Gabriella > Recent Status Updates

It's still a 3 star to me

Honestly the more I think about it the more this feels like a solid three maybe 3.5 star read. It's not life changing but it's also not writing scooped from the silt of Hell. It's entertaining.

I still think I can see where this ends but this guy is being dumb in an interesting way

Now it's picking up steam and we're getting somewhere very interesting indeed

Almost done with Herland, I actually liked the 'twist' and anticipation up to it, lemme tell u for two pages I was on the edge of my SEAT

I find it fitting that the Octavo appears fully on page 88 but I feel like this book could have used some more meat to keep us guessing on who would be who. I mean there's still plenty of guess work to do but it's kinda like 'new character drop(s), okay next card, who could it possibly be???????' In my personal late night opinion it would have been a lot better if the Octavo started to be laid at page 88

It's been a slow read through Herland but that's partly because I don't have the time and I also find it, while insightful, a little redundant in both its own themes and philosophies of 'Herland' and also the typical 'traveler' story which used to be prevalent that I've read a lot about so I'm used to the tropes of it

This reads like something actually written in the 18th Century and honestly it makes the first person enjoyable actually

This plot twist is so boring and overdone I said 'bro' when I read it, if the FMC takes this guy at his word that would be insane. I can practically visualize how this will end. How can someone take such an interesting premise and period of time and make it grating and terrible?

In a never-before-seen plot twist they used the small sad child as a plot device to get the FMC to care about the revolution and introduced a second love interest for c o n f l i c t and d r a m a

It takes a special kind of writing talent to have your character realize how bad the world is 100 times, how bad impassivity is 500 times and the sudden desire to change it 1,000 times.

There's a lot of telling vs showing in this book to the point where if I took a shot every time Affinite contracts were mentioned and how greedy the people who exploited Affinite's were I would be dead on the floor 50 pages ago. I just wish there was something else to talk about here

Herland so far seems to be your typical 'lost traveler' story but it is interesting seeing the views of these men (and how they haven't changed all that much)

This is actually pretty peak so far

I really enjoyed the short stories despite CPG's views she really did pinpoint the behavior of women in a timeless condition

This book is like a nice greasy pizza, you keep saying 'just one more' until your brain is bloated on oily goodness and you have no choice but to slip into an intellectual food coma from which no responsibility can pull you out of.

I really liked the beginning introduction and the collection of stories. It really tells you how mindful Halle Butler was when collecting these stories despite Charlotte's views

I really like the vignette style so far

If I don't finish this tomorrow assume I died of unnatural causes (or I forgot)

If these short stories were considered best loved we were cooked a long time ago

"The Lady with the Toy Dog" and "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" Really picked this anthology up for me

I now know what motherhood will be like with the way this book has been testing my patience. The highs and lows almost follow a three act structure to an almost infuriating degree. Usually I really enjoy these Pushcarts but I've found myself often checking to see when I'll be done with longer pieces of work in here. Despite how drawn out they feel there's a surprising amount of pieces with very little to say.

Honestly while some of the content from the last point to this point was interesting, it wasn't anything noteworthy, very much like the beginning of the book in some of its worst ways, considering I'm almost done (book is actually 477 pages long) I hope that it picks up again soon

"A Simple Heart" was a more traditional story with how everything that can go wrong will go wrong and Felicite's journey through one pain after another. "The Necklace" already sounds more interesting to me but I think it's because times have changed a lot and "A Simple Heart" is no longer universal with people dying at sea or dying from sickness as much.

Last short story was pretty good, and the pacing of longer stories between shorter ones and poetry is really appreciated.

THE KISS really picked up the anthology and Unknown continued that momentum, the essay I just read was a little long and dry but I'll say the spacing of the essays, fiction and poetry are pretty well-done and I appreciate the brevity the editor gives us from the heavy pieces with short pieces so you're never overwhelmed. At least in my experience reading today.

I'm waiting for A Simple Heart to get good

The beginning started off with a punch, and then it began to get a little depressing before The Cloud Lake Unicorn. Even though death of a family member is the next point of the essay I'm reading it still is disheartening to see how depressive and jaded writing has become in twelve years

The first story is extremely heavy but interesting, I can't wait to see what this edition has in store for the year 2023 (which was a great year for me? Are these editions my version of vintage wines/wine tasting? Yes, will I probably collect every single one? Also yes)