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sbbarnes's reviews
245 reviews
Love in Color: Mythical Tales from Around the World, Retold by Bolu Babalola
emotional
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
This was an enjoyable collection of myth retellings with a few original stories thrown at the end, including a mythologized version of Babalola's parents' lives. Babalola's prose in the varying stories ranges from lyrical and fairy-tale-esque to sharp and witty depending on setting.
As a lifelong fairy tale retelling stan, this was of course catnip to me. I especially enjoyed Nefertiti's story and the reinvention of Pyramus and Thisbe as neighboring college students, but surprisingly liked the original stories at the end best. While the more fairy-tale-esque stories prose was more beautiful, I found the modern retellings like Yaa, Nefertiti and Psyche, had somewhat more sharp and incisive character voices and felt more like complete stories to me. This was especially true of the original stories.
This isn't to say I disliked the more historically set stories! I just sometimes felt they needed more room to breathe, because there was so much going on and so much backstory and, often, multiple perspectives, that I wished there was more time to linger.
As a lifelong fairy tale retelling stan, this was of course catnip to me. I especially enjoyed Nefertiti's story and the reinvention of Pyramus and Thisbe as neighboring college students, but surprisingly liked the original stories at the end best. While the more fairy-tale-esque stories prose was more beautiful, I found the modern retellings like Yaa, Nefertiti and Psyche, had somewhat more sharp and incisive character voices and felt more like complete stories to me. This was especially true of the original stories.
This isn't to say I disliked the more historically set stories! I just sometimes felt they needed more room to breathe, because there was so much going on and so much backstory and, often, multiple perspectives, that I wished there was more time to linger.
Work Won't Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone by Sarah Jaffe
challenging
hopeful
informative
medium-paced
4.75
Work won't love you back chronicles the struggles of workers in a variety of industries and work relationships not seen as industries. Jaffe chronicles the history of labor to explain how we got here and to show that we don't have to stay here by talking to union organizers and protesters across different fields and countries.
Particularly striking to me were: the term 'hope labor' ascribed to both unpaid interns and school and university students. Put in those terms, the expectation that you put in labor now in the hope you will be rewarded later is pretty stark. The other thing was the way the objects of care in caring professions are leveraged against the carers in labor disputes, be it teaching, nursing, NGO work...the idea is that asking for reasonable working conditions is something we do at the expense of our charges and that rhetoric alienates us. The truth of it is that better conditions are better conditions for everyone.
In an otherwise very intersectional book I did slightly miss the perspective of transgender athletes in that particular chapter, especially given the struggle with hormone testing etc. was mentioned. Otherwise, a solid recommendation.
Particularly striking to me were: the term 'hope labor' ascribed to both unpaid interns and school and university students. Put in those terms, the expectation that you put in labor now in the hope you will be rewarded later is pretty stark. The other thing was the way the objects of care in caring professions are leveraged against the carers in labor disputes, be it teaching, nursing, NGO work...the idea is that asking for reasonable working conditions is something we do at the expense of our charges and that rhetoric alienates us. The truth of it is that better conditions are better conditions for everyone.
In an otherwise very intersectional book I did slightly miss the perspective of transgender athletes in that particular chapter, especially given the struggle with hormone testing etc. was mentioned. Otherwise, a solid recommendation.