An amazing essay collection - truly one of the best I’ve ever read. Jenny is an incredible writer and so eloquently articulates the complexities of heAn amazing essay collection - truly one of the best I’ve ever read. Jenny is an incredible writer and so eloquently articulates the complexities of her experiences as a transnational Asian adoptee growing up in southern Ontario. It gave me so much space to learn and understand. Such a great blend of cultural analysis and an illuminating excavation of personal history and identity. Five shining stars ✨...more
a good dose of awe and wonder about earth as the only paradise and our place in the universe. i feel these themes are needed right now to permeate thea good dose of awe and wonder about earth as the only paradise and our place in the universe. i feel these themes are needed right now to permeate the public consciousness as we face environmental collapse and catastrophe from us all destroying the planet. where is our sense of urgency to save the only home we’ve ever known and likely will ever have? I don’t mind that this narrative was just a repetition (albeit a dazzling one) of existence’s biggest questions and facts of what we know of physics, time, history, the Big Bang, life’s origins, or why we are here at all. That is my JAM and I eat it up on a silver platter.
“The earth, from here, is like heaven. It flows with colour. A burst of hopeful colour. When we’re on that planet we look up and think heaven is elsewhere, but here is what the astronauts and cosmonauts sometimes think: maybe all of us born to it have already died and are in an afterlife. If we must go to an improbable, hard-to-believe-in place when we die, that glassy, distant orb with its beautiful lonely light shows could well be it.”
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“But there are no new thoughts. They’re just old thoughts born into new moments – and in these moments is the thought: without that earth we are all finished. We couldn’t survive a second without its grace, we are sailors on a ship on a deep, dark unswimmable sea.”...more
I loved this - it was a really funny, very online, contemporary social satire. It was executed very well in ways that a lot of novels in a similar veiI loved this - it was a really funny, very online, contemporary social satire. It was executed very well in ways that a lot of novels in a similar vein usually miss the mark for me. I was pleasantly surprised by how genuinely hilarious and entertaining it was. Honestly scary how on the nose she writes internet conspiracy wellness pyramid scheme christian mommies you went to high school with. Audiobook narrator ...more
Approaching middle age sounds like breeze, not complicated or confusing at all. Much to look forward to…
But seriously, this was an amazing, yet unwieApproaching middle age sounds like breeze, not complicated or confusing at all. Much to look forward to…
But seriously, this was an amazing, yet unwieldy and turbulent novel. At once a reminder of self-delusion and becoming complacent with less than what we want in life. Also a deep (and messy) meditation on the unrest of the soul and the life of the mind fighting against the passage of time - wild and funny and devastating. Classic woman vs the void and executed to near literary perfection....more
I liked this novel. I thought the writing was very lyrical and poetic, which made it beautiful at times amid the setting of brutality and apocalypse. I liked this novel. I thought the writing was very lyrical and poetic, which made it beautiful at times amid the setting of brutality and apocalypse. However, I did have a hard time attaching myself to the story and characters like I wanted to… I felt like I only got the essence of the story because it was so stylistically focused. Something didn’t connect fully but I still found it enjoyable and I’m glad I read it....more
Sloan Crosley delivers wit and sadness, an odd pairing but one that made for an excellent reading experience, somehow turning parts of grief into hopeSloan Crosley delivers wit and sadness, an odd pairing but one that made for an excellent reading experience, somehow turning parts of grief into hope for living on and remembering those we’ve loved and lost. ...more
A great collection of essays and speeches by one of our most progressive and forward thinking activists— one who has been on the frontlines of freedomA great collection of essays and speeches by one of our most progressive and forward thinking activists— one who has been on the frontlines of freedom struggles of minorities and the marginalized for so long.
What struck me most listening to these eloquently and passionately styled arguments were how ahead of their time they were at the time they were being spoken and published. Davis had her hand on the pulse of culture and progressive activism was ahead of the times. Reading this as a new work in the wake of George Floyd and the newest developments of Palestinian struggle for freedom made it feel all the more important to analyze and digest at this moment in time....more
I will read every book Amanda Montell ever writes. I blew through this one and it was astounding. She gives so much illumination to multiple social phI will read every book Amanda Montell ever writes. I blew through this one and it was astounding. She gives so much illumination to multiple social phenomenon that leave us unmoored in our chaotic and complex present moment. ...more
Minor Detail seared itself into my consciousness and memory and to me is a brilliant and near perfect work of fiction written of Palestine, Israel, anMinor Detail seared itself into my consciousness and memory and to me is a brilliant and near perfect work of fiction written of Palestine, Israel, and the line between history and the present.
The book is a short but unnerving, forensic-like narrative that is seemingly less interested in emotion, but more focused in delivering scenes to the reader in a way similar to that of a wide angle camera lens, capturing the facts and movements, telling us what exactly is happening without inner monologue to convolute the story. It is unsettling but effective for the story. The prose gives the reader an abundance of sensory and visual information that is both dazzling and frightening and leaves us to interpret how we must for ourselves in both the first and second halves of the book. In the first half we are given history. In the second half we are given the present. What do we do to reconcile the two? It is a reading experience that left me breathless until the final paragraph.
Everyone should read, given our current moment....more
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