livpasquarelli's reviews
56 reviews

Black Is the Body: Stories from My Grandmother's Time, My Mother's Time, and Mine by Emily Bernard

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challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

Revenge Body by Rachel Wiley

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challenging dark emotional fast-paced

5.0

Cinderella Ate My Daughter by Peggy Orenstein

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challenging informative reflective medium-paced

3.5

Overall, this book had a big impact on me. It was full of insight and I appreciate the author‘s vulnerability in sharing her own uncertainty and perceived misgivings when it comes to raising a daughter.

My qualm with the book was the way the author referred to certain women and girls, her sarcasm, the cutting words she used. In that way, the book shows it’s age. For example, the way she refers to celebrities like Miley Cyrus, Lindsay Lohan, and Britney Spears is unforgiving, as if it were their choices to become the poster girls of sexuality that isn’t felt, but exists to be performative to others. She addresses the issues women these women face with eating disorders, mental illness, and drug abuse as a punchline instead of the reasons they struggle.

When she discusses her friends daughter, who she claims is chubby (use the word fat people! Please!), I felt a distinct bristling. She talks about how life will be harder for that girl, how she feels secretly happy that her own daughter is naturally thin. I feel it more productive to discuss how to teach our daughters that their bodies are not the most important thing about them. The world is cruel to fat people, but teaching our children that the size of our bodies does not define our worth combats the problem at its source, instead of lamenting a perceived unavoidable and unchanging situation.

I think if this book were to be written again today, the author might have more insight on a new wave of feminism that is less concerned with pink fairy dolls as inherently wrong and more concerned with pink fairy dolls of all races and sizes who can also be biochemists. Or strippers. Both valid professions.

That being said, the book is about how girls are socialized by the toys and media they consume as children, and her points about this are valid and complex. When it comes to criticism of other women, her tongue could be less sharp.

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We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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My Body by Emily Ratajkowski

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challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

What an incredible and moving collection of essays. Thank you to Emily Ratajkowski for having the courage to be honest about the contradiction of womanhood. We’re taught to question ourselves from birth, as well as adapt to our surroundings to survive. These essays capture the double standards of being a woman and a muse. I can’t speak highly enough of the book - just go read it!

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Chillpreneur: The New Rules for Creating Success, Freedom, and Abundance on Your Terms by Denise Duffield Thomas

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funny informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.0

More Than a Body: Your Body Is an Instrument, Not an Ornament by Lexie Kite, Lindsay Kite

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challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

This is one of the only books I’ve read that was so powerful that I could feel it changing my life as I read it. The subtle ways women compare each other and objectify each other and themselves all day every day is heartbreaking. This book is an eye opener. I appreciate how it’s not about ‘learning to love you body’ but about learning that we are worth more than the way we look. It’s so powerful, I recommend it to everyone.

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More Salt than Diamond: Poems by Aline Mello

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challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.25

I was thrilled to get the chance to review Aline Mello's debut book of poetry ‘More Salt Than Diamond' via Netgalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing. It centers around the author’s experience as an immigrant from Brazil, as a woman, and the way those things intersect.

Racism, objectification, eating disorders, misogyny, and the mistreatment of immigrants are stitched together seamlessly, illustrating intersectionality with words. These complicated topics are sewn with one common thread: vulnerability. Good art is always vulnerable, and Mello peels back the layers of her resiliency with grace.

In the poem about her mother, the author's last line is, "I'm selfish. I want to die first." I got chills throughout my entire body, as I do when another artist or writer captures an emotion I haven't been able to put into words prior.

When talking about her father, she writes, "a father's lack stains like oil." Mello reaches deep into her roots, not just her country of origin, but her parents, their parents, and the ancestors before them. It's a meditation on generational trauma, bonds, and heartbreak.

I'll finish my review with a few lines from "Salt Water,"

Squinting in the sunlight, you will wonder
what part ocean, what part sweat, and
what part tears is the salt on your tongue

This is a beautiful debut collection, I highly recommend it.

Content Warnings