Hi. Sorry. I really thought I was like 10 reviews behind and it turned out to actually be 19. So then I started up this list of reviews…and didn’t post it…and now I’m 26 behind. I would blame my kids/divorce/life, but really — I’d much rather read than write! Also, I’ve been working from home a lot and doing laundry instead of writing reviews (which is what I do when I get bored at the office), so that’s not helping. Anyway, here’s 26 brief reviews […]
(Not Actually) Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman
I first heard of Lindy West on Jezebel where I was a regular reader and infrequent commenter. She was always brassy and direct and had a very clear and distinct writing voice. She wrote about difficult and controversial subjects with a deft hand that said f*ck the trolls. Since Lindy left Jezebel I’d occasionally hear about her–an article about her wedding with a picture of her amazing dress, or an episode of This American Life where she confronted one of her worst trolls. I love reading […]
Rest Well, And Dream of Large Women
In case you haven’t encountered her on the internet, Lindy West is a writer and comedian who battles trolls–the kind that dwell on Twitter instead of beneath bridges. She’s also an audaciously loud, unapologetically fat woman in a world that prefers its women to be quiet and thin. I identified with a lot of what West wrote about in Shrill. Her lifelong struggle with body image issues, her journey to find her voice as a writer, and–most recently–her incredible screw-up of a freelance project. Today, […]
This one made me think
Shrill is a series of essays/memoir about being a big, bold woman in a world that demands that we be small, quiet and perfect. Some chapters cover cultural issues from a personal perspective – the disrespect for and devaluing of non-skinny people, the repulsive comedy of rape culture, and the horror of abuse from internet trolls. And some chapters are straight-up memoir, sharing the stories of the author’s life. One of the more fascinating stories she shares is how she took on a public war […]