This book is incredible and changed my life in so many ways. So much of it is so important to queer theory (or should be) and feminist theory, and the way she challenges the reader to feel is so important. Although "The Master's Tools" is obviously an incredible (and incredibly widely cited) essay in this collection, and perhaps the most famous essay in here (with "The Uses of the Erotic" and/or "Poetry is Not a Luxury" coming in close second,) the piece that stands out to me the most is probably the conversation she has with Adrienne Rich--which, Rich's transphobic politics aside, needs to be required reading for any white woman who calls herself a feminist (and really should be required reading for all white women in general.) I know I will be going back to this book again and again, and learning new things from it each time, and I feel like it is really a gift to have read it.

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Reread 3/11/20: Just as incredible if not more incredible the second/third time. Each essay feels deeply relevant in this moment, from Lorde's visit to Russia in the 1980s to her writing on anger and rage, to the essays that are more often cited like "Use of the Erotic" and "Master's Tools." I definitely think everyone should read this book at least twice, and I am so glad I reread it now. If you haven't read it before, please check it out (if only because I'm convinced no one has ever done these essays justice in summing them up.)