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Dear Memory: Letters on Writing, Silence, and Grief by Victoria Chang
“Maybe our desire for the past grows after the decay of our present.” Dear Memory: Letters on Writing, Silence, and Grief is a deeply affecting work that struck me for its beauty and empathy. Victoria Chang’s lyrical writing is not only aesthetically pleasing but it demonstrates admirable emotional intelligence, sensitivity, and insight. Not only I…
4 STARS, America, asian american, asian diaspora, AUTOBIOGRAPHY, belonging, China, chinese american author, Contemporary, Dear Memory, Dear Memory Letters on Writing Silence and Grief, eating disorders, ESSAYS, experimental, family, female authors, GRIEF, identity, intergenerational, language, lyrical prose, MEMOIR, MEMORY, migration/immigration, mothers & daughters, Multimedia, Nonfiction, POETRY, published in 2021, RACE, read in 2022, Victoria Chang, writing about writing -
I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokbokki by Baek Se-hee
“I wonder about others like me, who seem totally fine on the outside but are rotting on the inside, where the rot is this vague state of being not-fine and not-devastated at the same time.” There was something about the title and cover of this book that brought to mind Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of…
1st pov, 3 STARS, Adult, anxiety, AUTOBIOGRAPHY, Baek Se-hee, BOOK REVIEW, Booklr, Contemporary, contemporary malaise, DEPRESSION, dialogue heavy, female authors, I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokbokki, Korea, korean author, loneliness, MEMOIR, mental health, My reviews, Nonfiction, PSYCHIATRISTS & THERAPISTS, psychological, published in 2018, read in 2022, reading, self-help, the female malaise, TRANSLATED FICTION -
Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls by T Kira Madden
“I wanted to be the diametric opposite of who I was; am. To get gone.” T Kira Madden’s bold and unsparing storytelling makes for a brutal yet ultimately kaleidoscopic coming of age. This is easily one of the best memoirs I’ve read this year. Madden’s memoir makes for a bittersweet read, one that I look…
1990s, 1st pov, 2000s, 20th century, 4 STARS, addiction, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, AUTOBIOGRAPHY, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, books about writers, CHILDHOOD, coming of age, family, fathers & daughters, female authors, female friendships, FLORIDA, friendships, GRIEF, growing up, hawaii, HIGH SCHOOL, identity, LESBIAN, lgbtq+, LGBTQ+ Author, loneliness, Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls, MEMOIR, mental health, middle school, mothers & daughters, My reviews, nostalgic reads, published in 2019, queer, RACE, read in 2021, reading, sexual assault/abuse/rape, SEXUALITY, T Kira Madden, teen angst, trauma -
Dog Flowers: A Memoir by Danielle Geller
Dog Flowers is a relentlessly unsparing and depressing account of a dysfunctional family grappling with addiction, trauma, mental illness, and abuse. This memoir opens with Danielle Geller’s mothers’ death. Geller’s mother was homeless when she died of withdrawal from alcohol, and Geller is forced to return to Florida to sift through her mother’s possessions. Using…
1990s, 1st pov, 2000s, 3.5 STARS, abuse, ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIPS, addiction, Adult, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, AUTOBIOGRAPHY, bad love, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, child abuse, CHILDHOOD, Contemporary, conversational style, Danielle Geller, DEPRESSION, distressing reads, Dog Flowers, family, fathers & daughters, female authors, FLORIDA, forgiveness, GRIEF, growing up, identity, indigenous, indigenous author, MEMOIR, MEMORY, mental health, MENTAL ILLNESS, mothers & daughters, My reviews, native american & first nation, Native American & First Nation authors, navajo, navajo nation, Nonfiction, published in 2021, read in 2021, reading, sexual assault/abuse/rape, SISTERS, toxic relationships, tragedy, trauma -
All Men Want to Know by Nina Bouraoui
In the past week or so I’ve picked up three books I’d previously DNFed in the hopes that I would like them better now…turns out instead that I shouldn’t have given them a second chance and that instead, I should have just trusted my gut-instinct. Lesson learned. All Men Want to Know is an incredibly…
1970s, 1980s, 2 STARS, 20th century, Adult, algeria, algerian french author, AUTOBIOGRAPHY, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, CHILDHOOD, cultural dissonance, female authors, FRANCE, FRENCH, growing up, LESBIAN, lgbtq+, LGBTQ+ Author, MEMORY, My reviews, navel gazing, Nina Bouraoui, published in 2018, queer, read in 2021, reading, sapphic, SEXUALITY, style over character, stylised prose, Tous les hommes désirent naturellement savoir, TRANSLATED FICTION -
Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations by Mira Jacob
Mira Jacob’s Good Talk is a small gem of a memoir. Jacob combines different media to discuss a number of issues and topics. Jacob transports to the page the difficult conversations she’s had with her son about race, while also recounting her own experiences growing up as a first-generation Indian-American. Much of Good Talk takes…
2000s, 2010s, 4 STARS, Adult, America, American, AUTOBIOGRAPHY, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, colorism, Contemporary, dialogue heavy, family, female authors, Good Talk, Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations, Graphic Novels, India, indian american author, MEMOIR, migration/immigration, Mira Jacob, mothers & sons, My reviews, Nonfiction, politics, published in 2019, RACE, read in 2021, reading, Sequential Art, social issues -
Manifesto: On Never Giving Up by Bernardine Evaristo
“I am first and foremost a writer, the written word is how I process everything—myself, life, society, history, politics. It’s not just a job or a passion, but it is at the very heart of how I exist in the world, and I am addicted to the adventure of storytelling as my most powerful means…
1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 1st pov, 2000s, 4 STARS, Adult, arc, ART/CREATIVITY, AUTOBIOGRAPHY, Bernardine Evaristo, Black & Black heritage authors, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, booker-prize winners, Booklr, books about books, books about writers, CHILDHOOD, england, family, female authors, feminism, growing up, identity, LESBIAN, lgbtq+, LGBTQ+ Author, LONDON, Manifesto, Manifesto: On Never Giving Up, MEMOIR, My reviews, Nigeria, nigerian british author, Nonfiction, published in 2021, queer, RACE, read in 2021, reading, social issues, theatre, writing about writing -
Misfits: A Personal Manifesto by Michaela Coel
“Speaking can be a terrifying action. Our words—even when spoken from a position so powerless that all that’s produced is a moth-like squeak—can be loud enough to wake the house: a house that is often sleeping peacefully and does not want to be disturbed; a house in which perhaps you’ve found a home. I’m very…
1st pov, 3.5 STARS, actors, Adult, arc, AUTOBIOGRAPHY, Black & Black heritage authors, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, Contemporary, england, female authors, feminism, film industry, growing up, identity, LONDON, MEMOIR, Michaela Coel, Misfits, Misfits: A Personal Manifesto, My reviews, netgalley, Nonfiction, published in 2021, RACE, read in 2021, reading, sexual assault/abuse/rape, social issues, theatre, trauma -
The Clothing of Books by Jhumpa Lahiri
In this short and meditative piece, Jhumpa Lahiri examines the role that book jackets play in a person’s reading experience and the responsibility they have in not only conveying the book within but in catching someone’s attention. Lahiri looks back to her youth and recalls how the books she borrowed from at the library were…
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Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
Ever since my mom died, I cry in H Mart. Richly observed and heartbreakingly candid Crying in H Mart provides a powerful account of a complicated mother-daughter relationship. In her memoir musician Michelle Zauner writes with painful clarity of when at age 25 her mother was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer. Zauner’s recollection of her…
4.5 STARS, America, American, AUTOBIOGRAPHY, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, CHILDHOOD, Crying in H Mart, cultural dissonance, DEATH, family, female authors, food & cooking, GRIEF, identity, illness, intergenerational, Japanese Breakfast, Korea, Korean, korean american author, language, LGBTQ+ Author, MEMOIR, MEMORY, Michelle Zauner, mothers & daughters, music, musicians, My reviews, netgalley, published in 2021, re-reads, read in 2021, read in 2022, reading
luce [is reading] 