Liana writes...

  Chapter 1 "1964" Summary of Chapter 1: Ottessa uses gruesome and violent imaging to introduce the character and her troubled mind. Metaphors and similes tell us that Eileen is a disturbed young woman which an alcoholic father. It is also mentioned that she has a sister who is no longer in the picture. The chapter finishes with present-day Eileen saying that the book will be about how she runs away from home and never returns.  QUOTES "I was thin, my figure was jagged, my movements pointy and hesitant, my posture stiff"- Moshfegh uses adjectives that are not usually used for a person but instead something like a knife or blade. It is the beginning of disturbing imagery.  "It (snow) sat staunchly in every front yard, rolled out at the lip of every first floor windowsill like a flood" "cracking and darting through my breasts, slicing through the thick gristle of my shoulder like bullets or cleaving my brain into pieces" "fruitless"- in t...

 August I had decided at the beginning of August, that every month I would set goals and then at the end of the month I would take time to review what's been going on. What my strengths and weaknesses are and how the completion of goals went overall. One has to keep in mind that things regularly change, life gets in the way and your plans are scrambled. Even over only 4 weeks.  For my study goals, I had set "learn 20 words of German a day" from the frequency dictionary. I did in fact stick to this, besides the few days of illness in the middle. Vocabulary learning became more or less a habit, and it is one I intend to take forward into next month.  For my work goals, I wanted to make $400. This didn't happen. Things came up and it went out the window after a while. I did make about $150 though, so it wasn't a complete shambles. Plus, I now have money coming in from the Erasmus grant so I'm not going to be completely financially fucked. I hope.  For my personal...

  The song of Achilles- Madeleine Miller This book was a bit of a left-of-field choice for me. I tend to choose a fast-paced thriller and stay away from a genre like fantasy-romance. But I'd heard the rave reviews from book bloggers and decided to give it a shot. Initially, I struggled to get into it. Miller's sentences were fairly short with little description but her language or style wasn't something that stood out to me. If anything, I felt a stuttering sensation when reading, as though the language wasn't really flowing. As I said, bloggers really raved about this book and many claimed to have been left in tears. From the offset, I didn't feel any emotion towards either Achilles or Patroclus, or their relationship for that matter. Whilst I appreciate that Miller spent a large portion of the book on character and relationship development, they seemed to me to not get along particularly well as the dialogue between them sounded almost stripped back and bare and b...

Why Simone Biles should receive praise for prioritising her mental health by pulling out of the Olympics Simone Biles has accomplished more in 24 years than most of us ever will in our lifetime. Her domination of the elite gymnastics’ world began at 16 years old when she won the United States National title and the all-around title at the World Championships. Ever since then, no other gymnast has come close to matching her talent.  Despite her fame in the gymnastics world since 2013, it took her stellar performance at the Rio Olympics to become a household name. Four golds medals and a bronze in 2016 resulted in her net worth skyrocketing to approximately $6 Million, thanks to brand deals and sponsorships. From the outside, her life appears to be picture-perfect, and it came as a complete surprise to most when her mental health caused her to pull out of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. How could a prodigy with such wealth, crumble under the pressure of her second Olympic games?  Behin...

 Like every night for the past month, Marco De Lauretis sits in his car on the corner of Wellington Drive. As he takes a stab at the crosswords in the daily paper, the sun reaches its final resting point and darkness swallows the street; the only light peeking through the shutters of the bay windows of a grand Victorian townhouse across from him. He manages to mark a letter in the last empty box of his crossword and looks up at the house, letting out a sigh of frustration.  Why did you close the damn shutters , he thinks to himself as he turns the key in the ignition.  Just as he's reversing out of the drive, he takes one last look at the house and sees the lights switch off. He hastily brakes before reminding himself that his sudden movements will only draw attention. In a quiet neighborhood like this, residents tend to keep note of comings and goings. As he slides forward into his previous parking spot, he begins to watch the house meticulously.  The door slowly op...