All About Love by Bell Hooks

Read: January

Things I liked:

• I think hooks's discussion of American society as one that worships death is really insightful, particularly in regards to the example she uses of police brutality against a man of color. Unfortunately, we keep on proving her right :/
• I worried that this would be a book that reinforced the traditional notion of the relationship staircase. I was very pleasantly surprised; hooks discusses our cultural fixation on romantic relationships as the only relationship that can matter or be important to an adult as a cause of stress and a poor way to love.

Things I didn't like:

• I disagreed with hooks's discussion of angels in the final chapter. She characterizes extraordinary acts of kindness as coming from angels. I am not a particularly spiritual nor religious person, so I worry that my takeaways here are overly literal compared to what she intended. However, I don't like framing the ordinary kindness coming from regular people as coming from an angelic force. I think it can kind of diminish the effort and courage it frequently takes to reach out to others, while simultaneously making said effort and courage seem unapproachable to ordinary people. Regular people are capable of extraordinary feats, and I think emphasizing that is more impactful overall.

Reflections:

• I had some difficulty with this book, not because it's boring, poorly written, or confusing (it's none of those things), but because I struggle with reading philosophy. This is something I've struggled with since I was in college, and it's something I'd like to get better at. Also I read it at work which probably didn't help things
• I should probably like, talk to people more often. Even though I hate it

Scurry by Mac Smith

Read: January

Things I liked:

• The art style is FANTASTIC. I wasn't a huge fan of some of the character designs (they leaned a little uncanny in my opinion), but the stellar background art MORE than makes up for it. Also the witches are really cute.
• The concept of "nuclear apocalypse as told through the eyes of animals" is so much fun, and the way it's executed here is great. I found myself yearning for a bit more of a lean into cosmic horror, but the folktale-esque explanation of nuclear war told through the eyes of an opossum is fantastically atmospheric.
• I love the political drama. It's very Warrior Cats, but like, if it was well-written.

Things I didn't like:

• My only real "issue" with Scurry is that I left it longing for a more unsettling version of it. As much as I love the political drama, I felt that it sometimes got in the way of a more nightmarish version of the story that spent more time engaging with the nuclear wasteland left behind by the humans. I wanted it to feel a tiny bit more terrifying than it does; as it is, the nuclear war feels a touch underutilized.

Reflections:

• Oh man I really hope this doesn't come to reflect reality

Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell

Read: February

Things I liked:

• I LOVED the thematic positioning of Shesheshen's "monsterousness" as it relates to her love interest. There is a character who is uniquely attracted to Shesheshen because she's a monster, and no shortage of those who view her as uniquely threatening for the same reason, but she romantically pursues someone for whom her monsterousness is a neutral quality, the same way you might consider someone's eye or hair color. I wouldn't enjoy this; I like monsters in large part because they are monsters, and this exact thing could feel, in a worse text, like it was reacting to that interest with disgust. But in this book, it felt liberating. Shesheshen isn't settling for someone who'll fetishize the reason she's othered, because that would be another form of othering -- she found someone for whom the things that make her stand out are just a part of her.
• This book feels uniquely ace in a way I've never experienced. Before, even in books that are noticeably ace and/or noticeably aro, there'll still be this background radiation of the writer still viewing the characters and world in a very allo way. In Someone You Can Build a Nest In, a character's family is shown to be abusive through the amount of times they ask if she's slept with her love interest yet. The two main characters kiss and mutually decide they hate it, and it's a moment where they grow closer.
• I love the depiction of a slime monster, I think the way they're written is so fun.
• The outsider's perspective on humanity is used to discuss how much the status quo of late-stage capitalism sucks, which I think is cool.

Things I didn't like:

• It feels like Shesheshen and Homily grow close SO quickly. I like their relationship, and I was actually satisfied with the pace of Homily revealing her troubled past, but Shesheshen starts calling Homily her girlfriend only a few days after they meet. This is kind of a nitpick, but I wish it took a little longer for them to actually start dating.
• There's a line early on where Shesheshen comments on the barbarism of humans farming animals, and the double standards with how they treat her. I don't really like this argument very much. I think there's actually a fun line to be drawn in how Shesheshen (at least in her early days) eats humans who are hurting other humans, and how humans farming animals dramatically increases their quality-of-life in exchange for being eaten. If this was commenting on the horrors of factory farming, I'd like this moment more, but this is a pre-Industrial society where factory farming doesn't seem to exist. Again, this is a nitpick, but I didn't like that one sentence in the book.

Reflections:

• Sometimes it's more romantic if the person romancing the monster honestly doesn't care at all that they're a monster.