Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.98 AVERAGE
3.98 AVERAGE
I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This one's a 3.5 for me. (I know, I know; I'm rating a lot of books 3.5 stars lately.)
The book feels very on-brand for Danny Lavery--chock full of humor and absurdism on topics he writes about in a way that makes me feel like I'm not smart enough to keep up with him. My favorite sections of this sort-of memoir are the more poignant chapters about his transition and how it affected him. (Plus, I learned that he ate at the very Boston Market my family and I used to go to all the time--huge fangirl moment!)
The eARC contains content about his family, which he said he cut out after his estrangement. I'd be interested to know what the book is like in its finished form.
This one's a 3.5 for me. (I know, I know; I'm rating a lot of books 3.5 stars lately.)
The book feels very on-brand for Danny Lavery--chock full of humor and absurdism on topics he writes about in a way that makes me feel like I'm not smart enough to keep up with him. My favorite sections of this sort-of memoir are the more poignant chapters about his transition and how it affected him. (Plus, I learned that he ate at the very Boston Market my family and I used to go to all the time--huge fangirl moment!)
The eARC contains content about his family, which he said he cut out after his estrangement. I'd be interested to know what the book is like in its finished form.
I picked up Something That May Shock and Discredit You because of this tweet, and I've since sent the excerpt to many friends ("Wait, that's from this book?!").
I'm taking my goodreads to be my little diary, so not to tell on myself but Something That May Shock and Discredit You... made me grin ear to ear at work, and when I got to the chapter "The Stages of Not Going on T" on trans denial, I felt it so viscerally (in a cis way! of course hahahahahahaha) I felt like I couldn't breathe and wanted to go have my revelation in the bathroom a little bit.
If someone were to drop a little bit of leftover testosterone on the ground, and I couldn't find the owner and there weren't any trans people around, and it was about to go bad, I would probably take it, in the interest of preventing waste. That would just be sensible. Stand to reason.
But there was someone in the toilet already so I just went to take a walk and collect lunch for the department. While thinking about it the whole time. About if a little puddle of T were to just show up on the carpet. Or like, if I found a coupon for top surgery on the floor and there weren't any trans people around and it was about to expire.
Oh God, hormones would ruin my life. I'm sorry, I don't mean to sound dramatic, but hormones would ruin my life dramatically. Obviously they're great for other people. I think everyone should get the chance to try going on hormones, except for me. I'm the only person who shouldn't take hormones. God, can you imagine? Me? On hormones? I imagine it all the time, and I know it would be terrible.
Also, there's a guy I know, Jacob, who wrestles, and I wasn't raised Christian so I never connected the dots. But Something That May Shock and Discredit You reads the tale of Jacob wrestling with the angel as a tale of incredible transmasculine resonance (we're going to leave the state of [------] out of this), and I have to say. If your name is Jacob and you wrestle. That's just nominative determinism I fear. Have you ever injured your hip wrestling with a beautiful man, by any chance? Just asking for a friend.
I'm taking my goodreads to be my little diary, so not to tell on myself but Something That May Shock and Discredit You... made me grin ear to ear at work, and when I got to the chapter "The Stages of Not Going on T" on trans denial, I felt it so viscerally (in a cis way! of course hahahahahahaha) I felt like I couldn't breathe and wanted to go have my revelation in the bathroom a little bit.
If someone were to drop a little bit of leftover testosterone on the ground, and I couldn't find the owner and there weren't any trans people around, and it was about to go bad, I would probably take it, in the interest of preventing waste. That would just be sensible. Stand to reason.
But there was someone in the toilet already so I just went to take a walk and collect lunch for the department. While thinking about it the whole time. About if a little puddle of T were to just show up on the carpet. Or like, if I found a coupon for top surgery on the floor and there weren't any trans people around and it was about to expire.
Oh God, hormones would ruin my life. I'm sorry, I don't mean to sound dramatic, but hormones would ruin my life dramatically. Obviously they're great for other people. I think everyone should get the chance to try going on hormones, except for me. I'm the only person who shouldn't take hormones. God, can you imagine? Me? On hormones? I imagine it all the time, and I know it would be terrible.
Also, there's a guy I know, Jacob, who wrestles, and I wasn't raised Christian so I never connected the dots. But Something That May Shock and Discredit You reads the tale of Jacob wrestling with the angel as a tale of incredible transmasculine resonance (we're going to leave the state of [------] out of this), and I have to say. If your name is Jacob and you wrestle. That's just nominative determinism I fear. Have you ever injured your hip wrestling with a beautiful man, by any chance? Just asking for a friend.
This book genuinely made me laugh out loud. I loved the humorous approach to the trans experience. While some might view this book as aimless, cyclical rambles about internal struggle, I related to the majority of the essays. I heard my own thoughts in his words and was read by some of the jokes lol. Since I was raised as a Christian and left the religion years ago, having the biblical references felt familiar and honestly helpful. There were a handful of essays that felt a little dense and I’ll have to re-read, though I really enjoyed the modernized historical/mythological stories & conversations.
I have loved everything this author has ever written--articles on the Toast, Texts from Jane Eyre, The Merry Widow, all of Dear Prudence...but not really this book. It's just sort of hard to follow if you aren't familiar with the source texts, which I wasn't for the most part--I've never seen Columbo, I've barely seen any Star Trek nor a lot of the films mentioned, and I have almost no familiarity with the Bible. The author is gifted enough to at least keep me reading about things I didn't understand (nor care about--I don't care about William Shatner, I just don't) but since he was often using these texts to provide a lens on experiences of transness, something I also don't know much about but DO care about--it was two layers of unfamiliarity, so I was often just lost. I don't mind being lost for a little while, but it got sort of boring to not understand several essays in a row.
The pieces where I did know the source text really did work for me--the one on the Golden Girls I found deeply moving, and the one about Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was silly but funny. I thought the one that referenced Huck Finn was interesting but seemingly incomplete.
I honestly think I was just not the target audience for this book, which is disappointing but fine. Not every book needs to be for me. Maybe the next one will be.
The pieces where I did know the source text really did work for me--the one on the Golden Girls I found deeply moving, and the one about Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was silly but funny. I thought the one that referenced Huck Finn was interesting but seemingly incomplete.
I honestly think I was just not the target audience for this book, which is disappointing but fine. Not every book needs to be for me. Maybe the next one will be.
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Transphobia
Lol the stream of consciousness speaking was very funny. The imaginary conversation about Ortberg having abs was too much. Loved him on Dear Prudie!
reflective
medium-paced
My rating is not due to Daniel Lavery’s gifts as a writer. The thing I enjoyed most about this book was the honest and sometimes humorous look at transitioning. The reason I need to give this book 3 stars is the immense amount of scripture included in this book. I understand Daniel’s family history and that religion was a huge part of his growing up. But, given the revelations regarding some members of his family and the way they choose to look down on Daniel didn’t jive with me. I would have appreciated this memoir 1000% more without all the religious comparison and scripture.
challenging
emotional
funny
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
Funny and touching and sweet.
This is a punchy, introspective, experimental, and oftentimes outrageous (in a good way) series of essays and "interludes" from author Daniel M. Lavery, in which he explores his upbringing, gender, trans identity formation, Christianity, and pop culture. It is at turns vulnerable, confessional, and hysterical. Not everything worked for me, but it was nevertheless an extremely interesting read.
Throughout the book, Lavery turns to a rapid array of texts and then uses them as ciphers to make meaning of his experiences. Often, he writes long sequences of imagined, invented dialogue between characters from old stories, giving them (humorously) modern voices to respond to age-old problems. Have you ever wanted to hear Hyacinthus and Apollo banter as through they are characters on Beverly Hills 90210? Then Lavery is your guy. His genre- and millennium-leaping source materials include the Bible, Greek myths, Pilgrim's Progress, Star Trek, the Golden Girls, John Hughes, the Adams Family, Columbo, House Hunters, and too many more to count. At the book's best parts, Lavery's writing feels ranging, hilarious, unexpected, fiercely intelligent, but tender. In weaker sections, I confess that the book felt to me like someone flipping through channels too quickly on the TV. Moments in the text felt sporadic, incomplete, or unfocused. For me, I wish that the writing had been a bit more even. But to immediately contradict myself, I do confess that the roller coaster nature of the reading may have been part of the fun and the charm. Who knows! It left me wanting a little bit, but it's hard to say exactly how.
Like I said at the top: it didn't all work for me, but it was still a hell of a ride and unlike anything else. Glad I read it!
Throughout the book, Lavery turns to a rapid array of texts and then uses them as ciphers to make meaning of his experiences. Often, he writes long sequences of imagined, invented dialogue between characters from old stories, giving them (humorously) modern voices to respond to age-old problems. Have you ever wanted to hear Hyacinthus and Apollo banter as through they are characters on Beverly Hills 90210? Then Lavery is your guy. His genre- and millennium-leaping source materials include the Bible, Greek myths, Pilgrim's Progress, Star Trek, the Golden Girls, John Hughes, the Adams Family, Columbo, House Hunters, and too many more to count. At the book's best parts, Lavery's writing feels ranging, hilarious, unexpected, fiercely intelligent, but tender. In weaker sections, I confess that the book felt to me like someone flipping through channels too quickly on the TV. Moments in the text felt sporadic, incomplete, or unfocused. For me, I wish that the writing had been a bit more even. But to immediately contradict myself, I do confess that the roller coaster nature of the reading may have been part of the fun and the charm. Who knows! It left me wanting a little bit, but it's hard to say exactly how.
Like I said at the top: it didn't all work for me, but it was still a hell of a ride and unlike anything else. Glad I read it!