All the Little Voice Clips

I just finished listening to All the Little Bird Hearts, and I’m having the feeling of, like, simultaneous sadness while also profoundly being in awe of the main character’s steadfastness. It is really, like, intense, like a very intense feeling. I’m just in awe of this character…[mini-rant with spoilers redacted]…Was there anything good that came out of this book? No, just kidding. There was good stuff, kind of, not really. I don’t know, maybe a mother-daughter relationship being fortified? I need to sit with some of this. I literally just finished. It was, like, oh my God, oh my God.

Zach, I’m so thrilled! I kind of thought, when you said you were starting it, “He’s not going to get through it – because this book’s not going to hit for him.” I didn’t know there would be stuff in it that would, like, resonate with you.

But, okay, I loved that main character, too. We are united in this. I love the way she was written. We need more characters like her – except, she does stand out because she’s so remarkably different from our usual leads, right? And I thought it was kind of a lovely story in the end, so yes, she…[spoiler info redacted before moving on to talk about the relationship between two characters]. But also, then we get to go “Oh, wait, they were just friends all along? And it was us filling in a romantic connection when that’s just what friendship looks like: that you’re kind to each other and take care of each other. But we’re unable to see that in a book without perceiving it as a romance, right? Yeah, they were just friends all along!

I think it’s wonderfully close to a happy ending in the sense that all this woman has ever needed outside of her daughter, in a way, is just to be alone. She loves nothing more than to be alone in her house, in her own way, and she gets that. And I do appreciate that at the end, we see that the daughter has learned some lessons and come to the point where she can appreciate the person that her mother is. So I’m so glad you got through this book because it really is sticking with me because I really love that character, too — so knucks, my baby, knucks!

There’s so much to be said about friendships and how we are taught to perceive so many things as romantic, and I agree with you: it doesn’t have to be romantic.

So I’m listening to this book as, like, I’m like running errands and doing my things, and suddenly, it’s like Epilogue. And I’m like, what the fuck? I’m like EPILOGUE? WHAT? DID I SKIP A CHAPTER? WHAT HAPPENED? So I think that really shook me, and then through the whole epilogue, I was, like, I’m sorry, what? So there’s that.

I was and still am rooting for this character. I do love that she’s like “These are the things, these are the things that I love about life, and these are the things I want, and these are the things that make me happy.” And it has me thinking about in my own life, are there people who are in my life who are similar to this character, and am I putting, or am I creating in my own mind or even outwardly putting in some expectation for them that isn’t mine to narrate or mine to drive?

It also has me thinking about how I just really respected this character through and through. And it also just has me thinking, I’m just so pissed at all the other characters. I think that’s why I was so sad because no one saw her, except for the gardener friend, for who she was and cared about her, validated her, and I do leave with hope and optimism for the mother-daughter relationship, which also, I, not being a parent, it has me thinking about a lot of things, but only from the lens of an outsider looking in.

I think this character is really cool. I 100% agree: we do need more characters like this. And there’s just a lot I really enjoyed about this book. I never want to go over to her house, though, for dinner. Well, that’s not true. Let me reframe that. I would totally go over to her house for dinner, but I would definitely have second dinner waiting on standby. Although an all-white meal? I can say honestly, not bad, not bad. Potatoes and ice cream, like, yes.

Okay, this is awesome. I’m very glad I finished it, and I think that there’s more to keep thinking about. This is fun!

Also, like, fuck those other characters because it doesn’t matter at the end of the day, because she is who she is, right? Like she knows who she is. Also, that understanding and confidence and self-assuredness, like, who gives a fuck – it’s their loss, it’s their loss. The other characters can really suck it.

Okay, byyyyeeeee!

I continue to be thrilled by how much you get this woman; I love it. Yeah, fuck those other characters! That woman is a treasure.

I have to tell you that my sister’s the one who sent me this book; she sent me the copy she had bought for herself. I started reading it and was loving it, so I messaged her to say “Thanks! I am loving this book!” And she was like “Oh, good. I couldn’t get into it, so I thought maybe I’d send it to you.”

I’m glad my sister did not get into this book and therefore sent it to me. When I finished it, I have now loaned it to Leggy and said “I think you might like this one,” and a part of that is I hope Allegra sees some of herself in there because she’s such an internal person, she’s someone who’s so happy at home with herself, doing her little things, but also, there’s a certain kind of longing to feel seen and valued, I think. Yeah, I dunno. She’s certainly different from this character, but there’s a tiny bit of stuff where I thought “Oh, it might be good for her to read a character like this.”

The other thing I really liked about the book is that this woman is so clearly autistic, but it’s never used in the book, and maybe that’s because of the time period when it’s set, which I think is a little nebulous, isn’t it? We don’t really know. But to me, it’s the ‘60s? 50s? I dunno. So of course that language wouldn’t have been used. But I do feel like these days when we get an autistic character or a neurodivergent character of any type, that language is sometimes used, or it’s part of the characterization. But I loved that for this woman, all the traits were there, but the words were never assigned to her. She was just her. That’s another thing I loved.

I want to say how much I love the power of seeing people you love in books, and in gentle recommendation, they may see themselves in a book, too.

Also, I started Woodworking yesterday!!!! Finally lol

OMG FUN!! I have lots of notes about that book, but also: it relates important things with nuance and insight, and it’s super accessible to all readers. Cannot wait for your thoughts on it

My teacher friend [also reading Woodworking for book club] is already fixating on the teacher/student relationship, and having not read it but knowing they’re hyper critical of “age appropriate” reading, I’m eager to see what they say

Yeah, the relationship in the book couldn’t really happen without repercussions for that teacher

But also: for the readers who allow willing suspension of disbelief, there are beautiful things in that teacher/student relationship

If one insists on one’s fiction being very strictly “realistic,” that defeats the point and power of fiction. I don’t mind letting fiction present a slightly bent reality