tenderjas > Recent Status Updates

I was really excited to read this after listening to an interview w the author, but now that I’m about halfway I’m feeling fatigued. It’s all prose and no plot, which normally I don’t mind, it’s just that aside from dramatized observations about our dystopian reality, I don’t feel like this is saying much of anything at all. I guess I’m just not blackpilled enough to enjoy 200 pages of practiced irony

I actually can’t remember the last time I flew through 200 pages gripped and baffled by a novel. I am officially obsessed with Maria Semple and must devour everything she’s ever written!!!

gnatty

somewhere around pages 100 and 140 this started flopping, hmm, but maybe that’s because this is a Covid book and it’s the height of Covid, a notoriously desultory time. guess there’s only one way to find out! Onward… lol

tfw a book is witty and adroit and unputdownable >

the mark of a good book is (regrettably) how late you stay up reading

still struggling to pinpoint why, but this book stresses me out

note to self: maybe don’t read this one in public

ugh, Joan. she gets me every time

Ok, I’m in. I love it. I hate the unlikable protagonist but I don’t care. At the point where I’m savoring this, rereading passages, because I can tell I’ll finish it quickly and I’ll be sad when I do

I disliked the film, but thought I might like the book because the movie was so visually compelling that I assumed it meant good writing! Wrong. So far it’s just a masturbatory rant with no real point? Normally I am the first to root for an unlikable protagonist but this one is.. A Lot.

A messy protagonist is my favorite protagonist, even better when it’s queer lit fic!

too good, stellar writing, so stellar I start to slip into a clairvoyant trance and my uterus quivers and I hate my husband and I don’t want kids!! Ahhhh lol

I was very intrigued by the title, especially after learning this is a story about a Black woman (ahem), but there’s not much happening by way of character development or plot, just lots of impressive big words. Though significantly less big words where I am now vs the first chapters, which I feel like… says something?

this book is a little too quirky to follow but I love it I love a quirked up moment ! but still, a lil too quirked up for me personally and also so quirky it’s making me kind of less drawn to the idea of picking it up but still LOVE THIS BOOK

Ok so so far I’m kinda sad about the bees dying ngl

I was apprehensive about this book bc of the mixed reviews, but that’s also kind of what drew me in/why I had to read asap. I love drama! If a book’s being divisive I have to know what’s up!! That being said, it did drag for the first tens of pages, but now I’m in & I get it. Sure, sometimes I want the author to expand but she doesn’t, but then she takes us somewhere even wilder and maybe that’s the point

meh

I’m not sure if it’s because I’ve personally coveted the homes on Pineapple Street, and all of Brooklyn Heights for that matter, but I cannot put this book down. It’s told from multiple POVs which is usually a deterrent for me, but this one is so fun and well written that I barely notice. Looking forward to reading on!

I was so drawn by the cover but so far the best part of reading this book has been the foreword, a poem titled “a note to our viewers” and written by somebody who is not the author. The book itself is kinda hard to follow and poorly written, but I’m hoping that’s just because there’s so many characters to keep track of? Regardless, I’m gonna finish!

Joan grieves and we all grieve. I have seen a few reviews saying this book isn’t succinct, it’s hard to follow, etc. But isn’t that just like grief? I am reading this hot off the heals of A Year of Magical Thinking and it’s true, this book reads a bit more scrambled, but I think that may be the point. Didion feels fraught and tired but still she gives us her heart, and for that I am eternally grateful.

I saw a girl reading this book on the train and curiosity got the best of me.. So far it’s about everything I’m into: hot bookish brown guys, rich people from Connecticut, designer dogs

I recently embarked on a mission to read every book with a pink cover & Self Care has been the perfect pink place to start!
tldr- two female cofounders of a tech start up are in crisis bc their sex addicted angel investor has just been MeToo'd! the writing is fun but if I think critically this book fails the bechdel test. it's just girls fixated on this one vacant man! was that the point? Hm.. still, a fun read