This is a very direct run-down of the double standards that exist for the legislation of women's bodies vs men's bodies. It explores the logistics of sexual encounters for heterosexual couple as such as addressing the orgasm gap. Additionally, there is an entire section about the responsibility that men hold for women's pregnancies. I don't agree with everything the author states. However, it does present information in a digestible and entertaining way while also being didactic. 

There is a lot of focus on the ongoing war and plot this time. Maxi continues to act independently from Riftan and shows her value to the group as a mage in her own right. This continues to cause tension with Riftan, not because he is against her independence, but because he is so worried for her safety. Unfortunately, there is a lot of miscommunications between them because they can't seem to express themselves properly and compromise on Maxi's autonomy vs her safety. Despite his disagreement with her participation in the war, Riftan keeps his distance and mostly just appears grumpy and distant from afar. It's a shame, because you can tell both of them care so much for each other. Due to so much going on it seems that it's too overwhelming for them to really have the time or the privacy to reach a compromise and reconcile. It's funny because those around them seem to notice that they are only so passionately argumentative with each other because they love each other so much. I'm patiently waiting for the next installment because I really need these two to just reconcile.

This was such a cute, wonderful comic. As a curly haired Afro-Latin@ it speaks to me on such a personal level. I was lucky enough to grow up with parents that gave me positive feedback on my hair and fomented a high level of self-esteem in me. However, Marlene's story reflects that this is not everyone's experience. I appreciate that it highlights the prevalence of anti-Blackness in the Latin@ community.

Marlene's mother was the most interesting character to me in this comic. She is a widow who does not understand how to take care of Marlene's hair. My mother similarly did not initially know how to care for my hair, but she put in the effort to learn how. To this day I am grateful for that because she never made me feel like my hair was the problem and she never let me go to school looking a mess. Marlene, unfortunately, has a different experience. Her mother consistently straightens her hair and in her pursuit of having Marlene conform, she creates insecurity in her. Marlene is always comparing her "frizzy" hair texture to that of her classmates and peers. Her hair is different, and her mother and family make comments that make her feel like there is something wrong with her hair. 

Marlene's aunt has curly hair, very similar to Marlene. However, her approach is very different from Marlene's mother. She embraces her curls and serves as an example of self-acceptance for Marlene. This eventually leads her to have a healthier relationship with her hair and improves Marlene's relationship with her mother once her mother accepts her for who she is, curls and all.

Overall, this was a very wholesome story that is great for teaching about self-acceptance. I'm thinking of maybe reading more works from this author. There isn't as much representation in children's books as I'd like for Latin@s and I think stories like this are important to tell. Besides that, it was enjoyable, so I'm sure I'd enjoy her other works.

I have never before read Angela Davis's work. However, I was aware that she is a feminist and social justice activist with ties to the Communist Party in the United States. I resonated mostly with her speeches pertaining to the constant struggle that it is to keep social progress from regressing. Intersectionality is also a common theme in her speeches. It is unequivocally true that you cannot have a society where civil rights are protected if you do not consider the overlap of multiple identities within that society. The struggle for this state of social justice, as Angela Davis emphasizes in the title of this collection, is constant.

Angela Davis talks about staying in Cuba, her time on the FBI watch list's most wanted, and her arrest. Her speeches encompass many references to her life. If you aren't familiar with her life or don't do research to become familiar with it, the speeches become more difficult to understand. I appreciate the conviction Davis carries with her beliefs, even if I don't agree with all of them. I have mixed feelings about Angela Davis due to my father being an Afro-Cuban ex-political prisoner under the Castro communist regime. Fidel Castro has a long history of oppression of the Cuban people despite the increased racial equality Cuba has experience post-Cuban Revolution. Imagery of anyone shaking hands and smiling with Fidel Castro makes me uncomfortable for very personal reasons. I only mention this to be transparent about my bias. 

Despite my mixed feelings about Davis, I find that this work is illuminating when it comes to her experienced history in the fight for social justice. It is a good introduction to how important it is to constantly fight to upkeep the ground that has already been gained. Additionally, it is also an encouraging book that gives an understanding of the sacrifices people like Angela Davis have made for the sake of progress.

This was such a personal journey of grief from a daughter losing a father she loved very much. In each section, Adichie explores her father's sayings, advice, and conversations that she recalls dearly. She speaks of her father with so much love that it resonates throughout this short collection. It reminded me of my own love for my father, God bless him. Adichie's writing provides a pleasant, albeit sad, reflective, and impactful emotional experience.

Considering this book was published in 2014, it's incredible how so much of it is still relevant today. The psychiatrist and author of the book has done a lot of work with military veterans and victims of sexual assault. The first chapter in particular explores how when he was a medical student there were not a lot of effective treatments for veterans who were experiencing PTSD and depression. He explores the history of a lot of these treatments and changes in modalities that he witnessed firsthand. Additionally, the book explores some of the success the author has found with patients using some of these techniques. There was a significant improvement in quality of life for them. He contrasts this to more traditional therapy methods that particularly did not work for highly traumatized patients.

I think the strongest parts of the book are the application of research done on war veterans to sexual assault and rape victims. There is a lot of overlap there in terms of the anxiety level of patients as well as treatments like EMDR working for both. I appreciated the thorough explanation he gave about EMDR and how it was not the standard of trauma treatment until the 1980s. There is also a progressive lens he applies to the definition of trauma. For a long time, trauma was considered something that was only experienced in war settings. This book takes a more modern stance around what can be defined as trauma and backs it up.

I listened to the audiobook, and it was reasonably well produced. There is some controversy surrounding the author. I will link the Reddit thread that discusses this. He was fired from his more recent position due to mistreatment of women and the original poster for the thread discusses issues that they have with the author's work. They make a point about the author sympathizing with war criminals. I don't think the author at any point defends the actions of war criminals. My interpretation was that they analyzed the circumstances that led them to become awful people and what could be done within the field of psychology to help them recover from it. As far as the misconduct, I think it is unfortunate for the victims. It drives the point home that someone can make major contributions to a field and still cause harm within that field as well. Anyway, here is the link for future research:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ptsd/comments/plskph/warning_the_body_keeps_the_score_is_a/

The title of thi work really encompases the main theme of this collection of poetry. I enjoyed most of the poems and it is one of the better modern poetry collections I have read. Some of the poems speak of racism and discrimination. It embodies the experience of black people not being seen by the world, or being seen as less than. Others explore the dismissal of the black experience by society. 

These are some of my favorite excerpts from the paperback copy:

 

This was a very short four poem sample of Maya Angelou's work. I can understand why she is such an appealing writer. She tackles themes like womanhood with an intersectional black identity. Her poetry is easy to understand while still having a strong impact with every verse. I'm looking forward to giving her prose a try in the near future as well. If it's anywhere near as impactful as this, I think I've found a new favorite author.

This was a wonderful memoir that was super easy to get through. I blew through this so fast because it was so engaging. I fail to understand why there are so many consistent efforts to ban this book when it is written for young adults. The idea that someone's experience written in the form of a book must be censored is a ridiculous notion. Books like Johnson's are tied to a person's experience. Therefore, banning books like these are a denial of a person's experience.

Johnson's story highlights how important representation is in media. Censorship efforts affect LGBT+ youth and people of color more generally because there are less of those books available. They are published less often and don't get much marketing as other books. In addition to those barriers to entry, book banning affects them disproportionally more. Banning books like All Boys Aren't Blue silences voices of people with similar experiences. It implies that stories that share an experience that may be different from the status quo are not welcomed. It sends the message that they are unsafe for children or too explicit for a young adult audience because it is not perfect. Perfect people don't exist and therefore cookie cutter perfect stories should not be required to not be banned. We either have free speech and the ability to share our stories or our rights must be infringed for the comfort of organizations like Moms for Liberty.

There is so much focus on community and family in Johnson's story. My favorite part of this book was seeing how supportive and lovely so many members of Johnson's family were. They grew up with a lot of love and so many cousins, siblings, aunts, and uncles that they felt comfortable with. I am glad that they were able to bloom into their identity, and I have no doubt that their family was a major contribution to that growth. It wouldn't be such a vital part of his memoir if that wasn't the case. His fraternity also helped give him a strong sense of community in college and I am happy that they had positive experience, because so many queer people don't.

There is a sexual assault that is described at some point in the book with a minor. It was uncomfortable to read, but that's the point. Despite the inclusion of this subject manner, I still don't think those are grounds to ban this book. The target audience is teenagers, and I don't believe this is out of the scope of their experience. Teenagers and children can experience sexual assault; this book shows an example of that experienced by the author. I appreciated that in retrospect as an adult Johnson was able to recognize he was abused. I hope that this would serve those who read it that may not realize something similar has occurred to them. The way Johnson handled it was also incredibly respectful considering that the individual who assaulted them was a family member and has since died. He spoke with his family and obtained their blessing before choosing to publish his experiences with his abuser in this book. I think this was the healthiest way he could have approached this subject. It probably mitigated his guilt about sharing the experience at all. It also allowed him to share his journey, uncensored.

All of the experiences Johnson shares are personal and relatable. He explores the intersectionality of being a black man who is queer. He is a queer man who enjoyed sports growing up, joined a fraternity in college, and performed masculinity for a large portion of his life. They are someone who is not defined by their sexuality but recognizes that it is a large part of their identity and frames their experience. I think he teaches readers a lot in this book, and it is a book worthy of displaying on public shelves. 

As an aside, there is a portion of the book where the author deadnames a transgender family member. I am unsure whether this was a creative choice. Ther person they deadname in question is no longer living. I am unsure if this was a preference that they would have had if they were living or not. I don't have enough information as a reader to make a judgement call on that one. I don't believe in speaking on behalf of others, especially since they are not around to defend themselves. This is mostly just something I feel is important to know if that's a trigger.

Mariah Carey narrates her memoir herself and does have moments where she sings in it. It's quite wonderful and I do recommend experiencing this book via audiobook because it feels so much more personal that way. Carey uses very vivid descriptions to really encapsulate her experiences, especially in childhood. She goes through her first experiences with racism, her rough relationship with her parents and siblings, her romantic relationships, and her journey into the professional music industry.

Mariah talks extensively about her racial identity and how it has affected her throughout her life. She gives an example of a time she had some paternal family members try to use a hot comb on her hair. This ended up having less than favorable results with her hair essentially getting burned. Her black family was not used to her hair texture and obviously assumed it would respond like their hair did. It is one of many examples of her not fitting in. She briefly mentions how professional hair stylists often wouldn't know what to do with her hair early in her career. She gives examples of being called racial slurs by her white classmates when they found out her father was black. She also explains her experiences with the way her record label, and later her future husband, Tommy Motola, chose to market her. Mottola was often upset by any "urbanization" of her music. The way she described her relationship to him and how he perceived her shows that he was never truly accepting of her blackness. He was also incredibly controlling, to the point of being abusive. I'm glad she made her way safely out of that relationship.

Despite her reputation as a diva, I think that Mariah comes off as incredibly charming and good-humored in this memoir. It feels like the diva reputation may just be something she plays into rather than her actual personality. She has overcome a lot of darkness in her life and has ultimately found a way to shine through. I think she is one of the best vocal talents that have emerged in modern music. She writes and composes her own music, which is a separate talent of its own. I started listening to a lot of her music soon after finishing her memoir and so much of her is in the music she produces. Even if you're not a Mariah Carey fan, I would give her albums a full track by track listen. I found songs that I didn't even remember listening to before that I fell in love with.