Category archives: notes

Die schlechteste Hausfrau der Welt

by Jacinta Nandi

Eine englische Muttersprachlerin, die auf Deutsch schreibt, und eine englische Muttersprachlerin, die es liest. Immer unterhaltsam, aber deprimierender als ich erwartet hatte. In einem nachfolgenden Buch gibt es ein erstaunliches Ausmaß an Deadbeatness, das ich mir nie hätte vorstellen können, aber in dieses geht es mehr um die … Read more

Real Sugar is Hard to Find

by Sim Kern

Especially in the first half the writing is not a pleasure to read, but I appreciated the imagination.

  • “Real Sugar is Hard to Find” ★★★
  • “The Listener” ★★★½
  • “The Propagator” ★★★★
  • “The New Nomad” ★★★
  • “The Night Heron” ★★★
  • “Tadpoles” ★★
  • “Unwhole” ★★★★
  • “What Can’t Be Undone” ★★★★
… Read more

Eleven

by Patricia Highsmith

Beacons of unpleasantness

  • “The Snail-Watcher” ★★½
  • “The Birds Poised to Fly” ★★½
  • “The Terrapin” DNF
  • “When the Fleet was in at Mobile” ★★½
  • “The Quest for ‘Blank Claveringi'” ★★½
  • “The Cries of Love” ★★
  • “Mrs. Afton, Among Thy Green Braes” ★★
  • “The Heroine” ★★
  • “Another Bridge to Cross”
… Read more

No More Police: A Case for Abolition

by Mariame Kaba, Andrea J. Ritchie

Police in the U.S. consume [close to] $130 billion a year…Carceral logics normalize policing and punishment in response to social problems rather than collective care and mutual support.

Police violence is not counted in the crime stats periodically trotted out to justify their existence—even though … Read more

King Kong Theory

by Virginie Despentes

A shambles, outside of writing about her personal history. Misogynist yardsticks aren’t reclaimable and don’t depose the male gaze. Exudes not-like-other-girls vibes in distorting consequence for cause in prizing masculinity and maligning femininity. Haphazard groundless arguments including aligning with MRA posturing, plural Julie Delpy-style white woman statements (‘It’s … Read more

The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love

by bell hooks

Perplexing generalisations mixed with solid if not repetitive analyses of masculinity in the wake of centuries of patriarchal cultural propaganda. hooks calls for feminist blueprints for transforming masculinity including shedding the model of domination that frames all relationships as power struggles, extricating oneself from violently fragile identities yoked … Read more

Designing Regenerative Food Systems: And Why We Need Them Now

by Marina O’Connell

Compiles an array of transformative food system models and practices. The abundance of overlapping information does make it difficult to not include some repetition, and it’s not free of periodic political mildness. It’s an admirable synthesis of constellating ideas to offset greenhouse gas emissions and global warming, climate … Read more

Sexed Up: How Society Sexualizes Us, and How We Can Fight Back

by Julia Serano

There are a lot of training wheels and an unnecessary, iterative spelling out of harmful stereotypes particularly in chapter 7, but also some solid analogies and models, especially about unwanted attention (being marked as a spectacle), derivatization (being flattened to a projected single dimension), stigma, and contagion.