![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Book Report
Oct. 28th, 2015 08:44 pmA higher-than-usual number of books by dudes in this crop:
The Sisters Are Alright by Tamara Winfrey Harris – This short book is, as one reviewer calls it, a love letter to Black women. Black women face all sorts of harmful and crazy stereotypes – from Sapphire to Jezebel to Welfare Queen, on and on. The author dispels the myths and stereotypes, and provides a few snapshots of successful and happy African American women. I read the book because I care about and empathize with any group that gets routinely slammed by the media and the public. This book was nice and refreshing. The one downside was the author’s amateurish writing; I felt like either I could’ve written this or like I was reading a friend’s blog post, as opposed to something more polished. Grade: B
The Big Feminist But edited by Shannon O’Leary and Joan Reilly – Sometimes you encounter something that’s just a mystery. Like how is it that I found about this book only while searching for another, rather than by reading a review of it in any of the left-leaning, feminist magazines I read and scour for reviews? Seriously, I have no explanation for how I never heard of this one until I happened to see it in my library’s catalog. In any case, this book is an anthology of comics exploring feminism today “and where things stand between the sexes”. (The title comes from the infamous line so many women speak, “I’m not a feminist, but… (I believe in equal pay/I believe in reproductive rights, etc etc”). I think the book’s best quality was its entertainment value. The comics provided a fun and crisp way to explore the subject matter. Unfortunately there were a lot of duds in here too; I’d have taken out almost half of the entries and replaced them with something better. But the good ones were good. Grade: B
This is Your Life, Harriet Chance! By Jonathan Evison – The novel tells the story of one woman’s life, alternating between flashbacks and her present situation in which she boards a cruise ship bound for Alaska because her recently-deceased husband had bid on the tickets. Harriet finds out that a few things she had believed turn out to be based on lies. It was very readable but also, unfortunately, very forgettable. One note: the novel contains an anachronism. The term “Ms” didn’t common into any sort of regular usage until the 1970s, but here it’s used in the 1950’s and ‘60’s. Grade: C
The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson – This award-winning literary novel has been compared to “Brave New World”, except that it takes place in a real setting: modern-day North Korea. There’s s much that could be said about it. It explores themes like sacrifice and identity. It’s darkly comic but at times very difficult to read due to the brutality of life in North Korea. There were times I wanted to say that the plot was unbelievable and absurd, but then I figured maybe it delves into “absurd” territory because life under a dictatorship is inherently illogical. It certainly was enthralling. (Also, PS, this was the first book I ever read on an e-reader, woo). Grade: B
Choose Your Own Autobiography by Neil Patrick Harris - The second book I read from my e-reader, and this was so perfect for that! Harris's memoir literally is structured like a Choose Your Own Adventure. With the e-reader, I just clicked where I wanted to go. I loved being able to just pull this up on an airplane and read it; each segment was a nice, digestible snippet. Harris made it fun. Okay, question for anyone who is reading this though: Am I being too judgy if I say that Harris seems like a wonderful person but wouldn't it be nice if his book including something about any work that he was doing or supporting to help
those not as fortunate? I mean reading about Elton John's (a friend of Harris's) wealth and lavish lifestyle kinda make me want to puke Yeah, I sound like a judgmental a-hole. Idk though, that was the only thing that kept me from embracing him more. Oh, and I partly want to ship Harris and his husband, but please God don't let me go there. I don't want them to break up Grade: B+
PS - Oh yeah, fun fact: Harris was up for the role of Simon Tam in Firefly, but he says that contract negotiations fell through. Interestingly the role went to a different gay actor.
Tomboy by Liz Prince - An engaging graphic memoir about a girl who refuses to dress or act like a 'typical' girl. Dolls and dresses are not for her. I enjoyed every page and as a bonus - though I must add SPOILER ALERT! - she's not a lesbian or a trans man. She's a straight girl growing up who likes guys but doesn't want her life to be limited to cheerleading and beauty products. It's good to see that gender non-conformity is not just for LGBT people. Grade: B
The Sisters Are Alright by Tamara Winfrey Harris – This short book is, as one reviewer calls it, a love letter to Black women. Black women face all sorts of harmful and crazy stereotypes – from Sapphire to Jezebel to Welfare Queen, on and on. The author dispels the myths and stereotypes, and provides a few snapshots of successful and happy African American women. I read the book because I care about and empathize with any group that gets routinely slammed by the media and the public. This book was nice and refreshing. The one downside was the author’s amateurish writing; I felt like either I could’ve written this or like I was reading a friend’s blog post, as opposed to something more polished. Grade: B
The Big Feminist But edited by Shannon O’Leary and Joan Reilly – Sometimes you encounter something that’s just a mystery. Like how is it that I found about this book only while searching for another, rather than by reading a review of it in any of the left-leaning, feminist magazines I read and scour for reviews? Seriously, I have no explanation for how I never heard of this one until I happened to see it in my library’s catalog. In any case, this book is an anthology of comics exploring feminism today “and where things stand between the sexes”. (The title comes from the infamous line so many women speak, “I’m not a feminist, but… (I believe in equal pay/I believe in reproductive rights, etc etc”). I think the book’s best quality was its entertainment value. The comics provided a fun and crisp way to explore the subject matter. Unfortunately there were a lot of duds in here too; I’d have taken out almost half of the entries and replaced them with something better. But the good ones were good. Grade: B
This is Your Life, Harriet Chance! By Jonathan Evison – The novel tells the story of one woman’s life, alternating between flashbacks and her present situation in which she boards a cruise ship bound for Alaska because her recently-deceased husband had bid on the tickets. Harriet finds out that a few things she had believed turn out to be based on lies. It was very readable but also, unfortunately, very forgettable. One note: the novel contains an anachronism. The term “Ms” didn’t common into any sort of regular usage until the 1970s, but here it’s used in the 1950’s and ‘60’s. Grade: C
The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson – This award-winning literary novel has been compared to “Brave New World”, except that it takes place in a real setting: modern-day North Korea. There’s s much that could be said about it. It explores themes like sacrifice and identity. It’s darkly comic but at times very difficult to read due to the brutality of life in North Korea. There were times I wanted to say that the plot was unbelievable and absurd, but then I figured maybe it delves into “absurd” territory because life under a dictatorship is inherently illogical. It certainly was enthralling. (Also, PS, this was the first book I ever read on an e-reader, woo). Grade: B
Choose Your Own Autobiography by Neil Patrick Harris - The second book I read from my e-reader, and this was so perfect for that! Harris's memoir literally is structured like a Choose Your Own Adventure. With the e-reader, I just clicked where I wanted to go. I loved being able to just pull this up on an airplane and read it; each segment was a nice, digestible snippet. Harris made it fun. Okay, question for anyone who is reading this though: Am I being too judgy if I say that Harris seems like a wonderful person but wouldn't it be nice if his book including something about any work that he was doing or supporting to help
those not as fortunate? I mean reading about Elton John's (a friend of Harris's) wealth and lavish lifestyle kinda make me want to puke Yeah, I sound like a judgmental a-hole. Idk though, that was the only thing that kept me from embracing him more. Oh, and I partly want to ship Harris and his husband, but please God don't let me go there. I don't want them to break up Grade: B+
PS - Oh yeah, fun fact: Harris was up for the role of Simon Tam in Firefly, but he says that contract negotiations fell through. Interestingly the role went to a different gay actor.
Tomboy by Liz Prince - An engaging graphic memoir about a girl who refuses to dress or act like a 'typical' girl. Dolls and dresses are not for her. I enjoyed every page and as a bonus - though I must add SPOILER ALERT! - she's not a lesbian or a trans man. She's a straight girl growing up who likes guys but doesn't want her life to be limited to cheerleading and beauty products. It's good to see that gender non-conformity is not just for LGBT people. Grade: B
