I found the earlier chapters clearly defining love as “the will to nurture our own and others’ spiritual growth” really brilliant and challenging in a good way. Unfortunately I found the majority of the rest of the book incredibly repetitive and near nonsensical.

★★★★★ TLDR: this is the best memoir I have ever read and you must read it, I cried in anger, in joy, in catharsis, I learned, I was moved, shocked, proud - Chanel Miller is a phenomenal writer and immensely talented, smart, sharp, emotionally mature person whose writings and experience on trauma and rape culture and justice you absolutely need to read.

Davis talks about mass movements, transnational solidarity, and intersectional, radically inclusive feminism. This is the first book by Angela Davis that I’ve read but certainly not the last. She uses very accessible language to make her points, and pointedly does not bog her arguments down in heavy theory/dense vocabulary.

The book is mostly a history and lives of Black people after the abolition of slavery. Dubois gives both a systemic history (Freedman’s Bureau, 15th amendment, other administrations and policies of abolition, etc.) as well as some very personal accounts from himself and other individuals who lived through this period and its aftermath.

★★★★☆ Not as provocative as the title would suggest.

★★★★★ A phenomenally thought-provoking collection of essays, musings, and one or two more formalized reporting pieces on queerness and diasporic Asian identity.