aimiller's Reviews (689)

A really important biography; Gao Hodges works hard to draw out Ruggles's life, and draws out really important points about direct action among Black abolitionists, and the importance of an independent, self-directed press to the abolition movement. It was occasionally difficult to follow all the players, so probably a better read if you're more familiar with a greater number of abolitionists than I am, and Gao Hodges chooses some weird points to explore historical imagination (relying on signature analysis to tell us about Ruggles's personality was certainly a choice.) But obviously critical in putting Ruggles into the narrative of abolition, and at a much earlier time than most recognize.

Excellent and most of it still relevant 10+ years later. A little bit feels dated, but it's clear Davis was working to capture something happening when this writing was done. 

The part where she said that the mostly Hindu population she studied should be converted to Christianity for suicide prevention reasons sure was wild. 

This book is written so tenderly and sweetly and I appreciate it so much for what it does but it also... woof there's just so much that's not my cup of tea in terms of trans writing. Which doesn't mean it's Bad or Bad Representation per se, just not what I want and need--and granted, I'm an adult and in a different stage of my life than the audience of this! Just didn't love it, and found myself wincing a lot. 

Some really nice poems, but I think the cohesion of the collection wasn't really my favorite--sometimes I felt stretched between places, locations, and images. I'd be interested to read other collections, but this one wasn't really my favorite. 

due back at the library

due at the library

moving down to 2 books and this is due back at the library

I am once again begging Timothy Zahn to let Thrawn fail at anything, and suffer an whole consequence. 

Though I guess it's unfair of me to say that in a book where we're clearly setting up SOMETHING, or a whole lot of things--there's a lot of pieces moving, and, as other reviews have pointed out, not much Thrawn though we are establishing more and more his messy relationships with others, and how much other Chiss hate him, which--relatable. I can't believe I have to wait ANOTHER whole entire book for this to fall apart and him to have any consequences, but that's the way the cookie crumbles I guess. 

Unlike many other folks, I actually did enjoy the other characters--I liked seeing into their worlds, the conflicts people have. Whole book series about Thalias, thanks. But for the most part, I spent this book whining about how much I don't like Thrawn and then waiting for something to happen. And we're starting to see it, but oof, so slowly. 

Some of the parts of these poems were hit or miss for me, but when it hit it REALLY TRULY HIT. Everything about the overlap of TBIs, trauma, and ghosting, was so good and so powerful, and the extratransmission stuff was fascinating. Really disruptive and thoughtful at the same time.

The "hello [x] man i will kill you in [y] way" poems weren't for me, but if you need that kind of catharsis you probably would like them too!