Vintage Stamps

Pretty books are everything.

Introduction.

⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⛧°. ⋆༺⭑.ᐟ internet persona purposed only.

Things to consider before followed her on X (formerly Twitter):

The account is mostly about books, journaling, and cafe hopping related content. Pictures are hers and not for commercial use. Pictures that aren't taken by her would be shared with credit to the owner.

She does soft-blocking almost all the time with accounts she rarely interacted with, to keep her circle small and her timeline familiar. There's no need to take it as offensive action since she didn't put any mind into it.

There would be NSFW content such as interaction, harsh words, profanities, books' theme, so the account is not so much family friend. It's no minor area.

A lot of spoilers, please be aware.

⋅ Isabelle Amanda Hennschen is the name. You may call me with Isa ⋅ A Taurus through, and through. ⋅ Languages spoken are English, Indonesian, High Valyrian (ˢᵒ ˡⁱᵗᵗˡᵉ), German (ˢᵒ ˡⁱᵗᵗˡᵉ) ⋅ Choosing dark/light academia as her aesthetic used avatar: Emily Carey, Kim Dami

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⠀⠀⁀➴ HOBBIES

⋆ Reading ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ I love to read, mostly classics and essays. Not to mention, Indonesian historical fiction too. These are my favorite books from all time: The Secret History, Tetralogi Pulau Buru, I, 1984, The Stranger, Homage to Catalonia, Animal Farm, The Jakarta Method, The Universe of Us, A Song of Ice and Fire, and Gadis Pantai.

⋆ Musics ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ Genre: RnB, Lo-Fi, Classics, K-Pop, Pop, Folk Artist(s): BTS, Claude Debussy, Keshi, New Jeans, Novo Amor, SZA, Summer Walker, The Weeknd, Franz Gordon, KIOF, Rini, Niki, Thuy, Nadin Amizah, etc.

⋆ Writing and Journaling ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ As for me, writing and reading come in the same package. The more I read, the more dying I am to write my abundance amount of thoughts. My writing mostly about yearning, devotion, and infinite sums of adoration toward people or fictional character I fancy. Journaling is one thing, yet book commentary is another thing I did beside pouring down thoughts about life and universe in general.

elaborate book covers

Study Session (August 17th)

I luckily got to bring home this collection of Albert Camus' book published by Vintage International.

Yellowface by Rebecca F. Kuang

Reading Yellowface is an entirely new experience. That is because I’ve been having this book for 5 months before finally deciding to read it. I've heard many great things about Rebecca F. Kuang regarding her works on The Poppy War Trilogy and Babel, so I put high expectations on this. Should I have expected something great from her? I shouldn't have. Did I regret giving this book a try? Absolutely not.

As I said before, the idea and main plot of this book are genius. Many say that Rebecca F. Kuang's works reflect things around her, and "Yellowface's" plot is surely something that’s close to her because it's talking about book publishing and all the drama involved in it. Rebecca F. Kuang, I must admit, can really create an unhinged character that can set everyone's hair on fire. I couldn't describe how mad I was reading this book. Seeing Juniper Song Hayward's point of view for the entire book really tested all the patience in me. As the NY Times said about this book: "Everything about R.F. Kuang's novel 'Yellowface' feels engineered to make readers uncomfortable."

This brilliant novel should at least get 5 stars, but for some reason, I won't give it 5 stars. Rather, I'll explain to you three reasons why this book is genius:

The satire. As we all know, although the Chinese community has become larger and larger over time due to the mobility of people around the world, and despite how big China is as a state/country right now, this hasn't really reduced the amount of sinophobia that exists in the world, especially in the book publishing sector. The satire in this book is brilliant because Rebecca F. Kuang is not only addressing racism but also the bigotry and Asian-fetishizing that have been happening this past 10 years.

Tension. This book either makes you hate Juniper or pity her. The moment you find yourself pitying her and wishing her not to get caught, that’s the moment you should start booking a session with a therapist. (no judgement, but I just did).

History lesson. This world is fucked up but we are kind of beyond the most fucked up eras: World War 1 and World War 2. This book also brings along a topic and history lesson that not everyone might know. As an IR student, I should thank RFK for her (not so) free lesson.

Reading this book has a similar feeling to riding a roller-coaster. It gave me a wonderfully furious feeling, but at the same time left me with no excitement toward the end of the ride. A solid 3.5 stars for me.

Link to The StoryGraph: Yelloface's review by Isabelle

Sehat selalu rakyat Indonesia dan perjuangan mereka :'')

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(context for non Indo moots)

Pikiran yang Racau.

“Apa betul yang datang padamu adalah kasih setia tak bertepi, ataukah kesepian yang sedang mengerubungi sanubari waras?” adalah tanyaku yang tak mampu dibisikkan padamu, sehingga aku beralih pada mencari ganggang yang tumbuh liar di sungai-sungai kumuh Jakarta. Betul-lah itu, bahwa aku tak tahan dengan busuknya limbah, tapi aku pun tak lebih tahan untuk hidup tanpa menulis tentangmu barang sehari saja.

Dan inilah aku dan rasa tak sampaiku padamu Sang Bintang kecil yang berkelip terang nun jauh di samudera misteri Bimasakti, sungguhlah berani yang bodoh, bagi lumpur di pinggiran Ciliwung untuk mendamba kejora yang cantiknya kekal beribu tahun.

Berduka-lah aku dan hatiku, seketika merasa seperti debuan aspal proyek yang tak kunjung selesai, terbengkalai dan menyusahkan, hanya bisa mengangakan mulut menerima serpihan batu kerikil yang terlempar ke dalam perut dan bertemu asam lambung.

October 28th 2024

February's book haul