(Sorry I took so long to write this, I've been working 24/7 😍) Since it's been several weeks since I finished this book, I'm not the best equipped to write a comprehensive review. Instead, I'd like to focus on one aspect I found particularly resonant. As many of you can tell from my reading history and my scribblings, I'm quite interested in feminism. I fell into this interest due to my experiences in the modern world, and naturally that led me to explore its history. Women'

We ate dinner, all of us together again, and I can still remember the tired, backlit image of an average man who thinks he's exceptional. After that, he cleaned his dentures and went to bed. And this is a day lived? This is a human being living a day of his life? A exercise in grief, a portrait of postpartum psychosis, and an existential temper tantrum all rendered in 150 pages of startling prose. First, I must thank Sara for gifting me a gorgeous copy of this book (we've met

Simon became inarticulate in his effort to express mankind's essential illness. Well, this seems particularly resonant at this current moment in history 😀 and I don't think that's a good thing. I'm not even going to try to write a polished essay here while I know that there are hundreds out there about this classic, ones written by scholars much more equipped to articulate "mankind's essential illness" than I am. But, having now read this in my adulthood instead of being int

I was perfectly aware that I had only added another question to all the others, but it was a new one, and, in the absurd world in which I lived, and still live, that was happiness. I could sense this book would be 5 stars from a mile away. Every time I read, I find that the book I'm currently working through eerily reflects the same problems I'm grappling with at that exact moment. And yes, admittedly, that must be because I'm seeking a solution to those problems, but Jacquel

When I went to the kitchen to get some ice, I would look up at the clock hanging above the door: 'only two more hours,' 'only one more hour,' or 'in one hour I'll be here and he'll be gone.' Astonished, I asked myself: 'Where is the present?' At only 67 pages, I'm astounded at how much impact this memoir (?) had on me. If you appreciate the candid nature of Sally Rooney (particularly her short story, "Mr Salary"), you're gonna love Annie Ernaux. Written as an account of her e

She's far happier thinking her sister is normal, even if she has a lot of problems, than she is having an abnormal sister for whom everything is fine. For her, normality—however messy—is far more comprehensible. If I had to boil this book down into one phrase it would be: Why can't everyone just leave me the fuck alone? I wasn't expecting to resonate so deeply with this strange, cathartic satire, but I couldn't help myself from inhaling the whole thing in two sittings. This s

I began dressing Helen Clarke in my mind, putting her in a bathing suit on a snow bank, setting her high in the hard branches of a tree...

Our partners do not belong to us; they are only on loan, with an option to renew—or not. Knowing that we can lose them does not have to undermine commitment; rather, it mandates an active engagement that long-term couples often lose. The realization that our loved ones are forever elusive should jolt us out of complacency, in the most positive sense. I wouldn't recommend this book to everyone because I think what it has to say is truly revolutionary. If you aren't okay with o

The world, the girl knew, was worse than savage, the world was unmoved. I struggled with the writing style of this book when I first...

The crisis facing men is not the crisis of masculinity, it is the crisis of patriarchal masculinity. A compelling collection of essays that successfully argues that the true enemy of the feminist movement is not men, but patriarchy. At its core, this sounds obvious. We all know that individuals aren't the cause of systemic issues, but what many have failed to observe when it comes to gender politics is that "masculinity" and "patriarchal masculinity" are two separate entities