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ClareR (5726 KP) rated The Hard Crowd: Essays 2000-2020 in Books

Apr 18, 2021  
The Hard Crowd: Essays 2000-2020
The Hard Crowd: Essays 2000-2020
Rachel Kushner | 2021 | Essays
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
The Hard Crowd is a collection of essays about culture and politics. I had read Rachel Kushner's novel The Mars Room and loved it (even went on to buy it for a friend), so I was intrigued to read this collection. There really is a mix here - something for everyone.
The opening essay about Kushner’s participation in an illegal motorbike race on the Baja Peninsula was probably my favourite - it sounded terrifying and exciting all at once. She does seem to like anything to do with motors, as a later essay showed. This one wasn’t really for me, but this is a collection where there is something for everyone. The chapter on wild cat strikes was interesting, as were the ones where she describes her formative years in her hometown and the music concerts she went to (loved these too). The last essay in the book played out as though it was on a film in my head.
The essay about prison reform was really thought provoking, as was that of when Kushner visited a Palestinian refugee camp. I could easily have read more of this one - no matter how saddening it ultimately was.
Rachel Kushner really can write. As she did in The Mars Room, each of these essays really evoked a time and place and made this book pretty hard to put down.
Many thanks to Jonathan Cape for inviting me to read this via NetGalley.
  
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Dana (24 KP) rated A Serious Proposal to the Ladies in Books

Mar 23, 2018  
AS
A Serious Proposal to the Ladies
Mary Astell | 2002
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This was a very interesting read. It is a compilation of, primarily, two essays directed at the women of the Restoration and Revolution period in London, England. While it mainly speaks to women to be more free in their religions, it also talks about women's political freedoms. This seems to be an early feminist essay which calls to give women more power over their lives.

I did enjoy the first essay more than I did the second because the second got a lot more religious and quite repetitive. But it was still interesting.

If you are interested in early feminist lit or in religious literature, check this book out. I think you would thoroughly enjoy it.