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It has been a while since a book so accurately responded to my deepest worries. I had heard the name of Kohei Saito but never approached his writing before. This book is amazing, clear and easy to read but also profound and dare I say it, truly revolutionary. Saito is a Marxist scholar, and in this book he approaches the climate and environmental crisis through Marxism and proposes Degrowth Communism as the solution for human civilisation to survive. His argument is cogent. He starts out by debunking the myth of green growth and argues why capitalism is ill suited to respond to the needs of our time. He then writes how Marx himself had arrived to the idea of degrowth communism (although likely never actually called it that way) as he got older and his unpublished notes and research prove this evolution in his thought. The book closes by showing paths away from capitalism, form simple actions like building cooperative associations of workers and consumers and banning private jets, to more systemic changes like municipalism and the elimination of things like advertising. I was blown away by the clarity of his ideas. Many times while reading I had to take a little break and sit with the concepts, because it is a plausible solution for the biggest crises we face. I consider it essential reading and will certainly be returning to it in the future.

Been wanting to read more material from Bell Hooks and got this on loan from the library. It is an outstanding view on education and intersectionality in the classroom. She makes it very clear how the complexities of power, class, gender, race and even language generate a dynamic environment that should not be ignored and assumed to be neutral in the classroom. She tells her own experiences as a student and a teacher and links them to the needs of nurturing young souls.
She also talks about colonisation and its legacy and the fact that the very language we use is a tool of oppression, that needs to be owned and wielded by the powerless to reclaim their very humanity. She sums it up and elaborates from this phrase from a poem by Adrienne Rich: “This is the oppressor’s language yet I need it to talk to you.”
Powerful thoughts that challenge the status quo and although it is clearly intended for educators, as a parent and just a human being striving to be better and uplift those around me, it is essential reading.

I am not quite the target audience for this book, but I still enjoyed it. It is a book for moms, it deals a lot with very feminine subjects, like pregnancy, body shaming, and being a woman in the world today. I do not have direct experience with any of that, but enjoyed learning about it and the more radical angles the book takes on anti-racism, feminism and progressive politics as applied to parenting.
It is very American centered and clearly inspired by the Trump period, which is fine but limits it's scope a little bit.
The other criticism I have is it also tends to feel a little bit naive in terms of the possibilities of electoral politics. And as often happens with American liberals, The rejection of Republicans pushes them to embrace Democrats and glorify figures like Hillary Clinton and Obama, giving them a blind spot to actually revolutionary alternatives.
It is a good, practical starting point for mothers interested in parenting from a progressive standpoint though.