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aliciaclarereads 's review for:
read for Popsugar 2019 Reading Challenge: a book with "pop," "sugar," or "challenge" in the title
Guy Branum is someone who has been in the periphery of my pop culture consumption. I've heard him on the podcasts My Favorite Murder and Pop Culture Happy Hour, his podcast ads Maximum Fun network shows I listen to, and his writing on various TV shows I've enjoyed over the years. People whose opinions I really respect have been widely recommending this book, so I wanted to pick it up in the spirit of Pride and it's ability to fit a kind of hard reading challenge.
What a joy this was! Branum is a fantastic writer. He's insanely smart without being elitist or exclusionary; he brings the reader along for the journey of his long winded stories and pop culture analysis. He makes several side stops and imparts a lot of weird an obscure knowledge (of which I'm always a fan). We get stories on the formation of Canada, various goddesses, and the importance of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, which lead to Branum's revelations on his difficult relationship which his sister, his coming into his identity as a gay fat man, and why media representation is essential.
Branum was an incredible narrator of this audiobook. he got to be a little silly in his interpretation, and he was bursting with emotions when discussing his strained relationship with father. That essay was probably my favorite, because I was completely blown away by his compassionate writing. I did like Branum's use of footnotes, except it often made the flow a little difficult to follow in the audiobook, but that's just part of the format. There's not really a way to turn off the footnotes while you hear the full sentence and then go back to reread with footnotes - ah well.
Branum is just so smart when it comes to talking about our culture. He has incredibly sensitive analyses that takes gender, sexuality, race and all its intersectionalities into consideration (which is really important coming from a cis white gay man!). He's also someone whose gone through a lot of shit, but has come out the other side and wants to let you know, you're gonna make it.
I truly enjoyed the nine hours I spent listening to Branum and I could see myself picking this up again in the future, as well as any other book he writes.
Guy Branum is someone who has been in the periphery of my pop culture consumption. I've heard him on the podcasts My Favorite Murder and Pop Culture Happy Hour, his podcast ads Maximum Fun network shows I listen to, and his writing on various TV shows I've enjoyed over the years. People whose opinions I really respect have been widely recommending this book, so I wanted to pick it up in the spirit of Pride and it's ability to fit a kind of hard reading challenge.
What a joy this was! Branum is a fantastic writer. He's insanely smart without being elitist or exclusionary; he brings the reader along for the journey of his long winded stories and pop culture analysis. He makes several side stops and imparts a lot of weird an obscure knowledge (of which I'm always a fan). We get stories on the formation of Canada, various goddesses, and the importance of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, which lead to Branum's revelations on his difficult relationship which his sister, his coming into his identity as a gay fat man, and why media representation is essential.
Branum was an incredible narrator of this audiobook. he got to be a little silly in his interpretation, and he was bursting with emotions when discussing his strained relationship with father. That essay was probably my favorite, because I was completely blown away by his compassionate writing. I did like Branum's use of footnotes, except it often made the flow a little difficult to follow in the audiobook, but that's just part of the format. There's not really a way to turn off the footnotes while you hear the full sentence and then go back to reread with footnotes - ah well.
Branum is just so smart when it comes to talking about our culture. He has incredibly sensitive analyses that takes gender, sexuality, race and all its intersectionalities into consideration (which is really important coming from a cis white gay man!). He's also someone whose gone through a lot of shit, but has come out the other side and wants to let you know, you're gonna make it.
I truly enjoyed the nine hours I spent listening to Branum and I could see myself picking this up again in the future, as well as any other book he writes.