Non-Fiction

Three from the Cybils Shortlist

2018, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Non-Fiction, Poetry, Queer /

I reserved I’m Just No Good at Rhyming because I thought it might be fun to play with while the boys were here. hahaha. As with many of our big ideas around kids and poetry, this didn’t happen. I, however, enjoyed it a good bit once the boys went home. I’m not a huge fan of extra-silly poetry so I was worried — but, it wasn’t too silly, just clever. (Mostly.)

I reserved the only two books that I was really interested in, from this year’s non-fiction shortlist, Motor Girls: How Women Took the Wheel and Drove Boldly Into the Twentieth Century and Queer, There, and Everywhere. As expected, I really enjoyed Motor Girls and have a love/hate/disappointed/frustrated thing going with Queer, There, and Everywhere.

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Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong — and the New Research That’s Rewriting the Story

2018, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction, Women /

So, Happy IWD2018? Happy coincidence that I’m writing about Inferior today… and I’ll take all of the happy coincidences I can get right now because HMPH about all the things. Anyway.

This was an interesting book. Interesting to get a look at all of the different studies that have led us to where we are now. All of the ways women were left out of research, all of the ways (mostly) male researchers got it wrong, and to ponder the reasons why the (mostly) male researchers got it wrong. (And, why they are still getting it wrong more often than they should be right now.)

It was also interesting to read about some of the primate studies and insights into various tribes and groups of people in other regions. (The Agta in the Philippines, the Hadza in Africa, etc.)

I’m not really sure that new research is rewriting the story, but some researchers are certainly trying.

(PS. I’m on the side of the “grandmother theory” to explain evolution/life expectancy/menopause, how about you?)

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Ink & Paint: The Women of Walt Disney’s Animation

2018, Books in Bed, Favorites, Feminism, Non-Fiction /

The first thing you have to know about Ink & Paint: The Women of Walt Disney’s Animation is that it’s an over-sized coffee table type of book. I knew that when I reserved it and I expected it to be mostly pictures with few words. Turns out, it’s more words than pictures (though there are amazing pictures on every page) and it’s not an easy book to read in bed or in a chair or on your couch in front of your coffee table (not that I have a coffee table because coffee tables are from the devil) but still… it’s not a book I could sit comfortably and read. That was frustrating. So, I set it on the bar in my kitchen and I read a page or two at a time, while I ate lunch or while I waited for dinner to be ready. This means it took MONTHS for me to read this book.

The next thing you should know is that it’s more of a history of Walt Disney’s animation with a focus on the women of Ink & Paint. So you learn a lot about men in animation and the men who worked at “Disney’s” as they seem to call it in the early, early days. (You also learn a good bit about Walt but not as much about Roy.) There were a TON of women working for Walt Disney in the early days of animation and the book includes a yearbook style section of all of the women who worked there. Pretty cool stuff, (and it’s Women’s History Month, so this is a great time for you to dive into this book.)

Last, but not least, you should know that this is a really interesting book. If you’re like me and you don’t really know a whole lot about how animation used to work, then this is a great crash course. It may also make you want to look at a zillion old Disney shorts and commercials and maybe watch all of the Disney full-length movies in the order in which they were released (up to the move to computer animation.)

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Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome

2018, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

I’ve seen a few of Dr. DeGruy’s videos over the last 10(?) years and every now and then someone mentions her book, Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome on a blog or Facebook. When I saw it mentioned in January I decided to read it.

I reserved a copy via ILL (Thanks College of William and Mary for letting me borrow your copy!) and expected it to be a slow and painful read. It wasn’t slow at all and it wasn’t nearly as painful as I expected it to be because Dr. DeGruy covers topics I’ve heard about before or that I already believe to be true.

There are a couple of places where I really wish this had been a book that had an editor rather than her self-published thesis. For example, when she talks about AA women who are abused by men who are abused by women, I suspect she lost a lot of women (and some men) and never got them back. I think an editor would have been able to help her make her point more effectively.

As for the basic premise of the book, Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome — I think it’s a definite possibility. Nature vs nurture etc. People who grew up in poverty have a different relationship with money, with food, with “things,” and sometimes with people than those who did not. Those who grew up with child abuse or domestic violence have a different relationship with money, with food, with things, with people than those who did not. (You could go on… survivors of the Holocaust, survivors of Vietnam, etc.) Yes, people CAN overcome those things — they vow to do better than their parents, be better than their parents but when you add systemic racism to the mix, well that’s something else entirely.

I can definitely see the possibility of PTSS.

Very interesting book.

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Why We March: Signs of Protest and Hope

2018, Books in Bed, Favorites, Feminism, Non-Fiction, Women /

Nope, we didn’t march yesterday but I did stumble across the Why We March: Signs of Protest and Hope book just sitting on the shelf at the library, so I checked it out and flipped through it last night.

It’s primarily photos from the last year’s Women’s March with the occasional quote from women sprinkled through.

I enjoyed looking back at last year’s signs while thinking about this year’s… same shit, different year. Keep resisting, keep fighting, keep marching.

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Have You Filled Your Bucket Today? A Guide to Happiness for Kids.

1 Comment / 2018, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Don't Read This, Non-Fiction /

I can’t remember where I saw Have You Filled Your Bucket Today? but I thought it might be worth checking out for JMP.

Unfortunately, it’s not quite right. Besides the illustrations that portray people of color and disabled people as those who need help rather than those being helpful… the overall premise just doesn’t quite work for me. I think talking about these concepts with kids is important but I think there’s an awful lot of dependence on other people filling your bucket and we all know that doesn’t necessarily happen. (The co-dependence aspect is also potentially troubling, depending upon your child’s overall nature.)

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Gainesville Punk: A History of Bands & Music

2017, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

I kind of like that the last book I’ll finish in 2017 is Gainesville Punk: A History of Bands & Music. Seems fitting somehow, after having Michelle home and Chris here, too.

We always do a lot of reminiscing about the old GNV, even if the old GNV isn’t all that old to most of the people we know here.

It was interesting to learn more about the history of punk in GNV. While it didn’t really touch the time Michelle spent immersed in GNV punk, the end of the book touched on the years when we moved here and Chris was trying to find his people. He spent a lot of nights at Common Grounds. (Yay for all ages shows!)

It was also fitting to read this book right after Wild Iris closed her doors. So many places have gone away but Hardback Cafe has re-opened, so there’s always hope, right?

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The Princess Diarist

2017, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

Don’t ask me why I picked up The Princess Diarist at the library. I am not a Star Wars fan and Carrie Fisher … makes me… uncomfortable. But whatever, it was on the shelf, I saw it was based on the diaries she’d written during the first (don’t start with that “third” BS) Star Wars and thought this might be something that would help me like Fisher more.

It didn’t. But it also didn’t make me like her less.

It also wasn’t quite the book I expected it to be. I expected more diary entries and less Carrie Fisher being Carrie Fisher. Silly me. As expected, the diary entries portion was my favorite portion of the book. The rest… sigh. Not my favorite.

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Colorblind: The Rise of Post-Racial Politics and Retreat from Racial Equity

2017, Books in Bed, Favorites, Non-Fiction /

Welp. I finally read Colorblind and it was exactly what I expected it to be.

Smart, well-written, and anger/sadness/frustration/anger inducing.

You are not colorblind. I am not colorblind. Nobody is or should be colorblind.

Post-racial politics is stupid. Stop it. There’s no such thing as post-racial any-damn-thing.

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