Very Memoir

Genderqueer by Maia Kobabe

[Saint Louis, Mo.] : The Lion Forge, LLC, 2019.

239 p. : chiefly col. ill. ; 21 cm. 

There's a lot to like and admire about Genderqueer.  This graphic novel memoir reveals with great honesty Kobabe's life of coming to terms with eir (Kobabe uses e/em/eir pronouns) gender identity. Assigned female gender at birth, this graphic novel follows Kobabe's intensely personal (often painful) struggle to figure out what eir gender/sexuality/identity is. 

The thing I like so much about this memoir is that it really opens up to the reader how intense and real the gender struggle can be for someone who does not fit into the more "normative" categories of gender and sexuality. Kobabe, a very sensitive person, is often tormented as e figures out what e thinks/feels about dating, coming out, pronoun use, clothing use, appearance, family dynamics, friendship, seeing the doctor, etc. A reader can learn so much about how many obstacles to self-realization exist in our society. However, the book is ultimately hopeful as Kobabe gets closer and closer to figuring out and embracing eir true self.

My only hesitancy about the book, is it's intense preoccupation with self. Of course, it's a memoir, but there were times when I just wanted the author to look beyond eirself and reflect on the lives of others who are in similar or even worse situations - but that's probably just me!

      

Dystopia Now

The Looting Machine by Tom Burgis

 New York : PublicAffairs,  c2015.     

 xi, 321 p. : ill., map ; 24 cm.     

This is a powerful book that examines the power and endurance of the entrenched systems that pillage the resources of Africa. It is an indictment of the many legal (and illegal), but grossly unethical networks of banking rules, corporate laws, governments, militaries and paramilitaries that vacuum up the untold wealth fuel and mineral wealth of the African continent and keep it in the hands of a tiny minority of wealthy and well-connected people (while immiserating the vast majority of citizens in those countries where the wealth is found.)

This is not exactly the kind of book most students would pick up and read cover-to-cover, but it would be VERY useful to students doing any research on globalization, world poverty, corruption, mining, economics, especially in relation to the nations of Nigeria, Angola, South Africa, etc. It is a great resource for understanding how even when liberation governments come to power, they are often overtaken by the global systems of off-shoring, international finance/loans, and powerhouse nations like the US and China that seek to control profits gained from extractive industries.

The author Tom Burgis deserves great deal of credit for doing dogged (and intrepid) research as he visits both the glittering high-rises of corporate/financial power (e.g. Hong Kong, New York, and Harare)  conflict-torn sites (e.g. Nigeria, Congo, Zimbabwe) of mining and extraction.

It's a complicated and painful book to read, but one that anyone who lives in more wealthy countries should read since the wealth of Africa is deeply entwined with the wealth of those better-off countries.