In the past few years, I've been reading a lot of books about race, and something I've noticed is that, for me, it's usually the books that aren't aimed at white audiences that are the most powerful. I enjoyed So You Want to Talk About Race (which isn't necessarily written for white people, but certainly... Continue Reading →
It took me forty-four days to finish this book, which maybe says something about how much I was connecting with it. It was good--don't get me wrong--but it didn't cut me open the way some more recent books of poetry have (A Place Called No Homeland, Don't Call Us Dead). Audre Lorde is a feminist... Continue Reading →
Comics for Choice is an anthology of over forty comics about abortion. The contributors come from a diverse range of background and experiences. Authors, activists, medical professionals, historians, lawyers, as well as folks with their own personal abortion stories to tell, partnered with cartoonists and illustrators to create this book of wonderful and wide-ranging comics.... Continue Reading →
I just read Their Eyes Were Watching God for the first time since high school, and I cannot stop thinking about it. It is so easy to get swept up in the excitement of new releases. I've just started dabbling more seriously in the bookish internet, and it can get overwhelming. There are so many... Continue Reading →
This Will Be My Undoing is a powerful blend of memoir, cultural critique, self-reflection, and celebration. Jerkins explores the experience of black girlhood and womanhood through a kaleidoscope of lenses. She writes frankly about sex, relationships, and dating, and the intersection of blackness and womanhood and sexuality. She writes eloquently about the various spaces she's... Continue Reading →
I started this blog just over a year ago, in direct response to Trump's election. I believe that reading can be a meaningful and important part of resistance. Book Open's first year was spotty and inconsistent. I moved to a new place, started a new job, adopted a dog, and started writing for Book Riot... Continue Reading →
The Argonauts is hard to categorize. Part memoir, part literary criticism, part cultural critique—it is many things at once. Nelson combines all of these different ways of thinking and writing combine in a profound, moving, challenging work that is both deeply academic and deeply personal. On one surface, it’s a memoir about meeting and falling... Continue Reading →
Smart, fierce, scathing, and revelatory, Bad Feminist is one of those rare books that manages to be fun, funny and serious all at the same time. What I loved most was Gay's examination of contradictions--in herself and what she loves, and in the world at large. She gives herself permission to be a complicated, contradictory, whole,... Continue Reading →
I picked this up because I've been enjoying reading nonfiction comics recently. I loved Persepolis, and I honestly wasn't expecting Embroideries to be as good. What a delightful surprise! Embroideries is a short graphic memoir that takes place on one afternoon. Satrapi sits with her mother, grandmother, aunt, and a group of their friends and... Continue Reading →
Book Open 