Thoughtful, powerful, and direct writing about resisting anti-Palestinian racism. Mohammed El-Kurd focuses on dismantling respectability politics and Thoughtful, powerful, and direct writing about resisting anti-Palestinian racism. Mohammed El-Kurd focuses on dismantling respectability politics and highlighting the ways pro-Palestinian organizers, activists, and advocates shouldn’t have to be conciliatory or demure in their fight for justice. Really liked his ideas about uplifting Palestinian men and the courage and strength of sharing one’s unfiltered story, in addition to his broader arguments about resisting tone-policing.
As a slight side note, I’m thinking of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts graduate student in Psychology with a student visa who was recently detained by ICE as punishment for her pro-Palestine views� what an awful fascist time in the U.S. The suppression is all part of the Zionist anti-Palestine agenda so I’m grateful for books like these which keep the dialogue going....more
I really appreciated Meg Kissinger’s honesty in this book. While some mental illness (e.g., depression, anxiety) is becoming a bit more destigmatized,I really appreciated Meg Kissinger’s honesty in this book. While some mental illness (e.g., depression, anxiety) is becoming a bit more destigmatized, severe mental illness as well as death by suicide can still be so frowned upon, so it’s powerful for Kissinger to open up about all the mental health challenges faced by her family. Especially toward the end of the book, it was so clear that she holds an incredible passion for improving the mental health system and how mental health is both treated and viewed. There are also some interesting historical elements and research included in this memoir.
I pretty much only give this book three stars instead of a higher score because I found the writing a bit dry and a little all over the place, especially for the first three quarters of the book. While the events in Kissinger’s life were dramatic and emotional and moving, the writing style felt too removed and info dumpy for me to immerse myself on the sentence level. Still, I commend Kissinger for her candor in this memoir and am all for destigmatizing mental illness....more
There were some excellent insights about perfectionism in this book. As a self-identified and other-identified (i.e., by all my best friends 3.5 stars
There were some excellent insights about perfectionism in this book. As a self-identified and other-identified (i.e., by all my best friends lol) perfectionist, I enjoyed this book for both its affirming stance toward perfectionism and how it acknowledges perfectionism’s limitations. Great ideas about how perfectionism is the desire to close the gap between ideal and reality, the different types of perfectionists/perfectionisms, and how there can be a lot of emotions underneath one’s perfectionism. Katherine Morgan Schafer’s writing style was overall accessible and easy to digest.
A couple of issues I had with the book: first, I felt that it was a bit longer than it needed to be. At some points it seemed like Schafer diverged from writing about perfectionism and was just trying to fill up page space with things like self-compassion (an important concept and one that I can see its relation to perfectionism, but�) It was also wild to me that Schafer did not discuss issues of social injustice more and how those issues can contribute to perfectionism or a desire for perfectionism. She writes a bit about gender, though ignores race/racism (even when discussing Serena Williams), classism, transphobia, etc. She kind of indirectly addresses fatphobia which was decent, though on the whole I wanted more from this book in this regard.
I’d potentially recommend this to my fellow perfectionists or those who want to understand us, while keeping in mind the book’s limitations....more
Well-written and thoughtful book about Black engineering students� engagement at a historically White institution. Appreciated the thoroughness of TicWell-written and thoughtful book about Black engineering students� engagement at a historically White institution. Appreciated the thoroughness of Tichavakunda’s ethnography research approach and how he highlights that 1) Black college students are more than just their experiences of racism and 2) how non-Black people of color, especially Asian Americans in this case, perpetuate anti-Black racism. Interesting themes in this study too related to the labor Black students partake in during college, the ways they show up for one another, and the complexities of class and high school status (e.g., private or well-funded vs. not as well-funded) in predicting outcomes....more
A brief book/essay though one that still made an impact. Isabella Hammad writes with intellect and conviction about the dehumanization of PalestiniansA brief book/essay though one that still made an impact. Isabella Hammad writes with intellect and conviction about the dehumanization of Palestinians and the power of literature to illuminate truths about oppression and injustice. At the same time, Hammad honors how devastating it is for Palestinians to have suffered and to have faced/continue to face genocide � how it’s insufficient for stories to change hearts when Palestinian lives have already been cut short. A moving read and one that may be particularly well-suited for those who enjoy reading about literature or reading literary criticism....more
One of the most enjoyable books I’ve read in a while! I took great pleasure in reading this memoir about a woman satisfying herself during he4.5 stars
One of the most enjoyable books I’ve read in a while! I took great pleasure in reading this memoir about a woman satisfying herself during her trip in Paris. Glynnis MacNicol writes with precision and feeling about being a childfree, non-married single woman in her mid-40’s defying society’s expectations that all women’s lives and stories end with marriage and/or kids. As someone who’s more femme and childfree by choice and romantically single, I found myself nodding along and sighing in “yes, she gets it� throughout this memoir. I loved her writing about her friendships, her considerations of her finances, and her decision to chart her own course.
I believe this book is also relevant given Vice President JD Vance’s comments about romantically single, childfree women being “childless cat ladies� and his statements that parents should get more votes than nonparents. I turn 30 in two months and definitely feel the amatonormative and heteronormative pressure to get married and have kids. MacNicol’s memoir in which she literally centers her pursuit of pleasure defies patriarchal notions that women’s purpose is solely to serve or care for other people. She’s also generally self-aware about her privilege and positionality. Sure, there were a few passages that could have been more concise or removed and an instance of an interaction with a younger woman that could have been probed more thoroughly, but, as a whole I found her writing mindful and astute.
I’m not a travel memoir fan but liked this book nonetheless for its thesis on pursuing pleasure and defying society’s expectations. I may be interested in reading a memoir every decade by MacNicol as I also enjoyed her memoir No One Tells You This which I read back in 2018....more
Interesting book about families with children living in the suburbs and their attempts to procure a quality education for their kids. I appreciated BeInteresting book about families with children living in the suburbs and their attempts to procure a quality education for their kids. I appreciated Benjamin Herold’s analysis of race and white flight in major suburbs outside of Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, and more. In particular, his willingness to own up to his own whiteness and to engage in an open and honest conversation with one of the interviewees, Bethany Smith, showed that he wasn’t writing this book just to be extractive or for his own profit. The ending of the book got real real fast given the current US Trump administration’s attack on DEI and the US’s descent into fascism at the hands of the Trump administration� it’s a scary time for kids, especially trans/lgbtq+ kids and kids of color.
The book was a little long though I can understand Herold’s desire to be thorough. It was also focused on education for children and not other elements of living in suburbia. Still, Herold tackles a complex issue that I feel needs to be talked about....more
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