I started reading this book with a joke about jumping in with both feet and I was right. I immersed myself very quickly. There is an old saying - if you can't walk the walk don't talk the talk -well this author can walk and talk Reading this book took me a lot longer than the average book. I wanted to take my time and think about what the author was saying. The book led to great discussions with the people in my life and was the subject of a few phone calls and dinner conversations. While I did not agree with everything the author says, I can respect the well documented concise intensity in which she says it. It was very thought provoking.
My only slightly negative comment would be the repetition of the author - not just in the book but in a following sentence. Not sure if she was trying to reinforce a point, but it made me as a reader feel that she was writing for a different level of reader

I was sold from the introduction - Ahmed's discussion of the importance of feminist citations is an important statement from someone with an academic history. Ahmed strongly states many truths about feminism that white feminists especially are loath to acknowledge as being core issues that affect us all. Incredibly well-written, this book is going to be one of my main recommendations.

I'm about a quarter of the way through this, and it's already fantastic. I'm underlining material on nearly every page. It will definitely be on the reading list for my Senior Capstone in Women's and Gender Studies this spring. It fits well with a theme of activism I'm developing for the course. And it is a timely post-election read for me right now.

This book is a great introduction to feminism and the first chapter is extremely helpful. The writing is quick and witty, although a tad bit repetitive. There are many thing worth quoting and the reading of the book goes relatively fast because of her perspective. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to be introduced to feminist theory, as Ahmed goes through topics such as diversity, activism, and consciousness.

This was a very powerful read. I'd never read anything by the author before, but after finishing this book I'm very curious about the rest of her works. Right off the bat I appreciated her citation policy of only citing other female authors, so refreshing! I found myself appreciating this decision more and more as I made my way through the text, and later reading the notes at the end of the book. I trawled through the citations and treated it as a list of recommended texts - adding about 10 or so to my 'to-read' list on goodreads!

I loved the academic approach tempered with personal experiences and anecdotes to make it more accessible, and Ahmed's own forthrightness in writing style. It's hard for me to pick out a favourite passage or topic - although the conclusion's Manifesto was easily the most powerful part of the text for me personally and did an amazing job of pulling together themes that had been discussed and interwoven throughout the chapters.