I'm currently halfway through Inheritance by Malinda Lo [if you haven't read this duology, fix that please!] and it's surfaced a lot of my thoughts and feelings on diversity in books yet again.
The main female protagonist in this story, Reese, is thought to be straight by most but is struggling with her bisexuality while being white and publicly dating David who is Asian American. This is where my thoughts went crazy. I'm not going to touch on her sexuality in this post but that will probably get another post because there's great conversations about this being had in this book as well. Anyways about a chapter ago in my reading, Reese went to a party with David and was disconcerted and slightly uncomfortable when she noticed how she was one of the few white people there amidst all of his Asian friends.
I literally put the book down because it's amazing how important this scene is because it shows how different social situations are for white people and people of color. All I notice and feel is my otherness when I arrive in a social setting like a party because in most situations, I am one of the only people of color in the room. Since I have lighter skin I might be able to "blend in" [a term which has many negative connotations within itself because it implies that anything else is other/wrong], but as soon as an opinion is needed on something of Hispanic/Latino culture or etc, I am the one they turn to, in most cases. The assumptions that come with that is something else completely. SO MANY LAYERS to this y'all, I could go on, incoherently, forever.
So when Reese commented on how that was the first time she was able to put herself in someone else's shoes, I just was weirdly relieved because it's like 'yes, someone gets it' but then there are these negative thoughts that came with that relief. Negative because I'm still identifying with one of the first times this white girl is realizing how different the world is outside the bubble she grew up in, while people of color live in that difference and discomfort every day.
The reason for this post is to once again highlight and scream from the mountaintops how important diversity is in literature!
Reese is in a weird situation in this brilliant sci-fi world Malinda has crafted but she is still privileged there's no doubt about that. Her upbringing allowed her to be blind to the injustices surrounding her until all the crazy alien things started happening. Her enlightenment on the deeper issues at hand began when she read comments online about David's race, something she had never had thought about. *whisper shoutssss*: privilege! She never had to think about that, worry about it and I think that showing her reaction to something as simple as a her otherness at a party was a refreshing thing to read in a book. People of color are used to it to the point where it's a joke between us but having it be flipped on it's head shows the paradox [is that the right word to use here?]
This reaction that thereby spurred this post is indicative of the larger problem at hand. I shouldn't be screaming "hallelujah!" when I can identify with a character in a book, it should be something that is more commonplace and why it is important this conversation, while maddening at times, continues. The world needs diverse books because each reader's background and complex worldview needs to be represented.
Monday, June 15, 2015
Thursday, February 12, 2015
Favorite quotes: Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
"Somewhere in my brain
each laugh, tear and lullaby
becomes memory."
"And now coming back home
isn't really coming back home
at all."
"I want to catch words one day. I want to hold them
then blow gently,
watch them float
right out of my hands."
"Even the silence
has a story to tell you.
Just listen. Listen."
each laugh, tear and lullaby
becomes memory."
"And now coming back home
isn't really coming back home
at all."
"I want to catch words one day. I want to hold them
then blow gently,
watch them float
right out of my hands."
"Even the silence
has a story to tell you.
Just listen. Listen."
Friday, February 6, 2015
The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez
New Favorite Book y'all!
This book is beautiful and so real and I love feeling represented in books I read. It's like authors saying "I see you, I hear you & I understand." One of many examples: "I wasn't allowed to claim the thing I felt and I didn't feel the thing I was supposed to claim." referring to feeling American but not being viewed as one by your peers and the conflicting emotions that follow. This book is an emotional, unique look at the immigrant experience from many perspectives and definitely worth a read.
Here are a few of the other quotes that really resonated with me:
"But when I glanced at the people around us, no one was even looking in our direction, and I felt the way that I often felt in this country-simultaneously conspicuous and invisible, like an oddity whom everyone noticed but chose to ignore."
"The sand, when we came to it, was covered by a dusting of snow. the barreling ocean waves were a silvery blue. we stood side by side and looked out at the vastness, the possibility of everything out there. within the universe, I felt like a speck, but within myself I felt gigantic, the salt air filling my lungs, the roaring of the waves rushing in my ears."
"People do what they have to in this life. We try to get from one end of it to the other with dignity and with honor. We do the best we can."
"We're the unknown Americans, the ones no one even wants to know, because they've been told they're supposed to be scared of us and because maybe if they did take the time to know us, they might realize that we're not that bad, maybe even that we're a lot like them."
This book is beautiful and so real and I love feeling represented in books I read. It's like authors saying "I see you, I hear you & I understand." One of many examples: "I wasn't allowed to claim the thing I felt and I didn't feel the thing I was supposed to claim." referring to feeling American but not being viewed as one by your peers and the conflicting emotions that follow. This book is an emotional, unique look at the immigrant experience from many perspectives and definitely worth a read.
Here are a few of the other quotes that really resonated with me:
"But when I glanced at the people around us, no one was even looking in our direction, and I felt the way that I often felt in this country-simultaneously conspicuous and invisible, like an oddity whom everyone noticed but chose to ignore."
"The sand, when we came to it, was covered by a dusting of snow. the barreling ocean waves were a silvery blue. we stood side by side and looked out at the vastness, the possibility of everything out there. within the universe, I felt like a speck, but within myself I felt gigantic, the salt air filling my lungs, the roaring of the waves rushing in my ears."
"People do what they have to in this life. We try to get from one end of it to the other with dignity and with honor. We do the best we can."
"We're the unknown Americans, the ones no one even wants to know, because they've been told they're supposed to be scared of us and because maybe if they did take the time to know us, they might realize that we're not that bad, maybe even that we're a lot like them."
Monday, February 2, 2015
January Reads
January was a crazy reading month in that I read 15 pieces of literature: madness! 10 novels, 2 graphic novels and 3 e-novellas.
I started off the year with Glory O' Brien's History of the Future by A.S. King. Certain books are read at a perfect time in a person's life and that is the case with A.S. King's books for me. Glory O'Brien is a cool, weird, quirky, smart girl and it was easy to put myself in her shoes. Her way of thinking like I said was extreme and odd in some points but duh most teenagers have strange thoughts that seem totally valid and poignant at the time. I love the bits of the story she decided to write down from the transmissions she was getting in that it was such a warped fucked up world that is weirdly motivational. Inspirational stuff, man.
I've already deemed The Secret History by Donna Tartt one of my favorites ever. I enjoyed this like I enjoy cake. Eating it slowly and enjoying all the flavor and frosting. I was debating as to whether I was going to give this a 3, 4 or 5 rating and in the end, the only reason why was because of my dislike of the characters throughout most of the novel but that's the point. These aren't likeable people, they're despicable in many aspects and you still grow to care for them. What intrigues me is what if we would've gotten this from Henry's, Camilla's or Francis' point of view? Richard reminded me of Nick from Gatsby in certain ways because while he did not have money. he shows how easy it is to let yourself be taken by it. Therefore, he was the perfect narrator because of the change we got to go through with him. Bunny is a clear picture of the worst kind of person in that even when his family doesn't have that much money, he is so uppity and egotistical. I also loved that Richard is deciding to write this story years after the fact and therefore leaves things to the imagination; it adds so much more to it for me. All in all, I loved this look at the lives of these six people and even the setting of this story (when they kept mentioning typewriters and letters in the mail, I loved that!) I also thought that there had to be a movie adaption of this (because when is there not) and seeing there isn't makes it even better because I can just keep reimagining this world over and over again.
Just One Day, Just One Year & Just One Night by Gayle Forman is my YA favorite of January and forever and ever amen. Just such a pleasure to read, I needed a good contemporary and this was perfect. I think the blurb on Goodreads is perfect for this. This book deals with "love, heartbreak, travel, identity, and the “accidents” of fate, Just One Day shows us how sometimes in order to get found, you first have to get lost. . . and how often the people we are seeking are much closer than we know."
This was such a good reading month just coincidentally because I just let myself read whatever sounded interesting. Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Mass had been on my kindle for ages when I bought for a deal and I was on the train and had no book on me so I started reading it on my kindle app and gah this YA fantasy is one that deserves the hype. Celaena Sardothien is a badass assassin. I really enjoyed how sassy she was and her back and forth with Dorian, the King's son, was the best. I loved learning more about her as the story went on and the tests and training went on. I adore her love of books of course and that it's something her and Dorian bonded over. I disliked that she was so unsure of her emotions when it came to Chaol or Dorian. I dislike love triangles but this one didn't feel like one to me because of how she threats each of the guys. Crown of Midnight is the sequel and my favorite of the three I read. Heir of Fire is many people's favorite and I definitely see why because the world building Sarah is doing is breathtaking. This is going to be a six book series and I can see just how so because so much is going to happen and I need the fourth book now!
2015 is the year of Canadian Literature and I started of by reading Ru by Kim Thuy. It's a stunning story that is told in short vignettes which makes it flows so well and when I think about how Ru means stream in French and lullaby in Vietnamese it just personifies both of those words. There's so much meaning to be found in the role of the people the narrator speaks about and her thoughts on a number of topics ranging from being Vietnamese to the American Dream. So good.
The last read of the month was The Walled City by Ryan Graudin and it was so good. What a story. At first, I didn't know what to think of these three people narrating from this entirely different, scary world based off the real Kowloon Walled City that was once a part of Hong Kong but the more I read the more I felt like I could see how suffocating their situation was. Jin, Mei Yee and Dai have all been through so much and they all have these barriers up because of it. This novel is worth a read to unravel their pasts and see how it's led them to where they are and to learn about this city.
Overall, this was such a great start to the year. I took a break for 3 days towards the end of the month and I'm reading the Throne of Glass e-novellas and Station Eleven and enjoying both for totally different reasons.
I started off the year with Glory O' Brien's History of the Future by A.S. King. Certain books are read at a perfect time in a person's life and that is the case with A.S. King's books for me. Glory O'Brien is a cool, weird, quirky, smart girl and it was easy to put myself in her shoes. Her way of thinking like I said was extreme and odd in some points but duh most teenagers have strange thoughts that seem totally valid and poignant at the time. I love the bits of the story she decided to write down from the transmissions she was getting in that it was such a warped fucked up world that is weirdly motivational. Inspirational stuff, man.
I've already deemed The Secret History by Donna Tartt one of my favorites ever. I enjoyed this like I enjoy cake. Eating it slowly and enjoying all the flavor and frosting. I was debating as to whether I was going to give this a 3, 4 or 5 rating and in the end, the only reason why was because of my dislike of the characters throughout most of the novel but that's the point. These aren't likeable people, they're despicable in many aspects and you still grow to care for them. What intrigues me is what if we would've gotten this from Henry's, Camilla's or Francis' point of view? Richard reminded me of Nick from Gatsby in certain ways because while he did not have money. he shows how easy it is to let yourself be taken by it. Therefore, he was the perfect narrator because of the change we got to go through with him. Bunny is a clear picture of the worst kind of person in that even when his family doesn't have that much money, he is so uppity and egotistical. I also loved that Richard is deciding to write this story years after the fact and therefore leaves things to the imagination; it adds so much more to it for me. All in all, I loved this look at the lives of these six people and even the setting of this story (when they kept mentioning typewriters and letters in the mail, I loved that!) I also thought that there had to be a movie adaption of this (because when is there not) and seeing there isn't makes it even better because I can just keep reimagining this world over and over again.
Just One Day, Just One Year & Just One Night by Gayle Forman is my YA favorite of January and forever and ever amen. Just such a pleasure to read, I needed a good contemporary and this was perfect. I think the blurb on Goodreads is perfect for this. This book deals with "love, heartbreak, travel, identity, and the “accidents” of fate, Just One Day shows us how sometimes in order to get found, you first have to get lost. . . and how often the people we are seeking are much closer than we know."
This was such a good reading month just coincidentally because I just let myself read whatever sounded interesting. Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Mass had been on my kindle for ages when I bought for a deal and I was on the train and had no book on me so I started reading it on my kindle app and gah this YA fantasy is one that deserves the hype. Celaena Sardothien is a badass assassin. I really enjoyed how sassy she was and her back and forth with Dorian, the King's son, was the best. I loved learning more about her as the story went on and the tests and training went on. I adore her love of books of course and that it's something her and Dorian bonded over. I disliked that she was so unsure of her emotions when it came to Chaol or Dorian. I dislike love triangles but this one didn't feel like one to me because of how she threats each of the guys. Crown of Midnight is the sequel and my favorite of the three I read. Heir of Fire is many people's favorite and I definitely see why because the world building Sarah is doing is breathtaking. This is going to be a six book series and I can see just how so because so much is going to happen and I need the fourth book now!
2015 is the year of Canadian Literature and I started of by reading Ru by Kim Thuy. It's a stunning story that is told in short vignettes which makes it flows so well and when I think about how Ru means stream in French and lullaby in Vietnamese it just personifies both of those words. There's so much meaning to be found in the role of the people the narrator speaks about and her thoughts on a number of topics ranging from being Vietnamese to the American Dream. So good.
The last read of the month was The Walled City by Ryan Graudin and it was so good. What a story. At first, I didn't know what to think of these three people narrating from this entirely different, scary world based off the real Kowloon Walled City that was once a part of Hong Kong but the more I read the more I felt like I could see how suffocating their situation was. Jin, Mei Yee and Dai have all been through so much and they all have these barriers up because of it. This novel is worth a read to unravel their pasts and see how it's led them to where they are and to learn about this city.
Overall, this was such a great start to the year. I took a break for 3 days towards the end of the month and I'm reading the Throne of Glass e-novellas and Station Eleven and enjoying both for totally different reasons.
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