“Some of My Best Friends is interested in the gaps between what we say and what we do; what we do and what we value; what we value and what we imagined to be possible.”

Isen’s essays discuss and shine a light on the commonplace performative “lip service” that exists in our society in regards to race and diversity/equity efforts. The writer’s vast experience (work across multiple industries such as voice acting, law, and publishing) brings a lot of depth, value, and insight to her storytelling. The personal anecdotes are easily the most engaging moments of her essays as the tone shifts during more “factual” sections causes that writing to lose a bit of that luster. Nonetheless, these essays are poignant, witty, and significant.

Standout Essays for Me: Hearing Voices, Diversity Hire, Some of My Best Friends, Barely Legal.

For fans of Roxanna Gay, Jia Tolentino, and Zadie Smith!

Thank you to AtriaBooks via Netgalley to providing me with an eArc in exchange for an honest review.

I loved what this book had to say about subjects I've heard a lot about but never dug into, like tokenization and white women feminism. A sharp and funny critique of the overused words and underdelivered concepts in social justice from a thoughtful and bright author.

still on a mission to catch up on reviews, especially for books i finished back in the spring (oops). i finished tajja isen’s essay collection ’some of my best friends’ a while ago, and if i’m being completely honest, i don’t remember that much about it.

part of this is my fault: i read the book spread out over a long period of time, picking it up on my work commutes and coffee breaks, and sometimes not reading it for days (or weeks) at a time. but in reality, i think this book said a lot of things i was already aware of, but framed thru the experiences of one specific person. sure, there were moments that struck me (for example, the chapter towards the end titled “dead or canadian?” about how ‘easy’ us canadians have it when publishing writing, because of the smaller competitive pool and the large number of government-funded grants), but overall i like to think i’ve done a lot of reading into the discourse surrounding social justice (both on my own and in university), so none of this felt particularly novel. that said, isen has a distinct voice that i did enjoy, but ultimately it wasn’t enough to keep me hooked on the book.

A very interesting woman--voice actor, law student, journalist? I enjoyed reading her viewpoint and it gave a lot of thought to people who say the right things and possibly even believe the right things but fail to act and live their life according to these principles. I feel like that is often left out of conversations about race and social justice. I also felt like a learned more about Canada in regards to these issues than I had before.

Did a. Interview with Taija Isen. Go to https://www.blogtalkradio.com/joykeys/2022/05/14/joy-keys-chats-with-author-taija-isen

Tajja Isen's collection of essays is fantastic. Through her exploration of 'lip service', Isen relays her personal experiences as a Black woman in the entertainment industry, law school, the publishing industry, and growing up in Canada, coupled with astute observations and witty analysis. I especially liked her final essay, where she discussed Canadian moral superiority. Overall I found this book hard to put down and very engaging! Isen also provided lots of great references to other books and articles that I look forward to reading. Great for fans of "Trick Mirror" by Jia Tolentino!

Thank you Atria books and #NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for my review!

Tajja Isen's essay collection is about "lip service," "performative activism," whatever term you might prefer to describe the constant cycle of companies, people, and institutions co-opting social justice terms to signal that they're "woke" without actually putting in the meaningful work to change those institutions and the white, patriarchal, capitalist norms that underlie them. I found it to be interesting, certainly a topic I've thought about before, but a bit niche and lacking some of the critical analysis or takeaways I would have wanted to leave this book with.

In terms of it being niche, Isen discusses the circles that she runs in and knows best, such as how diversity has emerged in voice acting (e.g., the Netflix show Big Mouth getting flak for having a biracial character voiced by Jenny Slate), law school on-campus interviews and "diversity" cultures of big law firms, and the death of the personal essay and how this claim harms writers of color who often write personal essays about their own lived experiences. Of course, these are the spheres that Isen knows best, but on the other hand, it makes it hard to empathize with the (righteous) anger with which Isen talks about the injustices in these communities if you have very little exposure to these issues in the first place. Of course, I want to learn about injustice in all sorts of communities, not just the ones I live in, but I wasn't able to connect these essays with wider topics because of my second point...

The lack of critical analysis and solid takeaways within the essays prevented the points from really sticking with me. Even after reading a given essay one or two times, I can't really summarize it in a few sentences, telling you what the issue is, why it's a problem, and what can be done to fix it. Perhaps that's a fault of my own reading comprehension, but I also think it's the job of the author to help you get there, to lay out the points in a clear way that gives you the facts and gets you fired up about the problem. I know the problem with lip service and performative activism in general, but I can't exactly tell you how that lip service relates to the niche topics covered in each essay.

Overall, this was a solid read on the topic of social justice, but I wish it gave me just a little bit more than it did. Thank you to Atria Books for the ARC via Netgalley.

This was such an interesting and excellent collection. Isen has experience in a wide array of industries - from voice acting, to law and publishing - and offers unique looks into the shortcomings of these areas.
There were definitely some sections I enjoyed more than others. This book is SO 2022, with many of the essays referencing extremely recent pop culture moments, political events, and television shows. I found that the sections that contained references I was more familiar with were a lot more engaging for me. The fact that I had watched Big Mouth and Schitt's Creek, for example, helped all of her analogies become that much stronger.
My favorite essays were the first one, the last one, and the one about the publishing industry. I also loved her insight on the fact that, too often, writing by black authors is evaluated only as activism, instead of as art.
**Special thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review**

In "Some of My Best Friends", Tajja Isen explores a number of her own personal experiences growing up as a Black female in Canada in a series of essays, but takes them all an additional step further - citing legal cases, literary examples, studies in media and history, to support her perspectives. There are a number of weighty and complicated issues covered in her writing, including race, gender, femininity and toxic masculinity, and representation - topics that are extremely relevant today, and can be easily glossed over.

Isen has clearly had a breadth of experiences, many of which she pulls from in her writing. From a childhood of being a voice actor, which gave her an opportunity to voice white characters; to studying and being accepted into law school; to being an established writer and editor - she's able to use her own history as a starting point to segue into more critical arguments and studies. There's a number of thought-provoking points she's able to make, and she utilizes a number of different sources to further explore and support her perspectives. While I enjoyed her writing and prose, there were times I had a hard time keeping track of the various tangents she went on. Her experiences are also quite specific and niche, so for those of us who don't have similar backstories, they can be hard to fully understand.

This collection is clever, hilarious, and thoughtful, and Isen handles complex topics with nuance and care. I love a good weaving of cultural criticism and memoir–– the conversations in these essays are particularly enhanced by the author's firsthand experience in different industries. I'm grateful to have received a galley––"Some of My Best Friends" is innovative, deeply thought-provoking, and ideal for fans of Scaachi Koul.

This was a fantastic, compulsively-readable set of essays that left plenty for me to chew on as a reader. I was familiar with Tajja's work from the essay on voice acting that opens the book, and the way this uses that and other issues into discussion on the many ways we give "lip service" to issues of diversity and equality resonated a lot with me.

In this debut essay collection, author Taija Isen dissects and scrutinizes the use of progressive language by corporations across multiple industries, including entertainment, publishing, and law. Overall, Some of My Best Friends is about the gap between what we say and what we actually do. Isen argues that in today's society, simply issuing statements about social justice has become akin to actually doing true activism work - and she's here to call people out.

Highlights from the collection include, "TIny White People," "Diversity Hire," This Time It's Personal, "What We Want and When We Want It," - and the title essay "Some of My Best Friends." As a whole, this book demonstrates Isen's willingness to tackle the nuanced - and sometimes uncomfortable - societal issues that get swept under the rug. Isen has a strong authorial tone that is whip-smart and slyly funny. The collection shines during her moments of cultural criticism, specifically, when Isen uses tv and movie metaphors to explain complex issues. However, the collection falters in her longer more personal essays, "Hearing Voices," "Barely Legal," and "Dead or Canadian," where the prose is bogged down by the overuse of statistics, legal examples, and length, respectively.

I'm looking forward to reading Isen's future work. Thank you to Net Galley.

3.5 stars rounded up.

This essay collection is a must-read, not to be missed. Tajja Isen masterfully weaves cultural criticism with personal narrative as she examines the ways that industries, the law, and individuals fall short of advancing towards social justice and equity in a time characterized by hollow promises and "lip service." The book is packed with keen observation, sharp wit, and originality in content and form. Tajja Isen unpacks the language that we've gotten used to in relation to social justice with bold precision, and every reader will be better for it. Her multi-facetedness as a human makes for a wide-ranging collection, and she does not cut any corners.

Thank you so much to @atriabooks @onesignalpub @netgalley for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A thought-provoking, entertaining, and often very funny collection of essays on themes of hypocrisy and lip service. I sometimes struggled to keep up, as Isen is an intellectual force to be reckoned with, but I loved reading about her thoughts and experiences. Anyone who's fond of Samantha Irby, Scaachi Koul, Roxane Gay, or Lindy West will find much to like and think about here, and I will be recommending this widely to my essay-reading friends and patrons.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review.

This was an incredible essay collection by an author whose voice was completely unique and pleasing. I loved the essays and their ability to call things out for what they really are, or for what they try their best to present themselves to be.

The cover is also a big plus!

Some of My Best Friends is an exploration of how we show up in the world today. Ultimately this collection explores lip service and empty actions. This conversation is extremely timely and urges the reader to think. Would highly recommend!

Some of My Best Friends by Tajja Isen is out 4/19/22 - thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for the ARC.

In this wide-ranging essay collection, Isen uses smart explication of literary and media culture, along with her personal experiences of racism, to reveal the disappointing gap between social justice verbiage and the level of noticeable anti-racist change allowed by whiteness.

Deeply thought provoking essays on the divide between the intent and reality of bringing representation and parity to various industries. Occasionally a bit overwritten.

What a fantastic essay collection! Isen explores the idea and of lip service—words not backed up with action—and the social and cultural implications. Tackling different industries—including animation, publishing, and law—these essays engage with conversations that are timely and necessary, while also being a pleasure to read.

Isen's collection of essays is not short on layers. She has lived such an interesting life as a voice actor, lay student, and editor. She does am amazing job of weaving in pop culture — books, essays, and other media into her personal narratives. My favorite essay was Some of My Best Friends.

I received a free copy of this ebook from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All expressed opinions are my own and do not reflect any stance or position held by the author or publisher. This did not affect my rating or review in any way.