Cherrie Moraga

For some reason I went into this thinking it was some sort of feminist manifesto, but it's an anthology of experiences of women of color, told through essays, poetry, biography and only sometimes political manifesto. It focuses particularly on experiences in feminism and those interpreted through feminist ideas but the focus is by no means exclusive. It has some limitations within its remit such as those mentioned in the introduction - eg limited to the US, almost exclusively talks about lesbian sexuality - but does an excellent job of covering a broad spectrum of experiences and voices. A lot of the writing is only a few pages so a lot of people and a lot of different perspectives get covered - even though I disagree with some of the politics etc it's inevitable and interesting and important to see it talked about. Reading about experiences from nearly 35 years ago and their hopes for change is inspiring and sometimes sad. Ultimately I have trouble faulting it, as long as you go in realising it's an anthology of experiences, all of which are emotional and interesting.… (mere)

Moving mother/daughter memoir.

Mother Elvira is a Mexican American doing her best to raise her family. In spite of no education and a oddly distant relationship with her husband, Elvira manages to raise a strong family.

The daughter Cherrie tells the story of growing up being both and neither Mexican and American. She tells the story of discovering and coming out as a lesbian woman. And ultimately caring for her mother through Alzheimer's disease.

The writing is beautiful, but really meanders around a lot.… (mere)

Quality rating: 4 1/2 stars
Personal rating*: 3 1/2 stars

Totally unrelated notes:

Thinking of stopping the star-rating system. I started on Goodreads thinking it was an honest reflection of my own personal enjoyment (which meant lower scores for most nonfiction books just because I prefer fiction), but lately it seems like ratings are being mistaken for an opinion about overall quality. The system is, consequently, being abused to down-rate books even when people haven't read them, and it's possible to pay for fake accounts to up-rate a book as well (though it looks like this tactic is more often used to down-rate others' books). So yeah, I'm losing faith in Goodreads except as a way to remind myself which books I've read and what I thought of them.

Which makes it pretty ironic that I also feel like I have less and less time to write my reviews, even for books that deserve it. I would love to add reviews and quotes later, when I have time. Will I? Intention: Yes. Reality: Unlikely.… (mere)