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amandagrau's reviews
147 reviews
Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
Oh, to be a young poet in correspondence with Rainer Maria Rilke, being told that everything will be alright in the end, even though my writing sucks.
Take-home message: Rilke may have been a man but he was also a girl
4.5
Oh, to be a young poet in correspondence with Rainer Maria Rilke, being told that everything will be alright in the end, even though my writing sucks.
Take-home message: Rilke may have been a man but he was also a girl
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
I started reading this in August of last year, absolutely loved it, lost it, and finally picked it up again this week.
I started re-reading all the way from the beginning, something I never do, and loved it all over again as if it was the first time. I needed a minute to think and stare into empty space after every page I turned.
Take-home message: Dream House as the superlative of 'memoir'
5.0
I started reading this in August of last year, absolutely loved it, lost it, and finally picked it up again this week.
I started re-reading all the way from the beginning, something I never do, and loved it all over again as if it was the first time. I needed a minute to think and stare into empty space after every page I turned.
Take-home message: Dream House as the superlative of 'memoir'
Jimmy's Blues and Other Poems by James Baldwin
4.25
4.25
Everything he touches is gold.
Favourite poems in the collection:
- Staggerlee wonders
- The giver (for Berdis)
- 3.00 a.m. (for David)
- Guilt, Desire and Love
- Inventory/On being 52
- Untitled
Everything he touches is gold.
Favourite poems in the collection:
- Staggerlee wonders
- The giver (for Berdis)
- 3.00 a.m. (for David)
- Guilt, Desire and Love
- Inventory/On being 52
- Untitled
If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio
If you're going to write a book that offers no real commentary or insight on anything except clever Shakespeare references and on-the-nose foreshadowing, at least have the decency to make it entertaining.
Instead we drag on for 400+ pages on a mystery I had absolutely no desire to see resolved, with characters flatter than the earth according to Kyrie Irving. Every single one of them is a caricature of a person that would be comical if M.L. Rio wasn't so earnestly trying to make them really cool and twisted analogies for whatever play drove the story (clumsily) forward. I think only Richard in the first few scenes had real... well... character. Though maybe stage presence is a more fitting word.
Besides the players, every relationship in this book is so hard to believe and inspires so little feeling that I couldn't even be upset at the supposed plot twists, because I was so completely unattatched to anyone.
On a different note but equally upsetting: Oliver sucks too much to be a character you empathize with, which completely decimates your ability to read and feel the story through his eyes, but he doesn't suck nearly enough to make him an interesting (unreliable) narrator. Just a very unhappy middle ground.
The only thing I'm willing to concede is the fact that I haven't read enough shakespeare to fully grasp every symbolic line or casting choice. Even so, the more explanations and analyses I read, the more I'm convinced that getting them right away would have only saved the rating a little bit.
Take-home message: The best dialogues in this book were written by Shakespeare, should've just picked up Hamlet instead.
Take-home message 2.0: Feeling a strong desire to re-read the Secret History.
2.5
If you're going to write a book that offers no real commentary or insight on anything except clever Shakespeare references and on-the-nose foreshadowing, at least have the decency to make it entertaining.
Instead we drag on for 400+ pages on a mystery I had absolutely no desire to see resolved, with characters flatter than the earth according to Kyrie Irving. Every single one of them is a caricature of a person that would be comical if M.L. Rio wasn't so earnestly trying to make them really cool and twisted analogies for whatever play drove the story (clumsily) forward. I think only Richard in the first few scenes had real... well... character. Though maybe stage presence is a more fitting word.
Besides the players, every relationship in this book is so hard to believe and inspires so little feeling that I couldn't even be upset at the supposed plot twists, because I was so completely unattatched to anyone.
On a different note but equally upsetting: Oliver sucks too much to be a character you empathize with, which completely decimates your ability to read and feel the story through his eyes, but he doesn't suck nearly enough to make him an interesting (unreliable) narrator. Just a very unhappy middle ground.
The only thing I'm willing to concede is the fact that I haven't read enough shakespeare to fully grasp every symbolic line or casting choice. Even so, the more explanations and analyses I read, the more I'm convinced that getting them right away would have only saved the rating a little bit.
Take-home message: The best dialogues in this book were written by Shakespeare, should've just picked up Hamlet instead.
Take-home message 2.0: Feeling a strong desire to re-read the Secret History.
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
3.75
Read it last year. Remember thinking it was funny. That's it.
Notes on 'Camp' by Susan Sontag
3.25
Messy ass essays. So on point and yet so incredibly far off. Naive in its sincerity to the point that it becomes camp in a way that can only be described as self fulfilling prophecy? I think? I love it.
Babel by R.F. Kuang
4.5
Really liked it when I read it, on the other hand, it might have caused a year long reading slump.