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IuliaC

IuliaC

Joined January 2019

Lover of books, animals and magic ✨️
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Ghosts by Dolly Alderton
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Violeta by Isabel Allende
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Three Women by Lisa Taddeo
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Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
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IuliaC
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A lovely short story collection written by an architect who's lived in all the cities where her characters love, live, die, mourn and suffer: Stockholm, Bucharest, New York, Oradea, Barcelona, from the '50s to the present day. With a touch of magic realism, the stories are imbued with signs, mysterious messages and premonitions born in dreams and alternate realities, while the last story ends with a shocking twist like a wake up call to reality.

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IuliaC
I Miss You When I Blink: Essays | Mary Laura Philpott
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Pickpick

Many of these essays resonated with me and the funny potrayal of the type-A personality was so honest and relatable. She reminds us how beautiful, scary and brave it is to be a child, a young adult, a parent...

I found ingenious her longing for a time machine allowing us to go back and forth in time and relive our life at different ages and maybe avoid or overcome our mid-life crisis by staying connected with older versions of ourselves.

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IuliaC
Simon | Narine Abgarian
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While I enjoyed "Three Apples Fell From the Sky", I simply loved this one! Her prose is mesmerizing.

In a small town in Armenia, Simon's funeral is attended by all the women who loved him and whom he saved with his love from their disturbingly traumatic destinies:

IuliaC Susanna his first love haunted by her dark past, tender Eliza betrayed by her husband, Silvia abused by her in-laws and locked in a mental hospital unable to raise her child, Sofia who couldn't have children, and his wife Melania who knew everything but couldn't live without him.
These are stories of women who have survived in a conservative society during a terrible century shaken by war, genocide, famine, epidemics and political turmoil.
2w
59 likes1 comment
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IuliaC
Verity | Colleen Hoover
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A fast read but I was not impressed by the plot. It is common, predictable and very unrealistic.

RaeLovesToRead I see a nose!!!! 😻 3w
IuliaC @RaeLovesToRead and an eye 😂🤗 3w
The_Penniless_Author Hey, your cat looks like my cat (my other cat, not the one in my profile pic 😸)! 3w
IuliaC @The_Penniless_Author The cat in your profile pic looks a bit like my second cat 😻 The pic is super cute! 3w
66 likes4 comments
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IuliaC
Flights | Olga Tokarczuk
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Dense, reflective, philosophical. Longer and shorter personal and fictional stories and a brief history on plastination; an unnerving and haunting dissection of the human body and of human paroxysmal emotions.

"This always happens when she flies: she gets a bird‘s eye view of her whole life, of particular moments that you‘d think on the ground had been completely forgotten. The banal mechanism of the flashback, mechanical reminiscence."

Jari-chan Can't wait for my next Tokarczuk ❤️ 4w
IuliaC @Jari-chan This one was my second and I enjoyed them both 😊 4w
61 likes2 comments
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IuliaC
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“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”

I enjoyed this discussion between famous naturalist Jane Goodall and author Douglas Abrams on the power of hope, how we reconquer it along with trust in our intellect and our capacity for action to create a sustainable world for all species.

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IuliaC
Remarkably Bright Creatures | Shelby Van Pelt
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This was such a wonderful read!
I particularly loved how the character of the octopus Marcellus was developed; he is a great and exquisite narrator, giving more depth and meaning to the story. His lines are funny, yet he appears for the heart-wrenching reality. Overall, really heart-warming!

KLyn1 The more I hear about this book, the more compelled I am to read. 1mo
73 likes1 stack add1 comment
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IuliaC
Iubire fara lacrimi | Alexandru David
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Pickpick

I almost can't believe I've read this one; it's called 'Love Without Tears". It looks exactly like a book produced with generative AI or some similar software. But, it's a very useful and well-done summary of famous self-help books on love and relationships published by well-known authors such as Gary Chapman, John and Julie Gottman, Esther Perel etc.

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IuliaC
Mastile fricii | Camelia Cavadia
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I raced through this book, just couldn't put it down!

Ema, Sofia and David grow with an extremely abusive father. Their mother is helpless and a victim herself. He dies when they are almost teenagers, they are relieved and they try to build lives and families of their own. But they remain haunted by their past and every bit of happiness they seem to achieve collapses under the immense weight of their childhood trauma.

dabbe 🖤🐾🖤 1mo
IuliaC @dabbe 😻 1mo
62 likes1 stack add2 comments
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IuliaC
Ophanim | Ana Barton
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I loved, loved this book! Written using stream of consciousness, this novel depicts Ophanim's life journey marked by his relationship with his mother. With an unusual name of biblical sonority, his story is common yet human and heart-warming, he sees life through a magical lens.

"Earlier a bird has flown through my heart. A small bird, but it's that kind of bird, when it passes, it takes your wonders and even your fears under its wings."

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IuliaC
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida | Shehan Karunatilaka
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I enjoyed this novel; very informative on the recent painful history of civil war-torn Sri Lanka. Maali Almeida, a photographer who has just died, is trying to solve the mystery of his own death by communicating with his loved ones and helping them publish his photos to expose the atrocities of the war. In the afterlife his mission is guided by two opposed forces, Dr. Ranee and Mahakali, each symbolizing a dimension of his country and of its past.

BkClubCare I enjoyed this, too. So different and it had funny as well as loving moments. 2mo
Jari-chan Just started this one this morning! 2mo
IuliaC @BkClubCare Exactly, it's such a rich prose 2mo
See All 6 Comments
IuliaC @Jari-chan I hope you enjoy it! 😃 2mo
Leniverse One of my favourites from last year. 2mo
IuliaC @Leniverse A great read 🤩 2mo
58 likes2 stack adds6 comments
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IuliaC
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Mehso-so

This book is basically based on the presentation of 8 actual case studies of families with a large diversity of multi-generational common issues and traumas.
While each and every one of these family stories is interesting and insightful in its own way, I couldn't seize any real and useful conclusion which could be applicable beyond these particular cases, except for some well-known and common sense advice on how to improve family dynamics.

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IuliaC
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Pickpick

I read two collections of short stories, all revolving around love. I enjoyed some of them more than others and I found particularly poignant those on love outside of marriage and on failure in love. It is interesting to see how the course of love and relationships were dictated by women's condition and status at the end of the 19th century, a different world indeed.

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IuliaC
Happy Litsyversary! | Special Events
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It's my Litsyversary 🎉🥂📖📚 Wow, 5 years already!
Such a great place to be!

Dilara Happy Litsyversary! 2mo
julesG Happy Litsyversary 🎈🎉🥳 2mo
Librarybelle Happy Litsyversary! 2mo
See All 19 Comments
Bookwomble Happy Litsyversary 🎇 2mo
AmyG 🎉🎉🎉 2mo
Jas16 Happy Litsyversary 🎉📚🙌🏽 2mo
Ladygodiva7 🥳 Happy Litsyversary!! 🎉🎈🎊 2mo
Gissy Happy Litsyversary 📚📚📚🥳🎉🎉🎉🥰 2mo
TheBookgeekFrau Happy Litsyversary!!! 🎊 2mo
Ruthiella Happy Litsyversary! 🥳🥳🥳 2mo
IuliaC Thank you @Ruthiella ! 🎉🥂 2mo
dabbe HL! 🖤💜🖤 2mo
Megabooks 🎉🎉🎉 2mo
BarbaraBB Glad you‘re here 💕 2mo
IuliaC Thank you @dabbe and @Megabooks !! 🤗🎈 2mo
IuliaC @BarbaraBB Glad I've found this place and you lovely people 🤗 2mo
PaperbackPirate Happy Litsyversary! 📚📘📘 2mo
IuliaC Thank you @PaperbackPirate !! 🤗🎉 2mo
44 likes19 comments
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IuliaC
A Woman's Life | Guy de Maupassant
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I found this one as an ebook and as I haven't seen the movie, I thought I should give it a try. It turned out to be just as captivating as a film. The prose is soft and beautiful and produces so many different emotions. In 19th century traditional French countryside, we see how women's lack of choice led to the decline of an aristocratic lady who can't but remain passive while her life progressively worsens.

67 likes1 stack add
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IuliaC
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I enjoyed this collection of soul-stirring short stories. They focus more on characters and emotions than on the plot itself, but they are beautifully written and carry the unspoken burden of a poignant reality.

TheLudicReader The Doll's House is one of my all-time favourite stories. I al ays get teary at the end. Love The Garden Party, too. 2mo
IuliaC @TheLudicReader I got a bit teary at the end of several of them 😊 2mo
57 likes1 stack add2 comments
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IuliaC
The Age of Innocence | Edith Wharton
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Such remarkable depiction of the atmosphere governing New York‘s high society at the end of the 19th century, of its etiquette and social conventions at a time when appearances mattered enormously and the wealthy were expected to conduct themselves by these norms, even if it implied acting against their true feelings. The love triangle does not impress much throughout the story but the ending, which is truly brilliant, makes it sparkle.

55 likes1 stack add
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IuliaC
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"It isn‘t about changing the mechanics of economics. It is about changing the ideas, the dogmas that have driven economics for centuries: debt and fear, insufficiency, divide and conquer. It is about revolution. The transition from a death economy to a life economy is truly about a change in consciousness — a consciousness revolution."

40 likes1 stack add
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IuliaC
Before We Say Goodbye: A Novel | Toshikazu Kawaguchi
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Another four sweet stories with a bit of a twist to make the dialogue between characters returning to their past unexpected in the most realistic way possible.

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IuliaC
Before We Say Goodbye: A Novel | Toshikazu Kawaguchi
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I've just realized I enjoy these time travel café stories so much because they are incredibly therapeutic; these short books leave the reader with a sense that people are able to heal emotionally if they choose to do so.

In real life they also make me think of the systemic family constellations therapy as a possible substitute for what the café facilitates.

Lunakay Wonderful summary! And a fifth one is coming this year!😍 2mo
IuliaC @Lunakay wow, good news! thank you for letting me know 🤗👍 2mo
44 likes2 stack adds2 comments
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IuliaC
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Pickpick

What a lovely collection of essays! A great capacity to make use of some of the most common things, such as a relationship, a photo, an online game or a breakup, to attract the reader's empathy and compassion. My favorite was the one about stepmothers.

"Don't assume the contours of another person's heart. Don't assume its desires."

"one more definition of love: committing to a story you can't fully imagine when it begins."

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IuliaC
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Pickpick

This one's got fabulous illustrations and it's equally enticing for children and adults.

UwannaPublishme 😍🙌🏻 3mo
51 likes1 comment
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IuliaC
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Such a heart-warming novel on the pursuit of happiness and how we fail in love.
Cesare is 77, an age when each day alive is a gift, and he realizes it might be his last chance to do things he wouldn't have dared to before. He finds himself trapped between the struggle to restore his relationship with his children, to improve his personal life and the few long-lasting friendships, and the attempt to save a young neighbor from domestic violence.

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IuliaC
Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter | Simone de Beauvoir
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It is quite challenging to read such a memoir; it requires time and patience and a certain state of mind, an openness to absorb the unfolding of a life in a different era, down to the tiniest detail.
“Alone: for the first time I understood the terrible significance of that word. Alone without a witness, without anyone to speak to, without refuge. The breath in my body, the blood in my veins, all this hurly-burly in my head existed for nobody.”

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IuliaC
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Mehso-so

Briefly, the point is that in a culture centered on faking positivity and optimism, anxiety and depression spike, as people are not allowed to show and voice their pain and problems and accept that human sorrow is natural and inevitable.
I found this one rather boring and repetitive, maybe because I come from a culture where the role of a bittersweet state of mind is already acknowledged in overcoming pain and responding to grief with compassion.

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IuliaC
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Very eye-opening examination of codependency and the reasons why people develop this almost addiction to things, behaviors and other people, as a result of unsatisfied emotional needs and which affects so many of us. The book also recommends a recovery plan for those who intend to break the cycle and escape the labyrinth of codependency.

Robinsonbrandon129 Hello Lulia 4mo
Robinsonbrandon129 How are you doing? 4mo
IuliaC @Robinsonbrandon129 Hi, I'm fine, how are you? 4mo
Robinsonbrandon129 Hello there, Thanks for following me, I hope you are fine? please do you mind sending me an email, I just want to have a friendly conversation with you and get to know you, I must say your profile is appealing. This is my email address and I expect to hear from you soon. robsonbrandon66@gmail.com Thank you. 4mo
50 likes4 comments
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IuliaC
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Great book!

“Individuals who are codependent “dance” so well with individuals who are narcissists because their pathological personalities or “dance styles” are complementary. In other words, they are perfectly matched partners. Their well-matched dance preferences bond them together in a resilient and lasting partnership, even if one or both partners are unhappy, resentful or angry.“

49 likes1 stack add
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IuliaC
The Seven-Day Love Prescription | Julie Schwartz Gottman, John Schwartz Gottman
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The prescription consists of seven really down to earth and easily applicable recommendations to keep a couple's connection alive, as the authors also say:
“Here's our hope for you, after this week: That you felt a little closer to your partner after including these practices in your day. That you two laughed together at some point. That you felt that warm glow of connection, the cha-ching! of coins dropping into the emotional bank account.“

51 likes1 stack add
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IuliaC
Villa Triste | Patrick Modiano
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In the 1960s, 18-year old Victor Chmara is afraid of something and is hiding in a small French town close to Switzerland where he pretends to be a count of Russian and Egyptian origin. In this place populated by strange characters, he meets Yvonne. The time spent with her continues to haunt him and years later he returns in an attempt to find her.

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IuliaC
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Mehso-so

This psychological and metaphysical prose was published in the 1930s. It feels like a confession, where the outside world is perceived as too common, boring and useless and the narrator struggles to escape it by hiding in his inner world, where anxiety, unrest and morbid thoughts torture him.

Bookwomble I gave up on this one when it started describing child sexual abuse and had recently been thinking of trying it again now I'm prepared for that content, but I think perhaps not, after all. 5mo
IuliaC @Bookwomble Now that you've mentioned it, I'm not sure if that was an actual scene which took place in reality, or just a bizzare imagining in the narrator's hyperreality where he placed precocious or forbidden love experiences... 5mo
Bookwomble @IuliaC I think you're right, but narratively real or imagined, I wasn't prepared for those scenes, which put me off, at least temporarily, from continuing. On reflection, I don't think I will go back to it. 5mo
IuliaC @Bookwomble I can understand why. I found this book hard to read in general 5mo
50 likes4 comments
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IuliaC
Serotonin | Michel Houellebecq
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"Was I capable of being happy in solitude? I didn‘t think so. Was I capable of being happy in general? That‘s the kind of question, I think, that is best not asked."

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IuliaC
Men Without Women | Haruki Murakami
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This is not the usual Murakami but I enjoyed it tremendously! Seven short stories about men and their experiences and relationships with women, that simply strike a chord.

ShelleyBooksie Beautiful cup and saucer 5mo
IuliaC @ShelleyBooksie thank you! 😊 5mo
56 likes3 stack adds2 comments
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IuliaC
Riquet la houppe | Amelie Nothomb
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Pickpick

Although the book's title is 'Ricky of the Tuft', it does not have much to do with Perrault's tale, or at least it has more than a modern and funny twist.

Déodat is an extremely intelligent and terribly ugly young man. Trémière is an otherwordly beautiful and discrete young lady. Their qualities make them both society outcasts. They are destined to meet.

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IuliaC
Le Voyage d'hiver | Amelie Nothomb
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I like her sarcastic style and exquisite approach on common philosophical themes with unusual and peculiar characters and circumstances.

Zoile and Astrolabe experience a love story so unique and disappointing that Zoile decides to comit suicide by highjacking an airplane to destroy the Eiffel Tour.

"To love a place, you have to see it from above. This must be why we imagine God above the Earth: otherwise how would he be able to love us?"

dabbe Hello there, sweet kitty! 🖤🐾🖤 6mo
IuliaC @dabbe 😽😺💕 6mo
62 likes2 comments
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IuliaC
A ritrovar le storie. Con gadget | Annamaria Gozzi, Daniela Iride Murgia, Monica Morini
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"Getting back the stories"

Such a sweet illustrated short story for kids and grown-ups with a game included. Redescovering the magic of telling and listening to stories reconnects us with a joyful life.

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IuliaC
Notes on Grief | Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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"I am writing about my father in the past tense, and I cannot believe I am writing about my father in the past tense."

"Grief is not gauzy; it is substantial, oppressive, a thing opaque. The weight is heaviest in the mornings, post-sleep: a leaden heart, a stubborn reality that refuses to budge. I will never see my father again. Never again. It feels as if I wake up only to sink and sink. "

I wish I read this one last year when I lost my father.

BarbaraBB I felt so too when I read it earlier this year 💔 6mo
IuliaC @BarbaraBB I've added it from your review and I'm so grateful to you for sharing this 🤗 6mo
BarbaraBB 💕💕 6mo
62 likes1 stack add3 comments
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IuliaC
The Art of Loving | Erich Fromm
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So much food for thought...

"Love is a decision, it is a judgment, it is a promise. If love were only a feeling, there would be no basis for the promise to love each other forever. A feeling comes and it may go. How can I judge that it will stay forever, when my act does not involve judgment and decision."

"Love is the active concern for the life and the growth of that which we love. Where this active concern is lacking, there is no love."

zezeki I love this book!! 6mo
IuliaC @zezeki me too! 6mo
batsy Love the quotes. Saw this in a bookshop months ago but sadly didn't pick it up. 6mo
IuliaC @batsy It's ok, the books we need to read come to us at the right time 😊 6mo
57 likes3 stack adds4 comments
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IuliaC
The Art of Loving | Erich Fromm
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Paradoxically, the ability to be alone is the condition for the ability to love

Love is not primarily a relationship to a specific person; it is an attitude, an orientation of character which determines the relatedness of a person to the world as a whole, not toward one “object” of love. If a person loves only one other person and is indifferent to the rest of his fellow men, his love is not love but a symbiotic attachment, or an enlarged egotism

review
IuliaC
Inteligenta materiei | Dumitru Constantin Dulcan
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The Intelligence of Matter

This one remains a fascinating book, a very scientific approach on the purpose of the human being in the intelligent order of the universe. Are we just an expression of evolution or are we necessary to the universe? I'll have to dive deeper into this one someday.

51 likes1 stack add
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IuliaC
Serotonin | Michel Houellebecq
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Pickpick

I enjoyed this one far more than I initially thought I would... such a fine sarcastic tone on contemporary society, such a realistic depiction of mid-life crisis with its swings between feeling hopelessly useless and the illusion of a new challenge, the harsh loneliness devouring those who realize they had experienced true happiness only after they lost it for the most stupid of reasons...

Sparklemn Beautiful vase 🌺 6mo
IuliaC @Sparklemn thank you 😊 6mo
62 likes2 comments
review
IuliaC
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Mehso-so

This is an old fashion not very suspenseful thriller built around the scheming maneuvers and complications caused on the London's art market by a rumor regarding the potential appearance of a new and uncatalogued Modigliani masterpiece. Nice story but without a very surprising ending.

tokorowilliamwallace I think I like the older style drama suspense (60s, 70s, 80s) much better than contemporary. Same with SFF, as there's so much more conceptualisation and imagination that comes with it; it's not afraid to be exploratory, experimental, and weird. 6mo
IuliaC @tokorowilliamwallace I agree, this is why I picked this one, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would 6mo
tokorowilliamwallace @IuliaC The only older/backlist Ken Follett I own is The Man From Petersburg. So hopefully I will be in the mood for that soon. 6mo
51 likes3 comments
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IuliaC
Wonderful Clouds | Franoise Sagan
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This short novel is more like the confession of Jose, the wife of a young, rich and good looking man, struggling to survive through his obsessive jealousy and going to extreme lenghts to rebel against his possessivness. To me it sounded more like existential problems of really bored wealthy people unable to find a purpose in life. I liked the inner world building though.

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IuliaC
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A sweet love story. Pursuant to a terrible accident young doctor Lauren is not dead but finds herself in a peculiar and heartbreaking state where she acts like a ghost without actually being one. Arthur is the only one who can see her and talk to her. He soon grows motivated to save her.

vlwelser This is the Reese Witherspoon movie. With Mark Ruffalo. I am sure they are entirely different. But I love the movie anyway. 6mo
IuliaC @vlwelser I'd love to see that movie too! Thanks for the tip 😊 6mo
peanutnine @vlwelser that movie, Just Like Heaven, was adapted from this very book! I always meant to read it cause the movie is so sweet 6mo
vlwelser @peanutnine that is definitely the movie title. I meant that I haven't read the book yet so they might be different. But that book is also on my to do list. 6mo
56 likes4 comments
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IuliaC
The Overstory: A Novel | Richard Powers
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Simply brilliant! So ingenious, informative, heart-breaking

"If we could see what green was doing, we'd never be lonely or bored. If we could understand green, we'd learn how to grow all the food we need in layers three deep, on a third of the ground we need right now, with plants that protected one another from pests and stress. If we knew what green wanted, we wouldn't have to choose between the Earth's interests and ours. They'd be the same!"

SamAnne One of my favorite novels. 6mo
Graywacke Nice view 6mo
IuliaC @SamAnne as of today, one of mine too! 6mo
See All 7 Comments
IuliaC @Graywacke It includes two types of wood, to match the story a little 😊 6mo
Graywacke @IuliaC that‘s cool! 6mo
sarahbarnes I still want to get to this! 6mo
IuliaC @sarahbarnes It's good 👍 6mo
70 likes2 stack adds7 comments
review
IuliaC
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Pickpick

A good vacation read, this is the first installment in the author's audacious project of retelling the history of humanity, in which he combines his scientific, religious and philosophical research. Noam is a young leader in the Neolithic age when the Flood turns everything upside down and Noam becomes immortal. He travels through the ages in search of Noura, his lost love, and of the meaning of life.

pr.alm What a beautiful place! 7mo
IuliaC @pr.alm It's a nice reading spot indeed 😊 7mo
dabbe 🤩🤩🤩 7mo
65 likes1 stack add3 comments
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IuliaC
L'Instant Present | Guillaume Musso
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"This Very Instant" - Young doctor Arthur Costello inherits an isolated property with a lighthouse. Once he enters the dungeon below the lighthouse he becomes a man like no other. There is a terrible and unbelievable truth that prevents him from loving the woman of his life. I loved the plot twist in the last part of the novel.

review
IuliaC
The Sea Wall | Marguerite Duras
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A poor European family attracted by the promises of a better life in French Indochina is hit by the abuses of colonial society and by the rigid social hierarchy preventing them from leading a better life. The sea wall against the Pacific, unable to stop the sea water from drowning their crops, is a metaphor for countless useless efforts to surpass their poor social condition.

review
IuliaC
The Masterpiece | Emile Zola
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This classic first published in 1886 is long, but it is precisely the abundance of details and extremely detailed descriptions that leave a profound mark on the reader and make it hard to forget.
The novel recounts the fictional tragic life of an original and genious artist misunderstood by the Parisian art world of the 19th century. It is said to actually reflect Zola's friendship with now famous painter Paul Cézanne.
(Photo: The Bathers, 1905)

54 likes3 stack adds
blurb
IuliaC
Serotonin | Michel Houellebecq
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Vacation stack ready 📚

review
IuliaC
The City We Became | N.K. Jemisin
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Mehso-so

This urban fantasy was just ok, not great.
Five New Yorkers have to combine their forces to protect the city in an interdimensional war and stop an ancient evil from tearing down the city.
It tackles various social issues, but I particularly enjoyed how it celebrated the city itself in its tremendous diversity.

CoffeeAndABook What a gorgeous reading spot 🤩🔆 8mo
IuliaC @CoffeeAndABook A good spot indeed 😊 8mo
62 likes2 comments