3.75? 4? Star ratings are hard 

Momfluenced looks at some of the big pitfalls of mom influencer culture and how they are reflective of (are impacted by and themselves impact) culture at large. There are some really interesting connections and insights here concerning marketing, inequality, the role of white women in white supremacy, and much more. There is also discussion about the positives including how these social media platforms connect marginalized people. 

There was so much that I really enjoyed about this initially but it did have it's issues as well. Certainly, there were topics that could have been expanded upon and I would have liked to see a bit on how this culture impacts the children as well. But the real drawback for me was some of the analysis politically. While there were some issues shown and some systems questioned, there was a lot that wasn't. Most solutions or ideas of where to go from here were more neo-liberal and surface-level. Given the insight in the rest of the book, I was disappointed in how watered down a lot of the last couple of chapters were in this regard.

Overall, this had some really interesting and important insights, but there is a lot more that I'd like to see dug into on several fronts.

This was a really intense collection. It's the sort of literature you really have to sit with. I felt like I should have been reading it for a class (not in a bad way). There was a lot explored in interesting and intricate ways. There was a lot thematically about misogyny, trauma and mental health, and queerness. 

As with any collection, there were ups and downs. My favorite story was probably Mothers. My least favorite was Especially Heinous (though I love a lot of the ideas there, it was way too long). Overall, it was well written, intense, and definitely fucked with my mind

I read the first third or so of this a couple of years ago and stopped just because life happened. I picked up The audiobook on a whim and read it all in one night and it was quite the time.

I'm not sure that I've totally wrapped my head around the book completely. This strange story is told going between characters and between times. There were fourth wall breaks and explorations of how things may have gone differently, as well as insight on grief and memory. Thematically, there are a lot of profound things to unpack. However, if you are a plot person, you will come out of it far more unsettled that I am. There are a lot of everyday "plotless" points in order to (in theory) discover what is behind the mystery of the tapes.

I feel like this is one I'm going to have to process and maybe reread to totally get it (and there were enough compelling bits that I would like to). I had an interesting time with it nonetheless. 

This was such a cool read! For context, my master's thesis was linguistic in nature, so this is the exact sort of thing I would have had to include in it (had it been published earlier). This was very approachable and accessible to a less academic audience while also being full of interesting information. I definitely learned some things around history! This does a great job breaking down how social biases impact public opinion on language - meanwhile, it is those marginalized groups who are the innovators. 

I would recommend to anyone who is interested in linguistics. If you read Wordslut by Amanda Montel and you want to learn even more, check this out! 

This was weird, adorable, a little creepy, and a lot wholesome. This is a series of comics with interconnected characters and a few connected plots. I adored this and will absolutely be revisiting. It's so comfy! 

This is a story about some theater kids and the drama that can happen behind the scenes of the show. There were parts that were funny and I thought that there were some good things happening with discussions about coming out and generally coming out of your shell as a person. I did find parts clunky or frustrating at times but overall, it was pretty cute. 

This was a fun and sexy story that is a window into the dynamics of this friend group at a con. I enjoyed this for the most part. I liked the art style and appreciated that there were so many different kinds of people and body types. There were some cute dynamics here but I do wish we had more time with the characters to really understand all of the relationships (and to get to really know more about the characters that I did really like)

A very compelling short overview! I am excited to read some of the works cited in here.