"and i used to sleep with my books in piles all around my bed and
sometimes they were the only thing keeping me warm and always the only
thing keeping me alive"
-sherman alexie

hello.

I made a book review zine last fall (as an alternative to my usual strategy of luring people to my house, plying them with alcohol, and sending them home laden down with books), and figured I'd also post the reviews here. All the reviews are of books I dig, because I don't want to waste my time or yours ranting about stuff that I didn't enjoy.

Right now I'm working on the new issue, and if you have any reviews you'd like to contribute, that would be awesome. You can send them my way, to citizenclare at gmail dot com. I'll be putting it all together at the end of March or very beginning of mid-April, so there should be some new stuff up there before then (a bunch today, and more to come soon), as well as a for reals paper copy of them you can read on the bus or in the park or covertly at work or whatever. Let me know if you want one, and I'll send it your way.

reviews by people who aren't me

On Female Body Experience: "Throwing Like a Girl" and Other Essays by Iris Marion Young
Young's book reacts to phenomenology, a movement in twentieth-century philosophy that is basically about trying to understand things like consciousness by discarding all the previous ideas and theories we might have about them, and instead observing and analyzing our own experience of the world. Unfortunately, the original phenomenologists were white guys who tended to make broad generalizations based on their own personal white-guy experience. Since then, lots of people have taken up the phenomenological method in interesting ways: for example, Frantz Fanon's writing is a phenomenology of the experience of colonized and post-colonial people. Young's book, as the title indicates, is about the ways women and girls in particular experience their bodies, and how gender is expressed and experienced physically, in things like having breasts, being pregnant, and, in the famous title essay, "throwing like a girl". That essay was written in 1980, and in another piece in this book, Young happily acknowledges that the experience of being female has since changed for the better, and girls of her daughter's generation throw much less "like girls" than she did. (reviewed by Lily)

The Taqwacores by Michael Muhammad Knight
There is a character in this Novel, Jehangir Tabari, a drunk punk rock sufi with a “foot-high yellow mohawk thick and bristly like the brush on an old Roman soldier’s helmet”. Near the end of this novel the narrator of the novel refers to him as the Muslim Rob Van Dam. So the image that I am most left with from this book is Jehangir on stage at the Taqwacore (ie Muslim punkrock) show he puts on, doing the whole pointing at his shoulders with his thumbs (and if you aren’t familiar with Rob Van Dam you are missing out) “… I’m Jehangir Ta-Bari, the (and here the crowd joins in) whole fucking show!” and then doing the whole, spin kick in place. Fucking sweet. Although, admittedly it never actually happened in the book. In any case, this book is about a Muslim punk house in Buffalo, NY. House residents include Yusef Ali, the narrator and engeneering student, the aformentioned Jehangir, Fasiq Abasa, Indonesian and often found on the roof smoking pot and reading the Quran, Amazing Ayyub, “the bone-thin Iranian smack-head in tight blue jeans and no shirt and a huge KARBALA tattooed in old English letters just below his collar bone”, Rabeya, a burqa-clad feminist zinester, and Umar, a straight-edge (and tattooed) Sunni. This book deals with the role of women and queers in Islam. The intersections of orthodoxy and heterodoxy (if that’s not too weak a word) are constantly explored. In a lot of ways this book reminds me of my relationship with Catholicism. All these characters are searching in their own ways to sort out what is of value in their religion (not to mention cultural back grounds), and definitely struggling at times. I can imagine that this book would make a lot of conservative Muslims very angry if they read it. Maybe even a lot of Liberal Muslims. It also reminds me how little I know about Islam, and while this didn’t really detract from my enjoyment of this book (I practically read it in one sitting), it certainly did from my understanding. Certainly a challenging and worthwhile read. Michael Muhammad Knight is an American convert to Islam, a journalist who writes for Muslim WakeUp! and other publications. (reviewed by Dave)

The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English Revolution by Christopher Hill
If any book could make the case that radicals today should be interested in the English revolution, a period some 350 years distant, then this is the book. Conservative historical narratives represent this period as a civil war between Cromwell and King, between royalists and parliament. Instead of a history of great men, Hill gives us a history of “the lover fifty percent”, of rank and file soldiers, of common people, and of religious and political radicals. He details groups such as the Levellers, radicals within Cromwell’s New Model Army, agitating for radical democracy within the army and in society at large, working against both the state church and the authority of the puritan divines. Hill looks at Gerrard Winstanley and the Diggers who declared the world to be a common treasury for all and practiced agrarian communism on the commons. He looks at religious radicals of all stripes, Baptists, Familists, Muggletonians, Quakers and Seekers. He looks at conspiratorial groups such as the Fifth Monarchists, and perhaps the strangest and most interesting group, the Ranters. Various of these groups demanded the end of the state church, of tithes and religious courts, radical religious toleration (extending even to Muslims and Jews), court proceedings in English instead of Latin and the right to trial by jury and to represent oneself, even the abolition of lawyers, universal suffrage (extending even to servants and women), universal healthcare, free universal education and various schemes of education reform, the redistribution of land seized from royalists to the poor, an end to Imperialist aggression in Ireland. The Diggers even went so far as to advocate ‘true levelling’, that is, the abolition of private land ownership, no wage labour, no law. Many religious communities allowed for easy divorce for men or women, various liberalizations of sexual morality including allowing wife swapping and destigmatizing adultery. Ranters argued that there was no sin and proceeded to practice what they preached. They loved to smoke, drink curse, go nude, have sex with whom they chose, supposedly in public at times. Hill documents that the revolutionary period was marked by widespread opposition and resistance to Calvinism and the protestant work ethic. Cottagers (people who built homes on common land) obstinately refused to work except when absolutely necessary or when wages were unusually high. Many of the radical religious sects and the Ranters were fond of drink and would often have their religious meetings in taverns rather than churches. It was common place for radicals to attend services at conservative congregations and challenge the pastor to a debate, demand the right to address the congregation, or simply to disrupt the service. Radicals declared the right of anyone to preach, not just the educated elite. Hill argues that radical lay preachers in the New Model Army did a lot to spread the radical ideas during the civil war that made it more than just a civil war. Ranters burnt the bible on at least one occasion. Many groups claimed that the bible was not literally true and should instruct by analogy. Others doubted its divine origins, pointing out the human element in translation, not to mention choosing which books are included in the bible. Many argued that God’s light existed in all and that one’s conscience was more important than anything in the bible or any other book, that actions were more important than words ( a radical idea indeed at a time when education was restricted to a small elite). There were many wandering would be messiahs and healers. Miracles and signs were common place. Many of the sects allowed women to preach (at a time when it was illegal for a woman to sit in the same pew as her husband at church). The claim that Jesus or God was within everyone was widespread. As was the denial of the historical Jesus, or even a creator God. Ranters cursed the bible, Jesus, puritans, the rich, almost anyone. Hill provides evidence of all this and more, illustrating it with wonderful excerpts from primary sources. Censorship broke down during the revolutionary period and there is the most wonderful wealth of writings by and about the radicals. Hill’s scholarship is excellent but he never gets bogged down or boring. Despite being a well respected academic and perhaps the world’s leading authority on the English revolution (or perhaps because of it) his writing practically boils over with revolutionary enthusiasm. This book is consequently a wonderful introduction, especially for radicals to an amazingly radical period in the history of England, when common folk very nearly turned the world upside down. Hill notes: “The reader who wishes to restore his perspective might with advantage read the valuable book recently published by Professor David Underdown: Pride’s Purge (Oxford U.P., 1971). This deals with almost exactly the same period as I do, but from an entirely different angle. His is the view from the top, from Whitehall, mine the worm’s eye view. His index and mine contain entirely different lists of names.” I for one am glad I stuck with Hill. (reviewed by Dave)

What’s My Name, Fool! Sports and Resistance in the United States by Dave Zirin
Dave Zirin is the editor of The Prince George's Post in Maryland, and runs edge of sports, where he posts a weekly column about sports from a critical and radical perspective. You may also have seen his writing in Z Magazine or the International Socialist Review. What’s My Name, Fool! is an excelent look at the social history of sport in the US starting with the drive to de-segragate Baseball (origionally spearheaded by the Communist Party) and the significance of Joe Louis and the Joe Louis-Max Schmeling fights, Muhammad Ali, radicalism at the 1968 Olympics (most famously Tommie Smith and John Carlos’ black gloved fists in the air, but there is much more to it than one incident), labour struggles in sports, resistance to war. Zirin attacks racism, sexism and homophobia so prevalent in sports and sport journalism relentlessly.
If you’ve read his columns consistantly from the beginning there will be some overlap, although most of the book is new material, including “original interviews with former heavyweight champ George Foreman, Olympian and black power saluter John Carlos, NBA basketball player and anti-death penalty activist Etan Thomas, antiwar women's college hoopster Toni Smith, Olympic Project for Human Rights leader Lee Evans and many others”. Very worthwhile, especially if you like sports, despite the bullshit that often accompanies it. I am extremely glad that the (Calgary Public) library got this book. (reviewed by Dave)

scandalous books

The Ethical Slut by Dossie Easton and Catherine A. Liszt
Ostensibly a guide to being non-monogamous in a posi way, this book is actually more of a guide to being sensible and non-jerky about any kind of relationship (sexual or not, monogamous or not) and about being responsible with your sexuality while having as much fun as you possibly can. The chapters about jealousy and boundaries are especially amazing, with lots of good tips about recognizing and dealing with issues and situations that make you uncomfortable. After reading this, I found myself making more of a conscious effort to figure out what was actually causing feelings of jealousy or discomfort in my relationships with partners and friends, instead of just either getting irritated with them or pushing down my feelings because I felt like I shouldn't feel that way. Anyway, this book is full of sensible yet endearingly scandalous advice from two women who have spent a lot of time creating and maintaining the communities of family, friends, and partners who surround them. Good stuff.


Redefining Our Relationships: Guidelines for Responsible Open Relationships by Wendy-O Matik
This feels like a companion book to The Ethical Slut. It talks about open relationships, but with a focus on the non sexual parts of them, which is amazing. Friendships and other loving, caring relationships that aren't sexual tend to be devalued a lot of times. You put your primary partner as a priority in your life, and of course any other sexual partners as well, but a lot of times friends aren't accorded the same importance, which is pretty ridiculous, in my opinion. Wendy-O Matik talks about how one person cannot (and should not) be expected to fulfill all of your needs in life, then works through a wide range of challenges that often arise from open relationships (dealing with jealousy, establishing guidelines with your partner, etc.), but also talks a lot about the rewards of working towards the freedom of being close to everyone you care about, and recognizing the potential for a far wider range of different types of friendships and relationships than we normally consider an option.

Striptease: From Gaslight to Spotlight by Jessica Glasscock
This was an impulse grab from a sale table, and I'm definitely glad I picked it up. The photography is amazing, with images from all eras of burlesque performance, including hand tinted photos of breath-defyingly corsetted women, action shots of skirt and balloon dances, posters for 1920s shows, and even modern performers like Dirty Martini. It's cool to see the progression of body types and levels of scandalousness change over the years. Glasscock does a good job of tracing the history of striptease, explaining that it "did not spring whole from the mind of some red-blooded American boy with money from his paper route and a taste for tassels." Nineteenth and early 20th century performers imitated Greek statues in full body stockings called "fleshings", the Ziegfield brothers popularized the high-kicking vaudeville style of burlesque, and by the 1950s striptease was well established as nightclub entertainment, with costumes and straightforward emphasis on naked ladies rather than pseudo-artistic entertainment becoming a lot more like the strippers we're familiar with today. Fun stuff.

books to read if you like cheesy sci fi but still have politics and/or a sense of humour

Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy
I tend to think of Marge Piercy as writing stealth feminist novels ... a lot of her books are described and marketed in super mainstream ways, but when you get into them, you find that her portrayals of gender and relationships are anything but stereotypical. Woman on the Edge of Time is one of her two sci fi books (the other being He, She, and It, which is about the nature of humanity, although it is not nearly as stuffy as that description would imply), and it's a really interesting read. The premise involves a protagonist imprisoned in a mental hospital who suddenly finds herself able to project herself into the future. To be honest, I think the plot is a bit weak in some places, and the real appeal is Piercy's incredibly well thought out depictions of the future society. She envisions this utopian yet still realistic future as a agrarian based society which still uses advanced technology when it is useful and necessary. The people are genderless, identified by pronouns of "zee" instead of "she" or "he". Although the ideas are interesting, the depictions of the supposedly gender neutral characters is unconvincing, as in lots of other sci fi I've read with this premise. It seems silly that even writers of speculative fiction are so trapped in the constructs of gender that even ostensibly genderless people are always identifiable as "male" or "female". Goes to show how much we've all internalized those premises, I s'pose.

Anything by Octavia Butler
The only feminist woman of colour I know of who writes sci fi (if you can school me about others, please do so!), so of course her books were a happy find. Like Ursula LeGuin, she writes novels that usually have some sort of political cautionary message and explore different ideas, and she also shares the trait of never oversimplifying or getting pedantic. I like books that can make political points through telling an interesting story, as opposed to ones that hammer their messages into your head, sacrificing the enjoyment of reading the book to do so. Butler's writing is tough, gory, smart, and well thought out. It shouldn't be unusual and exciting to find a body of work where all the main protagonists are smart, gutsy, women of colour, but unfortunately it is, so I'm glad I found these. The Parable of The Sower books are about a dystopian near future, and Butler says that they "came out of reading the news. They're books that warn us that if we're not careful, we're going to end up living in a fairly nasty world in the not-too-distant future." They combine horrific situations and details told in matter of fact ways (after all, these are the characters' daily realities), with a new philosophy/movement called Earthseed that the main character comes up with. It's egalitarian, cooperative, and above all, can be put into action immediately and lived out in everyday ways (something more folks who want to improve society should maybe be thinking about). Good stuff, at any rate.

A Door Into Ocean by Joan Slonczewski
Amazing eco-anarchist sci fi about a world called Shora, populated only by women. The world is covered entirely by sea, and the women live on organic rafts they grow for themselves. Their entire culture is based around sharing, in the sense of sharing amongst themselves and also considering themselves to be a part of their planet, but not the rulers of it. Their language is structured so that everything is shared ... for example, a healer would not heal someone, they would share healing with them. It's essentially the concept that we don't live in a vacuum or a bubble, that we are a part of our environments no matter where we live, and that as such, our words and actions do not exist in isolation either. The plot of A Door Into Ocean concerns what happens when Valedon, a nearby planet where the society is stratified into peasants and the nobility and where soldiers are valued over people who practice other trades, decides to invade Shora. Slonczewski doesn't just sketch out caricatures of peaceful Shoran and warmongering Valans, though, which is what takes the book past a neat premise and into an incredibly absorbing read. This is right up there with The Dispossessed, as far as I'm concerned.

graphic novels with politics

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi and Maus by Art Spiegelman
I tried to do separate reviews of these two, but they have so much in common that they just sorta turned into one review. Persepolis is an autobiographical comic of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. Satrapi has a strikingly clear, simple, drawing style that's extremely expressive, and the book is hella well written as well. Maus is the story of Spiegelman's father's experience of living through Nazi concentration camps during WWII, as well as the story of his difficult relationship with his dad. Both books tackle serious issues and traumatic incidents in a way that really brings them home. I think what makes them really hit you is that they include some humour and everyday details, which make their subject matter a lot more relateable. Anyone who hasn't lived under a fundamentalist regime (Persepolis) or been in a concentration camp (Maus) obviously cannot relate to these experiences on a gut level, but the details Spiegelman includes about his dad's fussiness and over the top thriftiness and that Satrapi includes about buying bootleg Iron Maiden tapes and having her mom knit her a sweater with holes in it when punk rock was popular really draw you in. I think of these everyday details as cracks in the overwhelming horror of both the situations that make you able to identify with a narrator you ostensibly don't have common ground with, and as ways to open yourself to relating to an experience that is not only too horrific to really comprehend, but that is too foreign to most folks' everyday reality to be understood. Anyway, good books that will really stick with you.


War in the Neighbourhood by Seth Tobocman
The story of the conflict between NYC officials and the LES squatters in the '80s. Tobocman has a really distinctive drawing style that you'll probably recognize from those "you don't have to fuck people over to survive" patches that I think every dirty punk rock kid has sported at some point. I like that Tobocman doesn't shy away from portraying conflicts within the groups of squatters, instead of demonizing the city and idealizing everyone fighting for their homes. There's no doubt who's in the right and who's in the wrong, but he still presents the kind of genuine, balanced image of what went on that makes the reader feel like they're getting the real story. Really amazing art and story.

The Fixer: A Story From Sarajevo by Joe Sacco
Sacco reports on both the situation in Sarajevo and the experience of being a war correspondent. Specifically, he tells the story of Neven, a Serb with a Muslim mother who is an ex soldier, and is now trying to negotiate his way through the newly settling down climate as a "fixer," someone who finds stories for journalists. The author tries to negotiate his way through the challenges of Sarajevo, to understand the causes and costs of the Balkan conflict, and almost above all, to find his way through the myriad stories Neven tells him to find the truth of his life. Sacco's dark, crosshatched drawings give a sense of the claustrophobia of dark bars and hotel rooms he finds himself in, and his drawing style even gives large outdoor scenes a feeling of pressure and forboding in a really effective way. Also, this is silly, but I'm very inclined to view anyone who draws themselves as unflatteringly as he does a reliable narrator. A really good, affecting read.

books to read if you wanna learn more about country, blues, and folk

Coal Miner's Daughter by Loretta Lynn
The highlight of this book is quite possibly Loretta Lynn's attempt to use her folksy, hillbilly style of talking to explain her drug problems. Y'see, the doctor gave her some special aspirin for her headaches, and she didn't realize she was allergic to it, which is why it made her sleepy and cranky. With that said, it's still a great read in a serious sense. Lynn has had a pretty amazing life, going from about as rural of an upbringing as you can get to an abusive marriage at 14, four children by the time she was 18, and then of course her long musical career. I really respect Lynn's honesty and individuality ... country music is and was notoriously conservative, so her openly pro-choice perspective, her controversial song celebrating "The Pill", and other songs that are empowering for women like "Don't Come Home A-Drinkin' (With Lovin' On Your Mind)" are a real testament to her gutsiness and independence.

Escaping The Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues by Elijah Wald
This book is so fucking amazing ... smart and funny and detailed and critical in all the right places. Wald is a blues fan who was raised during the era when all the hip white guys in college were catching on to blues as a classic but still relevant form of music. What makes him different is that he's spent the rest of his life to date as a blues musician, and developed a lot of knowledge and insight into blues history along the way. Ostensibly presented as an in depth look at Robert Johnson, one of the most lauded Delta blues musicians, Wald chronicles the history of blues, of popular music, of Delta history, of how dominant cultures rewrite history, and a lot more besides. The myth of Robert Johnson having gone to the crossroads one dark night to sell his soul to the devil in exchange for his guitar skills is accorded the last chapter, entitled "Afterthought: So What About The Devil?". Since almost any contemporary account of Johnson's life or review of his music mentions this inane myth, it's refreshing to see Wald pointing out that Johnson only mentioned the devil a few times in a handful of songs (often in a humourous context, which never seems to be mentioned), and that it shouldn't be taken literally any more than any other pop song should be. Through the whole book, Wald explains that blues was the popular music of its time, and should properly be viewed in this context, not seen as a romanticized view of a ragged old guy reclining on the porch of his shanty with a guitar, drivin' his blues away with a jar of 'shine and some sad, sad songs. Yes, there was obviously a lot of abject poverty in the rural south, and of course racism (whether institutional or on a personal level) made life unimaginably hard (well, unimaginably for me as a middle class white kid) for black people, but reducing this situation to a musical caricature is short sighted and insulting. Wald does an impressive amount of research to display information about various musicians, genres, and local scenes, and it's amazing to see how different the conclusions he yields are from popular stereotype. What surprised me most was reading information about jukebox hits, record sales, and interviews with people from that era who are still alive today, and seeing that the musicians most canonized from that time (Johnson, Skip James, etc.) are scarcely remembered compared to the slicker big-band type groups who are seen by white blues enthusiasts today as "inauthentic".

Woodie Guthrie: A Life by Joe Klein
A huge, comprehensive biography of Woodie Guthrie that traces his entire life in lots of detail. I seriously found this book impossible to stop reading once I got started on it. Guthrie's widow gave Klein access to every aspect of their lives, which is brave of her, given the level of personal information included. Her willingness to open up completely and to let Klein go through all their family memorabilia and papers is what makes this book so fascinating. Guthrie obviously had a crazy, varied, and interesting life, and he's presented in a really honest way ... as someone who was troubled and flawed yet still talented and driven. He watched his mother degenerate and die of a condition that basically locks the person afflicted inside their body and leaves them progressively less able to move and communicate. After going through this, he spent his entire life worrying that he had inherited it, and, as it turns out, he did. I can't imagine how terrifying and horrible it would be to have your worst dream realised in this way, and it seems like worrying about this happening to him is part of what drove him to be so prolific and accomplish so much.

I'd Rather be the Devil: Skip James and the Blues by Stephen Calt
Skip James lived from 1902 to 1969 and was one of the greatest of the Mississippi blues musicians. He pioneered a unique style of playing guitar and used a sad, high, falsetto as his singing voice that made his songs different and haunting. This book traces his own personal history through his times as an itinerant worker, a pimp, a bluesman, and eventually a respectable married man. The book is mostly drawn from countless hours of conversation with James himself, so it's a rare case of black blues history being told in something close to the first person, as opposed to being pieced together (and often outright fabricated) by some white dude who never met the musicians or lived through the era. As well as a personal history of James, this book talks a lot about the time when Mississippi bluesmen were "discovered" by white college kids. Collectors found and popularized old 78s, and the musicians who made them were tracked down by music enthusiasts who wanted to get them started touring again. This seems like a good idea and may have been genuinely well intentioned, but the lack of care and consideration shown to these men by their "managers" was deplorable. They were completely ripped off financially, and generally had their health and other pressing concerns ignored.

Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone: The Carter Family & Their Legacy in American Music by Mark Zwonitzer with Charles Hirshberg
A biography of the Carter Family, who basically created and popularized the sounds that became modern country and bluegrass. What makes this book particularly interesting is that it's not just a history of the Carter Family (who are fascinating in and of themselves), but a history of rural folks from Kentucky and Tennessee, as well as the progression of country/roots/folk music in America. There's lots of hillbilly folk wisdom about such topics as tooth jumping, which is worth quoting: "You take a cut nail (not one o' those round wire nails) and place its squar p'int agin the ridge of the tooth, jest under the edge of the gum. Then jump the tooth out with a hammer. [If it doesn't come out on the first try,] you might as well stick your head in a swarm o' bees and ferget who you are." Also, there's scandalous tales of country musicians in Nashville, including descriptions of Johnny Cash showing up at the Carters' house all the time in the middle of the night so wired on speed that "his eyes were as wide as flapjacks". Really fun stuff.

Blues Legacies and Black Feminism By Angela Davis
Awesome on numerous levels ... includes complete transcriptions of obscure blues lyrics, focuses on female musicians (for once), and, of course, since it's written by Angela Davis, there is insanely smart and insightful analysis based on race, class, and gender. Davis concentrates primarily on Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday, but the book serves as a history of blues and of African-American experience after slavery was abolished. I love that even other biographies are dissected in the analysis. For example, when Billie Holiday's song "Strange Fruit" is discussed, Davis lampoons a (white, male) biographer's description of how Holiday apparently didn't understand the song when the lyrics were presented to her, and just said "You wants me to sing it, I sings it." The obvious racist sterotypes at work in phrasing Holiday's supposed words, and the ridiculousness of saying that a woman of colour whose father had died because of racist violence and had spent time touring in the southern states wouldn't be able to comprehend a song about lynchings are dissected in super scathing, articulate ways. Davis also talks about the liberatory aspect of blues music, showing us that queer themes could be subtly (or even fairly overtly) be put across in songs when they would have been unacceptable in mainstream culture, and that travelling songs were especially significant given that slavery had not been long gone, and black people had only recently gained the choice to travel freely. Plus, it's just super rad to read lyrics about women deciding to leave town and go travelling because they're sick of their jerkass boyfriends, especially given that these were written at the same time as Jimmie Rodgers was singing "When a woman gets the blues, she hangs her little head and cries, but when a man gets the blues he grabs him a train and rides."

books to read if you wanna learn about random stuff that interests me

The Skeleton at the Feast: The Day of the Dead in Mexico by Elizabeth Carmichael and Chloe Sayer
I've always really dug the aesthetics of Day of the Dead celebrations (especially the art of Jose Posada) and of Mexican Catholicism in general, so it was neat to read the philosophy behind the holiday. Basically, in early November, families in mexico gather to welcome the souls of the dead on their annual visit home. It's a really personal celebration of families, both the folks who have died and those who are still around. This book has tons of information, and even more amazing pictures of old engravings of skulls, papier mache skeletons engaged in various activities, families hanging out and celebrating, and markets full of sugar skulls and crafts. A super beautiful book.

Where'd You Get Those? New York City's Sneaker Culture: 1960-1987 by Bobbito Garcia
This book is ridiculously fun to read. A history of sneaker culture by a self described reformed sneaker fiend who grew up playing basketball and obsessing over shoes in New York. Full of pictures of kids playing basketball and sporting sweet sneakers, old shoe ads, and an amazingly thorough charting of the evolution of athletic shoes. The best part is the insane amount folks quoted in here, on topics ranging from what sneakers were the dorkiest (called skippies), to shoe maintenance (it's all about going out with a toothbrush tucked behind your ear), and pretty much anything else remotely shoe related. A super cool oral history of the era, basically.

books to read if you wanna cook tasty food

The Garden of Vegan and How It All Vegan by Sarah Kramer and Tanya Barnard
These are two rad vegan cookbooks made by two rad, tattooed vegan ladies from Victoria. Good general info on egg and butter substitutes, vegan sugar, and all that kinda stuff, and excellent recipes. I've made a ridiculous number of these, and while a few aren't so hot, I've re-made most of what I've tried. I particularly recommend their banana bread recipe, rustic tomato lentil soup, dijon scalloped potatoes, and sweet potato cornbread from How It All Vegan, and the balsamic roasted veggies with couscous and chickpea pie from Garden of Vegan.

Anything by Mollie Katzen
I grew up on Mollie Katzen's cookbooks, so they have lots of happy memories associated with them, but they're hella good even if this isn't the case for you. They're all interspersed with Katzen's drawings and paintings of various foodstuffs, and the recipes are tasty and well written. As an extra added bonus, The Moosewood Cookbook and The Enchanted Broccoli Forest have line drawings that are very fun to colour in. Shut up, I'm already aware I'm a dork.

Vegetarian Classics by Jeanne Lemlin
This is possibly my all time favourite cookbook ... it's really clearly written and I haven't tried anything from it that wasn't ridiculously delicious. Make sure you try the chickpea soup and vegetable soup with dill dumplings, but honestly, everything is more than worthwhile to make.

Cooking zines that I've liked include Soy Not Oi, Please Don't Feed the Bears, and The Frugal Vegan's Harvest & Holiday Survival Guide

books to read if you're a dude who wants to be more pro-feminist

The Story of Jane: The Legendary Underground Feminist Abortion Service by Laura Kaplan
Jane was, as the title says, an underground feminist abortion service in the days before abortion was legalized. The women in the group started as a referral service to various abortionists, then realized they needed a more reliable option for the women who were depending on them. They found a man who claimed to be a doctor who was willing to set up regular appointments for women in need of abortions, which he provided reliably and safely. When women from the collective began to chafe at the notion of depending on this slightly sketchy guy and subsequently discovered he was not a real doctor, a couple of them began to learn to perform abortions themselves, until they were eventually able to perform all the procedures within the collective, creating a more positive environment for the women who came to them and helping preserve the secrecy of what they were doing. The notion of learning to provide abortions without formal medical training or a clinic setting seems nothing short of terrifying to me, but I guess that's a function of living in an era and location where I have the luxury to choose to go to a free clinic if I get pregnant. Realistically speaking, I guess it's even scarier to condemn yourself or your friend, sister, or mother to the danger of a poorly performed back alley abortion (or self abortion) or to raising a child that isn't wanted. At any rate, some hella gutsy women and a really good story.

Promiscuities by Naomi Wolf
Naomi Wolf can be a bit overly liberal feminist for my tastes, but she's definitely a smart lady and an excellent writer, and I've really enjoyed reading and re-reading this book. She uses historical information from various time periods and anecdotes/personal experience from what she and her friends went through going through their teenage years in San Francisco in the 1960s, and it makes for a compelling combination. This is the only book I've ever read that gives a truly accurate description about what it's like to be a teenage girl, and for that, it's something I think should be read by guys as well. It's interesting (if sad) to see how much of the peer pressure, insecurities, and problems with abusive and predatory men are universal experiences of all girls, no matter where or when they grew up. Really interesting and good stuff.

No Fat Chicks: How Women Are Brainwashed to hate Their Bodies and Spend Their Money by Terry Poulton
Written by a magazine journalist, so not the best writing, but completely heartfelt, sincere, and well backed up with statistics. Poulton did a six month series for Chatelaine that was meant to chronicle her inspirational story of weight loss. Instead of losing the weight healthily, she found herself yo-yo dieting, binging then starving herself, and exercising compulsively, just to be able to put her story together. This experience, as well as her experiences living as a woman who is bigger than our society considers acceptable prompted her to research the diet industry, and discover some horrific practices. It's grotesque and terrifying to read about women literally dying on the steps of diet clinics because the "medical advice" they received therein was so inattentive and ignorant of the amount of food they actually need to survive. Poulton reveals that (big surprise) the diet industry and medical profession (as well as most people) don't seem to value women's health, only our attractiveness as filtered through beauty standards. Buy this book for your mom and little sister, and make all your friends read it, too.

Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg
One of the saddest books I've ever read, and one of the best. A thinly fictionalized account of Feinberg's upbringing as a blue collar dyke in an era where butch and femme roles were firmly entrenched in lesbian culture. Feinberg braves abuse from their family, kids at school, random guys on the street, and repeated rapes and beatings from the cops. In addition, when second wave feminism starts to become popular, they have to deal with other more new school lesbians telling them that butch/femme relationships are wrong and nothing but a misogynistic re-creation of patriarchal gender roles, with no acknowledgement given to history and traditions of queer culture.

Refusing to be a Man: Essays on Sex and Justice by John Stoltenberg
This book explores the ways in which male sexual identity is formed and expressed, and I found it really interesting to read. As someone who only sees and experiences men's behaviour from the outside (aka a lady), it was neat to read a guy's perspective on what it is to be masculine in our society, and to hear a man's pro-feminist ideas on positive ways to express and deal with being male. Although Stoltenberg makes a lot of positive, valid points, I should mention that he's completely anti-porn, which I disagree with. There's something really irritating about reading a man's self-righteous condemnation of women's right to work in the sex trade or enjoy porn/erotica. In one chapter he reprints passages from mainstream porn that he feels depict rape. All are clumsily written, and most are offensive and borderline abusive, but some are clearly consensual depictions of rough sex. It really bothers me when men take it upon themselves to dictate what kinds of sex women are allowed to enjoy under the guise of protecting us. We don't need to be protected from our own genuine desires, dammit. Still, all objections aside, this is definitely a worthwhile read.

books to read if you like punk rock novels

Flyboy Action Figure Comes With Gasmask by Jim Munroe
A guy who can turn into a fly and his girlfriend who can make things disappear team up to become capitalism-fighting superheroes. I think that's all you should really need to know to desperately want to read this, but I will add that it's bloody hilarious and the author has excellent politics. It's great to read something by someone who's obviously been involved in the punk, zine, and activist scenes, because the way people talk and interact in this book is actually familiar and realistic, with affectionate parody that never goes over the top. Plus, if you've ever lived in Toronto, you will recognize Kos, Who's Emma, and various other spots, and you can feel all warm and fuzzy and nostalgic and above all, ludicrously grateful you don't have to live there anymore. Hypothetically speaking, of course.

Double Duce by Aaron Cometbus
The only thing I don't like about this book is that it's over too fast. Every time I get to the end I have the urge to turn back to the beginning and start over again immediately. This is a collection of the Double Duce stories from Cometbus zine, which (ostensibly fictionally) depict an only slightly wackier than real life punk house. This is probably the funniest book I've ever read. The part about the roommates replacing some of Willey's plumbing tools on his belt with a crack pipe (only discovered the next day at work) made Trevor laugh a lot on the bus.

Fall of America by Robnoxious
I'm not sure how hard this is to find, as it's self published and came out a few years ago, but it's a fun read if you come across it. It's an apocalyptic punk rock novella set in the very near future. The story traces a guy named Dug's life for a few years, as he has a kid, breaks up with her mom, goes travelling, macks it up, and eventually has to deal with a militaristic takeover of the U.S. Nothing ground breaking, but fun and political and relate-able.

books to read if you want to learn more about native issues

The Way We Civilise by Rosalind Kidd
This book explores treatment of Australian aboriginal people by the Department of Aboriginal Affairs. I hadn't read much at all about aboriginal issues in places besides North America, so I was really interested to check this out. Not surprisingly, the horrible, dehumanizing treatment Australian native peoples received bears a strong resemblance to colonial North American policy, with an emphasis on both physical and cultural genocide (residential schools and other programs designed to destroy aboriginal language and culture). Kidd uses a lot of government reports and documents as sources for her analysis (Chomsky styles, only she's actually capable of forming a non-convoluted sentence), which is always an effective strategy. You can always dispute subjective points, but even the government would have a hard time trying to effectively argue with their published information.

Night Spirits: The Story of the Relocation of the Sayisi Dene by Ila Bussidor and Ustun Bilgen-Reinart
This book is about the relocation of the Sayisi Dene people of northern Manitoba in the 1950s by the Canadian government. It's incredibly sad and difficult to get through in places, but really worthwhile. Bussidor actually grew up in the community in question, and there are a lot of other primary sources used as well, which accentuates how recent these events were. The Dene people were suddenly airlifted from a remote forest community to a collection of shacks next to a cemetary just outside Churchill, Manitoba, and this book deals with the deplorable conditions they were subjected to and their (understandable) inability to adjust to their new life. As hard as this was to read, it's a good reminder that colonialism and genocide of aboriginal people were not issues confined to the U.S. (Canadians often seem to downplay our history of genocide to focus on the atrocities of the American West). It's also necessary to remember how recently events like these took place, as it also seems like we try to pretend that these horrible acts took place in the distant past to avoid taking responsibility for the actions of our recent ancestors.


Anything by Ward Churchill
Ward Churchill is one of my all time favourite authors, so it's hard to narrow down what you should read by him. He's aboriginal, very radical, and a professor. He writes in a way that's smart but not academic, and he's really sarcastic and witty a lot of the time as well, which I thoroughly enjoy. Acts of Rebellion: The Ward Churchill Reader would be a good starting point (it contains an insanely funny and biting essay about racist naming practices for sports teams wherein he points out that if we're quick to embrace racist sports team names like Washington Redskins that perhaps we should expand our repetoire to include such equally offensive teams as the Wisconsin Wetbacks and St. Louis Sluts). Fantasies of the Master Race is also excellent. It deals exclusively with representations of aboriginal people in white culture, ranging from Hollywood movies to the new age men's movement. A Little Matter of Genocide: Holocaust and Denial in the Americas is both a history of colonialism and analysis of the term genocide and how it's been appropriated, and it's really interesting as well.

books to read if you're a lady who wants to know more about your lady bits

The Curse: A Cultural History of Menstruation by Janice Delaney, Mary Jane Lupton, and Emily Toth
A really interesting history of our perceptions of periods throughout popular culture and history. This book analyses jokes about periods, how women's health issues have been taught in school, menstruation imagery in fairy tales, and lots more along those lines. I expected to see a progression from paranoid, inaccurate attitudes towards bleeding to a more open, positive mindset through recent history, but this actually wasn't the case. Interestingly enough, although advertising has gotten slightly better over the years (I sincerely hope that we won't be seeing a repeat of the 1970s German television commercial for o.b. Tampons in which a stewardess's skirt is snatched from her by an overeager passenger, causing the voiceover: "I'm glad I'm wearing my o.b. Tampon!"), ads today are still worse in many ways than those during WWII. Due to the conditions of wartime, women's labour was viewed as necessary, and as such, advertisers treated them more respectfully than they had before and have since. "Ads called them women (i.e., adults), rather than girls; the language stressed utility and purpose and the ability of women to assume responsible and competent positions." It's pretty depressing to compare that description to the ads being put out today. Unfortunately, the fifty years that separate us from that era seem to have actually taken us backwards in some ways. Anyway, this book is a really interesting survey of changing attitudes, and well worth reading.

Taking Charge of Your Fertility: The Definitive Guide to Natural Birth Control, Pregnancy Achievement, and Reproductive Health by Toni Weschler
I've been trying to educate myself about women's health issues for quite some time now, and thought I'd reached a point where I was fairly well informed about my body and my cycle. However, picking up this book totally changed my mind ... I learned an insane amount more in a very short time. Weschler is a proponent of natural birth control (not to be confused with the none-too-effective "rhythm method"), and has been educating women on this subject for years. Natural birth control involves checking your cervical fluid (different consistencies indicate different stages of fertility) and body temperature to create ridiculously accurate, detailed charts of your cycle. If you're in a monogamous relationship with an STD-free partner and you keep careful charts, you can reliably do away with any other forms of birth control. Interesting stuff, even if you're not considering actually using the natural birth control method.

Hot Pantz: Do It Yourself Gynecology by the Blood Sisters collective
Okay, so this is technically a zine and not a book, but every woman should seriously have a copy of it, so it's worth mentioning. The Blood Sisters are a group of women in Montreal who promote using the Keeper, cloth pads, and other safe, reusable menstrual products over unhealthy and environmentally unsound disposables. This zine has lots of period info, and also a ton of general women's health information, including STDs, ovarian and uterine problems, and lots more. There is a huge focus on herbal remedies, with recipes for herbal emmenagogues (concoctions that bring on your period) and other handy concoctions, as well as good starter instruction on preparing and using herbs. Definitely good to have on hand. (Blood Sisters Red Alert, c/o Elle Corazon, 176 Bernard West, Montreal, PQ, H2T 2K2, or http://bloodsisters.org/bloodsisters/)


Our Bodies, Ourselves by The Boston Women's Health Book Collective
I've owned one edition or another of this book since I was a little kid (having a feminist mum rules), and it's always been super useful to have around. First published in 1970, Our Bodies, Ourselves has been updated and expanded several times over the years, and the current edition serves as both a history of second wave feminism and women's health issues, and as a handy reference. A huge (seriously, this is bigger than most phone directories) amount of information is covered, including body image, relationships and sexuality, pregnancy, and aging. One of the coolest things about this book is the amount of direct quotes from women that are included. Every chapter has technical and medical information, but it's interspersed with quotes about different women's experiences and feelings about the topic being covered. Completely essential reading.

books to read if you like biography and autobiography

I'm all about biography and autobiography because I think it's one of the most interesting ways to learn history. Although what you're reading is filtered through one person's viewpoint and that has to be kept in mind, really, all history is filtered through one viewpoint. I'd rather read it from an admittedly biased individual than read the ostenibly unbiased, dry accounts that the dominant culture presents as the objective truth. It's more interesting to get to read about events on a macro and micro level at once, and it makes historical events seem more real and relate-able.

Anything from the Nabat series
Published by an imprint of AK Press, this series of books reprints out of print autobiographies of various outlaw type folks. My favourites are You Can't Win by Jack Black (not the irritating actor), which is about a hobo burglar who does spends years hopping trains and doing crimes, and does intense time in Folsom and San Quentin, and Out of the Night by Jan Valtin, which is this epic story of an organiser with the Communist Party in Germany (and in various other locations ... he ends up as an insanely well travelled guy) in the years leading up to and during WWII. The former is smart and fun and will have you using copious amounts of old hobo slang, and the latter is smart and intense and incredibly difficult to read, but incredibly necessary at the same time. Amazing stuff, as is everything else in the series.

Recollections of My Life as a Woman by Diane diPrima
Diane di Prima is one of the people I most admire. Not only is she an absolutely beautiful writer, but she's a toughass lady. As one of the original writers in the Beat movement, she introduced lots of the legendary male Beat writers to New York City, was a skilled and prolific author, founded a poetry zine and printing press, put on plays, lived with incredible style, and managed to do it all while raising several kids. When you think of how many of the male Beat writers (who usually get more accolades than diPrima) relied on their wives, girlfriends, or mothers to support them and allow them to live in carefree, artistic ways, her accomplishments are all the more impressive. A rad lady and an equally rad autobiography.

Manchild in the Promised Land by Claude Brown
A really interesting autobiography detailing the first twenty five or so years of Brown's life. He grew up in Harlem in an incredibly transitional era ... coming from a fairly traditional rural Southern family who had moved to the city, running around the streets causing shit as a little kid, and seeing heroin devestate his community as a teenager. He tells fascinating, sad stories about being a bad kid, running around stealing and skipping school and ending up going through the juvenile detention system. Later he ends up working his way into university, and has to deal with choosing to go straight and leaving his old friends and community behind. It's crazy to read his descriptions of how widespread of an epidemic heroin became, in Brown's words, "Drugs were killing just about everybody off in one way or another. It had taken over the neighborhood, the entire community. I didn't know of one family in Harlem with three or more kids between the ages of fourteen and nineteen in which at least one of them wasn't on drugs. This was just how it was."

Zami: A New Spelling of My Name by Audre Lorde
Lorde describes this as a biomythography, and it's a rad read. She uses her amazing poetic voice to flesh out the structure of the autobiography and create a story that contains the facts and goings on of her life, as well as more mythological stories and feelings behind everything that happened to her. Stories of growing up poor, black, and female with aspirations towards being formally educated and becoming a poet, which is a hard path to choose in life (especially in the time in which she grew up), but which Lorde is strong enough to accomplish for herself.

Living My Life by Emma Goldman
The two volumes of Emma Goldman's autobiography are a lot to get through, but they're not as weighty as you might think, and they're a hell of a lot of fun to read. I think pretty much everyone I know really admires Goldman for her politics, her eloquence, and the amount she managed to accomplish in her life, especially considering her gender and the repression she faced, but even if you've read lots by her and are pretty aware of her life, you'll learn tons more from these books. Goldman was a toughass lady, so there's lots of tales of confrontations with cops and jailers, crazy tales of speeches she made with cops and right wingers waiting outside for her, and all that other stuff. That's the stuff that everyone knows about her, but I liked the chance to learn that she also owned an ice cream shop, tried prostitution to make money for activism but got nervous and had some dude give her money to just go home, and other stories that give a more complete picture of her life.

Outlaw Woman: A Memoir of the War Years, 1960-1975 by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz was one of the early founders of the women's liberation movement (second wave feminism), as well as an anti-war activist, involved in work in Cuba, and associated to a certain extent with SDS and the Weather Underground. I like that she writes really honestly about her progression into activism, covering the victories, but also the mistakes and the nervous moments. Although she sort of snipes at other women more than I like reading about, some of the gossipy anecdotes are pretty entertaining (Bernadette Dohn from the Weather Underground wore very short skirts! And she was a jerk to Dunbar Ortiz! Scandalous!). She writes a lot about being a rural, working class woman who becomes a part of the activist scene, and does a good job of examining the class prejudices she encounters along the way.