Democracy in Retrograde: How to Make Changes Big and Small in Our Country and in Our Lives
Democracy in Retrograde is a fun, short, super accessible guide to becoming more civically engaged. It’s easy to digest in bite sizes and offers some useful tools for thinking about the ways you might derive the most satisfaction from getting involved and presents an excellent case for why you should.
About the book
Author: Emily Amick and Sami Sage
Publisher: Gallery Books
More info:
The StoryGraph | Goodreads
Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the review.
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My Review
Democracy in Retrograde is a fun, short, super accessible guide to becoming more civically engaged. I think it tips a little too far in attempting millennial relatability in a few spots (ie, the metaphor of a glass half-full of iced coffee instead of water), but overall, it’s easy to digest in bite sizes and offers some useful tools for thinking about the ways you might derive the most satisfaction from getting involved and presents an excellent case for why you should.
I liked the way Amick and Sage make the case for civic engagement as an antidote to hopelessness and despair — even more timely now, in early 2025, than when they wrote it just after the January 2021 insurrection. Their evidence and conviction is convincing and inspiring. I also really liked the tools they offered, in particular the pragmatist/realist/optimist/pessimist/idealist outlooks and the four activism “personality types,” complete with a Buzzfeed-style quiz. It was a genuinely helpful (albeit slightly cheesy) way to help me assess where my strengths lie, what energizes me the most, and how I might bring that unique mix to my own civic engagement in ways that fit with my real life and are rewarding.
All in all, a quick read that I recommend.
Another World Is Possible: Lessons for America from Around the Globe
This book is not only hopeful and optimistic, but also instructive and motivational in terms of what kinds of policies and proposals are worth fighting for here in the US.
About the book
Author: Natasha Hakimi Zapata
Publisher: The New Press
More info:
The StoryGraph | Goodreads
Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the review.
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My Review
When Natasha Hakimi Zapata’s publishing team planned the release of Another World Is Possible for February 2025, they couldn’t have known it would come just as Trump took office for a second term and put out an avalanche of vindictive executive orders (ostensibly) dismantling any progress this country has made over the last decade or so. And yet, what perfect timing for a book that shows us that social and environmental progress is not only possible, not only well within humanity’s reach, but actively in practice elsewhere in the world as we speak.
Clearly organized, thoroughly researched, and approachably written, this book is a buoy in the storm. Zapata shows us the mechanisms of successful progressive initiatives around the world, such as universal healthcare, paid family leave, net neutrality, wildlife conservation, clean energy, addiction treatment, and more. Her skillful reportage balances the micro (real people she met who have shaped or been impacted by these policies) and the macro (the history of the policies and their resulting impacts). There were certain portions where I felt my attention wander — she’s at her strongest at the start and end of each chapter — but overall, I thought this was excellently done.
My biggest takeaway from this book is that in order for these important initiatives to succeed, they cannot be implemented in drips and drabs. It’s ALL or nothing. No single policy can succeed on its own; it is the combination of many policies working in concert toward the same end where the magic happens. And this is not only hopeful and optimistic, but also instructive and motivational in terms of what kinds of policies and proposals are worth fighting for here in the US.
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
If you haven’t read On Tyranny, please do so as soon as possible. This is an extremely short book — it’s 1:47 on audio and pocket-sized in print — that is nothing short of required reading, especially right now.
About the book
Author: Timothy Snyder
Publisher: Tim Duggan Books
More info:
The StoryGraph | Goodreads
Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the review.
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My Review
If you haven’t read On Tyranny, please do so as soon as possible. This is an extremely short book — it’s 1:47 on audio and pocket-sized in print — that is nothing short of required reading, especially right now.
On Tyranny was published shortly after Donald Trump took office the first time. Snyder is a scholar of fascism and history. This book looks back at the ways we can learn from the rise of fascism and Naziism in the mid-20th century in order to prevent it from happening again today — because make no mistake, it absolutely could. (Check out a much deeper dive into its 20 lessons and some key conversational takeaways in my Substack post.)
What impressed me most about this book, aside from the urgent subject matter, was how powerfully Snyder makes his points in only a few pages per chapter. His word economy is astounding, and the effect is deeply affecting. He is clearly very knowledgable and very smart, and his 20 lessons are clear and compelling and actionable.
I really hope you’ll read it.
Content and Trigger Warnings
Genocide
Antisemitism
Xenophobia
Abortion: Our Bodies, Their Lies, and the Truths We Use to Win
I don’t know how to explain to you how important it is that you read this book.
About the book
Author: Jessica Valenti
Publisher: Crown Publishing
More info:
The StoryGraph | Goodreads
Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the review.
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My Review
I don’t know how to explain to you how important it is that you read this book.
If you have ever read Valenti’s Abortion, Every Day newsletter, you know that she s the real effing deal: a smart, rageful journalist on a mission. She spends her days paying really, REALLY close attention to everything anti-abortionists are doing every day so we don’t have to; she spots the patterns and notices the deceptive BS and holds them to account, demanding everyone else does too.
In this book, Valenti has laid out the most important facts and troubling patterns that she references in her newsletter daily; you could almost see it as a kind of “Abortion, Every Day 101.” The information she provides is not only thorough but extremely usable. If you’d like to read some of my biggest takeaways that I’ll be using in conversations going forward, check out this deep-dive I wrote on Substack.
Bottom line, this is absolutely required reading, especially as we head into this second Trump administration. Don’t wait. And subscribe to Abortion, Every Day!
Content and Trigger Warnings
Abortion
Forced pregnancy
Medical trauma
Death
Languages of Truth: Essays 2003-2020
Languages of Truth is engaging and entertaining, although certain chapters will only be for certain people. Don’t be afraid to get a copy and skip around to the essays that interest you!
Author: Salman Rushdie
Publisher: Random House
Goodreads | The StoryGraph
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Cover Description
Newly collected, revised, and expanded nonfiction—including many texts never previously in print—from the first two decades of the twenty-first century by the Booker Prize-winning, internationally bestselling author
Salman Rushdie is celebrated as a storyteller of the highest order, illuminating truths about our society and culture through his gorgeous, often searing prose. Now, in his latest collection of nonfiction, he brings together insightful and inspiring essays, criticism, and speeches that focus on his relationship with the written word and solidify his place as one of the most original thinkers of our time.
Gathering pieces written between 2003 and 2020, Languages of Truth chronicles Rushdie's intellectual engagement with a period of momentous cultural shifts. Immersing the reader in a wide variety of subjects, he delves into the nature of storytelling as a human need, and what emerges is, in myriad ways, a love letter to literature itself. Rushdie explores what the work of authors from Shakespeare and Cervantes to Samuel Beckett, Eudora Welty, and Toni Morrison mean to him, whether on the page or in person. He delves deep into the nature of "truth," revels in the vibrant malleability of language and the creative lines that can join art and life, and looks anew at migration, multiculturalism, and censorship.
Enlivened on every page by Rushdie's signature wit and dazzling voice, Languages of Truth offers the author's most piercingly analytical views yet on the evolution of literature and culture even as he takes us on an exhilarating tour of his own exuberant and fearless imagination.
TL;DR Review
Languages of Truth is engaging and entertaining, although certain chapters will only be for certain people. Don’t be afraid to get a copy and skip around to the essays that interest you!
For you if: You want to read about writing, literature, or world events through the mind of Salman Rushdie.
Full Review
First, thank you to Random House for the gifted copy of this book! It is a beautiful addition to my shelves, and I really enjoyed it.
Languages of Truth is a collection of essays and speeches that Salman Rushdie has written or delivered over the years. Most of these are relatively short, which makes it digestible and easy to pick away at over time. Topics range from literature and writing to world events and dedications. My favorite ones were actually the first three in the book (the ones on storytelling), which were also read by Rushdie himself in the audiobook.
I did read (or listen to) all of this one, but there were definitely some essays that I didn’t follow or understand as well as others, just because he was talking about an author or an event that I wasn’t familiar with. So I’d encourage you not to be afraid to skip around and over anything that doesn’t seem like it’s for you; the book will still be worth your time.
All in all, I’m always glad to have more of Rushdie’s brain in my brain!
So You Want to Talk About Race
So You Want to Talk About Race is a solid, foundational book about antiracism with even more depth than the title implies.
Author: Ijeoma Oluo
Publisher: Seal Press
Goodreads | The StoryGraph
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Cover Description
In this New York Times bestseller, Ijeoma Oluo offers a hard-hitting but user-friendly examination of race in America
Widespread reporting on aspects of white supremacy--from police brutality to the mass incarceration of Black Americans--has put a media spotlight on racism in our society. Still, it is a difficult subject to talk about. How do you tell your roommate her jokes are racist? Why did your sister-in-law take umbrage when you asked to touch her hair--and how do you make it right? How do you explain white privilege to your white, privileged friend?
In So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo guides readers of all races through subjects ranging from intersectionality and affirmative action to "model minorities" in an attempt to make the seemingly impossible possible: honest conversations about race and racism, and how they infect almost every aspect of American life.
TL;DR Review
So You Want to Talk About Race is a solid, foundational book about antiracism with even more depth than the title implies.
For you if: You want to learn more about being a good ally in the fight against racial injustice.
Full Review
“You have to get over the fear of facing the worst in yourself. You should instead fear unexamined racism. Fear the thought that right now, you could be contributing to the oppression of others and you don't know it. But do not fear those who bring that oppression to light. Do not fear the opportunity to do better.”
So You Want to Talk About Race had perfect timing, published about six months before everyone in this country admitted how badly they needed it. The cover of this book calls it “hard-hitting but user-friendly.” That’s exactly true.
I read this one after I’d already read How to Be an Antiracist, Stamped From the Beginning, and White Fragility, so most of the ideas it covered weren’t new to me. But when it comes to reading about racism, I welcome the opportunity to hear important information reiterated in new voices. This book does it well — quotable passages, compelling arguments, clear explanations.
I was grateful for the depth Oluo goes into when it comes to the history and legacy of whiteness and racism. I sort of expected a book that was just a guide to talking, more of a conversational style guide. It is that, but it’s also filled with all the context that’s important when you’re having those conversations, too.
I think my favorite chapter was the one on why young people are “so angry” these days. I was listening to the audiobook as I cleaned my apartment, and I stopped and stood in the middle of the room to concentrate on a particularly powerful passage about how she hopes her kids find her and us and everyone fighting for change nowadays as out of touch, how she hopes that she taught them to never stop questioning the status quo, how she will be proud to learn from them.
If you’re looking for a solid, foundational book on becoming a better ally in the fight against racial injustice, this is a good choice.
Reclaiming Her Time: The Life, Wit, and Wisdom of American Icon Maxine Waters
Reclaiming Her Time is an upbeat, vibrant biography of Maxine Waters that’s full of personality. It was a ton of fun to read, and I also learned a lot I didn’t know.
Author: Helena Andrews-Dyer and R. Eric Thomas
Publisher: Dey Street
Goodreads | The StoryGraph
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Cover Description
In the tradition of Notorious RBG, a lively, beautifully designed, full-color illustrated celebration of the life, wisdom, wit, legacy, and fearless style of iconic American Congresswoman Maxine Waters.
To millions nationwide, Congresswoman Maxine Waters is a hero of the resistance and an icon, serving eye rolls, withering looks, and sharp retorts to any who dare waste her time on nonsense. But behind the Auntie Maxine meme is a seasoned public servant and she’s not here to play. Throughout her forty years in public service and eighty years on earth, U.S. Representative for California’s 43rd district has been a role model, a crusader for justice, a game-changer, a trailblazer, and an advocate for the marginalized who has long defied her critics, including her most vocal detractor, Donald J. Trump. And she’s just getting started.
From her anti-apartheid work and support of affirmative action to her passionate opposition to the Iraq War and calls to hold Trump to account, you can count on Auntie Maxine to speak truth to power and do it with grace and, sometimes, sass. As ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee and one of the most powerful black women in America, she is the strong, ethical voice the country has always needed, especially right now.
Reclaiming Her Time pays tribute to all things Maxine Waters, from growing up in St. Louis “too skinny” and “too black,” to taking on Wall Street during the financial crisis and coming out on top in her legendary showdowns with Trump and his cronies. Featuring inspiring highlights from her personal life and political career, beloved memes, and testimonies from her many friends and fans, Reclaiming Her Time is a funny, warm, and admiring portrait of a champion who refuses to stay silent in the face of corruption and injustice; a powerful woman who is an inspiration to us all.
TL;DR Review
Reclaiming Her Time is an upbeat, vibrant biography of Maxine Waters that’s full of personality. It was a ton of fun to read, and I also learned a lot I didn’t know.
For you if: You are left-leaning, and fan of Maxine Waters (even casually).
Full Review
First of all, big thanks to Dey Street for sending me an advanced copy of this book! And for responding so positively when I requested that they match my copy with another sent to an Own Voices reviewer. It will be published in October.
Reclaiming Her Time is a bright spot in a lineup of books about current events and politics. It’s a colorful, vibrant, funny biography about Congresswoman Maxine Waters — whose nickname “Auntie Maxine” was originally inspired by R. Eric Thomas, one of this book’s authors, in his pop culture column of Elle. (He’s also the author of the excellent memoir-in-essays Here For It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America.) It’s also filled with photos, illustrations, quotations, and more.
Basically, this book is the raised-hands emoji of books dedicated to Maxine Waters. And I’m guessing that Black readers of this book will especially love the way the authors have written a love letter to both Auntie Maxine and the community she has spent her life serving.
Each chapter of the book covers a chunk of time in Maxine Waters’s life, from her childhood to the present day. Interspersed throughout are “Time Out” sections that zoom either in or out — like a timeline of her life, or an overview of her relationship with all the Presidents. I also appreciated that there were chapters on the way she’s been criticized for dressing, and for speaking.
So it’s packed with really good information about our country’s history. I think for many people in their 20s (or younger) — for whom Obama was president when we graduated high school — a lot of the unrest and conversations happening right now feel new. But … they aren’t. And this book is a fantastic reminder that racial justice movements have been happening for decades, and people like Maxine Waters have been fighting for them their entire lives.
Basically, I loved this one and I’m glad I read it. It’s light, it’s funny, it’s positive, and it’s informative. And it will turn anyone into a Maxine Waters stan, I’m sure. Pick up a copy — for your coffee table and your heart!
Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
Hood Feminism is a wake-up call that should be required reading for all white and/or mainstream feminists.
Author: Mikki Kendall
Publisher: Viking
Goodreads | The StoryGraph
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Note: Trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.
Cover Description
Today's feminist movement has a glaring blind spot, and paradoxically, it is women. Mainstream feminists rarely talk about meeting basic needs as a feminist issue, argues Mikki Kendall, but food insecurity, access to quality education, safe neighborhoods, a living wage, and medical care are all feminist issues. All too often, however, the focus is not on basic survival for the many, but on increasing privilege for the few. That feminists refuse to prioritize these issues has only exacerbated the age-old problem of both internecine discord and women who rebuff at carrying the title. Moreover, prominent white feminists broadly suffer from their own myopia with regard to how things like race, class, sexual orientation, and ability intersect with gender. How can we stand in solidarity as a movement, Kendall asks, when there is the distinct likelihood that some women are oppressing others?
TL;DR Review
Hood Feminism is a wake-up call that should be required reading for all white and/or mainstream feminists.
For you if: You want to become more intersectional.
Full Review
“There’s nothing feminist about having so many resources at your fingertips and choosing to be ignorant. Nothing empowering or enlightening in deciding that intent trumps impact. Especially when the consequences aren’t going to be experienced by you, but will instead be experienced by someone from a marginalized community.”
I knew that I needed to read this book as soon as I heard about it. I was not wrong; this book is the wake-up call that too many of us need to read.
Mikki Kendall says right off the bat that the purpose of the book is not to be “nice.” It’s to walk up to white/mainstream feminists and take them by the shoulders and shake them and open their eyes to the fact that feminism is bigger than them. And that’s exactly what she does. She and the communities she’s advocating for are frustrated and exasperated with us. Yes, they’re angry. As they should be.
Mainstream feminism has essentially said, “I don’t see color.” And that attitude has been just as problematic — more so, in practice — as it would be coming from an individual. We claim to fight for half of the world’s population while somehow pretending that the issues that adversely impact most of them are not feminist issues. We push for equal pay in the boardroom but not for food justice in inner-city neighborhoods.
Each chapter focuses on a different issue that mainstream feminism forgets as it pertains to marginalized communities, specifically — hunger, education, healthcare, parenthood, etc. They don’t go super deep, but they aren’t meant to. They have plenty of stats and info, but they aren’t the whole focus. They’re less about education and awareness, more about “for the love of God, wake up, why don’t you care about this yet?”
The chapters layer on one another, and by the end, they paint a big, round picture of what intersectionality should mean. One by one, she shows you how racism — and, more specifically, gender racism — touch everything, not just the issues white feminists focus on most, like equal pay and abortion. It’s effective and enraging and something everyone should read.
I felt my shoulders shaken particularly hard when it comes to hunger and food justice. After some research, I set up monthly donations to Why Hunger, which supports grassroots movements and fuels community solutions rooted in social, environmental, racial, and economic justice. I also found and followed several mutual aid groups and food justice organizations from my local community. I encourage you to do the same.
Trigger Warnings
Domestic violence and abuse
Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators
THIS BOOK IS WILD. Ronan Farrow brings the drama this story deserves, as he tells us how he had to fight against literal evil forces to tell the world about Harvey Weinstein’s crimes.
Author: Ronan Farrow
Publisher: Little, Brown
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Note: Trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.
Cover Description
In a dramatic account of violence and espionage, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Ronan Farrow exposes serial abusers and a cabal of powerful interests hell-bent on covering up the truth, at any cost.
In 2017, a routine network television investigation led Ronan Farrow to a story only whispered about: one of Hollywood's most powerful producers was a predator, protected by fear, wealth, and a conspiracy of silence. As Farrow drew closer to the truth, shadowy operatives, from high-priced lawyers to elite war-hardened spies, mounted a secret campaign of intimidation, threatening his career, following his every move and weaponizing an account of abuse in his own family.
All the while, Farrow and his producer faced a degree of resistance that could not be explained - until now. And a trail of clues revealed corruption and cover-ups from Hollywood, to Washington, and beyond.
This is the untold story of the exotic tactics of surveillance and intimidation deployed by wealthy and connected men to threaten journalists, evade accountability and silence victims of abuse - and it's the story of the women who risked everything to expose the truth and spark a global movement.
Both a spy thriller and a meticulous work of investigative journalism, Catch and Kill breaks devastating new stories about the rampant abuse of power — and sheds far-reaching light on investigations that shook the culture.
TL;DR Review
THIS BOOK IS WILD. Ronan Farrow brings the drama this story deserves, as he tells us how he had to fight against literal evil forces to tell the world about Harvey Weinstein’s crimes.
For you if: You are interested in how powerful people attempt (often successfully) to control the world. Evil spies included.
Full Review
This is the kind of story that feels like it can’t be real, and yet it is. It’s the kind of story that belongs on an episode of “Scandal.” I listened to the audiobook, which is narrated by the author with all the drama it deserves.
Ronan (the son of Woody Allen) wrote the original article in The New Yorker that exposed Harvey Weinstein’s crimes and power … but he didn’t do it without a fight. At every turn, as Ronan connected with women willing to come forward and gathered more and more evidence, Harvey or his people were there, reporting back, pulling the strings, trapping him as best they could. Ronan starts at the beginning, when he was originally assigned the story, and continues pretty much up until the present day. After he finishes the Weinstein story (which is the bulk of the book), he talks a little bit about more recent media scandals, too.
But what will really get you is the way he put all the info into a linear timeline, with transitions like “Meanwhile, at Harvey Weinstein’s office…” Things that he wouldn’t have known at the time but has figured out since. So it all feels like it could be television (no surprise, since he’s Ronan Farrow).
I did find myself confused at some points — he uses a lot of names and rarely signposts to help you remember who they are. It might be partly that I listened to the audiobook, but I still feel like I got enough out of it. Also, in the audiobook, he does accents for all the people he’s quoting, which occasionally feels a bit cringey.
At the end of the day, though, this is the kind of can’t-look-away, juicy, attention-grabbing drama that will absolutely hook you.
Trigger Warnings
This book is about the crimes of Harvey Weinstein, and it’s written by the son of Woody Allen. Therefore:
Sexual assault
Rape
Child abuse/pedophilia
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The Witches Are Coming
The Witches Are Coming is straight-up feminist / liberal candy. She’s definitely going to be preaching to the choir — but members of that choir are going to eat. it. up.
What do Adam Sandler, Donald Trump, and South Park have in common? Why are myths like "reverse sexism" and “political correctness” so seductive? And why do movie classics of yore, from Sixteen Candles to Revenge of the Nerds, make rape look like so much silly fun? With Lindy West's signature wit and in her uniquely incendiary voice, The Witches are Coming lays out a grand theory of America that explains why Trump's election was, in many ways, a foregone conclusion.
As West reveals through fascinating journeys across the landscapes of pop culture, the lies that fostered the catastrophic resentment that boiled over in the 2016 presidential race did not spring from a vacuum. They have in fact been woven into America’s DNA, cultivated by generations of mediocre white men and fed to the masses with such fury that we have become unable to recognize them as lies at all.
Whether it be the notion overheard since the earliest moments of the #MeToo movement that feminism has gone too far or the insistence that holding someone accountable for his actions amounts to a “witch hunt,“ The Witches are Coming exposes the lies that many have chosen to believe and the often unexpected figures who have furthered them. Along the way, it unravels the tightening link between culture and politics, identifying in the memes, music, and movies we've loved the seeds of the neoreactionary movement now surging through the nation.
Sprawling, funny, scorching, and illuminating, The Witches are Coming shows West at the top of her intellectual and comic powers. As much a celebration of America's potential as a condemnation of our failures, some will call it a witch hunt — to which West would reply, “So be it. I'm a witch and I'm hunting you.”
Author: Lindy West | Publisher: Hachette Books
Goodreads | IndieBound (buy local!) | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Rating 4 / 5
Thank you to NetGalley and Hachette Books for the advanced reading copy of this book! It will be published on November 5th.
The Witches Are Coming is straight-up feminist / liberal candy. She’s not going to change anybody’s minds with this book — she’s definitely going to be preaching to the choir — but members of that choir are going to eat. it. up. (As did I.)
The book is made up of essays that offer commentary on today’s political and social climates. There’s an entire chapter called, “Is Adam Sandler Funny?” (Spoiler alert: No.)
I honestly think that if you’re going to read this book, you should go for the audiobook. I didn’t listen to it myself (because I received an advanced e-copy of the print edition), but you can just tell. Lindy is hilarious (of course), and her delivery of these passionate essays is sure to be spot-on. I did actually listen to her first book, Shrill, and loved her delivery in that one.
So, long story short: If you like the idea of a liberal feminist comedian writing a liberal, feminist, funny book, then this one is absolutely for you.
How to Be an Antiracist
How to Be an Antiracist is a frank, straightforward, clarifying, no-holds-barred book about racism — more so than almost any other book like this I’ve read in the past.
Ibram X. Kendi's concept of antiracism reenergizes and reshapes the conversation about racial justice in America — but even more fundamentally, points us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other. In How to be an Antiracist, Kendi asks us to think about what an antiracist society might look like, and how we can play an active role in building it.
In this book, Kendi weaves together an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science, bringing it all together with an engaging personal narrative of his own awakening to antiracism. How to Be an Antiracist is an essential work for anyone who wants to go beyond an awareness of racism to the next step: contributing to the formation of a truly just and equitable society.
Author: Ibram X. Kendi | Publisher: One World
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How to Be an Antiracist is a frank, straightforward, clarifying, no-holds-barred book about racism — more so than almost any other book like this I’ve read in the past. As a white person who has quite a bit of privilege, I’m not going to give this one a star rating, but the fact of the matter is that I enjoyed reading it, I’m glad I did, and I think others should, too.
The premise of the book is that there is no such thing as “not racist.” There is racism and antiracism; you are either promoting racist ideas and policies, or you are promoting antiracist ideas and policies. To attempt to remain neutral will be inherently racist.
Kendi also provides helpful, clear, blunt definitions of the terms he uses, which is what truly makes the book so clarifying. He starts with definitions of racism and antiracism, and then moves on to context about what it means to be segregationist, assimilationist, and then antiracist. Each chapter then looks bluntly at a different facet of racism, like gender racism, socioeconomic racism, etc. But the sections also build on one another in a way that really demonstrates how complex and intersectional racism can be. He posits that any type of group-based assumption or opinion is inherently racist, because antiracists consider only the individual. He also (rightly) places a great deal of emphasis on policy change.
I really appreciated the way Kendi wove his own experiences being racist (in his words), and his journey to systematically strip himself of all his own viewpoints that were well intentioned, but which he now sees as ultimately misguided. Although it is certainly not Kendi’s responsibility to make the reader feel more comfortable, this format really invites the reader in and gives them the space and courage to examine their own beliefs critically.
Personally, I work in an industry that fights intersectional sexism and patriarchy, and so this book was helpful to me as a way to examine my thoughts and actions regarding not only racism, but also other types of prejudice. I will be thinking about his blunt assessment of my own attitudes for a long time. And I will think about his position on how to affect meaningful change every day.
Survive and Resist: The Definitive Guide to Dystopian Politics
Survive and Resist offers an intriguing premise: to look at actual dystopian political theory through the lens of fiction, film, and television. Um, helloooooo, sign me up!
Authoritarianism is on the march — and so is dystopian fiction. In the brave new twenty-first century, young-adult series like The Hunger Games and Divergent have become blockbusters; after Donald Trump's election, two dystopian classics, 1984 and The Handmaid's Tale, skyrocketed to the New York Times best-seller list. This should come as no surprise: dystopian fiction has a lot to say about the perils of terrible government in real life.
In Survive and Resist, Amy L. Atchison and Shauna L. Shames explore the ways in which dystopian narratives help explain how real-world politics work. They draw on classic and contemporary fiction, films, and TV shows — as well as their real-life counterparts — to offer funny and accessible explanations of key political concepts. Atchison and Shames demonstrate that dystopias both real and imagined help bring theories of governance, citizenship, and the state down to earth. They emphasize nonviolent resistance and change, exploring ways to challenge and overcome a dystopian-style government. Fictional examples, they argue, help give us the tools we need for individual survival and collective resistance. A clever look at the world through the lenses of pop culture, classic literature, and real-life events, Survive and Resist provides a timely and innovative approach to the fundamentals of politics for an era of creeping tyranny.
Author: Amy L. Atchison and Shauna L. Shames | Publisher: Columbia University Press
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Rating: 4 / 5
Big thank you to Columbia University Press for sending me a finished copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
“There are a couple of aspects to being a resilient movement. The first is that the movement has to be able to survive the loss of its top leadership. The authorities will go after the leaders first, on the theory that the group will fall apart once they’re gone. … That’s why, in the original Star Wars (1977), the Empire takes Princess Leia into custody — they can torture her into giving up the Rebel Alliance, and then they can kill her to send a message about what happens when you defy Emperor Palpatine (insert evil laugh here).”
Survive and Resist offers an intriguing premise: to look at actual dystopian political theory through the lens of fiction, film, and television. Um, helloooooo, sign me up! The execution of that premise is a readable, interesting, and thought-provoking guide to recognizing, fighting, and rebuilding after dystopian governments.
The book is broken into eight chapters: one on the basics of dystopia, two on example dystopian governments, three on how economics affects dystopias, four on survival in a dystopian state, five on individual resistance strategies and tactics, six and seven on group/movement strategies and tactics, and eight on rebuilding a new government once the dystopia falls.
This turned into a lot more of a handbook than I had been expecting, but I didn’t mind that. It was a lot more conversational and relatable this way, with “next you’ll need to do this” rather than something like “the next step a resistance movement might adopt could be.” Although I don’t personally plan to overthrow a government, I suppose you never know (especially today), and so it might just come in handy!
I really loved the context they provided with the dystopian fiction examples. It relied pretty heavily on 1984, The Handmaid’s Tale, Fahrenheit 451, The Uglies Series, The Hunger Games, All Rights Reserved, and even the LEGO Movie and Star Trek. I wish there had actually been even more, because I’m shamefully more interested in fiction than in political theory, but it was really helpful and kept me engaged.
Some of the chapters in the book are more engaging than others (I personally struggled through the economics chapter), but overall this book was somehow both fun and informative. I also learned a ton about government structure and global history — wins!
If you like nonfiction, definitely give this one a shot.
Nobody's Victim: Fighting Psychos, Stalkers, Pervs, and Trolls
This book was FANTASTIC. In fact, I liked it so much that after I finished my library’s audiobook copy, I bought a physical copy so I could loan it out to friends.
Riveting and an essential timely conversation-starter, Nobody's Victim invites readers to join Carrie on the front lines of the war against sexual violence and privacy violations as she fights for revenge porn and sextortion laws, uncovers major Title IX violations, and sues the hell out of tech companies, schools, and powerful sexual predators. Her battleground is the courtroom; her crusade is to transform clients from victims into warriors.
In gripping detail, Carrie shares the diabolical ways her clients are attacked and how she, through her unique combination of advocacy, badass relentlessness, risk-taking, and client-empowerment, pursues justice for them all. There are stories about a woman whose ex-boyfriend made fake bomb threats in her name and caused a national panic; a fifteen-year-old girl who was sexually assaulted on school grounds and then suspended when she reported the attack; and a man whose ex-boyfriend used a dating app to send more than 1,200 men to ex's home and work for sex. With breathtaking honesty, Carrie also shares her own shattering story about why she began her work and the uphill battle of building a business.
While her clients are a diverse group — from every gender, sexual orientation, age, class, race, religion, occupation, and background — the offenders are not. They are highly predictable. In this book, Carrie offers a taxonomy of the four types of offenders she encounters most often at her firm: assholes, psychos, pervs, and trolls. “If we recognize the patterns of these perpetrators,” she explains, “we know how to fight back.”
Deeply personal yet achingly universal, Nobody's Victim is a bold and much-needed analysis of victim protection in the era of the Internet. This book is an urgent warning of a coming crisis, a predictor of imminent danger, and a weapon to take back control and protect ourselves — both online and off.
Author: Carrie Goldberg | Publisher: Plume
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Rating: 5 / 5
I picked up this book on recommendation from my friend Mel (@melannrosenthal), and I’m so glad I did. It was FANTASTIC. There are a lot of nonfiction books out there that end up being pretty good, but ultimately not very memorable. This is NOT one of those books. In fact, I liked it so much that after I finished my library’s audiobook copy, I bought a physical copy so I could loan it out to friends.
Warning, though: If you are a victim of sexual assault, stalking, harassment, or other sexual/gender-based dating violence, then this book may not be the one for you right now. There are a lot of stories and examples of these crimes, and I imagine they could become serious triggers.
Carrie Goldberg is an attorney who owns a law firm that represents people facing this kind of abuse and violence — a specialization that’s incredibly rare, but incredibly needed in today’s day and age. The laws have simply not caught up to all the ways that technology has enabled harassment and abuse. Goldberg has taken on Grindr, sued the NYC public school system, and brought anti-revenge-porn legislation to a ton of states across the country.
There is just so much mind-boggling information in this book, and she really highlights exactly how the system is broken and what we need to do in order to fix it. She also (very bravely) weaves in her own experience with stalking and sexual assault, which inspired her to build her career and which also adds a ton of color to the narration of the book. The result is a compulsively readable call to arms that will teach you SO MUCH and make you want to join the fight.
Even if nonfiction isn’t usually your genre, give this one a shot. I’m only sorry that I didn’t hear about it a few weeks sooner so that I could attend her book event at my local bookstore!
SLAY
Okay, everyone. I’m going to need you to go out and buy SLAY as soon as it’s published on September 24. Because Brittney Morris has written one hell of a book!
By day, seventeen-year-old Kiera Johnson is an honors student, a math tutor, and one of the only Black kids at Jefferson Academy. But at home, she joins hundreds of thousands of Black gamers who duel worldwide as Nubian personas in the secret multiplayer online role-playing card game, SLAY. No one knows Kiera is the game developer, not her friends, her family, not even her boyfriend, Malcolm, who believes video games are partially responsible for the "downfall of the Black man."
But when a teen in Kansas City is murdered over a dispute in the SLAY world, news of the game reaches mainstream media, and SLAY is labeled a racist, exclusionist, violent hub for thugs and criminals. Even worse, an anonymous troll infiltrates the game, threatening to sue Kiera for "anti-white discrimination."
Driven to save the only world in which she can be herself, Kiera must preserve her secret identity and harness what it means to be unapologetically Black in a world intimidated by Blackness. But can she protect her game without losing herself in the process?
Author: Brittney Morris | Publisher: Simon Pulse
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Rating: 5 / 5
Okay, everyone. I’m going to need you to go out and buy SLAY as soon as it’s published on September 24. Because Brittney Morris has written one hell of a book!
Let me say that I searched high and low for a review copy of SLAY. I first heard about it at BookCon, where Morris was on a panel I attended. She explained that SLAY is about a teenage girl who’s secretly built an entire RPG video game that serves as a Black culture utopia, with playing cards that integrate Black culture including the Michael Jackson card that raises Thriller zombies, the Purple Haze card, etc. But then someone is killed in real life because of the game, and the national attention causes people to accuse it — and her — of reverse racism. Then she has to fight to protect her world. Oh, also, Morris wrote this book in like two weeks or something ridiculous like that, for a writing competition. No big.
I immediately wanted to read it. The next day, they were giving out ARCs at one of the booths — and the line closed in about 30 seconds. I requested it on NetGalley — and they’d already given out all their allotted e-copies. I entered Goodreads giveaways, to no avail. Finally, my friend Laura @laurayaminreads (whom the world does not deserve, she is too good to us) remembered me when she was at the ALA conference and grabbed me an ARC. 🙌🏼
This book was everything it promises to be, and more. I grew up definitely apart from Black culture in a small, very white rural town. I got the feeling that this book will feel comforting, like home, to many Black people who read it. I imagine they will see themselves reflected in it and feel seen, which is obviously the point and a fantastic result. But the fact that it can achieve that and make me — an inevitably biased white person — feel like I wasn’t an outsider, but a friend looking in, was so impressive. Because while I could obviously tell that this book wasn’t written for me, it helped me. It leaves the door open for anyone who believes in the power of community, and progress, and anti-racism.
Also, I loved Kiera’s character. She’s well done, round and relatable and just a teen trying to live a normal teen life while also carving out a safe space for an entire marginalized community (nbd). Her arc was interesting and not sugar-coated. Her commentary was helpful and illuminative. And the entire plot was super exciting.
I’m telling you, don’t miss this one.
Real Queer America: LGBT Stories from Red States
Rating: 5/5 | I chose Real Queer America for my office's Pride Month book club. I wanted to read something by either a cisgender woman or a transgender person, and I wanted to spark conversation about experiences that even our very diverse team had not considered before. This. book. was. it. Samantha Allen's prose is clear and impactful, yet warm and fun. I'm so, so glad I read it, and I can't wait to talk about it more. (Click the post to read more.)
Ten years ago, Samantha Allen was a suit-and-tie-wearing Mormon missionary. Now she's a senior Daily Beast reporter happily married to another woman. A lot in her life has changed, but what hasn't changed is her deep love of Red State America, and of queer people who stay in so-called "flyover country" rather than moving to the liberal coasts.
In Real Queer America, Allen takes us on a cross-country road-trip stretching all the way from Provo, Utah to the Rio Grande Valley to the Bible Belt to the Deep South. Her motto for the trip: "Something gay every day." Making pit stops at drag shows, political rallies, and hubs of queer life across the heartland, she introduces us to scores of extraordinary LGBT people working for change, from the first openly transgender mayor in Texas history to the manager of the only queer night club in Bloomington, Indiana, and many more.
Capturing profound cultural shifts underway in unexpected places and revealing a national network of chosen family fighting for a better world, Real Queer America is a treasure trove of uplifting stories and a much-needed source of hope and inspiration in these divided times.
Author: Samantha Allen | Publisher: Little, Brown
Rating: 5/5
I chose Real Queer America for my office's Pride Month book club. I wanted to read something by either a cisgender woman or a transgender person, and I wanted to spark conversation about experiences that even our very diverse team had not considered before. This. book. was. it. Samantha Allen's prose is clear and impactful, yet warm and fun. I'm so, so glad I read it, and I can't wait to talk about it more.
To write this book, Allen and one of her good friends set off in a car to visit red states from Utah to Georgia, finding and getting to know queer communities along the way. They interview a lot of different people to ask them what it is they love about their home and why they choose to stay there rather than move to New York or California. We get to meet so many beautiful humans and hear so many important stories.
Along the way, we also get a lot of Allen's own backstory, starting when she first dared to dress as the woman she was while living as a man in Mormon Utah, grappling with her upbringing and her identity. We also meet a lot of the people who have been instrumental in Allen's life as she got to where she (very happily) is today.
I live in NYC. It's so different here from the communities described in this book. And that's exactly why I wanted to read it. It's easy to get stuck in a blue bubble here, partly because of the day to day, and partly because it's simply easier to pretend that there aren't these other places where not everyone around you agrees on social justice issues. It's easier to think that NYC is the world, because it's closer to what we'd like the world to look like.
But that's not true. We can't live in our bubble all the time. We can't just treat our own city as a haven and leave the rest of the country to struggle on its own. We can't write off entire states as terrible places to live. We can't think of them as a lost cause. Because would we really be the inclusive, progressive community that we think we are if we did all that?
Read this book. It's a quick one; ~300 pages and wide margins. But it's important — and it's also really well written and uplifting!
From the Corner of the Oval
Rating: 3/5 | From the Corner of the Oval was fast-paced, well written, and suuuuper juicy. It's clear that Beck Dorey-Stein is a great writer, and her ability to observe, recall, and retell a story is what all creative nonfiction writers are striving for. Her personal story was not really my favorite, but I absolutely can't deny that she wrote this book really, really well. (Click the post to read more.)
In 2012, Beck Dorey-Stein was just scraping by in DC when a posting on Craigslist landed her, improbably, in the Oval Office as one of Barack Obama's stenographers. The ultimate DC outsider, she joined the elite team who accompanied the president wherever he went, recorder and mic in hand. On whirlwind trips across time zones, Beck forged friendships with a tight group of fellow travelers — young men and women who, like her, left their real lives behind to hop aboard Air Force One in service of the president. But as she learned the ropes of protocol, Beck became romantically entangled with a consummate DC insider, and suddenly, the political became all too personal. Set against the backdrop of a White House full of glamour, drama, and intrigue, this is the story of a young woman making unlikely friendships, getting her heart broken, learning what truly matters, and discovering her voice in the process.
Author: Beck Dorey-Stein | Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Rating: 3/5
From the Corner of the Oval was fast-paced, well written, and suuuuper juicy. It's clear that Beck Dorey-Stein is a great writer, and her ability to observe, recall, and retell a story is what all creative nonfiction writers are striving for. Her personal story was not really my favorite, but I absolutely can't deny that she wrote this book really, really well.
Beck was unemployed and relatively miserable in Washington DC when she responded to a Craigslist job posting for a stenographer. Turns out, the job was with the White House (surprise!). And so she accidentally fell into Air Force One and the entire crazy lifestyle that goes with it.
However, she's drawn in by the electromagnetic field of a high-ranking senior White House staffer (also f*ckboy). What follows is a raucous affair that spans years, relationships, and so many trips around the globe.
So, juicy for sure. And somewhat reality-turned-reality-television-esque. But ... reality television is not really my thing. I don't quite love watching or reading about people's train-wreck lives — it stresses me out more than entertains me. So this book was not 100% for me ... but it totally might be for you.
Still, I appreciate the way Beck spun her journey from lost, floundering girl without a job to more-grown-up, finding-her-way, owning-mistakes-and-almost-learning-from-them woman at the end of a political era. Her tidbits about competing next to Obama on the treadmill and other inside stories were really interesting and fun to read. And the way she found her second family was, ultimately, beautiful. I'm interested to see what else comes from her pen!
Totally recommend this book if "juicy, raucous affair" is your thing!
The Truths We Hold: An American Journey
Senator Kamala Harris's commitment to speaking truth is informed by her upbringing. The daughter of immigrants, she was raised in an Oakland, California community that cared deeply about social justice; her parents — an esteemed economist from Jamaica and an admired cancer researcher from India — met as activists in the civil rights movement when they were graduate students at Berkeley.
Growing up, Harris herself never hid her passion for justice, and when she became a prosecutor out of law school, a deputy district attorney, she quickly established herself as one of the most innovative change agents in American law enforcement. She progressed rapidly to become the elected District Attorney for San Francisco, and then the chief law enforcement officer of the state of California as a whole. Known for bringing a voice to the voiceless, she took on the big banks during the foreclosure crisis, winning a historic settlement for California's working families. Her hallmarks were applying a holistic, data-driven approach to many of California's thorniest issues, always eschewing stale "tough on crime" rhetoric as presenting a series of false choices. Neither "tough" nor "soft" but smart on crime became her mantra. Being smart means learning the truths that can make us better as a community, and supporting those truths with all our might. That has been the pole star that guided Harris to a transformational career as the top law enforcement official in California, and it is guiding her now as a transformational United States Senator, grappling with an array of complex issues that affect her state, our country, and the world, from health care and the new economy to immigration, national security, the opioid crisis, and accelerating inequality.
By reckoning with the big challenges we face together, drawing on the hard-won wisdom and insight from her own career and the work of those who have most inspired her, Kamala Harris offers in The Truths We Hold a master class in problem solving, in crisis management, and leadership in challenging times. Through the arc of her own life, on into the great work of our day, she communicates a vision of shared struggle, shared purpose, and shared values. In a book rich in many home truths, not least is that a relatively small number of people work very hard to convince a great many of us that we have less in common than we actually do, but it falls to us to look past them and get on with the good work of living our common truth. When we do, our shared effort will continue to sustain us and this great nation, now and in the years to come.
Author: Kamala Harris | Publisher: Penguin Press
Rating: 4/5
“A patriot is not someone who condones the conduct of our country whatever it does. It is someone who fights every day for the ideals of the country, whatever it takes.”
The Truths We Hold was a well-written, engaging memoir. Kamala Harris tells her story with confidence, polish, and the right amount of detail. With her current Presidential bid, this book could come across as defensive, opportunistic — but it doesn't. It feels authentic and helps to provide context for a lot of Harris' career so far.
Going into this book (which I listened to on audio), I didn't know much about Harris beyond the fact that she's a Democratic politician from California. Living in New York, I've always been content to just let California do its thing over there on the other side of the country.
“As I sat alone in my new office, I recalled a time, as a young prosecutor, when I overheard some of my colleagues in the hallway. “Should we add the gang enhancement?” one of them asked. “Can we show he was in a gang?” the other said. “Come on, you saw what he was wearing, you saw which corner they picked him up on. Guy’s got the tape of that rapper, what’s his name?” I stepped out into the hallway. “Hey, guys, just so you know: I have family that live in that neighborhood. I’ve got friends who dress in that style. And I’ve got a tape of that rapper in my car right now.”
Harris talks about her childhood a bit, but most of the book centers on her career up to this point — from her time as a new attorney, to District Attorney, to Attorney General, to Senator. This was really interesting because it provided relevant context for where we are today (and for her Presidential campaign, of course) rather than just a story of her upbringing.
That's not to say that her upbringing isn't important here. I was particularly impressed with how Harris was able to bring her strong, smart, hardworking mother into the narrative in a way that felt both reverent and relevant. She did a great job of showing how her family values interact with her professional and political values, and how they are actually one and the same.
This was good timing (and no accident, of course) with the upcoming Presidential election. Of course, this book alone won't be enough to decide whether she's a candidate of choice, but it does provide a helpful backdrop of information and explanation of her values. I'm glad I read it.
We Are Not Refugees: True Stories of the Displaced
Rating: 3/5 | We Are Not Refugees was an important and very interesting book to read. Agus Morales is a journalist who has spent years traveling the globe, interviewing people who've had to flee their homes. (Click the post to read more.)
Never in history have so many people been displaced by political and military conflicts at home — more than 65 million globally. Unsparing, outspoken, vital, We Are Not Refugees tells the stories of many of these displaced, who have not been given asylum.
For over a decade, human rights journalist Agus Morales has journeyed to the sites of the world's most brutal conflicts and spoken to the victims of violence and displacement. To Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Central African Republic. To Central America, the Congo, and the refugee camps of Jordan. To the Tibetan Parliament in exile in northern India.
We are living in a time of massive global change, when negative images of refugees undermine the truth of their humiliation and suffering. By bringing us stories that reveal the individual pain and the global scope of the crisis, Morales reminds us of the truth and appeals to our conscience.
Author: Agus Morales | Publisher: Imagine
Rating: 3/5
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the review copy of this book! It's on sale March 5th.
We Are Not Refugees was an important and very interesting book to read. Agus Morales is a journalist who has spent years traveling the globe, interviewing people who've had to flee their homes.
What has come out of those travels are stories and stories and stories. Stories of people who do not think of themselves as "refugees," because the world has cast "refugees" as poor, destitute, helpless beings. And many these people came from a home where they once lived comfortably, once had a livelihood, once (perhaps still) had a family.
These people are people, and all they want is a safe place where they can go back to being productive members of society.
I think the point that really stood out the most for me was about their smartphones; many people look at these people who come with Nikes, and iPhones, and other consumer goods from our world, and that doesn't jive right. So they say, "If they're so poor, why do they have iPhones?"
And to that Morales says: As if a map isn't the one thing you need when you're lost. And he says: If I had to flee my home, my belongings, and my family because of danger, the last thing I'd leave behind would be my cellphone.
And despite the valiant effort, I still found it so, so hard to tune into these stories — to keep myself from viewing them at a distance. It's hard to look at that kind of pain and suffering and feel it consistently. So I think the only thing I can do here is to keep reading stories like these — more and more and more. Maybe then it will stick.
A Spark of Light
Rating: 4/5 | This book spent quite a while on my to-read list, and I'm so glad that I finally picked it up. As always, Jodi Picoult gives us a brave, thorough, empathetic, well-rounded story about one of the most controversial topics of our time. The book's unique format makes it even more interesting to read, and I felt it was just so well done. (Click the post to read more.)
The warm fall day starts like any other at the Center — a women’s reproductive health services clinic — its staff offering care to anyone who passes through its doors. Then, in late morning, a desperate and distraught gunman bursts in and opens fire, taking all inside hostage.
After rushing to the scene, Hugh McElroy, a police hostage negotiator, sets up a perimeter and begins making a plan to communicate with the gunman. As his phone vibrates with incoming text messages he glances at it and, to his horror, finds out that his fifteen-year-old daughter, Wren, is inside the clinic.
But Wren is not alone. She will share the next and tensest few hours of her young life with a cast of unforgettable characters: A nurse who calms her own panic in order save the life of a wounded woman. A doctor who does his work not in spite of his faith but because of it, and who will find that faith tested as never before. A pro-life protester disguised as a patient, who now stands in the cross hairs of the same rage she herself has felt. A young woman who has come to terminate her pregnancy. And the disturbed individual himself, vowing to be heard.
Told in a daring and enthralling narrative structure that counts backward through the hours of the standoff, this is a story that traces its way back to what brought each of these very different individuals to the same place on this fateful day.
Author: Jodi Picoult | Publisher: Ballantine Books
Rating: 4/5
“She had come to the clinic because she didn't want to be a little girl anymore. But it wasn't having sex that made you a woman. It was having to make decisions, sometimes terrible ones. Children were told what to do. Adults made up their own minds, even when the options tore them apart.”
This book spent quite a while on my to-read list, and I'm so glad that I finally picked it up. As always, Jodi Picoult gives us a brave, thorough, empathetic, well-rounded story about one of the most controversial topics of our time. The book's unique format makes it even more interesting to read, and I felt it was just so well done.
A Spark of Light is told backward; the first chapter starts at 5pm, the second chapter starts at 4pm, and so on and so forth. I loved how this was almost a play on how some people love to read the last page of a book first (I am not one of them, lol). You start out knowing what's going to happen, and then you slowly pull back the layers of how we got there.
The story has a cast of characters, each of whom has a very different, rich background that has led them to a woman's health clinic. There's a 15-year-old girl looking to get her first birth control prescription, a woman who grew up in foster care who's just had an abortion, a pregnant nurse unsure if she wants to keep her pregnancy, the doctor at the clinic whose mother died from an unsafe illegal abortion, an undercover pro-life protester looking for condemning information, and a few others.
There's also the 15-year-old girl's father, who is the hostage negotiator outside, and of course the shooter, whose teenage daughter just had an abortion.
I can't stress enough how well-rounded this story is; every person has such a unique path that led them to this moment, and so many sides of the issue are explored with empathy and research. The book reads fast and keeps you engaged, with some classic Jodi Picoult discoveries/plot twists at the end. I really enjoyed it.
Becoming
Rating: 5/5 | What a truly fantastic memoir. You're probably hearing that from everyone who's read this book, and that's for good reason. Its beautiful prose and thoughtful structure make it an easy yet powerful read. (Click the post to read more.)
In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United States of America—the first African-American to serve in that role—she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history, while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the U.S. and around the world, dramatically changing the ways that families pursue healthier and more active lives, and standing with her husband as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way, she showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool Karaoke, and raised two down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare.
In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her—from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it—in her own words and on her own terms.
Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations—and whose story inspires us to do the same.
Author: Michelle Obama
Rating: 5/5
“Let's invite one another in. Maybe then we can begin to fear less, to make fewer wrong assumptions, to let go of the biases and stereotypes that unnecessarily divide us. Maybe we can better embrace the ways we are the same. It's not about being perfect. It's not about where you get yourself in the end. There's power in allowing yourself to be known and heard, in owning your unique story, in using your authentic voice. And there's grace in being willing to know and hear others. This, for me, is how we become.”
What a truly fantastic memoir. You're probably hearing that from everyone who's read this book, and that's for good reason. Its beautiful prose and thoughtful structure make it an easy yet powerful read.
The book is broken into three parts: "Becoming Me," "Becoming Us," and "Becoming More." "Becoming Me" chronicles Michelle's childhood and family upbringing, from when she was very small until she was a young lawyer after grad school. "Becoming Us" follows Michelle and Barack's relationship, marriage, and the presidency. And "Becoming More" goes from relatively recent events through the present.
Every bit of this book was fascinating. I knew very little about Michelle's family or upbringing other than that she grew up in Chicago, and now I know just how beautiful it was. I also knew little about the Obamas' early marriage, and now I know that was beautiful as well. But those things were challenging too, and her transparency about them is poignant.
All in all, this isn't a memoir to be missed. It's worth every bit of the praise it's received, and I'm really glad that I got the hardcover to add to my shelves.