Not been on for a couple of weeks, so have a few books to add.
7.Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez
This has been recommended to me many times and I finally got around to reading it. It was a fascinating read as although much of it seemed really obvious, it was seeing all of these things discussed together that really had a real impact. I followed it up with:
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Everyday Sexism by Laura Bates
This is a few years old now (and I already have her more recent
Men Who Hate Women on my TBR pile) but again I’d never read it, and again hearing all of these stories in one place had an impact.
Both of these books were somewhat depressing though, because they are mostly accounts of things as they are, with very little promise About things changing. The problem of data gaps identified in Invisible Women is obviously difficult to address, because it takes years to rectify issues like these. And although Everyday Sexism promotes more changes that can be made, in many ways it feels like very little progress has been made in the time since the project began.
Book 9 was not exactly sunshine and roses:
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The Only Plane in the Sky: The Oral History of 9/11 by Garrett M. Graff
Like anyone over a certain age (a startlingly increased age now) I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I heard about the attacks on September 11th 2001. This was still before online media had quite the presence and domination it now does, and I recall buying many newspapers the following day, poring over the stories that were emerging. I’ve mentioned earlier on this thread that I’m drawn in by “human interest” and the stories of people who were directly involved in all that happened have always fascinated me. Real people stories without speculation or conspiracy thrown in - just how it actually felt to be there; something no one can dispute. People who had lucky escapes by virtue of forgotten keys or broken glasses, to those who had the opposite fortune by being somewhere they hadn’t planned to be. Reading all of these stories of survivors underscores the fragility of life, how it all turns on a dime. It was compelling, despite already knowing so much of the story of the day.
I bought this as it was a Kindle monthly deal, but in hindsight I would have liked to read a paper edition, as it was occasionally hard to keep track of who everyone was, and flipping back to double check would have been easier with a “real” book.