Gender Trouble, Judith Butler

 

Gender Trouble by Judith Butler  the subtitle for this book is generally "Feminism and the subversion of identity"

Started: April 7, 2025
Completed: April 12, 2025
Recommendation: Highly recommended
Recommended By: My cousin

Review:

This is a technical book written in the jargon of the professional in gender studies.  I found a lot of the terms seemed archaic (to my ears the use of terms were just so unusual).  I listened to an audio book where the performer pronounced words like, "corollary" as "carol-aerie," and I found the pronunciation jarring as well as quickly making the sentence unintelligible.  I coped by going back and listening again, frequently.  This book is far from an easy read, but it is kind of fun to hear Butler reduce Freud to gibbering nonsense.

The Tusks of Extinction, Ray Nayler

 

The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler

Started: April 5, 2025
Completed: April 7, 2025
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: Nebula Award Committee

Review:

This book is both a conservation work as well as a Science Fiction work.  That is a tough combination.  I have been sort of wrapped up in the concept of "uploading" one's intellect into a computer and this book examines that possibility while also looking at the possibility of recreating extinct creatures (not really Jurassic Park) while at the same time examining how those creatures would impact the environment and still be subject to the very conditions that brought them to extinction.  This is well done for the most part and the shifting perspectives are useful.  The book is brief, however, so it feels like the characters are truncated and only one of the characters undergoes meaningful change or development.

When the Clock Broke, John Ganz

 

When the Clock Broke:  Con men, conspiracies, and how America cracked up in the early 1990s by John Ganz

Started: March 30, 2025
Completed: April 5, 2025
Recommendation: Mild recommendation
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

I feel like this book was intended to show how politics became broken and how that led to electing a broken candidate like Trump.  Then, it feels, like there were slight modifications to the text to understand how he could be elected again.  I sort of feel like politics were less broken and were more an actualization of some pretty horrible points of view.  Those points of view remain and there does not seem to be some kind of a change or generally realization of how wrong Trump is, but some kind of acceptance of his horrible assumptions as being an accurate reflection of reality.  This is very scary to me.