Abandoned by Booklikes

I don't know what else to say about Roxane Gay besides run and find all of her books and sit down and enjoy. I loved her collection of essays. Some of them were humorous, some sad, and some just made me want to sit in a room by myself all day and not talk to a person. She has a way of drilling down on an issue and just making you realize that someone out there has the same thoughts as you and you don't feel wholly alone.

I will say one thing though, the flow of these essays does not go from point A, to point B, etc. seamlessly. Instead it feels like we get dropped in at various times when Gay could be just talking to a friend about a subject she wants to discuss.

The book goes from broad topics such as Gender & Sexuality, Race & Entertainment, Politics, Gender, & Race, and then goes back to Gay speaking about herself and what makes her a "bad" feminist. Within these topics she has some essays speaking on things. I will say that if you haven't read some of the books she is discussing (she dislikes Fifty Shades of Grey as much as I do) or watched some of the movies, you may not get what she is talking about. Since I have read the books in question, or at least heard of them, and watched all of the movies, and television shows I was better off than most of the other readers who I saw had comments about that. 

I also think that according to the modern day rules I am probably a bad feminist. I don't think my being a woman equals I cannot criticize another woman. If anything, I hope, that most women's comments are more constructive than what most men say about us to our faces and behind our backs. 

I also know that even though I am black, I too do not care for Tyler Perry's movies and just like Gay think his messaging needs to be fixed. 

Things I highly encourage potential readers to review:

"The Careless Language of Sexual Violence", "Dear Young Ladies Who Love Chris Brown So Much They Would Let Him Beat Them", "The Trouble With Prince Charming, or He Who Trespassed Against Us", and "1960s Mississippi: Thoughts on The Help".