Tag: feminist

If These Wings Could Fly

~ rachelbenzine ~ Leave a comment

Plot:

Home is supposed to be a refuge. For Leighton, it’s the center of the storm. Most of her peers are figuring out what college to attend when their senior year is finished. Leighton is trying to decide if she’s going to be able to escape her hometown, or if it’s more important for her to stay home continue to protect her mom and younger sisters from her dad’s rage.

While she’s navigating the murky waters of her last year of high school, thousands and thousands of crows are descending on her hometown. No one knows why the crows are lingering, or how to get rid of them. Between writing a column for her school newspaper about the crows, fighting her growing attachment to a great guy named Liam, and keeping her sisters safe in her room while her dad escalates in violence toward her mom, Leighton has to figure out how to chart a course forward.

Favorite Passage:

“I take Mom’s hand.
I see a fractured system, delicate and damaged, that could collapse right under our feet.
She sees home.”
— Chapter Fifty-One
[This passage was quoted from an ARC; as such, it may change before final publication.]

What I Loved Most:

Violence at home is such a real issue in our society. In the author’s note of the Advanced Reader’s Copy that I got from Katherine Tegen Books (thanks, friends!), Kyrie McCauley shares that she’s writing the book she wishes her sixteen-year-old self would have been able to read. If These Wings Could Fly is heart breaking and empowering and motivating. It calls attention to emotional abuse, as well as the way that domestic violence is cyclical and tends to escalate over time. Especially in this time of quarantine and staying-at-home, my heart has been drifting to those who home is not a safe place for. It’s crucial reading at any time, but seems extra important right now.

I want to put this here in case anyone needs it: the National Domestic Violence Hotline number is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233), and you can also chat with an advocate on their website. If you need help, and can get to a place where it’s safe to reach out for help, please contact them. Also, I love you, and it’s not your fault, and you deserve to be safe.

Read this book if you like:

Strong female protagonists, magical realism, gut-wrenchingly real pain mixed with hopefulness

Book Details:

 

What is a Girl Worth

~ rachelbenzine ~ Leave a comment

Review:

As a child, Rachel Denhollander was a gymnast with the USA Gymnastics (USAG) organization. When she started experiencing severe pain in her back and her wrists from the physical strain of her training regimen, she received a referral to see USAG team doctor Dr. Larry Nassar. At her first medical appointment with him, he sexually molested her for the first time. She was fifteen years old. The abuse would continue throughout the year and a half of her treatment.

Fifteen years later, Denhollander saw a news article about the rampant sexual abuse of USA Gymnasts, and the failure of USAG to report cases or deal with them in an effective manner. At the end of the article, there was an email address where people could send in additional tips. Denhollander decided to speak up about Nassar’s abuse of her. She would become the first of over two hundred and fifty people to come forward as survivors of Nassar’s abuse. In What is a Girl Worth, Denhollander shares her story of breaking the silence. Because of her courage, and the courage of the other survivors who spoke up, one of the most prolific child molesters in history is currently in prison, where he won’t be able to hurt any more children.

This is one of the most powerful books I have ever read, and also one of the most horrifying. I was so angry and sad and sick to my stomach while reading it. We live in a hard world, y’all. Yet I also can’t urge you strongly enough to read this book. Sexual abuse thrives in conditions of silence, when the stigma is placed on those who were abused rather than the abusers. I applaud Rachael Denhollander for not only being willing to speak publicly about the abuse, but to write this moving memoir and continue to fight for change.

Favorite Passage:

“Over the last few years I’d explored every other option. Removing God from the picture, changing how Scripture defined Him, considering other faith traditions — none of them fixed my problems or answered my questions. I’d explored science and information theory, history, and philosophical concepts. I’d considered principles of evidence and grappled with the critiques of the Christian faith. No matter where I looked, I was confronted with things I couldn’t explain without God. And specifically, without the gospel. Every other faith tradition relied on some form of good works to absolve people from guilt or reach “heaven” or some higher order. But justice didn’t work that way. Doing good didn’t erase the bad. Not for Larry. Not for me. And while it felt good to say all the ideas were right, that didn’t work either. Each faith tradition made specific truth claims that didn’t fit with other faiths. They couldn’t all be true. I needed real answers. Not just what felt nice. And the more I tried, the more convinced I became that, while I couldn’t explain everything, I had more real answers through my faith than I had without it. Where else would I go, Lord?”
— 9

What I Loved Most:

I didn’t go into this book expecting to read about the Gospel. When I got to the chapter where Denhollander shares her experience of wrestling with God in the process of healing from her abuse, I read the whole thing with tears in my eyes. She experienced the worst of this fallen, sinful world. She doesn’t use platitudes, or pretend that God made it all easy for her to handle. Yet she shares the truths she is confident of – that right and wrong and truth all exist; that there is a God who defines good and evil; that this God is the one proclaimed in the Bible; that God is just and loving. Praises be to Almighty God, who gives us hope.

Read this book if you like:

Social justice, speaking hard truths, #MeToo, the songs Rescue by Lauren Daigle and/or The Sun is Rising by Britt Nicole, a bold proclamation of the goodness of God in the midst of terrible pain

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The Whisper Network

~ rachelbenzine ~ Leave a comment

Review:

All women are familiar with it. That low-key, “Hey, probably stay away from that guy” remark you hear from another woman. Because we’ve all been there, and we appreciate the heads up.

The Whisper Network focuses in on the experiences of three women who work at the same law firm. The man who is in line to be their new CEO is one of those guys that women talk about in hushed terms – but no one wants to be the one to speak up, get harassed by people who say they’re doing it for attention, and ruin their own careers. And when these women do decide to say something… they never imagined it ending up like it did.

This is one of those books where I finished reading it, and immediately grabbed my phone to text two friends to say “THIS BOOK WAS SO GOOD YOU NEED TO READ IT.” I was hooked from the prologue, and devoured the book to the end. This is a highly recommended read.

Favorite Passage:

“So when we said that we would prefer not to have to be asked to smile on top of working, we meant that: we would like to do our jobs. When we said that we would like not to hear a comment about the length of our skirt, we meant that: we would like to do our jobs, please. When we said that we would like not to have someone try to touch us in our office, we meant that: we would like to do our jobs. Please.”
— Chapter Thirty

What I Loved Most:

The Whisper Network both whispers and shouts about the fine line women have to walk in the workplace. We need to be pleasant, but not overly nice so he doesn’t think we’re flirting, but we have to be warm enough not to be perceived as rude, but we want to make sure we’re not giving off the wrong signals… on an infinite repeat, day in and day out. It clearly addresses both the reasons why some women don’t say anything when they are harassed/assaulted/raped, and the reasons why some women do.

Read this book if you like:

Feminism, low-grade mysteries, #MeToo, Pretty Guilty Women by Gina LaManna

Book Details: