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xcampuskiddo's reviews
245 reviews
La mémoire du cœur by Felice Stevens
1.0
Contains a somewhat disturbing scene where Micah technically stealths Josh and then demands to know about Josh's past after Josh expresses disquiet over Micah not using a condom. The rest is cheesy and unrealistic and the characters are all pretty immature. Not worth your time - there are much better M/M books out there - and possibly not even worth the $0 I spent on it.
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
5.0
This book is incredible! Part historical fiction (fourteenth century Russia), part fantasy, and with the strongest female protagonist I have ever read in YA fiction to date (including Katniss Everdeen). I highly recommend it!!
The Maximum Security Book Club: Reading Literature in a Men's Prison by Mikita Brottman
5.0
As a teacher of students in a secure facility, I was eager to read Brottman's account of running a book club with convicted felons inside a maximum security prison. Though we work(ed) in different types of facilities (mine is a residential treatment facility, not a prison) with very different populations (mine is females between 10-18), I was interested to see how our experiences might be similar. This is a type of unifying experience that can't always be appreciated by those who haven't worked under these conditions.
Other reviewers have stated that this book is a massive case of white savior complex. I understand that I am a white female, myself, and perhaps we just give off nuances of this whenever we are leading groups of less fortunate people; nevertheless, what I read in Brottman's account was very close to my own reflections on experience. I have done a lot of volunteer work and had to learn to kill the complex so that it would not overcome or supercede the needs and goals of the people with whom I have worked. But I will always be a white woman from fortunate circumstances, and this leads to, not a case of white savior complex, but to cultural ignorance/incompetence. This was what I read Brottman struggling with as the book club unfolded and she brought different books before the men. It is easy to assume a universality of human experience that simply doesn't exist in such disparate settings. Brottman shares her assumptions - and then shares how they were undone, in some cases with some significant mental conflict (it's hard to overcome cognitive dissonance). I recognized many of my own struggles to discover my students where they are; I can't assume that a 7th grader in my class has had an adequate 4th, 5th, and 6th grade education/foundation. Likewise, Brottman enters the book club with some assumptions about the men's abilities and life experiences that she believes will make certain books more accessible, only to find that her assumptions were mistaken and she needs to recalibrate. She also talks about how she started out wanting to stick closely to discussing the books only, but eventually relaxed into letting the men guide tangents that sprang from connecting with the plot or characters. I imagine she had much fuller and livelier discussions once she let go of her expectations and control.
In short, I would recommend this book to anyone who hasn't had the experience of working in a secure facility and can remain open-minded to growth. Very few educators walk into secure facilities having had the prior experience of being a resident or inmate. There is a learning curve. The important part is that one is *willing* to follow the curve - to bend, flex, change, and grow.
Other reviewers have stated that this book is a massive case of white savior complex. I understand that I am a white female, myself, and perhaps we just give off nuances of this whenever we are leading groups of less fortunate people; nevertheless, what I read in Brottman's account was very close to my own reflections on experience. I have done a lot of volunteer work and had to learn to kill the complex so that it would not overcome or supercede the needs and goals of the people with whom I have worked. But I will always be a white woman from fortunate circumstances, and this leads to, not a case of white savior complex, but to cultural ignorance/incompetence. This was what I read Brottman struggling with as the book club unfolded and she brought different books before the men. It is easy to assume a universality of human experience that simply doesn't exist in such disparate settings. Brottman shares her assumptions - and then shares how they were undone, in some cases with some significant mental conflict (it's hard to overcome cognitive dissonance). I recognized many of my own struggles to discover my students where they are; I can't assume that a 7th grader in my class has had an adequate 4th, 5th, and 6th grade education/foundation. Likewise, Brottman enters the book club with some assumptions about the men's abilities and life experiences that she believes will make certain books more accessible, only to find that her assumptions were mistaken and she needs to recalibrate. She also talks about how she started out wanting to stick closely to discussing the books only, but eventually relaxed into letting the men guide tangents that sprang from connecting with the plot or characters. I imagine she had much fuller and livelier discussions once she let go of her expectations and control.
In short, I would recommend this book to anyone who hasn't had the experience of working in a secure facility and can remain open-minded to growth. Very few educators walk into secure facilities having had the prior experience of being a resident or inmate. There is a learning curve. The important part is that one is *willing* to follow the curve - to bend, flex, change, and grow.