Tag: books of 2021

The second book of 2021 was one that was recommended to me by my therapist, Untamed by Glennon Doyle. She thought that I would like it because I enjoyed a specific anecdote about gender she shared with me one session, an anecdote which came from this book.

Granted, Doyle and I do share a lot of similar views. We believe in removing, or at least identifying and questioning, the superego which is at work in our daily thoughts. We believe in building one’s life for oneself, instead of opting into parental, societal, or even somewhat moral obligations. While I respect the mission of this book, and really enjoyed the anecdotal/short chapter style (I managed to get through it a lot quicker than I expected), I felt that I was having my own thoughts read back to me in the slightly clunkier, more enthusiastic style of a fairly zealous middle-aged woman. That is to say, while I found the process of reading this book to be enjoyable at points, it was, to my perspective, quite redundant.

Doyle’s deconstruction of daily events is familiar, and indeed necessary. I believe that this memoir could definitely be helpful to any number of people, mainly people who struggle to connect with themselves regularly or find it difficult to make the changes that they know are necessary. People who are looking for the encouragement to follow their heart, this is for you.

One of my goals for 2021 is to read one book a month for all 12 months. This is by no means an impressive goal, but one that is focused on rekindling the connection with reading I had before becoming swamped in social media.
Yesterday I finished Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde, my first book-length read by the author. Lorde first caught my attention when I read “Uses of the Erotic” in college, and her uniquely poetic prose has stuck with me since. Sister Outsider is incredible in that it is a very approachable text which still manages to catapult you into the heart of racism, sexism, and intersectionality. Some of what I found to be the most potent excerpts are “Poetry is Not a Luxury”, “Uses of the Erotic”, “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference”, and “Eye to Eye: Black Women, Hatred, and Anger”. Lorde’s perspective is worth so much more than your time.