 But to me it felt like I was reading one of my A level government and politics essays. I said what I said and I'm not changing on it, okay? And I hope, oh, I sounded really weird there. I don't know what I'm going to end up calling the title to make you want to click on this because I feel like a lot of people won't want to click on this because I'm reading nonfiction. So I don't know how I'm going to law you in but I'm going to do it somehow. For those of you that maybe don't know me or haven't been here long, you may not know that I love reading nonfiction as well. There was a period at the start of like 2018 where I read one fiction, one nonfiction, one fiction, one nonfiction. And whilst it's just not sustainable for me anymore, I'm interested in a lot more fiction books than I am nonfiction. I've still been wanting to read it fairly regularly. There's something about being in lockdown and the situation that we're all in. I just not used to being locked up, I can't take it, too much. Where I think that learning about topics is so important. And so what I decided to do this week is read three feminist books. I'm a feminist. We should all be feminists in the words of our Lord and Savior, to Amanda Ngozi Adichie. First is Invisible Women Exposing Data Bias in a World Design for Men by Caroline Criado Perez. So this is basically looking at how the world is designed for men, how women are statistically disadvantaged in society. And I think what sparked this video and sparked me wanting to read this and more books is I'm doing A Read Along For It with Keras and Britt. I think it's actually gonna be happening, a live show, about an hour after this video is posted. Like literally the same day. And so because this is nonfiction, it's not like there's gonna be any spoilers. So even if you haven't joined us for, you know, reading it, if you're interested in what I speak about in this video, literally go to Keras' channel who's hosting it. I'll put all the links down below. And go watch the live show. And if you're watching this like an hour or more than an hour after I posted the video, then obviously the live show will still be up there. So I'll link it down below. But I'm really excited to talk to Keras and Britt about this. I have heard some mixed things about the author that she can be exclusionary of trans women and stuff in her statistics. And so that's something I definitely want to keep an eye out for when reading this. The statistics that I've already heard from this about how, you know, car crashes are designed for men. So women are much more unsafe during car crashes. Drugs are designed only tested on men and stuff like that. I think it's gonna be really, really interesting. Then we've got Bad Feminist by Roxanne Gay. I've wanted to read some of Roxanne Gay's stuff forever. And I think this is probably her most famous collection of essays. I think this is essentially her looking at what it means to be a feminist in the modern day and trying to examine how her idea of a feminist maybe ties up with that. Sometimes I feel like there's certain things I do that don't line up with what a feminist should be. You know, like maybe still being too interesting like trashy pop culture. I still, I could name for you every single one of the Kardashian grandchildren if you wanted me to. Probably guess their ages as well. True, just turned two. I don't think so. I don't think I'm allowed. No, I don't, I don't, I don't... No, I'm not allowed. I know I'm not allowed. And then the last book I'm going to be reading, I'm going to be reading between audiobook and ebook. And it is How We Get Free, Black Feminism and like a Humby... Does that right? Come, come, come by... I don't know if I said that. I just said it instinctively. Wow. River Collective by Kianga Yamata Taylor. So this is about that collective who were a group of radical black feminists. And I think this is a basic collection by their founding members talking about the legacy of black feminism. I like sometimes to surprise myself. This hasn't been on my radar. This hasn't been on my TBR. I was just kind of scrolling through some feminism, lists of books and scrolling through script. And this is just something that really caught my eye. And I just thought, I'm just going to go for it. I think that's something that's really fun to do sometimes as much as I enjoy taking up people's recommendations. This is kind of the equivalent and what we can do right now of going to the bookstore and picking up a random book. Do you know what I mean? Which is still I think a great thing to do and something I really enjoy. So I can't go to Waterstones right now, but I can scroll through script and pick up a random book. So they're the three books which are going to be reading in this video. I'm going to start Invisible Women first. Hello, hello. I have been tabbing this quite a bit. I never usually tab. I'm just under halfway through. I've been reading it quite slowly, but I felt like I just needed to take a step away from reading for a little bit and just breathe. I'm out of breath. And I just think it's time to breathe, like just breathe. It is just so nice to breathe. What this book is really great at exposing to me is even when we maybe have a statistic that shows how women are disadvantaged. The most obvious one is the pay gap between men and women, but there's many other ones as well. Whenever we see a statistic like that, chances are it's actually much worse because of the gender data gap that we have. Often we do not collect data on women. Often it's standardised by men. And so what this is really exposing to me is how there is a lack of data exposing women and how much worse the situation is than we often realise. It's so good. The only thing is for me, it is kind of all blowing into one. Oh, I really like the section on unpaid work done by women, so like housework, child care, caring for relatives. Globally 75% of unpaid work is done by women who spend between three and six hours per day on it compared to men's average of 30 minutes to two hours. And I also talked about how regardless of whether a man or a woman is in a relationship or whatever, the statistics stay roughly the same, which I found very interesting. Sometimes it is all blowing into one. And I'm finding it a bit difficult to read and I don't think it's because of the topic. I think just the writing style is a bit off. And I think writing style is always a bit difficult to identify in nonfiction. I also often find it much easier to identify whether like the writing styles work in fiction. But I just think the way she writes is just a little bit off to me. I'm not saying it's bad, but me and my brain and it, me and my brain and it, there's three in the party. It doesn't necessarily match up. Do you know what I mean? Like I just don't think the writing style is necessarily for me. And I'm going to try and make a lot of progress on it today because I'm like, I'm taking a bit of a day off from uni work. I think it's like everyone understanding that we all have different priorities and like working is just, it's not my top priority. It's never going to be. In terms of how we get free, I've only read the first chapter, but now I've finished the audiobook I was listening to. I'm going to be listening to the audiobook of that instead. Very interesting. Love the way that's written. So engaging. And like so many interesting things I'm learning about this collective of women, like how they coined the term identity politics. It meant something very different to how we're using it in the modern age. For them, it was like black feminism politically, you know. It was them and what their politics needed to be based on their identity. And just so many interesting stuff. I can't wait to dive more into that now that I can listen to the audiobook. Visible Women by Caroline Criado Perez. And I think I'm going to give it 3.5 stars. The thing is, I spent like a week and a half reading this book, which is not normal for me. I read quite a lot on fiction. It's not like nonfiction is a genre I'm not comfortable in. I love nonfiction. But something about this book, and I think I've mentioned it a few times, was just her writing style wasn't very engaging to me. I was often forcing myself to read this. And that's really strange to me when it's a topic I'm so passionate about and so interested in. Everything she was saying, I was interested in. It was just the way that it was written. So because I tabbed loads. There was loads of stuff that I was like, wow, that's so incredible women. Women are so disadvantaged by the data gap and all the different ways in which women across the world, not just taking a UK and USA look, but how women are disadvantaged in so many countries all over the world, how cultural differences and beliefs can impact women's lives completely. It was really interesting she was talking about natural disasters. She was talking about how in Bangladesh a cyclone warnings go off in public spaces where women are not allowed. And women are not allowed to leave the house without a male relative. So often they don't even know the cyclones are coming. They are dependent on a male relative to come back to the house to get them so they can leave, so they can go to escape somewhere. But then even the shelters are just one big room and women are not supposed to be in a room with a man who's not a male relative. And so women just end up dying because of these societally ingrained rules. So I would definitely recommend this book. But to me it felt like I was reading one of my A-level government and politics essays. I said what I said and I'm not changing that, okay? You have to cram in loads of statistics but you're not able to step back and talk about the theory and the implications necessarily behind it if that makes sense, although it is from your implications. I sometimes just wanted to step back and take a bit of a breath. It just felt like it was statistic, artistic, artistic, artistic, and it didn't flow nicely for me. So I would definitely recommend it, based on the topic and the information it gives. But it was just a bit of a strange read. In terms of how we get free audio book, I'm just under halfway through that and I'm loving it. It's essentially just interviews with these women who start this collective and it's like listening to a podcast and them talking about their life. It's so interesting. And I just think they're incredible women. It does feel like a podcast. And I think it is gonna buy the end of it. It's not gonna be like a five star. I'm not expecting that because I think the format is gonna get a bit repetitive. I wish they had different narrators for each woman because there's something to like blur into one. I think it would help me if they all sound different. But I think it's a great short read, a great short audio book if you're looking for something like that. And it's just so fascinating how much of the work these women did in the 1970s has impacted on our feminism today. I'm gonna pick up Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay and I'm really excited to read these essays after reading Invisible Women because I think this is gonna be a lot more about personal experience, about feelings, about the the phenomenons in society that data can't necessarily articulate. Hello. Today I'm doing nothing but reading. Hang on, let me shut the door. Hope you like the Tommy Wazosha assigned for anyone who's watched The Room. Hope you like my towels. I'm about 100, just over 100 pages into Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay, obsessed, obsessed. It was a cultural reset. I know I'm just gonna devour this state. It's been a while since I've just wanted to devour a book like this and for it to be non-fiction is so unusual for me. She's speaking about loving point issues in here but my favourite essay has been about her love for Scrabble and like the competition of Scrabble. I could read a whole book of essays about her love for Scrabble. Just the way she writes her, the way she articulates her feelings I'm just in love with. She's touching on a lot of popular culture but also a lot of personal experience and just the way it's all meshing together is incredible. So I'm just gonna devour that today and then whilst I'm listening to my audio book which is How I Get Free, I'm gonna play Animal Crossing. How I Get Free I'm still very much enjoying but it is getting a bit like repetitive. She's asking all of these women very similar questions. Today's just a good day. Today's just a great day. You know when a day is just a good day? Today is that day. I feel so happy and I just wanna look. This is lovely isn't it? Okay so final check in. I, oh hang on the book's really far away from me. I could reach that. I finished Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay and I'm giving it five stars. I loved this. I read it all pretty much in one day. Just the way Roxane Gay writes was so captivating and I love how all-encompassing this book was. It wasn't just a book about gender. It was a book about race. It was a book about politics. And for me that's what feminism should be. It should be all-encompassing. It should be all-encompassing of gender, all-encompassing of race. Like your feminism needs to extend beyond small boundaries that some feminism can. And I just wanna read everything she's written ever. The Scrabble chapter is still arguably my favourite one. However, I didn't know so much to learn from this book and I'm so happy I read it now. And I just think you should all go read it. If you want to learn about the world we're living in, if you want to learn about a black woman's experience living in the world we're living in, it's just perfect. Like she's a perfect writer and I could not wait to read more. There was so much in here I highlighted. I love when she would discuss things like Fifty Shades of Grey or Girls by Nina Dunham. Dunham, I think that's her name. Or Tyler Perry, like stuff like that. And talking about how maybe those things treat black women or women in general or the working class women. It's so interesting. And so yeah, I loved it. How we get free, I ended up giving it three stars. I still really enjoyed it, but I definitely think the format grew tired. I think even just a short bibliography of each of those women or just a bit more of a timeline for the Cumbahee River Collective would have really helped because I was just so lost on what had been happening sometimes. You can see all my toiletries in the back by the way. Sorry, my geodorant. The women did kind of blur into one. The narrator was brilliant and in the last one in particular we got a good sense of her personality just through kind of like her use of language. But I think just a bit of a setting of the scene for each of the women would have really helped and I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more. I think it would have been a four star if that had happened. But still would definitely recommend it. It's a short audio book and I loved learning about these women who I hadn't known about beforehand. So I hope you enjoyed this video. I really enjoyed reading some feminist literature which I haven't done in a long while. Let me know if there's any in these video that you are going to read. If you've joined us for the Read Along for Invisible Women, I can't wait to chat to you about that. Go check out the link below if you want to join in, if you've read the book already. I mean again it's not going to be spoilery so you can come watch the live show if you want to learn a bit more about our thoughts. You know you're not going to get spoiled for anything as a non-fiction book. And yeah thank you very very much for watching this video and I will see you very soon. Bye!