11corvus11's reviews
886 reviews

Read in a day. I really wish this book was more than 136 pages. The only reason I've given it 4 stars out of 5. I didn't want it to be over and I want to know more about Justin Vivian's life.

Good and accessible memoir. I never realized Janet Mock and I were in such similar age groups. I related to many things she shared and learned from many others. This book can be read by people unfamiliar with trans issues because it has educational pieces and can also be enjoyed by the well versed because of the story telling and wisdom. Janet Mock is very humble. Enjoyable read. I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 because I wanted to hear more about Janet Mock and less about the trans things that cis people want to hear about- surgeries, etc. I wanted to read more about how she chose her careers, what else has happened in her adult life aside from transition, and so on.

Ive changed my mind about this review upon thinking more about it. I've decided it's probably right for me to focus more on internalizing some of what I've read and promoting the great amount of agreements I had with it than to share my criticisms at this point. This book got me thinking about a lot.

I actually had to put this book down and give it away because it hit me too hard. If you're a person who is not yet convinced of the connections between the struggles of animals and women, this book should convince by the end of the first third. If you are a person who already understands this connection and is looking for something to shake hands with and feel validated, please know that some essays in this book detail some of the most horrific instances of simultaneous and parallel human and other animal exploitation, sexual violence, and abuse. For this reason, I moved on from it but gave it 4 stars because what I read of it was well written and extremely important information.

This was my introduction to Octavia Butler. In college I took a course called "Sci Fi East and West," in which we read Bloodchild. I think the biggest fault of the course was that the "west" portion only included a short story of Butler's rather than a book. nonetheless, she has become one of my favorite writers since. And we shared a common fear and disgust of parasitic flies which, from what our teacher told us, was an inspiration for Bloodchild.

I won this book from a goodreads giveaway. The copy I have says advanced uncorrected proof, so I'm not sure how much they plan to change and how relevant my review will be.

This book is very difficult to rate. Barbara Brenner. and her work with Breast Cancer Action are remarkable. I learned quite a few things I didn't yet know about the breast cancer nonprofit industrial complex- particularly the evils of the Komen foundation- and pinkwashing (the breast cancer kind not the queer kind.). The book also has a lot of critiques of the language we use to describe illness and health and the impact of media. That information is invaluable.

My issue with the book is that it is composed of newsletter articles and blog posts. Each writing is 2 pages long (a couple are 4 pages) and as a result I could never really settle into a topic before it jumped to the next. I've read many anthologies but found this one difficult to stick with. Also, because it is made of blog posts, the same information is repeated over and over in the same way. I feel I could have learned most of what I did in one or two 20 page essays.

That said, this book was created post humously and as a result, it of course reflects the blogger feel because blogging is short and sweet.

I was hoping to read transcriptions of her speeches, larger articles she's written, etc, but this doesn't contain much of that.

I think this book has many things people can learn from. And I also think that one could read her blog and learn the same amount.

I liked this book, but had a hard time sticking with it during some of the parts. I liked the language, the themes, the survival. warning for intense sexual violence. internalized misogyny. many struggles. I liked the archetype of the Robber Queen.