Status Updates From What My Mother and I Don't ...

Did not like that story, excited that the next few stories are shorter lol

My Mother’s (Gate) Keeper was once of the best things I’ve ever read, 10/10.

getting ready to cry again lol

since these stories are individual authors…this ends up being pretty dark and traumatic. lots of trauma piling on to you as you read.

we just figured out that you can screenshare on facetime with audible so we both listened to the book while making dinner.....i loooooooooove technology!

Book-clubbing this one with my sister!

this is just serving trauma dump at this point but i’m here for it

"It felt like I had set fire to my own life. To live with the pain of my strained relationship with my mother is one thing. To immortalize it in words is a whole other level." SOBBING ALREADY RIP MY MENTAL HEALTH

Nayomi Munaweera’s essay hit a little too close to home

This is taking me WAAAAYYYY longer to finish than I expected. Lot of sad stories, was hoping for some humor. I’m riding the waves through the end.

It is my first non-fiction and I am loving it! Every author has a way of making their story special and insightful, very intimate.

:P

so far, feeling like i need to talk to my mother

getting through this so slowly even though my loan ends in 2 days

It sucks that everyone had these traumatic childhood's that have so deeply hurt them but apparently 20 years of therapy doesn't make you less apathetic or immature. Two shorts out of fifteen left and still only one Understood the Assignment.

This book is way too much about Dads

Shout out to Carmen Maria Machado for being the only writer thus far in this anthology to Understand The Assignment™️

“There is a gaping hole perhaps for all of us, where our mother does not match up with “mother” as we believe it’s meant to mean and all it’s meant to give us. What I cannot tell her is all that I would tell her if I could find a way to not still be sad and angry about that.” wow.

This collection still does nothing for me. Maybe if the title and description and introduction didn't so specifically lay out a methodology and theme then I wouldn't be so annoyed that none of the stories seem to hit the mark.

it is so strange to me how we can read an experience so drastically different from our own yet relate to it in a very intimate sense. many of the essays are alright but some of them are truly profound and cut deep. i’m hoping to finish soon or else i’m afraid i’ll enter a reading slump.

This book is a compilation of essays from authors and their complex relationships they have with their mothers. I enjoyed how the authors articulated the good, the bad, and the ugly of their relationships. My favorite one was the mythology essay by Melissa Febos

ok an essay on estrangement- i felt like carmen maria machado was inside my brain.

i feel like i’ve had a bit of a shift in reading this. idk if it’s the subject matter (largely mother daughter relationships and that being difficult for me personally) or just because i don’t like it that much. my thankfulness has dimmed a bit but I’m determined to finish it - it just might take me longer than I anticipated.

Damn, this is good

i simply have not been able to pick this up in a while. my first DNF... much love for the concept of this book though

Her body/ my body. The most well written essay. So deep and personal. Felt likeI could resonate. Bless her

woof this is gonna be a one or two stories kind of day thing for me. reading about relationship with mothers is brutal. whether they’re positive or negative. but i’m already very grateful for this book. as humans we have this need to individual and intellectualize our own experiences but it continues to ring truth that life is a lot more universal than that

i’ve already cried @ this! gonna be a long haul

My Mother's (Gate) Keeper: This essay was about the author coming to terms with her overbearing father's and constantly compromising mother's relationship, of which she doesn't understand. I kept waiting for the author to realize that The Thing her & her mother don't talk about is actually her mother, because they spend so much time talking about her father. This never happened, & therefore the essay ended boringly.

Are you listening is probably the best and the most personal chapter. So we’ll written. I loved it