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forpeterssake

forpeterssake@bookwyrm.social

Joined 1 year, 5 months ago

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forpeterssake's books

Currently Reading (View all 5)

Lindy West: The Witches Are Coming (Paperback, 2021, Hachette Books) 4 stars

Biting and funny, sometimes off-putting but always thoughtful

4 stars

I admit that I read this collection of essays after seeing her famous bit about the trumpet, which genuinely made me do a spit-take. The rest of the book is not nearly so care-free, it muses on heavy topics like online trolling, doxxing, sexism, misogyny, double-standards, Donald Trump and the alt-right, and other cheerful things like that. West's language is sometimes ascerbic, but she has a point every time and wields her wit and words as a weapon to get your attention. The biggest take-away I took from this book is that I need to finally get around to seeing Shrill, the Hulu series based on her previous book/memoir.

Simon Winchester: Land (Paperback, 2022, Harper Perennial) 4 stars

A book about land that is secretly about people

No rating

I picked this up on a whim and really enjoyed it. The author uses land —and the way we use it and think about and fight over it—to tell a lot about history of the world and ourselves as people. The perspective is definitely based in the Anglo-American history and legal traditions, so you won't see much here about the entire continent of Asia, despite it having most of the world's landmass. But what it does tell, it tells well, and in surprisingly narrative form. (If you chose the audio book read by the author, his narration is excellent.)