bahareads's Reviews (1.09k)

The Native Ground by DuVal brings another theory and methodology into the scholarly preview that I had not encountered before! DuVal asserted that Indigenous people in the Arkansas River Valley (ARV) area had control over the inter-cultural relations because they outnumbered Europeans until 1815 and the lack of European understanding of the area. She presses that Indigenous people did not want a middle ground, only weak people ground desired that. Incorporating alien people allowed those who were in power to remain in power since they controlled the interactions with foreigners. Her examples throughout the text show friendship were more on indigenous terms, and Indigenous ways of dividing and defining the region would be more effective than European ways for centuries. Indigenous people and Europeans had complex and advanced notions of "us" and "them" but these categories were never as simple as "Indian" and "European."

DuVal rejects the dependency theory (Europeans drawing colonized places into the global market and making them dependent on it) because it does not fit into the ARV model. It is true that Indigenous people did receive dramatic change from Europeans but they adapted to it, they were not swallowed by it. DuVal wants readers to know that the past is a series of adaptions, not conquests. Conquest is a term for colonial exaggeration over mastery of colonized areas. The NAIS (Native American and Indigenous Studies) approach DuVal uses made my class realize that Indigenous history is multi-directional; not the traditionally euro-centric narrative of east to west. While Indigenous history is not area, The Native Ground was a great read.

a poorly cobbled-together story of misunderstandings that did not need to happen.

A micro-history showcasing a revolutionary abolitionist who has been written off by abolition historians but not abolitionists. Rediker makes the case that Benjamin Lay was the first revolutionary abolitionist. He makes it clear that Lay took a stance when no one else in his time period did and created a founding anti-slavery text. Rediker shifts the abolition movement back to the English Revolution. Marcus Rediker says the people of Benjamin's day suppressed him and historians of today still suppress him. It's obvious Rediker has respect and admiration for Benjamin Lay, and it shows throughout his portrayal of Lay.

Benjamin Lay is a hilarious character, something out of a tv show. The man lived his life the way he wanted. From all the stories about him, it appears when he took a stance on something he stuck with it. He was disowned FOUR times by various Quaker organizations, in different parts of the world. He definitely lived a theology of liberation. His disabilities and life experiences helped him empathize with those who were oppressed. It could be said that presentism bleeds into Rediker's work with Lay but by all contemporary standards Lay would have been a vegetarian, mostly non-violent, equal rights believer.

I have no idea why I decided to read this because by 1/3 of the way in I had to start skimming. The fandom waited 10+ years for a piece of literature that pandered only to hardcore fans. To sum up this book it was part-time longing and part-time self-loathing. I love pinning and strained love but the instant love and Bella's trusting in a paranormal creature that literally wants to kill you??? Anyways we did not need Edward's POV.

By Love Possess is a collection of short stories that touch the heart. Some of them will make the reader incredible frustrated. Goodison starts strong and ends strong with this collection. Usually, when reading a collection of any kind (story stories, poems etc) I'll make my favourites in the table of contents, and with this work, I marked more stories than left them unmarked. I enjoyed how the love in these collections was not just romantic, but familiar and friendly love; violent love and undying love. The collection showcases all sides and emotions of love.

Cornelius was a short quick read. The main characters Mira, Michael, and Sara were undeveloped. Readers are thrown into the story with a lot of emotional turmoil, yet I did not feel anything. The plot with the paranormal was not fleshed out. The moral undercurrent of the entire book was annoying. I love character redemption, but the 180 change for some characters was too sudden. The writing was easy to read because it felt more juvenile. The timeline of some of the characters' ages and family connections had me scratching my head. I wanted to really really enjoy this; however, it was underwhelming.

A study of using the archives to illuminate the silences within them. Fuentes looks at enslaved women in Barbados as her case study.

"This study probe the construction of race, gender and sexuality, the machinations of archival power, and the complexities of "agency" in the lives of enslaved and free(d) women in colonial Bridgetown, Barbados."

Using different cases, to show a larger issue in the archives, whether it is the silence about women or how white women as shown as powerless victims in older historiographies or honour and sexuality, or how enslaved women were considered genderless in relation to motherhood, female vulnerability, and feminity or how the hypervisibility of certain WOC obscures their everyday life and creates caricatures of them.

This is a book that deserves multiple readings. It relates directly to my areas of interest in terms of enslaved people and the silences the archives produce. Reading against the grain and between the lines is exactly what Fuentes does in DL.

The methodology Fuentes uses can be helpful for those who only have fragments of people in archives. The way she builds the possibilities around enslaved runaway Jane in the first chapter had me in awe. Her writing can be heavily didactic and theoretical. Some parts are hard to read, especially if you are not used to historian jargon. DL is worth reading and highly useful for historians of marginalized and archively-silenced people.
 

It took me a while to get into this part of the series. The characters bounced around a lot. Some of the character development in this part flip-flopped all over the place. This was my least favorite book of the series so far.

Moon Touched was a pretty good shifter novel. It had a development of characters, plot, and good writing. The romance was a slow burn and hot. The abrupt ending killed me though.

I read an ARC of the Restless so my thoughts may not reflect the final proof of the book. Gerty Danbury creates a book in four parts reflecting a Creole quadrille. The POV switches between the living and the dead, the young and the old, the rich and the poor in Guadeloupe. Most of the POV is seen through nine-year-old Emilienne Absalon. Her child-like view of the world leading up to the violent days of May 1967. Teachers leaving, fathers not coming home, and other disruptions to a child's world. The story unfolded wonderfully, I know next to nothing about Guadeloupe's history so experiencing some of the more modern history was wonderful.

The creole throughout the text was most interesting, I enjoyed it a lot. The narrative was hard to follow at times, it bounced from first person to second to third but the writing was easy to read. The chapters flipped from person to person like a call-and-response in the quadrille The narrative reminded me of These Ghosts Are Family. I wonder about the differences between the original and the translated version I have. The Restless is a short book that shows the unrest from a child's and adult's perspectives. The book was so readable I think I need to slow down to digest some of it again. It's not media to be consumed, it's to be savoured.