skudiklier's Reviews (647)

I read nearly all the poems (and prompts) in this book on Instagram day by day, but wow am I glad I read this project in its entirety like this. I've never felt more in awe of Sabina and her writing, and grateful that she shared so many poems with us in such a short time span. The poems included here are incredible, and the cutout collage art style is amazing. 

This book was really interesting! It was kind of all over the place, and pretty short, but I'm glad I read it. It definitely highlights a lot of important things and it made me think. 

One of my favorite parts of reading anthologies is discovering new poets to read and follow! I got to read some of my friends and favorites in this one, as well as find some new amazing poets. 

I learned a lot from this book about the history of reproduction and reproductive rights on the Crow Reservation, as well as local and federal policies relating to Native Americans overall during the time period covered by this book. The author does a good job of connecting how broader legislation and trends impacted reproduction for Native American women. I'm glad I read it, even though of course a lot of it was infuriating. 

This book is one of the most important things you could read right now. Clint Smith visits places like plantations, prisons, and New York City to see how different sites and organizations are dealing with their history of slavery and racism. He connects the past to the present, and shows how this country was founded and built on slavery, and how this inequality continues on. And he shows how critical it is that we change the way we teach children about slavery, and the stories we tell about slavery and the United States.

While the book deals with serious historical topics, it is also a story about his personal experiences visiting these places, and it flows like a narrative in many ways. Smith is a beautiful writer and poet, and this book is never dry or boring in any way. I felt fully captivated by it in a way that feels rare in nonfiction (outside of memoirs).

I learned so much from this book—so much that I wish was taught to me in school, that I wish was taught to everyone. I learned history that informs my opinions on mass incarceration, the Civil War, constitutional law, Wall Street, the Emancipation Proclamation, capitalism, colonization, and more. I took a lot of notes (and screenshots) while reading this book, and I don't know where to begin trying to include them in a review like this. But here are a couple quotes that stood out to me:

"oppression is never about humanity or lack thereof. It is, and always has been, about power."

"In 1863, when the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, Black Americans owned only 0.5 percent of the total wealth in the United States. Today, that number has barely increased: Black people own about 1-1.5 percent of the nation's wealth. Despite the role Black Americans played in generating this country's wealth, they don't have access to the vast majority of it."

"I do not yet have all the words to discuss a crime that is still unfolding."

I normally say things like "people interested in (blank) should read this," or, "I would highly recommend this book to anyone," but this time I'm going to directly recommend this book to you. You, specifically, whoever is reading this—you should read How the Word Is Passed by Clint Smith, as soon as possible. 

Thank you to Netgalley and Little, Brown and Company for the chance to review this ARC. 

I think this memoir will be really helpful for a lot of people, and I'm very glad it was written. I'm also glad I read it. However, the writing was not very good; I feel bad saying this, and this is the first book in a very long time where I would actually say something like that. I think the structure of the book was sort of a mess, and so much of it was really on the nose. "Here's a story that I'm going to tell in a roundabout way as if it's not planned out ahead of time, and now here's how I connect this to broader society/gender/identity/etc." Again, I think this book will be great for some young people figuring out their identity on multiple levels. And it's not like it was written terribly or anything--but I haven't read a book written this poorly in a long time. 

This book was beautiful, thoughtful, and painful. It was a lot more about her relationship with her mother than I thought going in, but maybe that's because I have personal reasons I relate to some things with her father (and so I was especially interested in that going in). Regardless of what I expected, I definitely loved this book. 

Sometimes when I hear too many good things about a book, I'm hesitant to read it, because how could it live up to the hype? But wow was this amazing.

It's hard to write a review just after reading it, when there are still tears on my face. No one warned me how much this book would make me cry. But honestly by the end I found myself comparing it to Romeo and Juliet--only a much much better version.

This was so nice! I started this thinking I would read bits and pieces over the course of the next week or two, but instead I read nearly the entire thing in one sitting. This would be great for anyone, but especially someone in the early stages of questioning their gender.