First Chapter ~ First Paragraph and Tuesday Teaser

It's Tuesday . . . time for . . . 

                                                

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph Tuesday Intros hosted by Vicki at I'd Rather Be At The Beach, where bloggers post the first paragraph(s) of a book they are currently reading or planning to read sometime soon.  

Teaser Tuesday hosted by Ambrosia at The Purple Booker, where bloggers post two teaser sentences (no spoilers allowed) from a random page of their current read. 

Today I'm featuring The Witches are Coming by Lindy West, a collection of essays on the status of women from the author of Shrill.  The excerpts shared are from a hardcover version borrowed from the library.

 

Introduction:  They Let You Do It  

Not long ago, my husband was at a bar in Chicago.  A friend had told him to check out this particular bar because it's a cool dive run by queer people of color, with dancing and cheap drinks and a good vibe. So he was sitting there, having a beer, and after a while a guy came in and sat down next to him.  White guy, late forties.  Polo shirt.  Mustache probably.  Khaki shorts.  Standard random white guy.

The guy--his name was Larry or Barry or something, so for the purposes of this story let's call him LarryBarry--struck up a conversation with my husband, asked him if he was having fun.  My husband said, "Yeah, this is a fun bar!  People are dancing.  It's cool."  And the guy got a real sad look on his face and said, "Yeah, this is one of my favorite songs.  I wish I was dancing right now."  So naturally my husband asked, "Well, why don't you go dance?"

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Teaser:  "If we're going to pull our country and our planet back from the brink, we have to start living in the truth.  We have to start calling things by their real names: racism is racism, sexism is sexism, mistakes are mistakes, and they can be rectified if we do the work."

 * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

What do you think?  Would you continue reading?
West's powerful, insightful observations capture the current climate around gender relations brought about by decades of gender inequality and male privilege, while also shining a spotlight on the adverse effects of policies created by the male ruling class on society's marginalized groups.  West uses her examination of what was and what is to call for the establishment of new societal norms going forward.  It's not enough to identify injustice and inequality--in order to ensure a just society and viable planet, we have to dismantle the way things were done and create an innovative structure and policies inclusive of voices that haven't been valued before.

And that teaser leaves no room for "alternative facts."

This First Chapter ~ First Paragraph post was originally composed and/or compiled and published by Catherine for the blog, bookclublibrarian.com.  It cannot be republished without attribution. Sharing this original post on Twitter with appropriate recognition is appreciated.