en-US Tue, 21 Feb 2023 10:31:13 -0800 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 55711622 From popular LGBTQ advice columnist and writer John Paul Brammer comes a hilarious, heartwarming memoir-in-essays chronicling his journey growing up as a queer, mixed-race kid in America’s heartland to becoming the “Chicano Carrie Bradshaw�� of his generation.

The first time someone called John Paul (JP) Brammer “Papi�� was on the popular gay hookup app Grindr. At first, it was flattering; JP took this as white-guy speak for “hey, handsome.�� Who doesn’t want to be called handsome? But then it happened again and again…and again, leaving JP wondering: Who the hell is Papi?

What started as a racialized moniker given to him on a hookup app soon became the inspiration for his now wildly popular advice column “¡Hola Papi!,�� launching his career as the Cheryl Strayed for young queer people everywhere—and some straight people too. JP had his doubts at first—what advice could he really offer while he himself stumbled through his early 20s? Sometimes the best advice to dole outcomes from looking within, which is what JP has done in his column and book—and readers have flocked to him for honest, heartfelt wisdom, and of course, a few laughs.

In ¡Hola Papi!, JP shares his story of growing up biracial and in the closet in America’s heartland, while attempting to answer some of life’s toughest questions: How do I let go of the past? How do I become the person I want to be? Is there such a thing as being too gay? Should I hook up with my grade school bully now that he’s out of the closet? Questions we’ve all asked ourselves, surely.

¡Hola Papi! is for anyone—gay, straight, and everything in between—who has ever taken stock of their unique place in the world.]]> 214 John Paul Brammer 1982141492 Kirsten 4 4.06 2021
author: John Paul Brammer
name: Kirsten
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/09/08
date added: 2023/02/21
shelves: essays, lgbtq-interest, memoir, non-fiction, poc-author, reviewer-book, work-related
review:

]]> 36276435 New York Times referred to Ursula K. Le Guin as America’s greatest writer of science fiction, they just might have undersold her legacy. It’s hard to look at her vast body of work?novels and stories across multiple genres, poems, translations, essays, speeches, and criticism?and see anything but one of our greatest writers, period.


In a series of interviews with David Naimon (Between the Covers), Le Guin discusses craft, aesthetics, and philosophy in her fiction, poetry, and nonfiction respectively. The discussions provide ample advice and guidance for writers of every level, but also give Le Guin a chance to to sound off on some of her favorite subjects: the genre wars, the patriarchy, the natural world, and what, in her opinion, makes for great writing. With excerpts from her own books and those that she looked to for inspiration, this volume is a treat for Le Guin’s longtime readers, a perfect introduction for those first approaching her writing, and a tribute to her incredible life and work.]]> 138 Ursula K. Le Guin 1941040993 Kirsten 4 4.25 2018
author: Ursula K. Le Guin
name: Kirsten
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2022/11/13
date added: 2022/11/13
shelves: essays, from-library, non-fiction, pacific-northwest, spec-fic, woman-author
review:

]]> 12527 288 Annie Dillard 0072434171 Kirsten 0 4.08 1974
author: Annie Dillard
name: Kirsten
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1974
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/08/08
shelves: to-read, book-club, essays, from-library, non-fiction, woman-author, work-related
review:

]]> 55887785
To live in a body both fat and Black is to intersect at the margins of a society that normalizes anti-fatness as anti-Blackness: hyper-policed by state and society, passed over for housing and jobs, and derided and misdiagnosed by medical professionals, fat Black people in the United States are subject to culturally sanctioned discrimination, abuse, and trauma.

In Belly of the Beast, author Da’Shaun Harrison–a fat, Black, disabled, and non-binary writer AMAB (assigned male at birth)–offers an incisive, fresh, and precise exploration of anti-fatness as anti-Blackness. Foregrounding the state-sanctioned murder of Eric Garner in a historical analysis of the policing, disenfranchisement, and invisibilizing of fat Black men and trans and nonbinary AMAB people, Harrison discusses the pervasive, insidious ways that anti-fat anti-Blackness shows up in everyday life. Fat people can be legally fired in 49 states for being fat; they’re more likely to be houseless. Fat people die at higher rates from misdiagnosis or non-treatment; fat women are more likely to be sexually assaulted. And at the intersections of fatness, race, disability, and gender identity, these abuses are exacerbated.

Taking on desirability politics, f*ckability, healthism, hyper-sexualization, invisibility, and the connections between anti-fatness and police violence, Harrison viscerally and vividly illustrates the myriad harms of anti-fat anti-Blackness–and offers strategies for dismantling denial, unlearning the cultural programming that says “fat is bad,�� and moving beyond the world we have now toward one that makes space for the fat and Black.]]> 144 Da’Shaun Harrison 1623175976 Kirsten 0 4.52 2021
author: Da’Shaun Harrison
name: Kirsten
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/02/23
shelves: currently-reading, essays, lgbtq-interest, non-fiction, own, poc-author, race-and-racism, reviewer-book, trans-author, nonbinary-author
review:

]]> 52022907
In their own words, queer and trans organizers, artists, healers, comrades, and leaders speak honestly and authentically about their own experiences with power, love, pain, and magic to create a textured and nuanced portrait of queer and trans realities in America. The many themes include Black femme mental health, Pacific Islander authorship, fat queer performance art, disability and healthcare practice, sex worker activism, and much more. Accompanying the narratives are Rose's startling and sinuous images that brings these leaders' words to visual life.

Our Work Is Everywhere is a graphic nonfiction book that underscores the brilliance and passion of queer and trans resistance.

Includes a foreword by Lambda Literary Award-winning author and activist Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, author of Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice.]]> 91 Syan Rose 1551528150 Kirsten 0 4.22 2021
author: Syan Rose
name: Kirsten
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2021/07/07
date added: 2021/07/07
shelves: essays, graphic-novels, lgbtq-interest, reviewer-book, poc-author, trans-author, woman-author, nonbinary-author
review:

]]> 50997980
The people who are creating national public policy, running billion-dollar tech enterprises, and winning Olympic medals. Andrew Gelwicks interviews the leaders who have forged their own paths and changed the world.


From Troye Sivan to Margaret Cho, George Takei to Billie Jean King, Shangela to Adam Rippon, each person credits their queer identity with giving them an edge in their paths to success. Their stories brim with the hard-won lessons gained over their careers. With variances in age, background, careers, and races, key themes shine









Collecting incisive, deeply personal conversations with LGBTQ+ trailblazers about how they leveraged the challenges and insights they had as relative outsiders to succeed in the worlds of business, tech, politics, Hollywood, sports and beyond, The Queer Advantage celebrates the unique, supercharged power of queerness.]]> 368 Andrew Gelwicks 0306874628 Kirsten 0 3.90
author: Andrew Gelwicks
name: Kirsten
average rating: 3.90
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2021/06/13
date added: 2021/06/13
shelves: essays, lgbtq-interest, memoir, non-fiction, reviewer-book, work-related
review:

]]> 464260 The Fire Next Time galvanized the nation and gave passionate voice to the emerging civil rights movement. At once a powerful evocation of James Baldwin’s early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice, the book is an intensely personal and provocative document. It consists of two “letters,�� written on the occasion of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, that exhort Americans, both black and white, to attack the terrible legacy of racism. Described by The New York Times Book Review as “sermon, ultimatum, confession, deposition, testament, and chronicle…all presented in searing, brilliant prose,�� The Fire Next Time stands as a classic of our literature.]]> 106 James Baldwin 067974472X Kirsten 5 4.55 1963
author: James Baldwin
name: Kirsten
average rating: 4.55
book published: 1963
rating: 5
read at: 2021/05/18
date added: 2021/05/18
shelves: book-club, essays, from-library, lgbtq-interest, memoir, non-fiction, poc-author, race-and-racism, work-related
review:

]]> 42800971
The powerful first-person narratives of this collection show us a world where gender exists along a spectrum, a web, a multidimensional space. Nuanced storytellers break away from mainstream portrayals of gender diversity, cutting across lines of age, race, ethnicity, ability, class, religion, family, and relationships. From Suzi, who wonders whether she'll ever "feel" like a woman after living fifty years as a man, to Aubri, who grew up in a cash-strapped fundamentalist household, to Sand, who must reconcile the dual roles of trans advocate and therapist, the writers' conceptions of gender are inextricably intertwined with broader systemic issues. Labeled gender outlaws, gender rebels, genderqueer, or simply human, the voices in Nonbinary illustrate what life could be if we allowed the rigid categories of "man" and "woman" to loosen and bend. They speak to everyone who has questioned gender or has paused to wonder, What does it mean to be a man or a woman--and why do we care so much?]]> 288 Micah Rajunov 0231185332 Kirsten 5 4.31 2019
author: Micah Rajunov
name: Kirsten
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2019/06/30
date added: 2021/04/28
shelves: essays, from-library, lgbtq-interest, memoir, non-fiction, nonbinary-author, poc-author, reviewer-book, work-related
review:

]]> 36031235 224 Nishta J. Mehra 1250133556 Kirsten 4 4.20 2019
author: Nishta J. Mehra
name: Kirsten
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2019/07/01
date added: 2021/04/28
shelves: lgbtq-interest, memoir, poc-author, work-related, essays, race-and-racism, reviewer-book, woman-author
review:

]]> 45915136 From the creator of Elle 's "Eric Reads the News," a poignant and hilarious memoir-in-essays about growing up seeing the world differently, finding his joy, and every awkward, extraordinary stumble along the way.

R. Eric Thomas didn't know he was different until the world told him so. Everywhere he went—whether it was his rich, mostly white, suburban high school, his conservative black church, or his Ivy League college in a big city—he found himself on the outside looking in.

In essays by turns hysterical and heartfelt, Eric redefines what it means to be an "other" through the lens of his own life experience. He explores the two worlds of his childhood: the barren urban landscape where his parents' house was an anomalous bright spot, and the verdant school they sent him to in white suburbia. He writes about struggling to reconcile his Christian identity with his sexuality, about the exhaustion of code-switching in college, accidentally getting famous on the internet (for the wrong reason), and the surreal experience of covering the 2016 election as well as the seismic change that came thereafter.

Ultimately, Eric seeks the answer to the ever more relevant question: Is the future worth it? Why do we bother when everything seems to be getting worse? As the world continues to shift in unpredictable ways, Eric finds the answers to these questions by re-envisioning what "normal" means, and in the powerful alchemy that occurs when you at last place yourself at the center of your own story.

For fans of Samantha Irby, Michael Arceneaux, and David Sedaris, Here for It will resonate deeply and joyfully with everyone who has ever felt pushed to the margins, struggled with self-acceptance, or wished to shine more brightly in a dark world. Stay here for it—the future may surprise you.]]> 264 R. Eric Thomas 0525621032 Kirsten 5 4.02 2020
author: R. Eric Thomas
name: Kirsten
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2020/05/11
date added: 2021/04/28
shelves: essays, humor, lgbtq-interest, memoir, poc-author, reviewer-book, work-related
review:

]]> 38592954 From the writer of Slate’s “Dear Prudence�� column comes a witty and clever collection of essays and cultural observations spanning pop culture��from the endearingly popular to the staggeringly obscure.

Sometimes you just have to yell. New York Times bestselling author of Texts from Jane Eyre Daniel M. Lavery publishing as Daniel Mallory Ortberg has mastered the art of “poetic yelling,�� a genre surely familiar to fans of his cult-favorite website The Toast.

In this irreverent essay collection, Ortberg expands on this concept with in-depth and hilarious studies of all things pop culture, from the high to low brow. From a thoughtful analysis on the beauty of William Shatner to a sinister reimagining of HGTV’s House Hunters, Something That May Shock and Discredit You is a laugh-out-loud funny and whip-smart collection for those who don’t take anything—including themselves—much too seriously.]]> 256 Daniel Mallory Ortberg 1982105216 Kirsten 4 3.85 2020
author: Daniel Mallory Ortberg
name: Kirsten
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2020/03/08
date added: 2021/04/28
shelves: essays, from-library, lgbtq-interest, memoir, reviewer-book, trans-author, work-related
review:

]]> 49663570 From the New York Times bestselling author of I Can’t Date Jesus, which Vogue called ��a piece of personal and cultural storytelling that is as fun as it is illuminating,�� comes a wry and insightful essay collection that explores the financial and emotional cost of chasing your dreams.

Ever since Oprah Winfrey told the 2007 graduating class of Howard University, “Don’t be afraid,�� Michael Arceneaux has been scared to death. You should never do the opposite of what Oprah instructs you to do, but when you don’t have her pocket change, how can you not be terrified of the consequences of pursuing your dreams?

Arceneaux has never shied away from discussing his struggles with debt, but in I Don’t Want to Die Poor, he reveals the extent to which it has an impact on every facet of his life—how he dates; how he seeks medical care (or in some cases, is unable to); how he wrestles with the question of whether or not he should have chosen a more financially secure path; and finally, how he has dealt with his “dream�� turning into an ongoing nightmare as he realizes one bad decision could unravel all that he’s earned. You know, actual “economic anxiety.��

I Don’t Want to Die Poor is an unforgettable and relatable examination about what it’s like leading a life that often feels out of your control.]]> 240 Michael Arceneaux 1982129301 Kirsten 4 3.73 2020
author: Michael Arceneaux
name: Kirsten
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2020/06/16
date added: 2021/04/28
shelves: ebooks, essays, lgbtq-interest, memoir, reviewer-book, work-related, poc-author
review:

]]> 30145148 From standup comic Cameron Esposito, a memoir that tackles sexuality, gender and equality--and how her Catholic upbringing prepared her for a career as an outspoken lesbian comedian in ways the Pope never could have imagined.


Cameron Esposito wanted to be a priest and ended up a standup comic. She would like to tell the whole, freaking queer as hell story. Her story. Not the sidebar to a straight person's rebirth-she doesn't give a makeover or plan a wedding or get a couple back together. This isn't a queer tragedy. She doesn't die at the end of this book, having finally decided to kiss the girl. It's the sexy, honest, bumpy and triumphant dyke's tale her younger, theology major self needed to read. Because there was a long time when she thought she wouldn't make it. Not as a comic, but as a human.

SAVE YOURSELF is full of funny and insightful recollections about everything from coming out (at a Catholic college where being gay can get you expelled) to how joining the circus can help you become a better comic (so much nudity) to accepting yourself for who you are--even if you're an awkward tween with an eyepatch (which Cameron was). Packed with heart, humor, and cringe-worthy stories anyone who has gone through puberty can relate to, Cameron's memoir is for that timid, fenced-in kid in all of us--and the fearless standup yearning to break free.
]]> 240 Cameron Esposito 1455591432 Kirsten 4 3.90 2020
author: Cameron Esposito
name: Kirsten
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2020/06/17
date added: 2021/04/28
shelves: essays, from-library, humor, lgbtq-interest, memoir, reviewer-book, woman-author, work-related
review:

]]> 42129103 Reimagines the field of queer studies by asking "How do we do queer theory?"

Imagining Queer Methods showcases the methodological renaissance unfolding in queer scholarship. This volume brings together emerging and esteemed researchers from all corners of the academy who are defining new directions for the field.

From critical race studies, history, journalism, lesbian feminist studies, literature, media studies, and performance studies to anthropology, education, psychology, sociology, and urban planning, this impressive interdisciplinary collection covers topics such as humanistic approaches to reading, theorizing, and interpreting, as well as scientific appeals to measurement, modeling, sampling, and statistics.

By bringing together these diverse voices into an unprecedented single volume, Amin Ghaziani and Matt Brim inspire us with innovative ways of thinking about methods and methodologies in queer studies.]]> 336 Matt Brim 1479821020 Kirsten 4 4.47 2019
author: Matt Brim
name: Kirsten
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2020/07/26
date added: 2021/04/28
shelves: essays, lgbtq-interest, non-fiction, reviewer-book, work-related
review:

]]> 45045677 Exploring the hazy line that can exist between friendship and desire, this memoir-in-essays is a coming out story that chronicles the childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood of Julia Koets, who grows up entrenched in religion in a small town in the South.

In this collection of linked, lyrical essays, Julia Koets writes, “When you date in secret, the pressure is different. You’re weightless. You’re stuck in between jumping and landing. You exist in midair. Your bones start to thin.�� Growing up in a small town in the South, Julia and her childhood best friend Laura know the church as well as they know each other’s bodies—the California-shaped scar on Julia’s right knee, the tapered thinness of Laura’s fingers, the circumference of each other’s ponytails. When Laura’s family moves away in middle school and Julia gets a crush on the new priest’s daughter at their church, Julia starts to more fully realize the consequences of being anything but straight in the South. After college, when Julia and her best friend Kate wait tables at a rib joint in Julia’s hometown, they are forced to face the price of the secrets they’ve kept—from their families, each other, and themselves. From astronaut Sally Ride’s obituary, to a UFO Welcome Center, to a shark tooth collection, to DC Comic’s Gay Ghost, this memoir-in-essays draws from mythology, religion, popular culture, and personal experience to examine how coming out is not a one-time act. At once heartrending and beautiful, The Rib Joint explores how fear and loss can inhabit our bodies and, contrastingly, how naming our desire allows us to feel the heart beating in our chest.]]> 144 Julia Koets 159709675X Kirsten 4 4.30 2019
author: Julia Koets
name: Kirsten
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2020/06/29
date added: 2021/04/28
shelves: essays, lgbtq-interest, memoir, reviewer-book, woman-author, work-related
review:

]]> 53336058
Trans Care is a critical intervention in how care labor and care ethics have been thought, arguing that dominant modes of conceiving and critiquing the politics and distribution of care entrench normative and cis-centric familial structures and gendered arrangements. A serious consideration of trans survival and flourishing requires a radical rethinking of how care operates.]]> 72 Hil Malatino 1517911184 Kirsten 4 4.34 2020
author: Hil Malatino
name: Kirsten
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2021/04/28
shelves: lgbtq-interest, non-fiction, reviewer-book, work-related, essays, from-library, trans-author
review:

]]> 50489367 A definitive selection of Audre Lorde’s "intelligent, fierce, powerful, sensual, provocative, indelible" (Roxane Gay) prose and poetry, for a new generation of readers.

Self-described "black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet" Audre Lorde is an unforgettable voice in twentieth-century literature, and one of the first to center the experiences of black, queer women. This essential reader showcases her indelible contributions to intersectional feminism, queer theory, and critical race studies in twelve landmark essays and more than sixty poems—selected and introduced by one of our most powerful contemporary voices on race and gender, Roxane Gay.

Among the essays included here are:
�� "The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action"
�� "The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House"
�� "I Am Your Sister"
�� Excerpts from the American Book Award–winning A Burst of Light

The poems are drawn from Lorde’s nine volumes, including The Black Unicorn and National Book Award finalist From a Land Where Other People Live. Among them are:
�� "Martha"
�� "A Litany for Survival"
�� "Sister Outsider"
�� "Making Love to Concrete"]]> 367 Audre Lorde 1324004614 Kirsten 5 4.63 2020
author: Audre Lorde
name: Kirsten
average rating: 4.63
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2020/10/25
date added: 2021/04/28
shelves: essays, from-library, lgbtq-interest, poc-author, reviewer-book, woman-author, work-related
review:

]]> 54119845 A fiercely personal and startlingly universal essay collection about the mysteries of gender and desire, of identity and class, of the stories we tell and the places we call home.

Flyover country, the middle of nowhere, the space between the coasts. The American Midwest is a place beyond definition, whose very boundaries are a question. It’s a place of rolling prairies and towering pines, where guns in bars and trucks on blocks are as much a part of the landscape as rivers and lakes and farms. Where girls are girls and boys are boys, where women are mothers and wives, where one is taught to work hard and live between the lines. But what happens when those lines become increasingly unclear? When a girl, like the land that raised her, finds herself neither here nor there?

In this intrepid collection of essays, Melissa Faliveno traverses the liminal spaces of her childhood in working-class Wisconsin and the paths she’s traveled since, compelled by questions of girlhood and womanhood, queerness and class, and how the lands of our upbringing both define and complicate us even long after we’ve left. Part personal narrative, part cultural reportage, Tomboyland navigates midwestern traditions, mythologies, landscapes, and lives to explore the intersections of identity and place. From F5 tornadoes and fast-pitch softball to gun culture, strange glacial terrains, kink party potlucks, and the question of motherhood, Faliveno asks curious, honest, and often darkly funny questions about belonging and the body, isolation and community, and what we mean when we use words like woman, family, and home.]]> 254 Melissa Faliveno 1542014204 Kirsten 5 3.97 2020
author: Melissa Faliveno
name: Kirsten
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2020/09/28
date added: 2021/04/28
shelves: lgbtq-interest, memoir, essays, non-fiction, woman-author, work-related, reviewer-book
review:

]]> 52670285
As a verb, "fashion" is exceedingly queer. Our queer community learns to fashion identity from and through the clothes we wear, the costumes we choose, the fabrics we desire—and the statements these make. No other community allows clothing to serve as such a primary, dominant marker of subjectivity, both individually and collectively. We don’t simply permit fashioning; we rely upon what we put on our bodies to tip off, to signal, and to serve as evidence of who we are.

This is much more than a “fashion book.�� It is a collection of artifacts that testifies to the power of fashion as a verb as it unfolds the complex and lovely strategies governing what we do in the LGBTQ+ community to build authentic selves that are both comfortable and seen.]]> 176 Megan Volpert 1944528067 Kirsten 4 4.71
author: Megan Volpert
name: Kirsten
average rating: 4.71
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2020/10/25
date added: 2021/04/28
shelves: art, essays, from-library, lgbtq-interest, memoir, non-fiction, reviewer-book, woman-author, work-related
review:

]]> 54620517 * 2021 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Memoir/Biography, Finalist.

* A Best Book of 2020 �� Kirkus Reviews, Book Riot, CBC, Globe and Mail, Largehearted Boy, Maudlin House

"In this stunning essay-collection-cum-prose-poem-cycle, Belcourt meditates on the difficulty and necessity of finding joy as a queer NDN in a country that denies that joy all too often. Out of the 'ruins of the museum of political depression' springs a 'tomorrow free of the rhetorical trickery of colonizers everywhere.' Happiness, this beautiful book says, is the ultimate act of resistance."
—Michelle Hart, O, The Oprah Magazine

Synopsis
The youngest ever winner of the Griffin Prize mines his personal history in a brilliant new essay collection seeking to reconcile the world he was born into with the world that could be.

For readers of Ocean Vuong and Maggie Nelson and fans of Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot, A History of My Brief Body is a brave, raw, and fiercely intelligent collection of essays and vignettes on grief, colonial violence, joy, love, and queerness.

Billy-Ray Belcourt’s debut memoir opens with a tender letter to his kokum and memories of his early life in the hamlet of Joussard, Alberta, and on the Driftpile First Nation. Piece by piece, Billy-Ray’s writings invite us to unpack and explore the big and broken world he inhabits every day, in all its complexity and contradiction: a legacy of colonial violence and the joy that flourishes in spite of it; first loves and first loves lost; sexual exploration and intimacy; the act of writing as a survival instinct and a way to grieve. What emerges is not only a profound meditation on memory, gender, anger, shame, and ecstasy, but also the outline of a way forward. With startling honesty, and in a voice distinctly and assuredly his own, Belcourt situates his life experiences within a constellation of seminal queer texts, among which this book is sure to earn its place.

Eye-opening, intensely emotional, and excessively quotable, A History of My Brief Body demonstrates over and over again the power of words to both devastate and console us.]]> 142 Billy-Ray Belcourt 1937512932 Kirsten 5 4.27 2020
author: Billy-Ray Belcourt
name: Kirsten
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2020/12/02
date added: 2021/04/28
shelves: essays, lgbtq-interest, memoir, poc-author, race-and-racism, work-related, reviewer-book
review:

]]> 50997645 Earth Keeper is an impassioned defense of all that our endangered planet stands to lose." —�� Esquire

A magnificent testament to the earth, from Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and poet N. Scott Momaday. One of the most distinguished voices in American letters, N. Scott Momaday has devoted much of his life to celebrating and preserving Native American culture, especially its oral tradition. A member of the Kiowa tribe, Momaday was born in Lawton, Oklahoma and grew up on Navajo, Apache, and Pueblo reservations throughout the Southwest. It is a part of the earth he knows well and loves deeply. In Earth Keeper, he reflects on his native ground and its influence on his people. “When I think about my life and the lives of my ancestors," he writes, "I am inevitably led to the conviction that I, and they,  belong  to the American land. This is a declaration of belonging. And it is an offering to the earth.��

In this wise and wonderous work, Momaday shares stories and memories throughout his life, stories that have been passed down through generations, stories that reveal a profound spiritual connection to the American landscape and reverence for the natural world. He offers an homage and a warning. He shows us that the earth is a sacred place of wonder and beauty, a source of strength and healing that must be honored and protected before it’s too late. As he so eloquently and simply reminds us, we must all be keepers of the earth.]]> 80 N. Scott Momaday 0063009331 Kirsten 5 4.23 2020
author: N. Scott Momaday
name: Kirsten
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2021/04/05
date added: 2021/04/05
shelves: essays, from-library, memoir, poc-author, poetry
review:

]]> 52022910 Like a Boy but Not a Boy explores author andrea bennett's experiences with gender expectations, being a non-binary parent, and the sometimes funny and sometimes difficult task of living in a body. The book's fourteen essays also delve incisively into the interconnected themes of mental illness, mortality, creative work, class, and bike mechanics (apparently you can learn a lot about yourself through truing a wheel).

In "Tomboy," andrea articulates what it means to live in a gender in-between space, and why one might be necessary; "37 Jobs 21 Houses" interrogates the notion that the key to a better life is working hard and moving house. And interspersed throughout the book is "Everyone Is Sober and No One Can Drive," sixteen stories about queer millennials who grew up and came of age in small communities.

With the same poignant spirit as Ivan Coyote's Tomboy Survival Guide, Like a Boy but Not a Boy addresses the struggle to find acceptance, and to accept oneself; and how one can find one's place while learning to make space for others. The book also wonders it means to be an atheist and search for faith that everything will be okay; what it means to learn how to love life even as you obsess over its brevity; and how to give birth, to bring new life, at what feels like the end of the world.

With thoughtfulness and acute observation, andrea bennett reveal intimate truths about the human experience, whether one is outside the gender binary or not.]]> 272 Andrea Bennett 1551528215 Kirsten 0 3.80 2020
author: Andrea Bennett
name: Kirsten
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2021/04/05
date added: 2021/04/05
shelves: essays, lgbtq-interest, memoir, mental-health, nonbinary-author, parenting, reviewer-book, work-related
review:

]]> 52595105 The dream of a queer separatist town. The life of a gay and Jewish Nazi-fighter. A gender reveal party that tears apart reality. These are the just some of the comics you'll find in this massive queer comics anthology from The Nib.

Be Gay, Do Comics is filled with dozens of comics about LGBTQIA experiences, ranging from personal stories to queer history to cutting satire about pronoun panic and brands desperate to co-opt pride. Brimming with resilience, inspiration, and humor, an incredible lineup of top indie cartoonists takes you from the American Revolution through Stonewall to today's fights for equality and representation.

Featuring more than 30 cartoonists including Hazel Newlevant, Joey Alison Sayers, Maia Kobabe, Matt Lubchansky, Breena Nuñez, Sasha Velour, Shing Yin Khor, Levi Hastings, Mady G, Bianca Xunise, Kazimir Lee, and many, many more!]]> 250 Matt Bors 1684057779 Kirsten 0 4.23 2020
author: Matt Bors
name: Kirsten
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2021/03/14
date added: 2021/03/14
shelves: comic-strips, essays, from-library, graphic-novels, lgbtq-interest, memoir, non-fiction, poc-author, poc-characters, reviewer-book, trans-author, woman-author, work-related
review:

]]> 48615751
As a child, Nezhukumatathil called many places home: the grounds of a Kansas mental institution, where her Filipina mother was a doctor; the open skies and tall mountains of Arizona, where she hiked with her Indian father; and the chillier climes of western New York and Ohio. But no matter where she was transplanted--no matter how awkward the fit or forbidding the landscape--she was able to turn to our world's fierce and funny creatures for guidance.

"What the peacock can do," she tells us, "is remind you of a home you will run away from and run back to all your life." The axolotl teaches us to smile, even in the face of unkindness; the touch-me-not plant shows us how to shake off unwanted advances; the narwhal demonstrates how to survive in hostile environments. Even in the strange and the unlovely, Nezhukumatathil finds beauty and kinship. For it is this way with wonder: it requires that we are curious enough to look past the distractions in order to fully appreciate the world's gifts.

Warm, lyrical, and gorgeously illustrated by Fumi Nakamura, World of Wonders is a book of sustenance and joy.]]> 165 Aimee Nezhukumatathil 1571313656 Kirsten 5 4.05 2020
author: Aimee Nezhukumatathil
name: Kirsten
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2021/01/05
date added: 2021/01/05
shelves: essays, from-library, memoir, non-fiction, poc-author, science, woman-author
review:

]]> 43517944 106 Andrea Long Chu 1788737377 Kirsten 3 3.58 2019
author: Andrea Long Chu
name: Kirsten
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2020/02/12
date added: 2020/02/12
shelves: from-library, non-fiction, essays, woman-author, lgbtq-interest, trans-author
review:
To be honest, I really did not “get�� this. I felt like I ALMOST had it, and there were parts that were brilliant, but overall I felt like it was in response to a conversation I was not party to.
]]> 44493926 When a fight between Superman and Mongul crashes into a small northwestern town, Naomi begins a quest to uncover the last time a super-powered person visited her home--and how that might tie into her own origins and adoption.

DC's biggest, newest mystery starts here!

Follow Naomi's journey on a quest that will take her to the heart of the DC Universe and unfold a universe of ideas and stories that have never been seen before. Join writers Brian Michael Bendis, David Walker and breakout artist Jamal Campbell in Wonder Comics' massively ambitious new series and star...Naomi!

Aimed at providing readers with honest and innovative reading experiences, Brian Michael Bendis' Wonder Comics is a celebration of the moments of in life when discoveries are made - when purpose and meaning are revealed and destinies are defined. Featuring the young heroes of the DC Universe as penned by all-star creative teams in exciting new adventures that will celebrate the wonders of life, love and comics.

Collects Naomi issues #1-6.]]> 160 Brian Michael Bendis 1401294952 Kirsten 4 3.78 2019
author: Brian Michael Bendis
name: Kirsten
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2019/11/17
date added: 2019/11/17
shelves: children-or-ya, essays, from-library, graphic-novels, pacific-northwest, poc-characters, spec-fic, superheroes, poc-author
review:
Tbh I was sort of hoping there’d be more set-up before we got to the rock ‘em sock ‘em, but I really dug this and the art is SO GOOD.
]]> 45880061 In this volume, series curators John Medeiros and Andrea Jenkins and facilitator Lisa Marie Brimmer present the finest poetry, fiction, and nonfiction pieces by the presenters. Their work, generated and performed in a powerful space of understanding, explores the material of life without internal or external censorship. Living, loving, working, learning, playing, reflecting, knowing, inventing, and being —these magnificent queer voices affirm the importance of civil literacy and the power of vulnerability.
Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew, Cole Bauer, Ryan Berg, Stephani Maari Booker, Lisa Marie Brimmer, Kimberly J. Brown, Nate Cannon, Anthony Ceballos, Stephanie Chrismon, James Cihlar, Venus de Mars, Jay Owen Eisenberg, Kelly Frankenberg, Ben French, Julie Gard, Christina Glendenning, Rachel Gold, Molly Beth Griffin, CM Harris, Andrea Jenkins, Kristin Johnson, Bronson Lemer, Raymond Luczak, Catherine Lundoff, Josina Manu Maltzman, John Medeiros, Nasreen Mohamed, Michael Kiesow Moore, Ahmad Qais Munhazim, Gary Eldon Peter, Junauda Petrus, Trina Porte, William Reichard, katie robinson, Dua Saleh, Lucas Scheelk, Erin Sharkey, Christine Stark, Vanessa Taylor, Bradford Tice, Ann Tweedy, Morgan Grayce Willow, S. Yarberry, Ariel Zitny]]> 288 John Medeiros 1681341220 Kirsten 0 4.15
author: John Medeiros
name: Kirsten
average rating: 4.15
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2019/09/01
date added: 2019/09/01
shelves: essays, fiction, from-library, lgbtq-interest, poetry, poc-author, poc-characters, work-related, woman-author, nonbinary-author
review:

]]> 40702084
America Ferrera has always felt wholly American, and yet, her identity is inextricably linked to her parents' homeland and Honduran culture. Speaking Spanish at home, having Saturday-morning-salsa-dance-parties in the kitchen, and eating tamales alongside apple pie at Christmas never seemed at odds with her American identity. Still, she yearned to see that identity reflected in the larger American narrative.

Now, in American Like Me, America invites thirty-one of her friends, peers, and heroes to share their stories about life between cultures. We know them as actors, comedians, athletes, politicians, artists, and writers. But they are also immigrants, children or grandchildren of immigrants, indigenous people, or people who otherwise grew up with deep and personal connections to more than one culture. Each of them struggled to establish a sense of self, find belonging, and feel seen. And they call themselves American enthusiastically, reluctantly, or not at all.

Ranging from the heartfelt to the hilarious, their stories shine a light on a quintessentially American experience and will appeal to anyone with a complicated relationship to family, culture, and growing up.]]> 0 America Ferrera 1508252734 Kirsten 4 4.13 2018
author: America Ferrera
name: Kirsten
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2019/06/04
date added: 2019/06/04
shelves: audiobooks, essays, from-library, memoir, non-fiction, poc-author, woman-author
review:
This was a wonderful pick to listen to in the car. Actors, entrepreneurs, authors, and other people of color -- mostly the children of first-generation immigrants -- share biographical stories of being American. Most of the authors of the pieces read their pieces themselves, which is great; it's a bit like listening to NPR. Sometimes, the readers' deliveries started to get a little same-y; I got the feeling a lot of them received the same coaching. But overall I really liked this, and it was perfect to listen to a little at a time.
]]> 26074156 New York Times bestselling author of Bad Feminist: a searingly honest memoir of food, weight, self-image, and learning how to feed your hunger while taking care of yourself.

“I ate and ate and ate in the hopes that if I made myself big, my body would be safe. I buried the girl I was because she ran into all kinds of trouble. I tried to erase every memory of her, but she is still there, somewhere. . . . I was trapped in my body, one that I barely recognized or understood, but at least I was safe.��

In her phenomenally popular essays and long-running Tumblr blog, Roxane Gay has written with intimacy and sensitivity about food and body, using her own emotional and psychological struggles as a means of exploring our shared anxieties over pleasure, consumption, appearance, and health. As a woman who describes her own body as “wildly undisciplined,�� Roxane understands the tension between desire and denial, between self-comfort and self-care. In Hunger, she explores her past—including the devastating act of violence that acted as a turning point in her young life—and brings readers along on her journey to understand and ultimately save herself.

With the bracing candor, vulnerability, and power that have made her one of the most admired writers of her generation, Roxane explores what it means to learn to take care of yourself: how to feed your hungers for delicious and satisfying food, a smaller and safer body, and a body that can love and be loved—in a time when the bigger you are, the smaller your world becomes.]]> 306 Roxane Gay 0062362593 Kirsten 5 4.17 2017
author: Roxane Gay
name: Kirsten
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2017/07/06
date added: 2018/12/17
shelves: essays, from-library, memoir, poc-author, woman-author, lgbtq-interest
review:
The power of this is in the way Gay simply invites the reader to sit with her in her pain, without serving as an "inspiration." There's something triumphant in the book refusing to be triumphant.
]]> 40170039 New York Times bestseller Black Man, White House.

"White people are always giving out ‘helpful�� advice, such as: ‘Comply with the police and you won’t get shot.�� They’ve been doling out advice to black people ever since ‘I suggest you pick the cotton if you don’t like getting whipped.�� Not getting shot by the police has long been a problem for black people. Even when we had a black president! Now that we have a new set of overlords, with President Trump at the head, wouldn’t it be nice to get a little advice on how not to get shot?"

From the elections of Barack Obama and Donald Trump to the tragic events of Ferguson and Charlottesville, the subject of race has come to the forefront of American consciousness. Legendary satirist D. L. Hughley offers his own cutting observations on this contentious issue that continues to traumatize the nation, a wound made more painful by the ongoing comments and actions of the 45th president.

Hughley uses humor to draw attention to injustice, sardonically offering advice on a number of lessons, from "How to make cops feel more comfortable while they’re handcuffing you" and "The right way to wear a hoodie" to "How to make white food, like lobster rolls" and "Ten types of white people you meet in the suburbs."

Filled with illustrations and pictures that illuminate these "lessons," How Not to Get Shot is a much-needed antidote in these distressing times.]]> 260 D.L. Hughley 0062698540 Kirsten 4 4.05 2018
author: D.L. Hughley
name: Kirsten
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2018/09/01
date added: 2018/09/01
shelves: essays, from-library, humor, non-fiction, poc-author, race-and-racism
review:
Painfully funny. You know how much you love it when John Oliver does those 20 minute segments on social issues that are both funny and enlightening? This book is like that, except if you’re reading it as a white person, you’re going to finish it feeling a bit less self-congratulatory.
]]> 33572805
For some, “passing�� means opportunity, access, or safety. Others don’t willingly pass but are “passed�� in specific situations by someone else. We Wear the Mask , edited by Brando Skyhorse and Lisa Page , is an illuminating and timely anthology that examines the complex reality of passing in America.

Skyhorse, a Mexican American, writes about how his mother passed him as an American Indian before he learned who he really is. Page shares how her white mother didn’t tell friends about her black ex-husband or that her children were, in fact, biracial.

The anthology includes writing from Gabrielle Bellot , who shares the disquieting truths of passing as a woman after coming out as trans, and MG Lord , who, after the murder of her female lover, embraced heterosexuality. Patrick Rosal writes of how he “accidentally�� passes as a waiter at the National Book Awards ceremony, and Rafia Zakaria agonizes over her Muslim American identity while traveling through domestic and international airports. Other writers include Trey Ellis , Marc Fitten , Susan Golomb , Margo Jefferson, Achy Obejas , Clarence Page , Sergio Troncoso , Dolen Perkins-Valdez , and Teresa Wiltz .]]> 204 Brando Skyhorse 0807078980 Kirsten 5 3.83
author: Brando Skyhorse
name: Kirsten
average rating: 3.83
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2018/05/06
date added: 2018/05/06
shelves: essays, from-library, lgbtq-interest, non-fiction, poc-author, race-and-racism, woman-author
review:

]]> 36525023 Women & Power, she traces the origins of this misogyny to its ancient roots, examining the pitfalls of gender and the ways that history has mistreated strong women since time immemorial. As far back as Homer’s Odyssey, Beard shows, women have been prohibited from leadership roles in civic life, public speech being defined as inherently male. From Medusa to Philomela (whose tongue was cut out), from Hillary Clinton to Elizabeth Warren (who was told to sit down), Beard draws illuminating parallels between our cultural assumptions about women’s relationship to power—and how powerful women provide a necessary example for all women who must resist being vacuumed into a male template. With personal reflections on her own online experiences with sexism, Beard asks: If women aren’t perceived to be within the structure of power, isn’t it power itself we need to redefine? And how many more centuries should we be expected to wait?]]> 115 Mary Beard 1631494759 Kirsten 5 4.02 2017
author: Mary Beard
name: Kirsten
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2018/02/25
date added: 2018/02/26
shelves: essays, from-library, non-fiction, woman-author
review:

]]> 34735012 224 Kitty Stryker 1944934251 Kirsten 5 4.16 2017
author: Kitty Stryker
name: Kirsten
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2018/02/10
date added: 2018/02/10
shelves: essays, from-library, lgbtq-interest, non-fiction, nonbinary-author, poc-author, woman-author
review:
This is fantastic. If you’ve been following conversations about consent in relation to sex, this book will take you to the next level. Almost every essay had me wanting to pull out my highlighter.
]]> 27170153


Negin Farsad is an Iranian-American-Muslim female stand-up comedian who believes she can change the world through jokes. And yes, sometimes that includes fart jokes. In this candid and uproarious book, Farsad shares her personal experiences growing up as the "other" in an American culture that has no time for nuance. In fact, she longed to be black and/or Mexican at various points of her youth, you know, like normal kids. Right? RIGHT?

Writing bluntly and hilariously about the elements of race we are often too politically correct to discuss, Farsad takes a long hard look at the iconography that still shapes our concepts of "black," "white," and "Muslim" today-and what it means when white culture defines the culture. Farsad asks the important questions like, What does it mean to have a hyphenated identity? How can we actually combat racism, stereotyping, and exclusion? Do Iranians get bunions at a higher rate than other ethnic groups? (She's asking for a friend.)

How to Make White People Laugh tackles these questions with wit, humor, and incisive intellect. And along the way, you might just learn a thing or two about tetherball, Duck Dynasty, and wine slushies.]]> 256 Negin Farsad 1455558222 Kirsten 3
The end result is a bit scattershot and I often felt that Farsad was being entirely too gosh-darn NICE. I mean, she definitely comes from a philosophy that education and niceness will bring the bigots around, which is the case for some people, but at times it was frustrating because she doesn't seem to at all want to talk about the people who are just never going to like her. And maybe that's ok, maybe it's important to just focus on the minds who can be changed. But I would have liked to see a little bit more about how she gets through a day knowing that some minds will never change.

Anyway, this was well worth reading and I'll be seeking out her stand-up because she's straight-up hilarious.]]> 3.75 2016
author: Negin Farsad
name: Kirsten
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2017/07/19
date added: 2017/07/19
shelves: essays, from-library, humor, memoir, poc-author, race-and-racism, religion
review:
This is a very funny and lighthearted book that's kind of a combination of memoir, manifesto, and instructional book for minorities on interacting with white people. At times, this combination made it hard to pin down just who Farsad intended her audience to be: sometimes the book was very much directed at white readers, while at other times she offered advice for POC.

The end result is a bit scattershot and I often felt that Farsad was being entirely too gosh-darn NICE. I mean, she definitely comes from a philosophy that education and niceness will bring the bigots around, which is the case for some people, but at times it was frustrating because she doesn't seem to at all want to talk about the people who are just never going to like her. And maybe that's ok, maybe it's important to just focus on the minds who can be changed. But I would have liked to see a little bit more about how she gets through a day knowing that some minds will never change.

Anyway, this was well worth reading and I'll be seeking out her stand-up because she's straight-up hilarious.
]]> 26403509 88 Kathy Crutcher 069230956X Kirsten 4 4.00 2014
author: Kathy Crutcher
name: Kirsten
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2017/06/15
date added: 2017/06/15
shelves: children-or-ya, essays, from-library, memoir, non-fiction, poc-author
review:

]]> 29875925
But one day an unforeseen event forces the women together. And gradually the bickering and sniping softens into lively debate, and from there into memories shared. But could these sparks of connection ever transform into friendship? Or is it too late to expect these two to change?]]> 278 Yewande Omotoso 1250124573 Kirsten 3
I liked this but I rather felt there was not enough about Marion to justify the strange sense of redemption toward her character at the end. She reminds something of a cipher, albeit a rather pathetic one.]]> 3.56 2016
author: Yewande Omotoso
name: Kirsten
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2017/04/09
date added: 2017/04/09
shelves: essays, from-library, fiction, poc-author, poc-characters, woman-author
review:
Two women in South Africa, one black, one white, learn to drop some of their barriers after they're thrown together.

I liked this but I rather felt there was not enough about Marion to justify the strange sense of redemption toward her character at the end. She reminds something of a cipher, albeit a rather pathetic one.
]]> 28696602 I'm Judging You, and you will argue with it, laugh hysterically at it, shout 'AW HELL YES' at it, and carry parts of it in your heart to dissect or inspire... Perfect for starting important and meaty discussions about all of the topics your mama told you never to bring up at polite dinner parties." (Jenny Lawson, New York Times best-selling author of Furiously Happy)

With over 500,000 readers a month at her enormously popular blog, AwesomelyLuvvie.com, Luvvie Ajayi has become a go-to source for smart takes on pop culture. I'm Judging You is her debut book of humorous essays that dissects our cultural obsessions and calls out bad behavior in our increasingly digital, connected lives—from the importance of the newest Shonda Rhimes television drama to serious discussions of race and media representation to what to do about your fool cousin sharing casket pictures from Grandma's wake on Facebook. With a lighthearted, razor-sharp wit and a unique perspective, I'm Judging You is the audiobook the world needs, doling out the hard truths and a road map for bringing some "act right" into our lives, social media, and popular culture.]]> 241 Luvvie Ajayi 1627796061 Kirsten 3 3.68 2016
author: Luvvie Ajayi
name: Kirsten
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2017/02/10
date added: 2017/02/10
shelves: from-library, humor, non-fiction, poc-author, race-and-racism, woman-author, essays
review:

]]>