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isabelsdigest's reviews
259 reviews
Violeta by Isabel Allende
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
ARC received in exchange for an Honest Review
Thank you to Random House Publishing Group- Ballantine and NetGalley!
Publication date: 25 January 2022
“There’s a time to live and a time to die. In between there’s time to remember”
Violeta, by the bestselling Chilean author, Isabel Allende, is her new piece of historical fiction that follows Violeta Del Valle’s life since her birth during the Spanish Influenza outbreak until she dies during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Through Violeta’s personal letter to her grandson Camilo, Allende navigates 100 years of history and the pass of time on the people she loved. The Spanish Influenza, the Great Depression, World War II, the dictatorships in Latin America, industrialization, the hippie movement, the Condor Operation, and so many more crucial historical moments affect the story and the characters in such a personal way that they almost seem like a work of fiction and not the brutal 20th Century.
I would have loved to read Violeta in Spanish and not in translation, but I still want to point out the aspects that made me binge read this novel in one sitting even though is quite a long book.
The characters in Violeta are endearing, unforgettable, so real, and complex. Because all the narrative is focalized through Violeta’s memory, we really don’t get a lot of each character’s life but the moments they coincided with Violeta. This is natural and part of the human experience. Even with this reality, the characters are still so complex beyond the hidden parts of themselves. It is their actions that prove their true bravery and makes us wish we could know more about them. Torito, Miss Taylor, Roy Copper, José Antonio, Facunda, the Rivas, all of them will forever be in my heart. There is a mastery behind the construction of each character that is not often found in novels with so many characters, but Allende succeeds at granting them individual spotlights.
The way that the story moves clearly replicates the smoothness of conversation and shows how we revisit our own memories. Violeta at almost 100 years old starts her story like we all do, at her birth. The conditions of that birth and the wealthy conservative family she was born into, seem even more ancient when we reach the end of her life, after everything that she had accomplished and seen. Still, Violeta takes the time to carefully explain each important part and people in her life. The narrative does replicate how our mind works as she never mentions her brothers by name or goes into details about them because they simply didn’t participate in her life. Those types of omissions or moments when Violeta skips several years of sameness is what we regularly do when we think back as memory is all but perfect and objective.
Lastly, Violeta feels like a love letter to Chile and to remarkable women out there whose story has been lost. Statistically, women live longer than men. I don’t know why and I will not pretend to know, but that was the first thing that jumped to my mind when I finished crying at the end. Matriarchs tend to live longer, which means they get to see everyone else die before them. My own grandmothers buried husbands, children, and grandchildren while telling us about their childhood in the countryside taking care of animals and running wild. Latin American women are made of something different, even with machismo around, they often end up as the financial and emotional support of the families they build. The ending of Violeta turns to that reality as it advocates for women’s rights, protection from violence and abuse, and women’s organizations.
If I have to divide the novel into three main themes (which is difficult as it touches on almost every subject under the sun), I would say that the first part is about social hierarchies and the fall of the Del Valle family into their found family members, the second part is the foreign-American- political intrusion in Latin America and the devastating results, and the third part is Violeta’s renouncement of material goods for a peaceful loving life supporting women. These three parts are equally enjoyable and important, making Violeta’s life extraordinary but filled with strong emotions.
I think Violeta is a positive product of the pandemic. I felt the same way after reading Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney last year. Only time will tell, but after 2 years living with the virus, the extensive life revision that once was exclusive for those about to die has been permeating our lives in seclusion. As a 24-year-old, the pandemic has made me question everything I’ve been through and everything I had planned. Such a round story of Violeta going through many crossroads in life and her explicitly pointing them out with the wisdom granted by time, makes you wonder what your own life story will look like at the end. So go ahead, read Violeta, experience her life, and take her beloved in your heart, but keep going and live the most remarkable life possible.
Thank you to Random House Publishing Group- Ballantine and NetGalley!
Publication date: 25 January 2022
“There’s a time to live and a time to die. In between there’s time to remember”
Violeta, by the bestselling Chilean author, Isabel Allende, is her new piece of historical fiction that follows Violeta Del Valle’s life since her birth during the Spanish Influenza outbreak until she dies during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Through Violeta’s personal letter to her grandson Camilo, Allende navigates 100 years of history and the pass of time on the people she loved. The Spanish Influenza, the Great Depression, World War II, the dictatorships in Latin America, industrialization, the hippie movement, the Condor Operation, and so many more crucial historical moments affect the story and the characters in such a personal way that they almost seem like a work of fiction and not the brutal 20th Century.
I would have loved to read Violeta in Spanish and not in translation, but I still want to point out the aspects that made me binge read this novel in one sitting even though is quite a long book.
The characters in Violeta are endearing, unforgettable, so real, and complex. Because all the narrative is focalized through Violeta’s memory, we really don’t get a lot of each character’s life but the moments they coincided with Violeta. This is natural and part of the human experience. Even with this reality, the characters are still so complex beyond the hidden parts of themselves. It is their actions that prove their true bravery and makes us wish we could know more about them. Torito, Miss Taylor, Roy Copper, José Antonio, Facunda, the Rivas, all of them will forever be in my heart. There is a mastery behind the construction of each character that is not often found in novels with so many characters, but Allende succeeds at granting them individual spotlights.
The way that the story moves clearly replicates the smoothness of conversation and shows how we revisit our own memories. Violeta at almost 100 years old starts her story like we all do, at her birth. The conditions of that birth and the wealthy conservative family she was born into, seem even more ancient when we reach the end of her life, after everything that she had accomplished and seen. Still, Violeta takes the time to carefully explain each important part and people in her life. The narrative does replicate how our mind works as she never mentions her brothers by name or goes into details about them because they simply didn’t participate in her life. Those types of omissions or moments when Violeta skips several years of sameness is what we regularly do when we think back as memory is all but perfect and objective.
Lastly, Violeta feels like a love letter to Chile and to remarkable women out there whose story has been lost. Statistically, women live longer than men. I don’t know why and I will not pretend to know, but that was the first thing that jumped to my mind when I finished crying at the end. Matriarchs tend to live longer, which means they get to see everyone else die before them. My own grandmothers buried husbands, children, and grandchildren while telling us about their childhood in the countryside taking care of animals and running wild. Latin American women are made of something different, even with machismo around, they often end up as the financial and emotional support of the families they build. The ending of Violeta turns to that reality as it advocates for women’s rights, protection from violence and abuse, and women’s organizations.
If I have to divide the novel into three main themes (which is difficult as it touches on almost every subject under the sun), I would say that the first part is about social hierarchies and the fall of the Del Valle family into their found family members, the second part is the foreign-American- political intrusion in Latin America and the devastating results, and the third part is Violeta’s renouncement of material goods for a peaceful loving life supporting women. These three parts are equally enjoyable and important, making Violeta’s life extraordinary but filled with strong emotions.
I think Violeta is a positive product of the pandemic. I felt the same way after reading Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney last year. Only time will tell, but after 2 years living with the virus, the extensive life revision that once was exclusive for those about to die has been permeating our lives in seclusion. As a 24-year-old, the pandemic has made me question everything I’ve been through and everything I had planned. Such a round story of Violeta going through many crossroads in life and her explicitly pointing them out with the wisdom granted by time, makes you wonder what your own life story will look like at the end. So go ahead, read Violeta, experience her life, and take her beloved in your heart, but keep going and live the most remarkable life possible.
Ophelia After All by Racquel Marie
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
ARC received in exchange for an Honest Review
Thank you to Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group and NetGalley!
Publication date: 8 February 2022
“I gave and took away my affections so often, I think my heart has always half belonged to the world and half belonged to me. But I would’ve given her the whole thing, had she asked me to”
Ophelia After All by Racquel Marie is the sweetest queer Latinx YA coming-of-age story I’ve read. Every element of the story is so well developed and a ‘simple’ story at first glance, becomes so memorable due to the careful exploration of every aspect that Racquel Marie introduces. Allow me to explain.
The Characters: Ophelia, her friends, and her family.
Ophelia as a main character is such a lovely girl that often seems underrepresented in queer literature. Ophelia is very feminine, with a stable relationship with her parents. Her household honors her Cuban heritage and they encourage her passions. The parents in this story deserve recognition as they don’t fall under the YA cliche of ‘I don’t know who my child is and I’m absent the whole time’. Ophelia’s parents seem real and flawed, which is so important to acknowledge as no one ever really stops growing and learning.
The Group Dynamics:
Ophelia is in a group of friends that feels organic and filled with drama without being toxic or stereotypical. For example, Ophelia acknowledges that she is not as close to one of her friends as she is with the rest, and that is okay. We also see the group expanding and finding new people to connect with in different areas. I love when stories, as focused on one character’s growth, include every aspect surrounding them. In this case, friendship is one of the most important themes in Ophelia After All, and the respect that the author gives the friends by making them as complex as Ophelia is astronomical.
The Love Interest
I won’t spoil anything, I’ll just say that part of Ophelia’s coming of age is realizing that she has a crush on a girl, and she needs to know what that means for her sexuality and how she thinks about herself. Therefore, I love that even when we have a ‘love interest’ that helps Ophelia discover her queerness, the novel is not about them being in love or being together, but it is about this girl and her friends helping Ophelia come to terms with her sexuality. I am impressed with how realistic this process is because even with this crush, Ophelia still is figuring things out, trying to honor the part of her that crushes on guys and that new part that feels attracted to at least one girl.
Lantix Biracial Identity.
As a Mexican woman with Mexican parents, I don’t get a lot of the biracial, second-generation experience portrayal in books. I understand it, but I don’t feel it as my experience is different. However, Ophelia and Talia come from so different families and still find common points in their way to deal with race, heritage, and expectations, that as a reader I could not but make their struggles mine for a few pages. Additionally, like with friendship, the way Racquel Marie explores and takes time to establish Ophelia’s biracial identity as more than just a resource to be inclusive or making a character interesting without taking the time to see that part her, is one of the best parts of this novel.
Ophelia really becomes a memorable character that grows before our eyes but who also feels tangible before her ‘character development’. There is no moment when Ophelia and her friends pretend to be anything else than what they are: teenagers graduating high school, scared about their future, nostalgic by the past of time, and still figuring out the parts of themselves that they didn’t know before.
As I said before, I loved this novel, and I am so happy my fellow Latinx people will have these types of books to guide them through life.
You can read my other reviews in my blog, goodreads, and storygraph.
If you want to connect with me, I'm also in Instagram, Tiktok, and Twitter. (All linked in my profile)
Thank you to Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group and NetGalley!
Publication date: 8 February 2022
“I gave and took away my affections so often, I think my heart has always half belonged to the world and half belonged to me. But I would’ve given her the whole thing, had she asked me to”
Ophelia After All by Racquel Marie is the sweetest queer Latinx YA coming-of-age story I’ve read. Every element of the story is so well developed and a ‘simple’ story at first glance, becomes so memorable due to the careful exploration of every aspect that Racquel Marie introduces. Allow me to explain.
The Characters: Ophelia, her friends, and her family.
Ophelia as a main character is such a lovely girl that often seems underrepresented in queer literature. Ophelia is very feminine, with a stable relationship with her parents. Her household honors her Cuban heritage and they encourage her passions. The parents in this story deserve recognition as they don’t fall under the YA cliche of ‘I don’t know who my child is and I’m absent the whole time’. Ophelia’s parents seem real and flawed, which is so important to acknowledge as no one ever really stops growing and learning.
The Group Dynamics:
Ophelia is in a group of friends that feels organic and filled with drama without being toxic or stereotypical. For example, Ophelia acknowledges that she is not as close to one of her friends as she is with the rest, and that is okay. We also see the group expanding and finding new people to connect with in different areas. I love when stories, as focused on one character’s growth, include every aspect surrounding them. In this case, friendship is one of the most important themes in Ophelia After All, and the respect that the author gives the friends by making them as complex as Ophelia is astronomical.
The Love Interest
I won’t spoil anything, I’ll just say that part of Ophelia’s coming of age is realizing that she has a crush on a girl, and she needs to know what that means for her sexuality and how she thinks about herself. Therefore, I love that even when we have a ‘love interest’ that helps Ophelia discover her queerness, the novel is not about them being in love or being together, but it is about this girl and her friends helping Ophelia come to terms with her sexuality. I am impressed with how realistic this process is because even with this crush, Ophelia still is figuring things out, trying to honor the part of her that crushes on guys and that new part that feels attracted to at least one girl.
Lantix Biracial Identity.
As a Mexican woman with Mexican parents, I don’t get a lot of the biracial, second-generation experience portrayal in books. I understand it, but I don’t feel it as my experience is different. However, Ophelia and Talia come from so different families and still find common points in their way to deal with race, heritage, and expectations, that as a reader I could not but make their struggles mine for a few pages. Additionally, like with friendship, the way Racquel Marie explores and takes time to establish Ophelia’s biracial identity as more than just a resource to be inclusive or making a character interesting without taking the time to see that part her, is one of the best parts of this novel.
Ophelia really becomes a memorable character that grows before our eyes but who also feels tangible before her ‘character development’. There is no moment when Ophelia and her friends pretend to be anything else than what they are: teenagers graduating high school, scared about their future, nostalgic by the past of time, and still figuring out the parts of themselves that they didn’t know before.
As I said before, I loved this novel, and I am so happy my fellow Latinx people will have these types of books to guide them through life.
You can read my other reviews in my blog, goodreads, and storygraph.
If you want to connect with me, I'm also in Instagram, Tiktok, and Twitter. (All linked in my profile)
The Obsession by Jesse Q. Sutanto
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
2.0
In the spirit of honesty and professionalism, I will say that I could have put this book down and stopped reading the moment I noticed I disliked it. It is my fault but I personally don't like not finishing books because they might get better … this one didn't.
The Obsession is a YA Thriller novel that is marketed for fans of YOU (the Netflix series and books) with a promising: “Boy Meets Girl. Boy Stalks Girl. Girl Gets Revenge.”
First of all, I am not in the target demographic and I’ve read enough thrillers to not get easily engrossed in the typical plots. However, if the series of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder taught me anything, is that it is possible to enjoy a YA thriller series as an adult and it does not have to be unconvincing.
So, I want to take my personal stakes out of the review, and I will use “Boy Meets Girl. Boy Stalks Girl. Girl Gets Revenge” to go over the flaws in this novel. Boy meets girl is the typical trope for romance, therefore, I expected a deconstruction of romance into a thriller. The revenge aspect is perpetuated by the girl, but ‘the plot twists’ surrounding her undermines the revenge (as it is against two, not just ‘the boy’) and concludes with a conversation about being prey or predator by nature.
The characters are bland. The girl is meant to be the main character that goes through a lot of development, but there was no moment when I cared about her as a person. It is clear she is a player on the board. The illusion of characters as actual people might not be what everyone seeks, but for me, it made me indifferent towards her and towards the guy.
The backdrop is unimportant, yet it is so overstated that there is a sequel coming that continues in the same privileged school. Like the equally disappointing They Wish They Were Us, this novel wants you to think it will be a mix of Gossip Girl and You, with rich private school kids and delusional dangerous people. Again, The Obsession does not deliver and the wealth is just another cliché that becomes irrelevant after mentioning they live in a dorm situation because it is convenient for the plot and the ‘plot twist’.
This brings me to the heart of thrillers. They are meant to induce you into an anxious state that makes you be at the edge of your seat when the plot twists just keep surprising you. In this novel, the plot twists are predictable, and that is the worst thing you can have when reading/writing a thriller. On top of that underwhelming plot, I think it was a mistake to have both points of view the whole novel. As readers, we are never surprised or buying into the delusions because we have the immediate perspective of the other. You’s success is due to Joe as an unreliable -but charismatic- narrator. Gone Girl’s major moment is when the reader breaks away from the story that Amy built, and we realize that what we assumed was real was all fabricated by her to make us sympathetic. I feel this novel could have been better if it would have used this resource to surprise us.
I wish you do not read this novel, but if you do, I guess I should give some positive comments. It is easy to read, fast-paced, and with an ‘empowering’ ending, but mostly it is meh and you can do so much better with your reading time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Stalking, Toxic relationship, and Domestic abuse
Moderate: Murder, Drug use, Violence, and Death of parent
I do not recommend
Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot by Mikki Kendall
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
“When I was a kid I thought there must be some way I could perform being good, perform being ladylike to the point of being safe from sexism, racism, and other violence.” (Mikki Kendall)
Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgotby Mikki Kendall explores the side that mainstream white feminism constantly silences. As a woman from a third-world country living that has attended prestigious universities with a predominantly white student body, this book made me feel seen.
However, more than seen, I felt heard. As someone used to the othering inflicted on me, I still had a visceral reaction while reading what I had no words to explain. Sometimes we feel like traitors for not prioritizing gender over race and class struggles. Sometimes we get consumed by guilt for not relating to our white sisters and their struggles. Sometimes, it is impossible to smile when they break the glass ceiling and we are the ones left to clean. That is what it feels like to be a woman like me, a woman like Kendall, and this book compiles those feelings and validates them.
The term ‘Hood feminism’ is what I know as Postcolonial or Transnational Feminism. It doesn’t matter if you as a reader have no idea what it means or if you know it by any other name, but what it encloses will be apparent to you 10 pages in. Independently if you are white or not, female, male, or non-binary, I think this is such a good read for educating ourselves in many areas.
If we pay attention to the title, the most salient words are ‘notes’, ‘women’, ‘forgot’. ‘Notes’ marks the structure of this book. Kendall breaks her arguments apart and every chapter covers a topic that is relevant to women and their adjacent struggles that are often not included when we talk about feminist struggles. That question, ‘what is a feminist struggle?’ is the recurrent question of each chapter.
Now, my critique comes because due to the structure of ‘notes’ there is no final resolution but the conclusions of each chapter. ‘Notes’ is different from an essay, memoir, new journalism, reportage, thesis, and any other type of writing form you could think about. Think about your personal notes. They are scattered with a monotonous and practiced routine, and they are not always connected or polished as you will use them later for a rounder work. The conclusions at every chapter of Hood Feminism are well-wrapped and Kendall masters the construction of chapters, so they are not exactly 'notes', yet they are not very polished or innovative as a developed argument. Each chapter is enjoyable, counts with research and personal experiences to back up claims, and in general, they feel pretty compelling when taking the core question about what is feminism issue. Nevertheless, after a few chapters, this formula becomes repetitive and somewhat tiresome as we are just restating the same concept with the only variable being the topic of the chapter. Yes, we have the issue, arguments to include it as a feminist issue, and the convincing ending of the chapter, but it leads nowhere beyond the exposition of several problems.
Maybe I find it repetitive because I’ve had already considered almost all the topics Kendall covers as feminist issues. After all, I am from Mexico and I am not ignorant of what transnational feminism should care about. From that perspective, I need to give Kendall a break for being somewhat formulaic because yes, I felt heard, yet I wanted to get something unknown for me and my experience.
I will be recommending Hood Feminism to everyone I encounter, especially those with a different life experience than me. Hood Feminism is targeted at those that benefit from patriarchal relations, white supremacy, and class privileges, as they are those that stir ‘the movement’ into forgetting those of us who completely understand every part of this book before even reading it.
Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgotby Mikki Kendall explores the side that mainstream white feminism constantly silences. As a woman from a third-world country living that has attended prestigious universities with a predominantly white student body, this book made me feel seen.
However, more than seen, I felt heard. As someone used to the othering inflicted on me, I still had a visceral reaction while reading what I had no words to explain. Sometimes we feel like traitors for not prioritizing gender over race and class struggles. Sometimes we get consumed by guilt for not relating to our white sisters and their struggles. Sometimes, it is impossible to smile when they break the glass ceiling and we are the ones left to clean. That is what it feels like to be a woman like me, a woman like Kendall, and this book compiles those feelings and validates them.
The term ‘Hood feminism’ is what I know as Postcolonial or Transnational Feminism. It doesn’t matter if you as a reader have no idea what it means or if you know it by any other name, but what it encloses will be apparent to you 10 pages in. Independently if you are white or not, female, male, or non-binary, I think this is such a good read for educating ourselves in many areas.
If we pay attention to the title, the most salient words are ‘notes’, ‘women’, ‘forgot’. ‘Notes’ marks the structure of this book. Kendall breaks her arguments apart and every chapter covers a topic that is relevant to women and their adjacent struggles that are often not included when we talk about feminist struggles. That question, ‘what is a feminist struggle?’ is the recurrent question of each chapter.
Now, my critique comes because due to the structure of ‘notes’ there is no final resolution but the conclusions of each chapter. ‘Notes’ is different from an essay, memoir, new journalism, reportage, thesis, and any other type of writing form you could think about. Think about your personal notes. They are scattered with a monotonous and practiced routine, and they are not always connected or polished as you will use them later for a rounder work. The conclusions at every chapter of Hood Feminism are well-wrapped and Kendall masters the construction of chapters, so they are not exactly 'notes', yet they are not very polished or innovative as a developed argument. Each chapter is enjoyable, counts with research and personal experiences to back up claims, and in general, they feel pretty compelling when taking the core question about what is feminism issue. Nevertheless, after a few chapters, this formula becomes repetitive and somewhat tiresome as we are just restating the same concept with the only variable being the topic of the chapter. Yes, we have the issue, arguments to include it as a feminist issue, and the convincing ending of the chapter, but it leads nowhere beyond the exposition of several problems.
Maybe I find it repetitive because I’ve had already considered almost all the topics Kendall covers as feminist issues. After all, I am from Mexico and I am not ignorant of what transnational feminism should care about. From that perspective, I need to give Kendall a break for being somewhat formulaic because yes, I felt heard, yet I wanted to get something unknown for me and my experience.
I will be recommending Hood Feminism to everyone I encounter, especially those with a different life experience than me. Hood Feminism is targeted at those that benefit from patriarchal relations, white supremacy, and class privileges, as they are those that stir ‘the movement’ into forgetting those of us who completely understand every part of this book before even reading it.
Five Tuesdays in Winter by Lily King
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
“Adults hid their pain, their fears, their failure, but adolescents hid their happiness, as if to reveal it would risk its loss” ("North Sea")
Five Tuesdays in Winter is a collection of short stories by acclaimed author, Lily King, who as far as I know, is a novelist.
Going into short stories from writing novels might seem easy or lazy for the innocent reader who ignores how much difficult it is to produce the perfect story in a few pages.
Julio Cortázar used to say that short stories are like spheres, and under that structure is how I analyzed King’s latest work. Some of the stories needed to be more contained and circular to make the collection 100% remarkable and have no title outshined by others, but as a first collection and coming from novels, I think Lily King’s bold incursion into short stories needs to be celebrated.
With 10 stories, Five Tuesdays in Winter creates truly amazing moments of awe, particularly with “Hotel Seattle”, “Timeline”, “Five Tuesdays in Winter”, and “The Man at the Door”. Literary, fast-paced, complex, and polished, these are the jewels of the collection.
My favorites are:
"Five Tuesdays in Winter": After finishing the book I realized why this story is the one that gave the title to the collection as it is wholesome but deeply introspective. With more dark tales in the book, highlighting this story about a shy middle-aged man with a bookstore, a daughter, and a crush, King gives the message that hope can blossom anywhere and love takes many forms. My only complaint is that this is the second story in the collection and I think it should have opened it -independently of the title or how good "Creature" is.
"The Man at the Door": is the most literary and complex story of the collection and I think that part of its success is that King relies upon what she knows and feels comfortable with while still finding a challenge. This story is about a female writer (like King and like the protagonist of Writers & Lovers) who writes frenetically and intensely while still caring for her children. Motherhood in this story is crucially intertwined with the art of writing, and how different the standards are for women when it comes to their craft. "The Man at the Door" denounces sexism in the literary world in a quick and engrossing way. The story closed the collection strongly and beautifully.
With these two individual highlights, I also want to talk about the collection as a whole. Of course, you want to have a variety of topics, characters, and situations in your collection because that is something that the novel often would not allow you to explore. Characters that are not united by a plot but are presented to the world as part of a unit should be connected by some fine threads of common themes. Five Tuesdays in Winter is no exception, the stories are connected because the characters are all lonely, introspective people in crucial moments of their lives while still living through mundane experiences. As windows to their lives, each story shows us said moments that are filled with grief, fear, nostalgia, and disillusion. They also cover the break from innocent youth to heavy and confusing adulthood that can be isolating and suffocating.
Overall, I enjoyed Five Tuesdays in Winter by Lily King because it speaks to me with its exploration of everyday life and everyday feelings that sometimes we are not ready to talk about, but that the act of reading about them makes us more emphatic to the stranger in the bus, the mom upstairs, and the childhood friend.
Five Tuesdays in Winter is a collection of short stories by acclaimed author, Lily King, who as far as I know, is a novelist.
Going into short stories from writing novels might seem easy or lazy for the innocent reader who ignores how much difficult it is to produce the perfect story in a few pages.
Julio Cortázar used to say that short stories are like spheres, and under that structure is how I analyzed King’s latest work. Some of the stories needed to be more contained and circular to make the collection 100% remarkable and have no title outshined by others, but as a first collection and coming from novels, I think Lily King’s bold incursion into short stories needs to be celebrated.
With 10 stories, Five Tuesdays in Winter creates truly amazing moments of awe, particularly with “Hotel Seattle”, “Timeline”, “Five Tuesdays in Winter”, and “The Man at the Door”. Literary, fast-paced, complex, and polished, these are the jewels of the collection.
My favorites are:
"Five Tuesdays in Winter": After finishing the book I realized why this story is the one that gave the title to the collection as it is wholesome but deeply introspective. With more dark tales in the book, highlighting this story about a shy middle-aged man with a bookstore, a daughter, and a crush, King gives the message that hope can blossom anywhere and love takes many forms. My only complaint is that this is the second story in the collection and I think it should have opened it -independently of the title or how good "Creature" is.
"The Man at the Door": is the most literary and complex story of the collection and I think that part of its success is that King relies upon what she knows and feels comfortable with while still finding a challenge. This story is about a female writer (like King and like the protagonist of Writers & Lovers) who writes frenetically and intensely while still caring for her children. Motherhood in this story is crucially intertwined with the art of writing, and how different the standards are for women when it comes to their craft. "The Man at the Door" denounces sexism in the literary world in a quick and engrossing way. The story closed the collection strongly and beautifully.
With these two individual highlights, I also want to talk about the collection as a whole. Of course, you want to have a variety of topics, characters, and situations in your collection because that is something that the novel often would not allow you to explore. Characters that are not united by a plot but are presented to the world as part of a unit should be connected by some fine threads of common themes. Five Tuesdays in Winter is no exception, the stories are connected because the characters are all lonely, introspective people in crucial moments of their lives while still living through mundane experiences. As windows to their lives, each story shows us said moments that are filled with grief, fear, nostalgia, and disillusion. They also cover the break from innocent youth to heavy and confusing adulthood that can be isolating and suffocating.
Overall, I enjoyed Five Tuesdays in Winter by Lily King because it speaks to me with its exploration of everyday life and everyday feelings that sometimes we are not ready to talk about, but that the act of reading about them makes us more emphatic to the stranger in the bus, the mom upstairs, and the childhood friend.
I Want to Be Where the Normal People Are by Rachel Bloom
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
LISTEN TO THE AUDIOBOOK
I Want to Be Where the Normal People Are
by Rachel Bloom
“I was an abnormal person who can now pass as normal, and I felt like a spy”
There are two self-imposed rules for my nonfiction books: they have to be memoirs or teach me something. In those categories, of course, an autobiography, literary criticism, or something like Cultish makes me connect with actual reality. Within those rules, I have two more for memoirs: they need to make me or make me completely miserable and sad.
I Want to Be Where the Normal People Are checks the first box.
Honestly, I don’t know if it is a memoir, essays, or something else, but with Harry Potter fanfiction, a full-on musical about Rachel’s college life crisis (please pick the audiobook! You need to hear that), chapters about amusements parks for adults, and deep discussions about love, mental health, pleasure, pooping, this book is the chaotic the word vomit of a very talented person in the best way possible.
I want to acknowledge that I picked this book as an audiobook to accompany me in my daily walk to university, and like an idiot, I didn’t look who Rachel Bloom was, what this book would be about, or anything else that very serious reviewers do -I just liked the Little Mermaid reference.
With that disclaimer out of the way, I want to say that yes, if you love Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (show that I still need to watch), then this is going to be great for you (I think). But don’t worry! I didn’t know anything about Rachel Bloom and I still enjoyed it, why?
Well, because the center of I want to Be Where the Normal People Are is not about Bloom’s celebrity status or a letter to her fans; it is about her questioning about normalcy, and why can she never reach it. That quest for being normal and fit in is the same I experience every day of my life, and maybe you do so too.
Do you vividly remember middle school? If you do, it might be because of the following reasons:
a) you peaked back then
b) you were miserable
c) you are a nostalgic fool
d) Your parents got divorced right after that.
I am painfully option b)
And Rachel Bloom knows that, she squeezes every strand of the loser kid in me and says ‘hey, yours was nothing, look at me! I was a theatre kid!’ and sure, that might not be for everyone, but the vindication I received from this book is astronomical. Maybe we are all live the same life and this is all due to the simulation and nothing is real…or maybe there is something universal in reconciling your individuality with the average 13-year-old definition of cool.
As I said before, this book is funny. Funny-funny. The type of funny that made me laugh under my mask on my way to school and made people think that I am even weirder than what I already am- nice paradox out of a book about normalcy.
Something I find even more interesting is that while the book was wrapping up, the Covid-19 pandemic hits the ending, and with that, our collective new definition about 'normal'. Memorable life, memorable book, please go listen to the audiobook and laugh a bit.
I Want to Be Where the Normal People Are
by Rachel Bloom
“I was an abnormal person who can now pass as normal, and I felt like a spy”
There are two self-imposed rules for my nonfiction books: they have to be memoirs or teach me something. In those categories, of course, an autobiography, literary criticism, or something like Cultish makes me connect with actual reality. Within those rules, I have two more for memoirs: they need to make me or make me completely miserable and sad.
I Want to Be Where the Normal People Are checks the first box.
Honestly, I don’t know if it is a memoir, essays, or something else, but with Harry Potter fanfiction, a full-on musical about Rachel’s college life crisis (please pick the audiobook! You need to hear that), chapters about amusements parks for adults, and deep discussions about love, mental health, pleasure, pooping, this book is the chaotic the word vomit of a very talented person in the best way possible.
I want to acknowledge that I picked this book as an audiobook to accompany me in my daily walk to university, and like an idiot, I didn’t look who Rachel Bloom was, what this book would be about, or anything else that very serious reviewers do -I just liked the Little Mermaid reference.
With that disclaimer out of the way, I want to say that yes, if you love Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (show that I still need to watch), then this is going to be great for you (I think). But don’t worry! I didn’t know anything about Rachel Bloom and I still enjoyed it, why?
Well, because the center of I want to Be Where the Normal People Are is not about Bloom’s celebrity status or a letter to her fans; it is about her questioning about normalcy, and why can she never reach it. That quest for being normal and fit in is the same I experience every day of my life, and maybe you do so too.
Do you vividly remember middle school? If you do, it might be because of the following reasons:
a) you peaked back then
b) you were miserable
c) you are a nostalgic fool
d) Your parents got divorced right after that.
I am painfully option b)
And Rachel Bloom knows that, she squeezes every strand of the loser kid in me and says ‘hey, yours was nothing, look at me! I was a theatre kid!’ and sure, that might not be for everyone, but the vindication I received from this book is astronomical. Maybe we are all live the same life and this is all due to the simulation and nothing is real…or maybe there is something universal in reconciling your individuality with the average 13-year-old definition of cool.
As I said before, this book is funny. Funny-funny. The type of funny that made me laugh under my mask on my way to school and made people think that I am even weirder than what I already am- nice paradox out of a book about normalcy.
Something I find even more interesting is that while the book was wrapping up, the Covid-19 pandemic hits the ending, and with that, our collective new definition about 'normal'. Memorable life, memorable book, please go listen to the audiobook and laugh a bit.
Only About Love by Debbi Voisey
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
4.0
ARC received in exchange for an Honest Review
Thank you to Fairlightbooks and NetGalley!
“Watching him die will be a privilege. Loving someone means you don’t want them to be alone right at the end. It means no matter how scary it is, or how much it hurts, NOT being there would be so much worse. He witnessed her first breath. She’ll stay until he takes his last”
This is a book I was afraid to read, so please check the trigger warnings as it deals with the death of a parent.
With beautiful poetic snapshots, Debbi Voisey, delivers a joyful and sob-inducing novella focusing on the life of Frank, his wife, his parents, his children, his mistakes, his dreams, and his slow decay due to Alzheimer.
I wasn’t expecting this book to touch so many sensible parts of my being, but like Frank, one of my biggest fears is Alzheimer's as it consumed my strong-spirited grandmother. It also addresses my second biggest fear that is the death of my parents. Only About Love does such a marvelous job at depicting the process of idolizing a parent only to discover that, they too are just human, and have to reconcile those versions you created in your head about them and their flaws into a complex bond that exists out of love.
It is all about love, and as much as I wanted to villainize Frank and tell him how much he deserved to rot sick and alone for putting his family in such misery, I still had pity for him. Voisey speaks from a place of love and some of the aspects that I appreciated the most while reading were:
-The apparently disconnected snapshots and the ‘ah-ha!’ moment when I realized they were all about the same characters from different points of view and different moments in their lives. It feels fresh and intimate, yet the space in between makes us always wonder what lurked in those spaces we don’t get to read.
-The first-person narrative in some of those snapshots pulls you in until you have some in the third person, pushing you away. This game of being in with the secret and then being another viewer fits right in with the structure and the pace.
-The characters, all human, all flawed, all love. Yes, Frank is the sun and all the others revolve around him, which leaves me wanting more of Liz and what her experience was. Or about John and Dawn, the children, as we learned that Frank was marked by his father and that in a certain way that affects how he acts. I want to know how Frank’s influence reflected on John and Dawn as they grew up and formed their own families.
-Lastly, the depiction of Alzheimer’s disease. Such a terrible all-consuming parasite eating away everything you loved from the people who once shined for their personalities and wits. This is the best depiction I have seen as it covers the family’s point of view but also Frank’s as he is confused and betrayed by his own head. A truly hard topic to write about, so Debbi Voisey did a wonderful job at this so memorable book.
Short but powerful, honest, and experimental, Only About Love is a book you must add to your list.
Keep reading, and when you are not You can find me as @isabelsdigest everywhere
#onlyaboutlove #fairlightmoderns @fairlightbooks
Thank you to Fairlightbooks and NetGalley!
“Watching him die will be a privilege. Loving someone means you don’t want them to be alone right at the end. It means no matter how scary it is, or how much it hurts, NOT being there would be so much worse. He witnessed her first breath. She’ll stay until he takes his last”
This is a book I was afraid to read, so please check the trigger warnings as it deals with the death of a parent.
With beautiful poetic snapshots, Debbi Voisey, delivers a joyful and sob-inducing novella focusing on the life of Frank, his wife, his parents, his children, his mistakes, his dreams, and his slow decay due to Alzheimer.
I wasn’t expecting this book to touch so many sensible parts of my being, but like Frank, one of my biggest fears is Alzheimer's as it consumed my strong-spirited grandmother. It also addresses my second biggest fear that is the death of my parents. Only About Love does such a marvelous job at depicting the process of idolizing a parent only to discover that, they too are just human, and have to reconcile those versions you created in your head about them and their flaws into a complex bond that exists out of love.
It is all about love, and as much as I wanted to villainize Frank and tell him how much he deserved to rot sick and alone for putting his family in such misery, I still had pity for him. Voisey speaks from a place of love and some of the aspects that I appreciated the most while reading were:
-The apparently disconnected snapshots and the ‘ah-ha!’ moment when I realized they were all about the same characters from different points of view and different moments in their lives. It feels fresh and intimate, yet the space in between makes us always wonder what lurked in those spaces we don’t get to read.
-The first-person narrative in some of those snapshots pulls you in until you have some in the third person, pushing you away. This game of being in with the secret and then being another viewer fits right in with the structure and the pace.
-The characters, all human, all flawed, all love. Yes, Frank is the sun and all the others revolve around him, which leaves me wanting more of Liz and what her experience was. Or about John and Dawn, the children, as we learned that Frank was marked by his father and that in a certain way that affects how he acts. I want to know how Frank’s influence reflected on John and Dawn as they grew up and formed their own families.
-Lastly, the depiction of Alzheimer’s disease. Such a terrible all-consuming parasite eating away everything you loved from the people who once shined for their personalities and wits. This is the best depiction I have seen as it covers the family’s point of view but also Frank’s as he is confused and betrayed by his own head. A truly hard topic to write about, so Debbi Voisey did a wonderful job at this so memorable book.
Short but powerful, honest, and experimental, Only About Love is a book you must add to your list.
Keep reading, and when you are not You can find me as @isabelsdigest everywhere
#onlyaboutlove #fairlightmoderns @fairlightbooks
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Dementia, Infidelity, and Terminal illness
Must Love Books by Shauna Robinson
emotional
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
ARC received in exchange for an Honest Review
Thank you to SOURCEBOOKS Landmark and NetGalley!
Publication date: 18 January 2022
Must Love Books by Shauna Robinson presents us with the overworked and lost Nora at a very stressful point in her life. After pursuing a career in publishing for the last five years, Nora finds herself in a meaningless job that does not even pay the bills. Her colleagues and friends have all left and she is the last one standing, making her wonder if ‘dream jobs’ are even real.
Nora will have to take risky decisions when the opportunity comes to work part-time for the competition and this makes her examine her loyalties - but can she do? She has no money or another plan. Along comes Andrew Santos, the bestselling author whose signing could give Nora a promotion in the company she already hates, or he could sign with the new publishing house and secure her a full-time job. On the other hand, he could be something else, someone else in Nora’s life that stirs her into looking for personal fulfillment instead of just precariously getting from paycheck to paycheck.
I believe I am just the target audience for this book - so maybe I am incapable of writing an objective review. I am Nora. I am 24 with an English Degree and dreaming of the perfect job in publishing. I see so much of myself in the main character that it is difficult to separate myself but allow me to try:
-Must Love Books might look like a cutesy romance at a first glance but like The Midnight Library (that also features a Nora), this novel is about self-discovery. A late coming of age that is much less popular and romanticized than the YA counterpart. Nora is in her mid-twenties and before even allowing herself to find love, she needs to allow herself to find who she is and what she wants.
-Robinson makes an exquisite job of portraying the bay area. As a UC Berkeley grad, I know what it feels like to be in the BART mentally counting how much money you have left and how many meals you can skip until your next paycheck. We see a San Francisco that is less about glamour and more about the big city feeling of isolation.
-Nora as a character feels like an actual human being, and as a reader, I understood why she took the decisions she took, and honestly, in her place, I would have probably done the same.
-On that note, the other characters like Beth and Andrew went beyond their typical roles of ‘friend’ and ‘love interest’ and have a certain complexity that enriched my experience. Although I would have liked to see more of Nora’s roommate.
-The majority of this novel develops in the office, and in this space as a black woman of lower-ranking, Nora faces a lot of microaggressions due to her gender and standing as one editor from the NY office uses her for the most pointless tasks and mansplains every detail. I think this window into office life and the team behind our favorite books is so important and it brings visibility to the otherwise forgotten members that work in publishing.
-Most importantly, I think this book addresses very important subjects like mental health, race, and class. Nora for the majority of the book is in a dark place - one that I have the misfortune of knowing very well -and realistically, it is up to her to change her situation. Even when Beth and Andrew want to help, the book delivers an open ending that empowers Nora -and the reader- to accept that it is okay to still be figuring stuff out.
Moreover, race and class make an important part of Nora’s identity and the decisions she can take. Publishing is predominately white and as a half-black woman, Nora feels the responsibility of representing but also masking her race when she is working. The people around Nora are also more wealthy than her, and money might not give happiness but it gives options. Because of this disparity, Nora can not fully relate or talk with her friends as she knows they do not understand how impossible it for her is to leave one job for a part-time offer or to not have something stable as she has massive responsibilities and payments due.
In conclusion, I think it is easy to disregard this novel as another quirky office romance -that there is nothing wrong with them and that I love them so much as well- but if you give Must Love Books a chance, you are in for so much more than you expected. I am very happy to have finished 2021 with this book and I wish Shauna Robinson all the luck and success in the world.
Follow the author on Twitter as @shaunarobs
and you can find me as @isabelsdigest everywhere
Thank you to SOURCEBOOKS Landmark and NetGalley!
Publication date: 18 January 2022
Must Love Books by Shauna Robinson presents us with the overworked and lost Nora at a very stressful point in her life. After pursuing a career in publishing for the last five years, Nora finds herself in a meaningless job that does not even pay the bills. Her colleagues and friends have all left and she is the last one standing, making her wonder if ‘dream jobs’ are even real.
Nora will have to take risky decisions when the opportunity comes to work part-time for the competition and this makes her examine her loyalties - but can she do? She has no money or another plan. Along comes Andrew Santos, the bestselling author whose signing could give Nora a promotion in the company she already hates, or he could sign with the new publishing house and secure her a full-time job. On the other hand, he could be something else, someone else in Nora’s life that stirs her into looking for personal fulfillment instead of just precariously getting from paycheck to paycheck.
I believe I am just the target audience for this book - so maybe I am incapable of writing an objective review. I am Nora. I am 24 with an English Degree and dreaming of the perfect job in publishing. I see so much of myself in the main character that it is difficult to separate myself but allow me to try:
-Must Love Books might look like a cutesy romance at a first glance but like The Midnight Library (that also features a Nora), this novel is about self-discovery. A late coming of age that is much less popular and romanticized than the YA counterpart. Nora is in her mid-twenties and before even allowing herself to find love, she needs to allow herself to find who she is and what she wants.
-Robinson makes an exquisite job of portraying the bay area. As a UC Berkeley grad, I know what it feels like to be in the BART mentally counting how much money you have left and how many meals you can skip until your next paycheck. We see a San Francisco that is less about glamour and more about the big city feeling of isolation.
-Nora as a character feels like an actual human being, and as a reader, I understood why she took the decisions she took, and honestly, in her place, I would have probably done the same.
-On that note, the other characters like Beth and Andrew went beyond their typical roles of ‘friend’ and ‘love interest’ and have a certain complexity that enriched my experience. Although I would have liked to see more of Nora’s roommate.
-The majority of this novel develops in the office, and in this space as a black woman of lower-ranking, Nora faces a lot of microaggressions due to her gender and standing as one editor from the NY office uses her for the most pointless tasks and mansplains every detail. I think this window into office life and the team behind our favorite books is so important and it brings visibility to the otherwise forgotten members that work in publishing.
-Most importantly, I think this book addresses very important subjects like mental health, race, and class. Nora for the majority of the book is in a dark place - one that I have the misfortune of knowing very well -and realistically, it is up to her to change her situation. Even when Beth and Andrew want to help, the book delivers an open ending that empowers Nora -and the reader- to accept that it is okay to still be figuring stuff out.
Moreover, race and class make an important part of Nora’s identity and the decisions she can take. Publishing is predominately white and as a half-black woman, Nora feels the responsibility of representing but also masking her race when she is working. The people around Nora are also more wealthy than her, and money might not give happiness but it gives options. Because of this disparity, Nora can not fully relate or talk with her friends as she knows they do not understand how impossible it for her is to leave one job for a part-time offer or to not have something stable as she has massive responsibilities and payments due.
In conclusion, I think it is easy to disregard this novel as another quirky office romance -that there is nothing wrong with them and that I love them so much as well- but if you give Must Love Books a chance, you are in for so much more than you expected. I am very happy to have finished 2021 with this book and I wish Shauna Robinson all the luck and success in the world.
Follow the author on Twitter as @shaunarobs
and you can find me as @isabelsdigest everywhere
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Sexism