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Victoria Levin 📚

@victoria.loves.lit

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Just a 👧🏻 looking at a 📖 asking it to ❤️ her & maybe change her 🌎
My lit adventures & escapades here.
101 📚 in ‘20; ? In ‘21.
@victorial619 = pers IG

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📔🏖🏝☀️👒🕶 by @victoria.loves.lit

I’ve been a little bookstagram MIA lately; things have been a little nuts and updating my sweet community of readers has taken a bit of a backseat, but rest assured I have still been reading. I just finished my 86th book of 2021; my goal was 75, which I exceeded but still fell short of my 2020 peak of 101 books. Sometimes I need to remind myself that my love of reading is about the literary experience and enhancing the human experience and even though I create goals to maximize that goodness, I should never race just to hit a goal or number because then I lose the enjoyment and essence of the beauty in each book. Working on my goals for 2022 this weekend; obviously books will be among them, but reconnecting with this rich little community of intelligent, wise, book-loving folks will be a part of that too. Happy New Year! Here’s to a 2022 full of satisfying and beautiful chapters for all. ♥️ by @victoria.loves.lit

❤️‍🔥🤍White Ivy by Susie Yang🤍❤️‍🔥
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The twists, the turns, the literary set-up…this turned out to be quite the tour de force for a debut novel. It’s dark, romantic, scary, fascinating and very well written.
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Ivy is born in China, raised by her beloved grandmother and sent to Boston suburbs to live with her parents when she is five. She spends her childhood learning how to steal from her grandmother, feeling like an outsider in a waspy New England world, trying to assimilate into American culture, feeling not good enough and then falling for a classic middle school crush, Gideon, the son of a picture perfect old money
state Senator, while simultaneously connecting with another poor outsider, Roux, maybe her only true friend. Ivy spends a summer with family in China and comes home to learn that her family has moved to NJ and she will never see her beloved Gideon again…to say nothing of Roux who actually cared.
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Ivy grows up and she plots and plans and continues her quest to live better and do better, embarrassed by her parents low class legacy she distances herself from them wherever she can.
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A decade later in her 20s, Ivy reconnects with Gideon…and all of her dreams begin to come true, but something isn’t quite right…and then surprise, she also reconnects with Roux. Gideon isn’t quite how she remembered him at 13; meanwhile Roux has made money and found culture and confidence. And things get even messier. What does Ivy truly want? What actually propels her? Is it love? Is it satisfaction? Is it appearance and vanity?
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This book is a lot more than first met the eye; it’s juicy, but it’s also unexpected and deeply thought-provoking. Once I saw where the ending was going I needed someone to discuss with; one week later, still thinking about it! Will read whatever Susie Yang does next - bravo.
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#books #bookstagram #booklover #booksbooksbooks #readmorebooks #whatiread #bookrecommendations #bookreviews #goodreads #goodreadschallenge2021 #readwithjenna #spiveys📚club #whiteivy #susieyang #literaryfiction #reesesbookclub #todayshowbookclub #botm by @victoria.loves.lit

Joan Didion’s essay collection - Let me Tell You What I Mean + Blue Apron creation = 🌊 didion is always glorious (and im just showing off how well @blueapron makes me cook)… this slim volume of essays from the late 60s to 2000 showcase a range of this icon’s keen and insightful reporting and writing and her uncanny observational eye for an exact moment in time. The subjects are random and yet her writing makes every one of them demand your utmost care. She is aware, amusing and also amused as she bops from analyzing Martha Stewart’s life and empire to being rejected from Stanford to examining other writers and the business of writing (Hemingway specifically.) it’s a delightful little palate cleanser of undeniable and enjoyable intelligence. #books #bookstagram #booklover #bookworm #booksbooksbooks #readmorebooks #whatiread #whatimreading #readersofinstagram #bookclub #goodreads #goodreadschallenge2021 #bookrecommendations #bookreviews #spiveys📚club #joandidion #letmetellyouwhatimean #essays by @victoria.loves.lit

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
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Oooooof. Guys. This book. Shuggie Bain is a tour de force, but it is hard…both hard to read because the dialect is so nuanced and complex (even as someone with a Scottish stepfather and who lived there for a bit as a kid, this is other level Glaswegian dialect) and because the subject matter is so painfully intense. Shuggie took me a while to plod through, but it was worth it. It fills you with emotion before thought and is rightfully a (heavy) modern literary classic.
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Fiction inspired by the author’s own life, Shuggie is growing up in the poverty stricken gritty side of Glasgow in the 1980s. Alcoholism, addiction and cruelty fester and grow around him. Shuggie’s mother Agnes, oh Agnes, is a beleaguered woman, finding moments of grace or glory amidst a lifetime of being abused, used, degraded and being unable to break her own cycles of intimate vulnerability. We see through her pain much of Shuggie’s childhood as a different boy, and how he ended up a sixteen year old trying to understand himself very much on his own, but with such slivers of periodic goodness, love and humanity.
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The writing is thick and heavy like the subject matter but it’s also ingenious.
Highly recommended, but if you’re in a dark place or if…domestic violence, sexual assault, poverty, substance abuse/a child having a parent with severe substance abuse issues…feel like too much for you, then maybe hold off.
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#books #bookstagram #bookrecommendations #booklover #booksbooksbooks #readmorebooks #bookworm #igreads #readersofinstagram #whatiread #bookreviews #goodreads #goodreadschallenge2021 #bookerprize #shuggiebain #douglasstuart #spiveys📚club #bookclubs #readwithjenna #nypl #librariesofinstagram by @victoria.loves.lit

🍸 🌴 The Guncle by Steven Rowley 🍸 🌴
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Guys I am SO behind on reviews, but I can’t neglect The Guncle, my favorite feel-good book of the summer.
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So much humor and heart in this easy read. Rowley is smart, his writing is sharp and laugh out loud funny, but he manages to write with comedic precision while still delivering bigger messages too… a line that’s hard to walk.
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Lest you think this is all a fun gay Palm Springs romp, be warned, the premise itself is SAD - aging star with his own demons Gay Uncle Patrick (GUP) loses his best friend/sister in law and while his brother gets himself back on his feet/goes into rehab after coping with his wife’s illness with prescription drug abuse, he sends his two elementary school aged kids Maisie and Grant to spend a summer with their GUP. GUP has spent a day or two here or there with these kids, but has never been a legit caretaker.
GUP talks to them like little adults and how to be generally fabulous , they teach him about parenting and family and grief and well…love… and we realize maybe this whole summer was as much for Patrick as it was for the kids. There’s also some thoughtful insight into the necessary veneers of living in Hollywood and living life as a gay man.
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This book was a total charmer.
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#books #bookstagram #booklover #whatiread #currentlyreading #igreads #readersofinstagram #bookrecommendations #bookreviews #goodreads #goodreadschallenge2021 #spiveys📚club #readwithjenna #reesesbookclub #theguncle #stevenrowley by @victoria.loves.lit

Beach week included all the good things I wanted…great food, wine, sun, yoga, walks, company…and a whole lot of this. Back to work tomorrow. #bookstagram #books #booksbooksbooks #readmorebooks #readersofinstagram #bookish #beachreads #summerreading #bookclubs #currentlyreading #goodreads #whatiread #beachreading #readwithjenna #spiveys📚club #purewowbookclub #reesesbookclub by @victoria.loves.lit

Bookstore browsing, but make it beachy. by @victoria.loves.lit

Is This Anything by Jerry Seinfeld
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If you’re a Seinfeld fan, you don’t need this review, keep scrolling because you think anything he does is funny. This is…something, it is! I enjoyed Is This Anything, a collection of Seinfeld’s observational comedy as written in his notebooks chronologically evolving through various periods of his life and his ascension to fame. I liked seeing the clear development in his jokes that came with his development through the decades. But be warned, it isn’t really a cohesive book - it’s obviously not a narrative style, so is unusual for me. I listened as an audiobook, which feels like the way to go because Seinfeld’s comedic timing is a thing of beauty itself, and makes it feel like listening to a long standup radio show by the master. A worthy palate cleanser for me when I needed some laughs.
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#books #bookstagram #booklover #booksbooksbooks #readmorebooks #whatiread #readersofinstagram #igreads #audiobooks #bookish #bibliophile #goodreads #goodreadschallenge2021 #bookrecommendations #bookreviews #comedybooks #purewowbookclub #bookclubsofinstagram by @victoria.loves.lit

The Secret Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
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It’s hard to read something that has gotten SO much hype fearing it will be a letdown, but Addie really delivers in so many categories. It’s a beautifully written story with romance and history and philosophy and an edge of magical realism… and many messages if you let yourself hear them.
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In 1600s France, Addie makes a deal with the devil to escape a mundane life and an impending marriage she doesn’t want to enter. Her end of the deal isn’t easy though. Addie gains immortality but is cursed with the sentence of being instantly forgotten by everyone who meets her. Except…she is memorable, a muse, a piece of magic, memorialized in art through centuries (this is my absolute favorite twist of the book.) The art, music, ideas she imprints do become a legacy of sorts. But Addie is alone - she can meet someone for a night, but the minute she walks away, she is instantly lost from memory. Her life as it evolves over hundreds of years is lonely, resourceful, full of moments of beauty, and cunning, but so lacking in human connection… until it isn’t.
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In walks Henry, who meets Addie, can say her name and remember her the next day. It’s a revelation. But Henry may have made a deal too, and their time together is not as clean a happily ever after as you might wish. They are a reminder to appreciate and savor love while it’s in front of you, no matter where your individual paths eventually take you.
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It’s a magical, mystical and really special love story. While Addie and Henry do find love with each other, it feels more like a dark love story of Addie and the world.
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#books #bookstagram #booklover #booksbooksbooks #readmorebooks #whatiread #igreads #bookish #bibliophile #bibliophilelife #goodreads #goodreadschallenge2021 #bookrecommendations #bookreviews #theinvisiblelifeofaddielarue #veschwab #spiveys📚club #purewowbookclub #readwithjenna by @victoria.loves.lit

This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger
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This Tender Land felt out of genre for me, but it is so beautiful and big and epic that its heart will stick with you; it’s a special coming of age journey, and I enjoyed it, I see why people loved it, I kind of loved it? Mostly? I appreciate it deeply, I just don’t know if we’re totally compatible. That said, it keeps being called a modern classic and it just might be.
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Set against the hopeless dark backdrop of the Great Depression, orphans Odie and his brother Albert and their mute friend Mose, live at a school for Native American kids. It’s a pretty dark place with abuse and without much warmth or joy for these children. After the first peak of the story, the three boys and little girl Emmy go on the run - surviving against some stacked odds and living as part of the rural natural landscape in the Midwest. I’ve heard a few comparisons to Crawdads (which I also appreciated but didn’t quite love) for its ability to make its environment and historical context a main character in the story, coloring and affecting all the other characters in the story.
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Whether or not this one becomes a masterpiece in your soul, I can promise this one will stick with you.
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#books #bookstagram #booklover #bookworm #booksbooksbooks #readmorebooks #readersofinstagram #igreads #whatiread #bookish #bibliophile #goodreads #goodreadschallenge2021 #bookrecommendations #bookreviews #spiveys📚club #thistenderland #williamkentkrueger #barnesandnoble #readwithjenna #purewowbookclub by @victoria.loves.lit

The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans
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This was a searing and excellent collection of six short stories and one novella (which all seems like it might be a weird balance, until you’re in it and it’s perfect.)
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Evans examined with such grace and keen observation experiences of black life in America and the intersections, overlaps and contrasts in life between black and white people. Each story has some subtle and some not so subtle message and meaning and it feels as if they all lead up to the final larger novella, loaning the book it’s title - The Office of Historical Corrections looks at a friendship on a micro level and historical white washing on a macro level, yet the parallels and overlaps are poignant.
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The book is beautifully written; it is wise and ambitious and also incredibly readable. Highly recommend.
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#books #bookstagram #booklover #bookworm #bibliophile #bookish #booksbooksbooks #readmorebooks #igreads #readersofinstagram #bookrecommendations #bookreviews #theofficeofhistoricalcorrections #danielleevans #spiveys📚club #readwithjenna #purewowbookclub #bookclubs #goodreads #goodreadschallenge2021 #whatiread by @victoria.loves.lit