#2021 book review

[frenchnewwaves]

novels read by gossip girl’s audrey hope!

ornament and silence: essays on women’s lives from Edith Wharton to Germaine Greer, by Kennedy Fraser:

the white album, by joan didion:

black swans, by eve babitz:

the complete poems, by anne sexton:

the days of abandonment, by elena ferrante:

[supitsgdo]

Book review: Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson

Rating: 5⭐️

Another delicious reading. The plot continues to fascinate me. It's not as groundbreaking as the other ones, but instead keeps the story and the characters developing at an interesting pace, and it's just pleasant to stop and read this for a bit. I can't wait for the next one!

Quote:

“Do not deny your own talents simply because you envy another's.”

Art by Michael Whelan

[james-stark-the-writer]

an extremely post-2020 movie. the Saw series finally, actually, says ACAB, and it's mostly just irritating as fuck. i don't like to use the word "unwatchable" but this is pretty fucking close. 90 minutes of Chris Rock trying to pretend he's Danny Glover from Predator 2 and has any intimidation factor. Darren Lynn Bousman's terrible luck with scripts continues, unfortunately. he's trying so hard to salvage this thing but it was a sunken ship from the word go. there's just nothing here, because the movie refuses to let you relish in the deaths of these pigs, it almost wants you to feel sorry for them, all while the script tells you to hate them. the filmmaking is literally at odds with the point of the story. they heard the last movie was criticized as bland and generic and tried to respond, but someone needs to tell these writers that a collection of forced references does not a personality make. too many talented actors in here for this to be as bad as it is. maybe i'm just not the audience for this one.

My ★ review of Spiral: From the Book of Saw on Letterboxd

[inconsistently--consistent]

Book Review Just Add Water

I cannot rave about this woman enough. She only had good things to say. Each chapter is essentially a thank you to everyone and everything she feels helped her get to where she is.

I absolutely loved it, if you like Katie Ledeckey, swimming, or general positivity this is for you.

[idkwhatimdoingbutrandom]

As a Black girl, something about white girls being the MCs in feminist stories that acknowledge their white privilege being rejected pisses me off.

Of course we deserve WOC feminist stories, ALWAYS AND FOREVER, but when you have a white writer, there’s only so much you can do.

If the story points out white guilt, white feminism, white superiority and their issues and consequences, I don’t know why it’s an issue?

White people can hardly ever write in the perspective of POC. There are so many things they’ll get wrong. I’d rather they write about what they know and the harm in their privilege and perspective.

It’s also incredibly harmful to name any white person who’s trying to be an ally as a “white saviour” or “obsessed with POC” or “fake”. We need allies, we need them to understand as much as they can. Constantly pushing them away doesn’t do progress any good.

I’m not saying we need white people to take pity on us, but white people are still people who need to grow, understand, love and build community.

[idontevenlistentomitski]

Truthfully, I first met anna Marie tendler through her ex husband’s comedy.

I’ve been on her side during the divorce and lost all my admiration and respect for said comedian. I’ve been waiting for her autobiography restlessly since it was announced and now that I’m halfway through it I can’t stop thinking about how much he used and distorted the character of a struggling woman to make the world laugh.

I’m reading about what she was experiencing, with sh and depression, and the years coincide with the times he was making me laugh about her on tv and thinking wow, they are so happy! I want a love like this!

Or finding out how her Jewishness, which I thought was a huge part of her character from his comedy, is only cultural and religion is not something she’s particularly interested in?

I’m angry at men, as I often am, I’m angry at this particular man most of all.

I’m angry she didn’t get what she deserved from him, I’m angry he used her to make us laugh and I’m angry I did laugh.

I had a completely different expectation of who she was as a person, what her passions were, what she was doing with her life and that was because I was fed a men’a narrative of what her life was.

I’m glad she’s dismantling that narrative, I’m glad she got her voice back, I’m glad she’s herself.

[conscious-naivete]

okay i finished all 7 episodes i can resume being a living human being

[newdayslinguine]

I am reading at an insane pace this year

[expendablemudge]

FOR DUNEheads: Two 2023 titles about Dune & its impact

No one denies that DUNE and its universe have been hugely influential in the almost sixty years the stories have existed. Many love them passionately, and would love a trivia and facts book about the whole DUNEiverse. https://expendablemudge.blogspot.com/2023/11/for-dune-heads-two-2023-titles-about.html

[thebookbin]

A Marvellous Light

Freya Marske

Publisher: Tordotcom (Tor) Genre: historical fantasy, romance Year: 2021

What an intriguing little book. A Marvellous Light is historical fantasy that scratched an itch I didn't even know I had. It's the opening book in a trilogy, and I won't lie, the only reason I was so excited for this book was I happened across @ming85's artwork of the second book in the series, A Restless Truth, and I really wanted to read about a lesbian transatlantic voyage murder mystery, so I hunkered down and got the first book out of the way.

For as much as I read this book as a way to get to the lesbians, it was an enjoyable journey. The magic system Freya creates is fascinating, this concept called "cradling" revolving around intricate hand movements and the presence of a string, and while this novel familiarized you with the baser aspects of the magic system, including innate stores of power, BUT the author has already hinted that these established rules are clouded by misogyny, classism, and racism and are actively being challenged and these institutions are being challenged, but for the most part this book is dealing with the magical baseline.

The main characters and love interests are opposites. Edwin is bookish, cold, and waspish. He was born into the magical world but barely has any power of his own. Robin is mundane, no magic at all, a jock and newly elevated to the gentry with the death of his father. When an accident of paperwork gets him a job as the liaison from Parliament to the magical community, and he's plunged (or unbushelled) into the world of magic is where he meets Edwin, dives into the mystery of what happened to his predecessor, and stumbles across an ancient magical conspiracy along the way. It's fun, it's lighthearted, the mystery was engaging, and the book was surprisingly horny. I did enjoy how the author refused to play into tropes when it came to the sex scenes, and also there were a lot of them.

My only criticisms of this book are that I can't believe it only takes place over a week, like Robin and Edwin fall in gay love, break up, get back together in 7 days and you're trying to tell me lesbians are the u-haulers? Also Adelaide deserved more screen time, she was by far the most competent character, and I hope to see more of her and Kitty in future installments.

storygraph | bookshop.org | local houston

★★★★ READ THIS AND NOW I'M READY FOR THE LESBIANS STARS

[newtness532]

anyways, after sitting on my bookshelf for almost exactly 3 years i read all the light we cannot see.

[dijetemjeseca]

Stephanie Laurens, Samo ljubav: ⭐️

[supitsgdo]

Book review: Animal Farm by George Orwell

Rating: 4⭐️

The starting point of this book is the fact that the animals, oppressed and forced to work on the farm, wish to be free from humans, to achieve independence and freedom. However, this process, which is carried out by the pigs (who, somewhat ironically, share the most similar organism to humans) ends up turning into the same oppression, with the pigs merely taking the place of the humans, although at first cultivating some of the fantasy of the animals. This was in part because the first agents of the revolution had good intentions. Orwell perhaps intended to metaphorise the profiteering of certain governments who, taking advantage of revolutions brought about by popular uprising, maintained those hopes while lining their own pockets and eventually returning the population to misery and workers' slavery. The gluttony and filth, in this case, moral, of the pigs, were also present in the spirit of some men. What shocked me most about this book, however, was the fact that although it was written in 1945, it could have just as well been printed out this year.

Quote:

"The creatures looked outside from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again: but already it was impossible to say which was which."

[fideidefenswhore]

so, i just read a review of BSR where the primary critique seemed to be that the series ‘airbrushed’ anne, that it was a version that ‘took away all her pettiness and cruelty”, airbrushed all her flaws, etc...

now, my primary critique of BSR would probably be that the series lacked texture, and this i would attribute to the limited screen time, made even smaller by the interruptions to the flow of the story (it felt more like that and less like elaboration for those that were not neophytes to the subject matter, was my takeaway from the online response). but i mean...really? i don’t find this to be a salient critique at all, especially considering that it was only three episodes. one of her most unsympathetic moments of the series was her response to her sister’s arrival at court, and that’s just one among many: included was her threat to cromwell as reported by chapuys, the fuller’s account of her ripping the locket off her rival’s neck (embellished with her chasing her as she tries to leave, even, for good measure, calling her a bitch later), and towards the end, she’s very cruel and biting towards elizabeth somerset once she reaches the limit of her patience wrt loaning her money. as for pettiness, she is so to her sister-in-law and vice versa, she’s insensitive to her sister when she scoffs at the role of royal mistress in her presence, and during the period that she’s in that nebulous status, she fully plays footsie under the table with henry in front of his wife, by implication unto ‘bundling’, until catherine leaves the table.

i’m just puzzled, ig, because the online response to AB2021 (very different show tonally, straight drama besides, i know, but just that these are the two most recent centered on AB) as far as i could gauge was that anne was too ‘petty and cruel’. i mean, tbh, i’ve always been confused by this response, because i thought all her moments of vindictiveness or pettiness or cruelty, once contextualized, on balance with her other moments were, well...understandable, even if not excusable (and if anyone wants to elaborate i’m willing to discuss, genuinely curious), borne clearly of frustration and fear for the most part, at worst you could say impatience and short temper on some of the others (even the truly ‘petty’, like the scene with the peacocks, was presaged by another woman being giggly with her husband, so...?)

what is this perfect AB portrayal that is sought, exactly? the straw AB? because to me, it seems like no matter what the depiction portrays, it cannot win. for some it is not ‘authentic’ unless we see every single aspect of her flaws amplified to the utmost, including her treatment of her stepdaughter. for others it is not ‘authentic’ if we do see that and all of the above. 

[ram-reads]

Blue Flag was the perfect book to end the year on. The manga follows a third year high schooler named Taichi Ichinose. One day he decides to help the shy girl from his class, Futaba Kuze, even though he doesn’t like her because she reminds him of himself. That leads to him finding out she has a crush on the popular guy in school, Toma Mita, who happens to be his childhood best friend that he is no longer close with. After seeing how determined she is, Taichi agrees to help her and as he helps her he starts to fall for her. Unbeknownst to both of them though is that Toma actually has a crush on Taichi and Futaba’s best friend, Masumi Itachi, has a crush on her. I absolutely loved this story. I was invested from beginning to end. All of the characters were so lovable. Taichi was a great protagonist. He’s a little pessimistic, but I like seeing negative people become more positive. Futaba was so adorable. Her eagerness to grow and achieve her goal was inspiring. Toma was a sweetheart. Watching him try so hard to continue to be friends with Taichi, who believes they live in two different worlds, made my heart ache. He has such a good heart for a jock. Masumi was admittedly kind of a jerk, but I still ended up liking her because of how protective she is of Futaba. I hope she’s as prominent in the story as the other three. For someone who doesn’t like love triangles I’m enjoying this one so far. It helps that it’s not obnoxious and that I like all the characters. The way I would prefer it to go is Taichi ending up with Toma (that bus scene!) and Futaba ending up with Masumi (I’m a sucker for protective characters). I would love to see two queer couples be the main relationships in a shoujo manga. I’m gonna keep my expectations low though because I’m sure with Taichi already falling for Futaba they’ll end up together. Both of them are great too, so if they are endgame I won’t be too salty. The art was great. I liked how most of the character designs felt original. After reading a lot of shoujo manga it starts to seem like there are many similarities between the main characters of each, but this manga managed to avoid that. Both Futaba and Taichi were such little cuties. Futaba was often compared to a hamster and it definitely worked. I loved the height difference between them and Toma because he is a giant. I’m glad this was the last book I read in 2021 because it had everything I wanted. I want to read volume 2 right away but only if I can get my hands on a physical copy. Why am I only reading manga that my store doesn’t have volume 2 of? This is the second one this month. Why am I doing this to myself? I definitely plan on snatching it up as soon as it comes in though.

[warpolomewdarkmatter]

just found the most bonkers blosc "review" and i cant even share it because none of you are cursed with knowledge of the horrid language im speaking natively. and by bonkers review i mean i laughed to tears when talking about it with my roommate even tho she hasnt watched blosc.