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“And perhaps the only way to grant justice- were that even possible- is by hearing and recording those stories over and over again so that they come back, always, to haunt and shame us.”

A brief, powerful book about immigration from Central America to the US. Luiselli is working through her own immigration case when she comes across an opportunity to help unaccompanied child immigrants. In this essay, she goes through the 40 questions she asks each child in order to match them with an attorney. The children‘s answers reveal the heartbreaking choices and scary situations that brought them here. Eye-opening for sure! #audiobook

This was a powerful, sad, inspiring and beautiful book. Highly recommend. It‘s short, but packs a lot of information and emotion in it. I‘m trying to read more diverse books this year and this was a great addition. Reading about immigration to the US from someone who has lived through it and helped others was powerful.

3️⃣•Em‘s Favorite 2020 Nonfiction • Through the dark storm that‘s been 2020, it‘s been a year of discovery, growth, and learning. One where I have worked to practice Grace, Empathy, Patience, and Kindness in all things. And to appreciate the little things of life. In the past my ISTJ/ Type 1 self has struggled with focusing on the negative things. This year, I have worked to overcome those, with finding the good, & fighting for what is right.

This account of the author‘s time interviewing and translating for unaccompanied refugee children in the US was absolutely harrowing. The children‘s stories, but also the bureaucracy of the system and the tiny details of how much these children get treated and discussed by people who can‘t imagine what they‘ve been through, just broke my heart. I‘m very grateful I read this.

Late as usual! I swear I begin every Litsy post with an apology for not being around much because I‘m Going Through Things but in the hell year that is 2020 I am always Going Through Things. Can we throw the whole damn year in the sea please?

For #integrateyourshelf I checked my kindle tbr for books by latine authors and reminded myself how much I want to read this one but I let it slip down the list the last few months! @ChasingOm

This needs to be required reading. Luiselli sheds light to the traumatic journey of migrant children who flee their countries and come to the unwelcoming USA. Immigration Reform needs to happen in our Immigration department, and has needed it for a long time. The horrors these children face, and the unrealistic expectations our government sets on them in seeking aid is unjust and SHAMEFUL. PLEASE read this one. it will take all of an hour to read

Please. For all that is good and pure left in our country, READ THIS BOOK.

This small book is what our country needs to read about the refugee crisis, and the USA‘s inhumane treatment of men, women, and children in the detention centers. Too many ( some of my own friends& family ) believe they deserve this treatment bc of the lies that they are all “criminals, drug dealers, and rapists“ ( i.e words of our president).😡 No human, no matter their skin color, deserves this treatment. Our country has blood on its hands

The topic is difficult, but Luiselli‘s writing makes this easy to read as she alternates between the stories of the children she listened to as she helped them fill out a questionnaire that will determine whether or not they get legal representation and the complex factors that led them to take on the dangerous journey to the USA. Highly recommended!

Now to reread Lost Children Archive.

Melmoth insisted in being included in the picture.

Tell Me How it Ends is brief, but illuminating, highlighting a problem that long predates the current US administration, and which swiftly exposes the interconnected nature of the refugee crisis which America persists in viewing as an external problem.
Full review: https://shayshortt.com/2020/07/07/tell-me-how-it-ends/

This is an excellent addition to her Lost Children Archive. The first chapter really provides a further understanding of how the author came to transcribe and translate immigrant children that had come to the US without their parents. It's a short and straight to the point story of what this country is doing to the most vulnerable who come here looking for help for a war and a problem we created. Two hour long audiobook every one should read.

I would have preferred to read about Luiselli‘s work in a more narrative, smooth form. However, the compassion and empathy she shows towards the children with whom she works carries the day. There is a palpable anger towards injustice and a frustration with helplessness in a bureaucracy.

A powerful and personal series of essays about the child migrant cross at the border. Framed as answers to the 40 question intake questionnaire that Luiselli as a volunteer interpreter trying to facility legal aid for these children. Using the questions used to triage the cases for lawyers was not only unique, but forces the reader to examine how they would answer them and examine their own biases.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Everyone should read this!

Given the current crisis on the US- Mexican boarder, I thought this would be an interesting read. It wasn‘t just interesting, it was a gut punch about the treatment of migrant children as they attempt to work their way through a system that, for many, is designed to oppress them even further. Luiselli , who serves as an interpreter for these interviews, does a masterful job of telling stories that standardized questionnaires could never capture.

If you're looking for more insight and understanding regarding the plight of Central American refugees, this is a good place to start. It will break your heart, and hopefully it will make you angry.

Luiselli, amid uncertainty regarding her own green card, volunteered as a translator for children in immigrating court in NYC. This essay emerged from her experiences.

#Booked2020 #LiveandLearn
@Cinfhen @4thhouseontheleft @BarbaraTheBibliophage

It‘s only now, thinking about it, that I begin to feel this book‘s relentless empty chill. American cruelty knows no bounds once it‘s legalized. Here the emotional shocks of how we treat these unaccompanied child refugees come so quickly in this little book that it‘s almost not possible to process while reading, or even at all. What they go through, in the many thousands...the little cruel window Luiselli witnessed...what can you say?

Some immigrants go on #epicjourneys to escape their countries. #newyearnewyou @Eggs

A building exploded near my office this morning, damaging the entire surrounding neighborhood, and leaving me with an unexpected day off to read about George W. Bush‘s “chingaderas, Mexican slang, or nasty-shitty policies, in approximate English translation.”

She‘s covering a lot of very difficult, emotionally disheartening stuff very quickly, and it‘s hard to process. And this was written before the orange narcissistic con was elected.

Why did you come to the United States? Perhaps no one knows the real answer. I know that migrants, when they are still on their way here, learn the Immigrant's Prayer. A friend who had been aboard La Bestia for a few days, working on a documentary, read it to me once. I didn't learn the entire thing, but I remember these lines: 'Partir es morir un poco / Llegar nunca es llegar' - 'To leave is to die a little / To arrive is never to arrive.

I'm currently reading too many books but I've noticed how, for me, this enriches my reading life in general. So many books speak to one another and I like having various inputs, depending on what I'm in the mood for. As I'm finishing Lost Children Archive and working on a paper about it, I felt the need to read this ASAP. Luiselli's writing is harrowing and reading about this is painfully illuminating...
#currentlyreading

Note to self: Green Card is feminine. Which makes complete sense once I thought it through (tarjeta is feminine.)

I take forever to read (English and Spanish) because I get hung up on the minutiae of language 🙄

This was the last book I finished in 2019. Ironically the first book I finished in 2019 was By the lake of sleeping children by Luis Alberto Urrea, which was about life on the border in Mexico. It was bleak. This was also bleak but did have some moments of hope too. I'm unsure which book I'm currently reading that I will finish first for 2020. I am planning a Harry Potter series re-read too. They keep me same. Well relatively that is.

Five stars. It‘s easy listened to and quite short. Read it because of the topic about the US refugee policy. Count it toward your reading goals. Beautifully written, it will make you remember the children.

Next up. Not exactly an uplifting book, but certainly a necessary one.

Current book club read. I already know it's going to break my heart.

This short work details Luiselli‘s work as an interpreter for the thousands of children migrants from Central America and Mexico seeking asylum/refuge into the US. The children are asked forty questions for their case. This is an eye-opening book on how the children are treated, how they are processed, and what happens to them. It also details the problems that they are facing and running away from. A must-read. #NFNov #law/courtcases

Read this book if you are interested in learning more about the "migrant crisis" from the perspective of a documented immigrant who volunteers/helps undocumented immigrants from Central America & Mexico. As is Luiselli's style, this book is thoughtful and honest.

Stats in the book pages but if you can't see it:
Books 22/6
Walks 2/2
Fruit 4

#bfcr2 @wanderinglynn

I couldn't resist colouring this picture from the Colouring Fun app! Have tagged one of my 5 star reads of the week!

When your current nonfiction book is foreworded by someone who lives in your home county, even though it's about the US-Mexican border... 😍😍😍

As a call to action, a recognition of the need for active citizenry, this is a powerful book. Luiselli volunteered with a not for profit coalition to support unaccompanied children tell their stories to officials in standardised questions - to see if a glimmer of hope for their future could be extracted and worked upon by lawyers. Being aware of what is done in your name is an important step to shaping a society we can live within.

This book says so much in so few pages. I‘m amazed by its brevity, the ability in which Luiselli uses the forty questions asked of unaccompanied child migrants to address what has been going on for quite some time yet has only been on the news as a means of further dividing a nation without blinking at the sight of humanity right before them. Luiselli is a writer whom I admire for her writing as much as her actions to a cause in need of assistance

This was a great introductory read about the path unaccompanied minors take to reach the United States. Definitely has me wanting to read more.

In a week when we saw people teargassed at the border, this book couldn't have been more timely. The essays focus on the immigration process for children mostly from the Nothern Triangle (Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador).

This is going to hurt, but now is not the time to turn away.

I had no intention of buying books today. But I did want to congratulate the owner of The East Bay Booksellers for an amazing year on their first anniversary. I ended up walking out with some damn gems. I am so excited that he is now stocking the Fitzcarraldo editions, which I was introduced to when I was in London earlier this summer. Here‘s to the gifts that a community gets from an independent bookstore.

A read for #witmonth, this is a gut punch. The writer was a volunteer translator for refugee children in court in America and it‘s a heartbreaking read. I didn‘t realise things were so bad! This was before trump and what these children have to go through is just inhumane. This is short and important and made me decide to find out more about what‘s happening with refugee children in my own country.

And once you‘re here, you‘re ready to give everything, or almost everything, to stay and play a part in the great theater of belonging. In the United States, to stay is an end in itself and not a means: to stay is the founding myth of this society.

"The roots and reach of the current situation branch out across hemispheres and form a complex global network whose size and real reach we can't even imagine. It's urgent that we begin talking about the drug war as a hemispheric war, at least--one that begins in the Great Lakes of the northern United States and ends in the mountains of Celaque in southern Honduras."

A short but heavy and incredibly enlightening read, perfect for the little road trip my fiance and I took this weekend to see our best friends. I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to understand the crisis at the border with hundreds of thousands of children fleeing extreme violence and persecution in their home countries.

Booker long list made me do it...

I loved this. It was a very quick read. It was written before the 2016 election but she does include an addendum of sorts that was added after. Highly recommend!

This book was pitched to me as "if you're horrified with the current immigration happenings in America, but you aren't really sure what it used to look like & you want to educate yourself start here."

Luiselli tells the story of being a translator in immigration court for minors who cross our borders alone. She explains perfectly how forty questions that appear simple are very complex and decide the fate of thousands of children.

Important book about the treatment of undocumented children. #blameitonlitsy

A look at the current immigration crisis and the questions undocumented minors have to answer to be considered to stay in America.

Pretty relevant to what's happening right now in the U.S. and abroad when it comes to asylum seekers. Children specifically. The author spent time as a Spanish-English interpreter for undocumented migrants coming to the U.S. from Central America. This essay is about her experiences.

For a limited time, on sale for $5 from Coffee House Press (includes all taxes and shipping!). #bookdeal

An essay on immigration based on interviews with undocumented children from Latin America who are facing deportation. Seems like appropriate reading for these times.

https://coffeehousepress.org/collections/essay/products/tell-me-how-it-ends

This brief, incredibly lucid essay sheds light on the treatment of undocumented children in America, a pressing human rights crisis that can seem so vast and complex, it‘s overwhelming. I‘m grateful for how Tell Me How It Ends puts the situation in focus both nationally and internationally, poignantly, clearly, and even hopefully.