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asoulversation's reviews
13 reviews
This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories That Make Us by Cole Arthur Riley
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement by Tarana Burke
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
Tarana Burke, is the founder of the #MeToo movement.
In this memoir she tells the story of her life as well as the story of how the work she does came to be. It’s the story of a tough little girl from The Bronx who is full of heart. After a childhood sexual assault she internalises and compartmentalises it. She grows that tough shell and becomes a fierce defender of other little girls but it isn’t until she has a breakthrough in her own healing that it all comes full circle and she’s able to start having the kind of impact that she really wants to.
The book was so easy to read because she feels like a girlfriend. She’s funny, relatable and really honest. That helps during the parts that are tough to hear, and it made me shed tears in the parts when she had those breakthroughs because I knew what it meant to her and how far she’d come.
Ordinary people can do extraordinary things when they respond to life’s invitation to be brave. I’m honoured to have read her story 🤎 Me Too ✊🏾
In this memoir she tells the story of her life as well as the story of how the work she does came to be. It’s the story of a tough little girl from The Bronx who is full of heart. After a childhood sexual assault she internalises and compartmentalises it. She grows that tough shell and becomes a fierce defender of other little girls but it isn’t until she has a breakthrough in her own healing that it all comes full circle and she’s able to start having the kind of impact that she really wants to.
The book was so easy to read because she feels like a girlfriend. She’s funny, relatable and really honest. That helps during the parts that are tough to hear, and it made me shed tears in the parts when she had those breakthroughs because I knew what it meant to her and how far she’d come.
Ordinary people can do extraordinary things when they respond to life’s invitation to be brave. I’m honoured to have read her story 🤎 Me Too ✊🏾
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Domestic abuse
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
I’ve never read a book and been so confounded throughout. Not at the intricate world building or the clever allegory, but rather at the superb writing. How did she DO that?! I loved it.
A woman’s husband has murdered their son, and he’s now fleeing with their daughter. The post-apocalyptic world they inhabit, a super continent called The Stillness, is not safe, and it’s anything but still. 400 centuries in the future, they’re barely surviving the earthquakes and famines as they enter The Fifth Season, a sort of human-induced climate change, with no sun and water, that now happens spontaneously every now and then and last for a century or two. The story focuses on a girl, a young woman and an older woman. The narration jumps from one to the other and they’re not with each other. This was the most frustrating thing for me because I wanted to get to the part where I find out how these seemingly disparate stories merge. It made the world building feel long, but it was worth it in the end as it all came together. To say anything more about plot is to give too many spoilers. I will say though that themes contained are disaster survival, oppression, identity, history, epistemology, power, prejudice, environmental degradation, motherhood and found family. We also have some pirates, non-humans and the best polyamorous relationship I’ve read to date.
I liked sci-fi and fantasy but was always put off by the limited way white cishet men were able to imagine the world. It always seemed to centre them, and the way they perceive things. Like how all the alien movies are about them attacking us and trying to colonise us. Really? Lol. Turns out Sci-fi and Fantasy written by Black, Indigenous and People of Colour, Queer folks, and Women are better (IMO) because we already live in the space of Other but we are not Other to ourselves.
I read Parable of the Sower at the same time as this, and let me tell you between Octavia Butler and NK Jemisin, I was intoxicated with imaginative brilliance.
A woman’s husband has murdered their son, and he’s now fleeing with their daughter. The post-apocalyptic world they inhabit, a super continent called The Stillness, is not safe, and it’s anything but still. 400 centuries in the future, they’re barely surviving the earthquakes and famines as they enter The Fifth Season, a sort of human-induced climate change, with no sun and water, that now happens spontaneously every now and then and last for a century or two. The story focuses on a girl, a young woman and an older woman. The narration jumps from one to the other and they’re not with each other. This was the most frustrating thing for me because I wanted to get to the part where I find out how these seemingly disparate stories merge. It made the world building feel long, but it was worth it in the end as it all came together. To say anything more about plot is to give too many spoilers. I will say though that themes contained are disaster survival, oppression, identity, history, epistemology, power, prejudice, environmental degradation, motherhood and found family. We also have some pirates, non-humans and the best polyamorous relationship I’ve read to date.
I liked sci-fi and fantasy but was always put off by the limited way white cishet men were able to imagine the world. It always seemed to centre them, and the way they perceive things. Like how all the alien movies are about them attacking us and trying to colonise us. Really? Lol. Turns out Sci-fi and Fantasy written by Black, Indigenous and People of Colour, Queer folks, and Women are better (IMO) because we already live in the space of Other but we are not Other to ourselves.
I read Parable of the Sower at the same time as this, and let me tell you between Octavia Butler and NK Jemisin, I was intoxicated with imaginative brilliance.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery, Child abuse, and Racism
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