Wants to read This Common Secret: My Journey as an Abortion Doctor
book
Rated Storm Waters 10/10
Spectacular hard-boiled period fantasy noir. Perfect language for the noir genre and wildly creative.
Wants to read On Immunity: An Inoculation
Rated Unbowed 8/10
People: go read this book. Maathai, who is a Nobel Prize winner who passed away a few weeks ago, was a civil society activist in Kenya who eventually rose to parliament. The book is slow going and kind of a straightforward autobiography for the first half, but starts to get really, really real in the late 70s, 80s and 90s when the Daniel arap Moi dictatorship in Kenya targeted and persecuted her for her work as an organizer and environmental advocate. It's an inspiring mix of wisdom and stories of nuts-and-bolts organizing under real danger. Maathai's work is well worth the study.
Rated The Power 10/10
Really compelling, absorbing and thought-provoking. I'd heard a lot about this book and knew the basic gist but wasn't quite prepared for this to have the ominous, almost Biblical force it has. It really leans into the dark, unpleasant aspects of its argument, so it's *a lot*, but of course the point is to be confrontational; this isn't so much dystopian sci-fi as a mirrored reflection of a dystopic state of affairs that already exists. Grimly engaging as you watch the stories unfold and root for a better outcome even as you know from the beginning that you're not going to get it. Cleverly executed and well worth reading. I tore through this in three days but one might prefer to get it in smaller doses -it's heavy.<br/><br/>Weirdly enough, the book this reminds me of the most is [b:World War Z|8908|World War Z An Oral History of the Zombie War|Max Brooks|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1528312647s/8908.jpg|817], which is a lot lighter but similarly takes a global view of an emergent phenomenon. It also made me think about the movie "Sorry to Bother You," which similarly uses a speculative and uncanny story to talk about power and social relations.
Rated Bring Up the Bodies 10/10
holy cow. even better than "Wolf Hall."
Edited 44d ago
Wants to read The Parking Lot Attendant
Wants to read Asunder: A Vatan Chronicle
Edited 30d ago