Under the Tripoli Sky by Kamal Ben Hameda

July 8, 2018 by Christina

Fiction — Kindle edition. Translated from the French by Adriana Hunter. Peirene Press, 2014. Originally published 2011. 128 pgs. Purchased.i In the 1960s, a young boy named Hadachinou moves between the public streets of Tripoli and the private spaces inhabited by his mother, her best friend, and other women of his acquaintance. His age and size means he isn’t viewed as a threat in Libya’s patriarchal society, allowing him to blend in and go unnoticed in female spaces. It also […]

Categories: 2018 Reads, Africa, Feminism, Fiction, French, Peirene Press, ReadDiverse, Translated • Tags: Adriana Hunter, Kamal Ben Hameda

What Happened by Hillary Rodham Clinton

July 1, 2018 by Christina

Nonfiction — Kindle edition. Simon & Schuster, 2017. 512 pgs. Library copy. Hillary Clinton received three million more votes than her opponent — a man who was vulgar, violent, and unqualified to be President of the United States — in the 2016 Presidential Election. Yet he won the 70,000 or so votes in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Illinois needed to win the Electoral College, and Donald Trump became the 45th President of the United States. So what happened? At this point […]

Categories: 2018 Reads, Chunkster, Feminism, Nonfiction, North America, United States • Tags: Hillary Rodham Clinton

All About Love by bell hooks

March 29, 2016 by Christina

Nonfiction — print. William Morrow, 1999. 240 pgs. Library copy. This collection of essays by bell hooks analyzes the many facets of love — self-love, romantic love, parental love, greedy love — and how the lack of love (or, too much of “bad” love) can spread from the public sphere to the private sphere. She defines love as “as the will to extend one’s self for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another’s spiritual growth”. And hooks’ central thesis is that […]

Categories: 2016 Reads, Book Club, Feminism, Nonfiction, ReadDiverse • Tags: bell hooks

My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem

January 22, 2016 by Christina

Nonfiction — Kindle edition. Random House, 2015. 304 pgs. Purchased. In this collection of anecdotes from the road, Steinem’s premise is that the only way to understand one’s fellow citizens and, therefore, enact change is to hit the road and engage in face-to-face conversations. Which makes the book a rather ironic choice for Emma Watson’s online, feminist book club, Our Shared Shelf. The book begins with Steinem sharing about her own childhood — the father who never settled and the […]

Categories: 2016 Reads, Book Club, Feminism, Nonfiction, North America, United States • Tags: Gloria Steinem