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Liz ʕ ꈍᴥꈍʔ🌷(@bleumingpages)'s profile avatar HD Profile

Liz ʕ ꈍᴥꈍʔ🌷

@bleumingpages

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A museum of the long reviews I write of the books that make me sad (or happy, but mostly sad).
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It really took a year to pass for me to post again :-D how criminal, nobody hates my doing this more than my own self. Anyway ! 2025 was a good reading year in a way that means JUST that. Good, not great, not fantastic, but also not terrible. I did not get to cross paths with very many 5 star books this year. I also somehow developed a very casual attitude towards reading with no particularly ambitious goals and also no unreasonable fears towards big books (you can see this by the 4 or 5 600+ page books i picked up without second thought). I was also more willing to drop books that didn’t work by the 40% mark. So that's how I'd describe it - good. Discovered plenty of new forms of media that I liked too !! Historical Cdramas being one of them 🙂‍↕️ listened to more animal and manga deep dive podcasts, ate plenty of bread and cakes (important point bc I am a huge sweet tooth), walked a lot. Aight. That is all thank u 😶‍🌫️ by @bleumingpages
14
9 months ago
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The Red Pony centres around little Jody as we follow him through his formative years, where the tails of innocence and naivety that comes with childhood come to an end without him knowing, where he learns the harshness and cruelty of love – that you have to risk it in order to love, and where as both an adult and a reader, we learn nobody is exempted from pain. John Steinbeck wrote this episodic novella in such a way that you don’t realise you are actually reading 3 separate stories focusing on a similar theme only told through different featuring characters. This is because there is no proper ending presented after each one, not even a transition, but rather a seamless elision – scenes end without so much of the curtains closing, but you know the next play is on a different act. The mastery it takes. There is no ending and no beginning. However, knowing Steinbeck, it is no doubt he did this with all the right intent, his way of mirroring the blur of real life, where entrances or exits don’t announce themselves, and a structural embodiment of how we always position ourselves to be “in the middle” of something (of what?!). The last story features an elderly character, namely Jody’s grandfather, who used to be Someone but is now way past his hayday, yet he continues to spend his waking time trying to chase that high. Everyone, including his son-in-law but except Jody, laughs behind his back and frowns upon him – a typical phenomenon if you think about it. It terrifies and saddens me still, to think how many of us will grow old and be perceived that way, or even worse: how many of the elders we know are that person, while we sit in silence and let that mockery happen. And this is why Steinbeck never fails. #theredpony #johnsteinbeck by @bleumingpages
3
a year ago
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Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid . . #bookstagram #bookrecommendations #bookish #readersofinstagram #bookaesthetic #kindleaesthetic #readreadread #fyp #bookreview #literature #literaryfiction #fiction #aesthetic by @bleumingpages
2
a year ago
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You just know a book is going to hit when it’s got the character’s name as its title!!! Annie John is a short read but by no means a light one. Though written in deceptively simple prose, what lies beneath is a profound study of arguably one of the weightiest themes portrayed in literature: the complexity of the mother-daughter relationship. And I will die on this hill alone if I must as I say this – no two books exploring mother-daughter relationships are ever quite the same. The way this book opens, you would think this was a happy and quiet coming-of-age story with Annie constantly describing her mother as her north star, the one she orbits around as well as the one that orbits around her. “How important I felt to be with my mother,” as she puts it, in which she frequently discovers tangible proofs of her mother’s love. They are each other’s constant – until they are not, which is something nobody can explain in a single line. The seemingly sudden shift, a hatred burning so deep both Annie and her mum attest it must be there all along, and the innocent unconditional love they shared then must have been a ruse, pretense, hypocrisy. The difficultness of this complicated dynamic is brilliantly portrayed all throughout the book – the hidden attempts in psychoanalyzing each other’s microexpressions, silently wondering when this cold war started and whether everyone else goes through this or you are the anomaly, the hypersensitivity fueling the tension, how true to reality “hurt people hurt people” turns out to be, the anger that chokes you, “I hate that my mother hates me”, “I hate that i want my mother to not hate me because I don’t and can’t hate her, I love her”. It tore me apart but restored me again with the last line, which I’d srsly love to personally thank the author for writing. Wept. Stared at the wall for 27 minutes. Could not breathe. 10/10 would recommend. #anniejohn #jamaicakincaid by @bleumingpages
31
a year ago
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The Red Pony by John Steinbeck . . #bookreview #bookrecommendations #bookstagram #bookish #kindleaesthetic #bookaesthetic #theredpony #johnsteinbeck #eastofeden #grapesofwrath #englishlit #englishclassic #literature #fiction by @bleumingpages
3
a year ago
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Thought daughter final boss? Even better: Thought MOTHER final ultimate boss pro max 😭 Loved and Missed is everything I want from a book that explores the complexities of a mother-daughter relationship from the mother’s perspective, who is estranged by her daughter battling with drug addiction which leads to her being the guardian of her granddaughter. I know. Try beating that. I’ve read hundreds of books but never have I encountered one that does it so eloquently and so authentically. The grip Boyt has on understanding how the full weight of motherhood often means you gradually learn to carry pain and sacrifice on your shoulders while you put on the most heartfelt and sincere smile on your face because you’ll gladly do it hundred times over, because that’s the significance of being a mother, is nothing short of impressive. The depth and scope of sorrow that comes with losing a daughter that’s still living is so honestly conveyed with vivid imagery, not through pretentious adjectives or try-hard writing style, but simply through glimpses of her ‘default’ way of thinking as she moves through her everyday life. The narrative shows us how terribly Ruth walks on eggshells every time she is around her daughter. How she has to over-observe and over-analyse in order to not show the wrong micro-expression that may be offensive. Like learning a whole new language of being tactful but with all the fortuitous reasons behind it. This is a story about a mother who finds no home at home, who sometimes feels too embarrassed to exist, who is always sorry (about what?!), who is so little and yet has so much fight in her. Like if you wanna make me cry just quote any line from this book. #lovedandmissed #susieboyt by @bleumingpages
14
a year ago
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Loved and Missed by Susie Boyt #lovedandmissed #susieboyt #nyrb #nyrbclassics #litfic #literaryfiction #bookreview #bookish #bookstagram #bookrecommendations #bookaesthetic #kindleaesthetic #readersofinstagram by @bleumingpages
3
2 years ago
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Anne of Green Gables is about a girl called Anne who imagines, and imagines, and imagines. You will see a lot of that throughout this book – this imagining habit of hers. You will see how she views herself, that she wishes she had black hair instead of red, named Cordelia because it sounds more demure for a lady, her dress has puffed sleeves instead of regular cap ones, and that she wishes she is much much much more than she thinks she is. And wow does this 12 year old Romanticizes with a capital R. Which is fair. Everyone puts life at a pedestal at that age. But honestly, having passed my teenage years, as I read her lengthy response when answering people, I catch myself… sighing every once in a while, not in a particularly bothered sort of way, but in a “how innocent!” sort of way. Then as I thought more about it, there really is nothing irritating about that, because she describes the moon and the trees and her home and her friends most endearingly, which just shows that is how innocent and simple life is when you see it from a child’s perspective, someone who is uncorrupted and unblemished by the troubles and stress of adulthood. #anneofgreengables #lmmontgomery by @bleumingpages
10
2 years ago
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Perfume by Patrick Süskind #bookstagram #bookrecommendations #bookreview #bookish #bookaesthetic #kindleaesthetic #gothicliterature #germanliterature #fiction #readersofinstagram by @bleumingpages
11
2 years ago
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Envelope containing all my thoughts of the books i read in February is hereee ☆ミ(´ｰ｀).｡*･ﾟﾟ This year I am making a conscious effort to take reading simply for the sake of reading -- that is, not as an exercise like I did the previous years. 99% of the time setting low expectations does WONDERS so why? do we? keep doing? the opposite??? 😓!!! As a result although I read less than what i normally could've covered if I had speed-read, my mind feels soooo?? Light?? Like FEATHERY LIGHT 🫧🪽🪶 like falling onto cashmere clouds typa light. Anw just gonna let these posts speak for themselves thank yeuw ❣️ 🌟 My wins this month: • Loved and Missed by Susie Boyt • Perfume by Patrick Süskind • Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid by @bleumingpages
24
2 years ago
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Perfume is a book about a man who unintentionally terrorises everyone he crosses paths with because he was born with no scent in his body, none at all, and yet unbeknownst to them, has the ability to smell, recognise, and record every single odour, aroma, stench, whiff, or even a fraction of an olfactory that exists, and then set a single substance apart from the whole mixture, dissect it, follow its direction, remake it, only by a single inhale. In this story lies ahead scenes, told in the most descriptive and atmospheric writing I’ve ever read, of how a baby was born and was unwanted by his mother, grew up to become a young man who develops the habit of lowering his gaze and hunches his back when walking amongst a crowd, as if begging the earth to just swallow him there and then if it could, and then one day discovering a scent so sublime… It changes everything about him as a person. In essence, that is really what this story is about. However, wrapped in such a simplicity and seemingly straightforward plot, the character exploration in this book is anything but. I was quite literally sitting on the edge of my seat and holding my breath as I read through each of the chapters, even though there is nothing particularly suspenseful until the last third of the book. But that iiiiis the fantastic craftsmanship of Good Writing. It is inconspicuous, but it serves us that plate of Anticipation with delish that I couldn’t help but savour every morsel. I went through this word for word, repeating a paragraph where needed, putting myself in that very setting like a fly on a wall, watching, observing. And the ending! Whoaaa the ending was tantamount to saving the best for the last. Masterfully done. #perfume #patricksuskind by @bleumingpages
25
2 years ago
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ghost mountain by ronan hession #bookstagram #bookreview #bookrecommendations #ghostmountain #humancondition #bookish #litfic by @bleumingpages
1
2 years ago
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