Welcome to my Bookshelf!

Invisible Cities: Italo Calvino

I have been meaning to read this book for a while, so when i discovered that Nicole already had it among her personal collection, I quickly swooped it up. "Book" may be a generous description-- its really more of a collection of forty or so short stories held together by a charming dialectic. In Invisible Cities, Calvino guides us through a series of vignettes, each portraying a "city" bearing a different woman's name. Calvino's stand-in philosophers of choice are no other than Marco Polo, the famous traveler, and Kublai Khan, the great emporer. Toegther, the men discuss Khan's empire, and get real metaphysical with it. Enjoyers of Borges (such as myself) will enjoy the themes of repetition, doubling, and projection Calvino imbues in his cities. Individuals with difficulty compartmentalizing casual misogyny (such as myself) will find his descriptions of women a little jarring.

Time read: 2 days

Started: 7/5/25

The Secret To Superhuman Strenght: Alison Bechdel

It's diffult to talk about Alison Bechdel without projecting. She is, of course, the patron saint of overly-educated & neurotic white lesbians everywhere. Objectively speaking, I am always impressed by her mastery over her form. Bechdel is just a great writer, flat out. Her monolouges read like podcast transcripts, effortlessly weaving in historical narratives and personal musings. And her visuals seemlessly transition all these disparate parts so geniusly. Her opening monolouge might be my favorite example of this-- ie, the one where she gives an overview of the narrative while literally going through all the prepartion of an outdoor excursion herself. Her illustrations are so lush (and also are colored by her wife! I could cry). Content wise, the narrative is also pretty meaty. Exercise-haters rejoice-- Bechdel never wastes page space on calories or body image or diet nonsense. Of course, she suffers through her sport, but her exercise story differs vastly from the traditional feminized narrative. Of course, Bechdel can't avoid talking about gender. But like her other narrative works, the heart of Bechdel's stories are grief and longing. So much is contained in each character's signature Bechdel-frown.

I really devoured this book. From the minute I got it, I spent every free moment on it. More personally, i've been in such a reading slump. But Bechdel's work really just lights me up like no other.

Time read: 2 days

Started: 7/8/25