Also im.curious how would you have made yellowface better it being my favorite book of 2023 I'm really curious on what other people didn't like about it
I always rated middle grade books on a curve because I feel like and this is just me as A 27 year old I feel like a Billy criticizing a book no where intended for my age range also do you spell the first letter of your name with the Letter S
I also loved La fiesta del chivo, but I hadn't known all that much about Dominican history going in; good to hear feedback from someone who knows more! I wanted to get to Nuestra parte del noche this spooky season, but am not going to manage it. Next year, I hope! I loved The Sympathizer, for the story but also the language. Elevated snark, lol. I dnf'd Yellowface. To on-the-nose for me - snark that was not elevated at all...
Oh yes I remember you wanted to read the Enriquez! “Elevated snark” is such a good way to describe The Sympathizer lol. I’m curious how book 2 (The Committed) is-sequels can be hit or miss for me.
Thank goodness for Goodreads, because it appears I read HUSH by Laura Lippman and rated it 4/5 stars. I listened to the audio and I said it was my first Lippman but it wouldn't be my last. She's probably worth your time.
The book/movie that doesn't obey the "book is always better" rule to me is Never Let Me Go. The book was just kind of meh to me, but the movie? I was emotionally DESTROYED. I was so ripped apart (no pun intended). Have you read/seen that one?
OH! I did the audio of Sanatorium and I still think it was too long. Don't waste your time with the print version. Make sure you read it while doing something else like cleaning, driving, gardening.
Hey there. I like your recs. They're different from the usual recs. I read the Sanatorium and to me it was about 100 pages too long. I posted a very short review of it at Goodreads. I read it 3+ years ago, but I was surprised to see that I didn't DNF it.
that's such a good question....Not just because I talked about Ferrante in this video, but I really have to say the Neapolitan Quartet is superb!!! Betty by Tiffany McDaniel is also excellent
I haven't read this book in so long but I remember things being too easy for me character like if the president of Texas if her sons were gay and the public found out it would be insanely hateful towards them and it felt so unrealistic
I love your curls. Nice haircut. I am going to check out Real Americans because it sounds pretty trashy story-wise, and who doesn't love a good trashy book for summer?
@@shelf-reflections7549 I DNFed it! I have a hard & fast rule: if I'm thinking about reading other books while reading something, I DNF what I'm reading.
Pushkin was writing a character in Onegin who ended up resembling the real poet Mikhail Lermontov, not to mention Pushkin himself, if that makes any sense 😁😸 Lermontov ended up dying in a duel the same as Pushkin!
Hot here in Chicago too. I’m on the waitlist for a number of things at my library, but I’m afraid that when it’s my turn I won’t be able to fit the book (whichever it is) in, because I’ve fallen behind in other reading. Man, absolutely everybody seems to be talking about _The God of the Woods._ I hope your turn comes up soon.
That’s actually exactly what ended up happening to me lol-4 books I was on a waitlist for suddenly became available all on the same day so now the books I was going to start reading will have to get pushed…at least one of the books I picked up was State of Paradise!! (No God of the Woods quite yet…)
Well when it comes to Yoko Ogawa her "The Memory Police" features a winter that for some reason does not end and just keeps going year round 😸😆 so she may not be the best summer author. This one must be her much-awaited new book they said was coming out in August. Same as you I aim to reserve it at the library 👍 I couldn't stand Ali Smith's "Spring" (which seemed to have little to do with spring) and I don't think her "Summer" will heat things up for me 😆😸
lol yeah if you didn’t like Spring (probably my least favorite in the quartet) then Summer won’t tickle your fancy 😂 Smith is hit-or-miss for me; I absolutely loathed The Accidental!
Hello! I just discovered your channel. Looks like I have a lot of great videos to explore. If you do manage to read Berlin Alexanderplatz, I highly recommend the audiobook version narrated by Julian Elfer. It's excellent! The book is sometimes funny, yes, but also pretty pretty grim.
Personally I can no longer deal with the politics of these things. I read and review and that's it, I'll only address "race" as far as the book or film itself makes an issue of it. Unfortunately I agree more with your opponent - these things are about money and who has enough of it and who doesn't (would be in the latter category myself 😸😆). Race and other such issues are largely created by the rich and their media as a distraction and division. People will not unite en masse to demand proper wages and health care if they are divided by "race" before they even get started. Thus a society run by the rich will make sure that there are constant "racial issues" to fight over. Hey have meant to ask for a while what is that outro music that you have been using? It sounds Middle Eastern or Indian, or is it East European? Or is it something else altogether and I just made a fool of myself LOL 😆😸
I have read Disorientation and I did enjoy it. Have you ever read Yellowface by RF Kuang? If so, do you feel as though you could compare one to the other?
Loved this video! Thank you, so many recommendations for literary fiction. I enjoyed The Makioka sisters as well, hope to find and watch the adaption soon.
Maybe it would be easier on yourself if you didn't assign a month for each book. Just tell us what you want to get done in the year and then you will have some choice on which to pick up next. Just a suggestion. 🤔😊
Oh god 🤣 I think Lynch disowned that one, which gives me pause. Lynch’s films are usually pretty out there so for him to not like Dune says a lot and makes me scared 🤣🤣
I didn't know "Revolver" was that heavy with "drug inspiration!" So...........next is "Sgt. Pepper -" 😏😺 You already have the right idea that it must be done in summertime! I don't know how you will handle the psychedelia of that, "The White Album" and so on when you've already used Kesey and Wolfe in this one! 😸😀
@@shelf-reflections7549 Well there is still William S. Burroughs who has "fallen out of favor" for various reasons but if that is our standard would we ever read anyone? (He is on the Sgt. Pepper album cover, too)
@@teakara Those two novels, plus "My Name is Red" by Orhan Pamuk, are amongst my top three favourites. It would be good to see more Selimovic translated into English.
Hi and thanks for your comment! I’m “lucky” in a sense because I take public transport to work and that gives me roughly 2 hrs to read, plus I try to read during my 30m lunch break. I’m wiped out by the time I get home so really the only “at home” reading time I get to is on the weekend (early mornings are my post productive hours). I go easy on myself though, like if there are days I just want to listen to music or watch videos on my commute I’ll do that, or if I want to chat during my lunch I’ll do that instead. I will say audiobooks have helped me SO MUCH in increasing the number of books I read. It’s like having the book performed/acted for you…and that 2.5X speed is a lifesaver!!
I never read Self Help, but I did read the first half of The Gate At The Stairs, and I have to chuckle about your astute observation about Moore’s heavy pun use and word play. I had finally had enough when the main character, in a plane, reading about luggage contents shifting during flight, ponders about the ‘discontents’.
I also read If An Egyptian Cannot Speak English in May and I loved it! That third section was genius and bumped it to a favorite of the year. I read Liliana's Invincible Summer by Cristina Rivera Garza right after and I felt so lucky to read two amazing books back to back.
@@shelf-reflections7549 I can't wait to see your review! I haven't read Garza's fiction yet but it's on my list. I haven't read that yet. I don't usually love novels in verse, but I might attempt it for Naga!
I definitely need to check out Chlorine. In May I read my favorite book of the year so far: You Dream Of Empires by Alvaro Enrique. It's about the day Cortes arrived in Tenoxtitlan. It's a comedy of errors/fish out of water/political intrigue/psychedelic romp.
Thanks for your comment! I hope you enjoy it more than I did lol. It really does fit the early spring/March vibe, so when you do get to it I’d recommend reading it then 😊
Nobody can beat Thomas Chatterton when it comes to tortured poets going all the way with it, he remains the reigning "champion" in my view, not that Taylor Swift is likely to know of him 😺😀
I saw _Kiss_ when it first came out. As part of the generation it was speaking to, I found it moving and eye-opening. However now, with the passage of time, it may - as you say with the book - have become more commonplace. (I doubt I’d see it again.) William Hurt was so big, and he won an acting award for his performance. But a friend pointed out, correctly I think, that he won it for the role. “Raul Julia was just as good, if not better,” she said, “but he didn’t win.” “I gave it four stars instead of five just because my brain is too small…” Don’t say that! I want to read _Bloodlands_ too but am afraid it will be too information-laden. I tend to retain minimally. These were great reviews!
Regardless of endings, I just wanted "If On a Winter's Night a Traveler -" to end, period 😸😆. You read "The Wasteland" in April very appropriate 👍 You might find "The Love Song of - Prufrock" more agreeable. Eliot was a huge booster of Joyce so cross-influences were inevitable. Out of that bunch I most like Pound, but only the Pound of the later Cantos which opens whole different cans of worms. Never has "enjoying" a book seemed less appropriate than with "Bloodlands!"
That’s hilarious re: Calvino 🤣 You know, I think I might have read “Prufrock” way back in high school but I honestly can’t remember. I’m sliiiiiiightly tempted to (re)read it
Those 'dashes' in El beso de la mujer araña are just how the Spanish language does dialog quotation marks - both in Spain and throughout Latin America. It's in every Spanish language book that way - I'm surprised you haven't noticed it from other Spanish books - check out any others you have on hand! I think the big difference in this book is it doesn't say 'X said' or 'Y said', or have any expository text; it's just back-and-forth - pretty much 100% dialog, so it's really in your face. Usually the dashes are changed to regular English quotation marks in translation, but I see on the Amazon 'look inside' that for some reason at least one English copy of Kiss of the Spiderwoman keeps the Spanish quotation style. I read El beso de la mujer araña back in the 80s or maybe 90s sometime when I guess it was more cutting edge! Now I feel old. 👵
Oh yes, I’ve definitely noticed the dashes in some of the Spanish-language books I’ve read but then sometimes I’ve seen these <<>> (both single and double) instead 🤷🏽♀️ I guess it’s what the publisher prefers lol. That’s really interesting and odd though about the English edition that kept the dashes…and don’t worry, I feel ancient myself!
@@shelf-reflections7549 Regular dialog is almost always with the dashes, but they do use the «» marks when using a quote within a paragraph even if they're using dashes for regular dialog - like when someone is reporting what someone else said rather than back and forth dialog. I think I may have seen books where they're used exclusively, but it's definitely very much the minority. The weird thing about the 'dash' method is that if there's no 'he/she said' at the end of the quote, there's no closing quotation 'mark' at all. I've gotten used to it, but it's an odd system! I've kind of intuited what the rules for their use must be over the years, but still not 100% sure what they are - they sure never taught that in Spanish class!
