Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex by Angela Chen

“Normal is often treated as a moral judgment, when it is often simply a statistical matter."

I appreciate reading for many reasons, the least of which is the times we find ourselves in unexpected pages. I picked this up because it was recommended by a friend, and it seemed like a good read as someone who works with a lot of different people all the time. I try to get a peek into as many worldviews and experiences as I can. Imagine my shock when I saw myself in some of the stories in this book. Angela Chen does an excellent job between education, story sharing, and advocacy in this book. I really appreciated the care she handles her own and other’s stories with, her research, and her own vulnerability in this one.

“If you can’t see that your own culture has its own set of interests, emotions, and biases, how can you expect to deal successfully with someone else’s culture?”

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman

I read this book for a medical anthropology class, and it is one I think about constantly. This book documents the story of Lia Lee, the child of a family of Hmong immigrants living in the U.S., and her medical journey after developing symptoms of epilepsy. It’s a tragic read, frankly. Anne Fadimen documents the cycle of misunderstandings between U.S. medical professionals and the family’s cultural understanding of illness. It is a tale of cultural clash, and the danger of assuming our cultural worldviews are the ones that matter - especially when (like the medical professionals here) you are the dominant culture. I think this is a really important read, even for people not interested in the medical aspects.

Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiract to Protect Predators by Ronan Farrow

“In the end, the courage of women can't be stamped out. And stories - the big ones, the true ones - can be caught but never killed.”

This nonfiction book reads like a thrilling crime novel you can’t put down, I was on the edge of my seat until the last page. In it, Farrow recounts his efforts to uncover and report on the sexual misconduct of powerful men in Hollywood, particularly focusing on film producer Harvey Weinstein. Farrow details his experiences while working on the story, including the immense pressure, legal threats, and surveillance he faced. He reveals how powerful institutions, including media companies and legal systems, collaborated to protect abusers and silence victims. In addition, Farrow speaks about how working on this assignment tied in with his own personal story, being the son of Woody Allen. Overall this is an expert work of investigative journalism highlighting the struggle and braver of whistleblowers in standing up to power. >

The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green

“To fall in love with the world isn’t to ignore or overlook suffering, both human and otherwise. For me anyway, to fall in love with the world is to look up at the night sky and feel your mind swim before the beauty and the distance of the stars. It is to hold your children while they cry, to watch as the sycamore trees leaf out in June.”

In this book of essays, John Green considers what it means to live now, in this time and place where humans have so deeply affected the world around us. I think every single essay in the book made me cry, or at least almost every one. It’s hard to give a description of this book because each essay is so uniquely itself, but the thing that ties it all together is Green’s own skepticism of, and deep adoration, of the human race. This is a book that reminds you that being human is both a joy and a challenge, both the hardest thing we will ever do and the thing we are so lucky to experience. The great part about it is that you’ll learn something, too. Each essay is well researched and informative!

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