Here’s a photo of a stack of books I’ve read lately. How about some micro-reviews? From bottom to top, we’ve got:
Musa Al-Gharbi, We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite. Princeton UP, 2024.
- Pretty damning indictment of US liberal colleges and the elite machine of which they are part. Maybe a bit cynical? No, not cynical exactly, just a bit… masculine? Analysis of US partisan identities: solid. Analysis of gender and disability issues: seriously undercooked.
Rupa Marya & Raj Patel, Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice. FSG, 2021.
- Loved it. Radical in the truest sense. Health humanities at its finest. Will write more about this one in the future.
Naomi Klein, Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World. FSG, 2023.
- Weirdly more poignant than I’d expected. A compassionate book. Beautiful sentences.
Stephanie Cacioppo, Wired for Love: A Neuroscientist’s Journey Through Romance, Loss, and the Essence of Human Connection. Flatiron Books, 2022.
- A very autistic narrative that doesn’t talk about autism. Not sure what to do with this one at all.
Amanda Montell, The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality. Atria/OSP, 2024.
- I think I probably would have liked this better if I had read it before Doppelganger rather than after; the two share a lot of themes, but Klein’s analysis resonated so much more deeply for me — I guess it’s a Gen X vs Millennial thing.
Valerie Kaur, See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love. One World, 2020.
- Loved it. Gave me a perspective on the aftereffects of 9/11 that I had never really considered or been exposed to. Wonderment as driver for political change. Definitely a kind of mother-goddess vibe I don’t relate to at all, but I can still appreciate it.
Elizabeth (Dori) Tunstall, Decolonizing Design: A Cultural Justice Guidebook. MIT Press, 2023.
- What a wonderful surprise this book was! I picked it up in The Rooms gift shop, took it home, and read it in about two sittings. Was a generous and hopeful antidote to We Have Never Been Woke. I’ll be referring back to this one a lot.
Elif Shafak, Black Milk: On the Conflicting Demands of Writing, Creativity, and Motherhood. Penguin Books, 2012.
- Surreal and marvelous! I don’t say this often, but: I have never read a book like this one. The subtitle doesn’t do it justice, nor does the back-cover description. Truly inventive. Highly recommend.
Currently reading both Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the Unites States, and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha’s The Future is Disabled: Prophecies, Love Notes, and Mourning Songs, (finally!) which proved way harder to get my paws on than I would have expected.
Andreae Callanan 