Instagram story viewer> @lelivreenrose> Posts

Kathryn Lee

@lelivreenrose

65

followers

91

following

✍️ literary blog for @adakatlee
📌 all views my own
📚 reading goal: 1/36

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

My favorite books of 2024 are here! Ecstatic to have been able to read so many wonderful authors this year. Link in bio. 🔗

#books #booknerd #reading #reader #bookish #lelivreenrose #literature #litfic #babel #rfkuang #classics #darkacademia #academia #tessofthedurbervilles #thomashardy #theposthumousmemoirsofbráscubas #machadodeassis #sallyrooney #intermezzo #emmacline #thegirls #virginiawoolf #tothelighthouse #williamshakespeare #shakespeare #juliuscaesar #cultclassic #sloanecrosley #intermezzo #sallyrooney #writer by @lelivreenrose

15

5

2 years ago

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

I hate to give hater but sometimes I allow myself a little indulgence, a little treat, a little hate.

I first encountered My First Book on Book Marks. The book’s deep indigo cover, eight-bit font, and tongue-in-cheek title made it an enigma, as did its author—a twenty-six-year-old wunderkind.

It’s clear, however, from the first page, that this book is an enigma only in the sense that it is a jumbled mix of style, structure and content. I put the book down multiple times to wonder what Levy wanted to say, and if she wanted to say anything at all. Though touted as a breakout “Gen Z” book, there is little here to capture any of that Gen Z zeitgeist (if it in fact exists, or has come to exist yet).

More at the link in bio. 🔗

#lelivreenrose #fallreads #myfirstbook #honorlevy #author #writing #book #literaryfiction #litfic #penguinpress #nytbestseller #fiction #womensfiction #bookstagram #bookblog #bookblogger #bookreview #bookreviewer #booknerd #booklover #booklovers #books #book #writer #writing #author #fallreads by @lelivreenrose

8

5

2 years ago

tl;dr: i ❤️ the girls and you should too

Rating: ★★★★★

A few months ago, I saw the lifetime sales figures for The Girls online—as monstrously impressive as expected—and remarked to a friend that we were the only two people in the world who had not read the book. I feel a sliver of disappointment that I can’t go against the grain, to say that the readers who made up that monstrously impressive sales number were following the wrong literary wunderkind, because they are not. I know that now. Even in the age of women proclaiming en masse that they are “just a girl,” extending girlhood as long as possible, hoping to reap something sweet out of the familiar mess of aging, few books so perfectly capture the hopelessness and dangerous beauty of girlhood. The Girls captures all of that and more.

Read more at the link in bio. 🔗

#thegirls #emmacline #literaryfiction #litfic #randomhouse #nytbestseller #fiction #womensfiction #bookstagram #bookblog #bookblogger #bookreview #bookreviewer #booknerd #booklover #booklovers #books #book #writer #writing #author #summerreads #fallreads #lelivreenrose by @lelivreenrose

5

2

2 years ago

Rating: A+ | ★★★★★

The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas is so very good. It is drifting and listless without feeling useless or overly self-involved, heartbreaking without feeling trite. It is a strange little book about nothing at all—the narrator is dead when the novel begins, and the story progresses as an unrealized life. Philosophy, love, and ambition (or lack thereof) combine in these strange tales.

For my full review, visit the link in bio. 🔗

#theposthumousmemoirsofbráscubas #brascubas #bráscubas #penguinclassics #prh #fiction #brazilianlit #classics #review #book #reading #currentread #tbr #bookish #writer #writing #author #memoirs #novels #lelivreenrose by @lelivreenrose

13

2

2 years ago

Rating: ★★★★☆

One of Stay True’s greatest strengths is Hsu’s ability to draw together decades of immigrant history while also leaving room for Hsu’s personal story—the story of him and Ken. It is a testament to how Asian-American lives are built on the sacrifices of parents and grandparents, and how the journey to define oneself as American must coexist with those sacrifices. Hsu contextualizes Asian-American life—the history of which is still evolving in the United States today—providing a brief history as well as a memoir of his own life.

For my full review, visit the link in bio. 🔗

#staytrue #huahsu #vintagebooks #penguinrandomhouse #prh #literature #books #booknerd #bookstagram #bookblog #bookreview #literary #review #book #reading #currentread #tbr #bookish #writer #writing #author #memoirs #novels #nonfiction by @lelivreenrose

6

6

3 years ago

Rating: B+ | 87% | ★★★★☆

For Cult Classic’s Lola, signing a New York lease is commensurate with signing a custody agreement with millions of strangers to share the same handful of concrete—to negotiate terms for loving and leaving each other. Two things are integral to Cult Classic: New York and love. They work in tandem. There is no love for Lola without New York, and there is none of Lola’s New York without love. People around me love to talk about the “organ” of the city, the cacophony of jobs and cabs and lives that roar outside walk-up windows. Sloane Crosley captures all of this in fewer than 300 pages.

Cult Classic is not one story but many; it covers the gamut of the different types of love that exist in the world, stretching from age 18 to age almost-40. Lola is not flawed because she has had so many relationships; she is all the better for it, and so are the many women in the world who share the same history. The novel is wonderful, strange, compassionate, and utterly charming. It is a novel for everyone, but especially for those who have ever doubted the existence of love in this modern age.

For my full review, visit the link in bio. 🔗

#cultclassic #sloanecrosley #fsg #macmillan #literature #books #booknerd #bookstagram #bookblog #bookreview #literaryfiction #literary #fiction #review #book #reading #currentread #tbr #bookish #writer #writing #author #funnyfiction #romance by @lelivreenrose

8

3

3 years ago

Rating: 60% | ★★☆☆☆

Justin Torres returns, more than a decade after We the Animals, with Blackouts: a sprawling, arcane overview of queer culture in America.

It has been difficult for any reviewer to adequately describe what Blackouts is. Hugh Ryan of the New York Times speaks of a mix of "erasure poetry and queer history." Charles Arrowsmith of The Washington Post considers it "fable-like." Sam Sacks comes closest to the core of the novel: "Instead of illumination, “Blackouts” invites readers into the smaller consolation of shared sadness. Even if it had something transcendent to impart, after all, we would forget it anyway." It is this mutability, this fundamentally unplaceable aura, that gives the novel its strength. It is also this mutability that makes the novel so difficult to enjoy—though that may be too reductive a word to describe the experience of reading Blackouts.

For my full review, visit the link in bio. 🔗 (And many thanks to my friend Kathryn K, without whose aesthetic and photography skills this picture would have been completely illegible—yes, even less illegible than it currently is. Woes of being a semi-professional book reviewer and a not professional photographer.)

#blackouts #justintorres #literaryfiction #nationalbookawards #fiction #books #booknerd #bookstagram #fsg #macmillan #wetheanimals #literary #literature #bookshelf #book by @lelivreenrose

8

1

3 years ago

Quietly shuffling back into the world after three months with a review from the archive . . .

It is somewhat impossible to review this book—not necessarily because of its subject matter, but because of the distance at which Didion holds the reader. The reader is confined to an observer's role, just as Didion is an observer to her daughter's illness and to her own frailty. As Didion physically weakens, the reader can do nothing but feel frustrated alongside her.

The synopsis on the back cover implies that Blue Nights is a masterpiece of commiseration, something for grieving parents to read, but this is a suggestion that vastly oversimplifies the book. What is so frustrating about this collection, in addition to the reader's distance, is Didion's apparent lack of finesse; essays leap between past and present, between quiet days and devastating days.

Click the link in bio for my full review. 🔗

#joandidion #bluenights #memoir #booktok #bookstagram #booktwt #vintagebooks #essays #2023reads #books #book #booknerd #bookblog #blogger #reading #reads #reader #bookreview #review #lelivreenrose by @lelivreenrose

9

2

3 years ago

Milk Fed has been the darling of the book community—specifically the blasé, cool girl sub-sect of the community since the book's release in 2021. Melissa Broder's dry wit sweeps up eating disorders, family dysfunctions, and queerness in its rushing current.

Broder's descriptions of food are at once delectable—burritos swaddled in tortilla blankets and frozen yogurt bedazzled with toppings—and unsettling, reflecting the mood of the novel. Milk Fed is minimalist; the characters frequent the same locations and talk only amongst themselves. The claustrophobia, the lack of alternative lives and alternative choices, is acute.

Milk Fed's greatest strength is perhaps not its focus on Rachel's eating disorder but its window into the complex relationship between Rachel and her mother. Milk Fed is a novel written by a woman, for women, in an intimate shorthand on modern beauty standards and familial relationships.

Click the link in bio for my full review. 🔗

#contemporaryfiction #melissabroder #milkfed #fiction #booktok #2023reads #literaryfiction #litfic #novels #scribner #booknerd #bookblog #blogger #bookreview #lelivreenrose #books by @lelivreenrose

16

6

4 years ago

Rating: ★★★☆☆

When my sister introduced me to stand-up comedy in 2019, my life changed. (I became insufferable.) I began quoting Ronny Chieng. John Mulaney's relationship woes kept me up at night. Comedy Cellar videos began popping up on my TikTok. Stand-up comedy is so different from scripted comedy; though both are rehearsed, only stand-up comedy relies on the sole figure on stage, armed with nothing but a mic, a stool, and a trembling glass of water, to leash the crowd and be funny while doing it.

It is that kind of practiced ease with which Zach Zimmerman approaches his debut essay collection Is It Hot in Here? Zimmerman tackles topics ranging from capitalism to his religious upbringing. Favorites of mine include "#2," "The Seven Days of Creation under Capitalism," and "Testimony."

My full review can be found at the link in bio. 🔗

Thank you to NetGalley and Chronicle Books for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Is It Hot in Here is out April 15, 2023.

#IsItHotinHere #ZachZimmerman #NetGalley #ChronicleBooks #lelivreenrose #bookstagram #booknerd #bookreview #essays #essaycollection #writing #reviewing #2023reads #ARCreview #ARCs #galleys #books #reading #bookblog #blogging by @lelivreenrose

7

0

4 years ago

(Special thanks to my friend Crystal for pestering me nonstop to read On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, especially because not even a hellish comp lit class could fail to dampen her enthusiasm for this book.)

Now--On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous. I read this book in my apartment complex after everyone had deserted for Thanksgiving break, in quarantine, trying not to blow all of my money on Grubhub or drown in my own thoughts.

I can say very little about On Earth that hasn't already been said by legions of Vuong fans. I can mostly only commiserate—to agree with everyone about the book's lyricism, its unyielding emotion, its constant intimate communion with Little Dog's thoughts.

All I will say is that I found the prose a little heavy while I was reading. "But that's what's amazing about it," Crystal told me over our weekly bagel lunch. "I feel like I need to read it again just to pick up on all the things I missed." Vuong may be overly lyrical, but this critique is not necessarily one of the book but of me, the reader.

On Earth is a must-read that deserves all of its awards and praise. And I feel very, very privileged to be able to coexist with Vuong and to look forward to his future work.

My full review is at the link in bio. 🔗

#OnEarthWereBrieflyGorgeous #OceanVuong #oewbg #fiction #adultfiction #contemporaryfiction #bookreview #bookstagram #booknerd #2022reads #lelivreenrose #penguinrandomhouse #prh by @lelivreenrose

9

10

4 years ago

One of my perpetual resolutions is to read more essays. I love writing in the essay form, but ironically, I don't read many essays beyond Didion's. Letters to a Writer of Color was the perfect collection with which to start my new year. As a writer of color myself, I felt privileged to be able to receive advice from my industry elders. The collection is rich and thought-provoking, bringing together not just writers of color but writers of color from all backgrounds and experiences.

For my full review, visit the link in bio. 🔗

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Random House, Random House Trade Paperbacks for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Letters to a Writer of Color is out March 7, 2023.

#essaycollections #essays #prh #netgalley #writersofcolor #2023reads #ARC #bookreview #bookstagram #lelivreenrose #reviews #review #booknerd #bookish #books #book #reading #tbr #onmytbr #readingnow by @lelivreenrose

8

0

4 years ago