On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous | 
pickI knew this book would have an emotional wallop so I held off for a while. It's clear Ocean Vuong is pulling on his own experience in this novel, because it shares some of the sentiments and emotions I experienced in his poetry collection, Night Sky with Exit Wounds. (The pink background is connected to a scene in the novel.)
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Book mail! I have a few books I have to finish then I‘m diving into these!
#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain
1. On Earth You're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
2. Condomnauts by Yoss and Passing Strange by Ellen Klages
3. Making beaten biscuits as mentioned in Gone with the Wind!
“The time I tried to teach you to read the way Mrs. Callahan taught me...that act (a son teaching his mother) reversed our hierarchies, and with it our identities, which, in this country, were already tenuous and tethered.”
This book is so tender, so special. I‘m afraid to read it too quickly but bc it‘s a library book, I have just a few days left before I return it. I will most definitely buy a copy but also likely, I‘ll just return it late...
Just got my first #boxwalla book box and I feel like these picks are totally perfect for me. Hopefully, I still feel that way after I read them but I'm pretty confident.
Okay, it seems like everyone is talking about this book, so while traveling for work I stopped by an indie bookstore to buy it. Because if I‘m paying list price for a hardcover, I want to buy it from an indie. I‘m so excited to read it, but I have 3 books checked out from the library. Such is my life. -Becca
pickI can't tell you how beautiful this book is. Combining poetry with breathtaking prose, the novel is told through the narratives of Little Dog and his mother. Vietnamese refugees, both characters struggle with their own separate identities in regards to family, war trauma, PTSD, culture, love, and sexuality. Highly recommended.
pickGorgeous writing. No extra embellishment needed just piercing and stunning use of language/words.
There is a superb interview with the author in The Paris Review. https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2019/06/05/survival-as-a-creative-force-an-i...
pickI don't remember the last book I read that's so perfectly my wheelhouse. Evocative writing. Heartbreaking confessional.
"He was only nine but had already mastered the dialect of damaged American fathers." (After being told to speak English and to look at him when he was talking, on the bus to school)
I've been patiently waiting for the release of this book for over a month. I have high expectations, I'm so excited to get into it. Hope it doesn't disappoint.
pickA son writes a letter to his illiterate mother, and beauty and trauma rushes out in poetry. There are times when this poet-written novel perhaps veers too far into poetry, into abstraction I should say, but it doesn‘t detract too much from the brilliance of this book—its best lines still awe. This is a visceral and soaring meditation on generational trauma, sexuality, the written word, and the bond between mother and child, a groundbreaking work.
?IT‘S NEW BOOK DAY!? Here are some of today‘s new books! There are several more out today that I am excited about, including Peter and Ned's Ultimate Travel Journal by Preeti Chhibber, Why My Cat Is More Impressive Than Your Baby by The Oatmeal, No Friend But the Mountains by Behrouz Boochani, Five Midnights by Ann Dávila Cardinal, Among the Lost by Emiliano Monge, and Underland by Robert Macfarlane. What are you excited to read? ?❤️?
Jason Reynolds says it‘s amazing. As does NYT and many others. One reviewer said it‘s “permanently stunning”. I‘m def gonna check this one out when it drops tomorrow!! Learn more at www.oceanvuong.com
so-soThere were parts of this that I liked a lot, and there were other parts that dragged a bit. It didn‘t blow me away. Full disclosure - I struggle to find the patience I need for poetry. This is a very poetic novel.
Because I shop so much at my local indie, 🤦🏼♀️ they let me in the back room to take as many ARCs as I wanted!!! 😮🤪👏🏼🎉 I‘m so excited. I bought the bottom three because, of course. 😬
@Soubhiville , I grabbed Daisy Jones for you—it‘ll be on the way shortly.
Love lists like these. Although my TBR list is suffering. Also isn‘t the tagged book title just gorgeous?
https://www.powells.com/post/lists/we-cant-wait-the-best-reads-of-2019
Love lists like these. Although my TBR list is suffering. Also isn‘t the tagged book title just lovely?
https://www.powells.com/post/lists/we-cant-wait-the-best-reads-of-2019
pick“Let me begin again...”
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This is a story of survival. Little Dog writes a letter to his mother, a refugee who cannot read. This is a story of addiction and violence, race and sexuality, love and expression. This is Little Dog‘s confession, a family history, and an examination of language as both a barrier and a bridge.
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And I am floored. I didn‘t want it to end, yet couldn‘t stop myself from consuming it all so quickly!
pickI know, I know, it‘s incredibly overdue, but trust me, you want to savor every single word of this book. Literally the best kick off for 2019.
All parts beauty and a work on identity. Much like Alexander Chee, ON EARTH WE‘RE BRIEFLY GORGEOUS portrays incredible amounts of terrible, haunting images and paints them with beauty, love, and sexuality. It‘s art at its finest, and writing like none other.
I love New Year‘s Day, because it means I start a whole new reading log, and I get to pick the first book I‘m going to read. Choosing my first read of a new year might be my favorite part of the holidays! Do you select a specific book to start off a new year of reading? I spent the morning deciding on mine - I picked the book tagged for this post! 📚🎉❤️
5h