Absolutely fascinating as both a portrait of Deaf culture and as a story in general. Loved all the perspectives and political issues and budding romances. Really made me think about the world! #contemporaryfiction
Absolutely fascinating as both a portrait of Deaf culture and as a story in general. Loved all the perspectives and political issues and budding romances. Really made me think about the world! #contemporaryfiction
Wow what a clever book. An incredible story, very passionately written. And an excellent insight into deaf culture and deaf history. I learnt so much and thoroughly enjoyed it. I wish there were more like it, if anyone has any other recommendations then let me know!
Thank you very much to @Megabooks @fredthemoose and @Bookwormjillk for the recommendation and advice.
I really enjoyed this. It‘s beautifully conceived, thoughtful and pacey. I was invested in the characters so kept turning the pages to see what happened to them. I loved how Nović integrated sign language and the story was immersed in deaf culture. It‘s drawn from her lived experience so feels authentic rather than tokenistic. Whilst there‘s a ‘message‘ it‘s not too preachy & made me think. The closure of special schools is topical in Oz now too.
#MMDBookClub Pick for September 2023 • 4 Stars
This novel follows the lives of three characters who are connected by a boarding school for the deaf in Ohio. It explores themes of identity, community, disability, and civil rights. Charlie is a rebellious transfer student who is deaf; Austin, a popular senior who is also deaf and whose sister is hearing; and February, a hearing headmistress who is a child of deaf adults.
Rly rly great book. Like… this book makes me want to be a better person 🤘🏽 and also 🤟🏽
So glad I finally read this one! Such a great character novel, looking at struggles w/in the deaf community - debates on cochlear implants, integration in society, & family dynamics. I liked the multiple POVs of different perspectives & the small sections explaining ASL techniques or history of deaf culture. This one really makes you think about privilege & the systemic problem of forcing deaf people to adapt instead of adapting the world for them
“True Biz?” There‘s no way I can pick a winner between my March & April selections right now. That‘ll have to wait. 🙈 But I did fill the grid in a *little* more! Step by step.
#2023ReadingBracket @chasjjlee
WOW! This powerful book is set largely at a boarding school for the deaf & centers around a girl who finds access to language (ASL) & community for the first time in any meaningful way. The author is an instructor of Deaf Studies & part of the deaf community. The characters are brilliantly written & complicated ethics are plumbed in an authentic way. I understand that some readers may be mad about the ambiguous ending…but it feels authentic, too.
I enjoyed this book. It made me think of my husband‘s grandmother, who taught at the Ohio deaf school (above) in Columbus. She always had the best stories. Kids try to get away with lots of things when they don‘t understand noise or volume😀
#bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks 💕
Here's my Bookspin card for March. My TBRtarot pick was already on the list so I substituted Legends & Lattes.
Looks good to me! 🥰
February Waters was nine years old when she—in the middle of math class, in front of everyone—stabbed herself in the ear with a number two Ticonderoga.
#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl
I enjoyed this! I will say that I wish the ending weren‘t so abrupt - not that all endings have to be tidy, but I definitely wanted more resolution? Big props to the author for teaching me loads about deaf culture - so much I didn‘t know. Now to find a #pantone2023 match 🤔
“Being motherless was different than being fatherless. It was primal, the archetype for human suffering, like losing the North Star.”
This just put into words how it feels - to lose both parents is awful, but there is just something slightly harder about being motherless. Like you‘ve lost your anchor 😔
Book 10 for this year!
Just finished my first #AuldLangSpine read and can‘t recommend it enough! I‘m ashamed to to admit my knowledge of Deaf culture is limited to what I saw in the show Switched at Birth, so I learned some surprising things here (Alexander Graham Bell, anyone?). I was also infuriated on behalf of Charlie, Elliot, and Sky.
My only complaint is how quickly the ending crept up. I wonder what comes next for everyone.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I had a blast doing the OWLS HP reading challenge this year! Finished 39 prompts in all! Here are my faves from the challenge. Now I‘m excited to start planning the new challenge for 2023, themed around Quidditch!
#owlsreadingchallenge
#12booksof2022
I read some real stinkers in June, but I also read this gem of a novel, one of my top reads of the year. #camplitsy gave me the needed to push to read it this year instead of having it languish on my miles long TBR
@LiteraryinLawrence really knocked it out of the park for our #jolabokaflodswap 😄 This book was such a fantastic pick and I am really excited to read it soon! I am so grateful for the chocolates as well! I have to agree: I felt the Wilber buds were better than Hershey‘s kisses too! Thank you so much! Whatever you and yours celebrate this season, Allison, I hope it was magical! ☺️🧡📚 Chelle, thank you for hosting! Such a wonderful idea!
@BennettBookworm Thank you so much! This book sounds AMAZING and the card is so so pretty 😍
Happy Holidays! 🎉
And thank you again to @MaleficentBookDragon for hosting the exchange!
It‘s always exciting when the #ALSpine match lists arrive, and @BeckyWithTheGoodBooks has great picks to choose from! As usual, I‘m going to take my potential reads beyond January!
The checked books are ones I‘ve already read, so to start 2023 I‘ll be reading a couple from my owned TBR 📚and a couple library reads 🔍. I already have True Biz waiting on my airplane moded Kindle, and Night Film was a #NYWD pick I never got to a couple years ago.
Can‘t believe it is time for this already! Which gets your vote? I went with tagged. #BOTM
I studied ASL and Deaf culture for 2 semesters in college when I had a brief interest in becoming a speech pathologist. I also spent a month at Gallaudet in DC.
I loved this excellent #OwnVoices novel that does not shy away from the controversy around CI, and the role (or withholding) of ASL in Deaf education and language acquisition. Also briefly explores BASL and racism within the Deaf community, something I definitely want to learn more about.
Really enjoyed this book and learnt a lot about Deaf culture and the inequities in how Deaf people are treated by a society that expects everyone to be hearing. Told from the POVs of two deaf teenagers and the headmistress of their Deaf school. I most enjoyed the teenagers perspectives and how their family dynamics played out. Including information about ASL and Deaf history in between chapters was a great addition.⬇️
Seventh #owlsreadingchallenge subject passed!!
Care of Magical Creatures:
🌟Niffler: a book with a shiny cover - True Biz
🌟Fantastic beasts: a book with an animal on the cover - Snow Child
🌟Unicorn: most anticipated book - Violin Conspiracy
THIS BOOK IS EVERYTHING!! I want to recommend it to every single human I know. A master class in originality and writing that is just so COOL! I felt like reading it was a privilege. And SO educational, as someone who came in knowing next to nothing about ASL and Deaf communities.
I read this with my sisters and Mom as a markup book club - very grateful - so now I need to acquire my own copy!
@Kimberlone definitely came through on this rec. I absolutely loved this book per her suggestion. As a former linguistics major and a brief student of ASL, I‘ve always been equally fascinated by Deaf culture as I am by manual language. I agree the ending was a bit of a fizzle but in many ways book‘s ending mirrored “the end” referenced in the book. I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in or limited knowledge of Deaf culture.
A look into a community of deaf kids at their school. It‘s a subject I never really thought about and I liked learning about it. When I got my hearing aids, I was totally deaf for a few minutes as the molds in my ears took shape. And that‘s what it must be like for the deaf, absolute quiet. This story is about three kids coming to terms with their deafness and places in the world. You should find out about it.
I loved this one. I took sign language in college & loved it. I would have loved to take more classes but it wasn‘t possible. My professor was deaf & we didn‘t have an interpreter in the class so we had to learn quick. I went to UNC Greensboro for my undergrad & the surrounding area had always had a large deaf population due to a school for the deaf being there (it‘s not closed but there are 2 others still in NC). In class we had discussions about
When all of your library reservations arrive at the same time… and it‘s the summer holidays… and you have guests visiting… and you are dog sitting… when am I going to get these read 🤷🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️ 📚
A novel that centers on Deaf teenagers and their headmistress as they navigate school, hormones, and civil liberty.
Rebellious ✨ Educational ✨ Bridging
2Q22 results are in for my favorite books of the year! Looking forward to the second half of 2022 and crushing my reading goals (hopefully).
I joined the library waiting list after @ValerieAndBooks recommended this. It didn‘t come in time for #CampLitsy but I‘m really glad to have read it anyway. If you‘re not already familiar with the novel, it‘s set at a school for the Deaf in the US—lots of Deaf culture & history + disability rights issues + the woman in charge of the school is a lesbian. All good stuff! Rustling noise is used in the audiobook to indicate manual (ASL) dialog. #LGBTQ
Friday Reads July 8 - In which my books include folk of all kinds: queer; Canadian; Deaf; Indigenous; fey; & affected by war
https://youtu.be/XO9dLINXROc
Adding True Biz to my #LGBTQbookbingo! @Kenyazero
🌈 Set in a high school!
Absolutely fascinating novel centering around a School for the Deaf, its students, and headmistress. Novic, herself deaf, provides a window into deaf culture and an unflinching look at the challenges deaf individuals face. Novic intersperses A.S.L. and deaf culture history throughout the novel, creating a learning experience for the reader that evokes empathy and awareness that can truly affect change. I was blown away. True biz. 5⭐️
Great story about life at a school for the Deaf! Glad it was a #CampLitsy pick! I really enjoyed the pages of explaining ASL and other aspects of Deaf culture. I knew a bit about it before but learning there‘s a Black ASL as a result of segregation in the schools was definitely eye opening.
I‘m going to try and learn a few more signs myself!
I really enjoyed this look into Deaf culture and appreciated all the history and background that was shared. I liked the characters, especially Charlie and Austin. Like others have said, it ended rather abruptly and I would have liked a bit more at the end.
Finished this today for a summer book club with my family. As a longtime ASL learner I really loved the foray into Deaf culture and all the surrounding topics. I also liked the writing style and especially the storyline of Feb. I was surprised at the end because I felt like it just ended with no resolutions to the plot lines. Is it just me? So I‘d say I liked the journey more than the destination.
Here's my #bookreport for last week and #weeklyforecast for this week. Hopefully, I'll be able to finish all four books 🙄 but I think it'll be hard.
I finished two books for an exam that was nullified after I took it because according to them some people cheated. I also finished and reviewed Since Sinai.
I'm reading La banalità del bene, L'amore nell'ebraismo, and True Biz. Will start A History of Herbalism soon
@Cinfhen
I appreciated the peek into deaf culture that the book provided, especially the controversies over cochlear implants, and the characters‘ perspectives coming different backgrounds within the deaf/ASL world. The brief forays into ASL linguistics and deaf history were super interesting. Overall, the plot was a bit weak, though, and the book ended kind of abruptly without much resolution. I was hoping for more payoff w/the revolution subplot.
…and here‘s our final question for this book, and for this month of #camplitsy.
Tomorrow look out for another post, where you‘ll have the chance to vote for your choice between True Biz and How High We Go In The Dark. We‘ll also remind you shortly of the upcoming schedule for July.
I‘ve really enjoyed being your Camp Counselor for this month and seeing all of your fabulous thoughts and opinions on the two books!
Our second question of the week is above.
Let us know if you were satisfied with the ending and what you think happens next for all of the characters, including Austin, Charlie and February.
Looking forward to your thoughts!
Welcome back to this week‘s #camplitsy discussions; Barbara, Meg and I are happy to host you again! This week we‘re talking about True Biz, all the way to the end of the book.
We asked a question about Slash last week, so we‘re returning back to him again. We‘d love to hear what you thought about him and his friends and their role in the story, plus did your views on him change later in the book?
It's almost midnight for me, so it ends my first day of #20in4 #readathon !
I finished Since Sinai by Shannon Gonyou, which I'll review tomorrow.
I started reading/studying Storia Sociale dell'antica Grecia by Fritz Gschnitzer and I kept reading True Biz by Sara Novic.
I also read for 2h19mins so I'm behind schedule. Oh well.
@Andrew65
A good story with likeable characters, This book really made me think about what life is like for the deaf community, very educational. Also looking at the deep desire in all of us to belong, to be a part of our families , our culture.
Another great #CampLitsy #CampToB book!
I learned so much about Deaf culture. I thought the story was great and the contrasting characters helped readers see things from multiple angles.
Looking forward to tomorrow‘s discussion.
The first book I‘ve read in a long time where I‘ve just wanted to keep turning the pages! The mix of fiction and Deaf History education is surprisingly well-done - it never felt forced, despite the sheer amount of information she was feeding through.
I loved the teenagers, their family dynamics, and the different experiences of youngsters growing up in different cultures/ language environments. At times it was heartbreaking, infuriating
@BookNAround @catiewithac I got your letters!!! Thank you so so much, it was so kind of you.
I'll answer as soon as possible 💚💚💚
#litsylove