Welcome to Litsy!

Amani was a New Jersey elementary school student when 9/11 happened. She also happens to be Muslim and this is when the bullying she experienced went into high gear. Just out of high school, she created the MuslimGirl website as a place of safety, support, and education for girls and women. She shares a bit of her story here and her voice is such an important one in our hate-filled world.

Amani‘s response to the tendency to call out violence perpetrated by certain people “Muslim” and “terrorism.” Excellent reframing.

We were the little girls who had our voices robbed of us. We were the little girls who had our bodies and our homelands ripped apart while our hands were tied behind our backs. We were the little girls who were told to sit down and shut up while our world betrayed us. We are rising up--we are the ones reclaiming our voices, the ones talking back, the ones reminding the world that no, we haven't forgotten. We grew to become our own saviors.

This memoir is publishing at an opportune time and I highly recommend picking up a copy and making it a priority to read. Al-Khatahtbeh is is changing and challenging the way Muslim women are viewed around the world.

I love my public library. Yesterday I just wandered around to see what‘s new and saw this year‘s celebrated culture. (My city highlights a different one every year.) I immediately picked up this book and signed up for the author visit. #everyoneiswelcomehere

I'm so glad that this book was recommended to me. It offered a thought-provoking perspective on the challenges that Muslim women face each day in the United States. I appreciate the opportunity to learn about a culture and religion different from mine, and to be reminded of the dangers of bigotry.

#Queen

#julyfavorites #bestofjuly

This was my best reading month in a while. 11 books in total, including two audiobooks and four graphic novels. Favourites were Muslim Girl, Ms. Marvel and Neurotribes.

One word: WOW. You should stop everything and read this now. As a white, Canadian, atheist milennial, I share many experiences with the author but take many of my own experiences for granted. As a fellow milennial, this book was written in way that was relatable to me. So many of the chapters called out microaggressions that I wasn't even aware of.

#writtenbysomeoneyourage for #litsyreadingchallenge

"While we were dishing out pamphlets and neatly streamlined PowerPoints at shiny conference tables, trying to convince and quantify in dollar signs why Muslim women's voices are valuable, all I could think about was why Muslim Girl had to resort to publishing a crisis safety manual for Muslim women just to live."

"On the outside it seems like Muslim women are gaining a lot of inclusion. But are we really? You might have noticed that lately, much of the positive media coverage you've encountered that has been focused on Muslim women has treated them as exceptional subjects due to their religion. 'This Muslim woman is breaking stereotypes...insert something mediocre here'."

"Because our racist society is quick to view minorities as monoliths, and because our sexist society is quick to reduce women to the attire they wear, Muslim women who wear headscarves have involuntarily become the representatives of an entire religion. Following the irrational logic by which Muslims are judged, every action that a visibly Muslim woman takes in public is immediately attributed to our religion as a whole."

Switching gears because:

A) This library hold finally became available.
B) I found out that the author was my age when this was published last year (in other words, it works for #litsyreadingchallenge).
C) This is a short audiobook, under four hours, and I need to catch up on my Goodreads challenge.

#overdrive #libraryhold

This Audible sale just ate all of my birthday money. Fifty percent of cover price for everything on the site is too good to pass up.

Mostly I'd say this book is a pick because I feel the subject matter is important. The writing, however, is its downfall. It was at times pedantic and repetitive. The audio is quite cool, I always enjoy listening to the author read their own memoir.

Fast read & an eye-opening look at a young Muslim woman coming of age in post 9/11 New Jersey & the struggles she & her family face dealing w/ discrimination, prejudice, & out-&-out hatred. The writing isn't always the best but Amani's work & the website she founded are impressive & she makes excellent points that made me empathize w/her & look deeper within myself & how I view others. Good for those wanting to understand different perspectives.👍

Sunday means I'm unlikely to get out of my pajamas all day, soup-making, book reading/listening, laundry, & catching up on a few DVRs from the week. It also means leftovers repurposed as breakfast-my favorite. Friday's brown rice bowl components=fried rice w/scallion & egg in a bit of lemon-miso compound butter, a piece of mahi mahi & 1/2 avocado. (See they don't always become toast!)😆Also finishing this quick read to go back to the library.🍽📚

There is not enough love that I can give for this book.

This book is for everyone. The author tells about her life and thing that have happened to her in ways that people that have experienced it can. Those of us that have some sort of privilege can only imagine, and then those things we try to imagine fall short.

I am so happy and fortunate that Amani Al-Khatahtbeh wrote this book, and also that the library here in Lexington chose to buy it

finished listening to this audiobook a few days ago, overall I really enjoyed listening to this - I don't typically listen to many audiobooks but I really wanted to read this one, so I decided to give it a shot & I'm so glad I did
🌟🌟🌟 🌟

#epigraph

finally all caught up with the few podcast I regularly listen to so I decided to start a new audiobook 🎶

Charlie: "It's especially important in 2017 to have empathy and to learn more from people who have a different experience than you do. Muslim Girl was recommended to me by a friend. Why am I not wearing pants? Today is the 16th annual No Pants Subway Ride. I'm its founder and have been riding the train in my underwear one day a year since 2002. We want to give people a great story to tell. The whole point is to share a laugh and a smile."

This is a very short read and I don't think she's the best author I've read, I think her points are eye opening and observant. She started Muslim Girl at such a young age while recognizing the void for millennial Muslims, makes me admire her tenacity and ability to analyze our society. "Read books similar to you to understand yourself, read books different than you to understand the world." Thank you, Amani, for broadening my world a bit.

Insightful and worth reading. 📖

Despite having such strong feelings in support of the human rights of Muslims everywhere, and agreeing with basically all of her arguments here, I really disliked this book. It was extremely poorly written, in a tone that was both whiny and grandiose, and overflowing with horribly pedantic vocabulary. In my books, bad books are bad books, no matter how much I want to like them nor how much I agree with the politics of the writer. This one stank.

The snow killed my plans for tonight, so I'm staying in and reading!

Looking at the history of America from the huge turning point of 9/11 onward, but from the very important and often overlooked perspective of a Muslim American girl coming of age as the towers fell, as Islamaphobia ran rampant, through her parents briefly leaving the country because America began to feel unsafe and coming back home shortly after, the Arab Spring, and the rise of Trump. Short read, but very powerful! Definitely worth reading.

I love this culture clash, normal my-family-is-embarrassing growing up story, and her dad's response!

"We‘re climbing toward the light with exceptional weight on our backs, digging our heels into the dirt of the past to gain our way to the top, only to slip—no, be completely knocked down—by an uncontrollable, newly emerging force that causes us to tumble all the way back to where we started, much to the jeers and cheers and additional trips of the bystanders around us. Everyone can see it happen, and complacency is a killer." #OverThis #WNDB

This in an important book in our current climate of Islamophobia and misinformation about Muslims. Amani gives voice to Muslim women via MuslimGirl.com, debunking stereotypes, wearing the hijab as a feminist statement, an expression of her identity. She describes the harrowing experiences of being bullied, victimized, being scapegoated for her religion. It is ridiculous to assign collective blame for the actions of a few. 4/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Yep, mass shooting is an American invention.

Never more timely than now.

This coming of age story of a Muslim girl in America after 9/11 is starting off so well!

You know when you start a book and just KNOW this is going to be a good one!

I must say I haven't been enjoying listening to this on audio very much, but this passage made me want to stand up and cheer! ♥️♥️

My Black Friday plans

I don't need to explain why we all need to read this as soon as possible, now do I? Did anybody notice who the incoming National Security Advisor is?

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/13/books/review/muslim-girl-amani-al-khatahtbeh.h...

Just heard about this book today and later saw and bought it at Barnes & Noble.

Super excited to start this!

I want to read all these books right now!