pekoparty's reviews
217 reviews

Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead

3.0

My Last Innocent Year by Daisy Alpert Florin

3.0

Another fiction of writers writing writers. I can't say that this is a book that will stay with me, but I did enjoy the pace, the descriptions, and the tension between each of the characters. I appreciated the vast amount of characters presented in Isabel's world. The trope of a young woman f****** one of her professors is overplayed, in my opinion. The idea that any young woman has any bit of power in that dynamic is always a fallacy. But I appreciate that Daisy Albert Florin takes us through Isabel's life in the years beyond that experience. It very much felt like the '90s, with the political controversy and social expectations. This was a detailed book that never felt muddy.

Old Enough by Haley Jakobson

3.0

I had my initial complaints about the writing style of this book, but I'll provide a few takeaways now that I am done. This book is very easy to read, quick to move through, and there's not a lot of challenge as far as reading goes. It doesn't offer a lot of food for thought, but what it does do is depict the complexity of girl-best-friend dynamics as those relationships change throughout the lifespan. It provides very good bi-representation; Sav is attracted to all genders and her affection/desire isn't binary. I loved the voices of Candace and Vera, especially Candace, and I enjoyed how developed each of their lives were. I would easily read a book about either of those characters. I enjoyed that we went back to Sav being a teenager with her best friend, Izzie, and that we are gradually exposed to her trauma experience--gradual exposure is so helpful for me when reading. Being thrown into trauma unprompted can be a DNF book for me. I appreciated the handling of that telling and the journey that Sav went on in the narrative to become aware of her experience. That piece resonated with me, personally.

Some pesky items for me: Initially, as characters were being introduced, the writer had Sav directly name their racial identity, not by features, but by pointing out that a character was Black or Asian and didn't do the same for any of the White characters. This felt like making White the baseline, and maybe that is because people do it anyway, but I had wished it was addressed or done with a little more thought the same way that the author addressed a character with She/They pronouns, in which Sav communicated flexibly about the character before explaining why it was that way. Atmospherically, I could not picture ANY of the locations. There were no strong descriptions. There were descriptions, sure, but I felt like I was missing the essence. I only really felt like I was ever in Wes's room 100%. College didn't really feel like college, but then again I only went to art school, so that might just not be my zone.

I think this book has equal pros and cons for me as a reader/where I am at with my identity and queerness, but I will absolutely recommend it to certain readers. It definitely reads as autofiction, which is a thing folks like, and I understand that has a place for folks. This book is going to really hold some very dear space for many trauma survivors. I think a book like this is needed by many readers feeling lost in their experiences. And as I've written this much, I just want to say it's also nice to see a bi-main character find space in queer community. Often we get left out of queer narratives or maybe don't find community because we present a certain way. Sav just saved us a seat at the table.

Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock by Jenny Odell

5.0

I feel completely cracked open by this. Odell explores time not only in its form as we know it [the clock], but in its existence within nature, in carceral spaces, in public spaces, in our minds, in public, in recording, in spoken language, and most especially as it relates to labor. How it seems no matter how much effort we put in to 'beat the clock', the only true form of leisure can be found not in our bodily experience, but in the expansion of our minds. And that's not just it! It's more than that. And I think what I have really taken away is that my anger is justified; I am chronically tired, in pain, upset or disrupted and all of that can be traced back to colonization and capitalism and white supremacy and the fact that we are all "rise and grind" in benefit of people who are not us. Odell hits on identity intersections of race, queerness, disability, and her sharp observance of the world has peeled me wide and ready for my own expansion. Who can reject time? Who can reject the grind? Who gets to survive this wretched mess of a system?

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

5.0

This is my new favorite book of all time. I read so many reviews biting down on the fact that Zevin takes 20 pages to describe a video game---excuse me!!! THESE ARE CONTEXTUALLY RELEVANT GAMING DYNAMICS. I read this solely because of the John Green blurb. There are so many components, so intricately woven, so beautifully spread out over an entire lifespan of two people. So many nods to literature and gaming culture. I cried!!! I came out of my room and sobbed to my partner!! THAT'S IT?! But that's it, you know. So many loose ends and that's the way some of the best books on Earth end. What Sam and Sadie and Marx shared... well, it feels like so many things I have shared. I am not sure of the accuracy of the gaming components, but I grew up watching my younger brother play video games and seeing some of the names of the games he played took me back.

I really felt each space, in my body and in my mind, that Sam and Sadie inhabit. Whether it's Dong and Bong's in K-Town, class at Cambridge, being in the Unfair offices, or walking around NYC. Everything had an emotional layer over it. Atmospheric. Everyone had a purpose. Everyone had meaning.

I read an ARC, so I can't quote anything yet, but I will when the book is finally released. It was gorgeously written, gave me so many feelings, stopped me in my tracks, and really broke my heart. There's serious tragedy in this book, but also serious joy.

The Baby on the Fire Escape: Creativity, Motherhood, and the Mind-Baby Problem by Julie Phillips

5.0

Julie Phillips is magnificent in her observation and retelling of the motherhood experience as experienced by Audre Lorde, Doris Lessing, Susan Sontag, Alice Walker, Ursula K. Le Guin, Alice Neel, and others. How does one keep their mind in the face of Motherhood? Their creative practice? Their absolute autonomy? Each woman is looked at so tenderly and with such bite. I chewed my way through this! I respected how Phillips wove a thread through the lives of the women, through events and experiences that connected them--the loss of Martin Luther King Jr., Aldermaston marches against nuclear arms, and attending specific colleges. I was overjoyed at the queerness, the open relationships, the messy, and the sticky. Most importantly, even in discomfort, Phillips brings a tender and direct approach to writing. Any of these women could have been my mother. My mother could have been any of these women. And as we redefine motherhood for women, Trans people, and the genderqueer people navigating new parental terrain, I have a newfound confidence that we can retain ourselves despite what history and society have told us.

If you do anything creative and have given birth or will give birth or long to, this is for you. If you watched your creative parent do their practice while parenting you, this is for you.

My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem

5.0

Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson

5.0

I don't know how to transcribe the experience of reading Noopiming, other than it's a journey. It's a passage through time and migration dappled with sharp bits of humor and grief. I tabbed multiple lines that resonated greatly with me. It's poetry and prose. It's got beat and pace. There's a wisdom that Betasamosake Simpson writes with that you can't cultivate out of nowhere.

The Racism of People Who Love You: Essays on Mixed Race Belonging by Samira Mehta

4.0

The multi-racial/multi-cultural experience is not monolithic, yet there is this common thread through the experience that I observe from my own "mixed-race" experience; a thread of anxiety, disappointment, uncertainty, and vigilance. Not fully enough for either through the gaze of our family members, yet expected to be X, Y, and Z as it suits the family system's hierarchy and function. Mehta touches on many aspects of the experience of being a person of color from two contrasting families: an Indian father and a White-American mother. Much of what was written provided a salve for my own wounds of family, and no doubt that many others experiencing mixedness will take pieces away that makes each of us feel in community. The proximity to racism within our own families causes an internal distress that is hard to describe to someone who has not experienced it. Mehta captured that well, and so much more.

Crying in the Bathroom by Erika L. Sánchez

3.0

I think what I wanted from this book was not what I received, although I could not say what I wanted. I guess maybe more identity conversations. I wasn't enthused by the descriptions of other people's sexual experiences or bodily functions--that just doesn't feel like a brave thing at this point in my world to name someone you slept with's inadequacies when some of that is beyond their control. But that's a memoir, I guess. I appreciated the frankness around depression and the normalization of su*c*dal ideation and the positive potential outcomes that come from it. I think I like Erika's sentiments and approach, but it was, even though linear, quick to lose my interest. Erika is an amazing fiction writer and telling her own story is important, so I won't diminish that one bit. It just didn't grab me the way other memoirs have.

I guess I wanted to relate a little bit more and found it hard when she was a world traveler. And that's not her fault by any means.