knifecrow's reviews
7 reviews

Dirty Work: Essential Jobs and the Hidden Toll of Inequality in America by Eyal Press

4.75

this almost feels like too much of a nitpick re. an incredibly well-researched, well-drawn book that refuses to allow for easy answers or conclusions but also doesn't compromise its moral rage at all, but the final chapter, contrasting tech "morally compromising" work and the privelleges these workers have and take for granted could have been contrasted one layer further, with the "dirty workers" like Facebook moderators, even the "mechanical turk" workers who have to uphold the sleek unerring fantasy of what corporate "online" promises. really felt like this area was a missing piece in bringing it all home -- the better-articulated understanding that it's class, not tech itself alone, that keeps you from doing physically and mentally destructive morally injurious "essential" work in the service of the people above you getting to wash their hands of its harms -- but also incredible, richly detailed book. I will return to this over and over, I already know.

Slow River by Nicola Griffith

5.0

It Was Vulgar and It Was Beautiful: How AIDS Activists Used Art to Fight a Pandemic by Jack Lowery

fast-paced

5.0

me, a non-crier, wept two or three times reading this book. written with clarity, propulsion, and extraordinary tenderness. and just enough dishing. 

love and rage. 

Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech by Brian Merchant

fast-paced

5.0

Abolish the Family: A Manifesto for Care and Liberation by Sophie Lewis

5.0

"if the answer today is none, let us devise some by tomorrow."

My Government Means to Kill Me by Rasheed Newson

2.75

ooooh my god I would not have finished this if I wasn't reading it for book club. this is not a novel so much as it is teaching adults about the history of ACT UP in 80s New York as though it is teaching nine year olds by having an everyman protagonist somehow interact with every major historical figure it is possible to squeeze between the pages and also collect all of the correct merchandise (the amount of footnotes explaining how Our Protagonist just happens to own a recreation of a popular slogan tshirt or button from the era????) I thought the footnotes and the framing device of lessons learned were going to go somewhere interesting and postmodern at first -- why would a historical fiction novel constantly lean on footnotes to tell you, the reader, that actually a writer made this up and there is no evidence that this person was in this place at this particular time -- but they were just... there. everyone had the correct opinions and interactions, the correct sum-ups of complicated relationships between coalitions, activist groups, and individuals. oh my god why couldn't we have read John Rechy or Samuel Delaney or for god's sake a short and snappy non-fiction history of ACT UP or a major figure therein I'm going to eat my desk

Belching Out the Devil: Global Adventures with Coca-Cola by Mark Thomas

oh my god the research here is good and I suppose it's a solid introduction to "Coca-Cola is super, super, super evil, here are some facts" to someone who has never heard of how evil Coca-Cola is before but MY GOD MAN, SHUT THE FUCK UP. I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR TRAVELLOGUE. YOU ARE ALSO BAD AND HACKNEYED AT JOKES. WHY COULDN'T YOU HAVE JUST WRITTEN CLEARLY ABOUT THE SUBJECTS OF YOUR INVESTIGATION