Jules, reading reviewed Care Work by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
I made it, but it wasn't easy
4 stars
I sure had a lot of feelings while reading this book. Mostly in a good way. In a "someone actually KNOWS" way. It also showed me possibilities and found words for experiences I never shared with anyone. Quite intense.
I still had a hard time reading it. It's a very lose collection of different essays or other pieces of writing the author accumulated over the years. Some are more accessible and polished than others. In this the format is part of telling the story of how you write a book as a disabled person with never enough spoons. In many ways it reads like a (very personal and local) disability organizing history focusing on North America. We need more of that, from more perspectives, it's something Leah talks about in the book too.
It is a book by and for disabled people, especially disabled POC, before anything else. And it's also great for learning something about what it feels like to survive.
I'm glad I finished it and took the time I needed. My issues with a certain style of American talking and writing made it a bit harder to read as I wished but there are still so many beautiful thoughts and ideas in there. It's worth putting in some effort.