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A thorough re-shaping of 1984, the fear and hate in authoritarian distrust remains centered from this more sympathetic and capable and resourceful perspective, with welcome nuance and complications as hope and care slip in and out of reach.

On the one hand this is clear and infuriating, a wide ranging look at how male-as-default, often unquestioned or under-researched, in infrastructure, transportation, medicine, employment and care and GDP, etc, makes the world much worse for women and also for everyone. Yet the book speaks of women almost entirely as a monolithic global whole - slight mentions of hormonal or racial complications, but basically no intersectional or queer consideration. As the author is often asking for better nuanced and dis-aggregated data analysis on this single important binary, we could use a version of this book that took that conclusion to a full embrace of considered complicated no-simple-norms human society.

Strong potential in near future Nigerian/American family tensions of over fame and disability, Chicago and African settings, interwoven with a further out robot society facing human-like challenges of witnessing cataclysm. And large parts, especially the more painful, feel like and are author-memoir. So disappointing to dislike most of the characters and their overall arcs, through accident and levels of seeking independence.

@seanderson13 the reviews are correct, it's a major blind spot. As with the central thesis that default male structures and data ignore and elide women's needs, the book speaks of women almost entirely as a monolithic whole. The author's recurring demands for disaggregated data analysis and diverse voices in decision-making leave an unspoken echo in my head "yes, along so much more than this single dimension".

If you're involved in the #BookWyrm project as a user, admin, developer or in any other capacity, you may wish to weigh in here: https://github.com/bookwyrm-social/bookwyrm/issues/2513#issuecomment-2774887987

Locally-connected story of escape from slavery in Georgia and public life on the abolition circuit in Massachusetts and England. While there are many moments of intrigue and risk, the somewhat dry telling is well-riddled by neatly connected reminders of slavery's implications in wealth everywhere they travel, and the novelty of the 'white slave' in drawing abolitionist crowds repeatedly highlights the deep veins of racism and misogyny even in those risking more or less to end slavery.

Nicely elucidated clear translation, compared to others there's nothing florid and mostly less poetic (reading alongside LeGuin's equally spare version in particular here), interspersed with short essays on commentary, lived experience, and the translator's challenges for a text so embedded in culture and so dismissive of language as a way to approach Dao.

Covers familiar ground of critiquing particular views of conservation baselines and biases in a deeply-human-entwined view of nature, a complex world left room to be complicated. Not as strong as her later Wild Souls, or Tree's Wilding.

Spiritually infused poetry that slips between weeds in the garden and fleeting seasons and omniscient conversation beyond these bounds to ask of life in the crevices.

Subtle feeling mystery unraveling in a slight and mythical magic of historical China setting that meditates on friendship, vengeance, and moral obligation. Quite wonderful.