Welcome to Litsy!

@TheAromaofBooks just pulled the #bookspin numbers, and perfect timing for me as I just minutes ago finished my last book.

I‘m really looking forward to Honor, as I‘ve been meaning to try reading an Umrigar for ages. The tagged feels pretty fitting for our current times!

Very strong collection, one I had pretty solidly consistent appreciation & engagement with throughout. Only a few pieces that didn‘t fully work for me, but those weren‘t bad in any sense. Great variety of experience & identity represented, too. Think it‘s a crucial book for those of us who aren‘t immigrants or children of immigrants to read and learn from, and to deepen your empathy for those who are. Faves: # 1, 4, 5, 19, 22, 25. 4/5 ⭐️

For years we had been told it was just one man, not tied to anything greater. Yet just one man takes a stage and addresses a nation, and the next day my brother is shoved in the hallway of his high school. And just one man tweets a photo likening refugees to a bowl of poisonous Skittles, and that very week Skittles are delivered to my mother.

—Fatima Farheen Mirza

A multicultural child is born in the United States, and beneath all the warm smiles and congratulations, a gladiator arena unfolds itself within which the wider world will watch the epic blood sport of identity play out. Sometimes there are winners and losers; no one ever gets out unscathed.

—Daniel José Older

I once heard someone say when anything is possible it becomes too overwhelming, and it can lead to feeling like nothing is possible at all. My parents left me to figure out my identity. Neither claimed me for their tribe.

So at a very early age, one thing became clear to me: I‘d always be an outsider.

—Yann Mounir Demange

I‘m constantly aware of how little I know of English. But my strained need to appease my colonized tongue keeps me stuck in this language. It‘s the only language I know well, yet it still denies me my freedom. I hold hands with words only to find out that they‘ve betrayed me and mean something else.

—Fatimah Asghar

So my girlhood meant growing up twice. My first coming of age was learning the rules. The second was breaking them.

—Priya Minhas

Growing up, my relationship w/my body &what I did w/it centered on edging closer to whiteness. Whiteness—in pigment, not behavior—is celebrated in my community, & “You don‘t look Indian” was “You‘re not like other girls” for brown ppl. I chased it &accepted all those scraps of “Pretty for a brown girl” & “You could be mixed” that always left me feeling empty. I suppose at one time those words meant safety before they meant self-worth.
Priya Minhas

I go to zoos, and while I‘m there, I think about what a zoo means—it‘s both defensible and indefensible—but I‘m also absorbed by the gallimaufry and sheer strangeness of those ones on the other side of the barrier. Their gazes, dulled by human encounter, can no longer admit us into their existential circle but, like tarnished mirrors, still glimmer from time to time with recognition.

—Teju Cole

Imagine what it means to be so sick of yourself you cry and that crying makes things worse for everyone around you.

—Rahawa Haile

Weekend reading—this collection has a pretty impressive list of contributors (though admittedly there are a few I‘d not heard of before). #NowReading

The Good Immigrant is an American take on the eponymous British best-seller, compiled by the same editors. The book consists of 26 essays about being an immigrant to the US. Long or short, serious or leavened with unexpected humour, they have brought together a diverse collection of voices highlighting the breadth of the American immigrant experience in the midst of an increasingly xenophobic environment. Full review: https://wp.me/p2P6GA-5eZ

This is my second read of a fantastic, timely essay collection. Highly recommend!

“Promises were made to those who arrived on this country‘s shores. There were full-throated declarations about equality and all men breathing free. Regardless of how uncomfortable those words may now make some sons of the men who wrote them, we intend to hold those promises to account.” -Walé Oyéjidé, After Migration: The Once and Future Kings

The Good Immigrant is a superb essay collection by immigrants and children of immigrants to the US (except one essay about Argentina which doesn‘t quite fit, though it‘s good) exploring themes of identity and otherness. These personal stories are so important in our nationalistic present. I would recommend this for anyone.

After finishing only two books from September to December last year, I‘m very happy with this start to the new year! This week I finished 5 books and they were all so interesting! The Good Immigrant was my favorite and I want to read more from the authors in this collection! #bookreport

I was in the mood to think today, to allow myself to be angry and sad, to take inventory of the US and what is broken now. But also to allow myself to hope for change. To hope that the wounds of white supremacy and post-colonialism will heal.

These essays by authors and artists speak to the diversity of immigrant experiences in the US. 5⭐️

If you‘re looking for more fun, read American Like Me. Also good! (Tagged below.)

#SomethingGood #AyUpAugust @squirrelbrain @Cinfhen

This was my book club read for July. Our club leader picked it because of the Fourth of July, but it‘s really timely at any point. It was interesting to read all these different perspectives. Many of the writers were new to me so I plan to seek out more of their work. (Including Nicole Dennis-Benn, who is the author of Patsy, the Jenna Bush Hager Today Show book club pick for this month. Her essay was one of my favorites).

Superb collection of essays by writers who are immigrants to USA (or children of). Different backgrounds & diverse styles - from personal to historical & sometimes funny. But some common threads: all bright, creative people with much to offer but have been seen as outsiders. All tackle this ‘othering‘ & their parents‘ home culture - so question their own identity. A poignant sense of trying to belong. It‘s a bracing read. Highly recommended.

Tennis reading. 😉

#ImmigrantSong #MayMovieMagic @rohit-sawant @Cinfhen

Reading this lovely book with Parking Wars, which always reminds me of @MicheleinPhilly , on in the background. It feels good to have a real, physical book in my hands for once, instead of an iPad. 💗📖

#ImmigrantSong #MarchIntoThe70s @Cinfhen @Lizpixie

🌹 #writercrushwednesday 🌹 goes out to the 26 writers and 2 editors, Nikesh Shukla and Chimene Suleyman, of The Good Immigrant, an urgent collection of essays by first and second-generation immigrants, exploring what it's like to be othered in an increasingly divided America.