"Every act of communication is a miracle of translation"

• The book makes a bold first attempt at showing unecessary and ethically wrong violence by the killing of one cat (see spoilers above) in horrible circumstances. The offending cats are undertaking ethnic cleansing of 'half-clan' cats from a charasmatic leader who beleives in 'purebloods', it is implied that some cats actively participate and that others feel peer-pressured. I think the authors here are trying to depict the wrongness of white supremacy, genocide, and fascism in an accessible way. It is only a small part of the book, but it is disturbing and is something I would expect adults to discuss with child readers to make sure they understood what was happening and ask them how they are feeling. 
• Demonstration of the different responsibilities and relationships to kin leaders have e.g.,
  through Firestar becoming clan leader
  .
• How religion can be weaponsied by claiming that your actions are morally just because of divine rules. e.g.,
  Tigerstar claiming the support fo Starclan to justify his horrible power-hungry actions
  .
• I was so sad when
  Whitestorm
  died! I would have loved for him to have lived longer, I think this was a convenient plot point to usher in
  Greystripe
  as deputy and he had more to give to the story than the authors allowed. 
• I loved the greater involvement of Barley and Ravenpaw! 

• The impacts of disability in the wild e.g. through
  Snowkit's deafness
   
• Questioning the role of religion as a mechanism of control e.g., through
  Cloudpaw questioning the legitimacy of Star Clan
   
• Shows the moral conflict of disagreeing with or going against orders of people in authority that you believe are wrong e.g., through
  Fireheart negotiating with Windclan without telling Bluestar, in order to prevent a battle she had ordered
• Depiction of depression, grief, and trauma response, e.g, through
  Bluestar predominently, but also Speckletail and Lostface (what a cruel name)
   

• The style of writing like Rick Sanchez doesn't work for me. Just teach the philosophy without the zingers. (I enjoyed the Inception installment from the same series)
• This book was written after series 3 of the show. There have been three series aired since that drastically change the characters and storyline. Some of philosophical points stand, but again, many are complicated by narrative developments in the show that I keep thinking about which is detracting from me enjoying and getting the most out of the book.

"When the media wants to talk about trans issues, they want to talk about the issues they have with us, not the challenges facing us".

"Humans beings rely on familiarity to understand and empathise with others. And we find it easier to extend compassion to those we can relate to."

"It is only through solidarity, compassion, and radical reimagining that we can build a most just and joyful world for all of us."

"The people providing support don't reflect the people they're serving."

"In any minority group, those who have the time, resources and political access to lead the charge for recognition and better treatment tend to be the middle class members, who don't appreciate the urgent issues of poverty and homelessness that for many can impede participation in activist movements. This representational imbalance leads to single issue priorities, which emphasise the personal freedoms of the individual rather than the economic liberation of the entire minority group."

"In short, whilst social and professional attitudes towards abortion have changed since the 1960s, the legal and political foundations of abortion do not emphasise the agency of the patient. Such access therefore remains precarious and vulnerable to attack from conservative forces. Since its inception, access to trans healthcare has similarly been an ideological battleground. For those who need them, medical transition and contraception or abortion are, or should be, about the bodily autonomy of the individual, their right to mental wellbeing and the freedom to carve our their own destiny in defiance of gender roles."

"It is a helpful comparison given the general confusion among the public about whether they ought to consider being trans as a mental illness and if not why the NHS provides treatment for it. I think the stress associated with unwanted pregnancy which is not an illness but may require medical intervention, serves as a better analogy for explaining why trans healthcare is available on the NHS to preserve wellbeing and prevent personal distress."

"I don't think we'd be where we are today, encouraging ever larger numbers of people to think within an abolitionist frame, had not the trans community taught us that is possible to effectively challenge that which is considered the very foundation of our sense of normalcy. So if it is possible to challenge the gender binary then we can certainly effecirbely resist prisons and jails and police." - Angela Davies

"A person's sense of their own identity is certainly important for psychological well-being, but as a political endpoint it turns into solipsism and detachment from others."

"Trans people are emblematic of wider conceptual concerns about the autonomy of the individual in society. Their rejection of dominant ancient ideas about the connection between biological characteristics and identity causes a dilemma for the nation state. Whether to acknowledge and give credence to the own individuals' identity in law and culture or to admit that the state is the final authority on identity and to assert its power over the people by force."

"Dismantling patriachy requires a full analysis of all the ways it manifests itself. Ignoring the concerns of any woman or person subject to misogyny will instead of abolishing patriachy, all the feminist movement will achieve is the creation of a sub class of woman against whom gender violence and misogyny remain acceptable."

• The Siskiyou, July 1989, T C Boyle - 3.5⭐ 
• Zoogoing, Lydia Millet - 4.25⭐
• Sacred Space, Kim Stanley Robinson - 1.75⭐
• Hermie, Nathaniel Rich - 4.5⭐ 
• Diary of an interesting year, Helen Simpson - 3⭐ 
• Newromancer, Toby Litt - 2.25 ⭐
• The siphoners, David Mitchell - 3.5⭐
• Arzéstula, Wu Ming 1 - 2.25⭐
• The tamarisk Hunter, Paolo Bacigalupi -3.25⭐ 
• Time capsule found on the dead planet, Margaret Atwood - 3.25⭐

"He had wanted the old wolf to come close to him, head down, softening. As though all wild animals could one day be tamed - as though this was an aspect of all of them, this one-day-tamable quality, and their widlerness was nothing but coyness or a mannerism. As though animals should not only submit to people but behave like them, comport thamselves with civility.... Privately he thought, at the heart of it, you wanted animals to turn to you in welcome. It was a habit gained from expecting each other to do this."

"Capitalism cared more about it's children as accessories and demonstrations of earning power than their future."

"The ruins of a language of heart-wrenching. Every word that dies out is a house that gives up, sags and sinks, becomes buried in the sand. These words were inhabited, human beings filled them with life and stories."

"They pranced around in their trousers, feeling grotesquely changed by them, not only in their appearance, but in their movements, their abilities. Great possibilities unexpectedly opened up now thye had their legs covered so sensibly and practically and no longer needed to worry about what lay bare beneath ballooning frocks and what was so imperfectly concealed by them. Why did girls have to wear frocks? Suddenly they saw why they were so different to their brother, so inferior and negligible in comparison: it was because they did not wear trousers. Now they thrust their hands into their pockets and felt even more suprior - what a sense of possession, of confidence it gave one to have pockets, to shove one's fists into them, as if by simply owning pockets one owned riches, owned independence."

"Isn't strange how life won't flow, like a river, but moves in jumps, as if it were held back by locks that are opened now and then to let it jump forwards in a kind of flood? There are these long still stretches - nothing happens - each day is exactly like the other - plodding, uneventful - and then suddenly there is a crash - mighty deeds take place - momentous events - even if one doesn't know it at the time - then life subsides."

“Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”

"'If man you be in heart, not adamant, forbear that wicked cant until you have discovered What the surplus is, and Where it is. Will you decide what men shall live, what men shall die? ”