sumactots99's reviews
68 reviews

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

“The bystander which I so essentially am.”

No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai

challenging dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Descending Figure by Louise Glück

5.0

“And the past, as always, stretched before us, still, complex, impenetrable.

How long did we lie there

as, arm in arm in their cloaks of feathers,

The gods walked down

From the mountains we built for them?” (The Fear Of Love, 3) 

“Such a long journey.

And already the remote, trembling lights of the village, 

Not pausing for it as they scan the rows.” (The Fear of Burial, 5) 

“Under the strained fabric

of her skin, his heart

Stirred.” (Pietà, 10)

“They can afford to die.

They have their place in the dying order.” (Thanksgiving, 14)

“So much pain in the world— the formless grief of the body, whose language is hunger—“ (Epithalamium,  17)

“Each tree forms where he left it, 

Leafless, trapped in his breath.” (Illuminations, 19) 

“I think you let me stare 

So you can turn against yourself 

With greater violence,

Needing to show me how you scrape the flesh away scornfully and without hesitation

Until I see you correctly, 

As a man bleeding, not

The reflection I desire.” (The Mirror, 20).

“A child dreams the outline of a body. 

She draws what she can, but it is white all through,

She cannot fill what she knows is there.

Within that unsupported line, she knows

That life is missing; she has cut one background from another. Like a child,

She turns to her mother. 

And you draw the heart 

Against the emptiness she has created.” (Portrait, 21)

“Envy is a dance, too; the need to hurt

Binds you to your partner.” (Tango, 22)

“I trusted no one. My name 

Was like a stranger’s, 

Read from an envelope.

But nothing was taken from me

that I could have used.

For once, I admit that […]

You were the gold sun on the horizon,

I was the judgement, my shadow

Preceded me, not wavering […]

Of two sisters 

One is always the watcher, 

One the dancer.” (Tango) 

- - - -

“This is what marriage is […]

I do not question 

their happiness. And he rushes in 

with his young man’s hunger, 

So proud to have taught her that: 

his kiss would have been 

Clearly tender— 

Of course, of course. Except 

It might as well have been 

His hand over her mouth.” (Grandmother, 30)

- - - -

“It begins quietly

in certain female children:

the fear of death, taking as its form

dedication to hunger,

because a woman’s body

is a grave; it will accept

anything.  I remember

lying in a bed at night

touching the soft, digressive breasts,

touching, at fifteen,

the interfering flesh

that I would sacrifice

until the limbs were free

of blossom and subterfuge: I felt

what I feel now, aligning these words–

it is the same need to perfect,

of which death is the mere byproduct.” ( The Deviation, 32)

- - - -

“The child

Having no self to speak of,

Comes to life in denial—“ (Sacred Objects, 33) 

- - - -

“The word 

is bear: you give and give, you empty yourself 

Into a child. And you survive 

The automatic loss. Against human landscape, 

The tree remains a figure for grief; it’s form is forced accommodation. At the grave, 

It is the woman, isn’t it, who bends,

The spear useless beside her.” (Autumnal, 37)

- - - -

“Now that she is again no one’s,

She pushes her more durable relationships

With traffic and cold nature, as though at pains

To wound herself so that she will not heal.

She is past being taken in by kindness,

Preferring wet streets: what death claims it does not abandon.” (Rosy, 40)

“I sleep so you will be alive, 

It is that simple.

The dreams themselves are nothing.

They are a sickness you control, 

Nothing more. […]

And then the morning comes, demanding prey.

Remember? And the world complies.” (The Dream of Mourning, 41).

“ I believed 

a minds shattering released 

The objects of its scrutiny: trees, blue plums in a bowl,

A man reaching for his wife’s hand

Across a slatted table, and quietly covering it

As though his will enclosed it in that gesture. 

I saw them come apart, the glazed clay

Begin dividing endlessly, dispersing

Incoherent particles that went on shining forever.” (World Breaking Apart, 43)

“They were both still,

The woman mournful, the man

Branching into her body.” (The Logos, 44) 

“A forest rose from the earth.

O pitiful, so needing 

God’s furious love.

Together they were beasts. 

They lay in the fixed 

Dusk of his negligence.” (Nocturne, 46)

Better Than the Movies by Lynn Painter

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

1.75

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

adventurous hopeful tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood by Fatema Mernissi

emotional funny reflective slow-paced

3.5

The Chibok Girls: The Boko Haram KidnappingsIslamic Militancy in Nigeria by Helon Habila

informative

Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced

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

5.0

To think if I could have had this book earlier in my life- at times when I felt so alone and unable to put to words the complicated feelings I was experiencing in institutions which whispered to me that I would never belong- how it could have changed everything, how I could have felt a little less alone.

“You’re lost, brother. You’re a ship adrift, searching for familiar shores. I understand what it is you want. I sought it too. But there is no homeland. It’s gone…. But realize this, brother. You fly no one’s flag. You’re free to seek your own harbour. And you can do so much more than tread water.” (219)

“He had the oddest feeling of disappearing as he spoke, of fading into the background of a painting depicting a story which must have been old as history.” (249)

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-joo

informative fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.0

The book somehow felt not hollow, but empty… I understand the message it was trying to convey and the way the author was going about it, I understand that it was meant to be disturbing …  it was meant to be dull and menial to reflect the way the daily struggle and double standards for women are dealt with in society and by the women in question in many cases. 

But, ultimately, I just found the style of this book uninspiring. Maybe it would have meant more to me if I read it a younger age?

Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0