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Bad Feminist
Bad Feminist
Roxane Gay | 2014 | Biography
8
8.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
A mixed bag of essays
Roxane Gay is a gifted writer no doubt, but like a lot of her more prominent work, there are huge amounts of autobiographical information that didn't seem completely relevant.

Her essays on the intersection of feminism with misogynistic pop culture was incredibly on point, exploring E.L. James' infamous BDSM novel Fifty Shades of Grey, as well as other popular novels such as Twilight. She briefly mentions rape culture and how all of the above feeds into this notion.

Similarly her discussion on how race is portrayed in major Hollywood motion pictures is accurately disturbing - showing how African Americans are used in plots as a way to prop up white protagonists (The Help, Django Unchained).

Some of her other chapters seemed disconnected as if they were put in the book because there was no other place for it. This appears in the chapter on Scrabble. (Playing Scrabble doesn't make you a bad feminist).

There were a lot of haphazard thoughts that didn't quite thread together with the rest of the book ie. abortion rights, and male politicians' views on body autonomy. Gay was pretty adamant on her views on this, which appeared to showcase her opinion that she truly is a feminist.

The underlying message was that you may have flaws by enjoying aspects of pop culture, but as long as you are aware of how important it is that women receive equal rights, you can be any kind of feminist. But the book does feel as if she's trying to prove it to herself and to the world which seems rather unnecessary. We believe you Roxane.
  
Murder at the Palace
Murder at the Palace
Margaret Dumas | 2019 | Mystery
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
First Days are Murder
When Nora Paige’s movie star husband is caught having an affair with a co-star, she decides it is time to start over. Fortunately, Nora’s friend Robbie needs someone to manage the Palace Theater up in San Francisco. However, Nora’s first day doesn’t go as planned. She’s barely met the staff when she finds a dead body in the backup ice maker in the basement. Naturally, she doesn’t recognize the victim, but none of the staff know who he is either. Could his murder be tied to the death of the previous manager? And, if that shock weren’t enough, Nora starts to see a hallucination that just might be the ghost of an usherette named Trixie from the 1930’s. Is Nora going crazy? Can she figure out what is going on?

Since I rarely do paranormal cozies, I almost skipped this book, but I was so drawn to the classic movies theme that I had to give it a try. I’m very glad I did because it was fun. While we find the body early on, the set up, including introducing Trixie to the mix, does slow thing down at the beginning, but there is a strong mystery for Nora to solve. Nora, Trixie, and the rest of the cast are a hoot, and I can’t wait to hang out with all of them again. And there is plenty of talk about old movies. While I haven’t seen many of the movies mentioned yet, the discussion certainly made me want to fix that. I’m already buying my ticket for the next entry in this series.
  
LA
Lila and the Crow
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
<a href="https://awindowintobooks.wordpress.com">Full Review</a>
I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Lila and the Crow by Gabrielle Grimard is a beautiful story dealing with and sad and very
real issue. Lila arrives at her neScreen Shot 2016-06-21 at 9.04.55 PMw school with the hopes of making new friends; however, instead of being welcomed with open arms she is welcomed with a mean comment. It only takes that one comment to destroy her confidence.

The first day with the first comment was the start of ruining her confidence. The comment came from one student but there are other students who either stand by and allow the comments to come or join in laughing. Eventually, Lila decides not to let the differences defy her but to embrace the differences. This book will show children that there will be situations where other children will hurt of mock them but that they should stand up and not allow the situation to ruin their day, month or year.

This book will open the floor to have a discussion about bullying and how it should not happen and if it is, that you should help the person instead of joining in the bullying or being a bystander. Everyone is different and this book can teach children to embrace and accept the differences.

The illustrations are wonderful, they show such great emotion in the characters as well as creating a mood that fits the story. Lila and the Crow will be a great asset to any home, classroom or library.
  
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ClareR (5854 KP) rated Tradition in Books

May 26, 2018  
Tradition
Tradition
Brendan Kiely | 2018 | Young Adult (YA)
4
4.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Disappointing.
I have to admit that I took a chance on this book. The main theme appealed to me: an 'old-boy' type institution where a girl tries to question all of the highly questionable, chauvinistic opinions of the boys who go there. Something bad happens to the girl, Jules, but I really think that the fallout from the act committed against her is far too glossed over and rushed. This is the point at which I realised just how much this book was aimed at the teen market and not at me (I should have realised before I started). However, I STILL think that it should have been more explicit - the act and what happened afterwards to the girl. How can our children learn what is acceptable and what is not until we tell them EXACTLY what is NOT acceptable? I really feel that far too much attention was paid to the main male protagonist, Jamie, especially after the attack, but I can see why. He also showed the opposite side of the story to the privilege of the other students. This could have been a whole separate book though, I feel.
I'm not so sure that Kiely wrote the female characters very well. The other females all seemed rather vacuous and 'thin'. Whilst some girls are like this, I still feel that in this day and age, there would have been more girls who would have felt they should come down firmly on Jules' side. That is perhaps naive of me, and this is far more true to life. This would raise some very interesting discussion points with young people though, I'm sure.