Take a photo of a barcode or cover
readingpicnic's reviews
487 reviews
Heart Berries: A Memoir by Terese Marie Mailhot
5.0
Stellar audiobook performance, and an incredible writing style unlike any I've encountered before. I love unabashedly honest memoirs, especially those that dip into the weird and messy. I think that I judged this book by its cover and expected it to be soft poetry, but it was shocking, flagrant, in-your-face storytelling with a poetic flare that I could not put down. I felt like a kitten being carried around by the scruff of my neck listening to this while my mother cat runs down a treacherous path, enjoying the ride but also being like ahhhhh!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt
Thunder Song by Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe
5.0
Very excellent audiobook narration by the author! Great dissection of the whiteness inherent in the punk music scene (which I keep accidentally reading about?) The breakdown of the colonial nature of monogamy was interesting and not something I knew much about--this memoir is queer in the best of ways.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Biphobia, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Abortion, Sexual harassment, Colonisation
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Genocide, Pedophilia, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Cultural appropriation
¡Hola Papi!: How to Come Out in a Walmart Parking Lot and Other Life Lessons by John Paul Brammer
4.0
The audiobook performance by the author was great, and when I finished the audiobook this morning, I was left wanting more (maybe I should pay for his substack). Lots of messy queer partnerships, questions of racial and sexual identity, dealing with internalized homophobia, and honesty about mental health struggles. The chapter that's going to stick with me most is the one about grappling with a sexual assault and trying to forgive oneself for not understanding that's what it was at the time--feeling anger at oneself for having continued to interact with the person that harmed you in a benevolent way after it happened because it hadn't quite clicked yet. I've had similar anger at myself, so it was honestly really helpful to see the author verbalize this process of acknowledgement and forgiveness that we did not have the knowledge or understanding that we do now. Me when a self-help book actually helps me with something :0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt
Moderate: Eating disorder, Racism
Parakeet by Marie-Helene Bertino
5.0
Geez, it’s like this book was made for me—it’s just a culmination of everything I’d want from a book, and I only read it on a whim because the author’s doing a reading nearby. This book has a delectable mix of magical realism and unreliable narrator, similar to Bunny by Mona Awad. This main character had so much going on at once and swirling around in her noggin, so her breakdown is very understandable: dealing with the trauma of surviving a violent attack, her marriage to a boring white guy growing dreadfully closer, being haunted by her dead bird grandmother, having near constant hallucinations, and reconnecting with her estranged trans sister. I’d say the stress levels I experienced are similar to my experience watching Shiva Baby. Currently crying thinking about the rekindling of the relationship between these two sisters; it was so beautiful and really fucking funny.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Murder
Moderate: Ableism, Deadnaming, Racial slurs, Racism, Transphobia
While You Were Out: An Intimate Family Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence by Meg Kissinger
5.0
This is such a devastating book, but I’m so glad it exists. The compassionate approach that the author takes towards severe mental illness and the honest thought processes of working towards this view is a point of view I don’t see very often. This book really hit hard as someone who has a lot of mental illness in my own family from both sides, but especially my mom’s side since her brother committed s*icide when she was in high school. I beg you to check the trigger warnings for this book, especially if you’ve lost (or almost lost) someone close to you to s*icide or dealt with s*icidal thoughts yourself, but it is so well written and has incredible narration from the author. The advice for living with the grief of losing someone in this way was very helpful I think, as this book was very well researched due to the author being a journalist who wrote extensively on how the mentally ill are treated in the US, but also contains personal advice on living with grief from some of her living siblings and people she connected with during her lifetime of research. I’m so glad I picked this up; thank you for the recommendation @bridgetish, this is why you’re my favorite booktoker.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Antisemitism, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Police brutality, Abortion, Pregnancy
Minor: Eating disorder, Pedophilia
Where's Waldo: The Family Photoshoot by Martin Handford
For non-book records, review text and ratings are hidden. Only mood, pace, and content warnings are visible.
Content Warnings
Minor: Cancer, Death
They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib
4.5
The narration for this was incredible, and I liked that the author added little notes to introduce each essay and is honest about his thought processes at the time of writing them. I do think there was some repetition I noticed across some essays, such as saying almost the same thing twice while talking about Carly Rae Jepsen in different essays, but other than that, this was an incredible and impactful read. I liked how music was woven throughout the book and how he was unafraid to turn a critical eye towards musicians and the punk scene. I can see some similarities between this book and Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Grief
elseship: an unrequited affair by Tree Abraham
Did not finish book. Stopped at 15%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 15%.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher Catapult, Counterpoint Press, and Soft Skull Press for a free digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I tried to stick this one through, but I realized that I was forcing myself to keep going and not enjoying myself. There isn't much story to this memoir, and it was a lot more philosophizing on love and definitions of different words than I expected it to be. The writing was also a bit inaccessible to me; I'm not sure if it was too poetic or convoluted? It didn't feel like it was saying anything new to me either. The book was incredibly slow moving, and I felt like I was trudging through, so I have decided to put this aside for at least now. The mixed media nature of this book was cool though with its photographs, photography, and art sprinkled throughout.
I tried to stick this one through, but I realized that I was forcing myself to keep going and not enjoying myself. There isn't much story to this memoir, and it was a lot more philosophizing on love and definitions of different words than I expected it to be. The writing was also a bit inaccessible to me; I'm not sure if it was too poetic or convoluted? It didn't feel like it was saying anything new to me either. The book was incredibly slow moving, and I felt like I was trudging through, so I have decided to put this aside for at least now. The mixed media nature of this book was cool though with its photographs, photography, and art sprinkled throughout.
Shred Sisters by Betsy Lerner
3.0
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher Grove Atlantic for a free digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This book started off very strong with setting up the family dynamics that largely stayed throughout the whole book, which moves slowly through the family’s lives and deaths. Ollie is a strong personality that kept my interest the whole book, even when she wasn’t always present. There are lots of conversations and ponderings on how your childhood home environment traumatizes you in less obvious ways that influence how you react to situations in adulthood. I will say that Amy was a very passive voice in this story that didn’t do much for me personally; she was Nick and Ollie was Gatsby in terms of Ollie feeling like the MAIN character who everything revolved around. Since the book is called Shred Sisters, I would have preferred for Ollie to have been more of a character than she was—it seemed like she was mostly defined by her mental illnesses and manic episodes, only really settling down when becoming a mother, which was…a strange way to resolve the book I think. I’m personally wary of books where motherhood is posed as a solution to a character’s life problems. There was also some casual fatphobia thrown in with the main character feeling glad and superior that her ex and his wife gained weight, and I can’t tell if that’s just an in-character thing for her to think??? The storytelling method also put me off quite a bit with the character occasionally speaking with insight from the present tense and commenting on moments of her life, which I wasn’t the biggest fan of. It began to feel like the jumps in time were essentially “and then this happened, and then this happened, and then I got a different lover, and then…” which I got tired of after a while. Again, I really enjoyed the beginning, and I wish that the book had stayed there longer (or for its entirety). A dual pov with Ollie also would have been interesting. Overall, I think the movement through time in this story wasn’t executed very well, and I lost interest towards the end.
This book started off very strong with setting up the family dynamics that largely stayed throughout the whole book, which moves slowly through the family’s lives and deaths. Ollie is a strong personality that kept my interest the whole book, even when she wasn’t always present. There are lots of conversations and ponderings on how your childhood home environment traumatizes you in less obvious ways that influence how you react to situations in adulthood. I will say that Amy was a very passive voice in this story that didn’t do much for me personally; she was Nick and Ollie was Gatsby in terms of Ollie feeling like the MAIN character who everything revolved around. Since the book is called Shred Sisters, I would have preferred for Ollie to have been more of a character than she was—it seemed like she was mostly defined by her mental illnesses and manic episodes, only really settling down when becoming a mother, which was…a strange way to resolve the book I think. I’m personally wary of books where motherhood is posed as a solution to a character’s life problems. There was also some casual fatphobia thrown in with the main character feeling glad and superior that her ex and his wife gained weight, and I can’t tell if that’s just an in-character thing for her to think??? The storytelling method also put me off quite a bit with the character occasionally speaking with insight from the present tense and commenting on moments of her life, which I wasn’t the biggest fan of. It began to feel like the jumps in time were essentially “and then this happened, and then this happened, and then I got a different lover, and then…” which I got tired of after a while. Again, I really enjoyed the beginning, and I wish that the book had stayed there longer (or for its entirety). A dual pov with Ollie also would have been interesting. Overall, I think the movement through time in this story wasn’t executed very well, and I lost interest towards the end.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Death, Mental illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent
Moderate: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Sexual harassment
Minor: Sexual assault, Lesbophobia
Thirst by Marina Yuszczuk
3.75
Erotic, but also deeply sad. The dreary, crumbling cemetery setting of most of the novel works so well towards creating a bleak atmosphere. This book wasn't the sapphic romance I initially thought it would be. It centers more on persecution and murder in an ever-changing and unfamiliar world in the vampire's case, and being a single mom and drifting away from everyone while grieving her ever-ailing elderly mother in Alma's case. I do think I preferred the vampire's chapters over the latter half of the book and found them more interesting; Alma's chapters dragged for me at times and it didn't feel like much was happening.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Abandonment, Sexual harassment