baancs's reviews
627 reviews

All Along You Were Blooming: Thoughts for Boundless Living by Morgan Harper Nichols

hopeful inspiring reflective

3.0

For whatever pain
lies beneath
your blanket of sorrows,
or the flaws
you have learned to conceal
just to make it
through the day,
it is okay
to grieve
the loss of things
that will never be
the same again.

The Place on Dalhousie by Melina Marchetta

emotional reflective slow-paced

5.0

Guilt is a burden, so forgive yourself for the mistakes.

A book about going home and what it means to be a family. Just when I thought I wouldn’t love this book as much, my beloved author proves me wrong. How does she write about families, friendships, and love so simply & yet so affecting? I can never get enough 😭

There was less of the group of friends from Saving Francesca here, but I was surprisingly fine with it. I found this more to be Rosie & Martha’s story, which I enjoyed nonetheless. I wish Ms. Melina Marchetta never stops writing family stories like this 🤧😭

Every Word You Cannot Say by Iain S. Thomas

4.5

I know that, sometimes, you wish someone would just say the words you needed to hear because, sometimes, you don’t even know what those words are.

Honeybee by Trista Mateer

emotional reflective

Do you think moons really love
the planets they circle around—
like in that poem we used to read
to each other?

I’ve been thinking: maybe they’re
just stuck. Maybe they don’t
know how to let go either. Maybe
gravitational pull is just code for
I don’t know how to be away from
you—but on a massive scale.

Like, baby, I know we don’t work
together. I just forget how to be a
moon when you’re not around.

Of love and letting go.

Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

“I was born seventeen years ago. Do you think people have noticed that I’m around?”

“I notice when you’re not. Does that count?”

✨ reread ✨

Sometimes the only way we can save ourselves is by allowing ourselves to be who we truly are instead of what we think we should be. 

I forgot how funny yet sad this was. My heart was broken and put together again all in less than 300 pages. 🥺❤️

Yesterday I Was the Moon by Noor Unnahar

reflective

4.0

you remind me of my favorite metropolis 
sparkling, loud yet hauntingly sad when 
the light goes out
your confidence; a popular skyscraper 
your sadness; an old orphanage 
your anger; a call of riot
your tears; an uninvited storm
i cannot thank you enough
for reminding me that cities too breathe 
and humans too carry a heart of concrete

{my favorite metropolis}

I didn’t think I would like this because the style isn’t my cup of tea, but I found this collection lovely and I liked the illustrations too.

Alaska by Sue Saliba

emotional

3.5

mia’s heart made a sound that no one heard
except for mia

late one night when she woke from dreams into darkness.

Quiet and lyrical. Of feeling lost and wanting to belong. And that feeling of disconnection when you realize that people are not who you thought they were or who you wanted them to be after all

Bright Minds Empty Souls by Jennae Cecelia

1.5

Just another poetry book

Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? by Raymond Carver

reflective

4.0

A collection of strange and sometimes disturbing short stories about human insecurities and dysfunctional relationships. My favorites: Neighbors, They’re Not Your Husband, Jerry and Molly and Sam, How About This?

Apologies that Never Came by Pierre Alex Jeanty

2.0

Cloudy days are nothing to love unless you’ve known the loneliness that will try to swallow you through dark nights.

Pain is nothing bad if you have never had the good that is the opposite of it.

Water will never be “needed” if you have never met dehydration and never known what it means to be thirsty.

How would you have known what love isn’t, if you’ve never met people who could offer it to you?

There were some nice lines here, but this collection mostly didn’t feel like poetry to me.