valetparkering's reviews
262 reviews

Hi Honey, I'm Homo!: Sitcoms, Specials, and the Queering of American Culture by Matt Baume

4.0

Good history, well communicated. I haven't seen most of these shows but I felt like I got the relevant bits. Definitely feels like we're in one of those backslide-y eras at the moment

Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò

4.5

it all comes back to imagination doesn't it. not about who is in the room, need to destroy the room

Ship of Destiny by Robin Hobb

3.0

solving sexual assault trauma with magic

Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky

3.0

I liked (most of) the characters. The worldbuilding had the potential to be interesting. I think overall it was just too long (maybe because I was only able to read it 20 pages at a time bc of work). 

I liked Tchai bringing up a perspective on disability. The disagreement isn't completely resolved between Ollie and Solace, but Ollie is allowed to have her anger.

Preferred Trine over Kittering, just liked the snark more but there was still a glimmer of Tchai's pet translation quirk.

I might read the next ones since I have copies already (my partner like them a lot more than I do) but I'm not in a rush

This World Is Not Yours by Kemi Ashing-Giwa

4.0

Is fun the right word? Messy lesbians and a kinda sorta polycule

heightened consciousness situation

. I think this is being mismarketed but I was still here for it. Horror in the sense of a creeping dread, not explicit scares. The characters backgrounds and world are sketchy but they work. 

The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program That Shaped Our World by Vincent Bevins

4.5

Necessarily very broad but also very accessible. I knew about the sections in Latin America but was unaware that policy decisions were being informed by actions the US took in Indonesia. 

Who's Afraid of Gender? by Judith Butler

4.0

I was not aware of how much beef they have with the Vatican

We Do This 'til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice by Mariame Kaba

4.0

Valuable as a collection to preserve online resources. I found the format to be a little lacking. Most of the articles and interview segments are short and broadly repetitive. There are a few things you can pick out from an individual selection, but a lot of the phrasing and examples are the same. 

I don't know if this will get through to people who aren't already with it, maybe those that are for specific reforms but don't necessarily call themselves abolitionists.

I did really enjoy it and found value in learning to be more principled. I was looking for ways to articulate the importance of imagination, not just with abolition, but any movement towards equality. I also admire Kaba's insistence that not having specific one-size-fits-all answers to abolition is not a bad thing. There are a million solutions and they're going to have to be community centric. 

Scythe by Neal Shusterman

4.75

A great reread. I love the world.

Citra and Rowan's relationship still feels a little thin, especially considering how intense it gets in the later books. I am willing to ride with this for the most part. The rest of their characters felt so well thought out and motivated.

Some things stuck out more this time, particularly the fatphobia and ableism. As you can tell by my rating, I'm not faulting the book in particular for this, but as part of a larger media landscape it feels a bit gross the way Xenocrates and Esme are described. It totally flew over my head that

we were supposed to put together that they were related because they're both fat. I do disagree with some reviews that the only thing we learn about Esme is that she's fat. We see her enjoy playing card games among other things, which is more than we get for a lot of other side characters.

Additionally the off hand mention that no one is blind anymore. 

Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands by Kelly Lytle Hernández

4.0

clinging to my degree by my fingernails.

audio narrator was a bit staccato