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algOne of the things I find the most useful and awesome about reading people's journals is reading their book logs. I am not a big fan of goodreads and I don't find amazon reviews to be helpful in general. I like to know what people I know think about books. and I was thinking maybe I'd go back to posting my own book log a bit more regularly. Prepare yourself.
For now, the last few books I've read:
Whipping Girl by Julia Serano
In July, I took Amtrak to NYC (from MD) and read six JD Robb books. Then I needed a break, so I turned to this. I'd bought it because the author published a new book about fostering inclusivity in feminism that looked interesting, but I figured I should read this before I read that. Since this one is from 2007, most of what's in here that's academic is stuff I already know from Tumblr -- a lot of the phrases she made up for the book are phrases I'm already conversant with because it's been seven years (eg trans-misogyny, cissexual privilege, effemimania).
The thing I found extra hard about this book -- which I spent an entire weekend reading -- is that there's a lot of stuff I can relate to about the experience of being read by people in society as a woman, and then there's all the stuff that just makes me feel like I'm bad at being a woman/girl/female because none of the described experiences match my experiences in my body. Which makes sense because my subconscious sex is not female, but I'm still startled by that sometimes.
(I remember the first time I realized that when people said "girl" they were talking about me; I was already, like, eleven years old. Totally still internalized a lot of societal bullshit about being female, though. Woo pervasive societal bullshit!)
That stuff I'll bring to therapy -- and it made me glad that most of the book is a retreading of trans/feminism 101 issues that I'm already familiar with, because I was really distracted by my own gender pain while reading it. But I would still definitely recommend to anyone who has done feminism 101 and is looking to explore feminism and privilege from the point of view of gender variance.
Instead of jumping right to the next Serano book, I took a break and read Living Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg. He literally wrote the book on the practice of nonviolent communication.
I may have mentioned this at some point (or not, I can't remember), but right now I am on the Board of Directors of the Organization for Transformative Works. One of the things that I have brought as my personal goal for my term is to bring better communication to the OTW directors and staff -- and it turned out that the communications facilitator recommended at the beginning of the year to help Board communicate with each other is an NVC practitioner. It seemed like fate. Or, you know, like NVC is a super popular way of communicating because it works really well. Either one.
So I have been working to bring NVC to the OTW (and some people are skeptical, so it is work), and reading more on the subject. This particular book was not quite as helpful to me as the original NVC book, but I did like the way it gave examples of using NVC in real-life situations.
I personally really like NVC because it makes sense to me -- it matches up with how I experience the world. I tend to evangelize about it. I think in a lot of ways this is a better starter book than the NVC theory book.
(Then I spent two weeks reading Captain America/Winter Soldier fanfic. My favorites so far are this fic in which Bucky is actually a member of the Communist Party and challenges Tony on capitalism and politics, and also this fic, which I linked on Twitter, which is about Steve making a YouTube video about braiding Bucky's hair.)
And now, today, I am once again on an Amtrak train headed to NYC -- this time to visit my nine-month-old nephew and eat some NY pizza. The train was late and we sat at the station for a while, so I sobbed my way through Women of Valor: Polish Resisters to the Third Reich by Joanne D. Gilbert -- basically it is transcribed oral history of four 90-something Jewish women who fought the Nazis during WWII. On the ground. In Poland/Russia/Germany/Hungary. Good thing I got a seat by myself. I didn't bring tissues so I am wiping up my tears with my plaid pajama pants. This is exactly the book I longed to read when I was an nine-year-old kid in the basement of my shul reading my way through the shul's Jewish history library. Not Gentiles being heroic and saving the Jews, but Jewish people fighting to save themselves, organizing factions of resistance, smuggling people out of ghettoes and death camps -- totally recommended.
Although... I mean, obviously the shoah was awful and horrific, but every time a historian remarks that it was "unprecedented" or "unimaginable" I'm kind of like... did no one else learn about what happens when settlers colonize land? Like, okay, no, the settlers colonizing the USA did not consider it a "world war" but they basically did the same thing to the Native Americans that was done to the Jews (and others, yes, I know) during WWII. Like... on purpose. Genocide is not a new thing. Systemized genocide is not a new thing. I think some of these historians are not very good at their job.
Signed,
4 shots of espresso this morning was not enough and now that I'm done crying I will be reading some more fanfic about Bucky Barnes, thanks
For now, the last few books I've read:
Whipping Girl by Julia Serano
In July, I took Amtrak to NYC (from MD) and read six JD Robb books. Then I needed a break, so I turned to this. I'd bought it because the author published a new book about fostering inclusivity in feminism that looked interesting, but I figured I should read this before I read that. Since this one is from 2007, most of what's in here that's academic is stuff I already know from Tumblr -- a lot of the phrases she made up for the book are phrases I'm already conversant with because it's been seven years (eg trans-misogyny, cissexual privilege, effemimania).
The thing I found extra hard about this book -- which I spent an entire weekend reading -- is that there's a lot of stuff I can relate to about the experience of being read by people in society as a woman, and then there's all the stuff that just makes me feel like I'm bad at being a woman/girl/female because none of the described experiences match my experiences in my body. Which makes sense because my subconscious sex is not female, but I'm still startled by that sometimes.
(I remember the first time I realized that when people said "girl" they were talking about me; I was already, like, eleven years old. Totally still internalized a lot of societal bullshit about being female, though. Woo pervasive societal bullshit!)
That stuff I'll bring to therapy -- and it made me glad that most of the book is a retreading of trans/feminism 101 issues that I'm already familiar with, because I was really distracted by my own gender pain while reading it. But I would still definitely recommend to anyone who has done feminism 101 and is looking to explore feminism and privilege from the point of view of gender variance.
Instead of jumping right to the next Serano book, I took a break and read Living Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg. He literally wrote the book on the practice of nonviolent communication.
I may have mentioned this at some point (or not, I can't remember), but right now I am on the Board of Directors of the Organization for Transformative Works. One of the things that I have brought as my personal goal for my term is to bring better communication to the OTW directors and staff -- and it turned out that the communications facilitator recommended at the beginning of the year to help Board communicate with each other is an NVC practitioner. It seemed like fate. Or, you know, like NVC is a super popular way of communicating because it works really well. Either one.
So I have been working to bring NVC to the OTW (and some people are skeptical, so it is work), and reading more on the subject. This particular book was not quite as helpful to me as the original NVC book, but I did like the way it gave examples of using NVC in real-life situations.
I personally really like NVC because it makes sense to me -- it matches up with how I experience the world. I tend to evangelize about it. I think in a lot of ways this is a better starter book than the NVC theory book.
(Then I spent two weeks reading Captain America/Winter Soldier fanfic. My favorites so far are this fic in which Bucky is actually a member of the Communist Party and challenges Tony on capitalism and politics, and also this fic, which I linked on Twitter, which is about Steve making a YouTube video about braiding Bucky's hair.)
And now, today, I am once again on an Amtrak train headed to NYC -- this time to visit my nine-month-old nephew and eat some NY pizza. The train was late and we sat at the station for a while, so I sobbed my way through Women of Valor: Polish Resisters to the Third Reich by Joanne D. Gilbert -- basically it is transcribed oral history of four 90-something Jewish women who fought the Nazis during WWII. On the ground. In Poland/Russia/Germany/Hungary. Good thing I got a seat by myself. I didn't bring tissues so I am wiping up my tears with my plaid pajama pants. This is exactly the book I longed to read when I was an nine-year-old kid in the basement of my shul reading my way through the shul's Jewish history library. Not Gentiles being heroic and saving the Jews, but Jewish people fighting to save themselves, organizing factions of resistance, smuggling people out of ghettoes and death camps -- totally recommended.
Although... I mean, obviously the shoah was awful and horrific, but every time a historian remarks that it was "unprecedented" or "unimaginable" I'm kind of like... did no one else learn about what happens when settlers colonize land? Like, okay, no, the settlers colonizing the USA did not consider it a "world war" but they basically did the same thing to the Native Americans that was done to the Jews (and others, yes, I know) during WWII. Like... on purpose. Genocide is not a new thing. Systemized genocide is not a new thing. I think some of these historians are not very good at their job.
Signed,
4 shots of espresso this morning was not enough and now that I'm done crying I will be reading some more fanfic about Bucky Barnes, thanks