Scan barcode
vivian_m_anderson's reviews
111 reviews
The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu
medium-paced
4.5
a really well-done novel--simple but complex, with beautiful prose and a strikingly lifelike world. in many ways mandane but also deeply philosphical; poses interesting questions about the purpose of life, immagrint life in the united states, and the impacts of gentrification. also three very grounded distinct realtionships: the main character and his friends, the main character and the wealthy white woman who has moved in, and the woman's daughter. there is a tenderness to the main character, espeically regarding the daughter, which is almost heartbreaking. see quotes below.
"Mixed in with the pride that inevitably came with living in such close proximity to a house as grand as Judith's was the unshakable faith that there was something not quite right to the whole affair. We expect the things that are dead or dying to remain so. But what happens when they refuse to stay that way?" (209).
"I picture my store burned to the ground, its contents looted. I imagine a crowed gathered around the charred remains of the building, shaking their heads silently in sympathy, in pity. Can of Campbell's soup are rolling down the sidewalk and street. The air smells of melted plastic, and no one can do anything because the trucks sent to save my store are here in front of me moving at roughly the same pace I am."
"Of course, my father looks back one last time at my mother, brother, and me before he's escorted at gunpoint out the door. I'm not even sure how much he was able to see at that point--whether our faces were distinguishable from one another, or if through the haze of tears and blood the three of us merged into one indeterminate figure. I like to think that's the way he saw us, his family, not as individual people, but as a world, one that he could faithfully claim to have created."
"Mixed in with the pride that inevitably came with living in such close proximity to a house as grand as Judith's was the unshakable faith that there was something not quite right to the whole affair. We expect the things that are dead or dying to remain so. But what happens when they refuse to stay that way?" (209).
"I picture my store burned to the ground, its contents looted. I imagine a crowed gathered around the charred remains of the building, shaking their heads silently in sympathy, in pity. Can of Campbell's soup are rolling down the sidewalk and street. The air smells of melted plastic, and no one can do anything because the trucks sent to save my store are here in front of me moving at roughly the same pace I am."
"Of course, my father looks back one last time at my mother, brother, and me before he's escorted at gunpoint out the door. I'm not even sure how much he was able to see at that point--whether our faces were distinguishable from one another, or if through the haze of tears and blood the three of us merged into one indeterminate figure. I like to think that's the way he saw us, his family, not as individual people, but as a world, one that he could faithfully claim to have created."
Alive at the End of the World by Saeed Jones
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
4.0
very hit or miss for me -- reminds me a bit of a fortune for your disaster but certainly does not reach that level of searing prose. i loved the title and themes of grief, death, apocalypticism, etc., and certain poems threaded the lines of those themes really nicely. other poems fell a little flat for me, but perhaps I'm just not the target audience! will leave some fav quotes below
"whose house is this who did i hurt to get here and is it too late to ask for help" note: epigraph, not his work but well chosen.
"your grief is so heavy, when we lowered the coffin, all the pall bearers fell in too."
"whose house is this who did i hurt to get here and is it too late to ask for help" note: epigraph, not his work but well chosen.
"your grief is so heavy, when we lowered the coffin, all the pall bearers fell in too."
We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom by Bettina Love
informative
reflective
5.0
Autobiography of a Geisha by Sayo Masuda
4.0
Read for Geisha, Wise Mothers, and Working Women (fall 2024)
The Diving Pool by Yōko Ogawa
3.75
good, but not incredible. oddly reminded me of my own writing in certain moments, for better or worse. there were certain moments where the prose was especially haunting or well done, and those moments were fabulous!
Fardwor, Russia!: A Fantastical Tale of Life Under Putin by Oleg Kashin
dark
funny
informative
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
4.25
Super interesting look into Russian politics, and very funny at the same time. I think the ending is particularly well done in it's clear commentary on how, seemingly no matter what we uncover about our corrupt political systems, nothing ever really seems to substantially change. Hopefully more satires about Russian politics are in my future!
"The newspaper came out on Monday and, though they screamed about it on the Echo of Moscow radio station--they know how to turn any minutia from the newspapers into an event of global proportions--the sky didn't fall to the earth, nor did any high-profile resignations occur, nothing really changed, in fact, and Becky, stirring her tea with a spoon, thought about what would have happened if, say, she had been able to prove, for example, that the FSB had blown up that building in Moscow in '99. She looked at the brown surface of the tea as it settled down after being stirred and understood that no, no, nothing would have happened, nothing at all."
"The newspaper came out on Monday and, though they screamed about it on the Echo of Moscow radio station--they know how to turn any minutia from the newspapers into an event of global proportions--the sky didn't fall to the earth, nor did any high-profile resignations occur, nothing really changed, in fact, and Becky, stirring her tea with a spoon, thought about what would have happened if, say, she had been able to prove, for example, that the FSB had blown up that building in Moscow in '99. She looked at the brown surface of the tea as it settled down after being stirred and understood that no, no, nothing would have happened, nothing at all."
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
5.0
wow. wow. even more incredible on a reread than on the first read. my obsession with beauty as a theme leaves me simply obsessed with this book; toni morrison the woman you are!
Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
4.0
not especially profound, but a wonderfully written and extremely clever mystery! i could not in any world put together a mystery how agatha christie has, and i envy her ability to visualize the many twists and turns that occur along the nile. oh, and hercule poirot is really rather charming. perhaps and then there were none next?