The beginning was very well explained history, but it didn’t say anything new and so took me a while to get through. Once I got to the stories, I found the book harder to put down.

That said, these pieces became very jarring to whiplash between personal stories of displacement, murdered friends and family, destroyed homes, arrests without charges, abuse at checkpoints, and more, with a slow awakening to the truth of Zionism and the emotional difficulties that presented in a Zionist family or community. One of the most confusing was Talia Baurer, who explained she didn’t join her schools chapter of Students For Justice In Palestine because she was insecure about not knowing enough about the issues, then visited Israel again and had her eyes fully opened on a trip to the West Bank, as well as watching the destruction of “Operation Protective Edge” online, and so returned to co-found a Jewish Voice For Peace chapter at her university. I am so curious why she felt that she needed to be a founder when SJP already existed there and she had even considered joining the semester prior. I was even more confused when she wrapped up her piece saying, “As a white Jew in the United States, I must enter into this struggle following the leadership of Palestinian people who face the horrors of occupation, oppression, and apartheid every day in Palestine and Israel.” Wouldn’t that mean joining existing groups, rather than founding your own?

In another stark example, David Bragin explains how he could not see Palestinians as human until he visited a Christian Palestinian village and people invited him into their homes. Of course, we need to fight against dehumanization of Arabs and especially Palestinians that is so baked into Western culture, but I wonder if articles like these are helpful to the readers, or more helpful to the writers.

I didn’t keep great records as it took me a few months to get it back from the library and read again, but some favorites I remember were from: HALA ALYAN, DORGHAM ABUSALIM, NAOMI SHIHAB NYE, ROSALIND PETCHESKY, LAMA KHOURI, RIHAM BARGHOUTI

These were sweet and interesting stories, but I didn’t finish it before the library loan was due and I’m not in the mood for short stories right now. Hopefully I’ll come back to it in the future.

A difficult book to review. I think o need to take a break from short story collections. Many of these pieces, especially Do Not Write About The King, ended just as they hit a good stride. While this is a compliment to Teebi’s writing, many of the stories felt unfinished. Ushanka was probably my favorite. Despite those criticisms, this was still a compelling read, and I definitely hope to get my hands on a novel from Teebi in the future!

A difficult but beautiful read.

 An intimate look into the stress felt minute by minute in a war zone. While this could easily be a story dragged into the overwhelming grief and terror of losing loved ones and the stress of not knowing where the next bomb will fall, instead we are let into a story of love and care between people who might otherwise have been near-strangers. The care and aid shared by the neighborhood brought me to tears. How horrible to have so many loving neighbor introduced with their time of death, and yet with so much destruction, everyone did all they could to look out for each other. The small joys brought by sharing food and reading stories is exactly the reminder needed today that the only way through is together. This is exactly the kind of mutual aid I dream we can create before crisis forces us into it. We must organize today, as things are horrible in so many places already and may get worse quickly across arbitrary borders. 
I started this book after midnight when I couldn't sleep, and I finished it as soon as I woke up. Hopefully soon I can get my hands on a physical copy to cherish. 

“Within each one of us there is some piece of humanness that knows we are not being served by the machine which orchestrates crisis after crisis and is grinding all our futures into dust.”
I can't believe it's taken me this long to read a whole collection by Audre Lorde. At the same time, I'm so grateful what was revolutionary in the 80's is now widely accepted on the left, and so infuriated that it is still not acted through and is not widely accepted in all society. 

Exactly as enthralling as everyone said it would be. This is a gripping and gut-churning look into the depths of an abusive relationship, but Carmen Maria Machado also beautifully weaves history, literary criticism, and hope into every section. A memoir, a poem, and so much more.

A friend lent me a copy, but before I started reading I looked up Christy Lefteri. Not only has she been silent on Palestine, even silent on recent Israeli attacks on Syria, but she is also Tweeting transphobic garbage. I’ll stick to reading books about Syria by Syrian authors who stand against oppression and don’t attack marginalized communities. 

This was so fun! I loved the care and depth brought to each time period, even though the focus was largely on white Western men, the authors still worked to be intersectional in their analysis. The audiobook narrator added extra joy to this reading (such a stereotypical history book voice, very endearing to hear modern gay slang terms in it)
Clearly not the fault of the authors or narrator, but in one chapter the same line is read at least five times, and that wasn’t the only editing issue. Wild oversight. 

These poems broke my heart and I love them. I read this as an eBook, and I hope I can get my hands on a physical copy soon to better understand the flow. I’d also love to hear the audiobook.
Half-Life in Exile, Naturalized, time travelers, Interactive Fiction :: House Saints,  The Length Between July and October, and The interviewer wants to know about fashion are a few of my favorites.