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Book Report
Jul. 17th, 2022 11:01 am
Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby – This was not my usual genre. This is a crime novel, which I normally have no interest in, but the premise here caught my attention. A gay couple has been murdered, and their homophobic dads team up to find the killer. (Does that sound more like a comedy than anything?) Also, one dad is Black and the other is white, so the novel explores racism and homophobia. But it’s still a crime novel at its heart, with plenty of violence and unsavory characters and the like. I think my dislike of the genre won the day, and the book didn’t hold my interest. Grade: 3
As a Woman: What I Learned About Power, Sex, and the Patriarchy After I Transitioned by Paula Stone Williams – Ah, the power of a good memoir! I loved this one. The author tells us her life story, and it’s never boring. As was assigned male at birth, she strongly suspected something was off, she got married, she became a big name in evangelical circles and she helped to found several evangelical churches. She came out as trans. People who she’d been friends with for 40 years rejected her, and she lost all of the positions she’d held in the evangelical world. She also had to experience sexism for the first time in her life, and she writes extensively about it. Just an all-around engaging read. Grade: 8
What My Bones Know by Stephanie Foo – A memoir of healing from C-PTSD. (Complex post traumatic stress syndrome) The author was brutally abused by both parents continuously, as a child. This is her memoir on how she has worked on healing from it. Enjoyed her exploration, though obviously parts of it are hard to read. Grade: 7
Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman – There is so much in here that I can’t do the book justice! So I’ll just sum up with a few things, but please if you need an evidence-based book on the theme that humans are actually pretty decent, please read this. So many situations in history did not go down the way you might’ve been told they did, and actually show humans being good. Examples: The murder of Kitty Genovese (there’s more to it than what is usually told – people did call for help but the police ignored it because they thought it was DV), the experiment where students were told to shock people (most pushed back on it a lot and only continued because they truly thought they were helping science), even a real life Lord of the Flies (where the boys all got along and worked together, unlike in the novel which was written by a curmudgeon who hated everyone). Actually, you know what? This book is so good that I am going to quote from another review to do it justice:
“If there is one belief that has united the left and the right, psychologists and philosophers, ancient thinkers and modern ones, it is the tacit assumption that humans are bad. It's a notion that drives newspaper headlines and guides the laws that shape our lives…. Human beings, we're taught, are by nature selfish and governed primarily by self-interest.
But what if it isn't true? International bestseller Rutger Bregman provides new perspective on the past 200,000 years of human history, setting out to prove that we are hardwired for kindness, geared toward cooperation rather than competition, and more inclined to trust rather than distrust one another.
From the real-life Lord of the Flies to the solidarity in the aftermath of the Blitz, the hidden flaws in the Stanford prison experiment to the true story of twin brothers on opposite sides who helped Mandela end apartheid, Bregman shows us that believing in human generosity and collaboration isn't merely optimistic—it's realistic. Moreover, it has huge implications for how society functions. When we think the worst of people, it brings out the worst in our politics and economics. “
Grade: 9
