JanvanderKolk

Room | Donoghue

so-so

Writing a book very much about a physical space is incredibly hard-- and while Donoghue definitely made me feel for the characters involved, I never really got the sense that their environment affected them in any way that wasn't physical.

JanvanderKolk

Motherland Fatherland Homelandsexuals | Patricia Lockwood

Feminist poetry doesn't get much better than this! Amazing poetry by Lockwood.

1 like1 stack add

JanvanderKolk

USA | John Dos Passos

"the police have already notified us that any entertainment I Paris must be brief and quietly conducted and not in public view and that we have already had more dances than at ought"

1 like

JanvanderKolk

The Handmaid's Tale | Margaret Atwood

These have been selling by the dozens this year!
#bookstore #bookshop #bookseller #Atwood #handmaidstale

5 likes1 stack add

JanvanderKolk

Don't Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric | Claudia Rankine

pan

Some nice phrases and paragraphs, but as a whole, a little too distant for me. Almost as if Rankine wasn't really ready for writing it, but decided to anyway.
#poetry #review

WomanistBibliophile The distance is purposeful. 6y

2 likes1 stack add1 comment

JanvanderKolk

Shikasta: Re, Colonised Planet 5 | Doris Lessing

New books! Old books! All books! Early Christmas presents to myself.

1 like1 stack add

JanvanderKolk

USA | John Dos Passos

About to start part two! Was thoroughly impressed by 'The 42nd Parallel', so I expect great things from 1919 as well.
#trilogy #Classics #forgottenauthors

1 stack add

JanvanderKolk

Don't Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric | Claudia Rankine

I usually keep my quotes short, but this entire page (p.81) from Rankine's 'Don't Let Me Be Lonely' is beautiful.
Though I must say that so far, the book just hasn't managed to really reel me in.

1 like

JanvanderKolk

The Girl on the Train: A Novel | Paula Hawkins

pan

A thriller that didn't thrill. When your main character has no positive character traits, it becomes very hard to sympathise with them.

blithebuoyant I felt a little differently about the sympathetic aspect. I agree she had no positive traits, I despised her really but I did sympathize to an extent. I don't have an alcohol problem, but I definitely have struggled with doing the same dumb/wrong thing over and over until people around you are so exasperated that you can feel them getting tired of the mess you keep making but you don't know how to stop. That's an awful feeling. 6y

JanvanderKolk @l.kadie I understand that, but I don't think it is (or perhaps just in this specific case) a very effective and engaging method for writing a main character in what's supposed to be a thriller. If I don't care at all about the character, I don't really care about whether they find out the truth--which is the exact thing a thriller is supposed to do. 6y

blithebuoyant @JanvanderKolk On the subject of sympathy, was it just me or did you find it hard to sympathize with hardly anybody in that book? XD 6y

JanvanderKolk @l.kadie no you're right, none of the characters were very engaging =P 6y

2 likes4 comments

JanvanderKolk

Bell Jar | Sylvia Plath

so-so

A book to make you sad. Didn't really seem to get going very well for the first fifty or so pages. Fortunately, as the main character's mental health worsened, the book got better.

JanvanderKolk

Berlin Noir | Philip Kerr

Wrapping gifts at the bookstore now that the holiday season has arrived. #holidays #Christmas #bookstore #bookseller #Brussels #Belgium #gifts

1 like

JanvanderKolk

Don't Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric | Claudia Rankine

#Currentlyreading #juststarted

1 like

JanvanderKolk

Ezra Pound: Poet: I: The Young Genius 1885-1920 | A. David Moody

By my very (very very) rough estimation, the bookstore I work in contains about 5.000.000.000 letters. Quite a lot.
Favorite book sold today: 'Ezra Pound: Poet', by David A. Moody
#bookstore #Brussels #Belgium #work

1 like1 stack add

JanvanderKolk

Turtles All the Way Down | John Green