so-soI admire the writing and the akill of this novel. I see why it has made the short list for #womensprize, but it was not a novel for me.
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so-soI admire the writing and the akill of this novel. I see why it has made the short list for #womensprize, but it was not a novel for me.
pickSet in post-reunification Germany, Nila‘s Afghan parents & Nila struggle to find their cultural place in Berlin. Nila is coming of age in techno clubs and a drug-fuelled lifestyle of self-loathing & an obsession with her older American boyfriend. Her struggle to find her place & the cultural expectation that she be a good girl were all excellent. The messy narrative surrounding Nila & Marlowe less so. Overall this is an intriguing, absorbing read
panI am beyond frustrated by this book. It has such rich material—fish out of water, racism, stranger in your own land—and it‘s just kind of a mess. Plus, there‘s an explosive event near the end that was so gripping, I really wish the book had been set around it, but instead it‘s squandered. What is this doing on the #WP25 short (or long) list?
#DynamicDs Day 20: #Devil
pickPolicy of preventative deterrence = death by Sonoran desert.
Funneling migrants through the desert is intentional and cruel. Common sense suggests until the root causes of the migration are addressed it will not end. When migrants say they would rather die on the trail than remain in their home countries it speaks volumes.
Jason‘s second book focusing on human smugglers is even better because it really lays bare the complexities of the issue.
pick#CoverStories Day 29: #Music that transcends borders is what Yo Yo Ma, United Nations Messenger of Peace, creates - and this is a fantastic picturebook biography that shows exactly that. My full review including a video of Yo Yo Ma‘s historic musical performance that took place at the Rio Grande also known as the US-Mexico Border: https://wp.me/pDlzr-quq - A very timely book.
I was home neither in Rosenwald nor in Gropiusstadt. And like so many children before me, I became my own exile.
At school, the girls wore padded down jackets and boots I had seen only in equestrian ads. They knew how to ride horses and drank expensive water and used Dr. Hauschka products, which felt so expensive back then, I believed only millionaires could afford them. Longingly, I used a pump of their creams, inhaling that herbal scent.
pickBook 9 #WP25
This is a low pick for me. The last 100 pages were a bit of a struggle, I didn't want to pick it up and read more about her self destruction, but I was still interested in her life as an Afghani-German and what it was like as a German immigrant with so much hate that we don't talk about.
The writing throughout is solid, and the perspective is one I don't see a lot of in English Lit so it makes sense why this was chosen for the WP
She turned on the radio in the mornings, dancing when rock songs filled the kitchen with bygone delight. Recited poetry in an old, formal Persian-lines that I didn't understand but whose cadences imprinted themselves onto my brain-and took me to local libraries, where I was allowed to read as much as I wanted, the weight of the laminated library card like a luxurious treasure in my hand, my own name written in blue ink underneath: Nilab Haddadi.
