Tag: Jessie Gutierrez

Saturday of Book Reviewing – Voltaire’s Candide

On By Jessie GutierrezIn Reviews, Writers - JessieLeave a comment

My first impression of this classic novel was, embarrassingly enough: “How the heck do I say the title??” I hadn’t even opened the book yet, and already I had questions. Seems like a fantastic start if you ask me.

Now possible options were two – I was fairly certain the title would either be pronounced like ‘Candid’ as in to speak the truth frankly OR like ‘Candied’ as in sugar coated and delicious. After all, Voltaire was French, I needed to mind my American vowel sound bias here. As I read through the novel, I rapidly come to the conclusion that either would be perfectly suitable for our protagonist. For those of you immediately calling in to question the accuracy of dubbing a grown man ‘candied’, please allow me to elaborate. Continue reading “Saturday of Book Reviewing – Voltaire’s Candide” →

Panic! At the Desktop: An Anxiety Ridden Day

On By Jessie GutierrezIn On Storytelling, Poetry, Writers - JessieLeave a comment

AKA Jessie doesn’t know how to be an adult and interact with other humans who seek to aid her in her quest for manuscript editing.

Sooooo yeah. Another blog style entry from me this week at Stevie’s encouragement. He’s been… moderately helpful in this whole process, but really, I think I rather enjoy being freaked out; after all, if I didn’t love it, why would I do it so very, terribly often?!? Continue reading “Panic! At the Desktop: An Anxiety Ridden Day” →

Saturday Of Book Reviewing – Albom’s tuesdays with Morrie

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I’ve seen this book many a time on ‘inspirational and uplifting’ book lists, but had never considered that my wheelhouse, and thus had never before bothered to try to mine the wisdom from its pages. I can honestly say, post reading of Mitch Albom’s tribute to his former mentor and friend, that this was mildly inspirational, but heart-soaring-ly uplifting. You can tell I’m serious when I start making up words. So let us begin on this 1997 hit. It’s mini throwback time. Continue reading “Saturday Of Book Reviewing – Albom’s tuesdays with Morrie” →

Song Share And Action Update!

On By Jessie GutierrezIn On Storytelling, Writers - Jessie1 Comment

Why hello there, reader! It’s been a bit since I held myself accountable and told you what I’m up to, thus: this.

To start, a bit of background music to enjoy whilst you read:

That’s better, now isn’t it? I think so too. And hey, if you stumble upon some extra time later and are Johnny Cash fans, check out Forever Words, both an album and a book devoted to the legend’s unpublished writing.  Continue reading “Song Share And Action Update!” →

Misplaced Missive #133 – All The Things You Hate

On By Jessie GutierrezIn Poetry, Writers - JessieLeave a comment

Villain-ize me with perceived evil deeds,
Stigmatize me with everything I’ll always be.
I’m all black and white, right?
Slight me with the way you wish I was,
Worse than I am,
Simply because it makes things simple. Continue reading “Misplaced Missive #133 – All The Things You Hate” →

Saturday of Book Reviewing – Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go

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This is the first review, in possibly ever, where I won’t be quoting directly from the source material to convey thoughts evoked by parts of a novel. Here, it seems more fitting to discuss the overarching themes themselves. Themes like ‘art as a revelation of soul’ or ‘when culture creates a complacency amongst the mistreated’ and even ‘the ethics of rising technologies’. Specifically in that last? Some Orphan Blackesque predicaments. Warning readers: massive spoilers ahoy. Continue reading “Saturday of Book Reviewing – Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go” →

Saturday of Book Reviewing – Heinlein’s Farnham’s Freehold

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Awkward article heading aside, this book was all kinds of messed up. Robert A. Heinlein was from a ‘different’ time blah blah blah. His writing is straight up hard to digest; it’s hard to delve into and invest in a work so littered with racism and sexism. His female characters are flawed, often two dimensional, and his portrayal of minorities is downright insulting sometimes. These are major problems, however, the reality is, that if we got rid of and erased any and all books with these issues, I’m not sure we’d be able to read much from the past. And to be clear, the themes and ideas that Heinlein depicts in his novels are thought provoking and worth considering.
Saturdays are alllllll about the thinking and considering. Continue reading “Saturday of Book Reviewing – Heinlein’s Farnham’s Freehold” →