jiujensu's reviews
439 reviews

At first I was kind of annoyed because the author puts you inside the head of the exact character whose head you don't want to be in. The story got more complex and engaging, though, so the annoying main character was easier to handle. It was weird having a feeling like you have to root for the main character because the perspective is narrated that way but also rooting for her failure because of what she did. 

It's set in publishing and writing, so you get some inside baseball there. And more universally, it covered competition, cancel culture, racism, and Twitter fights. Social media isn't supposed to be real life but it does sometimes have real life consequences.

Excellent generational record and also a quicker look at the history of Palestine than say Khalidi's The Hundred Years War. USians would do well do read this one to combat the mostly pro-Israel position that dominates the government, media, and everything else. It emphasizes the essential point missing from the conversation - no peace agreement has ever addressed right of return, end to occupation, settlement removal, etc and instead focuses solely on Israeli security and hands Palestinians a list of demands it must comply with - OR ELSE. Other myths are also addressed, but that one was well- stated and much needed now. 

You'll also get a much better look at what Hamas is and isn't, what the elections meant, and how it resulted in the complete imprisonment of thre population. 

I hope one can see how these genocide efforts happen every few years. It isn't a cycle of violence or two sides, but a colonial power trying to displace the indigenous population. 

Shehadeh is brilliant. You should read anything he's written. This one is about his and his father's relationship,obviously. Compelling enough in its own, but the historical context in there is especially needed now. There's are lots of details of legal cases you may not have known about to get Palestinian money unfrozen, which Israel stole from Palestinian accounts in banks in 1948 (along with everything else). It also tells a bit about why the Arab governments didn't help Palestinians - some wanted to expand their own territory and some wanted to appease the retreating British who still held power on the new countries carved after world wars. All at Palestinians' expense.

I highly recommend Left of Karl Marx: The Political Life of Black Communist Claudia Jones, especially if you have left leaning feminist anti-racist, anti-capitalist anti-imperialist politics. If the black power, civil rights and labor movements, anti-war protests, and women's rights advocates inspire you, this is a perfect fit. It also gives insight into the red scare, which it seems, is much needed - the discourse isn't much different now as in her time. 

As a black communist woman, she was a symbol for much of what the US tried/tries to erase. Since the US Communist Party was criminalized, an 807 page FBI file was compiled, and she was imprisoned and deported for her beliefs and writings. She wrote about peace and equal rights and so was an enemy of the state.

My favorite quote summing up the case against her:
The publication of her ideas was what constituted her criminal offense. Now that the material is all available to us, we can see that in its use of "literary evidence," the state's case rested on literary misinterpretation, flawed and biased analyses, and deliberately superficial critical reading. 

All the cities and villages as well as massacres are real places and events. The characters are fictional but fascinating. Even Handala/Hanzala and the assassinated artist fit into the story. You'll trace the histories of several permanent refugees and get a look at the variety of thought. Some still believe they will return and have become lawyers and architects, engineers and poets to further that aim. Some soured on return when UNRWA was formed in 1949 and came to terms with limited rights in other counties or becoming a provider for extended family in a gulf country. 
This is a pretty good one for both picking up a feel for the disaster in 1948 and Palestinian culture. A solid story with compelling characters.

I had been waiting to read this for some time because I liked their idea of taking 12 topics in self-help, wellness or optimization and experimenting with them each month for a year. There are obvious problems with the "experiment," but the goal clearly isn't science. It's more of an absurd approach to a search for meaning. Or as one of their colleagues said, how to have a midlife crisis. And it's funny. 

I enjoyed this ridiculous book as much as I'd hoped. If you're annoyed with self-help and productivity obsessions, I think you'll like it. Though, the morality chapter is off the rails. It thoroughly annoyed me. Kant and Utilitarianism, making others pay for your meal so you can give to charity. Lol. No.

At various intervals, I wondered what the point was of their weird year. André said it well: "Had it been nothing more than Jackass meets self-help?" But I think despite that, they do end up analyzing their experience and coming up with valuable conclusions (eventually) on self-help, friendship, themselves and society.

Hm. I listened to a few interviews with the author on my favorite podcasts, which made me think, wow, I really have to read this book. I don't know. I sort of stalled out - maybe she talked about the best part of it in there interview. It didn't really get to the parts I was most interested in till the very end of the book. And it identifies problems with access to excercise but stops short of imagining or mentioning any sort of solutions that any group may have proposed. But it is a pretty good history of excercise and changing American relationships with it throughout our history, so four stars. 

As a (female) jiu-jitsu black belt, I waited for her to mention my sport and all I got was this:

"In the twenty-first century fitness "bro culture" disseminated in weight rooms, in jiu-jitsu studios, and through supplement-sponsored YouTube channels, fellow historian and gym rat Patrick Wyman writes, men celebrate pain, might, and brawn as they figure out "what it means to be a guy.""

Ick.

I think I liked this one better than her book A Woman Is No Man.

You'll definitely get some Palestinian history, culture and insight in addition to the modern story of generational trauma, family dynamics, breaking cycles, and relationship with one's self.

The book is ok. It's a little mini history of anti-facism and may help demystify it for some folks who may not know that regular people have been fighting fascism for a very long time wherever that violence and oppression occurs. There's a chapter on free speech, what that is exactly, and its limits. As it was written in 2017, there's a lot of discussion of trumpism as part of the fascism they/we are anti. But as for being scary or inciting violence - or whatever we are blaming on the left currently - you won't find that here. 

I wanted to read it because there was a lot of fearmongering and artificial concern and overblown claims about antifa being evil in 2016. Reminiscent of the various waves of anti-communist silliness that pops up now and then in the US (and more dangerous HUAC, blacklisting, and assassinations of Black Panthers in the 60s). I always like to read these things people are scared of to see what exactly it is, can i easily draw that conclusion too. I failed to find anything scary. But maybe if you put yourself in the shoes of Nazis or white supremacists it'd be scary? I don't want to do that.