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theliteraryteapot's reviews
291 reviews
Un malvoyant ouvre les yeux d'une voyante by Hervé Rutkowski, Monique Bélanger
3.0
Lecture dans le cadre de mon deuxième mémoire.
Une lecture en soi intéressante puisqu’il s’agit de donner de la visibilité aux personnes en situation de handicap visuel. Ce livre s’adresse surtout aux personnes voyantes, à travers le travail collaboratif entre une personne voyante (Monique) qui n’hésite pas à poser beaucoup de questions et à effectuer des recherches, et une personne malvoyante (Hervé) qui décrit ses journées types, son quotidien. Il parle également de ses désirs, de la question de l’intégration dans la société et dans le monde du travail. En tant que lectrice voyante, j’apprends forcément beaucoup de choses, notamment sur les différentes maladies menant au handicap visuel, le travail d’adaptation et les possibles solutions et alternatives. Attention toutefois à garder à l’esprit que le témoignage d’Hervé et ce livre ne peuvent pas parler pour toute la communauté, chaque personne étant différente et chaque vécu l’étant également. Le travail de recherche de ressources et de la bibliographie est aussi très appréciable.
En revanche, j’ai eu quelques soucis à plusieurs reprises durant la lecture : le ton parfois moralisateur de Monique qui peut se comprendre mais qui ne prend pas tout en compte. (Il peut exister énormément de raisons quant au fait que tout le monde ne s’arrête pas dans la rue pour adresser la parole ou un sourire à un inconnu dans Paris). Mais surtout, le livre étant publié en 2002, il a quelque peu mal vieilli sur certains passages : très hétéronormé, des blagues sur les agressions sexuelles et le toucher, ...
Globalement, quelques passages problématiques mais un témoignage bien sûr important et des informations utiles (pour le mémoire aussi).
Une lecture en soi intéressante puisqu’il s’agit de donner de la visibilité aux personnes en situation de handicap visuel. Ce livre s’adresse surtout aux personnes voyantes, à travers le travail collaboratif entre une personne voyante (Monique) qui n’hésite pas à poser beaucoup de questions et à effectuer des recherches, et une personne malvoyante (Hervé) qui décrit ses journées types, son quotidien. Il parle également de ses désirs, de la question de l’intégration dans la société et dans le monde du travail. En tant que lectrice voyante, j’apprends forcément beaucoup de choses, notamment sur les différentes maladies menant au handicap visuel, le travail d’adaptation et les possibles solutions et alternatives. Attention toutefois à garder à l’esprit que le témoignage d’Hervé et ce livre ne peuvent pas parler pour toute la communauté, chaque personne étant différente et chaque vécu l’étant également. Le travail de recherche de ressources et de la bibliographie est aussi très appréciable.
En revanche, j’ai eu quelques soucis à plusieurs reprises durant la lecture : le ton parfois moralisateur de Monique qui peut se comprendre mais qui ne prend pas tout en compte. (Il peut exister énormément de raisons quant au fait que tout le monde ne s’arrête pas dans la rue pour adresser la parole ou un sourire à un inconnu dans Paris). Mais surtout, le livre étant publié en 2002, il a quelque peu mal vieilli sur certains passages : très hétéronormé, des blagues sur les agressions sexuelles et le toucher, ...
Globalement, quelques passages problématiques mais un témoignage bien sûr important et des informations utiles (pour le mémoire aussi).
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson
1.0
Hmm... Okay... I guess?
Perhaps this is because I can't seem to ever really be focused when listening to an audiobook but I don't really have much to say. By the popularity of this book, I thought it was the kind of life-changing book... lol. It wasn't really thought-provoking or anything and I didn't really care (yeah yeah no fucks given blah blah blah). The second half in particular was rather annoying and just sounded like an average privileged white (misogynistic) man's opinion that brings nothing to my life, to my perspective of the world and things.
On the other hand, I once had a conversation with my therapist about how there are a lot of things I should simply stop caring about because a lot of those things are not my problem. And frankly, what a good advice. I applied this advice to my personal life and also on social medias and that did a lot of good to my mental health.
Also the overuse of "fuck" made me think of teenagers finding out the existence of a new word (twitter dot com) and using it in every sentence.
Overall, just meh and I don't care.
Perhaps this is because I can't seem to ever really be focused when listening to an audiobook but I don't really have much to say. By the popularity of this book, I thought it was the kind of life-changing book... lol. It wasn't really thought-provoking or anything and I didn't really care (yeah yeah no fucks given blah blah blah). The second half in particular was rather annoying and just sounded like an average privileged white (misogynistic) man's opinion that brings nothing to my life, to my perspective of the world and things.
On the other hand, I once had a conversation with my therapist about how there are a lot of things I should simply stop caring about because a lot of those things are not my problem. And frankly, what a good advice. I applied this advice to my personal life and also on social medias and that did a lot of good to my mental health.
Also the overuse of "fuck" made me think of teenagers finding out the existence of a new word (twitter dot com) and using it in every sentence.
Overall, just meh and I don't care.
Light Filters In: Poems by
3.0
Actually really liked it, 3.5/5.
The poem about writing the same thing over and over again and finding herself spoke to me.
The poem about writing the same thing over and over again and finding herself spoke to me.
Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Beautiful cover.
I'll preface this by saying that the marketing is weird. The book is compared to Bridget Jones, and yes, the main character is realistically flawed but it was not a cute contemporary story. It was not funny, at all. This is a book about Queenie, a black woman, making bad decisions that lead her to being so so badly treated by white men mainly through sex. This is about trauma and a woman who's mental health is completely deteriorating.
Queenie's character development was definitely the best thing coming out of it. At first, she appeared to me as a character lacking personality and she was frustrating by making so many mistakes. She said she was the funniest person she knew and no she was not. She didn't seem to have a genuine relationship with her friends. Said friends, although they did warn Queenie of her bad decisions, they didn't exactly go out of their way to protect her or call her out (except for Cassandra but in a harsh way). Yes, Queenie's a grown woman but if you see your friend being such a self-destructive mess, maybe you should do something?
Anyways, by the time I reached half of the book, I realised that Queenie lacking personality wasn't due to bad writing, it's just that she was completely lost. She was losing herself, had very low self-esteem and didn't believe she deserved love. And honestly her story is actually quite relatable. It's quite easy to judge her but really, she had unresolved trauma, not that helpful friends (imo), and other issues. You end up rooting for Queenie because you want her to get help.
Although the first part of the book wasn't much focusing on Queenie's interest to study and cover the Black Lives Matter movement in the UK, she tried to work on it several times throughout the book (her annoying boss just wouldn't let her and that was frustrating). She remembered why she wanted that job in the first place and how important it is to focus on something you are passionate about. Obviously, as a white woman, I cannot speak on the representation of a black woman nor on her struggles.
The last part was the most interesting for me and I wish the author would have spent more time developing Queenie's journey to get better, more scenes where she went to therapy. It felt a bit rushed and kind of like trauma-dumping (which can happen when you have so much issues and you finally go see a therapist years later).
I appreciated the author's writing but thought there was perhaps a lot of dialogue, compared to less of a deep dive in Queenie's thoughts (process)? But again, I felt that mostly during the first part.
Now, I read a French translated edition. To the French editor(s), do a better job!! By the third of the book, it felt like you were sick of it and just didn't work enough on it: words were missing, others were repeated, some sentences didn't make sense? Why do books written by marginalised authors and/or with marginalised characters keep being sabotaged like that by the French publishing industry...
I'll preface this by saying that the marketing is weird. The book is compared to Bridget Jones, and yes, the main character is realistically flawed but it was not a cute contemporary story. It was not funny, at all. This is a book about Queenie, a black woman, making bad decisions that lead her to being so so badly treated by white men mainly through sex. This is about trauma and a woman who's mental health is completely deteriorating.
Queenie's character development was definitely the best thing coming out of it. At first, she appeared to me as a character lacking personality and she was frustrating by making so many mistakes. She said she was the funniest person she knew and no she was not. She didn't seem to have a genuine relationship with her friends. Said friends, although they did warn Queenie of her bad decisions, they didn't exactly go out of their way to protect her or call her out (except for Cassandra but in a harsh way). Yes, Queenie's a grown woman but if you see your friend being such a self-destructive mess, maybe you should do something?
Anyways, by the time I reached half of the book, I realised that Queenie lacking personality wasn't due to bad writing, it's just that she was completely lost. She was losing herself, had very low self-esteem and didn't believe she deserved love. And honestly her story is actually quite relatable. It's quite easy to judge her but really, she had unresolved trauma, not that helpful friends (imo), and other issues. You end up rooting for Queenie because you want her to get help.
Although the first part of the book wasn't much focusing on Queenie's interest to study and cover the Black Lives Matter movement in the UK, she tried to work on it several times throughout the book (her annoying boss just wouldn't let her and that was frustrating). She remembered why she wanted that job in the first place and how important it is to focus on something you are passionate about. Obviously, as a white woman, I cannot speak on the representation of a black woman nor on her struggles.
The last part was the most interesting for me and I wish the author would have spent more time developing Queenie's journey to get better, more scenes where she went to therapy. It felt a bit rushed and kind of like trauma-dumping (which can happen when you have so much issues and you finally go see a therapist years later).
I appreciated the author's writing but thought there was perhaps a lot of dialogue, compared to less of a deep dive in Queenie's thoughts (process)? But again, I felt that mostly during the first part.
Now, I read a French translated edition. To the French editor(s), do a better job!! By the third of the book, it felt like you were sick of it and just didn't work enough on it: words were missing, others were repeated, some sentences didn't make sense? Why do books written by marginalised authors and/or with marginalised characters keep being sabotaged like that by the French publishing industry...