Reviews and Comments

Entering the world war era

A great overview of zine making and the zine community

Hard to stop myself from reading more of the book than I have allocated for the day. Feels like it'll take me too long to read if I stick to that pace.

The hard part about starting a meadow that he describes is that it also involves weed whacking and sometimes tilling at the start. These aren't things that I enjoy the thought of doing, but I guess if you're having it recover from a lawn, you need to do some uncomfortable things so nature can take over in the best way?

I'm already getting a sense for the authors writing style, a lot of non-defining clauses and the uses of "and other (misc.)"

Reading this to my partner.

Book is a little weird but a breathe of fresh care compared to everything else I'm doing

• I didn't really like reading this book! It felt like I had to keep pushing myself to keep reading.
• It's very focused on plant life and sometimes things like water. I would have liked more focus on connecting to the natural world from the streets.
• The whiteness and white people speaking on behalf of BIPOC folx and their experiences is overwhelming.
• I enjoyed Kyle Whyte, Trebbe Johnson, and Alison Hawthron Deming's chapters the most
• I skipped three chapters (one in the beginning, middle, and end).
• There's a lot of repetition and cross citing. I would have liked more cohesion and more community-oriented collaboration.
• I liked the inclusion of poems as a break.

Received this as a gift for running a workshop, purchased from Harriet's Bookshop in Philly

A lite read. Sometimes hard to follow, though such is also part of Yu's charm in blending together many concepts. His craft pulls at heartstrings, a bitter salt rubbed into the wound at others. Interior Chinatown touches on issues largely known in the Asian American activist community but still barely discussed out of it, ending with the momentum of historical fact. The unique concept of the book draws in an audience to this dialogue unlike a formal academic textbook or a garage printed zine.