Tanya

Q: Do I have to buy the ebook to participate in a book club?

No, you don’t have to buy the ebook to participate, but we do recommend it to get the most out of your club. There are several premium social reading features that are only available when you buy the ebook, like annotations, reactions, comment threads, resources, discussion prompts, and more, all embedded right in the text. It’s a unique and immersive way to read.

Q: Why can’t I buy the ebook on the app?

It’s annoying, we know. App store rules prevent us from selling directly in the app, so for now you can only purchase ebooks on our website. Don’t worry: when you purchase an ebook on the web, it’s automatically added to your bookshelf in the app.

Q: How is Fable’s reader different from Kindle?

Kindle is a straightforward e-reader; Fable is an interactive e-reader that includes social features inside the ebooks. When you read an ebook on Fable, you can see and react to the text with others in real time. Start a discussion, share highlights and quotes, add emoji reactions—all of it lives right inside the book. It’s hard to explain and easy to see, so we recommend reading the free sample in one of our most active clubs to get a feel for it.

Q: Do you sell physical books too?

We do not sell physical books at this time. Wish we did? Let us know why here!

Q: Are book clubs free to join on Fable?

Most of our clubs are completely free to join. The only exceptions are clubs marked as “Premium” or “Career Development,” which do require a fee. You can find out more on each club’s detail page.

Q: How do I start a book club with this book on Fable?

The first step is to download the Fable app. From there, you’ll be able to create your own private or public book club and invite others to read with you. Once your club is created, click on the plus sign under “Currently reading” and search for this book to add it to your club.

By Brenda Shaughnessy

Publisher Description

The award-winning poet weaves a tapestry of literary heritage and intimate reflection as she pays tribute to women artists and mentors, and circles the ongoing mysteries of friendship, love, art, and loss.

In this powerful gathering of poems about her own "influencers," as well as poems on Dadaist artist Méret Oppenheim and the young choreographer Lauren Lovette, Brenda Shaughnessy dwells in memories of the women who set her on her artistic path.

In the title poem, she explores the eternal quality of an intense touchstone relationship with Tanya, about whom she writes, "Everyone's not you to me . . . Worth loving once, why not now?" We all have our own Tanya, and in this book we meet friends, mentors, sisters, lovers, who inhabit a verse classroom where Shaughnessy's passion for literature—forged in her own formative studies, as in the poem "Coursework"—is our teacher.

In flowing stair-step tercets, Shaughnessy leads us down into her generative core, exposing moments of spiritual and intellectual awakening, her love of art and the written word, and her sense of the life force itself, which is ignited by the conversation—across time and space—with other women.

Download the free Fable app

Stay organized

Keep track of what you’re reading, what you’ve finished, and what’s next.

Build a better TBR

Swipe, skip, and save with our smart list-building tool

Rate and review

Share your take with other readers with half stars, emojis, and tags

Curate your feed

Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities

Stay organized

Keep track of what you’re reading, what you’ve finished, and what’s next.

Build a better TBR

Swipe, skip, and save with our smart list-building tool

Rate and review

Share your take with other readers with half stars, emojis, and tags

Curate your feed

Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities

4 Reviews

3.5

Jess Patterson

Created 6 months ago

TheReal Cubcake

Created over 1 year ago

Tsundwall

Created over 1 year ago

AmberCampbell

Created almost 2 years ago

“**I received an eARC on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review** **Some quotes may not match the final copy found in the published book** Brenda Shaughnessy is a new name to me, but I'm also painfully new to the poetry scene. I wasn't a fan of the beginning (it felt long and drawn-out), but the more I read, the quicker pace and the constant poetic tools kept me engaged until I finished the collection in one sitting. TANYA encompasses women and how they shaped the narrator but also how they shape us as the reader, fellow women, and lost lovers. Yes, our mothers, sisters, and aunts guide and love us, but what about the women we meet throughout life? Is our love for other women platonic, sexual, intellectual? Can it be all three or none of the above? As a late-booming bisexual woman who realized her sexuality after marrying a man, the various relationships Shaughnessy paints drew me into different pieces of my past and made me question a lot of my "friendships." That is to say, the narrator doesn't stop with romance between women. Mentorship is the highlight of "Coursework," the second part, and it further dissects the adoration we feel for each other in a realization that a woman who isn't our mother can shape us into the woman we want to be, without the expectation to be better that her. Rather, it's a focus to be better than your past self, even if you don't feel like you're better. "I'm beloved for being art's best worst idea." The insecurity that society shoves on us for being women and feeling our emotions and seeking out that human connection in others and within ourselves when we've forgotten to love ourselves is rampant in the narrator's collection. Yes, she accepts herself and her writing, but she can also hate herself and her writing, and they're both valid sides of the same coin, and despite their countered beliefs, can coexist. The alliteration and internal rhyme schemes create a musical glint to the words, and while some poets write lyrically and sound like folk songs, Shaughnessy comes off as a rapper on the underground scene, her words flying off the pages in anger and frustration as often as they do in adoration and thankfulness. The narrator remarks that the poet still works slowly despite the musician's constant turn out of new material, but this is again countered by the speed at which the words fly off the pages and into themselves like an orchestrated train wreck that we don't see for its synchronized beauty until we've reach the final period. "Time can't erase it but I can." The narrator argues with time itself as they overcome love lost both in living and within the pages of letters never sent. She says that she "holds their death inside my living love," insinuating death is only a physical change, and that people can die while their love lives forever, at least until the last person who loves them also meets with them in depth. As someone who has done a lot of loving after death, this poignant line sold me on every line in the manuscript. The writing is clever and would be even more beautiful in an audio book to hear the flow of alliteration and emotions. I loved this collection, and now I'm searching for Shaughnessy's older works to see how they've withstood the passing of time and more time.”

About Brenda Shaughnessy

BRENDA SHAUGHNESSY is the Okinawan-Irish American author of five previous books of poetry, including The Octopus Museum and Our Andromeda. The recipient of a 2018 Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a Professor of English and Creative Writing at Rutgers University-Newark, Shaughnessy lives with her family in New Jersey.