imogenrose97's reviews
490 reviews

I'm devastated to say that this Mary Oliver did not hold the magic of that Blue Horses (my first Oliver collection) held. Though there were a few truly exceptional poems, in particular Percy's First Visit (or some name similar), it fell flat for me beyond those few.

 I felt the Paradise looming in the background of each line, hulking raw as a wound, each description more gruesomely human. Fleshy, chunky and wet with decay. Hefty. Wholy disgusting. Each of the employees no more than stick figures or ants, scurrying about completing worthless tasks to be done again tomorrow against another grim grey day turned to dim night.
I couldn't escape the feeling that the Paradise was about to shift its weight, make it known that it is living and breathing and that it does not care for nor shelter those who take shelter in its moist rooms. 
I wish it had not been so visceral. Take back the smell of sewage soaked popcorn. Erase the grease smudged glasses and the feeling you get when you leave the cinema to find it suddenly dark even though it feels like no time has passed. Hollow. Unreal. Like you've incorrectly loaded the wrong life, something is just a bit off.
I'm not sure I'll ever enter a cinema again without thinking of the Paradise and its Children, I'm not really very happy about it but I guess a fair price to pay for such an incredible book. 

Another book I read to have a light distraction from the chaos of moving and when I didn't have the capacity to read anything serious. This one however, was phenomenal, I love reading cozy queer fiction, especially when it features so many ridiculous lesbian tropes that feel hilarious because in all of the queer relationships around me, I get to see these things for real, including in my own. I spent the stressful parts not too stressed because I imagined I knew I was safe in the cozy atmosphere. Which is such a nice treat. The characters were well developed and fun and interesting and the whole thing was sprinkled with such toe curling cuteness that I was taken so far from where I was in the real world and into the flirtations of mages. Cannot wait to read the next book.

I read this book to find some kindness and comfort in a period of unsettle. The story and the way that it was told was enjoyable but ultimately it fell flat for me because I wasn't convinced by I the execution of moral of the story. I'm  finding that this kind of short, supposedly punchy stories with a moral aren't really for me (thinking of Small Things Like These as a similar book type). Though this was definitely a good read for the period I was in and I would recommend it as a light wholesome book.

What a perfectly weird, sexy, gross mix of stories. Once again I was sucked in by the promise of queer tales and once again I was oh so pleased! A running theme in my favourite short story collections the stories were written in different formats from a play to a diary entry. The stories were in turns hilarious or silly or dirty or gross and the way of listing the stories out of order made the reading experience more fun.  The writing was visceral and sharp and filled with poetry like prose. The imagery throughout evoked a feeling of being out of place, like something isn't quite right.

I recommend this book for fans of Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield and God's of Want by K-Ming Chang.

A strange little book with incredible imagery that has stayed in my mind in the month since I've read it. 

 It was frustrating for me to read the first half of the book because I sort of understood where our narrator was coming from but because I've done a lot of therapy and I'm and ADULT I worked out that she was spiralling. I really struggled because it frustrates me when people haven't worked out what's wrong in the same time that I have.

What made Rebecca bad? Was it her wish to live a full life outside of the confines of society? She was bad for cheating on her husband, sure. But was she bad in how free she wanted to be. She only wanted to live. She only wanted to be treated as a man, act like one and have the respect a man would. 
We are expected to hate her and I did; until a pause and thought came through of what if that were me? What if I was born back then and smart enough to think outside of societal expectations, would I have made the same deals? The answer is undoubtedly that I would not because I would never have grown to be as bold as her. I would have quietly seethed and bitched in lonely corners about the tirade of man. So in the end I am more impressed by her than mad, she made a space for herself using the only tools she had and raced to the end of her life spectacularly. 

How a book published so long ago speaks both to society today and that of it's time is impressive, a classic for a reason. 

The hype this book had likely took my rating down a little, I wasn't sure what to expect but though the story was beautiful and a lovely encapsulation of the beauty in moments of kindness, in the small things. The issue for me was the familiarity of the story. Though the exact historical context was not previously known to me, the main points were as I expected them to be. 

Oliver Sacks once again left me in awe of how one can view the world with such unending verve, even in ones last days.

This was my least favourite Ginzburg to date. Though the writing still held the observational style that I so adore, the plot was punctuated by a heavy dread that I couldn't get into.