Scan barcode
harryedmundson's reviews
210 reviews
Close to Home by Michael Magee
emotional
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
The best book of 2023 - like the best of Dubliner's Joyce, Rooney, and hits a perfect resonance with me. Cannot stop talking about it and recommending it.
The Fraud by Zadie Smith
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
The Stonewall Reader by New York Public Library
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.5
Time Binds: Queer Temporalities, Queer Histories by Elizabeth Freeman
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity by C. Riley Snorton
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.5
I don't want to impact the avg. too much as stars sell but 3.5 for me.
Whilst I found the work impressive overall, and some bits truly illuminating. It felt like some of the densest, overly-academically written and impenetrably stylised theory I've read in a hot minute. I feel so much of Snorton's brilliance is obscured as a result, and maybe my perceptions worse accordingly.
Whilst I found the work impressive overall, and some bits truly illuminating. It felt like some of the densest, overly-academically written and impenetrably stylised theory I've read in a hot minute. I feel so much of Snorton's brilliance is obscured as a result, and maybe my perceptions worse accordingly.
Camp!: The Story of the Attitude that Conquered the World by Paul Baker
funny
informative
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Females by Andrea Long Chu
adventurous
challenging
dark
reflective
fast-paced
2.5
hmmmmm much to think about....
I'll parrot this bit from Kay Gabriel's critique as maybe a direction of my thinking thus far:
"It’s a just-so story about total antagonism. Indebted once more to a psychoanalytic tradition, Chu presents something like a drive theory of social relations, only darker, even nihilistic: if all politics positions itself against acting on another’s desire, then the point of any politics couldn’t be a society founded on, say, mutual aid. There’s no collectivity here, no sense of social liberation. Really, there’s no liberation, period, only a Hobbesian war of all against all, in different social disguises: feminism, men’s rights. It’s hard to reconcile any of these arguments with a politics in which life and the means for living it — for whom, by whom, and at whose expense — are actually at stake."
I'll parrot this bit from Kay Gabriel's critique as maybe a direction of my thinking thus far:
"It’s a just-so story about total antagonism. Indebted once more to a psychoanalytic tradition, Chu presents something like a drive theory of social relations, only darker, even nihilistic: if all politics positions itself against acting on another’s desire, then the point of any politics couldn’t be a society founded on, say, mutual aid. There’s no collectivity here, no sense of social liberation. Really, there’s no liberation, period, only a Hobbesian war of all against all, in different social disguises: feminism, men’s rights. It’s hard to reconcile any of these arguments with a politics in which life and the means for living it — for whom, by whom, and at whose expense — are actually at stake."