Reviews and Comments

Emily Gorcenski

EmilyG@bookwyrm.social

Joined 2 years, 11 months ago

Reading as healing

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J. T. Leroy: Sarah (Hardcover, 2000, Bloomsbury) No rating

Cherry Vanilla, twelve years old with a penchant for short leather skirts and make-up, has …

I don’t know how to describe this book. It’sa Gen-X West Virginian transsexual magical realism sex work novel. It’s good, enthralling, and not a little problematic. The author has an interesting, gender-y history. I wish I knew more about her. It’s foreword is by Billy Corgan. That’s a red flag. But the story was fresh.

Murray Bookchin: Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism (Paperback, 1995, AK Press) No rating

This book asks—and tries to answer—several basic questions that affect all Leftists today. Will anarchism …

In this book, Bookchin separates anarchists into two schools: the good anarchists (social anarchists) who do things like read theory and advocate for collectivism, and bad anarchists (lifestyle anarchists) who do pointless things like create zines and light garbage cans on fire. It’s got incredible vibes of “old man yells at cloud” where the cloud is any anarchist under the age of 35. Nothing has convinced me more of lifestyle anarchism than Bookchin’s grumbling.

Yet the final essay, from four years earlier than the main body, has some incisive commentary, particularly on the still-trendy insistence that imperialism can only be practiced by western capitalist nations.

Kate Manne: Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women (2022) No rating

An urgent exploration of men’s entitlement and how it serves to police and punish women, …

This book was more interesting than I initially expected it to be. It’s not a bad introduction to the current wave of (distinctly white, American) feminist argumentation, and while Manne does make sure to acknowledge Black, trans, and indigenous feminism(s), the book eventually swings towards an inevitable slant of contemporary progressive white feminism, particularly in the last chapters. This weakens the book somewhat, but it nevertheless provides for a good overview of feminist thought.

Henry Hoke, Ian Bogost, Christopher Schaberg: Sticker (2022, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc) No rating

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of …

My god, my god what a book. Moving and poetic, this book is a memoir of what it means to be from Charlottesville, through lenses you probably can’t understand if you’re not from here, but you should try anyways. Beautifully written.