au's Updates en-US Sun, 20 Sep 2026 17:57:38 -0700 60 au's Updates 144 41 https://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Friend1448578869 Sun, 20 Sep 2026 17:57:38 -0700 <![CDATA[<Friend user_id=165547416 friend_user_id=177624609 top_friend=true>]]> Review8371562870 Sun, 20 Sep 2026 17:39:09 -0700 <![CDATA[au added 'Ladies Almanack']]> https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8371562870 Ladies Almanack by Djuna Barnes au gave 4 stars to Ladies Almanack (The Cutting Edge: Lesbian Life and Literature Series) by Djuna Barnes
bookshelves: sapphic, sappho-1900, american, female-writers
i love djuna barnes's nightwood, but this is so hard to read 😭 it lowkey got me into a reading slump. still i love these lesbian-1920s-roman-a-clefs sm

"'In my day.. I was a Pioneer and a Menace, it was not then as it is now, chic and pointless to a degree, but as daring as a Crusade, for where now it leaves a woman talkative, so that we have not a Secret among us, then it left her in Tears and Trepidation.'" -Dame Musset (34) ]]> Review8896172155 Sat, 19 Sep 2026 16:06:58 -0700 <![CDATA[au added 'SYLVIA BEACH AND THE LOST GENERATION. A History of Literary Paris in the Twenties and Thirties.']]> https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8896172155 SYLVIA BEACH AND THE LOST GENERATION. A History of Literary P... by Noël Riley Fitch au gave 3 stars to SYLVIA BEACH AND THE LOST GENERATION. A History of Literary Paris in the Twenties and Thirties. (Paperback) by Noël Riley Fitch
bookshelves: books-about-books, biography, american, history
This is an incredibly dense book. You can tell that Fitch put a lot of research into this book, which I appreciate. But while I enjoyed the first half of the book (Sylvia's backstory, her opening of the shop, the visitors) and small details like what Sylvia talks about in her letters, I think the book was dragging on in the second half. This book, as another reviewer mentioned, is packed with information about Joyce and Sylvia's work relationship to the point I felt as if I was reading a book just about them. If you want to learn more about Joyce (though turns out he was a very unlikable person), this is a good place to get nitty-gritty details about his time in Paris. But if you haven't read anything from Joyce (like me), it might slow you down. Ultimately, I got out of this book a long list of writers I am to check out!!

I wish that Fitch elaborated more on Sylvia's relationship with Adrienne... Another story of historians saying "They were just friends/business partners!"

Also, Fitch incorrectly calls Natalie Barney bisexual. And there is this line I am confused about: "When Gourmont, her [Barney's] platonic lover, died in 1915, she kept their salon going." (p. 72) Gourmont wasn't part of the salon, nor, I think, did he visit the salon. ]]> Review7635273289 Sat, 19 Sep 2026 15:57:15 -0700 <![CDATA[au added 'Adventures of the Mind: The Memoirs of Natalie Clifford Barney (The Cutting Edge : Lesbian Life and Literature)']]> https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7635273289 Adventures of the Mind by Natalie Clifford Barney au gave 4 stars to Adventures of the Mind: The Memoirs of Natalie Clifford Barney (The Cutting Edge : Lesbian Life and Literature) (English and French Edition) by Natalie Clifford Barney
bookshelves: sappho-1900, memoirs, french
What I love most about Natalie Barney is her self awareness and her uncompromising wit. I think this is the closest to a memoir we have from Natalie; somehow, we find her amongst her writings of others and amongst the lines of poems that are not hers. I loved the different "forms" of texts this book includes, with letters, excerpts from books, poems, etc. Reading the letters feels as if I'm intruding on something very intimate (though they all have a common theme- the men are on Natalie's feet). For example, Proust being honored and sorrowful that he cannot attend Natalie's salon and Pierre Louys preferring Natalie's works to Renee's. Meanwhile, Natalie praises the works of her female friends, including Gertrude Stein and Mina Loy. She even praises the poems of Anna Wickham, even though Berthe Cleyrergue (Natalie's housekeeper and confidante) noted that Natalie told her not to respond to Anna's calls. I found many writers I didn't know of before and ought to read, including Wickham. I find solace in her feminist poems, such as "The Walk" that Natalie features in her chapter.

However, I found that the portraits of Natalie's female friends/lovers were not as well developed as the chapters on her male friends. I get that the chapters on the female friends were read aloud during her Fridays, but it felt imbalanced compared to Natalie's portraits on the men (though we know, of course, which of the two Natalie preferred). She states in the preface to the second half of the book that she only wishes "to imply, to suggest, to sketch" these women and have the reader appreciate their lives on their own. Finishing each chapters left me waiting for more.. Also, Natalie is brutal to Renee in the chapter about her. She basically deems Renee a betrayer of their pagan cult for converting to Christianity on her deathbed. I wish that there was a full translation of Souvenirs indiscrets, because those chapters are Natalie's full accounts of her friends. The chapters Renee Vivien, Remy de Gourmont, and Colette are translated in A Perilous Advantage: The Best of Natalie Clifford Barney by Anna Livia and are beautiful!!

I think it would be more difficult to enjoy this book if one doesn't know already of Natalie's life or the names of the French literary circle, since she does throw a lot of names out (some for name dropping, honestly). Natalie displays her true wit in this book, as witty as her pensees. I found a new favorite quote from this book, though not by Natalie, but by Mallarme: "A roll of the dice will never abolish chance."

Quotes:

"If one is surprised that the author intrudes so often into these pages, it is becuase these adventures of the mind develop necessarily in the encounters of two people. Like other adventures, these have their dangerous liasions, their attempts at understanding, their intrigues, their variants of infidelity, their quarrels of pride and even of love." (24)

"Should I permit the expression of a feeling to outlive the feeling that prompted it? Should I keep the letter that authenticates it? Should I fix it thus in its fidelity?. . .give it an afterlife?. . .Should I burn this or that letter but save the letters of so-and-so?" (27)

"Friendship as much as love undergoes fluctuations, and the tokens of a sentiment are badly reduced to dust at others' homes. In the adventures of the mind there are complaints, sudden turns of such delicacy that no law could govern them. And isn't it by a supreme intuition that every creature returns home to die, and restores to the dovecote all these scattered flocks--our letters?" (44)

"I have nothing formal, reassuring, or fixed; it is possible that one day I will no longer be found at my at-home day. --I will have burned my Temple of Friendship--a ritual gesture owed to missing friends--or I will have borne it away like a tabernacle toward the unknown, with the horizons as my smiling accomplices." (198)
 ]]> ReadStatus11396495867 Wed, 16 Sep 2026 18:48:05 -0700 <![CDATA[au wants to read 'Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia's Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane']]> https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8952050773 Lost Enlightenment by S. Frederick Starr au wants to read Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia's Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane by S. Frederick Starr
]]> Rating1017447168 Mon, 14 Sep 2026 12:56:45 -0700 <![CDATA[au liked a review]]> https://www.goodreads.com/
au liked Nikki's review of Romaine Brooks: A Life:
Romaine Brooks by Cassandra Langer
"This is an absolute treasure trove of research on my favorite artist (one who isn't given nearly enough attention)! It gives a far more nuanced view of her work and is more up to date than other materials (less homophobic bias and more credit of her being the modernist that she was).

If you're less well versed regarding art history (or the timeline in general) then the organizational structure will be challenging to contend with, but the structure of this biography does reveal new insights and research that are best suited to this format. (It's well worth it and a treat!)

The inclusion of her paintings were also very helpful - sometimes writings about art assume a familiarity with the images, but this made it easy to flip back and forth to see which work was being discussed and interact with it (it makes for pleasant reading - easier than needing a book in one hand and google in the other). Even with some familiarity it made for an easier read.

I also really enjoyed her lesbian sensibility and humor- down to earth and fun!"
]]> ReadStatus11387709337 Mon, 14 Sep 2026 12:55:44 -0700 <![CDATA[au wants to read 'Romaine Brooks: A Life']]> https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8945807961 Romaine Brooks by Cassandra Langer au wants to read Romaine Brooks: A Life by Cassandra Langer
]]> ReadStatus11383268210 Sun, 13 Sep 2026 11:24:42 -0700 <![CDATA[au wants to read 'Pybrac']]> https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8942726425 Pybrac by Pierre Louÿs au wants to read Pybrac by Pierre Louÿs
]]> ReadStatus11379762138 Sat, 12 Sep 2026 12:49:01 -0700 <![CDATA[au wants to read 'A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books']]> https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8940261032 A Gentle Madness by Nicholas A. Basbanes au wants to read A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books by Nicholas A. Basbanes
]]> ReadStatus11379760886 Sat, 12 Sep 2026 12:48:39 -0700 <![CDATA[au wants to read 'Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore']]> https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8940260151 Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan au wants to read Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
]]>