s.penkevich [hiatus-will return-miss you all]'s Reviews > If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho

Oh my days, I'm laughing so much from that one line :' ) ! What an appropriate reaction . I need to read this properly, I've only read bits of it !

emily wrote: "Oh my days, I'm laughing so much from that one line :' ) ! What an appropriate reaction . I need to read this properly, I've only read bits of it !"

Haha, at this point what else is there to say. I should include it in the review but have you ever head the song Sappho by delian? Would recommend, its basically poetry haha

He seems to me the equal of the gods who only nears you electronically and reads your reviews.

s.penkevich, this one is on my radar for a while, but your one liner must be given credit! :D

i'm living for this review omg will definitely read this soon AHHHHH

Fuck me up, Sappho.

XD Touchè.
As I've said before, you are my to-go guy in terms of poetry books recommendations. I want Sappho me eff me up too.
Xddddd

One of my favourites, and I was also left speechless!

Mir wrote: "He seems to me the equal of the gods who only nears you electronically and reads your reviews."

Electo Sappho should be a band name

Adan wrote: "s.penkevich, this one is on my radar for a while, but your one liner must be given credit! :D"

Haha thanks! I…had a few drinks and that seemed to sum up anything I could attempt to say haha.

s.penkevich wrote: "Mir wrote: "He seems to me the equal of the gods who only nears you electronically and reads your reviews."

Electo Sappho should be a band name"

Electrosapphic is probably something else...

eliooo wrote: "i'm living for this review omg will definitely read this soon AHHHHH"

haha THANK YOU! I hope you enjoy, its a good one to just live with for a long stretch of time.

Malola wrote: "Fuck me up, Sappho.

XD Touchè.
As I've said before, you are my to-go guy in terms of poetry books recommendations. I want Sappho me eff me up too.
Xddddd"

Aw well thank you! Sappho is great. Would recommend browsing different translations to see which seems to work best for you, but I've always had a huge soft spot for Anne Carson (and they seem to be the one most like, internet quotes tend to use?). Hope you enjoy, would love to hear what you think!

LOL, but apart from her being dead, I don't think you're her type.

Cecily wrote: "LOL, but apart from her being dead, I don't think you're her type."

Haha FAIR

s.penkevich wrote: "emily wrote: "Oh my days, I'm laughing so much from that one line :' ) ! What an appropriate reaction . I need to read this properly, I've only read bits of it !"

Haha, at this point what else is ..."

No I haven't actually . And I've only just played it a few times - and I love ! Thanks for the rec, S. - I like how you always manage to find somewhat obscure, but really cool music .

By the way, the 'outro' of the song is totally fantastic - 'With one more stroke of luck/ Sweet mother of fuck/ I became a god' .

emily wrote: "s.penkevich wrote: "emily wrote: "Oh my days, I'm laughing so much from that one line :' ) ! What an appropriate reaction . I need to read this properly, I've only read bits of it !"

Haha, at this..."

YES! That line is so good. There’s so many witty little jokes in there haha I love the line “call me nothing new because she was the sun.” Spicy haha

Can you be anymore fucked up?

Kenny wrote: "Can you be anymore fucked up?"

I'm trying I'm trying haha

Sounds like a challenge!

Mere wrote: "Sounds like a challenge!"

Hahaha indeed!

Birthday Challenge could be like the "hold my beer" equivalent of a New Years Resolution.

Cecily wrote: "LOL, but apart from her being dead, I don't think you're her type."

OMG! I laughed out loud at this. Best comment I've see all year on Goodreads!

s.penkevich wrote: "Kenny wrote: "Can you be anymore fucked up?"

I'm trying I'm trying haha"

That's a pretty tough row to hoe!

Kenny wrote: "Cecily wrote: "LOL, but apart from her being dead, I don't think you're her type."

OMG! I laughed out loud at this. Best comment I've see all year on Goodreads!"

That cracked me up too, if only Sappho was here to see haha

Kenny wrote: "s.penkevich wrote: "Kenny wrote: "Can you be anymore fucked up?"

I'm trying I'm trying haha"

That's a pretty tough row to hoe!"

Giving it the old college try haha

s.penkevich wrote: "Giving it the old college try haha"

I want Sapho to fuck me up too, so I ordered this tonight.

Kenny wrote: "s.penkevich wrote: "Giving it the old college try haha"

I want Sapho to fuck me up too, so I ordered this tonight."

Hurrah! It’s pretty awesome

Kenny wrote: "s.penkevich wrote: "Giving it the old college try haha"

I want Sapho to fuck me up too, so I ordered this tonight."

you will not regretted it so so good

Short and eloquent. :D

Marquise wrote: "Short and eloquent. :D"

Ha thanks! Straight to the main point

I lol'd

Nenia ✨ I yeet my books back and forth ✨ wrote: "I lol'd"

haha excellent

Haha it must be good if that’s the reaction! I’ve been wanting to get into poetry and I heard great things about this one but I’m not sure if it’s a good way to start. What’d you recommend?

Luh wrote: "Haha it must be good if that’s the reaction! I’ve been wanting to get into poetry and I heard great things about this one but I’m not sure if it’s a good way to start. What’d you recommend?"

Sappho is so cool! And definitely enjoyable by anyone but true, might not be the best entry into poetry since a lot are fragments and the curiosity is a lot of the enjoyment as well. Are you looking for more contemporary or classic?
I always like to recommend Mary Oliver as a good intro as she is super quotable and accessible without sacrificing depth. But also like Jane Hirshfield, Audre Lorde, Louise Gluck, W.S. Merwin, Carol Anne Duffy, Dorriane Lux, Yehuda Amichai, Ada Limon, Yi-Young Li, Ocean Vuong (first collection for sure), Wisława Szymborska, Eavan Boland, Tracy K Smith...
or hmmm for less modern maybe WH Auden, Edna St Vincent Millay, Neruda is really accessible and good, Rainer Maria Rilke, Phillip Larkin, W.B. Yeats and the Russian poets Marina Tsvetaeva or Anna Akhmatova are amazing.

Sorry that got long.
BUT ALSO haha
I always really like to recommend anthologies as a good starting place. Bloodaxe Books out of Ireland has some really incredible ones. A favorite Staying Human: new poems for Staying Alive (but any in that series is great) or Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World, or even In the Shape of a Human Body I Am Visiting the Earth: Poems from Far and Wide

Hope that is helpful and not just obnoxious haha. Big poetry fan.

Wow thank you so much! No it’s great to have a lot of authors to choose from bc I live in Switzerland so it’s not always easy to get English books. I just borrowed one of Louise Gluck books and I already have Mary Olivers Dream Work. So I’ll let you know how it goes!

That sounds like a great way to find what works for me. I’ll give Staying alive a go ( it’ll probably take forever to finish but I’ll try haha) it sounds really good!

Luh wrote: "Wow thank you so much! No it’s great to have a lot of authors to choose from bc I live in Switzerland so it’s not always easy to get English books. I just borrowed one of Louise Gluck books and I a..."

Oh awesome, hope you enjoy them! I was so thrilled when Gluck got the Nobel Prize. Which is super nerdy but like, I actually cheered haha. Yea, what is the market like in Switzerland? Is it a good deal of translated titles mixed with ones written in Swiss (and forgive me if I'm super wrong but isn't German and French also national languages or am I making that up?) The US only publishes something like 3% of books a year that are translated works and I wish it was more like 30%.

Hope you enjoy Staying Alive. Theres 4 books in that series and any of them are good, I feel that they have a pretty good selection of poets that are more throughout Europe and the US as opposed to US anthologies that are almost entirely US poets.

FUCK US ALL UP, SAPPHO

adira wrote: "FUCK US ALL UP, SAPPHO"

YES
Being the reason the term Sapphic exists is taking 1st place in winning at life. Top tier legendary living. She won.

“it’s no use, mother dear” makes me shed tears i didn’t know i had. she won, and possibly lost. also, SAPPHO WALKED SO EVERYBODY ELSE COULD RUN.

adira wrote: "“it’s no use, mother dear” makes me shed tears i didn’t know i had. she won, and possibly lost. also, SAPPHO WALKED SO EVERYBODY ELSE COULD RUN."

Ooo yes, oh Aphrodite. She sure did! OH you’ve heard the Sappho song by Delian? Total anthem.

my lit prof recommended it to me after urging all her students to try to become poetry majors just for the “anecdotes”…head-banging to sappho songs in a risd classroom is so surreal

adira wrote: "my lit prof recommended it to me after urging all her students to try to become poetry majors just for the “anecdotes”…head-banging to sappho songs in a risd classroom is so surreal"

This is the best story! Now you win and Sappho wins.

I’m liking it so far. that’s correct but actually Switzerland is basically divided in three parts. So here you have three official languages: Swiss German ( which is a spoken language, the language they learn in school is German), French and Italian. I live in the German part so most books here are written in German/ translated to german. The English ones tend to be expensive so I mostly just buy them online/ thrift. Also the library online is mostly English for some reason so that’s cool! Thrillers/ Mystery are really popular here. I think historic Fiction is also quite popular. And Non fiction. yeah here a mostly see book books translated from English to german. Yeah me too. This year i’ve been trying to read more translated fiction. Talking about translated fiction I read one a few weeks ago and it’s so good. It’s called My Husband by Maud Ventura. It’s about a woman obsessed with her husband but there’s a little twist at the end and I really enjoyed it.

That sounds really good. I can’t wait to try it.

Luh wrote: "I’m liking it so far. that’s correct but actually Switzerland is basically divided in three parts. So here you have three official languages: Swiss German ( which is a spoken language, the language..."

Oh that is fascinating. I looked up a bit about it and that is interesting how there are different language regions. Do most people tend to be able to speak all of them and do you hear people switching languages or mixing them often? Its really disappointing the US does not embrace multiple languages. I mean, in recent years having Spanish immersion schools have become more of a thing and I think thats great but back in high school all you needed was two years of a foreign language class to graduate and certain people get SUPER touchy about anything other than english spoken in public.

Huh, thats cool a lot of library ones are in English. I love library ebook databases, I think that stuff is really cool (its one of the things I do not have any interaction with while working at the library though). Oh yea, is online buying pretty accessible there? The company that used to be really great for buying books from Europe without paying huge shipping got bought by Amazon last year and they immediately killed the service so now theres no good way to get books unless its a US publisher.

Oh thats cool to know thrillers and mystery are actually popular there. Theres been a big push in Swiss thriller novels getting translated here in recent years and I always sort of wondered if that was actually big there or if thrillers from Switzerland just happened to be big here. And thanks again for the recommendation. Can't wait to start that!

Reading her Autobiography of Red at the moment, it’s great 👏🏻 This one joins the list along with The Beauty of the Husband!

Christy wrote: "Reading her Autobiography of Red at the moment, it’s great 👏🏻 This one joins the list along with The Beauty of the Husband!"

Oooo good choice, hope you enjoy. I really loved Red. And that reminds me I need to finally read Beauty of the Husband. I keep meaning to and realized I've bought 3 different used copies of it because I keep forgetting I already have it haha.

Such a succinct review! Definitely got my attention to check the book out lol

Amanda wrote: "Such a succinct review! Definitely got my attention to check the book out lol"

Haha thanks! This book is so lovely, I pull it down all the time. I like to just open it to a random page like it’s tarot cards haha

I’m convinced. Great review 👏

Emma wrote: "I’m convinced. Great review 👏"

Yessssssssssssssssssssssssss
thank you!
Would recommend the Carson translation, I like how she really emphasizes the fragmentary nature of it in a helpful way