Shrill

Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman by Lindy West, 260 pages

Seattle-based blogger and comedy writer Lindy West is well-known for her penchant to speak up about injustices, particularly those related to women and fat people, and for her willingness to stare down her online trolls. If you go with that description, you might feel that a book by West would be argumentative, dismissive of those who disagree with her, and rude in it's own right...but you'd be wrong. What this memoir/collection of personal essays actually is is a series of funny, heartfelt, kind examinations of the kind of world where women who speak up are put down and "offered" rape and death threats online, as well as examinations of those online trolls and how we, as women, should respond to them.

And above all, it's inspiring to see how, while rape culture still exists and society still judges worth by dress size, the needle has moved in the years since West started her writing career. That's not to say that we can place all credit on West's shoulders, but she and women like her are the loud, well-spoken advocates women need. I appreciate West's candor in this book, particularly in her discussion of her abortion and in her examination of her past arguments; I also REALLY appreciate her abhorrence of euphemisms, which has always been a pet peeve of mine. All in all, an excellent book. As one of the blurbs on the back reads, "Required reading if you are a feminist. Recommended reading if you aren't." Couldn't have put it better myself.