Scan barcode
A review by greenikat89
Small Doses by Amanda Seales
2.0
A friend recommended this book to me so I went into it not knowing who the author is or what she does. I think perhaps if I did know (and like) her then I would have liked the book more.
It's a part memoir and part self-help/self-motivation advice book broken up into small doses (like the title says). To me it felt really choppy and not that well-connected together. Perhaps if I had read it a little at a time instead of reading the whole thing at once. For me personally because of the work I do in support, education, diversity and inclusion, and identity work I didn't find a lot of what she had to say new.
There are parts in this book that are for black and brown folks and parts where she's directly talking to white people. As a black person, I found some of her language ("all black people know" or "we all do this as black folks") really alienating and made me feel less black and not part of the "in" group because I didn't grow up the same. An example would be the black national anthem which I literally didn't know until this book. So it would have been nice to acknowledge that many black people know X if you were surrounded by blackness/etc/whatever so it wasn't all-encompassing statements.
Additionally, I think she makes two comments about women and states women, trans women, non-binary people in the beginning of her book and then never really does anything with it. Her examples are and advice and suggestions are still almost exclusively geared towards and for straight/cis people. Such as during sex (when mentioning men and penises) or in dating. There might be a throwaway line about or partners but her language is gendered. It's one thing to talk about her own experiences and then giving advice for others. There's a difference between saying something like: consent is sexy, make sure to talk to your boyfriend/future boyfriend about it and: consent is sexy, make sure to talk to your partner(s)/future partner(s) about it.
I will say this book is aesthetically pleasing (yellow on yellow was hard to read). And I think it's fun to have little doodles and her sketches in the book. I am always a fan of creativity in books.
It's a part memoir and part self-help/self-motivation advice book broken up into small doses (like the title says). To me it felt really choppy and not that well-connected together. Perhaps if I had read it a little at a time instead of reading the whole thing at once. For me personally because of the work I do in support, education, diversity and inclusion, and identity work I didn't find a lot of what she had to say new.
There are parts in this book that are for black and brown folks and parts where she's directly talking to white people. As a black person, I found some of her language ("all black people know" or "we all do this as black folks") really alienating and made me feel less black and not part of the "in" group because I didn't grow up the same. An example would be the black national anthem which I literally didn't know until this book. So it would have been nice to acknowledge that many black people know X if you were surrounded by blackness/etc/whatever so it wasn't all-encompassing statements.
Additionally, I think she makes two comments about women and states women, trans women, non-binary people in the beginning of her book and then never really does anything with it. Her examples are and advice and suggestions are still almost exclusively geared towards and for straight/cis people. Such as during sex (when mentioning men and penises) or in dating. There might be a throwaway line about or partners but her language is gendered. It's one thing to talk about her own experiences and then giving advice for others. There's a difference between saying something like: consent is sexy, make sure to talk to your boyfriend/future boyfriend about it and: consent is sexy, make sure to talk to your partner(s)/future partner(s) about it.
I will say this book is aesthetically pleasing (yellow on yellow was hard to read). And I think it's fun to have little doodles and her sketches in the book. I am always a fan of creativity in books.