mishmash

484 points

0% overlap

My Taste

mishmash finished reading and wrote a review...

mishmash

Aug 21, 2025

4.0

Enjoyment: 5.0Quality: 4.5Characters: 4.5Plot: 3.0

ENJOYED! This slice of life, meandering novel was extremely relatable. There was very little conflict, but just enough to carry the story forward (Lena, Ravi, sick family). I liked these characters and their youthful-but-slowly-aging friendships. Our heroine and her friends loved to sit in the park, or walk around, buy a six pack, yap. That honestly sounded like...home, like heaven to me! The apartment-purchasing + eventual purchase felt like the disruptor of heaven. Do those mortgages and walls make us happy?? Do they take us further from our friends? Questions I still ask myself today...

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mishmash

Ravi

Man, Ravi just running away because it feels like his friends are moving on in life, when really Manu and Aysa felt comfortable settling down because they had community like Ravi!! Ravi why are you so fleeting and insecure? they adore you! Apparently EVERYONE adores you lol

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AsunaKyo

Ending

spoilers

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Post from the The Anthropologists forum

mishmash

Thoughts from 47% (page 85)

couldn’t put my finger on it before until Sara mentioned some friend she had made who was super charming, and then turned out to have a ton of vulnerabilities…they have convos and thoughts that I have and it’s cool to see them reflected in a novel!!! lol does that make me self obsessed.

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mishmash

Thoughts from 44% (page 78)

Ravi’s funny. These friends are funny together! opining about random shit. Makes me miss my college friends! Their ranking of important characteristics up to 100 characteristics? ok frandz with time on hand!! !: honest, kind, curious, the drinking spirit lol, funny, patient, humble, generous …

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mishmash

Thoughts from 41% (page 73)

Even though their take on therapy would not be popular with modern western audiences, I like it :D not that I’d ever say that to anyone! also does this clue us in that they’re living in some western american or european city hmm?!

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mishmash

Thoughts from 20% (page 35)

Her sending her dad off to the airport warmed my heart! This book is "subtle and resonant", as the back cover quotes, and I agree. We're reading about an anthropologist student turned documentarian, and we get to be a mini anthropologist too, observing her kinships and rituals.

mishmash wants to read...

The Sense of an Ending

Julian Barnes

By an acclaimed writer at the height of his powers, The Sense of an Ending extends a streak of extraordinary books that began with the best-selling Arthur & George and continued with Nothing to Be Frightened Of and, most recently, Pulse. This intense new novel follows a middle-aged man as he contends with a past he has never much thought about--until his closest childhood friends return with a vengeance, one of them from the grave, another maddeningly present. Tony Webster thought he'd left all this behind as he built a life for himself, and by now his marriage and family and career have fallen into an amicable divorce and retirement. But he is then presented with a mysterious legacy that obliges him to reconsider a variety of things he thought he'd understood all along, and to revise his estimation of his own nature and place in the world. A novel so compelling that it begs to be read in a single sitting, with stunning psychological and emotional depth and sophistication, The Sense of an Ending is a brilliant new chapter in Julian Barnes' oeuvre.

mishmash wants to read...

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

Jeanette Winterson

Alternate cover edition for 9780802135162 This is the story of Jeanette, adopted and brought up by her mother as one of God's elect. Zealous and passionate, she seems destined for life as a missionary, but then she falls for one of her converts. At sixteen, Jeanette decides to leave the church, her home and her family, for the young woman she loves. Innovative, punchy and tender, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit is a few days ride into the bizarre outposts of religious excess and human obsession.

mishmash wants to read...

The Penelopiad

Margaret Atwood

Now that all the others have run out of air, it's my turn to do a little story-making. In Homer's account in The Odyssey, Penelope—wife of Odysseus and cousin of the beautiful Helen of Troy—is portrayed as the quintessential faithful wife, her story a salutary lesson through the ages. Left alone for twenty years when Odysseus goes off to fight in the Trojan War after the abduction of Helen, Penelope manages, in the face of scandalous rumors, to maintain the kingdom of Ithaca, bring up her wayward son, and keep over a hundred suitors at bay, simultaneously. When Odysseus finally comes home after enduring hardships, overcoming monsters, and sleeping with goddesses, he kills her suitors and—curiously—twelve of her maids. In a splendid contemporary twist to the ancient story, Margaret Atwood has chosen to give the telling of it to Penelope and to her twelve hanged maids, asking: "What led to the hanging of the maids, and what was Penelope really up to?" In Atwood's dazzling, playful retelling, the story becomes as wise and compassionate as it is haunting, and as wildly entertaining as it is disturbing. With wit and verve, drawing on the story-telling and poetic talent for which she herself is renowned, she gives Penelope new life and reality—and sets out to provide an answer to an ancient mystery.

mishmash wants to read...

Lavinia

Ursula K. Le Guin

In a richly imagined, beautiful new novel, an acclaimed writer gives an epic heroine her voice.In The Aeneid, Virgil's hero fights to claim the king’s daughter, Lavinia, with whom he is destined to found an empire. Lavinia herself never speaks a word. Now, Ursula K. Le Guin gives Lavinia a voice in a novel that takes us to the half-wild world of ancient Italy, when Rome was a muddy village near seven hills. Lavinia grows up knowing nothing but peace and freedom, until suitors come. Her mother wants her to marry handsome, ambitious Turnus. But omens and prophecies spoken by the sacred springs say she must marry a foreigner--that she will be the cause of a bitter war--and that her husband will not live long. When a fleet of Trojan ships sails up the Tiber, Lavinia decides to take her destiny into her own hands. And so she tells us what Virgil did not: the story of her life, and of the love of her life. Lavinia is a book of passion and war, generous and austerely beautiful, from a writer working at the height of her powers.

mishmash paused reading...

Birding with Benefits

Sarah T. Dubb

A divorcee embarks on her “year of yes” and crosses paths with a shy but sensitive birdwatcher who changes her life in this charming rom-com that is perfect for fans of Christina Lauren and Ali Hazelwood. Newly divorced, almost-empty-nester Celeste is finally seeking adventure and putting herself first, cliches be damned. So when a friend asks Celeste to “partner” with his buddy John for an event, Celeste throws herself into the role of his temporary girlfriend. But quiet cinnamon roll John isn’t looking for love, just birds—he needs a partner for Tucson’s biggest bird-watching contest if he’s ever going to launch his own guiding business. By the time they untangle their crossed signals, they’ve become teammates…and thanks to his meddling friends, a fake couple. Celeste can’t tell a sparrow from a swallow, but John is a great teacher, and the hours they spend hiking in the Arizona wilderness feed Celeste’s hunger for new adventures while giving John a chance to practice his dream job. As the two spend more time together, they end up watching more than just the birds, and their chemistry becomes undeniable. Since they’re both committed to the single life, Celeste suggests a status upgrade: birders with benefits, just until the contest is done. But as the bird count goes up and their time together ticks down, John and Celeste will have to decide if their benefits can last a lifetime, or if this love affair is for the birds.

mishmash finished reading and wrote a review...

mishmash

Aug 13, 2025

4.5

Enjoyment: 5.0Quality: 5.0Characters: 5.0Plot: 4.5

I’m on a Maeve Binchy reading rampage. Her warm towns and funny characters continue to draw me in! There is nothing patronizing, satirical, overly intellectual, or innovative about these novels. She writes distinctive, contrasting main characters whose interactions are light yet meaningful / with tension. Oh yeah and they’re funny. The contrast between humble small town convent girls meeting the more cosmopolitan classmates in Dublin was charming…the light but dangerous tension of Jack and Nan as side characters kept me page turning ….like was Jack gonna be a cruel guy to Benny!? Was Nan going to be a psychopath? I think i like books where nothing terrible really happens, but where class and society are realistically depicted. In this book, people get hurt, get happy, and people betray, but you know the characters will be ok which is why you can read it without painful dread. And then suddenly the novel ends and you can’t help but wish you could know more about how the characters take on life. ALSO, IS THERE AN IRISH AUTHOR I DON'T LIKE? maybe sally rooney LOL.

mishmash commented on a post

lucyPagebound

Thoughts from 48%

Oof getting quite irritated by the FMC. She reads so much into the tiny expressions and gestures of other people. Are her readings accurate, or is she just insecure?

mishmash finished reading and wrote a review...

DNF

mishmash

Aug 13, 2025

DNF

3.0

Enjoyment: 1.0Quality: 4.0Characters: 2.0Plot: 2.0

Sorry…I don’t feel like finishing. This narrator knows everything there is to know about acting and herself, so it seems. I’m not a big fan of characters who know everything. Like…what happened to growth? Curiosity? Unless it’s a total play on unreliable narrator and I missed it! This is totally a taste thing and I’m sure others could really enjoy this novel! I know I’m stopping right when i’m supposed to enjoy the clever parallel universe/weird role switching thing but oh well…there’s symbols metaphors and meta stuff. And I DONT CARE!! It’s giving me Alls Well vibes and I have a feeling it’s going to end in a similar chaotic tsunami of confusing surrealism surrounding the theater. Also, reading her DESCRIBING her and everyone’s acting unfortunately gets old because it’s just telling (in really passionate words), and not showing. Idk. Lastly I’m totally imagining the main character looking like Anna Wintour, and the Tomas husband looking like Stanley Tucci.

mishmash finished reading and wrote a review...

mishmash

Aug 13, 2025

4.5

Enjoyment: 5.0Quality: 5.0Characters: 5.0Plot: 4.0

4.5/5: I enjoyed this thoroughly. Good writing, real but unique and deserving characters. Friendship, pain, trauma, humor, growth, feeling proud of the characters, an unexpectedly charming romance too. I still haven’t read an irish author that I didn’t like.. I kept feeling surprised that the characters were still 21. Time was wonky cuz it felt like more seasons were passing but actually only a few weeks?

mishmash started reading...

The Anthropologists

Aysegül Savas

Asya and Manu are looking at apartments, envisioning their future in a foreign city. What should their life here look like? Can they create their own traditions and rituals? Whom can they consider family? As the young couple dreams about the possibilities of each new listing, Asya, a documentarian, spends her days gathering footage from the neighborhood park like an anthropologist observing local customs. “Forget about daily life,” chides her grandmother on the phone. “We named you for a whole continent and you're filming a park.” Life back in Asya and Manu's respective home countries continues-parents age, grandparents get sick, nieces and nephews grow up-all just slightly beyond their reach. But the world they're making in their new city is growing, too, they hope, into something that will be distinctly theirs. As they open up the horizons of their lives, what and whom will they hold onto, and what will they need to release? Hailed by Lauren Groff and Marina Abramovic, Savas's fine, precise craft turns The Anthropologist's simple apartment search into a soulful, often funny, examination of modern coupledom, home-building, and expat life in the universal modern city.

mishmash started reading...