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Participating in this newsletter without recommending a book seemed blasphemous. Girl, Woman, Other is hands down my favorite book of 2020. I read this in about a week, despite its hefty 500 page length, but I am not discovering gold here, this won the Booker Prize last year and for such good reason. There are so many characters (12) and their stories all drift back and forth in time with each other as they illustrate the Black British experience. Each character is distinct in their background, age, identity, and occupation. The book is written in a prose-y, poetic format but still remains incredibly casual. There are no periods! The book ends in a sort of grand finale splendor we often see in film that interconnect all the characters, but this is done in such a way that is emotional and poignant, instead of cringey.
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Read this for school but honestly i still think about it a lot.
Apr 29, 2024
This book blew me away. I’d seen it all over the instagrams of bookshops in London (Daunt Books in particular promotes it like crazy) but even then I didn’t realise just how rich, nuanced, and self-analytical it would be.
Asako Yuzuki is raw and authentic in her depiction of female relationships, in a way that is so real, it’s piercing. From every angle she is able to analyze act of care, how it’s feminised, what it means to give and sacrifice, how that can result in self-negation — and how it ultimately affects all women from all backgrounds, shapes, and sizes.
And she *gets* food.
Nov 5, 2024
both by Toni Morrison. More heavy, intense, uncompromising than the descriptors in the ask but close enough – any opportunity to rec Toni Morrison simply must be taken. She writes characters like no one else – incredibly full of life. She writes about the complex experience of blackness and of girlhood/womanhood with incredible candor and care. It’s both extremely personal and always political.
TW: probably everything, so please be wary if you have sensitivities to traumatic shit.
May 13, 2024
Top Recs from @kelsey
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Real mind over matter shit. If you can face the demons of setting a 6:00 AM alarm, the serotonin gods will kiss you.
Mar 8, 2024
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“Rest I need.”
Jan 28, 2024
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they are like one million dollars respectfully but they do make you so much happier and give you unconditional love
Nov 10, 2023