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juushikaTitle: A Sentimental Education
Author: Hannah McGregor
Narrator: Hannah McGregor
Published: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2022
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 140
Total Page Count: 507,945
Text Number: 1827
Read Because: fan of the author, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Part memoir, part academic theory, this is the story of coming through academia to also become a podcaster, and about podcasts as a tool for feminist scholarship as praxis. Ish. The fluid, shifting nature of these essays means it's a little of all of the above, none in exhaustive detail, but still building engaging arguments about both the limitations and strengths of podcasts and other forms of media that hinge on storymaking and sentimentality. The decision to put footnotes at the end of the text in an audiobook was a poor one, but McGregor's reading is otherwise, unsurprisingly, fantastic. I wish this were ... more; I have an impulse to call it slight, which isn't quite right; more like: there's a lot of threads at play here, but the focus on memoir makes for limited "solutions" (if that's the goal) to the issues it raises, a light touch that leaves many of its subjects in airy limbo and returns the focus back to McGregor's own attempts at radial self-care and feminist work, which makes the ending sudden and a little, well, sentimental, and perforce unsatisfying.
But the actual reading experience is thoughtful, intentional, stimulating, and (although I've only listened to Witch, Please) I would be hard-pressed to not enjoy McGregor having thoughts about the world and her place in it.
Title: Truth and Repair: How Trauma Survivors Envision Justice
Author: Judith L. Herman
Narrator: Stacey Glemboski
Published: Basic Books, 2023
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 270
Total Page Count: 508,215
Text Number: 1828
Read Because: book & author mentioned by chthonic-cassandra, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Herman takes a novel approach: to ask survivors directly how they envision justice and community response in the wake of abuse. This made me realize how large the specter of a vengeful victim looms in my mind and the harm that that stereotype perpetuates. Herman finds consistent threads throughout her interviews, pointing more towards admissions of culpability and social change than retribution. Thoughtful; perforce difficult to enact, because alternative models to the current legal system are still in development.
And not taken far enough. Herman's treatment of sex work and pornography doesn't extend the same grace; here, she categorically refuses to listen to the people who actually experience the damn thing. Radical feminist fingerprints are all over this, and makes me more aware of other limitations that Herman wants to deny, particularly the focus on a specific model of sexual abuse of female victim by male perpetrator that she wants treat as universalizable across other axes of power while rarely making the effort to account for them.
Title: Elvis and Me: The True Story of the Love Between Priscilla Presley and the King of Rock N' Roll
Author: Priscilla Beaulieu Presley, Sandra Harmon
Narrator: Priscilla Presley
Published: Blackstone Publishing, 2022 (1985)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 290
Total Page Count: 508,505
Text Number: 1829
Read Because: mentioned in Priscilla and the Plight of Women('s Biopics) by Broey Deschanel, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Per the title, this is constrained to Priscilla Presley in the context of Elvis. There's one pre-Elvis anecdote, and the post-Elvis content is almost entirely in relation to Elvis. The level of detail varies wildly: early stages of the relationship are presented in minute detail; later years are more amalgamated, an impressionist overview; Elvis's death and beyond are lightly sketched, and entirely omit her stewardship of the estate after Elvis's death.
And that's ... fine. The lens through which Priscilla Presley interprets her relationship - the age gap, the grooming, the fame and drug use and infidelity and drama and decline, the love - is her own lens, somehow both open-eyed and idealizing, sorrowful and forgiving, and the efforts to remediate a salacious public record make for an innate, obvious bias. It's simultaneously manicured and authentic. I respect that choice, as it goes; it also feels like only one fraction of the story, and if I cared more I'd seek out other biographies for more complete portrait.
The audiobook is read by an author, and her giggles sprinkled throughout are as campy as Graceland and Elvis's public image, so ill-timed when paired against clear evidence of bad behavior that it's almost commentary, highlighting the incredibly intentional lens the author is turning on her subject.
Author: Hannah McGregor
Narrator: Hannah McGregor
Published: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2022
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 140
Total Page Count: 507,945
Text Number: 1827
Read Because: fan of the author, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Part memoir, part academic theory, this is the story of coming through academia to also become a podcaster, and about podcasts as a tool for feminist scholarship as praxis. Ish. The fluid, shifting nature of these essays means it's a little of all of the above, none in exhaustive detail, but still building engaging arguments about both the limitations and strengths of podcasts and other forms of media that hinge on storymaking and sentimentality. The decision to put footnotes at the end of the text in an audiobook was a poor one, but McGregor's reading is otherwise, unsurprisingly, fantastic. I wish this were ... more; I have an impulse to call it slight, which isn't quite right; more like: there's a lot of threads at play here, but the focus on memoir makes for limited "solutions" (if that's the goal) to the issues it raises, a light touch that leaves many of its subjects in airy limbo and returns the focus back to McGregor's own attempts at radial self-care and feminist work, which makes the ending sudden and a little, well, sentimental, and perforce unsatisfying.
But the actual reading experience is thoughtful, intentional, stimulating, and (although I've only listened to Witch, Please) I would be hard-pressed to not enjoy McGregor having thoughts about the world and her place in it.
Title: Truth and Repair: How Trauma Survivors Envision Justice
Author: Judith L. Herman
Narrator: Stacey Glemboski
Published: Basic Books, 2023
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 270
Total Page Count: 508,215
Text Number: 1828
Read Because: book & author mentioned by chthonic-cassandra, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Herman takes a novel approach: to ask survivors directly how they envision justice and community response in the wake of abuse. This made me realize how large the specter of a vengeful victim looms in my mind and the harm that that stereotype perpetuates. Herman finds consistent threads throughout her interviews, pointing more towards admissions of culpability and social change than retribution. Thoughtful; perforce difficult to enact, because alternative models to the current legal system are still in development.
And not taken far enough. Herman's treatment of sex work and pornography doesn't extend the same grace; here, she categorically refuses to listen to the people who actually experience the damn thing. Radical feminist fingerprints are all over this, and makes me more aware of other limitations that Herman wants to deny, particularly the focus on a specific model of sexual abuse of female victim by male perpetrator that she wants treat as universalizable across other axes of power while rarely making the effort to account for them.
Title: Elvis and Me: The True Story of the Love Between Priscilla Presley and the King of Rock N' Roll
Author: Priscilla Beaulieu Presley, Sandra Harmon
Narrator: Priscilla Presley
Published: Blackstone Publishing, 2022 (1985)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 290
Total Page Count: 508,505
Text Number: 1829
Read Because: mentioned in Priscilla and the Plight of Women('s Biopics) by Broey Deschanel, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Per the title, this is constrained to Priscilla Presley in the context of Elvis. There's one pre-Elvis anecdote, and the post-Elvis content is almost entirely in relation to Elvis. The level of detail varies wildly: early stages of the relationship are presented in minute detail; later years are more amalgamated, an impressionist overview; Elvis's death and beyond are lightly sketched, and entirely omit her stewardship of the estate after Elvis's death.
And that's ... fine. The lens through which Priscilla Presley interprets her relationship - the age gap, the grooming, the fame and drug use and infidelity and drama and decline, the love - is her own lens, somehow both open-eyed and idealizing, sorrowful and forgiving, and the efforts to remediate a salacious public record make for an innate, obvious bias. It's simultaneously manicured and authentic. I respect that choice, as it goes; it also feels like only one fraction of the story, and if I cared more I'd seek out other biographies for more complete portrait.
The audiobook is read by an author, and her giggles sprinkled throughout are as campy as Graceland and Elvis's public image, so ill-timed when paired against clear evidence of bad behavior that it's almost commentary, highlighting the incredibly intentional lens the author is turning on her subject.
