by Dorothy Allison
★★★½
Author archives: author
The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations
by Toni Morrison
At least three works in a row are variations of the same essay on globalism. The introduction on the power of art is trenchant. The rest I skimmed were meandering, dense, and glancing, even when I wanted them to pierce me. The repetition and lack of notes of … Read more
Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets, & Advice for Living Your Best Life
by Ali Wong
★★★★
Surviving the City
(Surviving the City #1)
by Tasha Spillett, Natasha Donovan (Illustrations)
★★★½
From the Ashes
by Jesse Thistle
Jesse’s writing is magnetic and his story’s intense. Facing racism and bullying and dropping out of school in grief is the faint overlap I’ve lived. I thought about when a friend from Turkey told me that he was never bullied growing up—because the school system was so oppressive … Read more
The Racial Healing Handbook: Practical Activities to Help You Challenge Privilege, Confront Systemic Racism, and Engage in Collective Healing
by Anneliese A. Singh
★★★
We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir
by Samra Habib
★★★½
Love & Courage: My Story of Family, Resilience, and Overcoming the Unexpected
by Jagmeet Singh
★★★★½
The Vagina Bible: The Vulva and the Vagina—Separating the Myth from the Medicine
by Jennifer Gunter
★★★★
Sula
by Toni Morrison
★★★½
Our Women on the Ground: Essays by Arab Women Reporting from the Arab World
by Zahra Hankir (Editor)
★★★★½
Where the Stars Rise: Asian Science Fiction and Fantasy
(Laksa Anthology Series #3)
by Lucas K. Law, Derwin Mak (Editors)
Read:
- “DNR” by Gabriele Lee ★★★
- “Meridian” by Karin Lowachee ★★★
- “Crash” by Melissa Yuan-Innis ★★★
- “Memoriam” by Priya Sridhar ★★
- “Decision” by Joyce Chng ★
- “Moon Halves” by Anne Carly Abad ★★
- “The Bridge of Dangerous Longings” by Rati
How to Be an Antiracist
by Ibram X. Kendi
While this work is entwined with numbing repetition, Kendi brings forward vital ideas in defining and repositioning antiracist consciousness.
Half-Star Books
(mostly pre-2016)
Books I Detested and Abandoned
- Adams, Richard – Watership Down
- Atwood, Margaret – The Year of the Flood
- de Botton, Alain – How Proust Can Change Your Life (also made me never want to read Proust)
- Cohen, Leonard – Beautiful Losers
- Colombani, Laetitia – La Tresse
- Ferrante, Elena –
Going To Meet The Man
by James Baldwin
★★★★
Homes: A Refugee Story
by Abu Bakr al Rabeeah, Winnie Yeung
★★★★½
The Good Immigrant: 26 Writers Reflect on America
by Nikesh Shukla (Editor)
★★★★
Soufi, mon amour
by Elif Shafak
★★★½
Another Brooklyn
by Jacqueline Woodson
★★★★
Searching for Sylvie Lee
by Jean Kwok
The parts I appreciated touch on the experiences of children and grandchildren of immigrants in Europe. The socialisation of dehumanisation—with a quick sampling in racist children’s songs, the German version of rock-paper-scissors (if you point it out to them they say, ‘What? That’s what Chinese sounds like’), television … Read more