lydiature_'s reviews
252 reviews

Nadja by André Breton

challenging reflective slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

i’m going to level with y’all!! the first part went over my head completely but i was hoping that the second part would make more sense with the introduction of nadja. news alert- i was even more confused. normally with classics, i just jump right into them and i’m good. but this one made me wish that i had read this in an english class or something. having a teacher there to help me understand the main themes and points would’ve been great. also being able to discuss this (to fill in gaps) with other students would have been helpful. 

because reading this on my own wasn’t a great experience. i can’t say that i hated it or loved it, or even felt ok about it. i can’t say really anything about it because i didn’t fully understand it. i know that it’s one of the best surrealist books out there. but i don’t know what that means. 

but you know what? i got out of my comfort zone (thanks to patti smith and elif batuman), and i’m proud of myself. who knows? maybe one day someone will post an in depth analysis of this on youtube, and i’m willing to give it another shot.

if you’re interested, i say give it a shot and then maybe we can talk about it! i just don’t recommend buying a physical copy at full price. try to find a copy at your library, or buy it used.

The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin
Did not finish book. Stopped at 19%.

writing is bland and irritating- i can’t stress that enough. all the characters are one dimensional and static. the dialogue is so weird- very fantastical and off. i have no desire to read any of her books. i’m so mad that i wasted $2 on this. i could’ve bought something else 

Jimmy's Blues and Other Poems by James Baldwin

challenging reflective fast-paced

2.0

i think i just have to come to terms with me not liking poetry. because no matter who it is or the subject, i just can’t get into it. out of the hundred or so poems that i have read, i only liked 2 of them: “daddy” by sylvia plath and “gasoline” by margaret atwood. i’ve tried all kinds of styles, poems from different eras and cultures and i just don’t like them. 

this collection by baldwin was lackluster. the content was okay—he mostly talked about race and sexuality. which is obviously fine but the writing wasn’t very good. i was expecting more from this collection. all of his poems were like the instagram quote style thing that is apparently plaguing social media—like rupi kaur and warsan shire. they’re basically “impactful” sentences split up into random breaks. i understand that art is subject but a poem is not a quote. punctuation, break lines, stanzas, and word choices matter. but looking at each of his poems (and the instagram quote poetry style) lacks reason. he could’ve picked any word, any punctuation, any line break. 

i know that some people like that style but i don’t—it doesn’t matter who it is. i just feel like these writers hide their incompetence in the subject matter of “sensational” topics like sexuality, race, gender, and immigration. the concepts are good don’t get me wrong, but that’s a very lazy way of writing. quotes are not poems. it just feels very manipulative to me.

i still love baldwin but i personally will be avoiding his poems from now on. the style he uses to approach his fiction/essays is completely different from his poetry. it’s not very consistent. i honestly didn’t even recognize him in this work.

Devotion by Patti Smith

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

oh my god this woman!!! ahhh what am i supposed to do?!! i need to get through my physical tbr but now i’m obsessed with patti and i want to read everything she’s written now 😭 HELP 😭 

but real talk. this book/memoir thing is so good. like “just kids”, it’s well-written. the writing is fantastic—it’s poetic without being pretentious and unclear. it’s balanced perfectly. reading this felt like i was holding hands with a grandparent as we were meandering through an abandoned park. the birds chirping with joy, the sky full of sunshine, our hearts beating with life. i can’t stress how much i enjoyed this.

it’s definitely different from what i normally read. it’s part memoir, part short story, part essay. if you’re one of those people who need a traditional story, skip this. you probably won’t like it. but if you don’t mind a little meandering, this is for you. it’s beautifully written and it feels like i’m in the mind of a deep artist who holds true respect for her work. her enthusiasm for art, poetry, and music is so apparent and inspirational and CONTAGIOUS. ever since i finished “just kids” last night, i’ve been listening to her music. and keep in mind, i’m not a big rock/folky type of gal. she’s my favorite writer now and i’m so grateful that i discovered her this year. my life has been changed.

ratings for the 4 stories/sections:

• “how the mind works” —about patti’s artistic adventures in france. very beautiful descriptions. i’m happy that this was the first section because it was the perfect set up for “devotion”
• “devotion”- short story. MY GOD IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!! eugenia is one of the most remarkable protagonists i have come across. so complex and deep. it was so beautiful and heart-breaking. i almost threw my kindle at the wall when i realized that it was only a couple of pages. like what the hell. i wanted more 😭😭 this just shows you that a good story doesn’t have to be hundreds of pages. written by the right author, it can be impactful in only a handful of pages. this actually reminded me a lot of “mr salary” by sally rooney, “either/or” by elif batuman, and “nadja” by andre breton. 
• “a dream is not a dream”-idk how to classify this section. it’s kinda like a memoir/essay, on patti’s musings about writing and camus. 
• “written on a train”- this section is mostly photographs that patti took during her travels. i read this on my kindle so i’m not sure what some of the photos are showing, but you best believe that i’m buying the physical copy so i can see them 🤭

Just Kids by Patti Smith

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

man, i’m just completely blown away. to think that i dnfd it back in february. i had listened to the audiobook and for whatever reason, that was not the right method/time for me. i’m so grateful that i found the physical copy at a book fair for $5–otherwise i’m 

 sure i would’ve never read it. this is one book i would’ve regretted having not read. 

normally with memoirs i get annoyed when the author writes about a bunch of people i don’t know. but although smith mentions people in the art/music scenes i wasn’t familiar with, i wasn’t annoyed at all. her deep love and respect for these people was apparent. and that made me excited to continue reading.

i normally don’t give memoirs 5 ⭐️ but i had to make an exception for this. there is nothing about this that i disliked or noticed flaws. i haven’t read a book that inspires me to want to research the writer, besides james baldwin, toni morrison and joan didion. normally i just read a book, write a review, and move on with my life. but now i’m adding smith to my list and will be trying to find a documentary about her. i want to listen to her music—not because i’m a fan of rock and roll, but because i want to get to know her and her thought process. i’m looking forward to reading her books.

the writing was so beautiful and raw. poetic without being pretentious and overly done. smith’s writing was precise and electric. it fully captivated me in every sense—heart, mind, and soul. i felt the passion that smith felt toward art, writing, and music. i felt the passion and tenderness between her and robert. i felt like i was a personal witness to their evolving relationship and a witness to smith’s growth as a person and artist. when i noticed the increasing distance between smith and robert, i quite literally felt a sense of loss. and when robert got diagnosed with AIDS and later passed away, i was devastated. i cried—not because of empathy, but because i felt like i knew him. i felt like a lost a close friend, and i had to watch another friend (smith) grieve.

this book made me realize that there is a difference between an author and a writer. an author merely creates a story. a writer creates life with a specific style. their story can only be told by THEM—it’s unique to THEIR skills. like robert said, only smith could have written this story. no other person could’ve demonstrated the intimate relationship between him and smith like this. no other person could’ve shown someone’s rise to fame like this. 

i’m so excited to read more on smith. she unlocked at interest in me to look into art and poetry and rock and roll. 

i highly recommend this. 

Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh

challenging dark funny slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

read it back in 2022 and gave it 4 ⭐️. i really liked how different this was compared to what she wrote in previous years. very brave of her to do. i liked the nastiness of the writing style l; moshfegh quite literally did not hold anything back.

2nd time reading this (2023) it low key lost its charm. while i loved the absurd & dark story i wasn’t a fan of the execution. the length (although short) does not justify the actual story line objectively speaking. the pace was very dragged out and tedious at times. in terms of the major themes (complex child-parent relationships and abuse of power), some of the character POVs were unnecessary. we did not gain anything by having the POVS of ina and grigor, for example. and while i liked how everyone was awful and disgusting, moshfegh went overboard with some of the descriptions in my opinion. again, we did not gain anything by having graphic descriptions of agata’s rapes. that’s just one example.

all in all, good story , okay execution. i liked it and i do recommend it. but i can see why some people don’t like it.

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

challenging dark emotional reflective slow-paced

3.0

at first, i was really liking this (as far as the writing style). but then it got redundant. normally i love didion’s detached style but for me personally, it just doesn’t work when the subject matter involves grief. that was my experience with her “blue nights”, which i read a few months ago. i have read 2 of her other nonfiction books (“let me tell you what i mean” and “south and west”), and really enjoyed those. but the detachment in those essay collections felt better than the version in her 2 books about grieving the death of her husband and daughter. both “blue nights” and “the year of magical thinking” felt very disconnected, impersonal, and tedious. 

that being said, i still think that “the year of magical thinking” is a worthy read. i can see why so many people love it. it just didn’t captivate me in terms of the writing style/approach.

Either/Or by Elif Batuman

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

i thought i couldn’t love this more than “the idiot,” but somehow this surpassed the first book. this was so fun to read, never a dull moment.  “the idiot” took me several days to get through, but i flew through this. it felt fresher, lighter, and easier to read. for one, there more chapters in this book. second, selin was more engaging as a character. and third, the philosophy/literature aspects weren’t so dense here. pretty approachable and worth a second read. 

i’m so impressed with batuman. like seriously. with these kind of books, it’s so easy for an author to vomit a bunch of philosophical/literary ideas. but batuman took all of these concepts and brought life to them. even when selin was working her way through “either/or” (the basis of this book), batuman made it seem so interactive and thoughtful. she was CREATIVE. and because of this, i was excited to read the philosophical parts. with other authors, i would have been bored to tears (and would have skimmed). but i was simply captivated with everything here. i was excited to read it. i even went to bed late 2 nights in a row because i loved it so much.

this is the best example of a character-driven story. not much happened in terms of plot, but i found myself transfixed with selin’s development. she’s definitely one of the most realistic, special characters i have come across. and yes, i still despise ivan with a passion. he’s not even that cute or smart or interesting. but i forgive selin because we all have had irrational crushes growing up 🫣

another thing that i just loved was the college feel. like it actually felt like selin was a college student. i would have never thought that being in her classes (hearing the lectures) would be interesting, but it was. even the nature of the conversations felt realistic. i was an engineering major in college and we didn’t have the same conversations as selin, but we had more technical discussions. so it was realistic on that front. another thing—in college you meet all sorts of people at random times, and it was nice to see that part reflected in both “the idiot” and “either/or.”  i loved selin’s adventures in turkey—that just added a whole dimension to her. 

reading this (just like “the idiot”) made me feel like i was watching a dear friend come into their own as a person. i saw selin navigating friendships, sex, classes, travel, and her sexuality. it was such a beautiful experience. 

also this is completely random, but i bought “nadja” over a month ago and was planning on reading it after “either/or” anyway. imagine my surprise when i saw it mentioned in this book!! i was so happy to see that (even though the ending got spoiled 💀). when i’m done with “nadja”, i’m planning to come back to selin’s discussion/analysis on it because i feel like that would make more sense.

anyway, loved this book. it was special, charming, funny, and achingly beautiful. if you liked “the idiot,” you’ll definitely love this. i’m so sad that this story is over. i’m getting all emotional over here 😭

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi

challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad fast-paced

4.0

another short but powerful story. this made me so emotional, i can’t really put it into words. it’s a very sad story told from the perspective of a child during difficult (and unfair) circumstances outside of her control. 

this is my 3rd graphic novel (?) that i’ve read this year, and i really loved the art style. at first i wished that the story was told in a traditional memoir style, but at the end, i realized that this graphic novel style made more sense. 

i highly recommend this one, and i can’t wait to read the sequel!

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

challenging emotional reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.25

wow, what a book. short but absolutely mighty. reading this reminded me of a thomas kinkade painting—i could see the glistening snow in the distance, the air being released from furlong’s mouth as he walked, the red noses of various characters because of the frigid air. i could see everyone bustling around town to get the last minute christmas shopping done. the writing was so beautiful and descriptive.

the story is very quiet and subtle—not much happens. it’s more of a character study of furlong and the town itself in the face of religious abuse. furlong is seeking meaning in the world outside of his own little family. though he has more than enough to be proud of his family and work, he knows that he needs to extend love to others outside his own bubble. to do so (especially in light of injustice) is literally the most christ-like thing one can do. this is something that no one else in the town realizes. when they see that girls are being taken advantage of at the convent, most people turn their faces away. some—like furlong’s wife—say that the situation has nothing to do with their family, why care? others fully acknowledge the injustice, but are unwilling to do anything because doing so costs something to them—their job, their reputation, etc.

it’s a very important story, and i think it asks us a question: what role have we played in the face of injustice?