Navigating Solutions and Darkness

Written October 23, 2015; published at Feminist Quill Title:  The Help Author:  Kathryn Stockett Year of Publication:  2009 Series:  N/A Goodreads Rating (Avg.):  4.44 Goodreads Rating (Mine):  3 SPOILER WARNING Plot Description:  A young white woman who returns from college to Jackson, Mississippi to find that the black maid who raised her from her childhood onwards is gone. Abileen is a black maid who is currently raising her seventeenth white child. Minny, Abileen’s best friend, also works as a maid, and is one of the best cooks in the area, but her sharp tongue means she loses her job easily. Set in the Segregation-era United States,  The Help  tells the story of how Skeeter, the white girl, helps the black maids working in and living around her home tell their stories of working for white families. This is a hard book for me to review, and I might not have attempted it if it weren’t for (a) my obsession with reviewing every ...

Crossposted from here : written October 23, 2015 Title:  Bad Feminist Author:  Roxane Gay Year of Publication:  2014 Series:  N/A Goodreads Rating (Avg.):  3.88 Goodreads Rating (Mine):  5 Plot Description:  A non fiction book of essays by Roxane Gay about feminism. While I personally loved this book, I also looked at a couple of critical reviews about it, and I might link or mention them in passing while I’m reviewing this one. I first started reading  Bad Feminist  on a friend’s kindle, at random. I had no idea what the topic of the book was. I didn’t even start at the beginning of a chapter. But I was hooked, and I caught hold of the book for myself, and read it cover to cover. It took me a while. Parts of it was overwhelming. I had to take a break in the middle. I now follow Roxane Gay on twitter. Part of the reason why I found this book so compelling was that it spoke to me before I even knew what it was ...