These letters are written in the months directly after Trump's election. Some are to historical figures, some are to future beings (grandchildren who These letters are written in the months directly after Trump's election. Some are to historical figures, some are to future beings (grandchildren who are babies, etc.) They help each writer specify their beliefs in the context of the person they are addressing.
Something about the letter format with this directive, however, comes across to me as overly didactic. I may just be weary of protests while the political climate grows increasingly harmful. I also doubt anyone outside of the radical left would ever feel compelled to read a book marketed in this way, and in that sense they are preachy in two ways - preachy in tone and preaching to the choir.
I can't really fault them for the impulse. But solidifying our own beliefs and urging people we already have in our circles to do the same is easy. Preaching is easy, young man, changing is harder.
For the intended audience, these letters will likely be a balm and a boost. And for the literary crowds, seeing names like Viet Thanh Nguyen, Celeste Ng, Hari Kunzru, Karen Joy Fowler, Junot Diaz, etc., is a likely draw.
Thanks to the publisher for approving my request in both Edelweiss and NetGalley; clearly my impulse to read them was strong as I asked twice! The book officially came out May 2....more
Vol. 2 contains issues 6-10, and introduces the trans women prisoners of Facility 1 (with, I think, the idea that they were the firsSolid 3.5/5 stars.
Vol. 2 contains issues 6-10, and introduces the trans women prisoners of Facility 1 (with, I think, the idea that they were the first to be imprisoned because of "gender crimes"), the introduction of President Bitch, one important back story, the continuance of prisoner stories from the previous volume, and some hints of non-compliance within society left behind on earth.
I appreciate the ideas and the subversion but the story doesn't have a lot of momentum in this one. A lot of stirring of the Bitch Planet soup more than anything else, with a lot of commentary on various issues of compliance and privilege.
Thanks to the publisher for approving my request through Edelweiss. This comes out June 11....more
"March is a vivid first-hand account of John Lewis’ lifelong struggle for civil and human rights, meditating in the modern
From the publisher summary:
"March is a vivid first-hand account of John Lewis’ lifelong struggle for civil and human rights, meditating in the modern age on the distance traveled since the days of Jim Crow and segregation. Rooted in Lewis’ personal story, it also reflects on the highs and lows of the broader civil rights movement.
Book One spans John Lewis’ youth in rural Alabama, his life-changing meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr., the birth of the Nashville Student Movement, and their battle to tear down segregation through nonviolent lunch counter sit-ins, building to a stunning climax on the steps of City Hall."
Read this in tribute to the Orlando victims, in protest of legislation removing hard won rights for LGBT people, for love that is revolution. But keepRead this in tribute to the Orlando victims, in protest of legislation removing hard won rights for LGBT people, for love that is revolution. But keep a box of tissues handy, as in more than one....more
First of all, I would like to award myself a medal for FINALLY making it through one of the anthologies on my VanderMeer shelf. It is one of the slimmFirst of all, I would like to award myself a medal for FINALLY making it through one of the anthologies on my VanderMeer shelf. It is one of the slimmer collections but I have been saying I will do this for several years! It took one of my reading groups declaring February the month of revolution, and I decided this was as good of a time as any to work through these stories.
There is a wide range of stories here, wide in theme and in time period, some old enough to give tastes of "old school" speculative fiction and some much more contemporary feeling. Some were already old friends like the Tiptree, and some were complete discoveries of both author and story. I appreciate that the VanderMeers do not always pick the top 20 female authors' top 20 stories of speculative fiction, and that instead there is a wide range of expected and surprise. I also definitely noticed the threads joining the stories together, and how naturally they flowed from one to the next.
My favorites:
"The Forbidden Words of Margaret A." by L. Timmel Duchamp
"The Mothers of Shark Island" by Kit Reed
"The Screwfly Solution" By James Tiptree Jr.
"The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet" by Vandana Singh
"Stable Strategies for Middle Management" by Eileen Gunn (I laughed, out loud, several times with this one)
"Thirteen Ways of Looking at Space/Time" by Catherynne M. Valente, even with the difficult subject matter
I enjoyed reading a story by Leonora Carrington even if it didn't rank in my favorites, because I have another short story collection of hers that I'm looking forward to reading later this year. Other favorite authors that I was happy to read more of, even if those stories were also not my favorites, include Octavia Butler, Angela Carter, Nalo Hopkinson, and Ursula K. LeGuin.
There is no way this book of essays about protest and community organization in "Trump's America" wasn't rushed through the publishing process in ordeThere is no way this book of essays about protest and community organization in "Trump's America" wasn't rushed through the publishing process in order to be ready by the inauguration, and it does show a little. The first essay seems to be a repurposed speech by Bernie Sanders, one I found less than inspiring, because it was like pushing the "go" button on the Bernie "kill the banks" robot. It didn't directly address the president, the presidency, racism, protest... I'm not sure why it was there except they wanted to put his name on the cover.
My favorites and most true to the marketing of the book were by David Cole (of the ACLU, not the conservative party planner) Elizabeth Warren, Anthony Romero, Trevor Timm, and Gloria Steinem's "Welcome to the Resistance" essay was uplifting as I head into the women's rally tomorrow (in my city we're having a rally instead of a march, but same umbrella.)
Do I know how to stand up for my values? I'm not sure I really learned that from this book. I definitely felt reaffirmed that I need to, but the path is not yet clear.
I received a review copy of this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review, and then read it at the same time as everyone else!...more
I saved finishing this one until January 21, the day of all the women's marches and rallies worldwide. Reading about progress and current status of woI saved finishing this one until January 21, the day of all the women's marches and rallies worldwide. Reading about progress and current status of women's rights is simultaneously terrifying and encouraging.
The book of essays doesn't get five stars from me because there is a fair amount of repetition of ideas between essays. I'm not sure all of them needed to be included because of that, but I definitely think Solnit is an important writer on this subject.
I started marking passages in the introduction, where she talks about interviewers being dismissive, completely in disbelief that she has a fulfilling life without children.
"A Short History of Silence" should be required reading for everyone. It examines the idea of voice, how a voice is silenced, and why it is so important for women to have their own.
"If our voices are essential aspects of our humanity, to be rendered voiceless is to be dehumanized or excluded from one's humanity."
The idea of who isn't at the table, of whose voice isn't represented, is just as important.
"If libraries hold all the stories that have been told, there are ghost libraries of all the stories that have not."
And she examines what happens when power consumes others voices, controlling the news, controlling the narrative.
"It's as though the voices of these prominent public men devoured the voices of others into nothingness, a narrative cannibalism."
And this essay was written before our very young presidency, which has done nothing but sign presidential orders to silence more voices. It cuts deep in these days. Solnit also takes a look at male silence, and the expectation particularly for straight men to stay true to the narrative of power. Then she spins it around and examines how this perpetuates violence against women.
"Love is a constant negotiation... to love someone is to lay yourself open to rejection and abandonment; love is something you can earn but not extort... so much sexual violence is a refusal of that vulnerability."
"Men Explain Lolita to Me" is a bit of a continuation of the well-known essay, "Men Explain Things to Me," (read online at LitHub about the white male reaction to her various statements on literature. She wrote a reaction to the GQ Magazine's article called "80 Books All Men Should Read" with, shall we say, a rather different response. The entire essay is worth a read, but a quote near the end stuck with me: "You read enough books in which people like you are disposable, or are dirt, or are silent, absent, or worthless, and it makes an impact on you. Because art makes the world, because it matters, because it makes us. Or breaks us."
Thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy in exchange for an honest opinion....more
This tome is not an analysis or action plan for dissent, but rather a collection of quotations from the various moments in time requiring it. It is moThis tome is not an analysis or action plan for dissent, but rather a collection of quotations from the various moments in time requiring it. It is more like a reference book or a bathroom reader (I say this not to criticize but only so you know what to expect.) Each entry is short, 2 pages at most (more typically, an entry is a sentence or two) with a short bio. The entries are organized chronologically from 1800 BCE to 2013, spanning a global perspective, which I definitely appreciated. The editors explain that they "concentrated on dissenters and rebels who have attempted to move mountains, to improve, change, transform the world since the earliest times," so not the people working hard within the system, but more those working against it. The radicals. (And often, because it is from Verso, radically left more than radically right.)
I appreciated the range of types of dissenters - political activists, sure, but also poets, authors, ministers, journalists. I felt like I was revisiting friends in some cases (Assata Shakur has come up in at least 3 of the last 10 books I've read) and making lists of people to read more of in others (for me, mostly poets.)
One of my Goodreads groups is reading revolution this month, so I knew this would be perfect. Plus it suits my mood about the world lately, with its bright orange confrontational cover. I will let a brief sprinkling of what I marked speak for itself.
“Liberty, that nightingale with the voice of a giant, rouses the most profound sleepers… How is it possible to think of anything today except to fight for or against freedom? Those who cannot love humanity can still be as great as tyrants. But how can one be indifferent?” - Ludwig Boerne, 1831
“...Yet while we lament, asking why our insignificant selves were oppressed, the rain still falls heavily on the people.” -Ohashi Genzaburo, 1892
“Don’t waste any time in mourning - organize.” - Joe Hill, 1915
“Sanity is always hardest to restore at the summit - the air there is rarefied. It seems to affect the brain. We can reassert it at the base. The people must take over - you must take over.” - Alex Comfort, 1955
“The people make revolution; the oppressors, by their brutal actions, cause resistance by the people.” - Huey P. Newton, 1967
“You cannot buy the Revolution. You cannot make the Revolution. You can only be the Revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere.” -Ursula K. Le Guin, 1974, The Dispossessed
“To make a revolution, people must not only struggle against existing institutions. They must make a philosophical/spiritual leap and become more human human beings. In order to change/transform the world, they must change/transform themselves.” - Grace Lee Boggs, 1993
“Radical change cannot and will not be negotiated by governments; it can only be enforced by people. By the public. A public who can link hands across national orders.” Arundhati Roy, 2004
“[The administration] is afraid of you. It is afraid of an informed, angry public demanding the constitutional government it was promised - and it should be.” -Edward Snowden, 2013
Very last quote is from Bree Newsome, who was arrested in 2015 for removing the confederate flag from SC’s state house, just a few weeks before it finally was done officially. ...more
"Freedom is still more expansive than civil rights."
I have been doing a lot of thinking lately about what was excluded from my education. Why are some"Freedom is still more expansive than civil rights."
I have been doing a lot of thinking lately about what was excluded from my education. Why are some voices or contributions left out? Is it simply a factor of a formula that there are only so many hours in a day, so many days in Black History month, or could there be other philosophies in play? Why do we only teach about civil "disobedience" that is peaceful and within a Christian framework? So Martin Luther King Jr., yes. Malcolm X and Angela Davis, no. Is it that she's a woman? A Communist?
Davis has been a radical activist for decades. She goes back to Black Panther Party days, although she did not stay a member for long, choosing the Communist party over the BPP when faced with the directive to choose. She still worked closely with the social justice mission of the party, and has ever since.
This book is slim, partially composed of a written interview exchange between Davis and the editor, and finished up with transcriptions of recent speeches Davis has given. Because of this structure there is a fair amount of repetition, but this does demonstrate which issues are prominent - militarization of police, getting rid of prisons, systemic racism, Palestine, immigration, ... actually let's let Davis sum up the issues:
"Here we are in the twenty-first century and we still can’t say that we have affordable housing and health care, and education has thoroughly become a commodity. It has been so thoroughly commoditized that many people don’t even know how to understand the very process of acquiring knowledge because it is subordinated to the future capacity to make money.”
Davis is a radical, but I enjoyed pushing my thinking farther than it usually goes. A few of her ideas I wanted to do more research on, so I was not agreeing with her on everything (but to be fair, not disagreeing either, just my first exposure to some of the ideas.) I admire her lifelong commitment to these causes, I can't imagine where she finds the emotional energy to persist.
Oh and one more quotation because it made me laugh:
“...We recently witnessed the reelection of Barack Obama. By this time everybody who may have been hoping that Obama was the messiah realized that he was simply the president of the United States of America. Simply the president of the racist, imperialist United States of America.”...more
"No woman can call herself free until she can choose when and how often she will become a mother."
Margaret Sanger played an essential role in esta
"No woman can call herself free until she can choose when and how often she will become a mother."
Margaret Sanger played an essential role in establishing access to birth control for women in the United States in the 20th century. She did so while the state's obscenity laws prohibited non-doctors from disseminating birth control information, while Anthony Comstock and the Society for the Suppression of Vice had free reign to censor materials being sent through the post office (and more! For another account of how that organization violated freedom of press, a good read is The Most Dangerous Book: The Battle for James Joyce's Ulysses), while even the President of the USA gave speeches equating childbearing with patriotism.
This novel tells the story of Margaret from teenage years up until her death. I have to admit that I am more likely to consume history in this form, and for the most part found it very readable. I felt the author shied away a bit from the juicy parts (Margaret believed in free love and had multiple relationships, was active in anarchist and communist circles, and those parts are mentioned only in passing) and overdid it on the foreshadowing. I appreciated the many historical tidbits, for instance this is the first time I've ever seen Aimee Semple McPherson presented as a villainous quack (Margaret is portrayed as being very envious of her success!) while Margaret tries to hide her involvement in Rosicrucian philosophy. I would have loved more about this part of her life - Emma Goldman runs around in the background but was crucial to her in two ways and I would have liked to see more on their friendship or mutual acquaintances. Or perhaps I have always wanted to read more about Emma.
Sanger endured jail time, court cases, even a period of exile from the United States, as she pursued her belief that women of all income levels deserved access to birth control (meaning: not just the wealthy.) The controversy has lived longer than she has! Even now, the first page of Google results are still half factual biographical information and half websites linking her (and by association, Planned Parenthood) with racist eugenic policy making. The author attempts to address the common criticisms of Sanger by having her defend them in her voice, but I am not sure that works well in the flow of the story (and is one place I would have appreciated a historical treatment to get all the information.) There are also periodic moments where other characters are given a voice through letters they've written to Margaret, usually in the tone of "this is how you wronged me." I appreciated multiple perspectives but they did not ring as true as Margaret's voice.
I received a copy of this from the publisher through Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review....more
Imagine a world where the white men in power, rather than making and enforcing laws equitable for everyone, just remove the people they don't want to Imagine a world where the white men in power, rather than making and enforcing laws equitable for everyone, just remove the people they don't want to have to deal with from their vicinity, for any level of infraction. This is real life! In the news this week, it is people from specific countries and religions even with legal residency status in our country, barred from re-entry. In this graphic novel, it is "non-compliant" women, relocated to another planet. I decided to read it, thinking perhaps it would feel like a balm, but instead it was a little too close for comfort.
Politics aside, I felt a little dumped into the story, while recognizing that as typical comics strategy... but I could benefit from a little more back story and context to really understand everything that confronted me on the page. If a graphic novel is trying to tell a feminist story, do we still need pages filled with nudity? I'm no prude but it felt like overkill.
There are other themes going on here, the performative expectation on female bodies, body image, and even the rankings within groups of women by race. I appreciate graphic novels but I think for this particular story I would have preferred a longer narrative like a novel. But I can give the authors and artists the space to further develop the story in their chosen form and see what happens....more
It took me a while to read this book because I was worried I would end up feeling ... well, like a bad feminist! Is there a more loaded word in the EnIt took me a while to read this book because I was worried I would end up feeling ... well, like a bad feminist! Is there a more loaded word in the English language? People saying they "aren't feminists" so they won't seem threatening, women throwing around the word as they judge each others' decisions, "feminist" being spoken in the same dismissive voice as "whore" or "prostitute."
Roxane Gay knows this issue and these brief essays are full of reflections on pop culture, politics, and her own experiences. She doesn't have it all figured out, which is a huge relief. She likes things she feels maybe she "shouldn't" like, like Robin Thicke's music and the Sweet Valley High books, but she uses those "shoulds" as an avenue to explore issues of gender, race, and expectations.
The essays are short, and if I was not interested in a topic, I would just skip them. This only happened twice, not too shabby.
A few tidbits I marked:
"We are constantly faced by this uncomfortable balance between brilliance and bad behavior." (from Blurred Lines, Indeed)
"At times, I thought, I do not have the energy to care about this." (from When Twitter Does What Journalism Cannot)
"Alas, poor feminism. So much responsibility keeps getting piled on the shoulders of a movement whose primary purpose is to achieve equality, in all realms, between men and women... These articles make it seem like... there is, in fact, a right way to be a woman and a wrong way to be a woman. The standard for the right way to be a woman and/or a feminist appears to be ever changing and unachievable." (from Bad Feminist: Take One)...more
As someone with a deep fondness for hackers and activists, and being a person follows several versions of Anonymous in Twitter because I feel it is moAs someone with a deep fondness for hackers and activists, and being a person follows several versions of Anonymous in Twitter because I feel it is more informative than the regular news, I jumped on the chance to read this book.
Here is a blurb from the publisher summary:
"Half a dozen years ago, anthropologist Gabriella Coleman set out to study the rise of this global phenomenon just as some of its members were turning to political protest and dangerous disruption (before Anonymous shot to fame as a key player in the battles over WikiLeaks, the Arab Spring, and Occupy Wall Street). She ended up becoming so closely connected to Anonymous that the tricky story of her inside–outside status as Anon confidante, interpreter, and erstwhile mouthpiece forms one of the themes of this witty and entirely engrossing book."
It is important to note that the author is an anthropologist. This indicates a very specific type of training, both in research and writing. She tries very hard to write the book for a popular audience, and succeeds most of the time. What doesn't change is the importance she places on understanding a culture from the inside, to become as much of an "insider" as possible. This is what makes this book different from other books or news reports about Anonymous, in my opinion. While she could only present the story she had access to (and with Anonymous, this is rarely everything!), she does a much better job at capturing the breadth that is Anonymous, from lulz to activism, than most people have.
She started hanging out in IRC around the time that Anonymous focused their attention on the Church of Scientology, and kept up with them through Tunisia, WikiLeaks, Egypt, Occupy Wallstreet, and a bunch of arrests and offshoots from Anonymous. There is a lot of information in this book, and part of me wishes she hadn't tried to do quite so much, but I would have had a hard time knowing what could/should be kept out.
Anonymous, in whatever form, and groups like it, may be the only people left really looking to protect privacy of individuals. I have appreciated their pooled strength in fighting censorship and inequality, but this book taught me a lot more about the lighter side of anyone who calls themselves Anonymous. I grow more and more concerned about the unbalanced fight the FBI and other United States government agencies are waging against hackers.
I listened to Jimmy Carter read his book on the audio version, which I got as a review copy from the publisher. He doesn't always pronounce everythingI listened to Jimmy Carter read his book on the audio version, which I got as a review copy from the publisher. He doesn't always pronounce everything perfectly, but he's Jimmy Carter!
This is an excellent overview of how religious and political restraints impact the status, health, and livelihood of women worldwide. He offers specific ideas for working toward change while also acknowledging why some change has been difficult. You can see the 23 action items on the Carter Center blog without even reading the book, and I'd recommend at least doing that.
He doesn't let the USA off the hook. He points out that Atlanta, his closest urban center, is the highest trafficking point of women in the country (these numbers are crazily high, I had no idea) and the negative impact some ultra-conservative organizations have had on women's health legislation (leaving the USA among a handful of countries to not move forward in this arena.) Most of the information is very current, with sources as recent as earlier in 2014 in use. Some of the older information was shocking, such as some United Nations documents on women's rights from the late 1970s that I had never even heard of. I wonder what the world would be like now if the countries that signed those documents had actually followed through on their vows.
Jimmy Carter's own politics and even religion do come out in the book, but I have to say I was impressed by the telling of why he left the Southern Baptist Convention after 70 years in it, based on their changing policies about women in ministry and church. Actions speak! I don't know all that much about him as a president (mea culpa) but I appreciated his plea for non-violence and abolishment of the death penalty.
Sidenote: There are some horror/dystopian novels out there right now that include tapeworm invaders but they don't have anything on Jimmy Carter's description of guinea worms, which *actually exist* and his organization has been working to eradicate it. For all that is good and holy, do not do a Google image search for them. Yeah, I couldn't help myself either. ...more
When this book was named to the Booker longlist, I was disappointed that it wouldn't be published in the USA until 24 September, far beyond when the sWhen this book was named to the Booker longlist, I was disappointed that it wouldn't be published in the USA until 24 September, far beyond when the shortlist was announced. But then I got a review copy of the audiobook from Random House Audio, and moved it to first in line.
The audiobook is read by Sunil Malholtra, who I hadn't heard before, but he does a good job capturing the characters of Subhash and Godi (sp?). I somehow had the tracks out of order, so my initial complaint as I was listening that the story glossed over too much of the opportunity for more in-depth examination of the characters wasn't actually accurate, I just didn't hear it until after I knew the end of the story. Whoops.
I didn't know a lot about the Naxalite movement in Calcutta, and the story revolves around one brother who is killed as a revolutionary. The other brother marries his wife and takes her to the United States where both of them pursue educations and raise the first brother's daughter. While Lahiri's previous works have dealt very intentionally with the theme of immigrant life, in The Lowland, that is an element but not the central story. It centers around the brothers and their wife.
The only complaint I have about the book is that I just didn't connect emotionally to the characters. Everyone had a coldness that I could not get past. While the characters make mistakes that have consequences, they never seem to really grow and change because of those mistakes. Instead they often pull back from their lives as if they can't stand the contact. I didn't feel sympathetic to any of them, and I would have liked to. I'm not sure it's the author's best work; it's definitely not my favorite, but it did make the Booker shortlist, so it has a 1 in 6 chance of winning that prize.
Jenny (Reading Envy)
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