Isabelle's Inquisitions

I've learned a lot from high school, but one lesson I thought was interesting that I've only recently realized was the value in telling things as they are. When I put it that way, it sounds like this is an admonishment against gossip. It is not. It's more about no longer feeling the burden to filter my thoughts and words to fit a certain image I hold of myself, or aspire to have of myself. I've always overthought everything, which leads me to having a lot of different opinions on varied topics. So, when I express these opinions — either by running them over in my head or talking about it aloud — I feel some kind of need to tell only a certain side of these thoughts. In my head, I justified this because if I tried to express all the angles with which I saw something, I'd confuse myself. It's easier to prescribe to a single belief, instead of many, because the narrative/storyline/character arc I've crafted for myself in my head would feel more linear, and thus...

Fiction 1. Normal People - Sally Rooney Sally Rooney! Known for breaking readers' hearts due to rampant miscommunication between her novels' love interests, I tried reading  Normal People  a few years ago. Unfortunately, I quickly lost patience with her aggressively straightforward writing style. However, I want to try my hand at this again in the hopes that reading about these characters' doomed relationship will help me avoid what led to their downfall in future relationships. 2. Giovanni's Room - James Baldwin I don't really know much about this book, but I've never read something by Baldwin, so I'd love to do that. Plus, I've always dreamed of living in Paris. I know the Paris he depicts in this is probably very different (1950s and gay bars), but I love reading about relationships and I guess there's no better place to read about it then here. 3. A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara This has been on my list for a long time. I've heard so much...