Amanda Stone > Recent Status Updates

love the bringing together of scientific biological features of becoming a mother, the emotional landscape, and the socio-cultural context and way our insane society impacts mothers. such an important book, wish i could make every mother and potential mother i know read it! although it’s extremely repetitive, not structured particularly well, and completely fails to mention queer parenthood and gender nonconformity

kind of a crazy read! for most of it, it was like if a sci fi plot was written in beach read style, then suddenly got super intense plot-wise and now I think it was a form of historical fiction? was really easy to read, i feeeel like there were maybe plot holes/inconsistencies but really i wasn’t trying to be observant enough to clock them. enjoyed! plenty of gayness too

another embarrassing title to add to my shelf - extremely trashy beach read vibes, ridiculous and very flawed plot, cheesy writing, but i still somehow couldn’t stop listening to- ya gal loves a lesbian book. “coffee girl” and “subway girl” - this book is like a premonition of chappell roan (but of course chappell does it better)

ugh this one is from the perspective of a vaguely insufferable straight white guy who lives in wellington and he’s just so unlikeable i can’t do it. in a slight reading slump and this sure isn’t pulling me out of it.

okay this one was recommended by friends but i didn’t realise it was like a thousand pages?? and also i was moving flats last month so not much reading happened before it was due back to library. maybe will try again someday

very very cute lesbian coming of age vibes. enjoyed the writing on vietnam and its cuisine, made me reminisce on my visit there, and got surprisingly emotional at the end. nothing serious though, very much beach read vibes, a great audiobook for the walk home from work

pausing here on this one bc it’s overdue at the library - enjoying, it’s pretty crackup, not like sold on it but still want to see where it goes when i eventually read the rest

loved this book, important topics that don’t get enough attention and so nice to have so many NZ perspectives. the one issue i had was so many people talking about overpopulation and climate change as a reason to not have kids - that kind of thinking has been shown long ago to be so problematic when a few companies and billionaires are the real cause of climate change, not ordinary people. other than that fantastic

this whole book had me in fight or flight ngl. didn’t love the start writing style-wise, felt like we leapt straight into things without a compelling intro but i was completely gripped and couldn’t put it down towards the end. a truly horrifying portrayal of leaving domestic abuse, a really powerful telling of that story. sobbed a lot.

hmmm not sure about this one - probs unpopular opinion but the language is kinda old fashioned and at times unhelpful (ie talking about “lies” when she mostly meant people not really listening to themselves/being honest with themselves), reads as very preachy, and is kinda giving common sense nothing new? idk if i will persist

okay so this was a fascinating concept and lowkey read like a slow burn horror at some parts, but wow the first 300 pages kinda sucked. i had to see where it was going but the buildup made the plot twists predictable (and i am not usually one to see things coming) and it just took so long to get to the point. the last 80 or so pages were better but damn that story was so grim!!

stunning, beautiful, gorgeous, astoundingly easy to read for a non fiction. for anyone who loved braided sweetgrass, this is for you. love the blend of poetry and essays and memoir, not many people do the cross-discipline writing in a way i enjoy but nadine has nailed it. definitely will read again.

didn’t love this - was compelling and hard to put down, but thought it fell into a lot of tropes and the relationship they had with their parents needed more detail and fleshing out for me. compared to The Names, this book really focused on everything going wrong - i wanted more time on the mending and rebuilding, the ending. also described a character as Black but left us to assume everyone else was white - weird

lovedddd this book! at first thought i wasn’t going to - it’s about domestic violence, pretty grim, very sickening, but it’s so beautifully told and written i was hooked and kept going and im so glad i did. i love books where you get to see the characters life over so much time, to see how things end up in the long run, very satisfying. cried lots.

pretty depressing to read from the perspective of a homophobic mother. there were some glimmers of insight and hope but really felt like the mother was a one dimensional character, which seemed like a missed opportunity given that it’s told from her point of view. also grim view of aged care work. also felt like i missed a lot because it’s a translation, maybe the original was better

really enjoyed this!! def fits in the beach read category, not high brow or mind blowing, just extremely readable and intriguing enough to keep me going (all 500 pages!). loveeee how this author leaves so many leads and then ties all the threads together at the end (she also wrote big little lies) extremely satisfying

i’m DNFing this book it’s boring as hell, 60 pages in and literally nothing has happened and it’s mostly her inner monologue which is very unexciting

this was pretty dull with a nice heartening ending. at least it was a quick read! i feel quite gloomy after but not sure if that is the book or being in my childhood home.

literally cackled at this book, i’ve never read something that made me laugh out loud so much!! the last quarter was unfortunately quite boring, it dragged a bit towards the end, but otherwise loved it. got a bit confused sometimes - i didn’t realise she had brothers at all until over halfway through the book lol could have done with some context but otherwise fab, especially for non fiction

so completely devastating. extremely immersive writing style that had me feeling so anxious i felt sick for the last half of the book. one of the most infuriating yet completely understandable main characters ever. how many queer lives have been lost to how she lived!! i’m so glad it ended when it did rather than her ending up ancient and repressed. couldn’t sleep had to finish the book.

emotionally DESTROYED by this one. spent the whole day reading instead of working from home, i was hooked from the start. stunningly beautiful view of the classic grandmother/mother/daughter combo, devastating to see all the things they haven’t told each other and how much it affects their relationships. sobbed so much.

EXTREMELY anger inducing, i was livid at all the men in her life, this book fuelled my misandry and devastated me. however it was weirdly written and didn’t have enough detail to centre it in place - the covid allegory was weird and unconvincing, and sometimes it went too far and was blatantly just talking about covid not a volcano. also there was too much poetry that i feel like i didn’t really get

horrifying (as it should be), fantastically written, the use of little vignettes and second person perspective to relive the trauma is really powerful, don’t know how the fuck she wrote that tbh i hope it was cathartic. 4.5 stars when will goodreads ever let me do a half

just so gorgeously written, really sparse but every sentence is so important and worthwhile. loving this series which i didn’t really expect! although (i think because it’s so sparse) i can’t seem to shake reading it in a british accent in my head even though it’s so so american

such a gorgeous book and even more special to have met Lois in person and imagine her writing it. was a bit dry at first to be honest but the second half was way easier to read. i’m honestly quite jealous of the lesbian community in the 80s and 90s in welly, they had so many bars and clubs and magazines and cool things that we’ve just lost now and replaced with the internet :,)

not sure how i felt about this one - basically like the 10pm question (ie from the perspective of a young, very neurodivergent child who has a chaotic family life) but a less enjoyable read. a little bit dystopian but only in ways that made the plot a bit harder to follow rather than making the story more interesting imo

tore through it - i don’t usually like short stories, and this isn’t really short stories as much as connected vignettes, but i really enjoyed this - the way it all connected from the first book in the series to this, kind of is trauma porn but very readable

so gorgeous!!! incredibly sapphic, the love letters blew my mind with how lesbian they are. devastatingly loving, and a surprisingly happy ending

holy fuck this was beautiful. just outstanding. i’m lost for words. every twist took me completely by surprise. what a reflection on being queer, being a daughter and a mother, being pregnant. sobbed, and i hardly ever cry at books

a startling depiction of mother daughter relationships, quite harrowing, sparse, didn’t say too much just enough. it’s astounding how a good well written ending can really bring a book together and change my whole opinion of the thing, a really good read