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3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
medium-paced
I was really excited about this book because it sounds like the *perfect* intersection of my interests, and it's modern, and it's a great length for historical nonfiction. Lots of aspects in its favor. Unfortunately, I found it to drag quite a bit, because the chapters all start off pretty strong and interesting, but about halfway or three-quarters of the way through, they all become very dense and almost... jargon-y? The book will go from talking about the actual base facts of whichever historical figure is the topic of conversation, to immediately discussing their modern-day implications and socio-political effects, with practically no transition. I also found the sheer number of characters mentioned in each chapter to just be... way too much, and the authors didn't smoothly transition between them at all, so I found it very hard to differentiate between most of them, even when I could tell that the characters were supposed to be distinct and obvious.
I ended up grabbing the audiobook around chapter 9 to help me finish this out, and that definitely helped (although I didn't particularly enjoy the narrator). All in all, I'm glad to have read it, but I'm equally as glad to be done with it.
I ended up grabbing the audiobook around chapter 9 to help me finish this out, and that definitely helped (although I didn't particularly enjoy the narrator). All in all, I'm glad to have read it, but I'm equally as glad to be done with it.
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
I read this a few mo ago but happy pride lol. Anyway I think if you’ve heard their podcast this book won’t be much of a surprise to you. I absolutely loved the biting and revolutionary introduction. I’ve heard some friends call this book flippant because the authors weren’t sufficiently antagonistic to the subjects but I think the cattiest thing they could do was say Mishima skipped leg day.
The book is didactic yet clear and easy to read. They refuse to sacrifice their radical views for readability yet somehow pull off their complex points beautifully. My only disappointment is that I’ve heard a lot of these entries before since they were done on their podcast. The old entries don’t stray far from the original podcast episodes but the new ones are amazing. (You didn’t ask but my favorite bad gays were Hadrian and Mishima.)
If you haven’t listened to the podcast i would consider giving it a read but if you’re a dedicated fan of the show you might feel like a lot of this is redundant. The new entries are fantastic and worth reading so you might as well read the entire thing.
The book is didactic yet clear and easy to read. They refuse to sacrifice their radical views for readability yet somehow pull off their complex points beautifully. My only disappointment is that I’ve heard a lot of these entries before since they were done on their podcast. The old entries don’t stray far from the original podcast episodes but the new ones are amazing. (You didn’t ask but my favorite bad gays were Hadrian and Mishima.)
If you haven’t listened to the podcast i would consider giving it a read but if you’re a dedicated fan of the show you might feel like a lot of this is redundant. The new entries are fantastic and worth reading so you might as well read the entire thing.
Great opening chapter, the rest was meh.
Although, I do think it's mandatory for everyone to know what a piece of shit Roy Cohn was, considering his continuing influence.
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
I have never listened to the podcast. I think I learned about this book because of the Goodreads Award. I don't know if the book is meant to stand alone or as a complement to the podcast, but it was pretty dry reading to me. I also found myself looking for why someone was being described as "bad" as I don't think all of these individuals fit so neatly under that label. There were some people I hadn't heard about before, but I was really ready for the book to be over by the time I reached the end of it Plenty of details, and plenty of words, but the writing style was not engaging for me -- at least not at this time in my life. I kept wondering if the subject matter was over my head, or if there was no actual overall narrative arc but just a collection of biographies that were never intended to segue from one to the next. Five minutes after I turned the last page I couldn't recall any of it. It was like reading a textbook.
I would recommend this to book groups that could discuss the individual chapters with each other weekly or to a class studying queer history. In my circumstances with no one to converse with about each figure, I was the wrong audience for this book. I am still glad it was written, though.
I would recommend this to book groups that could discuss the individual chapters with each other weekly or to a class studying queer history. In my circumstances with no one to converse with about each figure, I was the wrong audience for this book. I am still glad it was written, though.
The individual profiles were interesting but I don’t feel like the authors really connected them. They reference the overall theme they were going for in the intro and conclusion of the book but don’t seem to be able to draw everything together.
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
i can see why it worked as a podcast, but as a book the selection of people was random at the best of times and insane at the worst (going from a chapter on rohm into one on margaret mead was certainly a choice)