eren_reads's reviews
413 reviews

Bad Diaspora Poems by Momtaza Mehri

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reflective medium-paced

3.0

Whilst I appreciated the message of a lot of these poems, I didn't find the actual writing of this collection to be all that compelling.
Envelope Poems by Emily Dickinson

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reflective medium-paced

4.0

In this short life
that only lasts an hour
merely
how much - how 
little - is
within our
power

Despite these only being fragments of poems/letters I still really enjoyed a lot of the incomplete poems in this collection. This will definitely not be my last Emily Dickinson poetry collection.
Near to the Wild Heart by Clarice Lispector

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reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
This is a weird one to review as I wouldn't necessarily say that I enjoyed reading this book but I appreciate it for how unconventional it is and for the way it explores certain themes, such as living in a loveless marriage.
A Life's Work: On Becoming A Mother by Rachel Cusk

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challenging emotional medium-paced

4.0

This is an incredibly raw and emotionally vulnerable memoir about Rachel Cusk's experience of motherhood.
Gentrification is Inevitable and Other Lies by Leslie Kern

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challenging informative medium-paced

4.0

This was a good introduction to a topic that I'm vaguely aware of but not fully informed about. 

Incredibly thoroughly researched.
Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson

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reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

You said, 'I love you.' Why is it that the most unoriginal thing we can say to one another is still the thing we long to hear? 'I love you' is always a quotation. You did not say it first and neither did I, yet when you say it and when I say it we speak like savages who have found three words and worship them.

This book is a beautiful exploration of love, sex, sexuality and the obsessive manner that love can manifest.

One of the reasons why I have given this book a five star rating is because of how gorgeous the writing is. I was constantly underlining things in this book.
Solo Dance by Li Kotomi

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challenging dark emotional sad medium-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

3.5

Whilst I enjoyed the writing of this book, I found that it seemed to just throw trauma at the main character in a way that I didn't think allowed for proper insightful discussions on the topics in the book, such as sexuality and death.
Night Side of the River by Jeanette Winterson

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reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

This book was lacking in of the things that I've learnt to associate Jeanette Winterson with: beautiful writing. Whilst there wasn't anything wrong with the writing, it certainly wasn't bad, I didn't find it as captivating as some of her other books writing styles.

Alongside that, I was expecting a beautiful exploration of grief and the supernatural and technology but for me most of the stories fell flat. I enjoyed the first story but after that they were a bit meh...
Self-Portrait as Othello by Jason Allen-Paisant

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challenging reflective medium-paced

4.0

I was called bois d'ebene
I am dismembered 
I look for the different parts of myself
 
in the world's oceans 
in the black blood of Europe's 
monuments
- Self-Portrait as Othello III

dare I believe
 
that I was no fetish, that this 
my body was real to you?
As faith crumbled
 
I thought you loved my storytelling 
more than me,
Mandinka warrior della Guinea
 
and the demon became my own face.
- Self-Portrait as Othello I
Home is not a country by Johnny Pitts

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challenging reflective medium-paced

4.0

We have all seen the hunting trophies
set against shields, the wavy pointed horns
of blackbuck or impala or the magnificent 
branched antlers of the red deer stag.
 
...

But when a slaver so loved his servant slave
Fanny that he removed her hand for taxidermy
and it became a cherished heirloom passing 
from generation to generation to generation -
 
the dark skin of her hand with its pink 
nails with crescent-moon cuticles on her thumbs
hanging from the picture rail above the dining-room fire,
it's knuckles knobbly and blackened,
 
while they ate their wild pheasant and wine,
from family to family; children growing old
knowing the Black slave hand they thought
they loved; in this act of preserved mutilation
 
how the children in their pinafores and frilly bonnets
who never knew her played with her hand;
how her hand remained a slave in the way 
it remained captured in service against her will -
 
I have never wished so hard that her long
lean fingers could make a firm balled fist,
perfectly clenched, with the veins in her hand
bulging, overlooking their bland pea soup starter.
- Taxidermy