Communication Genius: 40 Insights from the Science of Communicating
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The fast-track MBA in communication Imagine having instant access to the world's smartest thinking...
This Will Be My Undoing: Living at the Intersection of Black, Female, and Feminist in (White) America
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From one of the fiercest critics writing today, Morgan Jerkins’ highly-anticipated collection of...
Foundations of Group Analysis for the Twenty-First Century: Foundations
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The Institute of Group Analysis (IGA) celebrates forty years from its foundation with the...
Protestants Abroad: How Missionaries Tried to Change the World but Changed America
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They sought to transform the world, and ended up transforming twentieth-century America Between the...
The Wretched of the Earth
Jean-Paul Sartre, Frantz Fanon and Constance Farrington
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Frantz Fanon's seminal work on the trauma of colonization, The Wretched of the Earth made him the...
ClareR (6037 KP) rated The Vanishing Half in Books
Jul 8, 2020
It’s a story about secrets, lies and reinvention - the sacrifices someone has to make in order to get the life they want. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
Stella and Desirée Vignes are identical twin sisters, brought up in a small southern town, where all the inhabitants are black people who could pass for white people if they wanted to (which a very dangerous thing to try and do at the time the story is set).
The twins escape together, and then Stella leaves Desirée. Stella discovers that she can pass as white, and marries a wealthy white man, who knows nothing of her origins. Desirée marries a black man who beats her, and so she escapes back to her mother with her dark skinned daughter, Jude. Jude is never accepted in Desirée’s home town of Mallard, and so she leaves to go to university as soon as she is able to.
This is where Jude’s life unwittingly intersects with that of Stella’s daughter, and secrets that have been kept for so long, are brought out into the open.
I loved everything about this book. The characters and their motivations, the storyline, the way the book was written - everything! I could see why Stella did what she did, and how she felt trapped by her choices, and it’s a great example of how prejudice and racism works in the USA - and potentially here in the UK as well.
I really do highly recommend this book. It’s such a great story that kept me engaged from start to finish. I have to admit to reading it slower to make it last longer - it’s a book that I’ll be recommending to my friends, that’s for sure!
Geographies of Sexualities 'Down Under': Gay and Lesbian Geographies in Australia
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Australia is both postcolonial and multicultural, comprised of diverse settler (Anglo-Australian),...
Expelling the Poor: Atlantic Seaboard States and the Nineteenth-Century Origins of American Immigration Policy
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Expelling the Poor examines the origins of immigration restriction in the United States, especially...
Kristy H (1252 KP) rated Love, Hate, and Other Filters in Books
Apr 15, 2021
Maya Aziz feels like she lives two lives. In one, she's the dutiful daughter to her Indian Muslim parents: attending college near home, marrying a suitable Muslim boy, and becoming a lawyer. In the other, she goes to school in New York City to become a filmmaker and falls in love with whomever she wants--maybe even Phil, the boy she's loved forever. And in Maya's real world, horrible things happen, often hate crime motivated, that can turn her world upside down.
This is such a beautiful book, and I completely fell in love with Maya and her voice. As the child of the only Indian Muslim family in her small suburban Chicago town, she's always felt different. She dreams of making films, not conforming the way her parents desire. But she also wants to please them. And she's scared, as she deals with all the terrible bigotry and Islamophobia that her family faces.
Ahmed writes so lyrically, weaving her story about Maya finding her way in the world, while still painting a stark and timely picture of racism. It's a bit of a love story, yes, but also one of discovering yourself and finding strength in yourself and the people around you. Maya and Phil's relationship is sweet, and it's so easy to root for her on all levels.
I found this to be a profound read. In many ways, it's simply about a teenager trying to stand up for herself, but it also speaks deeply about Islamophobia. It's often sad, but it's quite hopeful too. I found myself tearing up a bit while reading. Definitely worth a read. 4.5 stars.



