My 2023 in books. Part IV
October
Big Swiss - Jen Beagin ⭐⭐⭐ 3/5
It is a witty, funny, very clever novel. It gives us the troop of messed-up female protagonists and I think it is very important to be able to empathize and love this type of protagonists. It is a book that you have to pick up and read at specific moments in life.
“It takes an enormous amount of energy—and courage—to free yourself, to follow the path of transformation without abandoning yourself, without fleeing from your pain and all the loss you’ve experienced.”
A visit from the goon squad- Jennifer Egan ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4/5
I liked. It has a strange structure. It's not exactly a novel, it's several stories intertwined with each other. You live, you get old and you die. It breaks your heart a little but at the same time it's beautiful. If you like music you will also enjoy it.
“There's a fine line between thinking about somebody and thinking about not thinking about somebody, but I have the patience and the self-control to walk that line for hours - days, if I have to.”
The Candy House - Jennifer Egan ⭐⭐⭐⭐4/5
It's a difficult book to describe, it's good. They are intertwined stories. It's about technology, very black mirror. It serves as a sequel to “A visit from the goon squad” but can be read on its own. What I like about Egan is that she takes the time to give each of his characters independence. This book shows that as humans we have the need to connect with each other and I think that is beautiful.
“Who could resist the chance to revisit our memories, the majority of which we’d forgotten so completely that they seemed to belong to someone else?”
Bakkhai - Translation Anne Carson - Euripides - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5
I'm going to say it again... Anne Carson was born to translate Euripides. I read in a review “Anne Carson and Euripides where born for eachother” I love it. The Bacchae is a beautiful tragedy, even subversive I would say.
“Beginnings are special
because most of them are fake”
The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories -Howard Phillips Lovecraft ⭐⭐⭐ 3/5
It's a reread, spooky october. Love it. I don't have much to say about it, I read it little by little before going to sleep every day to get in the mood. I would like to say that it was more transcendental for my life.
Orpheus & Eurydice: A Lyric Sequence - Gregory Orr ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5
A beautiful collection of poems. It destroyed my soul. It is the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. I know the story by heart, even so every word hurt me. I loved it. I don't really read poetry, but this was a nice surprise.
“To guide someone
through the halls of hell
is not the same as love”
Electra- Other Version Translation by Anne Carson - Sophocles ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5
Lines above I already declared my love for Anne Carson. I will declare my love for Electra by Sophocles. It is a wonderful tragedy. It shows that when injustice persists, when the laws do not work, there, within one, the most human thing that exists is born: resentment.
“As for me-
what harm can do it do
to die in words?”
“I live in a place of tears”
November
We Paint - Chloe Ashby ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4/5
So sad. Written in a very beautiful way, another book about grief. But this time it is the grief of having lost a best friend. Somehow it brought back memories of the past. Heartbreaking.
“Better to be strangers for life, she must have thought, than to pick each other apart, one long, slow day at a time.”
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous- Ocean Vuong ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5
Another of my favorite books I read this year. Damn Vuong writes with immeasurable talent. Gentle but strong. At times raw but at others soft. With such detail that each word is well calculated. I shed tears all the time. It is a perfect book.
“Sometimes being offered tenderness feels like the very proof that you've been ruined.”
“When does a war end? When can I say your name and have it mean only your name and not what you left behind?”
“I'm sorry I keep saying How are you? when I really mean Are you happy?”
Lanny - Max Porter ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4/5
A fucking weird story. But I liked it. Max Porter has that power to leave me surprised every time. It was a quick read, I enjoyed it. It's like a fable. It reminded me of Latin American magical realism.
“False things, endings. Sustenance for fools and never what they claim to be.”
All the light we cannot see - Anthony Doerr ⭐⭐⭐ 3/5
When I read it I gave it 4 stars, in retrospect I give it 3. I did enjoy it a lot. I think it does a lot, it says a lot and it's a nice story, very sad tho. But I was left with a strange feeling, as if a piece was missing. It has very descriptive and beautiful prose.
“You know the greatest lesson of history? It’s that history is whatever the victors say it is. That’s the lesson. Whoever wins, that’s who decides the history. We act in our own self-interest. Of course we do. Name me a person or a nation who does not. The trick is figuring out where your interests are.”
When all is said - Anne Griffin⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4/5
Another sad but intricate book. Precious. It is narrated by a dying man who decides to talk to five important people in his life. Full of regrets and reproaches, the book presents a nostalgic story. I cried. I felt it very close to my heart.
“I’m here to remember – all that I have been and all that I will never be again.”
A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes - Suzanne Collins ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5
Is it really any surprise that this book gets a 5/5? It's Suzanne Collins, it's THG. I think Collins knows how to write about his characters very well and knows how to write what is precise. That's why there are 4 books and no more. This book is exactly what it should be, the villain origin story.
“You’ve no right to starve people, to punish them for no reason. No right to take away their life and freedom. Those are things everyone is born with, and they’re not yours for the taking. Winning a war doesn’t give you that right. Having more weapons doesn’t give you that right. Being from the Capitol doesn’t give you that right. Nothing does.”
White nights- Fyodor Dostoevsky⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4/5
Did i had to do this to myself? No. But I did it. Depressant. It's so…heavy. White Nights is a short story, quick to read but damn it leaves you paralyzed.
“I don’t know how to be silent when my heart is speaking.”
December
A Pale View Of The Hills - Kazuo Ishiguro ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5
Beautiful story by Ishiguro. Again, Ishiguro knows how to write stories that break your heart. It is the story of a mother and her youngest daughter who talk about the suicide of their eldest daughter. A beautiful text. Worthy of shedding tears.
“As with a wound on one's own body, it is possible to develop an intimacy with the most disturbing of things”
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love- Raymond Carver
Raymond Carver, terrible human being. There is no review about it for that reason. But good stories.
Cathedral-Raymond Carver
Raymond Carver, terrible human being. There is no review about it for that reason. But good stories.
The Burning God- R.F. Kuang ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5
The end. It destroyed me, there are no words. I closed the year with this book. It's a strange mix of relief and sadness. It is the devastation left by the acts of war but also the self-realization of what one has done. How are actions justified? It was a great closure to the saga.
“Take what you want. I’ll hate you for it. But I’ll love you forever. I can’t help but love you.”
“It doesn’t go away. It never will. But when it hurts, lean into it. It’s so much harder to stay alive. That doesn’t mean you don’t deserve to live. It means you’re brave.”
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Apostle Town (1996) by Anne Carson
In Episode 196, Rachel brings a more enigmatic and mystifying poem than usual.
Rachel: They asked Anne Carson, "Your work extends our idea of poetry. Do you have a personal definition of what poetry is?" And she said, "If prose is a house, poetry is a man on fire running quite fast through it." [...] She's just very mysterious. It's like, the kind of person, or a, if after a reading, she disappeared while exiting the stage, you would be like, "Yeah."
Griffin: Yeah. That's right.
Rachel: That's right.
Griffin: "Where's my wallet?"
Rachel: [laughs]
Griffin: "What the fuck?"
This is definetly one of those poems where I basically still have no idea what it's about; and that's exactly what's great about it. If you'd like to hear more wild Anne Carson quotes, you can do so here: That’s Stinkin’ Thinkin’, from 4:20 - 15:15
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Review: Jade Torch: The Killing Thought, by Anne Marie Wells, otherwise known as @dragonanne!
First of all, let me just praise Miss Wells' artstyle. It's beautiful, and captures the reader's attention, instantly giving them a greater scope of the characters and their world.
As for the story, Jade Torch presents itself as a medieval fantasy world, and as a huge dragon nerd and admirer of the High Middle Ages, I can tell you that The Killing Thought does not disappoint in it's setting! You have dragons and their riders protecting their large kingdom, a neighboring monarchy with a tainted history, a bloodthirsty nation in the north, and unknown islands far away from the continent, all of which take place while the author plants the seeds for a deeper, magic-filled history that feels organic and richer than the Lonely Mountain of Erebor (Tolkien fans, I apologize for any misspells/offense.)
The plot is superbly written, with the unsavory medieval politics and conniving aristocrats presented within the world in such a way that it instantly feels like cracking open a door to look into the distant past of Western Europe. The characters have various personalities that don't overlap with each other, with the possible exception of two (and given that both these characters took on paternal roles to young future rulers, it's a given that they'd have similar approaches to life. Not to worry, they still retain their unique individuality!) They are also all written competently: the men are allowed to be manly defenders/protectors/rulers, and the women are allowed to kick butt without dragging down their male counterparts, something that greatly pleased me.
The heroes are heroes and the villains are villains, an old style of writing I have dearly missed in modern media. Furthermore, there is only one - ONE - character death on the heroes' side, and while it did break my heart, I instantly realized it was a necessary decision and felt that it was not out of place. And while said character's murderer was not killed, another, equally despicable villain was permanently dispatched, something that literally had me cheering in my seat as I read, so enraptured was I by the story unfolding in my hands. I tell you, that is an uncommon occurrence in my reading experience!
And the ending presents a perfect opening for a second installment, with it's ominous atmosphere and the fragile peace left in the plot's wake gripping the reader's attention with a degree of fear for the heroes. I must say, I simply itch to see what happens next, and the path that awaits the protagonists!
I would be remiss, however, if I did not voice one, albeit small, complaint. The naming conventions in the story, while enjoyable, were a bit odd when it came to a select few others. For example, you have the crown princess, whose name is Lunerata Bridth, and yet her father's given name is Kent. There is only one other "ordinary" name such as Kent in the novel, and while it did not take away my love of the story, it did strike me as odd quite a few times. Regardless, I still reveled in reading the book, and happily give it eleven out of ten stars.
Now enough of my rambling! I gave a simple, relatively spoiler free review of this novel. Now, I task all who read through this post: go out and buy a copy of Jade Torch: The Killing Thought. It's a fun read, and will captivate your mind and imagination for a long time!
Fly high, my fellow readers and dragon riders!
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