jiujensu's reviews
440 reviews

One of the better historical fictions I've read. Things like this should replace those things people hold up as "classic" that glorify slavery, slaveholders, and white supremacy. Who wants to know what those old white men and women think? You get a far more complete picture of the time period when the story is concerned mostly with those who endured lifelong punishment for existing.

I really enjoyed this glimpse of Mrs. Roosevelt, first lady of the world, as she's called. This quirky column is sort of an ancient Twitter feed as she talks about family, personal beliefs and political observations.

I appreciate her dedication in word and work to human rights above country. Granted, she's a little conservative here and there and awkward about other cultures, but she's surprisingly progressive for her day on a lot of things. Her commentary and concern about McCarthyism could be printed today and be just as timely.

Lots of really great stories/biographies about the women who worked in the far north in a profession that still struggles for mainstream legitimacy or respectability. In the early times, the women made their own money and often owned hotels and shops among the non-sexworkers. Miners often left their gold with them for safekeeping. It seems their district gave to the town and the town gave to them after fires and other tragedies. Maybe they were better off and more accepted than today's sex workers - in some ways. It's complicated. 

This is more about those following the gold rush who pushed in to Yukon and Alaska Territory and staked claims, so unfortunately you won't get any clear idea about how the native people fared. I would like to read those accounts though. 

I loved this podcast. The book has the same quirky-funny-spooky quality. I wasn't sure about it at first, but I like it a lot for reasons I can't quite explain well. It's a little like, though not exactly like, Vonnegut - overly simple sentences, but with layered meaning and a story that manages to unfold and resolve without trying too hard. 

One of the first little Vonnegut-esque tricks is Diane's teenage son who is described as able to take the form of a bunch of different objects. She then says people will say he's changed so much since they last saw him. That's the best I can describe the layers. It's fun.

There are breaks in the story for Cecil's radio broadcast, just like the podcast. On the podcast, The Weather is a break for one song. Traffic is clearly not traffic. This juxtaposition is one example. You have to figure out the rules of the world are and what the new meanings of words are, but it's more absurd than most fiction I read. It's a good time.

I thought it was going to be more of a clever memoir title rather than a how to, but it was fine. 

He's one of my favorite interviewers for holding power to account, advocating for human rights (when even liberals fail) and making bullsh*t artists squirm. He is not a humble guy in this volume (which is a little annoying), but I didn't read it looking for that characteristic. He's good at what he does - winning arguments - and he's in the right profession.

It was a decent read. One could very likely use this as a guide to practice and brush up on your debate skills - especially if you practiced a lot and had time and a team of researchers. There are lots of good anecdotes in there and I learned more about him, which was what drew me to the book more than the title. 

The title is depressing because it reminds me that we often make everything a competition even when it need not be or would be better for all involved if we had less domination in human relationships. But, yeah, it'd be nice to call on these skills to stop the disingenuous and liars in their tracks on occasion. 

This book will give you a new appreciation for both Debs and the American socialist movement. I did get a little bogged down with labor history because I've read so much less about that. This volume covers a lot of gound.

There have been great politicians and great speakers, but people like Debs (or Bernie Sanders)who live their beliefs and politics so earnestly are a marvel, an inspiration. They don't just tell people to vote or do the work,  they are in the trenches and sent to jail, along with their fellow workers. 

People from Wilson and Roosevelt to today have called socialism un-American, but Debsian socialism fit as well or better than anything else with American religion and patriotism on the political scene. One funny or disheartening thing is that they in 1920 seemed to have as hard a time as we do now advocating for the rights of workers in a conservative society. We haven't learned too much, sadly. The same divisions between radical and political factions then as now persist.

A quote during one of Debs' more frustrated moment also is fitting today (trump, biden, etc):

"The people can have anything they want. The trouble is they do not want anything. At least they vote that way on election day."

A lot of things are *called* revolutionary. This is literal. The very definition. 

Ever since i heard her story on #TheMoth (11 min), I have wanted to read this. She's the daughter of revolutionaries (&one herself) in Chile. It's about the underground resistance after Allende during Pinochet and others. 

https://themoth.org/storytellers/carmen-aguirre​

US is frequently on the wrong side of history. Always supporting coups that help some horribly murderous dictator, so long as we can stop a democratically elected #socialist trying to get education &healthcare for all. 

It exceeded my already high expectations. It could be the best thing i read all year, idk. Sad and inspiring and well written. So grateful she was able to write it down to share. 

In her Acknowledgements:
"And my grateful thanks to all those who came before those who are fighting now and those who will continue to fight for a better future for all. I am awed, inspired and humbled by your dedication to the struggle, whether you are in the Gaza Strip, in India, in Mexico or in Bolivia, continuing to support Evo. I stand in solidarity with you."
 -- Carmen Aguirre Something Fierce 

#RedScare #neoliberalism #capitalism #DisasterCapitalism #ShockDoctrine​

Pretty good book. I was reminded of Black Mirror's Arkangel, Nosedive, Entire History of you as well as 1984. We're well into this digital age, but all the fears we had at the beginning are still worth thinking over, so the book is still relevant. Reading it a decade after it was written was a bit like reading Vonnegut's Player Piano in current times, but as with that, the points are still valid. 

I hate the main character but her insistence and single mindedness really prompt the reader to think of all the problems with social media and so much of our own lives being digital. A lot is fiction, but enough is familiar to make one claustrophobic.

Also, I'm Gen X, i watched the world change over to digital - i still can't decide if all this is a net positive. I'll be thinking about these things till i die. The theme doesn't get old.

A little warning on fat phobia - maybe it was to make a point about another terrible attribute of Mae, but it seemed a bit much. Also autistic was used as something like a slur i think. These things bothered me.

I read this more quickly than most things. Literally couldn't stop reading. Adventure, travel, dogs, quirky people. Perfection. It was also like the TV show Life Below Zero about life in the Arctic, but with the added and necessary critique of the toxic masculinity often associated with the people that are attracted to going north with an air of superiority and living in the cold away from city comforts.

Most compelling is the idea presented that the danger of arctic survival is preferable (one consents to the activity/risk and nature has no agenda, doesn't desire power) to living in the violence that comes from the patriarchal racist capitalist systems (rather than a system that values all people equally).

I'm going to bring up #jiujitsu here, if i may. I'll put a quarter in the jar. I wonder if that's why some of us women are drawn to #bjj. I have heard that women who have endured trauma are likely to turn to #selfdefense classes or jiu-jitsu. This is simulated violence in a controlled setting. There are risks there and we are fully accepting/consenting - unlike the risks in daily life like walking at night, saying no to a man, flirting, not flirting, etc. There are tons of other reasons for practicing jiu-jitsu, but i felt a familiar thread in this book.