theliteraryteapot's Reviews (314)

Healing fiction I love u!!
I enjoyed the poetic yet simple prose and I will keep Jeongmin's story close to my heart for quite a long time.

My favourite poems were "The Artist", "Before Sleep" and "A Thought".

Reluctantly, this is a dnf. I read the first couple of chapters last year but had to stop as I was not in a mentally good place. I wanted to try again this year since I'm doing much better but all I feel is anxiety (before even opening the book again). So, as much as I want to read this book, I have to admit I simply can't. Not right now, maybe later in life.

Another lovely slice of life mosaic novel by Michiko Aoyama. Her books are exactly what I need, at the right moment. I particularly appreciated the story covering motherhood and working as an editor.
On the other hand, there was constant fatphobia, and I understand the point was to make a parallel between the librarian and Baymax (Disney) but that was a fail and was not okay.

Translator Amira Nowaira wrote an interesting memoir. As stated in the introduction, the title is misleading: political feminism or religion are not much discussed; this is rather the story of a girl growing up in the sixties in Egypt, with the addition of brief commentaries. I don't know, I expected more.

I usually don't feel too sure about reading a correspondence because it's so personal and intimate. At least, the authors' children and partner were involved and supported the idea. A correspondence is an interesting piece of literature that serves as a testimony of history.

I love Audre Lorde (I wrote my master's thesis on her sapphic poetry, please read Sister Outsider) and I'm quite happy to discover Pat Parker, hopefully her work will be more accessible (translations) in the future.
I appreciate the glimpse we get of the reality working as a poet (readings, lack of financial stability, solidarity). Their correspondence felt a bit disparate but they also had conversations over the phone.

Two quotes from Pat Parker (in French translation) which feel a little too relatable in our current political times:
"Ces fascistes sont de plus en plus téméraires et les gens boivent cette folie nationaliste et patriotique comme du petit-lait” (p.101);
“On aurait pu croire que les leçons des années 1930 ou 1940 auraient été suffisantes, mais les gens ont la mémoire courte, ou alors leur connaissance de l’histoire est limitée […]” (p.101).

Honnêtement, je ne sais pas quoi dire. Sans doute il y a quelque chose qui m'échappe, mais je n'ai pas beaucoup apprécié. J'ai seulement bien aimé le vocabulaire poétique.

Une nouvelle plume vraiment intéressante. On voit bien la thématique de la "maison" tout au long des poèmes, reflétant l'idée de défendre son foyer (= l'Ukraine), car c'est chez elle.
Un mes poèmes favoris : "rêve du petit matin".