ARC, Books, Professional Development

Book 786: No Blanks, No Pauses – Shelly McNamara

Book cover of "No Blanks, No Pauses" with Amazon Affiliate linkWhen the publisher reached out to me about this I immediately knew I was going to say yes (even if it took me a few days to get around to telling them).* I’m always interested in LGBT individuals’ personal journeys to where they are today and when the subject line was “Chief Equality & Inclusion Officer at Procter & Gamble Publishes Inspiring Memoir on Living an Authentic Life”, of course I was in!

I knew nothing about Shelly McNamara and the only thing I knew about P&G, aside from all the random products of theirs I use, is that they have a big neon sign in Boston on a building (I think it’s a museum?), so I went in blind which isn’t anything new for me.

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ARC, Books

Book 761: Mediocre – Ijeoma Oluo

Book cover of "Mediocre" with Amazon Affiliate linkAs soon as I heard that Oluo was releasing another book I immediately sought out a copy. I couldn’t wait until it was released so sought out a galley ASAP.* I will buy a copy as well, because she’s wonderful. My response is definitely messy, but it’s because she makes me think so much about so many things and I just sort of try to regurgitate all of my thoughts at the same time instead of cohesively sharing them.

First, a diatribe about the early reviews I saw on Goodreads: If you ever needed a reason to read books like this (you don’t), you should take a look at the reviews for this one on Goodreads. Not only have a lot of the 1- and 2-star reviews totally misunderstood the entire book, they have attempted to explain their ratings with the thinnest of reasons that frankly annoyed the shit out of me. Not only are there the men (god fearing Christians if they’re to be believed) who completely missed that Oluo isn’t saying all white men are mediocre, just that the racist-ass systems built by white men reward the most mediocre of them, they straight up appear not to have even read the book, let alone tried to understand it.

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ARC, Books

Book 742: Crime Dot Com – Geoff White

Book cover of I honestly don’t know how people exist without being paranoid ALL THE TIME. When I first said yes to this after the publicist reached out, it was like 95% because the author’s first name was Geoff and 5% because the subject was interesting. And then I found myself completely absorbed with this book.*

Now I’m not saying we’re totally screwed, but I mean we’re not really that far from being totally screwed and White does a really good job of explaining all of it. He takes an in depth look at the start of cybercrime with the quaint “Love Bug” virus (Wikipedia) to the state sponsored hacking/cyber assault that nudged us into the rotting cesspool of Trumpism that is the US right now.
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Books

Book 733: So You Want to Talk About Race – Ijeoma Oluo

Cover art of "So You Want to Talk About Race" with Amazon Affiliate linkLike everyone else, but mostly the white people, in America should be doing, I’ve taken some time over the past few months to further educate myself on systemic racism and oppression in the United States. From discussions at work to dozens of articles and books, it has been 100% worth it to self-reflect and be reminded of things I knew and be introduced to things I didn’t.

I was first introduced to Oluo when I read, “The Heart of Whiteness: Ijeoma Oluo Interviews Rachel Dolezal, the White Woman Who Identifies as Black”, a powerful and frank wide ranging interview and reflection on race, privilege, and white supremacy in America. If you haven’t read it yet, go read it.

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Books

Book 726: Must Like Spinach – Con Riley

Book cover of "Must Like Spinach" with Amazon Affiliate linkAfter finishing His Horizon, and absolutely adoring it, I knew I had to seek out more works by Con Riley. Thankfully I recently received a Kindle Unlimited membership (to Tim’s regret at this point I’m sure) and I found quite a few books by Riley on there. We all know more will be forthcoming, but I am trying to show some self-restraint.

I chose this one out of those available because it was a standalone. And more importantly it had an adorably quirky title that just called to me even though I’m not the biggest fan of spinach.

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