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mybookworldtour
Cantoras by Carolina di Robertis is the story of five queer womxn living in 1970s Uruguay while the country was under a repressive dictatorship, which limited peoples' social and human rights and persecuted (among other) the lgbtiq+ community.
Womxn, who love womxn, even when it's prohibited to do so, is the central part of this book and dealt with beautifully.
However, I can't get past the fact that it has been written with a foreign appetite in mind and has one too many stereotypes for my liking, even though it is set in my region of origin and takes place partly in my home country, Brazil.
Womxn, who love womxn, even when it's prohibited to do so, is the central part of this book and dealt with beautifully.
However, I can't get past the fact that it has been written with a foreign appetite in mind and has one too many stereotypes for my liking, even though it is set in my region of origin and takes place partly in my home country, Brazil.
'Mighty Be Our Powers' is the memoir of Nobel Peace Prize winner Leymah Gbowee, from Liberia. Gbowee won the Nobel Peace Prize alongside Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (Liberia) and Tawakkul Karman (Yemen) in 2011 for their "nonviolent struggle for the safety of women and women's rights to full participation in peacebuilding work." Gbowee led the 'Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace,' a women's nonviolent peace movement that worked to end the Second Liberian Civil War in 2003. This is an inspiring story that should be known by more people!
'Queer Africa' is an anthology of short stories highlighting different aspects of being LGBTIQ+ in the African continent and its diasporas, including in countries where same-sex love is illegal.
All stories except one worked for me. However, the one I disliked, I also found deeply disturbing and problematic. In this tale, the incestuous sexual relationship between a father and a son is described in graphic terms and portrayed as same-sex love. I find it extremely harmful to link incest and child abuse (yes, even if the son is an adult, it is still abuse!) to a "queer" definition. Doing so is detrimental to the lgbtiq+ movement.
All stories except one worked for me. However, the one I disliked, I also found deeply disturbing and problematic. In this tale, the incestuous sexual relationship between a father and a son is described in graphic terms and portrayed as same-sex love. I find it extremely harmful to link incest and child abuse (yes, even if the son is an adult, it is still abuse!) to a "queer" definition. Doing so is detrimental to the lgbtiq+ movement.
'Persepolis' is the graphic memoir of Marjane Satrapi. It details her life growing up in Tehran, Iran, during the Islamic Revolution until she moved to France at 24.
I devoured this book in basically one take. It's beautifully written, and the drawings allow for a certain lightness to the heavy topics this story deals with. I loved it!
I devoured this book in basically one take. It's beautifully written, and the drawings allow for a certain lightness to the heavy topics this story deals with. I loved it!
Nadya Okamoto is a 22-year-old activist, who at 16, created the Period Movement - today, the largest youth-run NGO addressing period poverty worldwide. Their work is inspiring! On top of supplying millions of people in the US with free period products during the COVID-19 pandemic, Period also is dedicated to taking down the tampon tax in the country, one state at a time.
I didn't expect to learn anything new about menstruation when I bought this book, but I was wrong. Okamoto dedicates chapters to highlighting diverse points of view around the topic, such as menstruating when you're not a woman and menstruating from prison, which I had not given enough thought to before.
There is still so much stigma around menstruation, but books like this are helping break down the taboo.
I didn't expect to learn anything new about menstruation when I bought this book, but I was wrong. Okamoto dedicates chapters to highlighting diverse points of view around the topic, such as menstruating when you're not a woman and menstruating from prison, which I had not given enough thought to before.
There is still so much stigma around menstruation, but books like this are helping break down the taboo.
Wangari Maathai was a Kenyan environmentalist, women's rights activist, pro-democracy advocate, and the first African woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. And 'Unbowed' is her memoir. This book has become one of my all-time favorites, and Maathai one of my role models. I highly recommend this book, which does not get all the attention it deserves.
This collection dates back to 2014. I did not learn anything new, although violence against women is just as prevalent today as it was six years ago. In general, it lacked intersectionality for me.
The Shadow King by Maaza Mengisteis an epic and character-driven story about the local Ethiopian population's resistance to the Italian invasion in the 1930s.
Written from multiple points of view and using unique chapter breaks like photo descriptions and interludes, it mainly highlights the women who joined this war as soldiers, nurses, cooks, and spies, and a Jewish-Italian soldier prosecuted by his own government amid his serving said government abroad.
This is an incredibly heavy book, and if reading about sexual and physical abuse triggers you, I advise you to stay away from this one. But it's also beautiful and poetic, perhaps even more so when considering that Ethiopia is the only African nation that was never colonized by foreign invaders.
It does not depict a black and white version of war. The author humanizes and dehumanizes each and every character from one page to the next. There are no atonements, though characters try hard to find silver linings to all the violence. It's an honest book about war, about its dichotomies and hypocrisies. It's the story of the shadows at the center of history.
Written from multiple points of view and using unique chapter breaks like photo descriptions and interludes, it mainly highlights the women who joined this war as soldiers, nurses, cooks, and spies, and a Jewish-Italian soldier prosecuted by his own government amid his serving said government abroad.
This is an incredibly heavy book, and if reading about sexual and physical abuse triggers you, I advise you to stay away from this one. But it's also beautiful and poetic, perhaps even more so when considering that Ethiopia is the only African nation that was never colonized by foreign invaders.
It does not depict a black and white version of war. The author humanizes and dehumanizes each and every character from one page to the next. There are no atonements, though characters try hard to find silver linings to all the violence. It's an honest book about war, about its dichotomies and hypocrisies. It's the story of the shadows at the center of history.
In a series of sarcastic and funny comics, Liv Strömquist talks about gender norms and stereotypes and how people are impacted by a hetero normative and patriarchal society. All while trying to answer "what is love?".
Approaching this question from the historical, sociological, and political perspectives, Strömquist uses pop culture references (US & UK mainly) as case studies to illustrate her analysis based on renowned academics in these fields. The book also includes several mentions of Swedish and Nordic culture, which I very much appreciated.
(I read it in French)
Approaching this question from the historical, sociological, and political perspectives, Strömquist uses pop culture references (US & UK mainly) as case studies to illustrate her analysis based on renowned academics in these fields. The book also includes several mentions of Swedish and Nordic culture, which I very much appreciated.
(I read it in French)
