Book review: ’Bridge Builders: Bringing People Together in a Polarized Age’ by Nathan Bomey

Real Change
Feeling trans: Joss Lake explores community and anticapitalism in his debut novel

By Andrea Marks-Joseph | June 9, 2021

Joss Lake’s debut novel “Future Feeling” tells the tale of three trans men who are caught up in a digital hex gone wrong. I spoke to the author about imagining a future with trans men at the center and what he hoped to express through this surreal adventure into the multi-dimensional trans experience. ...
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Pruning ivy, the body and the spirit: Akwaeke Emezi’s memoir reclaims their space

By Leinani Lucas | June 2, 2021

Book review: ‘Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir’ by Akwaeke Emezi

From the first page of “Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir,” Akwaeke Emezi is clear about something: They are the god of their own destiny. In this book, Emezi grants readers the privilege of seeing their private letters to their friends, acquaintances, family members, heroes and everyone in between. ...
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‘Minor Feelings’ reckons with Asian American consciousness in a major way

By May Huang | May 26, 2021

Book review: ‘Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning’ By Cathy Park Hong

On the cover of Cathy Park Hong’s “Minor Feelings,” aptly subtitled “An Asian American Reckoning,” flames dance around the uppercase title of the book. An arresting design, the cover art suggests danger, drama and daring — three elements that are unapologetically present in this essential interrogation on race and writing. ...
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One more stop: A sci-fi romance for disillusioned millennials

By Leinani Lucas | May 19, 2021

Book review: ‘One Last Stop’ By Casey McQuiston

Approximately a year ago, after reading a book I won’t name, I thought I was tired of books set in New York City. I was absolutely sure there was nothing more a story about New York City had to offer me, especially as a born-and-raised Pacific Northwesterner. Although I still think there’s an oversaturation, “One Last Stop” by Casey McQuiston brings something new to the city. ...
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Befriending fiends: Comics about living with anxiety

By Samira George | May 19, 2021

Everyone deals differently with the emotional twists and turns of life; Seattle artist Janie Stapleton channels those feelings of stress into fiery, inventive likenesses of rodents. ...
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International Tea Day — every day

By Ace Azul | May 19, 2021

International Tea Day is this Friday, May 21, and I plan to celebrate. Every morning, I walk to my tea stash in the living room bookshelf and peruse for something to entice my taste buds. Do I want black or green tea? Ooh, what about a nice oolong? Today’s choice is a floral plum rose oolong blend from Miro Tea. Yesterday’s choice was an extra citrusy earl gray. What I’ll pick tomorrow is up to the tea fairies: perhaps a smoky lapsang souchong paired with some hot chocolate.

Where does tea come from? What exactly is it? And what does drinking it do to our bodies? ...
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Real Change
What WE are going through: A literary journey into, through and past loss

By Megan Wildhood | May 12, 2021

Book review: ‘What Are You Going Through’ By Sigrid Nunez

Last summer, I reviewed former U.S. poet laureate Juan Felipe Herrera’s poetry collection “Every Day We Get More Illegal.” I started that review with a frame for thinking about poetry because of how common it is for people to struggle with poetry — understanding it, liking it, even wanting to read it. ...
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’Self-made’ winners... and the rest of us

By Dave Gamrath | May 5, 2021

Book review: ‘The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good?’ by Michael J. Sandel

The term “meritocracy” was coined in 1958 as a term of abuse but has evolved to one of praise and aspiration. In “The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good?” author Michael J. Sandel argues that meritocracy has had an extremely harmful impact on our society. In theory, a meritocratic society is just and distributes income and wealth based on what people deserve. The reality, per Sandel, is much different. ...
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Book review: ‘How the South Won the Civil War’ by Heather Cox Richardson

By Joe Martin | April 28, 2021

Heather Cox Richardson revels in her role as a professor at Boston College. She is a white woman, 58 years of age and a resident with her partner, a lobsterman, in a small fishing village in Maine. A prolific author and essayist, she has written her sixth book, “How the South Won the Civil War.” Therein, she provides a clear analysis of America’s unsettling paradox: Paeans to freedom strike dissonant notes when sounded amidst human slavery and where structural injustices are extant. ...
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Real Change
Book review: ’Bridge Builders: Bringing People Together in a Polarized Age’ by Nathan Bomey

By Megan Wildhood | April 21, 2021

Lately, we’ve been abusing each other. So wrote Nathan Bomey in his forthcoming book “Bridge Builders: Bringing People Together in a Polarized Age.” Bomey’s research covers the country, from Washington, D.C., where youth are making art to combat the city’s stereotypes as dangerous and politicized, to Detroit’s bankruptcy to the national fight against climate change in American politics. ...
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