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torishams's reviews
295 reviews
Homie: Poems by Danez Smith
4.0
This thought-provoking collection is largely a tribute to friendship (which I should've gathered, given the title, but I didn't - so it was a wonderful surprise). Punctuating the collection with the last poem, "acknowledgements," was a perfect choice. That poem was inspired by people saying how they knew their best friend was their best friend. My heart just... <3
Seven Days in June by Tia Williams
emotional
4.0
This book was a really sweet exploration of rekindling teenage love. It did, in fact, have me freaking out at the end -- I was very worried about what would happen and I think that's a testament to how strong the characterization was. I often get frustrated with pop culture references in books, so that was one thing I didn't love (particularly when it came to the scenes with Audre), but I also recognize that middle school is a very cringey time, so they did make sense.
There were some beautiful moments of dialogue and I really enjoyed this book! My absolute favorite quote: "Girls are given the weight of the world, but nowhere to put it down."
* And I remember that I’m not lonely. I’m alone. When I’m comatose from writing and mothering, when I’m hurting too badly to cook, talk, or smile, I curl up with ‘alone’ like a security blanket. Alone doesn’t care that I don’t shave my legs in the winter. Alone never gets disappointed by me. (23)
* By virtue of being a woman, she’s stronger. Girls are given the weight of the world, but nowhere to put it down. The power and magic born in that struggle? It’s so terrifying to men that we invented reasons to burn y’all at the stake… (61)
* If Shane spoke her new name, then she stopped being a memory. She became tangible. And he’d have to confront what was real. Which was that Eva Mercy was unspooling him, as slowly and surely as if she’d tugged a thread. (151)
* Religion. Hmm. I guess it’s like fire. In good hands, fire can be used to do positive things, like keep you warm. Make s’mores. In bad hands, it can burn a witch at the stake. Lynch a black body… When used for good, religion’s cool. (260)
* You know what I read? A tree grows its branches out until it touches the tips of the next closest tree. And they’re linked forever. Because if they’re really close, their roots grow together. They’re so intertwined underneath that no matter what happens above ground, they stay connected. (271)
There were some beautiful moments of dialogue and I really enjoyed this book! My absolute favorite quote: "Girls are given the weight of the world, but nowhere to put it down."
* And I remember that I’m not lonely. I’m alone. When I’m comatose from writing and mothering, when I’m hurting too badly to cook, talk, or smile, I curl up with ‘alone’ like a security blanket. Alone doesn’t care that I don’t shave my legs in the winter. Alone never gets disappointed by me. (23)
* By virtue of being a woman, she’s stronger. Girls are given the weight of the world, but nowhere to put it down. The power and magic born in that struggle? It’s so terrifying to men that we invented reasons to burn y’all at the stake… (61)
* If Shane spoke her new name, then she stopped being a memory. She became tangible. And he’d have to confront what was real. Which was that Eva Mercy was unspooling him, as slowly and surely as if she’d tugged a thread. (151)
* Religion. Hmm. I guess it’s like fire. In good hands, fire can be used to do positive things, like keep you warm. Make s’mores. In bad hands, it can burn a witch at the stake. Lynch a black body… When used for good, religion’s cool. (260)
* You know what I read? A tree grows its branches out until it touches the tips of the next closest tree. And they’re linked forever. Because if they’re really close, their roots grow together. They’re so intertwined underneath that no matter what happens above ground, they stay connected. (271)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, and Self harm
Being Mortal by Atul Gawande
5.0
It was so difficult to not highlight literally every other line in this book (I basically did). I say this for so many books, but everyone should read this. It's so important for anyone going into a healthcare field, but anyone who will deal with illness and death at some point would gain a lot of insight from it (so that would be any human).
I do think there's something to be said for a lack of disability justice perspectives shown in the book. There's a slight mention of this when Gawande says that "it seems we’ve succumbed to a belief that, once you lose your physical independence, a life of worth and freedom is simply not possible." I would've liked more recognition of different perspectives regarding disability.
"The simple view is that medicine exists to fight death and disease, and that is its most basic task. death is the enemy. but the enemy has superior forces. eventually, it wins. and in a war that you cannot win, you don’t want a general who fights to the point of total annihilation… you want Robert E Lee, someone who knows how to fight for territory that can be won and how to surrender it when it can’t someone who understands that the damage is greatest if all you do is battle to the bitter end."(62%)
" we’ve been wrong about what our job is in medicine. we think our job is to ensure health and survival. but really it is larger than that. it is to enable well-being. and well-being is about the reasons one wishes to be alive." (86%)
I do think there's something to be said for a lack of disability justice perspectives shown in the book. There's a slight mention of this when Gawande says that "it seems we’ve succumbed to a belief that, once you lose your physical independence, a life of worth and freedom is simply not possible." I would've liked more recognition of different perspectives regarding disability.
"The simple view is that medicine exists to fight death and disease, and that is its most basic task. death is the enemy. but the enemy has superior forces. eventually, it wins. and in a war that you cannot win, you don’t want a general who fights to the point of total annihilation… you want Robert E Lee, someone who knows how to fight for territory that can be won and how to surrender it when it can’t someone who understands that the damage is greatest if all you do is battle to the bitter end."(62%)
" we’ve been wrong about what our job is in medicine. we think our job is to ensure health and survival. but really it is larger than that. it is to enable well-being. and well-being is about the reasons one wishes to be alive." (86%)
How the Other Half Eats: The Untold Story of Food and Inequality in America by Priya Fielding-Singh
4.0
Body Grammar by Jules Ohman
3.75
I liked this book, but there were some cheesy moments that made me cringe. Overall, I enjoyed it, but probably wouldn't read it again.
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
4.0
My first full-length Toni Morrison novel - can't wait to read more!!
* love is never any better than the lover. wicked people love wickedly, violent people love violently, weak people love weakly, stupid people love stupidly, but the love of a free man is never safe. there is no gift for the beloved. the lover alone possesses his gift of love. the loved one is shorn, neutralized, frozen in the glare of the lover’s inward eye. (206)
* all of our waste which we dumped on her and which she absorbed. and all of our beauty, which was hers first and which she gave to us. all of us—all who knew her—felt so wholesome after we cleaned ourselves on her. we were so beautiful when we stood astride her ugliness. her simplicity decorated us, her guilt sanctified us, her pain made us glow with health, her awkwardness made us think we had a sense of humor. her inarticulateness made us believe we were eloquent. her poverty kept us generous. even her waking dreams we used—to silence our own nightmares. and she let us, and thereby deserved our contempt. we honed our egos on her, padded our characters with her frailty, and yawned in the fantasy of our strength. (205)
* love is never any better than the lover. wicked people love wickedly, violent people love violently, weak people love weakly, stupid people love stupidly, but the love of a free man is never safe. there is no gift for the beloved. the lover alone possesses his gift of love. the loved one is shorn, neutralized, frozen in the glare of the lover’s inward eye. (206)
* all of our waste which we dumped on her and which she absorbed. and all of our beauty, which was hers first and which she gave to us. all of us—all who knew her—felt so wholesome after we cleaned ourselves on her. we were so beautiful when we stood astride her ugliness. her simplicity decorated us, her guilt sanctified us, her pain made us glow with health, her awkwardness made us think we had a sense of humor. her inarticulateness made us believe we were eloquent. her poverty kept us generous. even her waking dreams we used—to silence our own nightmares. and she let us, and thereby deserved our contempt. we honed our egos on her, padded our characters with her frailty, and yawned in the fantasy of our strength. (205)
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
emotional
sad
3.75
3.5/4 stars
I think this book was longer than it needed to be, but the end was so beautiful and the book dealt with grief, loss, friendship, and found family. I also had some trouble with the large amount of characters to remember at times, so I think there could've been some paring down of people involved, but I thought Yale and Fiona in particular were very well-developed characters. Also didn't really feel like there was a huge tie between Richard and the general group of friends in the 80s - like why did he host Nico's memorial and then played such a big role in Fiona's life in 2015?? idk... still, I think it was worth it for how the end was...
A couple of spoilery things I had an issue with:
the part about asher always being in love with yale (and vice versa) felt a bit out of the blue. maybe I just wasn’t picking up on it, but the idea that they’d been in love for years felt thrown in at the last minute.
Also, the part about Julien being alive felt like it was supposed to be a huge reveal but it really wasn't imo...
And, the part about Fiona giving birth while Yale was dying felt a bit cliche or on-the-nose, but I'm a bit ambivalent about that...
but some of my favorite quotes:
-If you learned new details about someone who was gone, then he wasn’t vanishing. He was getting bigger, realer. (26)
-“…I think it was one of those things where you can’t let go of how you first saw the person.” “We never let go of that,” Cecily said. “I mean, even for parents—that’s never not your baby, you know?” “I think you’re right.” As he got sicker, it was more and more often how he though of people— of Charlie, certainly, and of everyone else here or gone: not as the sum of all the disappointments, but as every beginning they’d ever represented, every promise. (396)
-“But no one ever talks about how long [life] is… If we could just be on earth at the same place and same time as everyone we loved, if we could be born together and die together, it would be so simple. And it’s not. But listen: You two are on the planet at the same time. You’re in the same place now. That’s a miracle. I just want to say that.” (401)
These moments make this book absolutely worth the 400-something pages. (can you tell I never read long books lol)
I think this book was longer than it needed to be, but the end was so beautiful and the book dealt with grief, loss, friendship, and found family. I also had some trouble with the large amount of characters to remember at times, so I think there could've been some paring down of people involved, but I thought Yale and Fiona in particular were very well-developed characters. Also didn't really feel like there was a huge tie between Richard and the general group of friends in the 80s - like why did he host Nico's memorial and then played such a big role in Fiona's life in 2015?? idk... still, I think it was worth it for how the end was...
A couple of spoilery things I had an issue with:
Also, the part about Julien being alive felt like it was supposed to be a huge reveal but it really wasn't imo...
And, the part about Fiona giving birth while Yale was dying felt a bit cliche or on-the-nose, but I'm a bit ambivalent about that...
but some of my favorite quotes:
-If you learned new details about someone who was gone, then he wasn’t vanishing. He was getting bigger, realer. (26)
-“…I think it was one of those things where you can’t let go of how you first saw the person.” “We never let go of that,” Cecily said. “I mean, even for parents—that’s never not your baby, you know?” “I think you’re right.” As he got sicker, it was more and more often how he though of people— of Charlie, certainly, and of everyone else here or gone: not as the sum of all the disappointments, but as every beginning they’d ever represented, every promise. (396)
-“But no one ever talks about how long [life] is… If we could just be on earth at the same place and same time as everyone we loved, if we could be born together and die together, it would be so simple. And it’s not. But listen: You two are on the planet at the same time. You’re in the same place now. That’s a miracle. I just want to say that.” (401)
These moments make this book absolutely worth the 400-something pages. (can you tell I never read long books lol)