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thebacklistborrower's Reviews (570)
I loved this book. As a person who has been slowly trying to educate myself on race issues, I always felt a gap in my knowledge is how to talk about race, especially with those who may not understand the depth and breadth of the issues yet.
What I loved about this book was that it gives anecdotes, facts, and figures about systemic racism, individual racism, and microagressions, but then also gives literal steps on how to talk about race with others. While I was listening to this book on audiobook, I found I often stopped to transcribe what I was hearing to refer to again later, including "how to improve the chances of success" when talking about race.
I would recommend this book to anybody starting out on their racial justice journey, who have the basics down, or those who are trying to figure out what to do with what they are learning. It is an approachable, entertaining book that anybody could learn from.
What I loved about this book was that it gives anecdotes, facts, and figures about systemic racism, individual racism, and microagressions, but then also gives literal steps on how to talk about race with others. While I was listening to this book on audiobook, I found I often stopped to transcribe what I was hearing to refer to again later, including "how to improve the chances of success" when talking about race.
I would recommend this book to anybody starting out on their racial justice journey, who have the basics down, or those who are trying to figure out what to do with what they are learning. It is an approachable, entertaining book that anybody could learn from.
I was more productive than I've ever been when I was reading this book. Why? I was listening to the audiobook and could. not. stop. So, I kept doing more and more chores so I could keep listening to this book which was part drama, part mystery and 100% addictive.
The book follows the Piper family: James, the father, Materia, a Lebanese woman who was still a child when they married, and their four children: Kathleen, Frances, Mercedes, and Lily, through an intergenerational story of what makes, and breaks, a family.
Through the twists and turns of the 20th century, the family faces obstacles, both wrought by external forces, but also borne from the actions of the family themselves and the secrets that are kept from each other and the broader public. What seemed to start as your perennial Canadian novel of facing tough times in a tough part of the country, quickly turned to drama and mystery as MacDonald expertly weaves together the stories so that while the reader knows more than each of the characters, still so much is left in the dark until the very last moment.
There is so much dark in this novel, but it just makes the moments of joy, happiness, and beauty so much brighter. I felt as a witness to their stories, and as I learned to love each character, felt I could not put the book down until I saw it to the end.
CW: physical and sexual abuse of adults and children
The book follows the Piper family: James, the father, Materia, a Lebanese woman who was still a child when they married, and their four children: Kathleen, Frances, Mercedes, and Lily, through an intergenerational story of what makes, and breaks, a family.
Through the twists and turns of the 20th century, the family faces obstacles, both wrought by external forces, but also borne from the actions of the family themselves and the secrets that are kept from each other and the broader public. What seemed to start as your perennial Canadian novel of facing tough times in a tough part of the country, quickly turned to drama and mystery as MacDonald expertly weaves together the stories so that while the reader knows more than each of the characters, still so much is left in the dark until the very last moment.
There is so much dark in this novel, but it just makes the moments of joy, happiness, and beauty so much brighter. I felt as a witness to their stories, and as I learned to love each character, felt I could not put the book down until I saw it to the end.
CW: physical and sexual abuse of adults and children
July ended up being a weird time to read this novel. Set during the war, and frequently referring to the destruction of the city, the falling bombs, it was just two weeks after finishing the book that the explosion of stockpiled weaponry at the port destroyed the city.
This book took me a long time to get into, and it isn't a long book. Bassam, the main character, and George (AKA De Niro) are two friends trying to make ends meet in a city in the middle of a war. Bassam works the port, and De Niro, at a casino. Over time, De Niro gets wrapped up in the Christian milita, gaining power and connections, Meanwhile Bassam tries to avoid the war, and increasingly his friend George, before eventually escaping to Europe.
This is the second book I've read by Rawi Hage, the first being [b:Cockroach|8787256|Cockroach|Rawi Hage|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348757402l/8787256._SX50_.jpg|4040733], and both have failed to connect with me. I think both are strongly connected to the sense of desperation, and despondency as one's life condition worsens, and the absence of drive, or of purpose, is present in the style of the writing. While this is a stylistic choice to communicate those emotions through the literal words on the page, I find it harder to connect with than other styles.
All that being said, I did enjoy the book by the end, and I'm glad to have read it. The language has moments of hilarity and happiness and fun, and the descriptions of Beirut and the surrounding area are unforgettable.
This book took me a long time to get into, and it isn't a long book. Bassam, the main character, and George (AKA De Niro) are two friends trying to make ends meet in a city in the middle of a war. Bassam works the port, and De Niro, at a casino. Over time, De Niro gets wrapped up in the Christian milita, gaining power and connections, Meanwhile Bassam tries to avoid the war, and increasingly his friend George, before eventually escaping to Europe.
This is the second book I've read by Rawi Hage, the first being [b:Cockroach|8787256|Cockroach|Rawi Hage|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348757402l/8787256._SX50_.jpg|4040733], and both have failed to connect with me. I think both are strongly connected to the sense of desperation, and despondency as one's life condition worsens, and the absence of drive, or of purpose, is present in the style of the writing. While this is a stylistic choice to communicate those emotions through the literal words on the page, I find it harder to connect with than other styles.
All that being said, I did enjoy the book by the end, and I'm glad to have read it. The language has moments of hilarity and happiness and fun, and the descriptions of Beirut and the surrounding area are unforgettable.
When I saw this book in a book club list, I was intrigued and I was pretty excited to give this book a go. It is not one I would have probably ever have picked up on my own, but that’s the beauty of book clubs.
Unfortunately, the book just didn’t really land with me. Repeatedly described as funny in reviews, on the cover, and by the woman who sold me the book, maybe it was oversold, but I just didn’t find it that funny at all. I like the idea of the story, but the humour is setup by the character flaws of the motley cast of this book. These characters include Prudence, a new yorker who inherited her uncle’s debts in addition to the rundown Woefield property, Earl, the crotchety farmhand with a past he’s avoiding, Seth, an early-20s alcoholic who has lived with his alcoholic mother since a mysterious incident with his drama teacher, and Sara, a young girl who keeps her chickens at Woefield, spending a lot of time there to avoid her father, who is verbally and physically abusive to her mother…. Sounds like a hoot, right? Spoilers ahead…
I mostly liked Prudence, and I found Earl’s pieces easy to read. But I had a hard time finding humour in Seth’s and Sara’s stories. Eventually we learn that Seth had had a relationship with his high school teacher (non-sexual, but intimate). Apart from that, there are at least two scenes where his alcoholism ends with him harassing women. I just couldn't find the humour. Sara makes friends with a born-again Christian girl and starts having anxiety about making it to heaven, all while her home life falls apart around her. Eventually her parents arrange for her to stay at Woefield, and she’s still there when the book ends. I just couldn’t find the humour there either.
Apart from that, the book just seemed to plug along too fast. So much happens so quickly, its hard to keep up and get to appreciate the characters and the farm. The ending comes quickly without really any resolution of any of the issues any of the characters were facing. It's the first book in a series,while I did like some parts, and despite what it seems like above, there were some funny parts, but overall I’m not inspired to pick up the next book in the series and learn more.
Unfortunately, the book just didn’t really land with me. Repeatedly described as funny in reviews, on the cover, and by the woman who sold me the book, maybe it was oversold, but I just didn’t find it that funny at all. I like the idea of the story, but the humour is setup by the character flaws of the motley cast of this book. These characters include Prudence, a new yorker who inherited her uncle’s debts in addition to the rundown Woefield property, Earl, the crotchety farmhand with a past he’s avoiding, Seth, an early-20s alcoholic who has lived with his alcoholic mother since a mysterious incident with his drama teacher, and Sara, a young girl who keeps her chickens at Woefield, spending a lot of time there to avoid her father, who is verbally and physically abusive to her mother…. Sounds like a hoot, right? Spoilers ahead…
I mostly liked Prudence, and I found Earl’s pieces easy to read. But I had a hard time finding humour in Seth’s and Sara’s stories. Eventually we learn that Seth had had a relationship with his high school teacher (non-sexual, but intimate). Apart from that, there are at least two scenes where his alcoholism ends with him harassing women. I just couldn't find the humour. Sara makes friends with a born-again Christian girl and starts having anxiety about making it to heaven, all while her home life falls apart around her. Eventually her parents arrange for her to stay at Woefield, and she’s still there when the book ends. I just couldn’t find the humour there either.
Apart from that, the book just seemed to plug along too fast. So much happens so quickly, its hard to keep up and get to appreciate the characters and the farm. The ending comes quickly without really any resolution of any of the issues any of the characters were facing. It's the first book in a series,while I did like some parts, and despite what it seems like above, there were some funny parts, but overall I’m not inspired to pick up the next book in the series and learn more.
This book was selected as part of the @Femi.Books book club, and I glad I read this! Through the course of the book, Perez lays out the degree to which women are ignored in the design, function, and operation of the world. Some of these things readers may already know, like how women present heart attacks differently than men, but just so much the average reader won’t know, like how Viagra has proven extremely effective against period pain, but nobody is willing to provide funding to research it further.
Over and over again, the reader is shown how the supposedly “gender neutral” design of the world is actually biased to men, but because research is rarely sex-disaggregated, nobody realizes (except the women, in many cases). Why research doesn’t include women surprisingly often has the same answer, whether you are doing a transportation study, vehicle testing, or medical testing: women are too complicated. Our trips around our communities are too erratic, with too many stops (daycare, seniors facility, clinic, work, daycare, grocery, etc.). Our bodies are too complicated for medical testing, or crash testing, despite the fact that women are much more likely to die in a car crash than men. How often more issues are not discovered, or solved, simply because the researcher or designer didn’t ask or listen to women is even more baffling.
I’m sure I frustrated my partner reading this book as I was so often huffing, muttering, or straight-up saying “listen to this!” and reading him the better part of a page (or more). Every page seemed to have something new to learn, about how this world wasn’t built for me, and how in some cases, it's a matter of life and death. I can't recommend this book to other women enough.
c/w for the book: sex-essentialism, trans/nbphobia
A quick search shows the author previously espoused transphobic and enbyphobic ideas (some deleted, others not), and the concept of sex-essentialism is prevalent in the book (women are XX, men XY, etc.). That the data reported in this book exists shows that women are living in a world not designed for them. BUT, for Perez to ignore that other groups alsow face that same discrimination is doing the same thing she accuses men of doing: ignoring a group of folk because they are complicated. Gender is complicated. It's not a spectrum, and every day people are left out because they don't fit into a rigid box society puts on them. For this book to not even acknowledge this, let alone research it, is to perpetuate the issue Perez was trying to raise awareness of.
Over and over again, the reader is shown how the supposedly “gender neutral” design of the world is actually biased to men, but because research is rarely sex-disaggregated, nobody realizes (except the women, in many cases). Why research doesn’t include women surprisingly often has the same answer, whether you are doing a transportation study, vehicle testing, or medical testing: women are too complicated. Our trips around our communities are too erratic, with too many stops (daycare, seniors facility, clinic, work, daycare, grocery, etc.). Our bodies are too complicated for medical testing, or crash testing, despite the fact that women are much more likely to die in a car crash than men. How often more issues are not discovered, or solved, simply because the researcher or designer didn’t ask or listen to women is even more baffling.
I’m sure I frustrated my partner reading this book as I was so often huffing, muttering, or straight-up saying “listen to this!” and reading him the better part of a page (or more). Every page seemed to have something new to learn, about how this world wasn’t built for me, and how in some cases, it's a matter of life and death. I can't recommend this book to other women enough.
c/w for the book: sex-essentialism, trans/nbphobia
A quick search shows the author previously espoused transphobic and enbyphobic ideas (some deleted, others not), and the concept of sex-essentialism is prevalent in the book (women are XX, men XY, etc.). That the data reported in this book exists shows that women are living in a world not designed for them. BUT, for Perez to ignore that other groups alsow face that same discrimination is doing the same thing she accuses men of doing: ignoring a group of folk because they are complicated. Gender is complicated. It's not a spectrum, and every day people are left out because they don't fit into a rigid box society puts on them. For this book to not even acknowledge this, let alone research it, is to perpetuate the issue Perez was trying to raise awareness of.
This book has been on my list since I read And the Birds Rained Down a few years ago, and it just finally got to the top of my list. This was a super interesting book. Eve Joseph compares how different cultures deal with death and dying, especially the Coast Salish, which was really unique. Another interesting technique that is used is etymology. Eve will review the etymology of a word relating to death and dying and by doing so makes the reader see the word, and the process, in a whole new light. The memoir aspect of this book is limited, but I didn't mind that. Joseph perfectly connects her experiences with the death of her brother, mother, and many patients into a frame, within which she weaves the anthropology, language, culture, and practices of death. This book was beautiful and fascinating and is definitely one I'd read again.
