I will continue to return to this book from time to time. It‘s a great place to start learning more about disability and disability rights. I had the pleasure of discussing the book in our book club with the author, Emily Ladau, and I feel empowered to be less weird around people whose experiences I‘m not familiar with.

“The hotels…were nothing more than flaphouses rented by the hour and week for those who needed to be within staggering reach of the beer parlours.” Such beautiful language!

Everyone should consider reading “Braving the Wilderness” by Brené Brown. There‘s so much good stuff on cultivating true belonging.

I loved it! I plan to read it again and again through the years.

Short, precise. She paints such an acute image of her grief. A strong recommend.

“Many nondisabled people attribute a degree of brokenness to disability; it rises from the medicalization of our body minds. To be disabled is, in this world, to experience a problem of body and/or mind so severe that it distinguishes a disabled person from a nondisabled person”.

I made this bingo for our bookstore Insta and thought I‘d share it here for anyone who might want a go at it! Enjoy :-).

I can finally mark this as read. It‘s been on my reading list for years 🙊. I loved that it‘s a Critical Edition as it includes critical essays.

This one made me angry. The author did not do justice for Kenya in his writing, the lifestyles of the characters were superficial and literally nothing was resolved in the end. I was excited to pick this African (Somali) author who has such a reputation only to be very disappointed. It‘s taken me a while to post about this because I‘ve been struggling with whether it‘s fair to express such strong disappointment but that‘s been my experience.

Sapphire‘s story is heartbreaking and also injected with a healthy amount of humour. A young girl whose life was filled with monsters (emotional & physical abuse, rape…) Yet somehow her spirit could not to be crushed. She always fought for her life. If you‘re looking for an example of resilience then you should read this book. But be prepared for lots of cries. There were days when I could not get past only a couple of pages.

I‘m also reading this one. It was gifted to me by my girlfriend- I can‘t remember for what occasion. I‘m only a couple of chapters in but I‘m already laughing. It‘s about a young man whose mother decided to bring him a wife from Viêt Nam with no warning because she felt he needed help finding love.

I first read this anthology in the fall of 2020. I fell so much in love with it. Then later it won the Giller Prize which validated my love for it. I‘d been talking about it nonstop by then 😂. When my bookstore was lining up books for a 6 Month Read Along of course I had this one included. We‘re reading it now. I still can‘t get over it! The prose! You just get lost in it and the characters 🧡. Now I also want to try Laotian cuisine.

Just a couple chapters in and I‘m already crying.

It took me a while but I finally finished Girl, Woman, Other. Now I‘m on to this trilogy. It‘s a shame I haven‘t read this collection until now but better late than never 😃.

I have to fight the urge to quote EVERY line in this book. Such a beautiful fun read 🧡.

“instead he‘s President for Life of our family”
“it was his pulpit and we were his captive congregation”
“she‘s never complained about her lot, or argued with him, a sure sign she‘s oppressed”
“they didn‘t realize unprotected sex meant a dance with death”
“there is someone for everyone in this world”