changes

This is such a rich, enjoyable book, I almost started at the beginning again right after finishing.

Instead I started on To the Lighthouse. Virginia Woolf is now my favorite writer of the moment. I feel stupid that I haven’t read anything by her until now, and a little more grumpy at a couple of my old English teachers and professors for some of the other things they skipped Woolf to have me read instead…

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I read the Standard Ebooks edition, available here: https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/virginia-woolf/orlando

Standalone post link: Reading Log: Orlando

chef’s kiss emoji

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I read the Standard Ebooks edition, available here: https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/virginia-woolf/to-the-lighthouse

Read:

• “I Actually Went to the Lighthouse” by Patricia Lockwood

Standalone post link: Reading Log: To the Lighthouse

I get so angry at terrible adults in middle grade novels - i have no patience for it and want the kids to start fighting back immediately. It takes her awhile but this girl finally pushes back spectacularly.

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Standalone post link: Reading Log: Starfish

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Standalone post link: Reading Log: Blackouts

Fipps has mastered the novel as an empathy-building machine, for sure.

Characters young and old who exemplify how to be a friend and helper as well as how not to be. Her free verse makes for an easy entry-point to an undaunting read. Serious subjects but so accessible; hard things not played for melodrama or exploitation.

Makes me want to be a better community member and friend to people. First thing I looked up this morning after finishing the book late last was discovering if there are little free pantries already in my community I could donate to - I love the idea of a place for sharing and taking with no intermediary, no questions asked, no “accountability” or “relationship” required to get the help that you need.

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Standalone post link: Reading Log: And Then, BOOM!

Read the first half of this in one day about a month ago - not sure why I let it slip, but now I’m back to it and finishing it. Need to buy a copy of it.

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2024-05-10 :

It was on the April Poetry Month display at the Holladay Library and I’d heard of it and decided to grab it. Took me a while to open it up (obviously, since it’s not April anymore) but I’m very glad I did.

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Standalone post link: Reading Log: The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On

(I guess I put everything in the genre tag now, feels less auspicious.)

Should write a real review for granitemedia.org, but until then I’ll just say I quite enjoyed this, a really strong book. Highly recommended for readers of Kwame Alexander and Jason Reynolds, and it holds its own among their work.

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Standalone post link: Reading Log: Mid-Air

Orlando vibes, Kafka vibes, fun weirdness vibes. I will likely be reading more of Oyeyemi, and the other writers she mentions in interviews (linked after the “more” jump.)

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2024-06-18

Threatened at knifepoint: “Write your Prague novel this year!”

Write or die: Is that the kind of pressure I need to write something? Would it work for me?

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Interviews I read:

• Helen Oyeyemi: ‘I like other humans mediated through art’ | Helen Oyeyemi | The Guardian
• Helen Oyeyemi Thinks We Should Read More and Stay in Touch Less | The New Yorker (behind paywall, but I have Apple News+ for some reason)

Standalone post link: Reading Log: Parasol Against the Axe

Fun, adventurous story, art is excellent, themes and message are amazing.

Need to write a real review soon. I’m always saying that.

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Standalone post link: Reading Log: Plain Jane and the Mermaid

It was tense and musical and I liked it.

Had no knowledge or expectations going into this one, just wanting to read more recently released verse novels and it came up in the trusty library catalog subject heading browse: Novels in verse

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Standalone post link: Reading Log: Song of Freedom, Song of Dreams