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    April, May, June 2020: 15(+) Most-Anticipated Books

    March 31, 2020 /

    A new quarter is starting tomorrow and I think most of you share the feeling that the first one of this year has been going on forever… But here we are now and persumably the next three months will be pretty taxing aswell. Of course, there are always books for some comfort, for learning, for getting engaged. As quite a few books’ release dates have been pushed to later this year (or even next year) due to the current crisis, I have double-checked all of the books I feature … but change fast. April Beyond Survival: Strategies and Stories from the Transformative Justice Movement (Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha und Ejeris Dixon)…

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Tried to rewind yesterday evening by taking a long Tried to rewind yesterday evening by taking a long bath and reading Jen Agg's memoir I Hear She's a Real Bitch. I got this quite some time ago as I am always interested in writing about food by writers/ chefs/ cooks/ restaurateurs who are not white straight cis men. This memoir was also sold as "a rallying cry for a feminist revolution in the culinary world". The writing is not particularly great, so I am reading this mostly for the content. I do find a lot of things interesting, especially as Agg writes about the inner workings of her restaurant. And of course, she does write about her specific experiences as a woman in this environment (and the food industry is very exclusionary). But if you want to call that feminism, it is a very, very narrow and surface-level one. She actually acknowledges her rather bourgeois white feminism (her words) but then she doesn't do anything with this insight. It rather feels like she puts it in there to as a pre-emptive measure and I find that just intellectually very lazy and politically unconvincing. So no, a feminist revolution this is not. I'll finish it for the restaurant insights but I'll keep looking for more radical food writing (and I know it's out there). #bookstagram #jenagg #review #IHearShesARealBitch #igreads #foodstagram #booklover #foodwriting #bookworm #readerslife #igbooks #justread #bookgeek #bookish #goodreads #TheBlackHoof
„It’s also very important not to think you’r „It’s also very important not to think you’re inventing those conversations for the first time; those conversations have been going back and forth forever. So why not start from recognition that those have been going on, and appreciate those voices, rather than just think you’re the first one to come along and write about it?“ (Vron Ware) I feel that often discussions and analysis (not rarely quite superficial ones) are framed as being „a first“ – the way publishing works for sure being one factor. There is a disconnect from earlier movements, theories, and discussions, and as Bhadar and Ziadah write a „wilful amnesia around issues of race and anti-racist struggle“. This book is a great resource counteracting this tendency. In Revolutionary Feminisms Brenna Bhandar and Rafeef Ziadah interview ten feminists who have shaped in different ways movements and theorisations of our world. Roughly separated in the themes of Diaspora/ Migration/ Empire (Avtar Brah, Gail Lewis, and Vron Ware), Colonialism/ Capitalism/ Resistance (Himani Bannerji, Gary Kinsman, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, and Silvia Federici), and Abolition Feminism (Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Avery F. Gordon, and Angela Y. Davis) Bhandar and Ziadah ask the interviewees about their political becoming, their experiences within different movements, theories they have related to/ critiqued/ worked on and much more. But while I think it’s important to see different opinions and not always agree on all the details, a few aspects I’d like to point out: Federici – in an otherwise very interesting interview – suddenly goes into an unprompted rant about „children now transitioning at six years old“ and while Bhandar and Ziadah follow up with a question on transphobia and feminism, Federici does more or less continue in that vein though she remains vague but it is never really challenged. I also found it quite glaring how in all these discussions which include a lot of different experiences, oppressive systems and practices etc, a discussion of antisemitism was very, very absent. #revolutionaryfeminisms #feminism #igreads #goodreads #bookreview #angeladavis #leannebetasamosakesimpson #vronware #silviafederici
Throwback to yesterday: trying to get some fresh a Throwback to yesterday: trying to get some fresh air (and sun!) during these - presumably - last warm days. Started reading Burnt Sugar and I don't love it so far (I also don't hate it, don't get me wrong, but well). Have you read it? #BurntSugar #AvniDoshi #igreads #ireadeverywhere #goodreads #bibliophile #bookish #bookworm #booklover #currentlyreading
So are now bold primary colours, women in sunglass So are now bold primary colours, women in sunglasses, and reflections the signifier for fast-paced crime/ thriller novels set in West Africa (here, Nigeria and Ghana)?  Anyway, The Missing American is a fast-paced novel about a US-American who is scammed and while investigating this scam by himself goes missing. His son, who is Ghanaian-American flies to Ghana to find his father and enlists private investigator Emma Djan. The novel has a big cast of characters and is told from different perspectives, so sometimes you know more than certain characters and sometimes less, which is quite enjoyable. In general, I thought this was an entertaining read but something bothered me: At some point, quite early in the narrative, Emma is introduced as a "virgin". Now obviously it is fine to have characters who do not have sex/ have not had sex yet, but the entire concept of "virginity" is deeply patriarchal and it had no plot relevance whatsoever - unless you read "virginity" as the marker of a female character being 'pure' and 'good'. And unfortunately that latter is what happens in the book as all the female characters which have sex are also at least morally ambigious.  #KweiQuartey #TheMissingAmerican #goodreads #igreads #bibliophile #bookish #bookworm #readersofinsta
Almost done with Paradise, my seventh Ton Morrison Almost done with Paradise, my seventh Ton Morrison this year and the one I am struggeling with most. This book about a small town, Ruby, and its nine founding families aswell as other people connected the town has got so many characters and side stories I get lost at times. There are also a lot of scenes and themes I love reading about and engaging with. But overall it feels a bit scattered. Though it might also be my brain right now. I do plan to reread it at some point. Those of you you have read lots/ all of Morrison's novels where does this one stand for you? (My three favourites so far are Sula, Beloved and Song of Solomon.) #ToniMorrison #igreads #bookstagram #currentlyreading #instaread #goodreads #booklover
The first thing I saw this morning at 5 am when I The first thing I saw this morning at 5 am when I briefly checked my phone before leaving the house was the news of Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death on the eve of Rosh Hashanah. So many feelings (and I think it's important to feel them) - and it's difficult to not immediately also think about the possible consequences for the US Supreme court, all kinds of laws, the impact on many marginalized groups, the entire democratic system in the US, etc. And of course, that, once again, points to bigger problem: those things shouldn't depend in that way on one 87-year old cancer surviving woman. I am wishing all the best for all my US friends keeping up the fight for a more just society. I am not for hero worship and Ruth Bader Ginsburg has not always supported all the causes one would have liked to see. But it is fair to say that she has accomplished so much in her life and had an incredible impact on many important issues such as women's and disability rights, and through her dissents showed the her clear-sighted views on reproductive rights and voting discrimination, @irincarmon, one of the authors of Notorious RBG, has written a beautiful obituary chronicling Bader Ginsburg's life. 💔 #ruthbaderginsburg #notoriousrbg #igreads #bookstagram #feministshelfie
"MOLLY BOLT. She's funny, reckless, gutsy, and wil "MOLLY BOLT. She's funny, reckless, gutsy, and wild. A full-blooded, all-American, 100% true-blue gay - and proud of it!", screams the back of my Rubyfruit Jungle copy from 1980 (the book was first published in 1973) This classic lesbian novel follows Molly Bolt, a working-class adoptee, from her childhood to her twenties, from life in rural Pennsylvania and Florida to following her dream to become a filmmaker in New York. Molly is a singular character: unapologetic about who she is from a young age, loud, fierce, and very funny. While the book does not shy away from tackling difficult topics like Molly's strained relationship with her adopted mother and loss, the novel overall maintains a light, conversational tone. What makes the novel stand out is the way the hetero norm is always named as such and constantly ridiculed like when Molly describes a family driving away into their "nuclear family sun-set". But Molly is also a very judgmental character and it does not become clear if the (very autobiographical inspired) book is meant to share all her values: Molly berates butches, fat bodies, and older women (the latter less because of specific power-relations in the portrayed relationships, which is fair, but looks). There is also a very uncomfortable endorsement of incest - again devoid of any look at power dynamics. Lastly, I felt this book glorifies sexual assault. There are multiple scenes in which women are violently forced into sex by other women-but they always think it was great in the end. So, would I recommend picking up the novel? Not without giving an elaborate explanation. But I am glad that I have read it because it gives a great glimpse into 1970s queer discourse (and for most parts an entertaining one). #SapphicSeptember #QueerLitEveryMonth #igreads #RitaMaeBrown #RubyfruitJungle #goodreads #bookreview #queerliterature #queerlit #igbooks #bookish
I absolutely loved Kate Manne's Down Girl. I read I absolutely loved Kate Manne's Down Girl. I read this book twice. Its analyses have strengthened my arguments around misogyny and she introduced terminology for phenomenons I had witnessed before but can now describe in one easy word like 'himpathy'. So I am very excited to read Manne's new book called "Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women" in which she turns her sharp analyses on everything from the Kavanaugh hearing, Elisabeth Warren's loss, and that "Cat Person" short story. #KateManne #DownGirl #Entitled #MalePrivilege #feministread #feminism #feministshelfie #igreads #goodreads #bitchreads #bookworm
"But to be alive in the world, every day, as we ar "But to be alive in the world, every day, as we are given more and more and more, as the nature of "what we can handle" changes and our methods for how we handle it change, too, that's something of a miracle." This quote of Yaa Gyasi's sophomore novel spoke deeply to me and is indicative of the kind of novel - wondering, questioning, philosophising - "Transcendent Kingdom" is. In this book we meet Giffy, a young woman who had grown up in Alabama with Ghanaian parents, and now works on her doctoral thesis in neuroscience. When she takes in her mother who is deep in depression, Giffy needs to confront how her family of four (mother, father, brother, and her) has become basically a family of two.  This is a complex family and somewhat coming-of-age novel about migration, racism, mental health, grief and addiction. In it, Giffy tries to understand if and how faith or science can help her get a grasp on life's complications. Through flashbacks and on-going ruminations, Giffy circles around her own research, her daughter-mother relationship and how the unresolved trauma in her life has affected her romantic relationships (with men and women) and friendships. Gyasi has constructed a narrative which is very readable and sucks you in but at the same time allows you to ponder some of the more complex questions in life. This is an absolutely stunning novel - though once again, Gyasi loses me a bit with her too neat ending. #YaaGyasi #TranscendentKingdom #bookstagram #bookreview #igreads #readerslife #igbooks #bookgeek #bookish #goodreads #booklover
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