Girl, Woman, Other speaks to many of my own ambivalence about the personal and political of identity. Scholars tell us identities are constructed. We know, in theory, that in challenging forms of othering we ought to resist the urge to engage in othering ourselves. Yet, as Linda Martín Alcoff reminds us, our identities - race, ethnicity, gender - however constructed, are lived and experienced as real. Challenging our current racialisms, genderisms, and culturalisms must begin, then, with an empathy for how identities are lived. Evaristo’s observational, biting, and humorous account is just such a starting point. Favorite line: “Megan was part Ethiopian, part African-American, part Malawian, and part English which felt weird when you broke it down like that because essentially she was just a complete human being” Rating: 4/5