Some wisdom and or recommendations for the books I've tackled this summer. So many more to read, but so far, I think I picked some winners. No particular order, just what was on my mind when I went searching for covers. Clicking on any of the covers takes you to the image's source.
So what's next you ask? Well, I've got another Palahniuk, Damned, that I'm reading with a friend in our own, very laid back, summer book club.
I also have checked out All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr that I am bound and determined to read.
And in terms of academic reads, I've got Feminist Pedagogy for Library Instruction by Maria T. Accardi for starters.
Bad Feminist by Roxanne Gay.
This is a collection of essays that pop culture (such as Chris Brown and The Hunger Games), race and culture, and (obviously) feminism. Gay opens up her collection of essays by talking about the ways in which feminism is flawed. There's no one "right" type of feminism because inevitably, there are points where feminists diverge. But it's that plurality that we need.
One of my favorite quotes (this was #TOUGH): Change requires intent and effort. It is really that simple.
Next up, Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk. Honesty time: this was the first Palahniuk I had read. #sorry. But I'm so glad I stared with this one. Lots of twists and turns and I'm always about a non-linear timeline [insert the emoji preach hands here]. Probably one of the quickest books I've read in a while; the story line is addicting. After this Palahniuk, I've got more on my summer reading list.
Quote: Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everybody I've ever known.
Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More by Janet Mock was recommended from my favorite podcast, Call Your Girlfriend. This was also a book I read in a day, sitting by my pool. This is Mock's memoir, talking about her transition, her childhood, taking us all the way up to today. I had somehow perfectly timed it to finish it right before Caitlyn Jenner made her announcement (and the media stories ensued). This summer I'm in one of those frame of thinking where I want to know about the people around me, their hidden stories, the ways in which they are vulnerable, yet find ways like Mock does in her memoir of opening herself up.
Quote (from Audre Lorde, quoted by Mock): That visibility which makes us most vulnerable is that which also is the source of our greatest strength.
Another collection of essays by one of my favorites, Ann Patchett. In This is the Story of a Happy Marriage, Patchett goes back to some of her favorite essays and puts them all in one place. I have so many feelings about this book and Patchett (all good ones I promise). Patchett is the one author who can always get my writing gears turning (so that means more blog posts and more essays). But I won't say much more, I'll devote a whole blog post to Patchett's swag.
Quote (again, so #tough. This quote found in the essay "Fact vs Fiction"): One of the things I’ve discovered in life is that no matter how vastly different our experiences are, the emotional responses are often universal.
I just finished reading Brooke Gladstone's graphic non-fiction tale called The Influencing Machine. In cartoon form, Gladstone takes her reader through the history of media (and how sometimes what we want in media is not what we get, or is really possible to get). She covers bias, objectivity, disclosure, and a fast track history lesson of media. Her book goes to show how interesting media is (just think of any journalism written during one of America's wars). Near the end, she also goes into some psychology-esque theories about how our brain works (so naturally I'm all about it).
Quote (from Marshall McLuhan, a Canadian philosopher of communication theory): It is man who is the content of and the message of the media, which are extensions of himself....Electronic man must know the effects of the world he has made above all things.