philip_bonanno's reviews
232 reviews

Arabian Jazz by Diana Abu-Jaber

medium-paced

3.75

Some parts were really stunningly written—others were less so. I loved the filial drama. Important for anyone studying the history of Arab American lit 

Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity by José Esteban Muñoz

5.0

Probably the best academic book I’ve read

Operation Shylock: A Confession by Philip Roth

4.25

This book is really good for the first half and then gets a bit full of itself at the end. 

Disability Rhetoric by Jay Timothy Dolmage

4.0

I really enjoyed hearing him talk about the boom and his application of his work to The Kings speech and Hephaestus/Medusa myths really helped to clarify the argument for me. I still think the argument overall is hard to navigate with critical disability identity production/veers dangerously close to rhetoric of we are all disabled/will all be disabled, in effect rhetoric that echoes a lot of rights based rhetoric. Pedagogically, I like how he redirects us at the end to think about how Métis could be used in the classroom. I think that space for invention and recursivity could be really generative as we think about how to reinvent accommodations and other disability spaces in the academy.

The Counterlife by Philip Roth

dark emotional reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Ah, we really all our the unreliable narrator of our own stories. Who’s to say what reality is and isn’t except an author telling us

Underflows: Queer Trans Ecologies and River Justice by Cleo Wölfle Hazard

4.25

So interesting! I was definitely wary at the introduction, but found myself wholeheartedly buying in by epilogue! I have my issues (when don’t I), usually relating to the slippery use of language/perhaps over-promising about theoretical concepts, but loved the methodological approach of this book and think it wielded incredibly fascinating results.

Disability Theory by Tobin Anthony Siebers

4.25

Gets better as the book goes along as it actually begins to engage and produce its own theoretical underpinnings. Remains incredibly generative, albeit slightly outdated. 

After the Last Sky: Palestinian Lives by Edward W. Said

4.5

Man, Henry Kissinger sucks (not the main takeaway, but always an important takeaway)

Tolerance Is a Wasteland: Palestine and the Culture of Denial by Saree Makdisi

4.5

Includes just a fantastic takedown of racist scholarship in general but especially in the postscript. I liked the argument a lot and found the chapters to be generally quite tight and without much surplus material/well edited (save, perhaps the chapter on the museum which was maybe a little repetitive? Idk id have to read when I wasn’t as tired). All in all, really informative and I enjoyed it a bunch.

Orientalism by Edward W. Said

5.0

Easily one of my favorite academic books of all time. Regardless of when you read it, always generative. Wildly on point and seemingly contemporary for a book written in the 70s. Everyone should read this book in college.