Book Review: Tears We Cannot Stop by Michael Eric Dyson

Published: January 17, 2017
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Received: purchased
Read from September 14 to November 20, 2022

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Short, emotional, literary, powerful―Tears We Cannot Stop is the book that all Americans who care about the current and long-burning crisis in race relations will want to read.

As the country grapples with racist division at a level not seen since the 1960s, one man's voice soars above the rest with conviction and compassion. In his 2016 New York Times op-ed piece "Death in Black and White," Michael Eric Dyson moved a nation. Now he continues to speak out in Tears We Cannot Stop―a provocative and deeply personal call for change. Dyson argues that if we are to make real racial progress we must face difficult truths, including being honest about how black grievance has been ignored, dismissed, or discounted.

The time is at hand for reckoning with the past, recognizing the truth of the present, and moving together to redeem the nation for our future. If we don't act now, if you don't address race immediately, there very well may be no future.

Review:

Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America is essentially what the subtitle says. Dyson has written a sermon directed at white Americans about racism in the US that calls for a shift in how white Americans view race and their role in ending racism.

The sermon format was perfect for the material in the book. Dyson is an ordained minister who I'm sure has written countless formats, and he's very skilled at it. The language of sermons worked perfectly for the topics discussed in the book. This is definitely a work that appeals to your emotions rather than giving hard facts, but that doesn't make it any less successful at what it's trying to do. Dyson shares many of his own experiences in the book, which gives it a very personal feeling that makes it even more powerful.

The whole book is gripping in a way that's less common in nonfiction than it is in fiction (in my experience). I would highly recommend the book, particularly to other white people.

Andor 1x12 "Rix Road" Review

The season finale of Andor has to be my favorite episode of the series so far. A lot happens, and the individual stories happening wound back to each other in a way that felt satisfying but also left a lot open to explore in the future.

Cassian goes back to Ferrix for Maarva's funeral. It felt good to see him reconnect with some of his fiends even though it was under terrible circumstances. I'm incredibly relieved that he was able to be there for Maarva's funeral at all. It actually makes me even sadder that he didn't get to see her before she died because it's clear that she meant a lot to him. Seeing Cassian on Ferrix again really did help the season feel like it had come full circle.

Most of the episode focuses on Ferrix, as many of the characters from throughout the season return there. Mon Mothma's story line is really the only one that continues without going back to Ferrix. This whole season, she's felt a little distant from everything else. I know she's connected to Luthen and especially Vel, so she's not entirely separate, but comparatively speaking, she feels distant. She's the only one who doesn't know anything about Cassian for one.

Instead of worrying about Cassian or Ferrix, Mon accuses her husband of gambling in this episode. He insists that someone is lying to her, but it's obvious that she's the one lying because she wants to be overheard and have a cover story for the money that's been plaguing her all season. 

Not only is Mon Mothma's story more disconnected than the others, but it feels like it hasn't moved that much from episode one. She's hit a lot of road bumps, but she also hasn't been accused of anything yet. She's just taking precautions. People are watching her, and it's clear the tension is building. But it all feels like build up and not any direct action yet. I'm hoping that will change in season two.

We also do get a mention of the Empire defeating Kreegyr in this episode, but it's something we never get to see actually happen, which is basically what I expected.

I wasn't expecting this entire episode (almost) to be Maarva's funeral though. Even Luthen comes to Ferrix for it despite him trying to keep a low profile and the Empire being everywhere. The Empire and Luthen are both looking for Cassian. Syril's there too, but that I completely expected. I'm glad that Cassian did get to see a lot of the funeral because I wasn't sure if he'd come back to Ferrix either.

Maarva's speech that's played at the funeral was very fitting from the finale and was probably one of my favorite things about the episode. It causes a riot to erupt where a group attacks Dedra. Syril ends up saving her, so I'm guessing that she's going to be more open to working closely with him come season two. There whole relationship feels very off to me. I think it's mostly Syril's obsessive personality and the fact that he's already seemed like a stalker at several points in this season. Dedra's a villain, but seeing her get closer to Syril puts me on edge.

During the chaos that erupts at the end of the funeral, Cassian manages to get Bix out of the hotel, but she's in a terrible state. I'm worried about her mental state in season two. Cassian leaves her with a group of friends and promises to join them later, but I'm skeptical that it will happen any time soon.

Instead of joining them, Cassian goes to Luthen's ship. He gives Luthen the chance to either kill him or take him in. It ends like a cliffhanger, but having seen Rogue One, I'm pretty confident Cassian's not getting killed. Still, it does leave me excited to see what sort of work he does with the Resistance next season and whether or not he does end up reuniting with his fiends at all.

Honestly, my biggest wish for season two is more B2EMO. If he and Cassian are reunited at some point next season, then I'll be happy.

Andor 1x11 "Daughter of Ferrix" Review

At the start of the episode, Cassian is clinging to a cliff with Melshi. They're caught by two aliens who initially seem like they're going to kill them, but instead, they let them go. Cassian manages to get back to his money and retrieve it. All in all though, we don't actually see much of Cassian in this episode.

Maarva dies. I suspected that she would before seeing Cassian again, but it's still sad to have it happened. B2EMO made it even sadder by refusing to leave the house. I feel like I always get especially attached to the droids.

Vel goes to Luthen's shop and talks to Kleya, who's really angry that she's come. They have such a tense exchange that after this episode and the previous one where they interacted, I get the feeling that Kleya has hated Vel for a long time.

After that, Vel goes to Mon Mothma's house and finds Mon's daughter doing some tradition that involves her and a bunch of other girls chanting things. Apparently, she's gotten into the tradition, which is kind of strange since I would have expected her age and the fact that they don't even live on their home planet to mean that she would be less interested in traditions like that.

Luthen goes to visit Saw, who says that he's willing to help Kreegyr. Luthen tells him not to and admits the plan to sacrifice Kreegyr. While leaving, Luthen is stopped by an imperial ship. He gets away, but I'm curious if that leads the Empire to him somehow.

At the end of the episode, Cassian finds out Maarva is dead, which is a heartbreaking scene, but I'm glad that he found out. He also splits up with Melshi, and I'm curious if we'll see him again in season one or not.

There's a lot happening now. There are so many stories going that they're a little all over the place. I'm hoping that they're going to start intersecting back together again soon. Especially since we're getting close to the end.

Book Review: Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries 2) by Martha Wells

Publisher: Tor.com
Published: May 8, 2018
Read from September 28 to November 8, 2022
Received: purchased

Synopsis from Goodreads:

It has a dark past--one in which a number of humans were killed. A past that caused it to christen itself “Murderbot." But it has only vague memories of the massacre that spawned that title, and it wants to know more. Teaming up with a Research Transport vessel named ART (you don’t want to know what the “A” stands for), Murderbot heads to the mining facility where it went rogue. What it discovers will forever change the way it thinks.

Review:

Two and a half years later, I finally got around to reading the second Murderbot Diaries book. I absolutely loved All Systems Red, and I never planned for it to take this long to get to the rest of the series. The bright side is that there are even more books now, and I can read all of them straight away.

I re-read All Systems Red before Artificial Condition to jog my memory, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I remembered. The story really stuck with me, so I was excited to move right on to the second one.

Aside from Murderbot, this book has an entirely different set of characters from All Systems Red. It was great to read about Murderbot again, but I have to admit that I did miss the rest of the cast from the first book.

That being said, I absolutely loved ART! It was fun seeing Murderbot connect with a bot as opposed to a human. I also just loved ART's personality, and the connection between ART and Murderbot helped show what technology is capable of in this universe in a new way.

This book also explored Murderbot's past more as it went back to the planet where it killed its crew. We learn that the massacre wasn't Murderbot's fault, which wasn't surprising to me. I'd never actually doubted that, but I'm glad Murderbot could have that confirmed. Still, it doesn't seem fully satisfied with the answers it got, which makes me curious about where it's going to go next in the third book.

I'm going to dive straight into reading the next book now. I'm definitely not waiting another two years!

Andor 1x10 "One Way Out" Review

With every episode, I'm getting more and more into Andor. I'm liking this second half of the season far more than I did the first.

Cassian and the other prisoners finally break out of the prison. I was on the edge of my seat for the whole thing. I got way more into it than I did the thing at Aldhani. 

Kino not being able to swim was a nice twist at the end. (I'm a little surprised that every single one of the others seemed to be able to though. Surely at least a few others would have drowned even if they tried swimming.) I wonder what will happen to him.

Mon Mothma invites Davo to her house. He's willing to help her with her money, but in exchange, he wants his son to marry her daughter. I like this development because I have a feeling we're going to exlore more about marriage on Chandrila and also about Mon Mothma's own marriage.

The big surprise is that one of the supervisors working with Dedra, Lonni, is actually working for Luthen. I didn't see that coming. I'm curious about his backstory, especially since he and Luthen talk about an oath that they both took. I wonder how they met and how Lonni got involved.

Luthen also wants to sacrifice Kreegyr, which illustrates his mindset towards defeating the Empire. That makes a lot of sense when it comes to what we've seen so far. I don't really question is driving motivation anymore. I do think he genuinely wants to bring down the Empire, which I wasn't completely positive of before.

Now that Cassian is out of the prison, I'm excited to see what happens next.

Andor 1x09 "Nobody's Listening!" Review

With Cassian stuck in jail, I wasn't sure what to expect going forward, but I'm really hooked on Andor now. It's nice because for the first half or so of the season I was having trouble getting into it. That's not a problem anymore.

Bix is tortured by being forced to listen to people dying. Not just people actually. They've pulled out recordings of children to make it even more cruel. We don't get to hear the sounds themselves, but that makes it even more chilling.

While the torturer, mentions the effects the sounds have on people, I'm curious about the people who actually did the slaughtering. There's no mention of them. Were they unable to hear the calls as they were murdering everyone? If they have the effect that they supposedly do, you'd think it would have made them incapable of murdering them all.

Cassian wastes no time in getting to work with other inmates to plan an escape. Those plans hit a road bump when they learn that a whole unit was killed because a released inmate was sent back into the prison. Now it seems that none of them will ever be released.

But already at the end of the episode, we can see the leader of Cassian's floor become energized and determined to help them all break out. It seems like their plan to keep everyone locked up forever is going to backfire by making them more determined than ever to get out. I look forward to seeing how they do it.

Vel comes to visit Mon Mothma, and it seems like they're longtime friends. I like seeing how all of the characters are connected even more. Mon's husband tells Vel she needs to find a widower husband and continues to make himself look even worse somehow.

I know that he and Mon got married young, but the more we see of him, the more that not even that fully explains how she ended up married to him. Was he different back then? Was she pressured into it? I feel like there's still more of a story to tell there.

Syril manages to get even creepier this episode when he stalks Dedra. She even calls him out for stalking, and the excuses he gives for why it's not stalking are exactly what a stalker would say. There's a strange dynamic there that I'm not sure what to make of. Syril definitely seems to have an obsessive personality, and I'm curious about how much that's going to turn to Dedra as well as Cassian.

I'm looking forward to the next episode.