JJoyce Yu > Recent Status Updates

Not gripping me

This is so gruesome wtf.. it’s like worse than some of the bad fanfics!!! Very unpleasant ;_; I’ve already decided I’ll skip book club this weekend to go hike so maybe I’ll just dnf….

Death’s end is going super slowly but I’m excited to start on an actual Ken Liu book!

Wow I’m finally finished. This is one of those classics that I just don’t understand. It’s not that gothic and not that romancey. And quite dry! And improbable. Really mid read for me. Naples and campagna sounded beautiful though. I wanna be back on the Amalfi coast again…

Omg what is this bleakness

Adding my WTC textbook to my Goodreads lol.

Kind of a mid read

I am a puddle. What a feat. T_T what a triumph. I’ve never read anything like this. The character is flawed and complex and it just feels so human and intimate and quiet but so dignified. And I know it’s still early in the year but this has got to be a strong contender for my favorite book of the year. I’m in tears and I’m devastated but it’s an at peace kind of devastation. It’s so good. Brava

;’( really moving book ;(((( the Italian family and the thing with the daughter almost moved me to tears… this main character is certainly complex (and not likeable tbh) but she acknowledges her flaws and it just feels like such a poignant depiction of a dignified pass through the metaphorical season of winter…

I finally finished it!!! I guess I’m more open to the message than when I first started this book 5-6 years ago. It’s one of those books you definitely have to have the right mindset (ie extremely open minded and patient) getting into it. I think I’ll implement some messages that resonated with me. But overall it feels like oversimplified easier-said-than-done’s. Like most self help books.

GAH. It’s like the betrothed meets the princess bride. My reading experience can be summed up with white knuckles and the word GAH.

This is such a pleasant read. I love the cameos of authors. Kinda like the Apple TV series I’m watching now called the studio. It also gives old man called ove vibes. Crotchety but adorable old people. Been reading just non fiction and the very very dense Ann Radcliffe and this light and cozy read is just what the doctor ordered as I’m watching poor Lucas my sick kitty cat.

Happy to have finished it with Alan!!! It’s certainly a very reassuring, sex positive read. Now it’s just a matter of doing homework and actually implement positive, non judgmental thinking in my life. As with the sex therapy I’m bad at actually doing the homework. I’ll try harder this year though!

What in the phantom of the opera is going on with that monk! Also if I had a penny every time I read a 19th century novel set in Italy where a betrothed woman gets abducted into a convent/from a convent… I’d have 2 pennies. (rip pennies btw) was that a common occurrence?!

10% in… reads like the bethrothed (dense, archaic) but not like a gothic novel at all

Ok more complicated thoughts: parts of it are definitely clicking with me. But i just feel like it all sounds like the rambling of a person trying to explain trauma response and mindfulness without the full understanding of these concepts. It appeals to the pathos with things that sound profound and sensible until you think about it more and it’s like huh? Like “I’ve got soul but I’m not a soldier.”

The tone rubbed me the wrong way while I’m reading r u mad at me which is specially about anxiety as the nervous system’s automatic trauma responses. It’s not a dnf like the 5am club but this book is the exact type of “easier said than done” type of preaching that I dislike about self help books

Ok i googled some reviews to get validation of how I feel about this book. It sounds like it makes a lot of sense, but it also sounds like gibberish a lot of the times? And the best review phrasing I saw is: heavy on prescription, light on mechanism. Like just open your heart and don’t have any fear! You’ll be happy! Like ok but how specifically though. Also the downplaying of trauma response. Probably why

Read two chapters yesterday because feeling sickly. First time since November. October? Cozy vibes. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to check this off cos it’s a WIP. But I’m still enjoying z’s writing so much.

But I feel like some level of anxiety must be healthy right? If I don’t wanna do my work, and I let the discomfort simply pass through me, and I don’t finish my work, I get fired lol. I feel like a lot of things in life requires hard work and you can’t detach your way through it all

Finishing old books that I never finished. This one I stopped reading cos it’s kinda wack. It’s still kind wack but I’ve certainly become more open to meditation since first picking this up

I feel like I cannot read this without the Hamilton musical soundtrack playing on repeat in my brain lol. THE SHIP IS IN THE HARBOR NOW. SEE IF YOU CAN SPOT HIM.

Let’s go.

Why do you write like you’re running out of time 😭 wow. Finished the book. What an incredible man. despite the many contradictions in the depiction you can’t miss the supremely principled, gentle, competent, tragic, genius, and pure and precious cinnamon roll that was Grant. I bookmarked his mausoleum to visit when I go to NY this summer. Wow. What an incredible read as well. Bravos all around.

Could’ve been avoided if there was an actual unifying effort during reconstruction… like how I will never understand how the rank and file nazis just sorta went home and resumed normal life after the war, I’ll never understand how all the ku klux members just got reabsorbed back into society. I feel like it explains a lot of the civil rights struggles in the southern states today…

I wonder what the authors thoughts are on the theory that if Grant wasn’t such a magnanimous victor to the south the confederacy wouldn’t have been so revered after (even today tbh). I blame Lee. I feel like he could’ve used his influence for good, repaid grant’s generosity at appamadox, and saved people in the south (even the white people) a lot of heartache. I wonder how much of today’s social issues

Realized all three books I’m currently reading are nonfiction! That obviously must be ratified with me being back on my italiaboo bullshit. I’ve also decided my next car is going to be a fiat500 in the most absurd color.