Review: Queer Virtue by Rev. Elizabeth M. Edman

Elizabeth M. Edman is an Episcopal priest and a lesbian. These two aspects of her identity are stitched into her very soul; they are vitally important, essential aspects of who she is as a person and how she moves about in the world. In Queer Virtue: What LGBTQ People Know About Life and Love and…

Review: My Age of Anxiety by Scott Stossel

Scott Stossel is an anxious human. He is quite possibly the most anxious human I've ever had the good fortune of "meeting," if you can call it that. Scott has multiple, extreme phobias: in particular, vomiting, flying, and public speaking. He suffers terrible anxiety-induced digestive problems. He has had too many panic attacks to count.…

Review: Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

Bryan Stevenson's Just Mercy, a gripping account of his experiences working with wrongfully convicted death row prisoners, was chosen as the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Go Big Read book in 2015. I had the privilege of facilitating several discussions, both in public libraries and online, about this book. The book had a very strong impact on its readers,…

Review: Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay

When you follow feminist/queer sites like Autostraddle, you hear about books like Roxane Gay's Bad Feminist. Naturally I had to pick it up, as much from sheer curiosity as from the positive reviews I'd read. What exactly is a bad feminist? Am I one? Turns out that, according to Gay, a bad feminist is not such a terrible thing…

Matilda Reviews: Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls by Mary Pipher

Genre: Nonfiction, Pyschology Published: 1994 Blurb As a therapist, Mary Pipher was becoming frustrated with the growing problems among adolescent girls. Why were so many of them turning to therapy in the first place? Why had these lovely and promising human beings fallen prey to depression, eating disorders, suicide attempts, and crushingly low self-esteem? The answer…

Matilda Reviews: Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers by Lillian Faderman

Summary: Lillian Faderman tells the compelling story of lesbian life in the 20th century, from the early 1900s to today's diverse lifestyles. Using journals, unpublished manuscripts, songs, news accounts, novels, medical literature, and numerous interviews, she relates an often surprising narrative of lesbian life. My Thoughts: I zipped through Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History…

Matilda Reviews: Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman

I love books about books. I just can't get enough. I love reading books about what other people love about books. I love knowing that there are other readers out there who love books as much as I do, who collect books as obsessively as I do, and whose houses are as packed with books…

Matilda Reviews: Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson by Jeff Guinn

Prior to reading this biography of Charles Manson, one of the most infamous mass murderers in the world, I knew surprisingly little about him. I wasn't exactly sure who he had killed and why. I basically just knew he was a sociopath. I wanted to know more mostly out of morbid curiosity. Jeff Guinn's biography…

Review: Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick

Ever since my best friend told me about the blog Kim Jong-il Looking at Things, I've been wanting to learn more about communist dictator Kim Jong-il and his father and predecessor, Kim Il-sung. I knew the basics of life in communist North Korea: no internet access, not much food, no television or radio beyond the government stations,…