Reviews of Books
Clever und unterhaltsam
Dieser Roman war eine Freude zu lesen. Dieses Labyrinth aus relativierenden Aussagen, die sich gegenseitig widersprechen, bis nichts mehr gesagt wird, ist ein zeitloser Kommentar zur Bürokratie und zur kapitalistischen Entfremdung im Allgemeinen.
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A hundred years old and still very much relevant
Virginia Woolf explores the topic of “Women and Fiction”. She describes a fictionalized research into this topic where she entertainingly experiences examples of her talking points during research. This style is very entertaining and makes it a breeze to read through this little essay.
In addition to her funny writing she's also making points that are sadly still relevant today. It's nothing advanced, but I'd say it's one of the best introductory texts into feminism.
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A few good ones
Just like her book High Tide the poems are mixed. Mostly forgettable, with a few great ones thrown in. But since there's no postcards this one's a bit better as there's more poems overall and as such more good ones as well.
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Beautifully capturing the present
I got this book after seeing the Video at a Museum in Amsterdam (https://vimeo.com/639528236). And it's really amazing. It's the first time I've read a poem with footnotes and a bibliography.
Arcadia lyrically examines our current society especially with regard to consumerism and social media. It builds on the work of philosophers and thinkers both current and old. In this examination I saw beautiful words put to what I had been feeling for a long time. But then it goes further and offers up a possible path forward to escape this hellish condition we find ourselves in.
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A couple excellent short stories
This collection contains five short stories dealing with the topic of desire in some way. The first and last story that really resonated with me making this a very worthwhile read.
The first one demonstrates how love can be unreasonable, drastic and disruptive. It also carries a heavy mystical or fantastic undertone which is common for most of the stories in here.
The last story is more melancholy and deals with loneliness that butts up against a love too good to be true.
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Good starting point and reference
I never really got what a Code of Conduct is and what it can achieve. While the meat of this book is how to respond to violations it also quickly lays out what a CoC is, what it's for, when it's good to have one (always) and the main things to keep in mind when writing one. Overall, it made me excited to work on getting a CoC implemented in my communities and appreciate the value a CoC can have. One plight gripe I had with this book is the middle chapter. It lays out how to deal with different cases one might encounter, like dealing with abusers with social awkwardness or mental health issues etc. This part got too slow and uninteresting for me, because there's a lot of repetition and it didn't all feel relevant for a general read. I'd recommend only reading as far as you like in that section and then move on to the next chapter. As a reference it is of course important to list all these cases.
You can get it for free here.
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Diese Sci-Fi Geschichte hat mich leider nicht gepackt. Obwohl die Protagonist*in zwischen vielen verschiedenen Planeten hin und her reist, gab es keinen Ort, der mir besonders originell oder interessant vorkam. Das Buch hat mich weder intellektuell herausgefordert noch, hat es mich emotional gepackt. Die Musik, die das Herzstück der Geschichte ist, wurde nie so lebendig beschrieben, dass ich mich in die Hörer*innen hineinversetzen konnte. Nur in Sachen Repräsentation ist es tatsächlich ein tolles Buch. Es gibt einen Haufen queerer Charaktere und einige von ihnen verwenden Neo-Pronomen, was schön zu sehen ist.
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As such an often referenced work I was expecting there to be more inside. But in the end it's just a small children's book story without much happening. There's a surprising amount of poetry and growing and shrinking involved though.
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Tolles Porträt einer gebrochenen Frau. Eine kleine Vignette, die zum Nachdenken über Scham, Sexualität und Liebe anregt.
Enthält einige spannende romantisierte Beschreibungen vom Erbrechen, die wie ein Autounfall sind, bei dem man nicht wegsehen kann.
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