Books about disability, distraction, and dumping your friends
My Body Is Not a Prayer Request: Disability Justice in the Church by Amy Kenny
This book is both a memoir and a call to action, tackling chapter by chapter the ways that Kenny and others like her have experienced discrimination, dismissal, and infantilization for her disability through both the church and the broader culture. She is sassy, searing, and full of prophetic insight. She is so clearly done with all the crap thrown at her from the internalized ableism in the church, but she sees the promise of the church at the same time, and helps us envision a better path forward.
I especially love the glimpses into the way that disability theology helps her understand God, community, and Heaven in ways that most people don't dare. (Her analysis of the story of Jacob wrestling with God and having his hip put out of joint— gorgeous!)
I definitely recommend this one for any Christian who hasn't thought much about disability or what that means for the church. It's a challenging and gripping read.
(Major content warning for medical trauma: her descriptions of the torture she endured at the hand of doctors trying to "cure" her is rough reading.)
Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life by Nir Eyal with Julie Li
Although I was suspicious of yet another tech bro writing about how to improve your life, this book did have quite a lot of interesting information, and inspired me to try out some new techniques to take control of my attention. I also appreciated that Eyal constantly encourages the readers to dig deeper than a simple, "Phones are distracting" or "Social media is the reason I'm distracted." What are the underlying causes, and what can we do to address those?
One particularly interesting framework was the idea of the opposite of distraction being traction— moving toward one's goals. This framework helped me visualize how I put together my day in a different way.
Like most books of this sort, the majority of the practical advice was geared toward a 9-5 office worker (so, definitely not me), but it's a quick read, and worth picking up for the ideas it offers.
How to Break Up With Your Friends: Finding Meaning, Connection, and Boundaries in Modern Friendship by Erin Falconer
I stumbled on this title while looking for books about personal boundaries, and it was an insightful and thought-provoking read. Falconer argues that we have a friendship problem. For instance, there are a lot of social norms/rules for dating relationships, such as defining the nature of the relationship, communicating labels and expectations, and finding closure when it's not working out— but rarely if ever do we apply the same thought, care, and communication to friendships. Instead, we just assume that friendships come naturally and hope that everything sorts itself out! This book, full of practical advice, is overall a challenge from the author for us to take friendships seriously.
The writing style and some of the conclusions she drew annoyed me (there was a lot of "women are biologically wired to be [personality trait]," but it gave me a lot to think about, and I'd still recommend it.
Previously on What I've Been Reading:
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