Like any book with various authors and many short stories, not all of them will necessarily be right for you. My Pen is the Wing of a Bird is no exception to this. Some of these shorts I blanked while reading and couldn't tell you a single thing about them. Others, however, were stunning works that I couldn't pull away from. A few (most) made me angry and frustrated, and a few of them left me sobbing. Others made me smile at the beauty portrayed. Each entry was a necessary voice, a powerful message, and clearly crafted and structured in an order that followed from one story to the next.

To give a special note to the following entries that took my breath away either, my literal breath from crying or due to the unexpected gasp caused by a twist that I did not see coming and was so grateful to have read it.

D for Daud by Anahita Gharib Nawaz is one story that triggered every emotion from heartbreak to love. This is a story I will never forget.

Blossom by Zainab Akhlaqi draws on the real-life bombing of the Sayed ul-Shuhada high school in Kabul

I Don’t Have the Flying Wings by Batool Haidari an entry I did not see coming 

So... The... It goes... In summary.

What?

Can someone please explain if the point of Fractal Noise is anything more than a man's journey dealing with grief and how to come to terms with moving forwards or not?

Conflicted indeed, as I do love Christopher Paolini's writing style, this is without doubt a beautiful book to read. But how this fits into the Fractalverse is lost on me. Other than that it's physically within the same universe, Fractal Noise and To Sleep in a Sea of Stars just seem like completely different realms of books and significance. 

September 20th - Reread*
Okay, I started fresh I enjoyed it more. But still, this writing isn't it for me. I cant quite put my finger on what it is about the style, maybe the repetitiveness. The Plot is great, the characters are ok, the concept is them is there but not the execution. Finally, the way drugs/addiction is handled is infuriating.  

Febuary 6th*
DNF I couldn’t get into this. Hoping to give it another go before the end of 2023 when the* mood strikes. 

I in some ways adored this novel. The writing was so beautiful and surreal.

However, it was too lengthy for such a tale in this style. Eventually, the storyline was lost on me. And for multiple moments I wondered how was we still circling around this same topic. Or other moments when I managed to read multiple pages but not a single thing absorbed.

I did really enjoy it, but it was too long sadly.