, the point itself (and really the way her brain operates) is interesting enough in and of itself. aka i will read more stuff by her. rating: 4 --------------- reading all books with LGBTQ+ rep for pride this month! book 1: the gravity of us book 2: the great american whatever book 3: wild beauty book 4: the affair of the mysterious letter book 5: how we fight for our lives book 6: blue lily, lily blue book 7: the times i knew i was gay book 8: conventionally yours book 9: the hollow inside book 10: nimona book 11: dark and deepest red book 12: the house in the cerulean sea book 13: the raven king book 14: violet ghosts book 15: as far as you'll take me book 16: bad feminist ...more |
Notes are private!
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Jun 2021
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Jun 15, 2021
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Jun 01, 2021
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Paperback
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| 0399562885
| 9780399562884
| 0399562885
| 3.62
| 36,701
| Jan 12, 2017
| Jan 17, 2017
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liked it
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my becoming-a-genius project, part 11! for those of you who are somehow still here and equally unbelievably have not yet been cursed by seeing this pro my becoming-a-genius project, part 11! for those of you who are somehow still here and equally unbelievably have not yet been cursed by seeing this project over and over in your feeds: i have decided to become a genius. to accomplish this, i'm going to work my way through the collected stories of various authors, reading + reviewing 1 story every day until i get bored / lose every single follower / am struck down by a vengeful deity. i feel very called out by this title and very ready for two weeks' worth of ottessa moshfegh gross-out weirdness. PROJECT 1: THE COMPLETE STORIES BY FLANNERY O'CONNOR PROJECT 2: HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIES BY CARMEN MARIA MACHADO PROJECT 3: 18 BEST STORIES BY EDGAR ALLAN POE PROJECT 4: THE LOTTERY AND OTHER STORIES BY SHIRLEY JACKSON PROJECT 5: HOW LONG 'TIL BLACK FUTURE MONTH? BY N.K. JEMISIN PROJECT 6: THE SHORT STORIES OF OSCAR WILDE BY OSCAR WILDE PROJECT 7: THE BLUE FAIRY BOOK BY ANDREW LANG PROJECT 8: GRAND UNION: STORIES BY ZADIE SMITH PROJECT 9: THE BEST OF ROALD DAHL BY ROALD DAHL PROJECT 10: LOVE AND FREINDSHIP BY JANE AUSTEN PROJECT 11: HOMESICK FOR ANOTHER WORLD BY OTTESSA MOSHFEGH DAY 1: BETTERING MYSELF apt title for me + this project. me and this story are in such a fun cycle of self-improvement. a few takeaways from this one: 1) this is like a nice little precursor to my year of rest and relaxation, a book that managed to trick me into reading eileen and mcglue and now this. 2) i also enjoy getting a little drunk and reading a book and calling it "bettering myself," so me and this protagonist have a significant amount of important stuff in common. 3) i bought this book used and it has this perfumey scent to it that i am actively angry about. 4) i think i adored this. i'm a sucker for anything that describes how icky life is with descriptions of how sillily joyful and delightful it can be mixed in. "sillily" - can you believe that's not a typo? anyway. rating: 4.5 DAY 2: MR. WU oh my god it rhymes. this one was...too much for me. i won't lie. rating: 2 DAY 3: MALIBU wait this one rhymes with the one before. am i writing a song? this is going to be a depressing project, i can tell. this one really made me think about how sad it is to expect good things to happen. good lord. rating: 3.5 DAY 4: THE WEIRDOS honestly scared of what Ottessa Moshfegh considers "weird." her status quo qualifies as utterly bizarro on my personal scale so i'm feeling: trepidation. this was actually not that wild for her. how odd. rating: 3 DAY 5: A DARK AND WINDING ROAD as usual, i have skipped a weekend day and come crawling back to play catch-up, this time because i had truly one of the most emotionally grueling days of my short life yesterday. but here we are again, regardless. boats against the current and so on. i am kind of beginning to wonder how much of a range ottessa moshfegh has. like...is there much to it besides gross-out lit fic? rating: 3 DAY 6: NO PLACE FOR GOOD PEOPLE this one has a very flannery o'connor-y title. so maybe there will be some variety here. look at us. hopeful AND caught up. there's something that feels very real to me about the idea of a flat and neutral life, neither pleasant or unpleasant, with the sole daily bright spot of watching the sun set. i hope that isn't my permanent setting but it does feel like my brain's default. does that make sense, hypothetical person reading this? anyway, the titular place in question is Hooters, so definitely not flannery-esque. rating: 3 DAY 7: SLUMMING no thoughts. head empty. but not in like a negative way. rating: 3 DAY 8: AN HONEST WOMAN honestly the perfume from this book is having a significant impact on my reading experience at this point. i think if i were ever to smell it on someone in a crowd or something i'd suddenly have war flashbacks to disturbing imagery and gross-out writing styles. to be determined, i guess. the point of this story is that men are very scary. this. makes me never want to buy a house, because that house could come included with the creepiest neighbor in global history. rating: 3 DAY 9: THE BEACH BOY it's summertime baby and you know what that means... presumably being greatly disturbed by a seasonally appropriate Ottessa Moshfegh story! turns out a beach boy is a prostitute. so never mind i guess. this WAS different from the other stories, though. i'm sorry i doubted you, ottessa. rating: 3 DAY 10: NOTHING EVER HAPPENS HERE very apt title as i mark my 401st day in a row of doing the exact same thing. this is maybe the first time in this whole collection that i've actually liked characters in a story. or at least cared about them and was interested in what would happen. rating: 3.5 DAY 11: DANCING IN THE MOONLIGHT i feel like i want to finish this today. i don't know why. i should have like 3 more days after this and i don't have my next one lined up. going to try to resist that feeling. ottessa moshfegh writes from male perspectives a LOT in this story. and i find women way more interesting than men so it's getting to be a snooze. this is very much You, if the point of You wasn't Joe Goldberg's obsession but rather everything surrounding it. rating: 3 DAY 12: THE SURROGATE again, i really want to finish this today. i think it's because i'm scared i'm entering a reading slump and so finishing a book that would take like under half an hour is very tempting. but i don't necessarily want to take time off from this project, and i don't have another book lined up... maybe i'll finish it tomorrow. today i will persist. "On a good day, every small thing is enchanting." rating: 3 DAY 13: THE LOCKED ROOM going to finish this today. also going to overshare here: for the past several days i've been on the verge of a depressive episode that was fully kicked into high gear by bo burnham's new special, so that may impact my ratings and is also definitely behind my decision to not allow this book to infect my brain chemistry for longer than one 15 minute period to be dealt with right now. for example, i hated this one. rating: 1 DAY 13 AGAIN: A BETTER PLACE whatever, honestly. that is how i feel. rating: 2.5 OVERALL this was not better than My Year of Rest and Relaxation, and in many ways it was worse than Eileen and even McGlue. unlike most of the collections i've read for this project, this was not more than the sum of its parts - when taken altogether, i liked this less. maybe i'm just in a bad mood. but that's not exactly rare. rating: 2.5 ...more |
Notes are private!
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May 19, 2021
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May 31, 2021
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Apr 06, 2021
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Hardcover
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| 0374202397
| 9780374202392
| 0374202397
| 4.19
| 32,939
| Apr 2015
| Aug 18, 2015
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it was amazing
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my becoming-a-genius project, part 16...maybe? (and one of my favorites of the year! find my list: https://emmareadstoomuch.wordpress.co...) if you've my becoming-a-genius project, part 16...maybe? (and one of my favorites of the year! find my list: https://emmareadstoomuch.wordpress.co...) if you've had the misfortune of digitally encountering me before, you probably know what that means: i pick up the collected works (almost no entries have actually met this parameter) of various Respected Authors (a category that apparently depends on my mood) and read a story a day (except most saturdays, or when i'm slumping, or when i forget, or when i read more than one like the teacher's pet suckup i am) until i become a genius (which is funny because it will never happen). anyway, this triumphantly fails to meet all guidelines. this is a selection of lucia berlin's stories, berlin is a recent entrant into the canon if she's there at all, i already accidentally read the first 17 stories, and i am dumber than ever. so i'm not sure this can count as a genius project even if i'm being nice to myself. but i just remembered i make the rules so. f*ck it. the past projects: PROJECT 1: THE COMPLETE STORIES BY FLANNERY O'CONNOR PROJECT 2: HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIES BY CARMEN MARIA MACHADO PROJECT 3: 18 BEST STORIES BY EDGAR ALLAN POE PROJECT 4: THE LOTTERY AND OTHER STORIES BY SHIRLEY JACKSON PROJECT 5: HOW LONG 'TIL BLACK FUTURE MONTH? BY N.K. JEMISIN PROJECT 6: THE SHORT STORIES OF OSCAR WILDE BY OSCAR WILDE PROJECT 7: THE BLUE FAIRY BOOK BY ANDREW LANG PROJECT 8: GRAND UNION: STORIES BY ZADIE SMITH PROJECT 9: THE BEST OF ROALD DAHL BY ROALD DAHL PROJECT 10: LOVE AND FREINDSHIP BY JANE AUSTEN PROJECT 11: HOMESICK FOR ANOTHER WORLD BY OTTESSA MOSHFEGH PROJECT 12: BAD FEMINIST BY ROXANE GAY PROJECT 12.5: DIFFICULT WOMEN BY ROXANE GAY PROJECT 13: THE SHORT NOVELS OF JOHN STEINBECK PROJECT 14: FIRST PERSON SINGULAR BY HARUKI MURAKAMI PROJECT 15: THE ORIGINAL FOLK AND FAIRY TALES OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM PROJECT 16: A MANUAL FOR CLEANING WOMEN BY LUCIA BERLIN STORY 1: ANGEL'S LAUNDROMAT sheesh. you can immediately tell lucia berlin was That Bitch. i kept rereading paragraphs but it could have either been due to lack of focus on my part or because i really wanted them to sink in, like when you replay your favorite song because you weren't appreciating it enough. let's err on the side of positivity for once. rating: 3.5 STORY 2: DR. H.A. MOYNIHAN this made me dearly miss my grandpa, who - while not a maniacal and disturbing dentist indulging in raging alcoholism - was a kind of ornery old guy with a penchant for jack daniels. or maybe it was just that phoebe bridgers' cover of summer's end came on shuffle while i was reading this. either/or. rating: 4 STORY 3: STARS AND SAINTS i have spent, as i write these little notes in my little notebook that i will later transfer to my little goodreads, most of the past 48 hours in public. as someone with untreated (but diagnosed!) anxiety that is rapidly devolving into agoraphobia, that means i have spent most of the same period believing myself so horrifically awkward it warrants execution. this made me feel better. rating: 4 STORY 4: A MANUAL FOR CLEANING WOMEN i always expect a lot from title stories. here, i was right to. rating: 5 STORY 5: MY JOCKEY a one pager. bold. update: i later learned this was one of the only stories lucia berlin wrote to be recognized in her lifetime, so i feel stupid for not liking it as much as some of the others...but i don't. so. speaking my truth. rating: 3.75 STORY 6: EL TIM i hated reading this but that was maybe the point? this felt like ottessa moshfegh, and surrounded by the other stories in this collection it made me like ottessa moshfegh less. rating: none STORY 7: POINT OF VIEW i just fell in love. i'm in love with this story. it'll be an autumn wedding and you're all invited. rating: 5 STORY 8: HER FIRST DETOX i'm like 1/8 of the way through this collection and already dreading finishing it. rating: 5 STORY 9: PHANTOM PAIN it do be like that. that's all i can say. rating: 4.5 STORY 10: TIGER BITES all of these stories are: - excellent - semi-autobiographical - in an endlessly confusing way. rating: 4.5 STORY 11: EMERGENCY ROOM NOTEBOOK, 1977 very grateful for a year to ground me. i have no f*cking idea when most of these take place. rating: 3.5 STORY 12: TEMPS PERDU too gross for me. i'm sensitive. rating: 3 STORY 13: CARPE DIEM i am getting some anxiety rep with devastating accuracy here. rating: 4.5 STORY 14: TODA LUNA, TODO ANO well f*ck. this was nice. this book is giving me so precisely what i need that it feels like a prescription. i read this on a plane fleeing the same goddamn place the protagonist of this story is fleeing. rating: 4.5 STORY 15: GOOD AND BAD i love when i feel kind of meh about a story and then i come back here to write that and see the title i noted down earlier and go "OH! well that changes things." rating: 3.5 STORY 16: MELINA this one is kind of basic and silly, but with the same stunning writing, and it made me remember the others are truly brilliant. rating: 3 STORY 17: FRIENDS like the last one, but improving from the cliché and trite. rating: 4 STORY 18: UNMANAGEABLE addiction is very scary. the least hot take of all time, but this story knocked the sense out of me. rating: 4 STORY 19: ELECTRIC CAR, EL PASO allow me to reflect on what the hell this one means. rating: none STORY 20: SEX APPEAL in a shocking twist, it turns out the men of hollywood have ALWAYS used their power and charisma to be f*cking disgusting. rating: 3.75 STORY 21: TEENAGE PUNK i am such a d*ck. here i am adoring this book for like 18 consecutive stories and then have two i like but don't love and nearly pitch a fit. thanks for winning me over anyway, lucia. rating: 4.5 STORY 22: STEP good song. one of vampire weekend's best. lucia berlin published three volumes of stories in her time, none of which garnered much attention, and then this little number was published a decade after her death and near-inexplicably sold more than all three of them combined in a matter of weeks. this may include most of the stories in those three, but i don't care. this is good enough that i'm tracking down all of them. rating: 4.5 STORY 23: STRAYS it's a metaphor, see. you put the double meaning right in the title but you don't give it the power till the ending. rating: 4.5 STORY 24: GRIEF well now i am just petrified of having my relationship with my sisters turn out like this. more importantly, people just don't go on holiday like they used to. that's something i've learned from this project. rating: 4 STORY 25: BLUEBONNETS people are scary. in multitudinous ways for countless reasons. men especially. rating: 3.5 STORY 26: LA VIE EN ROSE a few days ago, i was fleeing a place i hate and had run out of reading material just before my flight. the universe smiled upon me because there was an outpost of one of my favorite indie bookstores in the terminal (and when is there ever anything but hudson news anymore), and then full on grinned because there was exactly one copy of this book left - which had been on my to-read list since i saw it in the non-airport location of said bookstore. so i grabbed it, spent the remaining time before my flight walking around, boarded, sat in my seat, hit shuffle on my spotify (in which i only have, like, 2 playlists named variations of "songs i like" with hundreds of entries), and thought my thoughts. for some reason, i was turning the phrase "la vie en rose" around in my head, thinking of lucy dacus's cover of that song, wondering if it was still in my playlist because i hadn't heard it in a while, when boom - the song ends, the next song plays, and it's "la vie en rose." out of hundreds. right at the moment i considered it. i was so stunned i wanted to take my earbuds out and tell someone, but i am not that person, so i did a :o face to myself and picked this book up. skimmed the table of contents, which i don't usually do but for occasions with short stories. and then - no f*cking way. a story, midway down the list's second page: "la vie en rose." life is quite fantastic, from time to time. this is pretty wonderful too. rating: 4.5 STORY 27: MACADAM little and lovely. rating: 4 STORY 28: DEAR CONCHI even lucia berlin's love stories are so realistic it hurts my feelings. reading this story at the same time as a rom-com felt like a moment to moment reality check. rating: 4 STORY 29: FOOL TO CRY lucia has so many self-insert names for herself. lou, lu, carlotta, dolores...but at the same time there's like 5 stories about each one. are they the same character? are they not? am i supposed to put two and two together or would that make seven? ARGH. anyway, any protagonist who says things like "I decided to use the word dear instead of expensive from now on" and answers the question what do you find boring with "Nothing, actually. I've never been bored" is a special favorite to me. AND a great last line? lucia, you spoil me. rating: 5 STORY 30: MOURNING reminds me of that sally rooney quote: “If people appeared to behave pointlessly in grief, it was only because human life was pointless, and this was the truth that grief revealed.” but this is prettier and subtler. rating: 5 STORY 31: PANTEON DE DOLORES these stories are so good i want to mansplain them. the reversal of the traditional definitions of "lonely" versus "alone"... rating: 5 STORY 32: SO LONG i paused this story halfway to buy every lucia berlin book i could find. rating: 5 STORY 33: A LOVE AFFAIR i can't keep adoring multiple characters per story like this. i'm a hater. i'm not built to hold so much in my heart. rating: 5 STORY 34: LET ME SEE YOU SMILE so it turns out a story about an adult sleeping with a minor is never going to work for me. not if the genders are reversed, not if it's written by sally rooney, not if it's written by lucia berlin. f*cking grossos. i will say it's funny how lucia wrote a self-insert character and then had every other character compliment her at length. rating: 2.5 STORY 35: MAMA killer of an ending. rating: 4.5 STORY 36: CARMEN carmen, from the latin, name of the roman goddess of childbirth. god f*cking damn, lucia. rating: 5 STORY 37: SILENCE these perfect stories oh my god. i feel like i'm going insane. too much five star content at once, it's hurting my brain functioning, i'm destroyed, i'm melting, it's the wicked witch of the west without the flying monkeys over here. rating: 5 STORY 38: MIJITO the empathy here. i can't even review these beyond exclamations anymore. rating: 5 STORY 39: 502 another new name for lucia's fictional versions of herself: lucille. far out. rating: 4 STORY 40: HERE IT IS SATURDAY oh god. this time lucia wrote a character that is herself so that every other character can compliment her, but this time it's a freedom writers / finding forrester / white savior goes to school situation. the character's last name is even six letters beginning BE. thanks for making it a slight bit easier to say bye, lu. great ending, though. rating: 3 STORY 41: B.F. AND ME silly and little and nice. rating: 4 STORY 42: WAIT A MINUTE this was so beautiful and real that i spent the whole story trying to keep it at a distance. i knew if it clicked into place for me it would be too, too much. f*ck. it still was anyway. rating: 5 but more if i could STORY 43: HOMING the last one. i'm sorry for what i said about you making it easier to say bye, lucia. i didn't mean it. oh, no. of course this one would be extraordinary. i want to cry. rating: 5 and still more if i could OVERALL this book knocked me out. i don't know what to tell you. never in my life has a collection of stories done anything like this to me. i'll be thinking about this forever, in a million different ways. rating: 5 ...more |
Notes are private!
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Aug 21, 2021
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Aug 27, 2021
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Feb 23, 2021
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Feb 21, 2024
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Jan 31, 2024
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| 3.98
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Apr 11, 2024
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Oct 22, 2023
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| 3.85
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Nov 10, 2023
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Sep 09, 2023
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Dec 25, 2023
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Dec 29, 2022
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really liked it
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Dec 08, 2022
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Jul 03, 2022
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really liked it
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Jun 29, 2022
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Jun 08, 2022
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| 4.02
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really liked it
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Mar 28, 2024
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Apr 06, 2022
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| 4.15
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Mar 31, 2022
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Jan 05, 2022
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| 4.19
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really liked it
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May 29, 2023
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Dec 25, 2021
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Oct 26, 2021
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Sep 21, 2021
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| 4.28
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really liked it
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Apr 13, 2023
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Sep 21, 2021
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| 4.19
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really liked it
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Feb 21, 2022
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Sep 07, 2021
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Mar 16, 2022
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Sep 07, 2021
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Sep 20, 2021
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Aug 17, 2021
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Jul 16, 2021
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Jul 08, 2021
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Jul 07, 2021
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Jun 29, 2021
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| 3.96
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really liked it
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Jun 28, 2021
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Jun 17, 2021
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| 3.93
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really liked it
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Jun 15, 2021
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Jun 01, 2021
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| 3.62
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liked it
|
May 31, 2021
|
Apr 06, 2021
|
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|
| 4.19
|
it was amazing
|
Aug 27, 2021
|
Feb 23, 2021
|
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