skudiklier's Reviews (647)

I'm not sure how much I liked this book. I enjoyed it, I found it engaging, and I laughed out loud more than once. I also really liked some of the lines; I listened to the audiobook while driving so I sadly didn't save most of them, but there was one part that hit me so hard I paused the book and just sort of yelled for a minute. I just spent fifteen minutes tracking it down so I might as well share it here:

"The best wedges of words were the ones my eight-year-olds wrote: I like her face. With her I am happy. I wished I’d never learned more advanced grammar and could only make sentences like that. It would give me an excuse to say them aloud."

Anyway. This book didn't really go anywhere and I'm not sure the characters are very good in any real way, but I enjoyed the narration for sure. It's interesting and I'd recommend it to some people, but not everyone. 

Ohh I love this, just like everything else Becky Chambers writes. This is different from the other books I've read by her, but still absolutely engaging and interesting and compelling. 

I read a lot of poetry books, and even rate a lot of them five stars. I love a lot of poetry collections. But very rarely do I find one that I truly think doesn't have a bad poem in it. This book was incredible. It all fit so well with the theme without ever feeling repetitive or on-the-nose. It was dark, and soft, and compelling, and despairing, and hopeful. I loved it so much, and I'm glad I bought it so I can go back and reread it whenever I want. 

I'm a white person, so my opinions on books about racism don't really matter, and speaking as if they do feels weird. However, if my (more detailed) positive review of this book can get anyone to read it, I think that's worth maybe coming across poorly to others who think I should just say it's good and move on. Happy to hear others' opinions on this though if anyone finds anything I say in this review off-putting! 

So, that said: I feel like a lot of books on race/racism and related topics (policing, the criminal punishment system, racial justice) often lean towards either A) being too broad and not challenging enough, so that (white) people can feel like they understand without ever being made to feel uncomfortable, or B) starting from a place of understanding farther along in the process so that they maybe end up preaching to the choir a bit, because very few people will fully read them who weren't already in agreement. There are benefits to this and I'm not saying books in that second category aren't necessary and useful--they very much are. But still, I wouldn't recommend them to my older family members, for instance, or to people who want to understand but just don't get it yet.

This book, in my (again, definitely white) opinion, strikes a really good balance between those two sides. It very clearly and unapologetically lays out hard truths and things that might make readers uncomfortable, especially white readers who haven't had to think much about their own racism or complicity in white supremacy. However, it also argues so well a lot of the common points people make. Like, there are some people close to me who I've had conversations with about race where I've ended up frustrated because I couldn't get them to understand what I was trying to say. And this book, again and again, explained things in a way I feel like those people would actually get. I want every white person I've tried to discuss race with (and came away frustrated) to read this book. It's obviously not going to fix everything, but it might get them to a similar page where we can then start to talk about more actions and solutions, rather than getting bogged down in things like why white people can't say the N word or why focusing on addressing class on its own won't solve racism.

tl;dr, So You Want to Talk About Race is full of good, clear, solid explanations for people who are learning this for the first time, or may feel defensive or disinclined to believe basic truths about race and racism. 

There are also lots of examples of actionable ways to use privilege for good, help make conversations about race easier, etc. This book is useful for people at many stages of knowledge and experience with racial issues and theories, and I'd recommend it to anyone interested, but especially white people. 

Full disclosure: one of my poems is in this anthology, so I'm pretty biased. But I enjoyed getting to read this! The poems included vary widely (in tone, topic, style, length, etc.), and it's nice to have a space to hear from and about neurodivergent people, despite the many other ways the authors included differ. I appreciate how the book is split into sections with little explanations for those who are less familiar with neurodivergence. My favorite poems included were "Developmental History" by Olivia Tuck and "We Are All Running Up That Hill by Kate Bush" by Freya Robinson.

I love Trista Mateer's work, and I was so excited to be able to read this. It follows a similar format to Aphrodite Made Me Do It, and I love how she uses Greek goddesses as inspiration for poetry about feminist pain and anger. My favorite parts of this collection were the sections from Artemis's point of view, and the collage art is mixed in so well. Thank you to Netgalley and Central Avenue Publishing for the chance to read and review this ARC. 

I really enjoyed this! It's got a lot of the great parts about mysteries while also turning so many tropes and conventions on their heads. Blanche is a great protagonist and I hope to read more of this series at some point. 

I love the author for telling us upfront that this one would address these issues but that everything would be fine. I love this series for handling hard topics but also being unwaveringly wholesome and sweet. Like, we all know there will be happy endings, and that in no way makes me less interested in the story. I love this series and these characters and I'm excited to keep reading when the updates continue. 

Ah I love that I'm past what happened in the show now!! It's so fun getting to see more of them and their relationship and how they deal with things. I adore this series