Genre: Feminism

The Grace Year by Kim Liggett

I have some mixed feelings about The Grace Year. On one hand, this book is really conceptually interesting. It has some serious The Handmaid’s Tale vibes and it’s atmospherically very creative and interesting. But The Grace Year tried to do a lot of things all at once and I think it over-reached itself. For starters, the pacing was really weird. Sometimes, we were able to really absorb the situation and the world, and when the story slowed down, the bits and pieces were excellent. But there were other places that the story seemed to fast-forward and it was easy to get lost. I […]

Posted September 4, 2019 in Reviews // 2 Comments //

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

This book came at me so unexpectedly, and I absolutely loved it. Honestly, I was expecting something a lot darker after reading A Great and Terrible Beauty, but Beauty Queens is downright laugh-out-loud funny! This book is highly satirical, so I think if it doesn’t tickle your sense of humor early on, you probably won’t like it. For me, I understood where Libba Bray was going with a lot of her regional stereotypes. And honestly? This is one of the best narrated books I’ve ever listened to. Libba Bray reads this audiobook herself, and she’s got all the regional accents down pat to […]

Posted September 2, 2019 in Reviews // 0 Comments //

Rebel Girls by Elizabeth Keenan

I LOVED this book. I feel like it did a pretty good job of filling the hole Moxie left behind when I finished that earlier this year. It’s smart, the characters are great, and it doesn’t hesitate to take on a difficult topic. Before I go and squeal about it some more, I do want to leave some possible trigger warnings for the book, and turn-offs, depending on your politics. Rebel Girls discusses extreme bullying, and there is one scene where a character’s locker is covered in graphic images of unborn fetuses. Additionally, one of the themes of this book is […]

Posted August 29, 2019 in Reviews // 2 Comments //

Hunger by Roxane Gay

I feel like rubbish when I don’t enjoy a book that everyone else loves. Okay. So. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with Hunger. In fact, it’s a very raw, honest memoir about a topic that is so deeply personal. The stories Roxane Gay shares are intense and difficult to read. You’re not supposed to love this book, but you are supposed to respect and support it. I still didn’t like it. And not in that “this makes me uncomfortable, so I dislike it” way. It’s the writing style. Roxane Gay tells her stories in such a way that unapologetically calls out the types […]

Posted August 25, 2019 in Reviews // 0 Comments //

How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran

Okay okay. To dispel the elephant in the room first thing – I don’t necessarily agree with everything Caitlin Moran says. Also, I think that labeling this as a “feminist manifesto” does both a great disservice to the book as a memoir, and to feminism. Caitlin Moran is a feminist. But this is a memoir filled with personal opinions and anecdotes. It’s not her telling people how to be a feminist, at least not in my opinion. It’s more like… her outlining her life using feminist themes to organize her life stories and personal opinions. While I’m not sure if Caitlin Moran […]

Posted August 11, 2019 in Reviews // 0 Comments //

The Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Irin Carmon & Shana Knizhnik

I think it’s important to know about the people who are trying to change the world for the better. I’l confess that I became aware of RBG around the time of the 2008 campaigns and I am (always have been) woefully disconnected from politics. I was raised fiercely Republican and Ruth Bader Ginsberg was not exactly a household name for my parents. Saying the name “Bill Clinton” was akin to dropping an f-bomb in my house, so you can imagine my family wasn’t crazy about his Supreme Court nominees, either. If you’re read my blog, you can probably surmise that […]

Posted July 16, 2019 in Reviews // 0 Comments //