Every single thing that you loved became a source of both intense obsession and possible shame. Everything was a secret.

I love diaries and this is a great one. It's especially interesting that she devotes more time to her love life and the terrible men involved than to the war. The war is a huge part of her life, but it doesn't stop her from being a regular young woman, with all the feelings any woman her age would have.

Great 1940s crime classic. I had seen the movie years ago but forgotten almost everything about it. Laura isn't quite the femme fatale type you'd imagine from the cover, which I think speaks to how any little bit of independence and sexual freedom on the part of a woman gets misinterpreted as licentiousness and coldness.

Satisfyingly creepy. Loses a little momentum in the middle, but the first and final sections more than make up for it.

I loved this so much. It seemed to me like Ishiguro was playing with some of the same themes as in The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go regarding what it means to exist to serve. #tob21

I liked the first part of this, although I think I might have liked a book about Libertie's mother even more. But I think the last half of the book was too rushed. I wanted more time spent fleshing out the characters in Haiti. #tob21

I read about 30% of this and just couldn't get engaged. The fragmentary style and the gloomy subject matter were a bad combination. #tob22

Started reading this today, and I can tell it's going to be a thinker. I was a member of a conservative evangelical church as a 20something in the 90s and most of my social circle was evangelical at the time. There are aspects of evangelicalism today that I recognize and aspects I do not. I chafed against a lot of the teaching, but I don't remember it being suffused with such meanness. I pray my friends from those days found a better path.

I completely fucking hate you ... No offense
😂

We can only go blundering along in that state of life unto which it shall please God to call us.

I love how Pym's characters let others live their lives and make their own choices, despite sometimes having strong opinions about those choices. She also beautifully captures what it's like to be basically happy while still having doubts and wondering if life could be better.

A functioning society rests on a web of mutuality, a willingness among all involved to share enough with one another to accomplish what no one person can do alone.

To be clear, concluding in brief: there is enough for all. So there should be no more people living in poverty. And there should be no more billionaires. Enough should be a human right, a floor below which no one can fall; also a ceiling above which no one cn rise. Enough is as good as a feast - or better.
Arranging this situation is left as an exercise for the reader.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton responds to accusations that The Women's Bible was the work of the devil.

If a change is coming, it may be good for those who have been suffering with things the way they are, and bad for those who have prospered.

Which of us does not have a devil that lives inside of us, whispering not what is true, but what we wish to believe, out of innocence or cupidity or a hundred other reasons? We must remain ever vigilant against that demon, ever on watch against his pleasing music.

I really enjoyed how this story played around with expectations and perceptions of men and women in relationships. https://shelflove.wordpress.com/2019/12/31/fleishman-is-in-trouble/

Being born rich, you never really know about burden, or survival, no matter how much you think you feel it.

This was the only way to get someone to listen to a woman -- to tell her story through a man. Trojan horse yourself into a man, and people would give a shit about you.

The parts of this book that focused on the interpersonal dynamics within the group when placed under stress were fascinating, but it was way too difficult to get a handle on their work and their motives. #tob20
https://shelflove.wordpress.com/2019/12/30/overthrow/

Took me ages to get around to this, and it is a great book. Still feels relevant. https://shelflove.wordpress.com/2019/12/29/americanah-2/

A lot to ponder here.
Although the most interesting stuff in this book is not about the Internet, privacy, and protests but about how (supposedly) tight-knit groups fall apart. #tob20

Had a Barnes and Noble gift card to spend, so headed over this morning to grab a #tob20 book that my library doesn't have and another with a very long holds list.

There's a lot in this book to ponder, and I like that about it. I pull at some of the dangling threads in my review. #tob20 https://shelflove.wordpress.com/2019/12/26/trust-exercise/

Isobel Moore is on her own for the first time at age 30, after her father's death, and after spending her life pleasing and serving him, she's finally able to please herself. But this turns out to be more difficult than she expected. I really liked the turn this took toward the end, where Isobel has to question her own motives again and again. And Gordon's attitude toward Catholicism is complex in a way that I appreciated.

"How did I become, at thirteen, such a monster of certainty? My sureness was imperial; at thirteen I could have led armies."

Love that image of a certain kind of youthful certainty.

I loved the idea of this book, and there were brilliant moments throughout, but, on the whole, it didn't work for me. There was just too much going on, from the book within the book to the lengthy one-sentence passage supposedly from the mind of a 10-year-old. This kind of formal experimentation can be emotionally distancing, and that was the case here for me. The form overwhelmed the often compelling story.

Unhappiness grows slowly. It lingers inside you, silently, surreptitiously. You nourish it, feeding it scraps of yourself every day -- it is the dog kept locked away in the back patio that will bite if you let it.

We feel time differently. No one has been quite able to capture what is happening or say why. Perhaps it's just that we sense an absense of future, because the present has become too overwhelming, so the future becomes unimaginable. And without future, time feels like only an accumulation.

I always enjoy a Ruth Rendell novel, even when it's not a top tier one. This early novel about a woman searching for a missing friend is more of a traditional mystery than her later books. Some elements of the story probably worked better in 1966 than they do now, but it was still fun to follow the clues and makes guesses along the way.

An enjoyable retelling of the story of Circe. I especially appreciated the characters and how Miller wove in characters not usually associated with Circe, often in ways that illuminate different ideas of womanhood.

Starts out as a typical tale of a spinster striking out on her own, and then takes a turn into a wholly unexpected but wonderfully subversive direction. But I won't say more than that as part of the fun was the surprise. I suggest avoiding commentary before reading even if, like me, you generally don't mind spoilers.

"Nothing is impracticable for a single, middle-aged woman with an income of her own."

Possible new life motto?

I really enjoyed this version of the Trojan War, as experienced by Briseis, enslaved as a war prize by Achilles. The book draws attention to the many on the sidelines whose feelings are left out of the great stories. The emotions throughout are deeply felt and complicated, and Briseis is allowed to have difficult and sometimes contradictory feelings.

Devastating novella about motherhood, mental illness, and one last grasp at joy. I knew where it was most likely going from the beginning but kept hoping it was not going there. Any number of sad endings would have been easier to take.

This story is wild, but ended up being quite moving in the end. I was watching Fleabag at the same time that I read this and found some common threads between the characters and their approaches to love and sex.

My favorite book by one of my favorite authors. Read it for the third time while in Scotland. Every time I read it, I find something new, but it's always emotionally devastating.

Rachel Held Evans' death last week moved this to the top of my TBR. Feels like good reading for Eastertide.

Started out well, but the last half had some pacing issues that made it feel like the book was glossing over some of the serious challenges of recovering from trauma.

There is no such thing as not voting: you either vote by voting, or you vote by staying home and tacitly doubling the value of some Diehard's vote.

Book number 3 from my #manbooker longlist reading. I was skeptical about the premise, but at 88 pages in, I'm liking it a lot.

My second read from the #manbooker long list. Lovely writing and a good story about lives and worlds colliding.

The only #manbooker nominee I read before the longlist. I didn't love it as much as many seem to, but it's still very, very good.

For #24in48: Some of my favorite book swag is related to The Dark Tower series. Stephen King at his best!

Taking a while to get into a reading mood on #24in48 day 2, but finally ready to settle in with my old friends Aubrey and Maturin.

First book on Sunday morning of #24in48 is a no-go. Picked it up at random from a library display because the premise was intriguing and I vaguely remembered seeing positive buzz. But there's a lot of body horror in this. I have a weak stomach for that kind of thing, especially when it's visual. That and the non-linear format is leading me to bail.

Next up for #24in48

As brilliant and wrenching as everyone says.

Finally starting my #24in48 reading with a book I've gotten from the library at least twice but haven't made time for.