letters to march reads & other media
the books i read in march + some youtube videos, playlists, podcast episodes, and substack articles i loved!
books
Same As It Ever Was by Claire Lombardo
5 stars
I enjoyed this book a lot - for many of the reasons it was given bad reviews, in fact! The main character is flawed, but I found her character study thorough and detailed. The author obviously put a lot of thought into this character, because she felt so alive to me. It's long, yes, with a lot of storylines of times in her life. For some, this is why the story felt slow or dragged on, but for me, it was how I really got to know the main character. I deeply related to the main character, and also saw a lot of my mother in it as well, and the overlap of relating and recognizing gave me empathy for my mother who is passed. The themes of motherhood, womanhood, childhood trauma, friendship, and desire wove together perfectly.
The Pisces by Melissa Broder
3.75 stars
Ah, this book is complicated for me! The magical realism mixed with sex and love addiction was beautiful. Addiction can make a narrator unreliable, in the sense that what they experience is 100% true to them, but perhaps not objectively factual. I think that the magical realism really enhanced this. This author is also fantastic about being so real with her characters. She explores the depth of humanity, even if it isn't pretty. It was an enticing read, and I finished it quite quickly. Much of my copy is highlighted because of the number of lines that deeply resonated with me. I also believe that the merman she encounters was just a hallucination of her addiction-rattled mind, but this was never confirmed, which I like.
I had a hard time with the animal abuse, though. I know it was used as a way to highlight just how consuming her addiction was - addiction isn't pretty or neat or simple, and it makes people do things they would normally never. This also helped validate a statement that was presented early in the book: that sex and love addiction harms not just ourselves. I think the death of a dog helped show just how true this is. I don't think it was wrong to include in the book! I just didn't like reading it. But, to drive the themes and messages home, she needed to make the reader very uncomfortable, and she sure did accomplish it...
I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, but I do think it's a well-told story.
Worry by Alexandra Tanner
4.5 stars
I listened to the audiobook, and it was stunning. It's the same woman who narrated Yellow Face, and she is so versatile that I almost didn’t recognize her voice - and I just finished Yellow Face! The jokes and banter are delivered so delightfully in the audiobook.
This is a story of two sisters and a toxic parent. The main character is anxious and avoidant, which makes for an interesting perspective - and a comforting one, as I love consuming stories about people who let me imagine my own shadow side and unhealed parts act out what they would do. I (unfortunately, lol) found the main character very relatable. I appreciate how real these two characters felt.
I wanted a liiiiitle more from the ending - I know why it ended that way, but I wish it left me feeling like even if it wasn’t resolved, at least a small conclusion.
The Odyssey by Homer
Giving a star rating to Homer seems wrong, so that's why I left it blank. This challenged me a bit, but I enjoyed it! I read it in high school before, but forgot much of it. I also used the podcast Let's Talk about Myths, Baby! to help recap the chapters, as I did miss some details. It's dense, of course, since we don't speak this way anymore, but once I got in the flow, I was able to really enjoy it. In the same podcast, Liz has episodes where she reads the entire book as an audiobook in podcast format, so that is also a very accessible way to get the story as well.
youtube
substack articles
playlists
podcast episodes
what did we share? did we have any overlaps? Let me know :)
letters to self-education
how i created a curriculum to learn on my own for myself - not for grades or credit, but just because i want to learn.
letters to the pomegranate seeds (and my anger)
Sometimes, when I look into the mirror, I see someone I know in pieces. I know her through so many eyes, but the eyes I see her in the least are my own.