svmreads's Reviews (412)

DNF’d after Chapter 6. Could not get into this writing style.

One of the worst books I’ve read this year. Did nothing to add to the discourse around eating disorders besides borderline glamorizing them. All of the characters were terrible, especially Justine who was essentially a manic pixie dream girl. This book was not it.
Editing to add that Justine’s male friends were equally insufferable. One of them carries a camcorder everywhere. Seriously.

EDIT: bumping this up to 4 stars, as it has had a lasting impact on me

In this manifesto, Legacy Russell takes readers through the possibilities of online presence and online activism as means of reconceptualizing gender, sexuality, identity, race, body, and feminism. Russell argues that activities and identity away from keyboard (AFK) have been privileged because they are seen as “real” when in actuality the presence(s) that we create online are very real and can be the most powerful tool in envisioning alternatives to the white cishet patriarchal capitalism we live under.

I thought that theoretically this book was fascinating. I loved the idea of the “glitch” as means of breaking down societal binaries. The concept of “glitch” was used to represent not only fitting into society’s prescribed mold of normalcy, but also disrupting and ultimately breaking down the system. There were several sections in this book I would like to revisit in the future that discussed how our online lives can help further activism efforts as well as allow us to explore personal and collective identities beyond binaries.

Where I struggled with this book was in its execution. I get that this book was a manifesto - however, I felt that some of the ideas were very repetitive or not as well fleshed out. Additionally, this book was loaded with academic terminology to the point where it was nearly inaccessible. If you are going to write a manifesto, it should be intelligible to the general public. I ended up skimming the last third of this book because I became tired of having to reread every single paragraph.

Overall, if you’re interested in cyberfeminism, feminist theory, and the relationship between technology and social activism, I would recommend this book to keep on hand as a reference text, but I wouldn’t recommend reading it cover to cover.

If you are like me and your comfort TV shows are Chopped and Chef’s Table, this is the book for you! In this memoir, Momofuku founder David Chang discusses how he found his way into the restaurant business, as well as how he built Momofuku into the enterprise it is. Chang also candidly tells readers about his struggles with bipolar disorder and depression, and how his issues with anger management would spill into the workplace.

My one qualm with this book was that I felt like it attempted to tackle several ideas, thus some chapters were more fleshed out than others. Additionally, if you’re not as familiar with the restaurant or food scene, you may be a bit lost, as Chang name drops a number of famous restaurants and chefs. However, I enjoyed this book overall - Chang’s voice was blunt and he never shied away from discussing his shortcomings, which I felt was refreshing for a memoir, and I loved learning more about the restaurant business and now want to read more books from chefs.

THIS. BOOK. This is the type of book where I went downstairs to get dinner, and brought it up with me so I could eat it while I finished reading because I could not put it down.

There are so many things to love about Pizza Girl! Jean Kyoung Frazier did an immaculate job in crafting the central protagonist, an eighteen year old pregnant Korean American pizza delivery girl. Aimless and stifled by her doting mother and boyfriend, she struggles to find purpose and to voice her emotions, all while dealing with grief from the loss of her father.
I also loved the parallel Frazier wrote between the main character and Jenny Hauser, a struggling mother and regular customer that the main character develops feelings for. I loved the explorations of the challenges of motherhood and finding fulfillment that were examined with both of these characters.

Pizza Girl is an absolute gem of a book. It’s raw, it’s vulnerable, it’s funny, it’s weird, it’s reflective, it’s messy, and it’s thought-provoking. One of my absolute favorite reads this year. 🍕❤️🧡💛