Two books currently making my head explode

bell hooks: Ain't I A Woman? Black Women And Feminism (1981). So far I've read three chapters, in which hooks traces the origins of the stereotyping and hatred of Black women in US culture from its roots in slavery, and in which she analyses the sexism of Black men, especially in the civil rights movement. hooks writes with the terrific clarity and directness of a brilliant radical feminist.

Tom Wolfe: The New Journalism (1973). It's an anthology with a long introduction by Wolfe, in which he extols the appropropriation of novelistic devices (dialogue, onomatopeia, even stream of consciousness) by journalists, which created a whole new style of journalism in the 60s and 70s. I've read most of Wolfe's intro and I'm dead excited - lots of little yellow stickers hanging out of the book. (lordshiva - imagine fanfic written in that acid-and-petrol anything-goes sixties style!)

(no subject)

Found some Jehovah's Witness magazines on the train. IS GOD RESPONSIBLE FOR NATURAL DISASTERS? asks one. Alas, it doesn't answer the question, but it does reassure us that the world will end shortly in any case. Rather sweetly, an article on immigrants "who feel caught between two cultures" are reminded of Biblical figures in similar situations, such as Joseph and Timothy. I also found out who the five foolish virgins were (hint: not a pop band).