Scan barcode
kelly_e's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
Title: You Could Make This Place Beautiful
Author: Maggie Smith
Genre: Memoir
Rating: 3.50
Pub Date: April 11, 2023
T H R E E • W O R D S
Poignant • Intimate • Poetic
📖 S Y N O P S I S
In her memoir, poet Maggie Smith explores the disintegration of her marriage and her renewed commitment to herself in lyrical vignettes that shine, hard and clear as jewels. The book begins with one woman’s personal, particular heartbreak, but its circles widen into a reckoning with contemporary womanhood, traditional gender roles, and the power dynamics that persist even in many progressive homes.
💭 T H O U G H T S
I'd previously read Keep Moving and appreciated Maggie Smith's style of writing and sense of encouragement, so it was easy to add her most recent release to my TBR with the hope of having a similar reading experience.
Written in verse, each vignettes presents a comprehensive picture along with beautiful imagery and metaphor. The writing is superb! There is a lot of strength, inspiration, and relatability in Maggie's words. Her self-awareness shines on the page as she navigates the journey of rediscovering herself. Despite all of this, the content has me puzzled and questioning the reasoning behind publishing this exact work. At times it felt forced and there is a lot of repetition. This doesn't happened often with memoirs, but I did start to lose interest in what she was telling.
There is no denying the quality of penmanship within You Could Make This Place Beautiful however, I never felt fully invested in what Maggie Smith was selling this time around. I certainly hope it was a healing and therapeutic experience for her to put these words out into the world and I do look forward to future writing from her.
📚 R E A D • I F • Y O U • L I K E
• Maggie Smith's writing
• vague truths
⚠️ CW: infidelity, abandonment, toxic relationship, pregnancy, miscarriage, infertility, mental illness, post-partum depression, grief, medical content, blood, divorce, emotional abuse, gaslighting, misogyny, sexism, pandemic/epidemic
🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S
"Where there had been a future, or at least the promise of one, there was now an ellipses."
"Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final."
"When you lose someone you love, you start to look for new ways to understand the world."
"Life, like a poem, is a series of choices."
Author: Maggie Smith
Genre: Memoir
Rating: 3.50
Pub Date: April 11, 2023
T H R E E • W O R D S
Poignant • Intimate • Poetic
📖 S Y N O P S I S
In her memoir, poet Maggie Smith explores the disintegration of her marriage and her renewed commitment to herself in lyrical vignettes that shine, hard and clear as jewels. The book begins with one woman’s personal, particular heartbreak, but its circles widen into a reckoning with contemporary womanhood, traditional gender roles, and the power dynamics that persist even in many progressive homes.
💭 T H O U G H T S
I'd previously read Keep Moving and appreciated Maggie Smith's style of writing and sense of encouragement, so it was easy to add her most recent release to my TBR with the hope of having a similar reading experience.
Written in verse, each vignettes presents a comprehensive picture along with beautiful imagery and metaphor. The writing is superb! There is a lot of strength, inspiration, and relatability in Maggie's words. Her self-awareness shines on the page as she navigates the journey of rediscovering herself. Despite all of this, the content has me puzzled and questioning the reasoning behind publishing this exact work. At times it felt forced and there is a lot of repetition. This doesn't happened often with memoirs, but I did start to lose interest in what she was telling.
There is no denying the quality of penmanship within You Could Make This Place Beautiful however, I never felt fully invested in what Maggie Smith was selling this time around. I certainly hope it was a healing and therapeutic experience for her to put these words out into the world and I do look forward to future writing from her.
📚 R E A D • I F • Y O U • L I K E
• Maggie Smith's writing
• vague truths
⚠️ CW: infidelity, abandonment, toxic relationship, pregnancy, miscarriage, infertility, mental illness, post-partum depression, grief, medical content, blood, divorce, emotional abuse, gaslighting, misogyny, sexism, pandemic/epidemic
🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S
"Where there had been a future, or at least the promise of one, there was now an ellipses."
"Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final."
"When you lose someone you love, you start to look for new ways to understand the world."
"Life, like a poem, is a series of choices."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Blood, Medical content, Gaslighting, and Abandonment
Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic
post-partum depression, divorceimmovabletype's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Grief, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Cursing
atamano's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Miscarriage, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Infidelity, Blood, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Pandemic/Epidemic
serendipitysbooks's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
I’ve said it before and I’m sure I’ll say it again but I love it when poets turn their hands to prose, whether it be fiction or non-fiction. This memoir by poet Maggie Smith, explores the break-up of her marriage, the marriage itself and how she and her children moved forwardafterwards, in a series of short vignettes. And the prose is simply exquisite. To say it was a pleasure to listen to (the audiobook is narrated by the author) sounds incredibly callous given the pain of the subject matter. And yet her insightfulness and her honesty- while only sharing what she felt comfortable sharing, especially when it came to her children - made for a memorably poignant read. And the prose then elevated it to another level. Although every marriage is different certain aspects of Smith’s experience hit home as I’m sure they did for many other female readers. I hope never to experience the end of my marriage. But if I do I know I’ll return to this beautiful memoir for a sense of solace and of hope.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Infidelity, Misogyny, and Gaslighting
leweylibrary's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
4.25
Okay so I picked this up having a completely wrong idea of what it was 😂🙃 Listen, I see the name Maggie Smith and do not think of a poet lol
BUT I was pleasantly surprised, largely because the author IS a poet--they write the most beautiful memoirs I swear. This one centered on the author's divorce from her husband which certainly isn't a groundbreaking topic, but she writes about it in a very unique way. Some of the poetic devices did wear on me a bit (the whole "I have a friend who says every book begins with an answerable question. Mine is..." thing got obnoxious fast). My last gripe is a personal one because I don't love hearing so much about pregnancy and kids. Those things in a book would normally warrant a much lower rating from me, but the writing really was gorgeous, and I feel like there was still a lot I took away and connected with, like about relationships and their ebs, flows, and endings.
BUT I was pleasantly surprised, largely because the author IS a poet--they write the most beautiful memoirs I swear. This one centered on the author's divorce from her husband which certainly isn't a groundbreaking topic, but she writes about it in a very unique way. Some of the poetic devices did wear on me a bit (the whole "I have a friend who says every book begins with an answerable question. Mine is..." thing got obnoxious fast). My last gripe is a personal one because I don't love hearing so much about pregnancy and kids. Those things in a book would normally warrant a much lower rating from me, but the writing really was gorgeous, and I feel like there was still a lot I took away and connected with, like about relationships and their ebs, flows, and endings.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Miscarriage, Toxic relationship, Grief, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting
briannad4's review
emotional
hopeful
reflective
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Miscarriage, Gaslighting, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Infidelity and Pregnancy
faduma's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Grief, and Gaslighting
kcarney86's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
fast-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity, Sexism, Toxic relationship, and Grief
Moderate: Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, and Gaslighting
Minor: Cursing, Infertility, Pregnancy, and Pandemic/Epidemic
More...