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11corvus11's reviews
909 reviews
The Birding Dictionary by Rosemary Mosco
5.0
I have been a long time fan of Rosemary Mosco. Her comic Bird and Moon brings joy and levity to life in general, but also to the birding world specifically. It's strange to say this, because I initially got into birding as something that relaxes me: Birding can be kind of intense sometimes. There is a seriousness to it, especially if you are contributing to citizen science projects. This can sometimes lead to forgetting just how much we are in it for the birds and our love of them. Being a lister and doing remote bird surveys can sometimes end up frustrating and I become desperate for something to kick me back into the space where it all started. The Birding Dictionary brings that whimsical humor that comes with any niche community willing to poke fun at itself.
The author had me from the very start with an introduction page penned as a fantastical but realistic overly serious birder. I laughed out loud immediately. Every page that followed brought lightness to my days in these extra dark times we're living in. The dictionary aspect is an intentional design, but this is a brief cover to cover read full of jokes, fun facts, illustrations, and actual definitions- some of which were for terms I had not heard of before. Essentially, laugh AND learn.
This book would be great for any birder. I could see someone just starting out enjoying it as well as an expert with decades of experience under their belt. Hell, there's even a quote on the back from Sibley praising the book. You don't get a more famous niche recommendation than that and the birding world. I honestly wish I had more birders as closer friends, because I want to gift everyone a copy.
This book was truly an antidote for me. In both personal life and in relation to the larger world, things are pretty depressing. Even engaging in birding has been tough as a result. Looking forward to picking this book up each time and knowing I would smile was a simple pleasure I didn't realize I needed. This whimsical little book ended up being far more important to me than I realized it would be.
So, if you are into birds or honestly anything adjacent to birding like the larger natural sciences, this book is for you. I really enjoyed it and will likely come back to it regularly just to get a little taste of the happiness it brought me.
The author had me from the very start with an introduction page penned as a fantastical but realistic overly serious birder. I laughed out loud immediately. Every page that followed brought lightness to my days in these extra dark times we're living in. The dictionary aspect is an intentional design, but this is a brief cover to cover read full of jokes, fun facts, illustrations, and actual definitions- some of which were for terms I had not heard of before. Essentially, laugh AND learn.
This book would be great for any birder. I could see someone just starting out enjoying it as well as an expert with decades of experience under their belt. Hell, there's even a quote on the back from Sibley praising the book. You don't get a more famous niche recommendation than that and the birding world. I honestly wish I had more birders as closer friends, because I want to gift everyone a copy.
This book was truly an antidote for me. In both personal life and in relation to the larger world, things are pretty depressing. Even engaging in birding has been tough as a result. Looking forward to picking this book up each time and knowing I would smile was a simple pleasure I didn't realize I needed. This whimsical little book ended up being far more important to me than I realized it would be.
So, if you are into birds or honestly anything adjacent to birding like the larger natural sciences, this book is for you. I really enjoyed it and will likely come back to it regularly just to get a little taste of the happiness it brought me.
Transmentation | Transience by Darkly Lem
4.0
Transmentation Transience is a creative project composed by a group of authors writing together under the name Darkly Lem. They describe themselves as "five authors in an impeccably-tailored trenchcoat, namely Josh Eure, Craig Lincoln, Ben Murphy, Cadwell Turnbull, and M. Darusha Wehm." I came into contact with this book due to being a fan of Turnbull, so it was interesting to see what a collaborative piece would turn out to be. I honestly didn't know what to expect. I have read books where two authors are writing under one name, but cannot recall reading a book where 5 authors were. Somehow, in ways I don't fully understand, they made it work.
TT is a book about many worlds. Central to the stories are people who hop from one universe to another, finding themselves in a new body, retaining their own mind and personality, but still being changed by who they end up inhabiting. It is not fully clear how this works or what exactly it entails. This is probably a show don't tell choice, but I hope more explanation comes in future books. There are various groups existing in various universes, many of which have conflicts with one another. Thankfully, the authors give us a character list in the very beginning telling us which locality various characters are located in. As someone with a horrendous memory, I often have to take notes when reading books with tons of characters, especially when those characters are sometimes turning into other characters in another universes. I was very grateful to see this list when I opened the book.
TT is a book about many worlds. Central to the stories are people who hop from one universe to another, finding themselves in a new body, retaining their own mind and personality, but still being changed by who they end up inhabiting. It is not fully clear how this works or what exactly it entails. This is probably a show don't tell choice, but I hope more explanation comes in future books. There are various groups existing in various universes, many of which have conflicts with one another. Thankfully, the authors give us a character list in the very beginning telling us which locality various characters are located in. As someone with a horrendous memory, I often have to take notes when reading books with tons of characters, especially when those characters are sometimes turning into other characters in another universes. I was very grateful to see this list when I opened the book.
The writing in TT is cohesive. I am not sure if each author wrote a different section containing each story about characters existing in each locality. There are definite distinctions between each section that would benefit from such an approach. But, stylistically it still fits together for the most part. I would say the last quarter of the book feels a bit disjointed. That is also because there are a couple twists that occur that are not well explained.
I'm being deliberately vague to avoid spoilers. Overall, despite all of these different universes, characters, and names, I found the book fairly easy to follow. There are some things that are just personal taste that weren't my favorite. I would say this book is what some call science fantasy more than science fiction. The way some of the worlds and the characters and beings within them are designed doesn't feel quite right to me. There are also a couple of events that occur in the last quarter that we're not introduced as fluidly as they could be. I ended up going back and rereading certain sections thinking I missed something. I had not. The characters themselves though all felt quite real to me. I especially enjoyed sections with long conversations. It's interesting that a story with so much extravagant inter-universal travel and wild action scenes enthralled me most when it was just two people discussing their experiences.
The book is definitely designed to be part of a larger series- listed as the first book in "The Formation Saga." At over 400 pages, (in my ARC at least,) the conclusion leaves you with prompts for the story to continue, rather than a bunch of concrete resolutions. This was such an interesting approach to writing that I hope the series is given the green light to continue by the publisher and not abandoned like some of these projects are. I enjoyed a glimpse into these universes and was left curious about what comes next for these characters. I do hope that when a new book is written, they will offer a decent recap of things that happened in this one for other memory-deficient people like myself.
This was also posted to my goodreads and blog.
I'm being deliberately vague to avoid spoilers. Overall, despite all of these different universes, characters, and names, I found the book fairly easy to follow. There are some things that are just personal taste that weren't my favorite. I would say this book is what some call science fantasy more than science fiction. The way some of the worlds and the characters and beings within them are designed doesn't feel quite right to me. There are also a couple of events that occur in the last quarter that we're not introduced as fluidly as they could be. I ended up going back and rereading certain sections thinking I missed something. I had not. The characters themselves though all felt quite real to me. I especially enjoyed sections with long conversations. It's interesting that a story with so much extravagant inter-universal travel and wild action scenes enthralled me most when it was just two people discussing their experiences.
The book is definitely designed to be part of a larger series- listed as the first book in "The Formation Saga." At over 400 pages, (in my ARC at least,) the conclusion leaves you with prompts for the story to continue, rather than a bunch of concrete resolutions. This was such an interesting approach to writing that I hope the series is given the green light to continue by the publisher and not abandoned like some of these projects are. I enjoyed a glimpse into these universes and was left curious about what comes next for these characters. I do hope that when a new book is written, they will offer a decent recap of things that happened in this one for other memory-deficient people like myself.
This was also posted to my goodreads and blog.
Palestine in a World on Fire by Katherine Natanel, Ilan Pappé
DNF. Nothing wrong with this per say, just misunderstood what it was. I wanted to hear more from folks outside of European and USAmerican academics whose views I am already familiar with. Decent book for a beginner though.
Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight for Sex Workers' Rights by Molly Smith, Juno Mac
5.0
If I could recommend a single source on this topic, it would be this one. I hate the cover because it looks too cartoonish and happy. "We're not asking you to love the sex trade. We certainly don't." (I am not sure if that's the exact wording. This book manages to speak to everyone of any opinion on sex workers from anti sex work carceral "feminists" to ex sex workers who want abolition of the trade to anti trafficking groups to johns and managers to governments and cops to girlboss sex workers and so on. They combine it all together and make an undeniable case for decriminalization, regardless of your opinion on the industry itself or those who work in it. Except for people who don't actually care about sex workers or see them as human.
Birds at Rest: The Behavior and Ecology of Avian Sleep by Roger Pasquier
4.0
Roger F. Pasquier's Birds at Rest: The Behavior and Ecology of Avian Sleep is a necessary addition to more common types of references and guides regarding birds and their behavior. Despite having shelves full of them and reading up on various things about bird behavior, there is very little out there like this book that details such a massive part of their lives- resting, roosting, sleeping, and all of the related behaviors that come with that.
The information in this book is exhaustive in a good way. While there was more captive animal research than I prefer to read about, that was to be expected going into this book and is not a mark against it. The author is not in charge of the ethics of those research studies. There is a ton of informative and more ethical field research, much of which I had never encountered anything close to before. I learned a lot of different things about species that I tend to focus my interest on, as well as many things about species I've never even heard of. I also learned about field research methods that were quite interesting. I had no idea there were mobile EEG methods where one could study the sleep of chimney swifts in flight for instance. I found a lot of this extremely fascinating.
The book also covers what human intervention into the environment has done to the abilities referred to roost safely, communicate and breed effectively, and generally exist in the world. This was unsurprisingly the saddest part of the book. For instance I knew that our light pollution had affected migration and bird behavior for some time. I didn't realize, even though perhaps I should have, that it also damages their ability to breed successfully. A critical factor for consideration regarding the decline in bird populations is simply artificial light. Our introduction of non-native species has caused extinction and decline in large numbers. Our destruction of habitat causes birds to compete more than they would normally, resulting in further aggression and conflict. This was another thing that is unsurprising, but written in a way that I had not quite thought about it before. Humans tend to write about birds as fighting over territory and competing through various means as if it is a given. But we don't tend to write enough about how the sheer amount of competition is so directly affected by our destruction of their habitats for any number of reasons. I wonder how different aggression levels were before we decimated most of the planet.
I will admit that I did find this book a bit dry at times. It very much reads cover to cover like a reference guide without photography. There are illustrations that I found quite charming and whimsical. There's almost a children's book quality to some of them which did break things up a bit. But, there weren't enough of them for my tastes when it comes to reading a book straight through like this. At the same time, it is very well organized such that one could treat it exactly like a guide. Each chapter is well labeled and constructed and contains a detailed summary at the end. So, if you find yourself overwhelmed by reading the catalogue of facts about each and every bird species, you could successfully read the summary of each chapter and then go through to seek out the more specific information that you need. Strangely though, there was no summary at the end of the book. It just ended abruptly after that last section on human influence. So, perhaps I went into this book expecting something different, but it is likely best to treat it as a reference guide.
The information in this book is exhaustive in a good way. While there was more captive animal research than I prefer to read about, that was to be expected going into this book and is not a mark against it. The author is not in charge of the ethics of those research studies. There is a ton of informative and more ethical field research, much of which I had never encountered anything close to before. I learned a lot of different things about species that I tend to focus my interest on, as well as many things about species I've never even heard of. I also learned about field research methods that were quite interesting. I had no idea there were mobile EEG methods where one could study the sleep of chimney swifts in flight for instance. I found a lot of this extremely fascinating.
The book also covers what human intervention into the environment has done to the abilities referred to roost safely, communicate and breed effectively, and generally exist in the world. This was unsurprisingly the saddest part of the book. For instance I knew that our light pollution had affected migration and bird behavior for some time. I didn't realize, even though perhaps I should have, that it also damages their ability to breed successfully. A critical factor for consideration regarding the decline in bird populations is simply artificial light. Our introduction of non-native species has caused extinction and decline in large numbers. Our destruction of habitat causes birds to compete more than they would normally, resulting in further aggression and conflict. This was another thing that is unsurprising, but written in a way that I had not quite thought about it before. Humans tend to write about birds as fighting over territory and competing through various means as if it is a given. But we don't tend to write enough about how the sheer amount of competition is so directly affected by our destruction of their habitats for any number of reasons. I wonder how different aggression levels were before we decimated most of the planet.
I will admit that I did find this book a bit dry at times. It very much reads cover to cover like a reference guide without photography. There are illustrations that I found quite charming and whimsical. There's almost a children's book quality to some of them which did break things up a bit. But, there weren't enough of them for my tastes when it comes to reading a book straight through like this. At the same time, it is very well organized such that one could treat it exactly like a guide. Each chapter is well labeled and constructed and contains a detailed summary at the end. So, if you find yourself overwhelmed by reading the catalogue of facts about each and every bird species, you could successfully read the summary of each chapter and then go through to seek out the more specific information that you need. Strangely though, there was no summary at the end of the book. It just ended abruptly after that last section on human influence. So, perhaps I went into this book expecting something different, but it is likely best to treat it as a reference guide.
One may retain more information by hopping around the book rather than reading it cover to cover. Nonetheless it's full of page flags and I'll definitely be coming back to it time and again. I'm grateful to have a volume on my shelf containing such important information that is often so lacking and scholarship about the avian world.
This was also posted to my goodreads and blog.
This was also posted to my goodreads and blog.
No Gods, No Monsters by Cadwell Turnbull
5.0
If it weren't for the anarchist reference in the title, I probably wouldn't have caught this one. This is not usually my preferred genre. I'm glad this came across my feed as it was a a good story and a good example of having lgbtq and far left characters where that's an important piece while also not being the only part of the story. I'll have to make sure to read the next one. Also the hardcover is gorgeously produced.
Love in a F*cked-Up World: How to Build Relationships, Hook Up, and Raise Hell, Together by Dean Spade
5.0
I have immense respect for Dean Spade's work. I especially like how he has branched out from academia further than many people do, creating highly accessible and urgent texts like Mutual Aid and now, Love in a F*cked Up World. I understand why the cover design is the way it is- to grab the attention of a wide audience. But, it made me think that it might not be for me. (Also, I just hate yellow for reasons I can't articulate.) Despite having chosen not to seek out romantic or sexual relationships many years ago, I figured why not give this a go even if it didn't apply to my current situation. Don't let the cover fool you into thinking this is another romantic relationship advice book. Spade even anticipates the hesitation some folks, especially radicals, may have. He urges the reader to remain open minded to a self help book being more than an "...individualistic... liberal, bougie... distraction from collective action." This book takes all the good little nuggets from various self help and communication books, sorts out all of the garbage, and then translates it all into something very wise and healing.
Even as someone who doesn't have intentions in the near future to date, I desperately needed this book for all other relationships in my life. Even moreso, I needed this book years (decades?) ago when mired in polyamorous organizing and kink communities. I needed it so much that I had to grieve a bit while reading for my former, ignorant self and anyone around me.
Even on a good day, I'm someone who craves categories, boxes, clear lines, and knowing exactly how to quantify the harm I've caused, could cause, and to predict that which will come to me in any situation. My mental health tends to make this far worse than the average person, essentially leading to isolation. I judge situations, myself, and sometimes others harshly in order to avoid further trauma and out of fear that I will cause it. This book gave me permission to let go of that. It was an exercise in self awareness and understanding of others while telling me that it's ok to find the grey area.
I won't pretend I'm cured of OCD/PTSD in 326 pages of reading, but this book ended up being a really good complement to my exposure therapy exercises, especially socially. Spade manages to write a relationship book that centers radicals, queers, leftists, etc rather than simply including us in the margins as other relationship books do (if they do at all.) As a result, anti-aurhoritarianism ends up being centered, leading to a final product that is a book many of us have been waiting for and needing our entire lives.
I recall that when Sarah Schulman's Conflict is not Abuse came out, many of us were able to ignore some of the flaws because it was a drink of water in the desert. Our communities, much like the larger world, are punishing and full of human beings with diverse needs and backgrounds. Spade urges the reader early on not to filter the book through dominant pop psychology trends in an attempt to ostracize and isolate others. (Lookin at all of the people who call every disagreement "gaslighting narcissism" and whatnot.) Instead, he offers tons of relatable anecdotes (including those from his own life) showing the normal conflicts that occur in many kinds of relationships. These conflicts can be so charged, stressful, and hurtful, that we may jump to what we've learned from larger cultures as solutions- even when it goes against our values. Movements are fractured, healing is impossible, and the whole thing can become a downward spiral taking the connections we desperately need with it. Spade urges us to better understand ourselves and others to better align our relationships with our values.
Like Mutual Aid, LIAFUW is highly readable, accessible, and well organized. I think that perhaps the centering of our communities might take a second for someone outside them to get used to, but not so much so as to be a barrier. I like to hope it will be enlightening, pulling the well intentioned (USAmerican, essentially center right wing) liberal further away from oppression and closer to what they're actually craving.
The best part of this book is the insistence on the importance of differentiation, interdependence, and creating relationships outside of romantic ones. While many exercises and anecdotes do involve romantic conflicts, since we often tend to be our worst selves in those, the sections on friendship and other relationships are refreshing and critical. One of the main reasons I stopped dating was that I realized I had very few nonsexual friendships and had not been single more than maybe 6 months since I was 13. Friendships, in my opinion-especially in adulthood- are harder to create and nurture than romance in a society that prioritizes the latter as the most important thing. Spade does well to show how nourishing friendships is not only important in and of itself, but it also results in all other relationships being healthier.
The only thing I wanted from this book was a little more advice on how to tell when something is actually abuse. There is a small section in the beginning that discusses this difficulty and I do understand why this is outside the scope of this book. I just found myself wondering in some sections, "but what if this behavior is controlling beyond normal conflict?" and "what about people who utilize the freedom in radical communities to prey upon people?" There are many books already written well about this such as Creative Interventions, Beyond Survival, and The Revolution Starts at Home. If you also find yourself wondering about that, I suggest those as complement texts.
I highly recommend this book to anyone really, but especially to leftists and Queers who've become accustomed to relationship books- even those that are supposed to be outside dominant culture- leaving much to be desired, or worse, giving dangerous advice. I see LIAFUW becoming one of those staples on leftist bookshelves that we lend to each other with love and care. I look forward to Spade continuing to expand his writing in ways that allow for larger, stronger, and more diverse movements.
This was also posted to my goodreads and blog.
Even as someone who doesn't have intentions in the near future to date, I desperately needed this book for all other relationships in my life. Even moreso, I needed this book years (decades?) ago when mired in polyamorous organizing and kink communities. I needed it so much that I had to grieve a bit while reading for my former, ignorant self and anyone around me.
Even on a good day, I'm someone who craves categories, boxes, clear lines, and knowing exactly how to quantify the harm I've caused, could cause, and to predict that which will come to me in any situation. My mental health tends to make this far worse than the average person, essentially leading to isolation. I judge situations, myself, and sometimes others harshly in order to avoid further trauma and out of fear that I will cause it. This book gave me permission to let go of that. It was an exercise in self awareness and understanding of others while telling me that it's ok to find the grey area.
I won't pretend I'm cured of OCD/PTSD in 326 pages of reading, but this book ended up being a really good complement to my exposure therapy exercises, especially socially. Spade manages to write a relationship book that centers radicals, queers, leftists, etc rather than simply including us in the margins as other relationship books do (if they do at all.) As a result, anti-aurhoritarianism ends up being centered, leading to a final product that is a book many of us have been waiting for and needing our entire lives.
I recall that when Sarah Schulman's Conflict is not Abuse came out, many of us were able to ignore some of the flaws because it was a drink of water in the desert. Our communities, much like the larger world, are punishing and full of human beings with diverse needs and backgrounds. Spade urges the reader early on not to filter the book through dominant pop psychology trends in an attempt to ostracize and isolate others. (Lookin at all of the people who call every disagreement "gaslighting narcissism" and whatnot.) Instead, he offers tons of relatable anecdotes (including those from his own life) showing the normal conflicts that occur in many kinds of relationships. These conflicts can be so charged, stressful, and hurtful, that we may jump to what we've learned from larger cultures as solutions- even when it goes against our values. Movements are fractured, healing is impossible, and the whole thing can become a downward spiral taking the connections we desperately need with it. Spade urges us to better understand ourselves and others to better align our relationships with our values.
Like Mutual Aid, LIAFUW is highly readable, accessible, and well organized. I think that perhaps the centering of our communities might take a second for someone outside them to get used to, but not so much so as to be a barrier. I like to hope it will be enlightening, pulling the well intentioned (USAmerican, essentially center right wing) liberal further away from oppression and closer to what they're actually craving.
The best part of this book is the insistence on the importance of differentiation, interdependence, and creating relationships outside of romantic ones. While many exercises and anecdotes do involve romantic conflicts, since we often tend to be our worst selves in those, the sections on friendship and other relationships are refreshing and critical. One of the main reasons I stopped dating was that I realized I had very few nonsexual friendships and had not been single more than maybe 6 months since I was 13. Friendships, in my opinion-especially in adulthood- are harder to create and nurture than romance in a society that prioritizes the latter as the most important thing. Spade does well to show how nourishing friendships is not only important in and of itself, but it also results in all other relationships being healthier.
The only thing I wanted from this book was a little more advice on how to tell when something is actually abuse. There is a small section in the beginning that discusses this difficulty and I do understand why this is outside the scope of this book. I just found myself wondering in some sections, "but what if this behavior is controlling beyond normal conflict?" and "what about people who utilize the freedom in radical communities to prey upon people?" There are many books already written well about this such as Creative Interventions, Beyond Survival, and The Revolution Starts at Home. If you also find yourself wondering about that, I suggest those as complement texts.
I highly recommend this book to anyone really, but especially to leftists and Queers who've become accustomed to relationship books- even those that are supposed to be outside dominant culture- leaving much to be desired, or worse, giving dangerous advice. I see LIAFUW becoming one of those staples on leftist bookshelves that we lend to each other with love and care. I look forward to Spade continuing to expand his writing in ways that allow for larger, stronger, and more diverse movements.
This was also posted to my goodreads and blog.
Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America by James Forman Jr.
5.0
I don't know how anyone could call this boring. I also am not sure why some folks say it's a rebuttal to "The New Jim Crow" as he speaks positively of that text as revolutionary in changing hearts and minds. I have definitely fallen into the toxic kind of identity politics where one hopes that their own monolithic demographic or that of another oppressed group will shift things if given leadership positions- often when I didn't even believe it would happen. This book is a good antidote to that shallow way of thinking.
I was completely engaged with this book from beginning to end. This was both fascinating for it's detailed history of a majority Black location (DC) and the criminal (in)justice system as well as a refreshing thesis on the complexity of these issues.
It sucks that this needs to be said in any discussion of any marginalized group, but Black folks are like other humans- complex and diverse in opinions and beliefs. They are also susceptible to corruption by unjust systems, as we all are. Tokenizing folks and pretending like just adding more Black (or enter any other group) cops/prosecutors/judges will somehow automatically solve an authoritarian regime is misguided at best. Though it makes sense- in desperate times we all want solutions and we often use the only things we've ever known, even if they're known to destroy us.
This book was also a good look into the unique confounding factors that Black people have to navigate in various neighborhoods, being forced to clean up messes they didn't create with tools they didn't design. The author is a good writer, story teller, and does very well to make his points by both telling and showing. Highly recommended reading.
I was completely engaged with this book from beginning to end. This was both fascinating for it's detailed history of a majority Black location (DC) and the criminal (in)justice system as well as a refreshing thesis on the complexity of these issues.
It sucks that this needs to be said in any discussion of any marginalized group, but Black folks are like other humans- complex and diverse in opinions and beliefs. They are also susceptible to corruption by unjust systems, as we all are. Tokenizing folks and pretending like just adding more Black (or enter any other group) cops/prosecutors/judges will somehow automatically solve an authoritarian regime is misguided at best. Though it makes sense- in desperate times we all want solutions and we often use the only things we've ever known, even if they're known to destroy us.
This book was also a good look into the unique confounding factors that Black people have to navigate in various neighborhoods, being forced to clean up messes they didn't create with tools they didn't design. The author is a good writer, story teller, and does very well to make his points by both telling and showing. Highly recommended reading.
Transfarmation: The Movement to Free Us from Factory Farming by Leah Garcés
5.0
It is rare to encounter a book regarding farming or the (mis)treatment of animals that is for so many audiences at once. Transfarmation, by Leah Garcés, happens to be one of those books. Garcés is the president of Mercy for Animals. While this particular org is often quite good at bridging divides, I still expected this book to either lean towards something mostly vegans would go for (screaming to the choir in our void of despair where everyone ignores us (joking... sorta)) or one of those books that insultingly erases the most vulnerable individuals of all species involved in farming so that the reader doesn't have to feel bad (or responsible.) Transfarmation is both emotionally honest and intellectually rigorous. It is for the city dwelling vegan with a one-dimensional view of animal farming and for the rural residents whose exploitation and injury via animal agribusiness seems like an inescapable fact of life. It is for the person most moved by true stories that tug at their heartstrings and for the person who says, "show me the numbers." Possibly most importantly, it involves a plan: Tangible, attainable solutions to the current crises we find ourselves in. There is definitely a place for exposure of the absolutely heinous abuse of animal agribusiness alone. When paired with solutions though, it leaves the reader feeling less hopeless.
The writing and structure of this book is extremely well thought out. Every section has a central individual interest storyline (aka human interest, but since this includes other species I've made it more general.) It is well documented that this is the sort of story that causes most people to change their mind. You can tell people all day about the trillions of animals who die per year for food, slaughterhouse covid transmission statistics, how many farmers take their own lives, and so on. For most people though, this isn't enough to make it stick. As much as we like to pretend otherwise, we are not rational beings. To absorb the data, we need to relate to it. Garcés does this exceptionally well.
We first focus on the farmers themselves who are manipulated by industries who profit from their work while the farmers descend further into crippling debt and despair from the actions they must take against other animals and their community to meet this capitalist need. The titular name of the book refers to the Transfarmation Project which "provides resources and support to industrial animal farmers interested in transitioning their farms to plant-focused operations." After reading this book, it is clearly about much more than that. It is about forming relationships and bridging divides. I always knew that factory farmers likely weren't evil moustache twirling animal abuse fetishists, but I also didn't realize just how much they have been manipulated to fail and how that failure is basically a central tenet of the profit model of animal exploitation corporations.
"Farmers aren't factory farming because they love the idea of being under the thumb of corporate entities and picking up dead and dying chickens. They do it because they are trapped in debt and have few other economic options."
We learn next about farmed animals by focusing on a few who make up the miniscule minority who are rescued and can have their tales told. I particularly like that she focused on a chickens and cows exploited for dairy as agribusiness industries have lobbied hard to make these seem like less horrific options (they are not.) We learn of three chickens a farmer was willing to let go of and the bits of freedom they were allowed to experience before succumbing to the inevitable demise caused by industries who breed their bodies to be their own enemies. We learn of Norma the former dairy cow who was rescued after defending her calf Nina after so many forced inseminations she had experienced previously where her calves were stolen from her within a day. This story has a happier ending where we learn that both she and her calf were rescued and reunited. I also love that Garcés chose VINE Sanctuary as the focus for one of the stories as their collective liberation models of organizing and care are revolutionary. They fit well into the aims of the book to further the conversation to include the humans most exploited by these industries.
The narrative of the book is next expanded into the larger community, where we learn about the disproportionately low income BIPOC communities who find themselves surrounded on all sides by farms imprisoning pigs that spray literal feces into the air they breathe and the homes they sleep in. We learn about the lengths they have had to go to to literally organize for the right to breathe shit-free air when the county sheriff is also a hog farmer. We learn how even the BIPOC communities who have homes to hand down over generations find those homes and neighborhoods now uninhabitable. Following this, we move on to the immigrant communities- a large number of whom are undocumented or are still awaiting citizenship approval- who work in the slaughter facilities. We learn of the heinous lengths they go to to survive their trip into the country, only to be forced into a processing plant that demands impossible speeds of killing and dismembering animals, resulting in physical injuries, severe PTSD, disease, and death. We also learn of the refugee communities who may have more support, but who find themselves placed into and therefore harmed by the same job in order to gain any benefits from their refugee status. "Processing" plants rely on the vulnerability of these workers along with prison laborers paid 25 cents an hour. This means they are also often run by men who sexually harass and assault workers, who make threats and defy the already meager legal restrictions, and so on. We learn what it is like to be a mother forced to do a job bludgeoning baby pigs. We learn of the slaughter rate of 3 chickens per second allowed by both democrat and republican legislatures, causing immense pain for the workers and resulting in the birds who are not killed fast enough drowning in scalding water.
That summary may make it seem like a trauma dump, but I assure you that this book is not that. My already long review has its limits. We also learn of these peoples hopes, desires, and joys. We learn of the lives they could have- lives that are indeed possible with change. The book ends with a grounded and detailed section including solutions for every problem it presents which include further support for farmers to transition away from factory farming, animal welfare measures making animals lives slightly less miserable, unions and worker protection measures for those laboring in farms and slaughterhouses, and systemic economic changes. While I have not followed every single effort, I have generally found Mercy for Animals to be an org that understands how to mix welfarism with abolition (a long standing argument occurring between animal advocates.) However, I was not the biggest fan of how cage free eggs were spoken of. While she does acknowledge that the practice does not come close to eliminating suffering, she neglects the marketing aspect of these (predominantly also factory farming) companies that make well intentioned but misled people imagine chickens running around happily in the grass and dying of old age, when the reality is far more horrific. These corporations lack empathy but not cunning. They know how to market any loss to turn it into a win and we need to think of that. That said, if I was in a battery cage the size of a small closet with 7 other people and someone offered me a large, crowded, dank warehouse to die in instead, I would choose the latter.
If you will allow me a final moment for a more personal vent. The information in this book not only infuriated and hurt due to the horrifying nature of atrocity. It bothered me because I worry that, no matter how perfectly the information is presented, it won't be heard. The group I kept thinking of most throughout this book, were the non/anti-vegan leftists who use strawmen and tokenization to avoid taking a hard look at our relationships to these industries and their victims. This is likely because anti-vegan sentiment often hurts the most when it comes from a respected leftist turned reactionary, a skilled environmentalist turned agribusiness lobbyist, and so on. White, single issue vegans (like white single issue proponents of any movement) are in part to blame for the divide, and there are legitimate criticisms. But, I rarely find honest conversation. I find defensiveness and cognitive dissonance. It reminds me of the Rob Zombie quote, "Everyone "loves" animals until they hear the word 'vegan'. Then they'll argue tooth and nail why it's acceptable to abuse them." I would love to see non/anti-vegan leftists read this book. I want to hear what they have to say about farmworkers picking vegans' plants (who they only bring up when veganism is a topic despite most farmland going to animal agribusiness and feed,) after they read about the struggle of slaughterhouse workers (who they of course never mention.) I want to hear from the upper middle class white person who tokenizes BIPOC communities in these discussions (while simultaneously erasing them) explain to me why spraying pig feces on their homes for bacon is helping. I also want the vegetarians and the "humane" slaughter proponents to pay attention- not the ones who are just doing the best they can, but the "not like the other girls" subset who are hostile to animal rights and veganism. I want them to understand the cost of dairy and eggs and how it is often higher than the meat they abstain from for ethical reasons. I want them to read about what happens to these animals and the humans forced into hell with them.
I say this as someone who almost 19 years ago was a non-vegan. Most of us were not born with perfected leftist ideals making us immune to the world influence we grew up in. Many of us, including recovering teen edgelords like myself, were first hostile to the idea of animal liberation or criticism of various related systems. This vent isn't meant as a superiority thing. It's meant to lay bare that many of the arguments my usually otherwise like minded kin make against animal liberation and veganism are awful and self-contradictory. They are almost always a hard turn to the far right or doing the work of capitalism via tokenization. They are often bad faith and even recreate the oppression dynamics that we claim to be against. This hurts not just because the arguments are harmful, but because I don't think they believe them in their hearts. There is room for more. There is room for a better world for all of us.
Please read this book. Read it even if you think you and I have nothing in common. You may find that we do. I hope this book helps others create the kinds of relationships and successful transitions that the author and her fellow organizers have created. Despite how tough it was at times, it gave me more hope than I have had in a while.
This was also posted to my goodreads and blog.
The writing and structure of this book is extremely well thought out. Every section has a central individual interest storyline (aka human interest, but since this includes other species I've made it more general.) It is well documented that this is the sort of story that causes most people to change their mind. You can tell people all day about the trillions of animals who die per year for food, slaughterhouse covid transmission statistics, how many farmers take their own lives, and so on. For most people though, this isn't enough to make it stick. As much as we like to pretend otherwise, we are not rational beings. To absorb the data, we need to relate to it. Garcés does this exceptionally well.
We first focus on the farmers themselves who are manipulated by industries who profit from their work while the farmers descend further into crippling debt and despair from the actions they must take against other animals and their community to meet this capitalist need. The titular name of the book refers to the Transfarmation Project which "provides resources and support to industrial animal farmers interested in transitioning their farms to plant-focused operations." After reading this book, it is clearly about much more than that. It is about forming relationships and bridging divides. I always knew that factory farmers likely weren't evil moustache twirling animal abuse fetishists, but I also didn't realize just how much they have been manipulated to fail and how that failure is basically a central tenet of the profit model of animal exploitation corporations.
"Farmers aren't factory farming because they love the idea of being under the thumb of corporate entities and picking up dead and dying chickens. They do it because they are trapped in debt and have few other economic options."
We learn next about farmed animals by focusing on a few who make up the miniscule minority who are rescued and can have their tales told. I particularly like that she focused on a chickens and cows exploited for dairy as agribusiness industries have lobbied hard to make these seem like less horrific options (they are not.) We learn of three chickens a farmer was willing to let go of and the bits of freedom they were allowed to experience before succumbing to the inevitable demise caused by industries who breed their bodies to be their own enemies. We learn of Norma the former dairy cow who was rescued after defending her calf Nina after so many forced inseminations she had experienced previously where her calves were stolen from her within a day. This story has a happier ending where we learn that both she and her calf were rescued and reunited. I also love that Garcés chose VINE Sanctuary as the focus for one of the stories as their collective liberation models of organizing and care are revolutionary. They fit well into the aims of the book to further the conversation to include the humans most exploited by these industries.
The narrative of the book is next expanded into the larger community, where we learn about the disproportionately low income BIPOC communities who find themselves surrounded on all sides by farms imprisoning pigs that spray literal feces into the air they breathe and the homes they sleep in. We learn about the lengths they have had to go to to literally organize for the right to breathe shit-free air when the county sheriff is also a hog farmer. We learn how even the BIPOC communities who have homes to hand down over generations find those homes and neighborhoods now uninhabitable. Following this, we move on to the immigrant communities- a large number of whom are undocumented or are still awaiting citizenship approval- who work in the slaughter facilities. We learn of the heinous lengths they go to to survive their trip into the country, only to be forced into a processing plant that demands impossible speeds of killing and dismembering animals, resulting in physical injuries, severe PTSD, disease, and death. We also learn of the refugee communities who may have more support, but who find themselves placed into and therefore harmed by the same job in order to gain any benefits from their refugee status. "Processing" plants rely on the vulnerability of these workers along with prison laborers paid 25 cents an hour. This means they are also often run by men who sexually harass and assault workers, who make threats and defy the already meager legal restrictions, and so on. We learn what it is like to be a mother forced to do a job bludgeoning baby pigs. We learn of the slaughter rate of 3 chickens per second allowed by both democrat and republican legislatures, causing immense pain for the workers and resulting in the birds who are not killed fast enough drowning in scalding water.
That summary may make it seem like a trauma dump, but I assure you that this book is not that. My already long review has its limits. We also learn of these peoples hopes, desires, and joys. We learn of the lives they could have- lives that are indeed possible with change. The book ends with a grounded and detailed section including solutions for every problem it presents which include further support for farmers to transition away from factory farming, animal welfare measures making animals lives slightly less miserable, unions and worker protection measures for those laboring in farms and slaughterhouses, and systemic economic changes. While I have not followed every single effort, I have generally found Mercy for Animals to be an org that understands how to mix welfarism with abolition (a long standing argument occurring between animal advocates.) However, I was not the biggest fan of how cage free eggs were spoken of. While she does acknowledge that the practice does not come close to eliminating suffering, she neglects the marketing aspect of these (predominantly also factory farming) companies that make well intentioned but misled people imagine chickens running around happily in the grass and dying of old age, when the reality is far more horrific. These corporations lack empathy but not cunning. They know how to market any loss to turn it into a win and we need to think of that. That said, if I was in a battery cage the size of a small closet with 7 other people and someone offered me a large, crowded, dank warehouse to die in instead, I would choose the latter.
If you will allow me a final moment for a more personal vent. The information in this book not only infuriated and hurt due to the horrifying nature of atrocity. It bothered me because I worry that, no matter how perfectly the information is presented, it won't be heard. The group I kept thinking of most throughout this book, were the non/anti-vegan leftists who use strawmen and tokenization to avoid taking a hard look at our relationships to these industries and their victims. This is likely because anti-vegan sentiment often hurts the most when it comes from a respected leftist turned reactionary, a skilled environmentalist turned agribusiness lobbyist, and so on. White, single issue vegans (like white single issue proponents of any movement) are in part to blame for the divide, and there are legitimate criticisms. But, I rarely find honest conversation. I find defensiveness and cognitive dissonance. It reminds me of the Rob Zombie quote, "Everyone "loves" animals until they hear the word 'vegan'. Then they'll argue tooth and nail why it's acceptable to abuse them." I would love to see non/anti-vegan leftists read this book. I want to hear what they have to say about farmworkers picking vegans' plants (who they only bring up when veganism is a topic despite most farmland going to animal agribusiness and feed,) after they read about the struggle of slaughterhouse workers (who they of course never mention.) I want to hear from the upper middle class white person who tokenizes BIPOC communities in these discussions (while simultaneously erasing them) explain to me why spraying pig feces on their homes for bacon is helping. I also want the vegetarians and the "humane" slaughter proponents to pay attention- not the ones who are just doing the best they can, but the "not like the other girls" subset who are hostile to animal rights and veganism. I want them to understand the cost of dairy and eggs and how it is often higher than the meat they abstain from for ethical reasons. I want them to read about what happens to these animals and the humans forced into hell with them.
I say this as someone who almost 19 years ago was a non-vegan. Most of us were not born with perfected leftist ideals making us immune to the world influence we grew up in. Many of us, including recovering teen edgelords like myself, were first hostile to the idea of animal liberation or criticism of various related systems. This vent isn't meant as a superiority thing. It's meant to lay bare that many of the arguments my usually otherwise like minded kin make against animal liberation and veganism are awful and self-contradictory. They are almost always a hard turn to the far right or doing the work of capitalism via tokenization. They are often bad faith and even recreate the oppression dynamics that we claim to be against. This hurts not just because the arguments are harmful, but because I don't think they believe them in their hearts. There is room for more. There is room for a better world for all of us.
Please read this book. Read it even if you think you and I have nothing in common. You may find that we do. I hope this book helps others create the kinds of relationships and successful transitions that the author and her fellow organizers have created. Despite how tough it was at times, it gave me more hope than I have had in a while.
This was also posted to my goodreads and blog.
We Too: Essays on Sex Work and Survival by Natalie West
4.0
I'm hoping to write a longer review later. I have some extreme reactions to this. Most of the entries are fantastic and I saw a lot of familiar names from queer porn and was saddened to hear of what they went through. I learned a lot about sex work activism and organizing efforts. The essays on how to decipher cults from chosen family and the corruption within "ethical" and "feminist" porn companies were my personal favorites.
One essay details what is in my opinion one of the most irresponsible exercises of (bdsm) power exchange that I've read and I can't stop thinking about how ridiculous I find it being included in this. I've done demos and have been in some hardcore play scenarios and D/s relationships and even with blanket consent in a 24/7 agreement, I would find it abominable to 1. Do a demo with a slave without discussion of 2. PUBLIC humiliation involving enemas and diapers which is 3. their first experience of the sort 4. having paid no attention to their health ahead of time, 6. in front of a class you're supposed to be teaching proper consent to, and 7. painting the whole thing as ok bc you call them an uwu good boy after. I do not shy away from extremes and this was so irresponsible at best that I can't stop thinking about it. Why was that essay in this book?
This obsession has kept me from writing a more coherent review.
One essay details what is in my opinion one of the most irresponsible exercises of (bdsm) power exchange that I've read and I can't stop thinking about how ridiculous I find it being included in this. I've done demos and have been in some hardcore play scenarios and D/s relationships and even with blanket consent in a 24/7 agreement, I would find it abominable to 1. Do a demo with a slave without discussion of 2. PUBLIC humiliation involving enemas and diapers which is 3. their first experience of the sort 4. having paid no attention to their health ahead of time, 6. in front of a class you're supposed to be teaching proper consent to, and 7. painting the whole thing as ok bc you call them an uwu good boy after. I do not shy away from extremes and this was so irresponsible at best that I can't stop thinking about it. Why was that essay in this book?
This obsession has kept me from writing a more coherent review.