Tag: Trauma

Books

Book 741: On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous – Ocean Vuong

Geoff W

Book cover of "On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous" with Amazon Affiliate LinkI have no idea where this book came from. I was 100% certain it was a recommendation by Kat Chow on the NPR podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, but I can’t find a reference to it anywhere. I did, however, find this wonderful story (profile?) in The Atlantic written by Kat about spending an afternoon with Vuong, who happened to be a few years ahead of her in high school.

No matter where it came from I’ve been trailing this book from the BPL for months. I was on hold for a long time and then it finally came available at the same time they offered the ability to delay claiming the book, so I delayed for weeks. I knew I needed to be in the right mindset to read it, but I couldn’t remember why. Well, I finally felt ready to read it and I’m SO glad I waited.

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Books

Book 739: Solitaire – Alice Oseman

Geoff W

Book cover of "Solitaire" with Amazon Affiliate linkI honestly have no clue how to respond to this one. I enjoyed it for the few glimpses I got of Charlie and Nick and am now both looking forward to and dreading the next two volumes of Heartstopper because of knowing some of their future. But, it was a weird book in that it is very much a tribute to angsty teenage-ness.

I like to think that I was an angsty teenager, but really, I was a toe-the-line don’t draw attention to yourself closeted teenager who was boring as hell. I’m sure I had a touch of anxiety, I always have, but I never let it take over my life so I couldn’t really relate to Tori losing all control over everything to her depression or Charlie to whatever he faces (it wasn’t explicit).

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Books

Book 727: We Contain Multitudes – Sarah Henstra

Geoff W

Book cover of "We Contain Multitudes" with Amazon Affiliate linkI think I saw this on some bookstagram post and liked the cover and blurb enough to request it from the library. I had no expectations going into it, but I can tell you I was NOT expecting to have the air pulled out of my lungs constantly through the last half of the book.

Seriously though, the only thing I can compare it to is when you’re sobbing so hard and you can’t catch your breath and you just keep gasping trying to breathe but you’re only getting enough oxygen to keep sobbing. Jo and Kurl’s story was brutally beautiful.

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Books

Book 725: Squared Away (Out of Uniform #5) – Annabeth Albert

Geoff W

Book cover of "Squared Away" with Amazon Affiliate linkYou didn’t really think I was going to go more than five books without reading an Annabeth Albert book, did you? Okay noob. (I’ve got jokes.) I actually got this from the library (digitally of course) before I started the last two books, but since those were both ARCs with early July publish dates I wanted to make sure I got to them first and this was my reward for finishing them.

This is the fifth installment in Albert’s Out of Uniform series and features Isaiah (Ike) who made his first cameos in At Attention (as a potential distracting love interest) and On Point (as a contentious one-night stand) and Mark/”Wizard”, yet another super-hot navy seal with all sorts of hang ups.

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