Reviews and Comments

I LOVE food. Like, I fucking love to eat. I cook for the purpose of giving myself a good meal to eat. This is probably why I can't be a chef, and holy fuck being a chef sounds fucking hard. I should have read this book before becoming a waitress, the restaurant industry is truly brutal, and Bourdain describes this in stark but beautiful detail; he could give Tolkien a run for his money. From watching "No Reservations" I thought, damn this man can speak, but boy can he write. I would literally eat up all his descriptions about what it's like being a line-cook, sous chef or head chef, and his fucking descriptions of food. My god. Of course there were some parts that my liberal-ass definitely cringed at, but I love this man. If you like to eat out, I think it's in your best interest to read this book to understand the kind of dedication it takes for food to be served to you. If you care about the food you order, I think it would be a disservice to not read this book. Rest in peace, Anthony Bourdain.

Massive trigger/content warning for violence and rape for this book. Some really brutal scenes depicting the treatment of black women and men, but I think it's important to read this if you can stomach it.

The book was really informative, but it read more like a timeline about the treatment of black women from slavery til the 70s and their role in emancipation and organising against racist laws (maybe this is my bad for different expectations). I think the relationship between women, race and class could have been synthesized better. I also was expecting an explicit chapter on the analysis of this relationship. Although I managed to piece how these three factors are related, and developed a deeper understanding and appreciation for intersectionality in feminism as well as the class-struggle, I think a few more paragraphs to drive home the necessity of solidarity (especially in the last few chapters) would have been brilliant. I think the last few chapters were a bit clumsy and I was struggling to follow some points. Other than that it's an all-round must read book to familiarise people with the history of slavery and racism in the US, and from the perspective of black women, whose experiences are often underrepresented.

It was like, good but he will talk about all these authors/philosophers/historians and im like ????? do i care/need to care abt whom these ppl are esp cuz some of the stuff seemed so topical at the time? although i guess ecomystics/primitvists are like..anprims or something. but idk if it was kind of like i had to read the works of the people he mentioned to be able to appreciate this book better i kind of wish he didn't include as many quotes as he did. probably seemed a bit too anecdotal. speaking of anecdotal, please cite your statements Bookchin !!! the stuff with like other primates......idk how accurate that was and would like to learn more abt it but no references :( but anyway the last two chapters were on point !! go off, i stan. also really liked the malthusian chapter. some hot, but delicious takes in this book. i would give three and a half stars