Kev Nickells (Author of Taylor Swift for Adults)

Kev Nickells rated a book it was amazing A Quick Ting On Grime (A Quick Ting On) by Franklyn Addo	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
It's called a quick ting on Grime but it's a fair bit broader than that - it's a fairly exhaustive approach to black British culture from the 00s to present through the lens of Grime music. Plenty of bits about the industry, the shifting culture as t ...more
May 16, 2026 05:25AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of A Quick Ting On Grime by Franklyn Addo. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — A Quick Ting On Grime by Franklyn Addo <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Kev Nickells rated a book it was amazing Here Where We Live Is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund by Molly Crabapple (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
It's a historical book and germane to our times, exhaustively researched. But also it's not an academic book - Crabapple is too personal, too full-bloodied for the dessicated academic tone. Which I liked a lot. I'm going to frontload a criticism upfr ...more
May 11, 2026 02:57PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Here Where We Live Is Our Country by Molly Crabapple. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Here Where We Live Is Our Country by Molly Crabapple <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Kev Nickells wants to read Henryk Erlich and Victor Alter: Two Heroes and Martyrs for Jewish Socialism by Samuel A. Portnoy	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
May 11, 2026 02:48PM · like
Kev Nickells wants to read Arkady Kremer, Vladimir Medem, and the ideology of the Jewish "Bund" (Jewish social studies) by Koppel Shub Pinson	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
May 04, 2026 07:30AM · like
Kev Nickells rated a book it was amazing The Seers by Sulaiman Addonia	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Very special wee book. I'll now be looking for something longer form from Addonia. I don't think anything I'll say will be spoilers - I think the core story is of an Eritrean who moves to London, who comes from a family with different oppressive regi ...more
May 01, 2026 09:15AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Seers by Sulaiman Addonia. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Seers by Sulaiman Addonia <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Kev Nickells rated a book it was amazing A Ligature for Black Bodies by Denise Miller	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This is not an easy read but it is an elegant one. Part found-text poetry based on various police recordings of black folk in the US in their final moments, part reflections thereupon. There's an old adage of Adorno's about 'no poetry after Auschwitz ...more
May 01, 2026 09:11AM · like · see review
Kev Nickells rated a book really liked it History & Culture of the Khasi People by Hamlet Bareh	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
For reference, I read the 2016 reprint of this. Which is probably important because I can say that this edition is a bit sloppily put together. So many typos, a few instances of repeated paragraphs, an inexplicable number of dots in the ellipses. I w ...more
Apr 26, 2026 01:38PM · like · see review
Kev Nickells rated a book it was amazing Critique of Black Reason by Achille Mbembe	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I enjoyed this and then I read something else and now my thoughts have disappeared - there's plenty in here to add this to a collection of the likes of Gilroy, Baldwin etc. Mbembe's thinking is a lot more recent than those figures and occupies an odd ...more
Apr 20, 2026 12:18PM · 1 like · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Critique of Black Reason by Achille Mbembe. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Critique of Black Reason by Achille Mbembe <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Kev Nickells rated a book it was amazing Trans Femme Futures: Abolitionist Ethics for Transfeminist Worlds by Nat Raha	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I usually try to write down notes on a book after finishing it but there's been a week and a few more things inbetween now and then so every chance I'll have forgotten some critical detail here. This is nominally pointed towards a kind of femme-centr ...more
Apr 20, 2026 12:13PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Trans Femme Futures by Nat Raha. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Trans Femme Futures by Nat Raha <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Kev Nickells rated a book it was amazing Critique of Black Reason by Achille Mbembe	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I enjoyed this and then I read something else and now my thoughts have disappeared - there's plenty in here to add this to a collection of the likes of Gilroy, Baldwin etc. Mbembe's thinking is a lot more recent than those figures and occupies an odd ...more
Apr 13, 2026 06:50AM · 1 like · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Critique of Black Reason by Achille Mbembe. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Critique of Black Reason by Achille Mbembe <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">

Kev Nickells rated a book it was amazing

A Quick Ting On Grime (A Quick Ting On)
by Franklyn Addo

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It's called a quick ting on Grime but it's a fair bit broader than that - it's a fairly exhaustive approach to black British culture from the 00s to present through the lens of Grime music. Plenty of bits about the industry, the shifting culture as t It's called a quick ting on Grime but it's a fair bit broader than that - it's a fairly exhaustive approach to black British culture from the 00s to present through the lens of Grime music. Plenty of bits about the industry, the shifting culture as the UK descends into Tory misrule, London life, production, DIY aesthetic etc. It is pretty London-centric, which is probably reflective of its size - I'd hope for a sequel several times larger which takes in Grime (or more broadly, UK rap culture) from Birmingham, Manchester etc. Given this is a debut book I should imagine a publisher wouldn't be so keen to give Addo that space - but based on this I've no doubt he could fill a few hundred more pages with 'the full story'.

In case that seems like a subtle dig - this is a great book; if the only criticism you can muster of a book is that it's too short then you've got a banger on your hands. From my perspective I've known most of this material for a while - I've been into Grime for a long time - so there isn't much in the way of surprises. But it's a properly serious look into Grime, its history and cultural standing, one that the genre has long since deserved. Better still, there's a comprehensive bibliography and playlist at the back, which hopefully will make this a gold standard book for the history of Grime.

Worth saying also that Addo is very positive about Grime - typically media (especially 00s) would render Grime in discretely racist ways - emphasising the sorts of criminality which pop up in council estates in inner-city London. So he takes the approach of treating it as a serious artform - he's not ignorant of the way that poverty criminalises people but he's also stressing that music is a way out of the grind and often reflects those realities. In that sense I'd put this book next to Deeping It (Adèle Oliver) which deals with UK Drill music in a similar fashion.

Having mentioned Drill, Addo does a good job of putting Grime in a broader musical context - so there's some mention of Drill, Afrobeat, UK Garage etc. And (critically for me as a music nerd) Addo has a good sense that Grime isn't merely influence by US hip-hop and that Dancehall soundclash culture is just as important - and conretely perhaps moreso, given the large Jamaican population in the UK and their building of sound system infrastructure following windrush.

Summary then - I enjoyed this a lot as someone who knows a fair amount about Grime. I'd still recommend it for someone looking to find out more about the genre. But importantly, this isn't just a music book, this spreads its view over a whole world of black London culture. Hard recommend. ...more

Kev Nickells rated a book it was amazing

Here Where We Live Is Our Country by Molly Crabapple

Here Where We Live Is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund
by Molly Crabapple (Goodreads Author)

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It's a historical book and germane to our times, exhaustively researched. But also it's not an academic book - Crabapple is too personal, too full-bloodied for the dessicated academic tone. Which I liked a lot.

I'm going to frontload a criticism upfr It's a historical book and germane to our times, exhaustively researched. But also it's not an academic book - Crabapple is too personal, too full-bloodied for the dessicated academic tone. Which I liked a lot.

I'm going to frontload a criticism upfront - and I don't think it's Crabapple's fault so much as the editors. A decision has been made to Anglicise (or Latinise) spellings here, which is fair; however, Polish names are rendered in nearest-English equivalent. Meaning that Łódź (IPA /ˈwut͡ɕ/ ) is rendered as 'Lodz'. Łódź is a fairly common gotcha - 3 of 4 letters having diacritics. But it is in a Latin alphabet. Those orthographical concerns are minor but they can be misleading - given how many Polish names there are here, it's a shame to not render them properly.

I suspect that editorial decision is emblematic of a side to this book - while it's exhaustively researched, it's written to appeal to a broad audience - not merely (say) leftist historians.

I've been reading a few things in this area of history and this area of Europe and it fits with a general perspective I'm forming about the turn of the century in what would become Soviet Europe. The perspective I was raised with was the of a singular Leninist Soviet sphere of influence - now I'm seeing a world of socialists and anarchists all at odds with what became the USSR. This book forms an important part of that - there was a substantive and influential socialist element to the Jewish minorities in Poland, Russia, Ukraine who were well-organised and influential. Critically to this book (and also this book at this moment in time), the bundists who live and laugh and fight in Crabapple's book are part of a confluence of resistance to Zionism. That Zionism may not be the same as the one we see today in Israel (there's an enormous difference between the Zionism that seeks national power and the Zionism that exerts national power). But this book does a great job of illustrating that, despite the depredations of the pogroms and Soviet misrule, there were plenty committed Jewish socialists as averse to capitalism and authoritarianism as they were averse to becoming colonialists.

Crabapple's writing is brisk but gentle - there's a sense that each of the characters she brings forward were living, breathing people. As much as it's important to assert the strength in leftist organisation, it's equally important to humanise the people doing that organisation.

I'd say this book is imperative at a time when we're threatening to dissolve all of Jewish identity into a perspective on the current nation state of Israel; it is far from inevitable that Jews become a monolith underneath a bastard nation state. Perhaps finally I should say that Crabapple very clearly loves Jews, her familial forbears, and crisply articulates their lives and anxieties. ...more

Kev Nickells wants to read

Henryk Erlich and Victor Alter by Samuel A. Portnoy

Henryk Erlich and Victor Alter: Two Heroes and Martyrs for Jewish Socialism
by Samuel A. Portnoy

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Kev Nickells wants to read

Arkady Kremer, Vladimir Medem, and the ideology of the Jewish... by Koppel Shub Pinson

Arkady Kremer, Vladimir Medem, and the ideology of the Jewish "Bund" (Jewish social studies)
by Koppel Shub Pinson

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Kev Nickells rated a book it was amazing

The Seers
by Sulaiman Addonia

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Very special wee book. I'll now be looking for something longer form from Addonia.

I don't think anything I'll say will be spoilers - I think the core story is of an Eritrean who moves to London, who comes from a family with different oppressive regi ...more

Kev Nickells rated a book it was amazing

A Ligature for Black Bodies
by Denise Miller

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This is not an easy read but it is an elegant one. Part found-text poetry based on various police recordings of black folk in the US in their final moments, part reflections thereupon. There's an old adage of Adorno's about 'no poetry after Auschwitz ...more

Kev Nickells rated a book really liked it

History & Culture of the Khasi People
by Hamlet Bareh

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For reference, I read the 2016 reprint of this. Which is probably important because I can say that this edition is a bit sloppily put together. So many typos, a few instances of repeated paragraphs, an inexplicable number of dots in the ellipses. I w ...more

Kev Nickells rated a book it was amazing

Critique of Black Reason
by Achille Mbembe

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I enjoyed this and then I read something else and now my thoughts have disappeared - there's plenty in here to add this to a collection of the likes of Gilroy, Baldwin etc. Mbembe's thinking is a lot more recent than those figures and occupies an odd ...more

Kev Nickells rated a book it was amazing

Trans Femme Futures: Abolitionist Ethics for Transfeminist Worlds
by Nat Raha

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I usually try to write down notes on a book after finishing it but there's been a week and a few more things inbetween now and then so every chance I'll have forgotten some critical detail here.

This is nominally pointed towards a kind of femme-centr I usually try to write down notes on a book after finishing it but there's been a week and a few more things inbetween now and then so every chance I'll have forgotten some critical detail here.

This is nominally pointed towards a kind of femme-centred trans inclusive politics but I'd say there's plenty here that speaks outside of that - speaking to ideas about what a duty of care is. It's broadly 'academic' and I've seen a few reviews saying it's a difficult read but I didn't get any of that. I'd say it'd be a shame for someone who's interested in this subject matter to miss it because it speaks in a relatively academic manner. I'd also suggest that while the first quarter of the book has the feel of something that's grown out of academic papers, the meat of the book later on doesn't read that way.

I'd say there are parts of this that are of a piece with a lot of contemporary feminist theory, especially the feminist parts - there's a strong argument against (Cartesian) mind-body dualism, insisting on a less divided relationship to mindbody, which is a more formal take on Lisa Fannen's Warp and Weft (see https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...). Where Fannen's work is working towards integrative practice for various health practitioners, Trans Femme Futures is a more formal approach to the epistemology thereof - which is to say that each support the other. My point broadly is that this speaks of ideas that are in the ether for a critically minded audience.

What stayed with me from this was the discussion on complicity - where a lot of contemporary politics and ethics tends towards a kind of excavation of blame, the approach here isn't to let that be the stumbling block, the return to self-identity, but rather to think in terms of community and complicity. It's certainly not invoking an amoral ethos but rather putting complicity front and centre (as an epistemology) to allow to move past it, as communities.

Despite having this academic tinge, there's a lot of very personal and personable writing here - while it's written by two people, there's plenty of places where the narrative switches to personal anecdotes.

I'll want to come back to this in a few years but for the work on working through complicity alone this seems to propose an approach to ethics that I'd hope will take hold in contemporary leftist spaces - there's a lot here to dissolve the paralysis of organisation which seeks perfect ethics before it seeks determinate action. ...more

Kev Nickells rated a book it was amazing

Critique of Black Reason
by Achille Mbembe

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I enjoyed this and then I read something else and now my thoughts have disappeared - there's plenty in here to add this to a collection of the likes of Gilroy, Baldwin etc. Mbembe's thinking is a lot more recent than those figures and occupies an odd ...more

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	Taylor Swift for Adults: Taking Swift Seriously 3.56 avg rating — 32 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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