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4.22 AVERAGE
4.22 AVERAGE
Started out pretty engaged and interested in her coming of age as a young artist and activist. She presents a pretty impressive blueprint for an intentional life! But she writes about her own life from such an odd distance... when I think of memoirs I think of emotional insight, but this book just didn't really have any. It felt stuffy. I got about 80% of the way through and lost interest.
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Entra dins el top 3 que tothom hauria de llegir. Senzillament espectacular. Acabo i tinc ganes de no limitar-te, de pensar en gran, de descobrir coses i de descobrir-me, de sortir d'aquesta pausa, de començar a parlar i d'encara escriure més, d'esdevenir i paradoxalment, de no tenir por.
Quantes revelacions però, especialment, quantes confirmacions. Ni estic boja ni estic sola.
I la perspectiva, que és filla del temps o germana o amant, una altra confirmació no explícita.
Penso llegir-me molts més llibres seus.
Quantes revelacions però, especialment, quantes confirmacions. Ni estic boja ni estic sola.
I la perspectiva, que és filla del temps o germana o amant, una altra confirmació no explícita.
Penso llegir-me molts més llibres seus.
She had me at..."I still walk into a bookstore or a library convinced that I might be on the threshold that will open up onto what I most need or desire, and sometimes that doorway appears...The sheer pleasure of meeting new voices and ideas and possibilities, having the world become more coherent in some subtle or enormous way, extending or filling in your map of the universe, is not nearly celebrated enough, nor is the beauty in finding pattern and meaning. But these awakenings recur, and every time they do there's joy."
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
this’ll be a deeply personal “review”. i wish i had a physical copy to pull excerpts from, and i’ll likely be revisiting at a later date. but this book was immensely healing for me. i started it the day after the election, and listened mostly in two chunks on long evening walks, where i luckily did feel safe in the well lit paths. i’m so glad that i did not relate to the severity of perceived physical danger, as a young woman in a city. the rights to my body and my livelihood ARE in grave danger, however, and it’s been difficult to cope with.
re: armor as knowledge. i’ve always felt alienated from many of the women i admire, by a feeling of sexual undesirability, as someone who has never been thin or conventionally attractive. who has had to seek that type of attention, rather than fight it. this feeling often surfaces in one particularly inopportune time. discussion of sexual harassment and assault. the same patriarchal, misogynistic rhetoric seeped into my mind, that if men do not want to fuck me (mind you, i am gay, i do not want to fuck any of these men either, that’s not even a factor) i have no value and no possible upward mobility. this mantra manifested as a “why didn’t the priest choose ME” style subconsciousness. it is so unbelievably dehumanizing. but this chapter made me realize that capital IS the armor i seek. i am always looking for protection, just like her. books are a safe retreat. knowledge is my capital, is my protection.
re: hope. this made me feel, above all, incredibly young and incredibly hopeful. i feel hope that there is more to myself than i currently know, that only time can reveal to me. that i will find my voice, and maybe lose it again someday, and then find it again. i feel hope remembering that progress fluctuates and wounds reappear, even on a national or worldwide scale. hope that curiosity and a drive towards justice are the things i should be centering my life around, and my constant dread about the rat race is a sign of health, not illness. hope that maybe i haven’t wasted my short time here.
READ READ READ READ READ READ!!!!!
like in general, i mean. but also this book.
re: armor as knowledge. i’ve always felt alienated from many of the women i admire, by a feeling of sexual undesirability, as someone who has never been thin or conventionally attractive. who has had to seek that type of attention, rather than fight it. this feeling often surfaces in one particularly inopportune time. discussion of sexual harassment and assault. the same patriarchal, misogynistic rhetoric seeped into my mind, that if men do not want to fuck me (mind you, i am gay, i do not want to fuck any of these men either, that’s not even a factor) i have no value and no possible upward mobility. this mantra manifested as a “why didn’t the priest choose ME” style subconsciousness. it is so unbelievably dehumanizing. but this chapter made me realize that capital IS the armor i seek. i am always looking for protection, just like her. books are a safe retreat. knowledge is my capital, is my protection.
re: hope. this made me feel, above all, incredibly young and incredibly hopeful. i feel hope that there is more to myself than i currently know, that only time can reveal to me. that i will find my voice, and maybe lose it again someday, and then find it again. i feel hope remembering that progress fluctuates and wounds reappear, even on a national or worldwide scale. hope that curiosity and a drive towards justice are the things i should be centering my life around, and my constant dread about the rat race is a sign of health, not illness. hope that maybe i haven’t wasted my short time here.
READ READ READ READ READ READ!!!!!
like in general, i mean. but also this book.
“…I was told to move to someplace more affluent (though some of my most malevolent harassment occurred in such places), to get a car, to spend money I didn’t have on taxis, to cut my hair, dress as a man or attach myself to a man, to never go anywhere alone, get a gun, learn martial arts, to adapt to this reality, which was treated as something as natural or inevitable as the weather. But it wasn’t weather; it was particular people and a system that gave them latitude, looked the other way, eroticized, excised, ignored, dismissed, and trivialized. Changing that culture and those conditions seemed to be the only adequate response. It still does.”
Wow did book speak to me. I felt so much resonance with Solnit’s words and left feeling ultimately more hopeful. 100% would recommend.
Wow did book speak to me. I felt so much resonance with Solnit’s words and left feeling ultimately more hopeful. 100% would recommend.
I liked this personal reflection better than Men Explain Things to Me.
dark
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Everyone should read this book. I am really grateful. The book is her memoir, but on a macro level that is her “nonexistence”. The nonexistence as a reader, professional, and woman. It’s lovely.
I am relatively new to the language of empowerment and encouragement and that’s where I would start with it. Her voice to empower and encourage women and the language she uses is good and helps me to solidify abstract thoughts or feelings. I wish I could remember every word
I am relatively new to the language of empowerment and encouragement and that’s where I would start with it. Her voice to empower and encourage women and the language she uses is good and helps me to solidify abstract thoughts or feelings. I wish I could remember every word