It’s a topic that interests me, but I missed the deadline on this one. The cover & other reviews are great, though. Apologies! I’m trying to work, write and read at the same time and often miss some opportunities.

A single book might not change the world. But this utterly original meditation on art and war might transform the way you see the world--and that makes all the difference.

Draw Your Weapons was a beautifully lyrical, chilling exploration of images (and photography) and war. Though focused a lot on (the prison of) Abu Ghraib's legacy, it didn't feel dated in any way... unfortunately.

Amazing book. Like a daybook or a journal scrapbook of philosophy, Draw Your Weapons is a series of shorts, some as short as one sentence, some longer, some many pages, allowing the reader to rest and digest. At first, it felt disjointed and scattered but soon I began to see a loosely woven argument for living peacefully. Eventually we see Sentilles’ deep commitment to activism as she investigates the roles language, images, and art play in oppression and violence, but also how they affect social transformation and social justice movements. Maybe it's more like a meditative devotional on war and peace. It certainly opened up my head and challenged conventional wisdom. Five big stars!

Not at all what I expected from the description. The only word I can come up with for the writing style is 'abstract'. I can see a market for this novel, but unfortunately, it just didn't work for me. I couldn't follow the story.

This unique book had me mesmerized by the story starting with the violin. One of the few nonfiction books that brought out so many feeling in me. Helped open my eyes to our lives. Great book. Great story. A must read.

Sentilles has here the material for a half dozen solid essays, but she has put them into a blender and it's now a "meditation". The core of the work is the friendship and activism of Howard Scott and his roommate Gordon Hirabayashi--the federal government jailed Scott for declaring his status as a conscientious objector and sent Hirabayshi to an internment camp over his legal resistance. Meanwhile, there's material on drone operators, a veterans student Sentilles has in class who served at Abu Ghraib, the role of photojournalism in war, thoughts from her time as a divinity student, being uncomfortable with a student who talks about dead animals in a class she's teaching on violence and art, and a mish-mash of other stream of consciousness subjects making up a "literary collage."

While it took me a while to get through, I absolutely LOVED Draw Your Weapons by Sarah Sentilles. Taking a while to read something is usually due to slow pace or a writing style that conflicts with my taste, but that was not the case here. I think there were just a lot of heavy thoughts to meditate on and I often found myself inspired to write or research topics while reading.

Sentilles has a narrative style that incorporates her views, life experience, world history, and current events into the ultimate point that she's making. And it does so beautifully.

[I will likely append this will a full-length review when I have time to go back and look over the sections I highlighted]

Book was received complimentary from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed are 100% my own.

The author of this book has a beautiful style of writing. Unfortunately, I can't finish this book. This book wasn't for me. From reading the description, I thought it would be something I would like to read but it didn't live up to the expectation I had based on the description.
I received an advance copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Really interesting book about photography, art and how much it all matters in difficult times.

Not quite what I expected, but this is a cool book all the same.