RavePopMatters\"I was astonished to find myself flying through page after page of Haynes’ summaries, enthralled at the plot twists and playwrights’ audacity and eager to find out what happens next. Haynes’ book dwells not on the plays but on the stories of women’s lives that they contain; nevertheless, her enthusiasm for the original texts is impossible to ignore. Her broader goal requires her to provide outlines of the texts in which her subjects’ stories are buried, but those outlines are beautiful, compelling overviews. They’re crafted a bit like what it would sound like to have a good storyteller relate the latest gossip to you over drinks at a club, with all the colloquial jokes and asides that a lively retelling would include. If I’d read summaries like these back in high school, I would have been instantly hooked. Pandora’s Jar is a delightful, compelling read. Lively, provocative, and well-researched, it’s the sort of book that leaves readers with a thirst to learn more.
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Rebecca Hall, illus. by Hugo Martínez
RavePopMattersFar from playing a marginal role, Hall’s work reveals women who were at the heart of organizing and leading revolts across the vast and pernicious expanse of the slave trade ... In telling these stories about which there are often gaps in the written record, the graphic component of the book becomes all the more important. Wake utilizes visuals–illustrated by comics artist Hugo Martinez–to full effect, and it behooves the reader to spend time studying what goes on in the background ... The graphic novel format lends itself exceptionally well to conveying this intersection of past and present, enabling readers to see it visualized on the page ... Given the paucity of historical data (although she has meticulously extricated a remarkable amount of it, despite being denied access to key records by the present-day corporations borne from slave-profits), Hall gives life to history by alternating narrated accounts of the facts-as-we-know-them, with passages reconstructing how the stories may have played out. She puts flesh on the bones of history, bringing stilted historical legal language to life with narratives that are stirring, emotional, inspiring ... The stories depicted in Wake are difficult ones–Hall reflects on the trauma that historians of the period often experience while studying it–and yet laying these truths bare, telling these stories with such pride and power produces a deeply inspirational effect ... a superb accomplishment on every level, and a book that every American needs to read.
Megan Rapinoe
RavePopMattersMegan Rapinoe\'s memoir was one I simply could not resist ... I was curious to square my limited familiarity with her politics with a deeper understanding of who she is as a person. Her new memoir One Life seemed the perfect conduit, and it did not disappoint. Written with the aid of author and journalist Emma Brockes, One Life is attractive not for any literary pretensions but for its simple, honest storytelling. There\'s a comforting down-to-earth quality to Rapinoe\'s narrative ... Rapinoe maintains a matter-of-fact approach to humility throughout One Life ... One Life is a delightful read, whether it\'s for the sports or the political insight.
