I'm excited to shout about my first non fiction read of the year. Thanks to Melville House for a gifted copy of this read.
A smart and funny manifesto about the simple art of hanging out and how our collective social experiences can be transformed into acts of resistance and solidarity, from a brilliant young feminist critic.
Almost every day it seems that our world becomes more fractured, more digital, and more chaotic. Sheila Liming has the answer: we need to hang out more.
Starting with the assumption that play is to children as hanging out is to adult, Liming makes a brilliant case for the necessity of unstructured social time as a key element of our cultural vitality. The book asks questions like what is hanging out? why is it important? why do we do it? how do we do it? and examines the various ways we hang out -- in groups, online, at parties, at work.
Hanging Out: The Radical Power of Killing Time makes an intelligent case for the importance of this most casual of social structures, and shows us how just getting together can be a potent act of resistance all on its own.
Bobs and Books honest review:
I'm not sure if you are the same as me, but something I regularly remind myself of is the freedom we now have post lockdown. With that feeling of isolation now behind us, I thought this would be a great read to pick up.
I wasn't sure at first what to expect from this non-fiction read, but soon settled into it. This has a smart blend of anecdotal stories, to well researched films and everything in between. At times points felt a tad laboured but I think overall this book is a welcome reminder of how post pandemic we have adapted, can adapt and reminds us of the importance of interactions in its various guises- even speaking to strangers!
Interesting and informative.
About the author:
Sheila Liming is an associate professor at Champlain College (Burlington, Vermont), where she teaches classes on literature, media, and writing. She is the author of two books, What a Library Means to a Woman (Minnesota UP, 2020) and Office (Bloomsbury, 2020). Her essays have appeared in venues like The Atlantic, McSweeney’s, Lapham’s Quarterly, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Public Books, and The Point
Out now