Bad Feminist in The Toast

Nov 14, 2014 Nicole rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, 2015-ultimate-challenge

This was very, very good. Touching on everything from teaching, to Scrabble, to popular culture, to national tragedy, Gay's essays are thought-provoking, funny, and honest. If I have one critique, it's that the selections vary wildly in terms of scope and applicability - the Sweet Valley High, or Tyler Perry essays, for example, had less to offer for someone unfamiliar with (or uninterested in) the subject - which may be a turn-off for some readers. Throughout all, though, the essays are tempere ...more

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Sep 20, 2014 Hedwig rated it really liked it

Shelves: essays, authorofcolor

Roxane Gay has a very searching way of writing. Often three or four sentences in a row will end with a question mark. But at the same time, it's not that she doesn't take a position: just that she constantly interrogates her own opinions and the world's in a very provocative way. I may not agree with her, but she's always fair. For instance, I like Django Unchained quite a lot; she does not. However, it's not that she cannot see the things that I like about it. She just prioritizes other things, ...more

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Oct 08, 2014 Sarah rated it it was amazing

Shelves: the-toast, nonfiction-literary, feminism, the-butter

I hate writing reviews for Roxane Gay because a) she is a million times clever with prose than me, and b) there's hardly anything to be said about her excellence that hasn't been already been said by OTHER people who are cleverer with prose than I am. But my linguistic insecurities aside, this is a brilliant series of essays by a woman who I would have no problem describing as one of the finest writers of our age (if not any age).

There are so many things I loved about Bad Feminist, and I'm goin ...more

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Jan 06, 2015 Carolyn rated it it was ok

I'm so disappointed. I found this book uneven, contradictory, and shallow. Even when I was thinking, "Right on, yes, that, exactly!" it was standard stuff that has been covered by any number of good feminist bloggers, and there was nothing special about the way it was rehashed here. I really enjoyed Gay's An Untamed State and her more memoir-ish entries here. Maybe she's just better when she has a story to tell. ...more

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