Welcome to Litsy!

Very cool to read another queer Muslim memoir this year! Reading about both Samra and Lamya just shows there are many ways to experience being both queer and Muslim. Samra immigrated to Canada and survived a teenage arranged marriage before she felt comfortable admitting she is queer. She created an art project documenting the experiences of other queer Muslims in Canada and the US that I need to look up. Definitely recommend!

Habib is a Canadian journalist and artist, originally from Pakistan this is the story of her life growing up in Pakistan, immigrating to Canada and her search for self as a queer Muslim woman.
I love reading a representation of positive Muslim parents who support their children. Her life has struggles many of them not the least racism and Islamophobia and she takes these head on but overall this is a positive and uplifting memoir.

This is a beautiful memoir. It is definitely worth a read. It's only 12 chapters, so it's not a long one.
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#memoir #wehavealwaysbeenhere #ownvoice #ownvoices #ownvoicenovel #ownvoicebook

#LGBTQasMC #MarchMagic

@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
@Eggs

This was good. It did move quickly and it felt like it skipped forward fast in some cases. It was interesting to read about, though. Have to admit (though that wasn‘t the entire purpose of the book!), I found the first half more interesting - the parts that focused on her trying to fit in after she immigrated

As a reader, I felt as if I had made a new friend who had opened their heart and been completely honest.

#LGBT #LGBTQIA+ #Muslim

"Grown-ups, who are supposed to protect their children, are limited by what "best" has felt like to them, based on the circumstances they grew in and the privilege they did or did not have. The lines between grown-up and child were often blurred between me and my mom. Her "best" did not look like mine; in fact, it looked like danger. It felt like surrender."

Samra Habib, We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir

Late to the table, and new to the challenge...here is my #bookspin2021 list. My goal is to read more Canadian authors and some Canadian classics this year and this is one way I am doing so! First up is the tagged book.

 @TheAromaofBooks

An interesting look into what is is to be a queer Muslim woman, living in Canada. It also goes into her childhood back in Pakistan. Winner of #CanadaReads 2020.

“Azaad is a funny word in Urdu. In most instances, it means ‘freedom.‘ Freedom from your captors, war, and oppressive regimes. But when used to describe a woman, it is meant to imply that she is too wild to be tamed by those who have the right to tame her: her parents and all the men in her life whose honour it is her duty to prioritize before her own desires.”
#CanadaReads

In this memoir about the intersection of family, religion, and sexual identity, Habib shows an extremely touching thoughtfulness about her relationship with her family. She stands firm in both her acknowledgment of the wrong her parents did her, and her ability to try to understand the circumstances that made them into the kind of people who would engage a teenager to her first cousin.
Full review: https://wp.me/p2P6GA-5g2
#CanadaReads

Well, that was an INTENSE start to Canada Reads 2020!

Sans spoilers: I‘m still rooting for the tagged book and I‘m satisfied with today‘s elimination. Looking forward to tomorrow, even though it‘s liable to stress me the hell out.

Samra Habib discusses her childhood in Pakistan, her family‘s move to Canada, and how she has learned to embrace her identity as both a queer woman and a Muslim. Habib charts her journey from her arranged marriage as a teenager to her current life as a single woman, writer, photographer, and activist. Very interesting and insightful.

#ReadHarder

I really enjoyed learning about Habib‘s experience emigrating to Canada and finding her place as a queer Muslim woman. She has a strong and clear writing voice and I look forward to reading more of her work!

This one has been on my radar for a while, so I‘m super happy I was able to borrow it from a friend!

#currentlyreading

Visited with a friend today and got to borrow some books 😍

Books with characters who identify as LGBTQIA+: 5
#ownvoice: 2

The tagged is my fav so far this year...and it's Canadian! Happy Canada Day everyone! #ReadTheNorth 🇨🇦

I've picked up Silver in the Wood and Girl Squads this week from the library so I can #integratemyshelf
@chasingom @emilymdxn

A profound and important narrative. #onedayreads

IT‘S HAPPENING!!!!!

I‘ll be rooting for the tagged book because it hit me the hardest and launched me into my Year of Awesome Memoirs, but honestly, the only title I‘d be upset to see win is RADICALIZED. This year‘s theme is “one book to bring Canada into focus,” and that book was so American it hurt. (Plus, I found it generally disappointing.)

Another virtual meeting for the Guelph #GirlyBookClub. Lots of interesting opinions on this book - for me, I would have liked more depth, it felt like some significant parts of her life were overlooked, like her relationship with her siblings.

Queer people being their queer selves will always fill my queer heart with joy. Especially when fully & openly inhabiting that identity was something they didn‘t always see as possible. Habib‘s story of finding her queerness & holding onto her Muslim identity is moving & lovely, & I hope it gives other queer Muslims who aren‘t able to be out a glimpse of possibility. Wish it had gone a bit more in depth, but overall a good, uplifting read. 4/5 ⭐️

People who devote themselves to learning have always been my people, my pockets of safety.

I knew how difficult it had been to arrange this move. But to me it seemed we‘d simply traded one set of anxieties for another. Sure, we were no longer afraid of being killed by religious extremists on our way to school, but not knowing whether we‘d be able to make next month‘s rent didn‘t ease my mind either. We had our asylum and our government-issued blankets, but I still didn‘t feel free to be a child.

The house I drew over and over again was patterned on the row houses in the opening sequence of Full House, one of the only American shows that aired in Pakistan.

[That‘s an.........interesting choice. Why Full House??! 🤔🤔🤔]

I‘ve been wanting to read this since the first moment I heard about it 💜🏳️‍🌈 #nowreading

Book 3 done of the Canada Reads shortlist!
Very good read. The information about other countries and their beliefs was extremely knowledgeable.

I really appreciated this book; the style is straightforward, and easy to understand. I also firmly believe in exposing yourself to experiences outside of your own. This is a great way to do that (assuming you aren‘t a queer Muslim women, in which case, it‘s a great read anyway! :) )

This was an interesting view into the life of a queer Muslim. Really eye opening.

I picked this because it's on this year's #CanadaReads list and is the memoir of a queer woman of colour. I have to say I'm disappointed--while I can't identify anything "wrong" with it, and the elements are interesting, it just didn't pull me in and felt a bit flat. Also a bit too rushed--it was hard to keep track of what she was doing and whom she was dating. Still glad it's out there, though.
#Booked2020 #ThinkPink
#Nonfiction2020 #LGBTQIA

A compulsively readable memoir. Habib has lived life of intense experiences - some good, and some very bad. This is her journey to discovering her identity and redefining her faith. 4/5 stars.

Full review: https://reneereadsbooks.wordpress.com/2020/02/17/book-review-we-have-always-been...

I liked this one a lot, even though the writing felt very detached to me. Instead of being engrossed in Samra‘s story, I very much felt like just an observer. Which I guess bothered me because I find her story so vital, I wanted a closeness to her. Hers is a story of family and duty, of faith and self-discovery, of sorrow and fear and joy. Samra‘s voice and experience are so important, I encourage everyone to give this a go. 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

My second #CanadaReads2020 book. Fascinating. Sometimes it is just luck to have been born in the country that we live in. With the parents that we have. Imagine being disposable, according to your country, your religion, your family. Because of your gender or sexuality. I give this one 4 ⭐️, because you could really feel her holding back. There is a lot missing. But I can completely understand why. This one might be hard to beat.

“Jaan, it helps to find solace in the larger universe, especially when your internal world isn‘t hospitable... sometimes that is how you come back to yourself.”

Just another reason why books are so wonderful. They are “where you will find yourself.”
#CanadaReads2020

Samra Habib is one of those memoirists who takes you right inside their story. She invites the reader to share in and benefit from the reflection she‘s done regarding her sexuality, her family situation, and her faith, and she writes with an eye towards acceptance and forgiveness. She moved me to tears multiple times.

This was my first Canada Reads 2020 contender, and I‘ll be SHOCKED if it ain‘t my favourite. Fingers crossed it wins. 4.5 stars.

Starting my second #CanadaReads book tonight. I‘m really looking forward to this one.

I‘ve read a number of LGBTQ+ autobiographies and this one was incredibly different as she walks through the beginning of her story as a straight Pakistani Muslim woman trapped in an arranged marriage, moving on to another relationship, and discovering her sexuality. It is more a look into the closed Muslim culture as much as a coming out story as it takes 3/4th of the book until you here that part of her life. This might win Canada Reads.

I‘m loving this book. Wonderfully written, somehow both heartbreaking and heartwarming.

#Januarystats #NewYearNewYou @Eggs

“Closure, for me, would mean accepting my circumstances rather than trying to alter them to serve me best.”

That was a really great memoir, and a great follow up to my earlier read about the partition of India. The photo project is amazing as well!

So far I really like the writing and the narration #Canadareads

I did some #audioknitting this morning so I could finish Habib‘s amazing memoir. I SO hope this book makes it into Canada Reads. It needs a wide audience.

This sock is the second one in a pair I started months ago and basically ignored while I worked on some gifts. I want to finish it by next weekend so I can wear it (and its mate) to an event where I‘ll have my shoes off.

I‘m just gonna keep eating cauliflower steaks until somebody makes me stop. (Or until I run out of affordable cauliflower.)

I can also see myself devouring WE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN HERE as quickly as possible. It‘s off to a decidedly WOW start. I‘m already hoping it ends up in the #canadareads2020 debates. #audiocooking

I somehow missed the Canada Reads Longlist announcement, but I‘m on board now and spent a wee chunk of my morning requesting EVERYTHING. I‘m not at the top of any of the lists, but I should have all the necessary books in hand by the first debate on March 16th.

https://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads/here-is-the-canada-reads-2020-longlist-1.54...

As my birthday inches closer, 3 #canadareads picks for future reading. I have 2 of the other picks too, but these sounded interesting. “We Have Always Been Here” is written about the Queer Muslim movement. While I am not Canadian, I fully support Canada Reads and try to read all the shortlisted books and the long list (if I can get them in the States)

Samra Habib, artist and activist, did not to sacrifice her identity as a Muslim when she came out. This is her story of her journey and how she found community. I found it uplifting!

And this is memoir 7 of my #nonfictionnovember reading project!

...we would often see teenage girls taking their head scarves out of their backpacks and covering their hair as they approached our apartment complex. My dad would blurt out a mocking statement that had become common among older people from the mosque—it translated to “Cover up, our people are coming.” I would smile to myself, relishing the private kinship I felt with those girls.