Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship, and Community by Mia Birdsong

7 reviews

spinesinaline's review

hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

4.0

This book has a lot of thought-provoking points on community, based on the author’s own experiences as well as interviews with people in her sphere across the United States. There’s also a good amount of time spent on privilege and folks coming from different backgrounds in life, so it feels like a well-balanced approach.

I especially liked Birdsong’s discussion of friendships, how societal norms tend to lead people to isolate with our romantic partner but intentionally prioritizing friendships is an important step in building this community around you, and these friendships are should be just as worthy and valued as romantic relationships.

The book lends more towards a memoir at times and there were moments that felt very personal in a way that was alienating, to myself and I imagine other folks interested in building community. In one section, the author writes about a desire to have more intimate dinners with friends, a way for folks to drop in relatively unannounced so they can spend more casual time together. To do this, she emails 20 of her closest friends. Imagining twenty close friends who also happen to live in the same area so they can drop in for dinner is mind-boggling, so at times it felt like the author skipped over the initial step in building community for those who don’t already have a surrounding of dozens to hundreds of people in their lives. Still an interesting read and many points I’ll be thinking over in the future.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Homophobia, Sexual assault, and Racism

readingbrb's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Homophobia, Sexual assault, Racism, and Domestic abuse

kshertz's review

hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

3.75

I’m not a self help fan but I definitely loved this book. It’s about finding your community. It’s about how community is the only thing that is going to save us. It is heavily parent based and I have no kids so that part was not for me. I loved that the no kid aunties are appreciated though! I think it has amazing points about how individualism and capitalism are killing  us. We need collectivism, community and the ability to rely on each other now more than ever. I feel motivated to keep trying to be the best member of the community that I can be and take care of others while I cam able. Help without being asked. A great read to help feel less
alone.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Colonisation, Classism, Emotional abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, and Rape

amberinpieces's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective fast-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Classism, Racism, and Colonisation

Minor: Addiction, Alcohol, Biphobia, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Rape, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

jenniferthinks's review

informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

Mia did a wonderful job of inspiring me to reflect, plan, and take action to build a local community. We chose this book as for a book club, and as part of our discussion we all mapped out our “Zone 1” and discussed with each other. It was a really touching conversation. 

The book was delightfully intersectional. The stories were helpful anchors. And the audiobook was great as it was read by Mia, the author. 

After the discussion with others, I longed for more detail on the very basics and getting started version of how to meet people for folks who aren’t extroverts. Mia seems to have established many relationships by meeting people at group events that she initiated or was invited to. I wonder what advice she might give to those of us who aren’t “group event” people, and who aren’t extroverted. 

Another topic I would love to know more about is the dynamic of unpartnered people who don’t have children. In our book club, we talked about how these folks often get asked to provide childcare more often and with more assumption of availability than others in their communities. 

And finally, I would love to learn more about how building community intersects with mental challenges like anxiety and depression. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Rape, Grief, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, and Death

skudiklier's review against another edition

hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

This book was super helpful in thinking about how I want to create community in my life, and make my existing relationships closer and more intimate. Covid makes these things harder right now, but I really want to use some of the ideas in this book once I can. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

Moderate: Sexual assault, Violence, Rape, Racism, Pregnancy, Medical trauma, Grief, and Cursing

ctrl_shift_dlt's review

hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cursing

Minor: Transphobia, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Religious bigotry, Racism, Rape, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Homophobia, Grief, Genocide, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, and Cancer