Thursday, June 6, 2019

2019, Book 15: I'm Judging You by Luvvie Ajayi

Book 13: Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler. Will say more about this with book 21, Parable of the Sower.

Book 14: Nobody Knows My Name by James Baldwin. Fantastic writing, though I wish I knew more about the specific events he's writing about.  There was a global conference for black authors and the trends and issues of the time are not well-known to me, nor are the specific people referenced.

Book 15: I'm Judging You by Luvvie Ajayi.

Like so many other books by black authors, this seemed like it was written after the 2016 election, even though it was, in fact, written before.  This particular one happened to be very shortly before, but it has become less and less of a surprise that marginalized people tend to see the cultural "surprises" much sooner than others, black women being amongst the most marginalized in America.

But don't get the idea that this book is all politics.  This book is about life, the life of Luvvie Ajayi, but not in an autobiographical way.  She talks about lots of things and politics and feminism play important roles in her life.  It's not that she necessarily finds politics more interesting or is naturally drawn to power struggles (maybe she is, but it doesn't come off that way in the book).  It's just that she's a black woman.  All politics will affect black people more adversely than anyone else and all feminism will affect women far more than men.

The most important thing about this book is that Luvvie is funny.  Whether she's talking about why jojoba oil is important for "black don't crack" or explaining why some of her girlfriends stay with unworthy men, she manages to tap into that part that everyone knows and notices, but no one seems to want to mention and turns the discomfort into laughter.  I caught this one on audio-book and it's one of the few books I'd recommend in its non-paper form.  It's not quite a stand-up bit, but a lot is added to this book by having Luvvie read it to you.

No comments:

Post a Comment