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reb_bunny's reviews
61 reviews
Tesoro by Yesika Salgado
5.0
This was beautiful to read. I wanted to go slow so it would last and I wanted to read it fast, to know how she would express my feelings next. We're both 2nd generation immigrant women, she's from Salvador, I'm from Venezuela, she lives in United States, I live in Canada. Still, she put words on the experience of this distinct identify, owning both cultures, both languages. Of missing family back home, everything about the chismes, the love, the joy, the sadness, nostalgia and more.
On the notion of family :
"in our family,
grandmothers are God
you come to them with hands extended
thankful and in awe
they survive all
become the only constant
the compass of our entire tribe
the men, they all die early
but God
sweeps up her porch
coils the long braid of her hair
into a knot held
at the nape of her neck
and stretches her arm wide
when everyone comes
home
one more time"
On being gone for so long :
"tengo ocho años de no ir al Salvador
I've been told it's too dangerous now
y ya no me acuerdo de las milpas
I can't taste the mangoes anymore
o del mar
or the dirt beneath my toes
y tal vez ya no soy de allá"
On having to be tough even if you don't want to be :
-brown women, we've had to learn to be mean. to be sharp tongue and sharper teeth. I wasn't born tough. I was soft a long time. but I did inherit a mouth that never stops. I can talk my way out of any room, into any heart. what to do with this kind of power? how to keep it from going bad? every day I wake up, I say to myself "be good. be good. be good." sometimes. I'm not and I think about it for weeks.-
I will read again for sure and excited to discover the rest of her art !
On the notion of family :
"in our family,
grandmothers are God
you come to them with hands extended
thankful and in awe
they survive all
become the only constant
the compass of our entire tribe
the men, they all die early
but God
sweeps up her porch
coils the long braid of her hair
into a knot held
at the nape of her neck
and stretches her arm wide
when everyone comes
home
one more time"
On being gone for so long :
"tengo ocho años de no ir al Salvador
I've been told it's too dangerous now
y ya no me acuerdo de las milpas
I can't taste the mangoes anymore
o del mar
or the dirt beneath my toes
y tal vez ya no soy de allá"
On having to be tough even if you don't want to be :
-brown women, we've had to learn to be mean. to be sharp tongue and sharper teeth. I wasn't born tough. I was soft a long time. but I did inherit a mouth that never stops. I can talk my way out of any room, into any heart. what to do with this kind of power? how to keep it from going bad? every day I wake up, I say to myself "be good. be good. be good." sometimes. I'm not and I think about it for weeks.-
I will read again for sure and excited to discover the rest of her art !
Bluetiful by
3.0
Ça n'a pas résonné, ça ne m'a pas emporté. J'aime les textes qui parlent de la banalité de la vie avec mélancolie et nostalgie mais pour la plupart des poèmes, je n'ai pas ressenti ces émotions. Peut être que je ne suis pas le public cible.
Les poèmes sur sa grand-mère étaient beaux.
Les poèmes sur sa grand-mère étaient beaux.
Carnets de naufrage by Guillaume Vigneault
4.0
Tout le long j'hésitais entre le 3 ou le 4 étoiles, je crois que ça penche vers le 3.5. L'auteur a un talent avec les mots mais il a parfois une perspective un peu daté, penser que l'espagnol d'un "gringo" devient très bon après quelques semaines au point de confondre les locaux, un gars de 27 qui fréquente une fille de 19, quelques notions de consentement floues.. Quelques bouts romantisés alors que ça ne devrait pas nécessairement l'être mais peut être que de ce côté, ce livre ne s'adresse pas à moi. Tout de même, les émotions de solitude, d'être perdu dans la vie, d'approcher la trentaine, d'être serein sur le bord d'une plage, de ne pas savoir ce que l'autre pense, les amitiés, etc sont très bien illustrés. En tout et partout, une lecture agréable.
Il préférait les brûler by Rose-Aimée Automne T. Morin
5.0
Tout simplement magnifique. Rose-Aimée a définitivement un talent avec les mots pour décrire des émotions contradictoires, l'anxiété, les relations parfois compliquées avec des parents qui n'ont pas encore guéri leurs blessures. Je ne pourrais pas dire que c'était doux mais c'était magnifique.