Welcome to Litsy!

I‘m traveling to Taiwan in December and so I‘m reading some fiction by Taiwanese writers. This was my first, and I‘ll admit I wasn‘t as able to connect with it as much as I‘d hoped. I liked the crocodile in human suits metaphor a lot, though. Any recommendations for books to read, please send them my way. 😁

#AlphabetGame @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
Letter N

I really liked this introspective, edgy book about queer youth in late 1980s Taipei. There were some great lines and observations, a lot of it relatable precisely because of how it highlights gender norms in Asia. The disaffected lesbian narrator was an intriguing voice throughout.

And really, who among us hasn't felt like a crocodile in a human suit?

Translated from the Chinese by Bonnie Huie.

Supper was gochujang tofu steaks, pan-charred Brussels sprouts, and NOTES OF A CROCODILE. I loved the book‘s beginning, but now I‘m getting a bit bogged down with all the American university terminology the translator uses. I find the year nicknames and suchlike so twee that it‘s hard to concentrate on all the good stuff, like the variety of relationships and the crocodiles that aren‘t literally crocodiles.

#BookReport 21/21

Expecting Adam was a a very good read. Both others didn‘t do much for me.

A crocodile hides most of itself underwater. University student Lazi and her queer friends live like crocodiles, as their sexuality forces them to hide most of their entire selves.
That‘s a great starting point for a book about coming of age and queer identity in #Taiwan in the 1980s.

The writing style however is aloof and the snippets that made up the story are lacking coherence. This made it hard for me to connect.

#ReadingAsia2021 🇹🇼

"Because of her despair, I loved her. Because of her despair, I was shaken. Because of her despair, I was overwhelmed, and because of her despair, I left her. Her despair was her beauty."

"But to me, her words had struck a fatal blow, not unlike shoving a red-hot piece of wire up a monkey‘s ass."
Today in odd similes.

"It was an awkward embrace, like black rain pelting snow-covered ground."

"College—now there‘s a system. Though it‘s not quite death, it‘s a pretty close second. It‘s the nexus of three major institutions (compulsory education, compulsory labor, and compulsory marriage), and these three institutions happen to be the greatest achievements of human civilization."

"It was a clandestine form of dating—the kind where the person you‘re going out with doesn‘t know it‘s a date."

"People in this city are manufactured and canned, raised for the sole purpose of taking tests and making money. The eighteen-year-old me went through the high-grade production line and was processed in three years, despite the fact that I was pure carrion inside."

Recent loot! I'm going to be taking a couple of these on my last week of vacation before returning to the strange reality of old routines in the new normal.
After seeing how bookstores (and other businesses) have been struggling during this pandemic, I've decided I'm going to be buying more books if I can afford it. We need to support the businesses we love in order to not lose them forever in these strange times.

I‘m asking out of curiosity, not questioning this or anything else ridiculous, I‘m genuinely interested. Is it important to have the rainbow flag on LGBTQ books? Is it because of equality, getting the word out there, to attract attention, or for some other reason libraries add these flags? People who know, enlighten me!

🎧🎧🎧🎧 TODAY ONLY!!

One of my goals this year is to read more in translation. I‘ve read some, but I can do better. This is $2.95 #audible, and I liked the narrator on the sample. I think I‘m going to start it later today.

It‘s a #nyrb book @vivastory @Reviewsbylola @emilyhaldi for those that are interested in that collection.

#audiobook @Cinfhen

#LGBTQ+ #pridemonth

Taiwanese lesbian college student coming-of age-novel set in the 80s. Idiosyncratic narrator‘s diaries & letters switches off with satirical crocodile vignettes. Intimate, sad, self-discovery, self-loathing, queer power, quest for connection, yearning for soulmates. Bittersweet—funny & despairing. Strong voice. Melodramatic vibe, but that‘s also youth & passion. Author committed suicide in her 20s, leaves you wishing she‘d found her tribe. 1994

65yo Female Coworker: Reg, you reading about crocodiles now?
Me: No, Franny, it‘s about a young female in the late 80‘s Taiwan, who is at war with herself because she can‘t reconcile the fact that she‘s a lesbian with what society has told her is normal. There‘s a lot of self hate and drama with the women she gets involved with because she never allows herself to love them.
65YOFC: (stunned silence).....that‘s sad.
Me: I know.

This girl......

#HookedonaFeeling #MayMovieMagic
Taiwan just became the first Asian country to legalize same-sex marriage, and authors like Miaojin played no small role in changing the culture. She wrote two novels before committing suicide in 1995. I read Last Words from Montmartre, a series of anguished letters, many written during turbulent points in the writer's relationship with one recipient. Looking forward to NoaC, though it sounds equally heartbreaking.

I made earrings to match the cover of Notes of a Crocodile because its sunny, citrusy color scheme was making me happy when I was trapped in the house with my kids after multiple snow, cold, and ice days. I‘ve heard very mixed reviews in this book. Have you read it? What did you think?

Finished the QIII/2018 prompts. #booked2018

Do I get brownie points for selecting women‘s writers for all my prompts??? 🤪

Now I need to start thinking about the last quarter... 🤪🤩🤓😬

The chapters told as the Crocodile were the best part and I‘m still glad I read this to gain a greater since of empathy for Qiu Miaojin‘s life however I ended up skimming the second half. I‘m heart broken that she ended up commuting suicide and grateful she wrote a book like this so people can hopefully learn from it.

These are my physical book, current reads. Diving Belles, a book of magical realism shorts, fun and light. Notes of a Crocodile, the words tortured and sad, but important come to mind. And, Visiting Privilege, experimental writing book of shorts (I‘ve not read two books of shorts at the same time). Williams writing style put me off at first, but now I‘m find great depth in her stories and I‘ve adapted to her style. What are you reading?

Our #readaroundtheworld book club pick. This month is Taiwan.

I really liked how the author divided the novel in two major parts: The main part is a regular coming of age novel with queer couples and the whole narration is done with a tone of normalcy. The other parts are the notes of a crocodile and in those the author addresses the social stigmas LGBT people have to deal with. At times I thought the narration was too introverted and the dialogues lame, but I still thinks it‘s worth reading.
#booked2018

#Taiwan read for #PassportLitsy. 3 ⭐

All of my physical copies for #litsyclassics (& a few other challenges) @Sarah83

A melancholic, introspective book about being a queer new adult in 1990s Taipei. It reminded me of THE BELL JAR but also Oscar Wilde. This is a complex, fascinating book ripe for interpretation and historical/cultural analysis. It's the kind of book that would grow on me more if I got to talk about it with other English grad school nerds. But I can appreciate it for what it is, even if it did depress the hell out of me. #QueerBooks

Sad, idiosyncratic anti-novel of vignettes, diary entries, & letters. A young lesbian deals with wrenching self-hatred because of what she's internalised. It's brutal; her despair is real. The crocodile chapters slyly satirise how queer rights are co-opted by corporations or straight allies. Love the subtle humour throughout. The quest for connection, of finding soulmates both romantic and platonic, is bittersweet & imbues the book with pathos.

I do plan on reading more than two books this month 😅 but these two are confirmed and my #AugustMostAnticipated. Wildfell Hall is a buddy read with @saresmoore and Crocodile is for review. I'm also halfway through The Quiet Violence of Dreams, which I like a lot, but it's 600 pages so taking it slow, and just started a digital ARC of Percival Everett's So Much Blue. Beyond that I'm not sure just yet :) #AndItsAugust @RealLifeReading

YES.

Like death, college serves as a kind of escape hatch. But while death takes you straight to the morgue, college is a single rope dangling loose from the inescapable net of society. While in death everyone receives equal treatment, college is a place where certain people arrive covered in a layer of musk, a nastiness that they, in turn, smear onto others.

#Day2 of #Riotgrams: #YellowCovers! And for pride month these are all LGBTQ2! From the bottom: SFF by trans authors, 2-spirit anthology, butch/trans masc memoir, queer brown femme memoir, wacky queer short stories, black Caribbean lesbian novel, and Taiwanese lesbian coming of age novel. #QueerBooks #TransBooks

This book provides a very introspective look into the life of a college student who seems to suffer from depression and a lot of guilt over her sexuality. She struggles over her love for a woman who is very unreliable and is tormented by this. In the way of the very young, she can often come across as whiny or melodramatic. Still, this was an interesting look at how homosexual students in Taiwan in the late 80s dealt with societal pressures.

The narrator of this book lives way too much inside her own head. It's a strange, sad place to live, too.

"To this day, I've never understood my fear. Where does it come from? I'd been keeping my deviant sexual desires in check for most of my adolescent and college years. I reassured myself that I'd done nothing wrong. It felt like the fear was coming from inside of me. I never did anything to attract it, nor did I choose to be this way. I had no hand whatsoever in shaping the self that was crawling with fear..." ?

Starting this one today. @saresmoore I know you're probably way ahead of me on this one, but I plan to read one notebook each day.

The fact is, most people go through life without ever living. They say you have to learn how to construct a self who remains free in spite of the system. And you have to get used to the idea that it's every man for himself in this world. It requires a strange self-awareness, whereby everything down to the finest detail must be performed before the eyes of the world.

Really excited to read this. 🐊❤📚

❤❤❤