Iqbal by Francesco D'Adamo

Iqbal by Francesco D'Adamo
My Rating: 5 of 5 stars
Finished Reading: September 2, 2018
Format: Book
Favorite Quote(s): 
"They were Iqbal, too."
"I just beg of you, don't forget. Tell somebody our story. Tell everybody our story. So that the memory will not be lost."

Review:
This is a fictionalized story of a real hero, Iqbal Masih, a young boy who escaped the carpet factory in Pakistan that he was enslaved in. He joined the Labor Liberation Front and helped free hundreds of children from bonded labor. He was recognized globally when he received the Reebok Human Rights Award in Boston in 1994. This story was a beautiful telling of who Iqbal must have been: a brave, selfless boy who never lost hope despite his circumstance. He then used his newfound freedom to free others and then told the world about what was happening to children. It is a quick read and is definitely worth the few hours (or less) you dedicate to it. I sobbed through the end, which I was aware was coming, from knowing of Iqbal before reading the book. However, the way the author addresses it in the story is beautiful. Well done. More people should know his name.

October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard by Lesléa Newman

October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard by Lesléa Newman
My Rating: 5 of 5 stars
Finished Reading: August 19, 2018
Format: Book
Favorite Quote(s):

"This is just to say I'm sorry I kept beating and beating inside your shattered chest. Forgive me for keeping you alive so long. I knew it would kill me to let you go."

Review:
This was a devastating read. Many of Newman's poems used the personification of inanimate objects - the truck, a tree, stars, the wind, the fence, and most devastatingly, his heart - to make you feel that Matthew Shepard wasn't so alone for those 18 hours. Despite the verses, you remember again and again that he was alone. That when they found him the only part of Matthew not covered in blood were the tracks of tears down his cheeks that he cried and cried before he succumbed to his injuries. It will be 20 years this October since Matthew was brutally murdered. The progress made, so much in his memory, is great but we have so far to go. I highly suggest this quick read, though difficult, it will remind you how precious life is, how hate and fear do nothing but cause death and destruction, and that there was a 21-year-old kid from Wyoming who deserves to be remembered.

Dear World: A Syrian Girl's Story of War and Plea for Peace by Bana Alabed

Dear World: A Syrian Girl's Story of War and Plea for Peace by Bana Alabed
My Rating: 5 of 5 stars
Finished Reading: August 17, 2018
Format: Book
Favorite Quote(s):

"There are no children in Syria. You all were forced to become adults - to understand killing, to experience fear and starvation and pain in a way that all children should be shielded from. But that was a luxury we did not have. Something changed for me too when Yasmin died and when the siege overtook us in those brutal months after. Along with being terrified and heartbroken, I became angry - angry that we had to endure this while the world did nothing. Angry that I was helpless to protect my children. Angry that there is a world where bombing and killing children is tolerated. Angry that I taught you to be generous and fair and kind and then offered you a world that was anything but. As things became more desperate so too did your questions: Do people know this is happening to us? Does anyone care? Why do they keep bombing us? Why won't they stop? Why can't we have peace? I was angry most of all that I didn't have answers to those questions. And that you, a seven-year-old girl, had to ask them."

Review:
This is an incredibly important read about the true life experience of a girl who survived the war in Syria. I had not heard about Bana while she was tweeting about the siege and I didn't learn of her until she was safe. At the Oscars in 2018, Andra Day and Common sang Stand Up for Something. In the background spotlights came on to show 10 people. I could recognize 5 of them as my heroes, but there was a little girl that I did not know. I looked her up and it was Bana al-Abed, who tweeted through the Syrian war and had just published a book about her experiences. I bought the book that night. It's taken me several months to pick it up. It's so easy to ignore injustice, like the book I ignored on my shelf for 5 months. That's why you need to read this book. It will shake you awake to the experience that you should know about and care about. I don't pretend to understand the Syrian war. I do understand that children should be safe; that turning refugees away is evil; that I do not fight hard enough for what I know to be right. So, in order to help make Bana's wishes come true, I will act. I will write to my legislators, I will inform my peers of what is going on, I will donate to causes that do the work that I cannot, and I will not ignore the injustices that I know are happening. Thank you Bana.

Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture by Roxane Gay

** Trigger Warning: SA **

Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture by Roxane Gay
My Rating: 5 of 5 stars
Finished Reading: August 9, 2018
Format: Book
Favorite Quote(s):

"Their work gave me survival and writing. From them, I learned the blazing insight that rape was not an act between an individual, hidden in a dark room - that was what my rapist wanted me to think. Rape was and is a cultural and political act: it attempts to remove a person with agency, autonomy, and belonging from their community, to secrete them and separate them, to depoliticize their body by rendering it detachable, violable, nothing." - So Mayer

"There is an impossible paradox when you are victimized by sexual assault. You want to - you have t- convince yourself that it wasn't 'that bad' in order to have any hope of healing. If it really is as bad as you feel like it is, how will you ever get out from under it? How will you ever get 'better'? On the other hand, you need to convince others it was 'bad enough' to get the help and support you need to do that healing. To get out from under it. To get an appointment at the clinic. To get friends to come over with Styrofoam food containers when you can't feed yourself." - Stacey May Fowles

"When I raised this in counseling, she told me: 'The survivor who was raped at knifepoint feels guilty she has taken up space of a survivor who was raped at gunpoint. Everyone believes there is suffering worse than her own, that they should be strong enough to cope without me.'" - Stacey May Fowles

Review:
This book's message is revelatory, not in that sexual violence happens to so many of us; all women and many men know this. It's revelatory in the way that "He's Just Not That Into You" blew your mind by being so obvious and so hard to believe at the same time. Not That Bad, compiled by Roxane Gay, is a book of essays about sexual violence and most importantly the feeling that what was experienced was "not that bad." We all know someone who has gone through much worse than we have. I will repeat that: we ALL know someone who has had it worse (even that person you are thinking of thinks this). That's not even possible unless pain is relative and though it's probably self-preservation (trying desperately to gain any bit of our stolen power back) it's complete nonsense. It was that bad. IT IS THAT BAD. From the "little" stuff that makes us uncomfortable to the life-altering (-ruining?) stuff that kills off who we once were. It is bad. Period.

Someone asked recently in a travel group that I am in if the #metoo movement has impacted women's travel behaviors. "No!" was the response over and over again, not at all, because the #metoo movement didn't reveal anything that women didn't already know about how unsafe we are. It has empowered us to reveal our experiences, but the only people who have learned anything new are men. That's why they need to read this book. Women, you need to read this too, but not because you will learn about anything you didn't already know but because reading the common theme of it not being so bad laid down at your feet in the most obvious way that you might even feel a bit silly for never realizing it before... while you read each story you will compare them to your own and be horrified to realize that you find yourself thinking that what you went through, as little or big as it is, was that bad and you deserve to cope with it in whatever way helps you to survive it.

The Bitter Side of Sweet by Tara Sullivan

The Bitter Side of Sweet by Tara Sullivan
My Rating: 5 of 5 stars
Finished Reading: July 29, 2018
Format: Audiobook
Favorite Quote(s):

"Now I know the secrets of the dark, sweet liquid in my cup. The smell washes over me again, and this time I gag on it. It's no longer the smell of a loving bedtime routine, but the smell of pain, and working for no pay, and not being able to go home."

Review:
Read this book. It will not ruin chocolate for you, but it will change how you buy it.

I knew about the origins of chocolate already, but the story of Amadou, Seydou, and Khadija have thoroughly shamed me out of my inaction. I have the privilege (so so so many privileges) of living in the next town from the Equal Exchange headquarters and that is where I will exclusively shop for the products they sell. Among so many other privileges that I have, I have the privilege of being able to vote with my money. I will keep their story in the forefront of my brain and make purchases that reflect the world that I want to live in to the best of my ability.

Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth by Warsan Shire

Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth by Warsan Shire
My Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Finished Reading: June 20, 2018
Format: Book
Favorite Quote(s):

"I hear them say go home, I hear them say f---ing immigrants, f---ng refugees. Are they really this arrogant? Do they not know that stability is like a lover with a sweet mouth upon your body one second; the next you are a tremor lying on the floor covered in rubble and old currency waiting for its return. All I can say is, I was once like you, the apathy, the pity, the ungrateful placement and now my home is the mouth of a shark, now my home is the barrel of a gun."

Review:
I picked up this book because I had read part of an included poem that had been circulating around social media. The poem is "Conversations About Home (at the Deportation Centre)." It turned out to be my favorite poem in the book. Though slightly misquoted (or perhaps it was paraphrased) on social media, the lines that get me the most read: "I hear them say go home, I hear them say f---ing immigrants, f---ng refugees. Are they really this arrogant? Do they not know that stability is like a lover with a sweet mouth upon your body one second; the next you are a tremor lying on the floor covered in rubble and old currency waiting for its return. All I can say is, I was once like you, the apathy, the pity, the ungrateful placement and now my home is the mouth of a shark, now my home is the barrel of a gun." This quote is incredibly timely for where we are as a country (the US). I think we use immigrants as scapegoats and spread hateful propaganda about who these people are and why they are coming to our country. I am particularly bothered by the hateful rhetoric directed at refugees who literally have no where else to go. I believe it's shameful and evil. However, I think this particular quote in this particular poem helps to shift the perspective of the privileged people who happened to be born here. At least I hope it does.

We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
My Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Finished Reading: March 10, 2018
Format: Book
Favorite Quote(s):

"Gender as it functions today is a grave injustice. I am angry. We should all be angry. Anger has a long history of bringing about postive change."

Review:
Incredibly quick read about feminism in Nigerian and the United States and the remarkable similarities. My favorite part was when she discussed how men are blind to the privileges they have, questioning why a woman would identify herself as a woman instead of a human being while at the same time men identify themselves with race or socioeconomic status. She also touches on "emasculation" and how women are expected to stroke the fragile egos of men. Good read, super quick.

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
My Rating: 5 of 5 stars
Finished Reading: March 10, 2018
Format: Audiobook
Favorite Quote(s):

"Each one of us is more than the worst thing we've ever done."
"The opposite of poverty is not wealth, the opposite of poverty is justice."

Review:
Bryan Stevenson is a human rights hero and more people should know his name.
This book alternates between telling the true story of wrongfully convicted death row inmate Walter McMillian and discussing real-life death row and life imprisonment stories from Mr. Stevenson's years as an attorney at his organization the Equal Justice Initiative. The chapters that Mr. Stevenson wraps around Mr. McMillian's story include those focusing on children being tried and sentenced as adults (despite being as young as 10 years old), women being imprisoned for life for giving birth to still-born babies, and those with intellectual disabilities who were not capable of defending themselves at trial. He writes about his treatment as a black lawyer in the south, the treatment of people who have served their time by society upon release (even when they didn't actually commit a crime), and the trauma and violation inmates are exposed to while in prison (particularly children sent to adult prisons). Please consider reading this book and making a monthly donation to EJI.