School’s out for summer! Take it, Alice…
One of the pleasures of the end of my semester is looking over the vast number of books I have (hello, pandemic online shopping!) that I haven’t read yet, and teeing up those for close-to-immediate consumption. You might like some of them, and you might also have recommendations for us, so please feel free to post any suggestions in the comments.
First up is our next FIFI book club selection, “‘You just need to lose weight’ and 19 other myths about fat people”, by Aubrey Gordon. We’ll be reviewing it in the next few weeks, so stay tuned, and maybe even read along with us.
A book I just got in the mail is called Fat Girls Hiking, by Summer Michaud-Skog. It’s got tips and advice and stories and pictures. As a person who doesn’t love hiking but loves nature, I thought it might be useful. Will report back.
How the Other Half Eats: the untold story of food and inequality in America, by Priya Fielding-Singh, came out in 2021, when many of us were a bit preoccupied with other matters. But now is a good time for me to turn to this book. I’m teaching a freshman seminar in Philosophy of Food, and getting myself caught up on recent research is important. I was catching up on podcasts the other week and heard Fielding-Singh on the podcast Code Switch talking about the book. Definitely worth checking out.
Even though this is an academic book, Why Wellness Sells: natural health in a pharmaceutical culture, by Colleen Derkatch, is another book I’m looking forward to reading and report on to all you FIFI readers. Here are some excerpts from the description of the book:
Public interest in wellness is driven by two opposing philosophies of health that cycle into and amplify each other: restoration, where people use natural health products to restore themselves to prior states of wellness; and enhancement, where people strive for maximum wellness by optimizing their body’s systems and functions.
Oh yes. Please go on…
The concept of wellness entrenches an individualist model of health as a personal responsibility, when collectivist approaches would more readily serve the health and well-being of whole populations.
My thoughts exactly! I love it when I agree with a book before even reading it… 🙂 Seriously, though, the so-called wellness culture is pervasive and often suspect. I’m looking forward to reading what Derkatch has to say.
Climate change is most definitely a Feminist Issue. The book All We Can Save: truth, courage and solutions for the climate crisis is an anthology of hopeful essays, stories and poems, edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katherine K. Wilkinson. It also came out n 2021, and I bought it then. Now seems like high time to crack it open and see what it has to say. I can use both some good news and also nudges to become more active in helping take care of/save the planet.
These are now at the top of the (very big) pile of books I want to read. Yes, there’s fun fiction in there, too. I just finished Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, which was darkly comic and a satisfying read. I’m just starting The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E Harrow. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin, is on my bedside table and next up.
Dear Readers, what are you reading this summer? Audio/kindle/paperback/first edition/graphic novel/something new? I’d love to hear what you’re starting, what you’re finishing, what you liked, and what you didn’t.
I just read Lessons in Chemistry and LOVED it! A fabulous feminist fantasy–heavy, dark and surprisingly uplifting.