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dmsehnert's reviews
167 reviews
Gay Girl Prayers by Emily Austin
let there be light in the vaults of the sky, let the water teem with living creatures.
let there be elderly queer men in movie theatres,
eating popcorn, laughing loudly at previews.
let non-binary parents nap on the beach
while their kids bury them up to their necks in sand.
let dykes offer crows hazelnuts and cranberries
until the crows bring them buttons and bones.
winged birds fly, wild animals roam, seeds and plants sprout.
look upon that and all that has been made and see that it is good.
- ROMANS 1:26-27
Ruth said to Naomi,
"Entreat me not to leave you,
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
3.25
can’t wait to hang out at the gay bar in heaven with ya, emily!
favorites include:
the natural use of a person's body is to carry their heart and brain.
favorites include:
the natural use of a person's body is to carry their heart and brain.
let there be light in the vaults of the sky, let the water teem with living creatures.
let there be elderly queer men in movie theatres,
eating popcorn, laughing loudly at previews.
let non-binary parents nap on the beach
while their kids bury them up to their necks in sand.
let dykes offer crows hazelnuts and cranberries
until the crows bring them buttons and bones.
winged birds fly, wild animals roam, seeds and plants sprout.
look upon that and all that has been made and see that it is good.
- ROMANS 1:26-27
Ruth said to Naomi,
"Entreat me not to leave you,
or to turn back from following after you; for wherever you go, I will v-Haul; your people shall be my chosen family, your clothes, my clothes, your God, my Goa;
where you die, I will die, there will I be buried, and theologians will write that we were friends, travelling companions, but I will have loved you with the purest desires of my heart. - ROMANS 1:26-27 & RUTH 1:16
and I'm going to tell someone I love them and they're going to tell me they love me back and we're going to get married and immaculately conceive a baby with our two holy spirits and a turkey baster
or maybe we won't
maybe I'll just write a poem about that person I love
that gay people might feel happy reading
and when I'm grey I'll remember them fondly
think of how lucky I am to have loved someone
and hum Heaven and Nature's song - JOY TO THE WORLD
and I'm going to tell someone I love them and they're going to tell me they love me back and we're going to get married and immaculately conceive a baby with our two holy spirits and a turkey baster
or maybe we won't
maybe I'll just write a poem about that person I love
that gay people might feel happy reading
and when I'm grey I'll remember them fondly
think of how lucky I am to have loved someone
and hum Heaven and Nature's song - JOY TO THE WORLD
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
fifth book club book of the year! the perfect way to kick off fall!
i’m definitely a mystery girlie (agatha christie stans, rise up!) and it was so cool to read a more modern take on a thriller with themes relating to class and gender roles sprinkled throughout the story. let’s eat the rich, baby! they stole that land!
the different povs threw me at first but it’s a testament to liz moore’s writing that you feel connected to each character and are satisfied with their respective conclusions.
“something about her looks immortal, thinks judy: a spirit, an apparition, more god than child”
the woods, when respected, are a place of endless nurturing and forgiveness. a curtain closing on your old, tired world.
i’m definitely a mystery girlie (agatha christie stans, rise up!) and it was so cool to read a more modern take on a thriller with themes relating to class and gender roles sprinkled throughout the story. let’s eat the rich, baby! they stole that land!
the different povs threw me at first but it’s a testament to liz moore’s writing that you feel connected to each character and are satisfied with their respective conclusions.
“something about her looks immortal, thinks judy: a spirit, an apparition, more god than child”
the woods, when respected, are a place of endless nurturing and forgiveness. a curtain closing on your old, tired world.
Boulder by Eva Baltasar
dark
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
WOW. i absolutely devoured this novel - it truly is one of the most gorgeous pieces of writing i have ever read!
“holding tinna like this makes me feel strange and new. it makes me think of all the words that have grown over me like hedges or weeds. among them, one that's harder and older than any other in the world: mother”
the rise and fall of a relationship forged out of intense desire and the quiet, darkened rooms where the sounds of sea finally start to slowly fade. the years drift by lazily, samsa and boulder safely tucked into their cocoon until the chasms start to form, rocky and deep, out of which beautiful tinna is formed.
i loved boulder’s journey with motherhood (living for wednesdays! the bike rides! the pool! the ducks!) but it was so devastating to watch her love for tinna grow while her relationship with samsa flickered away like a dying ember.
THE FINAL 5 PAGES??? i’ll never be the same !!
“holding tinna like this makes me feel strange and new. it makes me think of all the words that have grown over me like hedges or weeds. among them, one that's harder and older than any other in the world: mother”
the rise and fall of a relationship forged out of intense desire and the quiet, darkened rooms where the sounds of sea finally start to slowly fade. the years drift by lazily, samsa and boulder safely tucked into their cocoon until the chasms start to form, rocky and deep, out of which beautiful tinna is formed.
i loved boulder’s journey with motherhood (living for wednesdays! the bike rides! the pool! the ducks!) but it was so devastating to watch her love for tinna grow while her relationship with samsa flickered away like a dying ember.
THE FINAL 5 PAGES??? i’ll never be the same !!
Florida by Lauren Groff
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
“it's marvelous to know another person's entire literary canon by heart. it's like knowing their secret personal language.”
mothers, lovers, friends, and fools all seeking that small, indiscernible missing thing in their lives - none of them realize that, as mina says, the whole world is split open like a peach for them and all they have to do is reach.
but the florida heat drags on and on and on. it gets into your bones, breeds insanity and leaves you with an insatiable desire to fuck it all up.
absolutely loved dogs go wolf, eyewall, for the god of love, for the love of god, above and below, and yport!
mothers, lovers, friends, and fools all seeking that small, indiscernible missing thing in their lives - none of them realize that, as mina says, the whole world is split open like a peach for them and all they have to do is reach.
but the florida heat drags on and on and on. it gets into your bones, breeds insanity and leaves you with an insatiable desire to fuck it all up.
absolutely loved dogs go wolf, eyewall, for the god of love, for the love of god, above and below, and yport!
The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
back on my agatha christie kick!
The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
average connecticut experience.
also when walter told joanna she could stand to look in the mirror more, i wanted to sucker punch him into space - FUCK MEN
also when walter told joanna she could stand to look in the mirror more, i wanted to sucker punch him into space - FUCK MEN
Diving Into the Wreck: Poems 1971-1972 by Adrienne Rich
This eye
this one is just the entire poem because i love it so much and will be thinking about it until the day i die
“She sits with one hand poised against her head, the other turning an old ring to the light for hours our talk has beaten like rain against the screens a sense of August and heat-lightning
I get up, go to make tea, come back
we look at each other
I do not know
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.25
adrienne! forever thinking about my poetry professor’s description of her work - “you have no idea what she’s saying but yet at the same time, you feel it in your bones”
favorite lines include:
“It is strange to be so many women, eating and drinking at the same table,
favorite lines include:
“It is strange to be so many women, eating and drinking at the same table,
those who bathed their children in the same basin
who kept their secrets from each other walked the floors of their lives in separate rooms
and flow into history now as the woman of their time” - after twenty years
“it sees
the violence
embedded in silence
who kept their secrets from each other walked the floors of their lives in separate rooms
and flow into history now as the woman of their time” - after twenty years
“it sees
the violence
embedded in silence
This eye
is not for weeping
its vision
must be unblurred” - from the prison house
its vision
must be unblurred” - from the prison house
this one is just the entire poem because i love it so much and will be thinking about it until the day i die
“She sits with one hand poised against her head, the other turning an old ring to the light for hours our talk has beaten like rain against the screens a sense of August and heat-lightning
I get up, go to make tea, come back
we look at each other
then she says (and this is what I live through over and over) -she says: I do not know if sex is an illusion
I do not know
who I was when I did those things
or who I said I was
or whether I willed to feel
what I had read about
or who I said I was
or whether I willed to feel
what I had read about
or who in fact was there with me
or whether I knew, even then
that there was doubt about these things” - dialogue
or whether I knew, even then
that there was doubt about these things” - dialogue
If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
fourth book club book of the year and my first baldwin fiction!
“We held each other so close that we might indeed have been one body. Fonny caressed me and called my name and he fell asleep. I was very proud. I had crossed my river. Now, we were one.”
i am so deeply moved by the sheer love, devotion, and care that fonny, tish, ernestine, sharon, joseph, and mr. hunt have for each other - the community they have built is truly special.
but the terrible, terrible injustice of it all. fonny. victoria. daniel. all victims of a cruel system that continues to harm generation after generation.
i am a little broken after reading this novel but im choosing to believe that love, no matter how far away it may be, is the righteous force we must cling to in order to reclaim our humanity and seek justice for all.
“We held each other so close that we might indeed have been one body. Fonny caressed me and called my name and he fell asleep. I was very proud. I had crossed my river. Now, we were one.”
i am so deeply moved by the sheer love, devotion, and care that fonny, tish, ernestine, sharon, joseph, and mr. hunt have for each other - the community they have built is truly special.
but the terrible, terrible injustice of it all. fonny. victoria. daniel. all victims of a cruel system that continues to harm generation after generation.
i am a little broken after reading this novel but im choosing to believe that love, no matter how far away it may be, is the righteous force we must cling to in order to reclaim our humanity and seek justice for all.
Vladivostok Circus by Elisa Shua Dusapin
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
hmmm….just not what i was expecting! there are some tender, intimate moments but overall i feel like i don’t know the characters at all despite reading the entire novel! :(
The Seas by Samantha Hunt
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
“are you really a mermaid or does it just feel that way in the awkward body of a ‘teenaged girl’?” a question i have been asking myself since 13!
the sea is a place of great beauty and unforgiving coldness and as our narrator brilliantly points out, it’s just like the dry land to make anything complicated a woman.
our narrator and the women of the town are depressed, lonely, drunk, and full of longing for a life outside of their small town. at least their collective sadness acts as a purpose - waiting for a boyfriend to be released from incarceration or for the water call you back home is better than doing nothing at all.
the days are bearable when you have jude. the yearning! the desire! the strange erotica! is there a better love story than drinking your beloved up from their watery grave?
i have a strong urge to play mermaids in the ocean and let the waves take me under, just for a moment, just for a second.
the sea is a place of great beauty and unforgiving coldness and as our narrator brilliantly points out, it’s just like the dry land to make anything complicated a woman.
our narrator and the women of the town are depressed, lonely, drunk, and full of longing for a life outside of their small town. at least their collective sadness acts as a purpose - waiting for a boyfriend to be released from incarceration or for the water call you back home is better than doing nothing at all.
the days are bearable when you have jude. the yearning! the desire! the strange erotica! is there a better love story than drinking your beloved up from their watery grave?
i have a strong urge to play mermaids in the ocean and let the waves take me under, just for a moment, just for a second.