Many thanks to faintingviolet for passing off Unmentionable to me. It was an excellent compliment to Bound to Please, and reading the two together helped create a uniquely full picture for what life was like for the middle-class Victorian woman. It was bad. Plain and simple. While it can be argued that pestilence, disease, a lack of flush toilets, and leeches being the closest thing to an antibiotic made life tough for everyone, these books shed an undoubted truth that however difficult it was for the males in society, […]
Growing Up Is Hard Even Without LSD
This book takes place in the late 1960s, around the summer of love. I wasn’t around then, so I’m sure that a lot of my ideas of that time are influenced by popular culture. This isn’t one of those books that glamorizes that era, but seems to exist solely in between the two worlds of structured society and drug-saturated counterculture. The protagonist is Evie, a girl that would be described as “fourteen going on thirty.” Evie is a bit of an outsider in her own […]
Truth That is Frustratingly Still Relevant
Best for: Those interested in exploring how feminism has failed at inclusivity, and how U.S. society has failed Black women. In a nutshell: bell hooks provides a history of how racism, sexism and classism have impacted Black women in the U.S. Line that sticks with me: “The process begins with the individual woman’s acceptance that American women, without exception, are socialized to be racist, classist, and sexist, in varying degrees, and that labeling ourselves feminists does not change the fact that we must consciously work […]
Yes, yes! All of the Yes!
I ended up reading this book by accident. I thought I’d requested a book with the same title written by Victer Lavelle, but this is what showed up at the library when I went to pick it up. Since I was already there I figured I’d give it ago. And I’m glad I did as this was one of the most adorable, wonderful books I’ve read in a while. First, every single major player in this book is female. And not a whiny, incapable cipher […]
(Not Actually) Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman
I first heard of Lindy West on Jezebel where I was a regular reader and infrequent commenter. She was always brassy and direct and had a very clear and distinct writing voice. She wrote about difficult and controversial subjects with a deft hand that said f*ck the trolls. Since Lindy left Jezebel I’d occasionally hear about her–an article about her wedding with a picture of her amazing dress, or an episode of This American Life where she confronted one of her worst trolls. I love reading […]
Ocean of Testosterone
I bought this book for the title. What I got was an insightful look at the human condition as seen through the eyes of a fellow service member. I joined the Navy at a young age and it’s very different from the Army. Yet many of the experiences William’s describes are similar to those I’ve encountered in my career. Reading this book felt like I was both watching the early years of my career and learning about a whole new world that is the Army. […]
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