I moved in August, started work in September, and now hear the waves of the shore crash rather regularly on my weekly walks to East Coast Park, my recently minted locale of choice to let go and feel the world wash away, off of me. There's so much to say regarding the start of work and all the new things it brings- but this is not the conversation for that. (I've been trying to cobble together a vlog for you sunshines but goodness that is difficult yes I am making excuses.) I am however, wanting to talk about what I've been reading/watching/doing in the pockets of time that aren't at work, because they give me life, and remind me of, well, myself. They also help to honour who I am outside of my occupation: that ideology I feel we're so prone to tacking onto ourselves and feeling like our salaried positions are what defines us. So here are the ways that I've been keeping true to my soul, and a glimpse of October's refreshing and sober offerings; 1) Went boxing for the first time in a year This month marked a brief return to boxing since I stopped pretty much ever since coming back from exchange, which is more than one year ago. And it dredged up a wave of emotions because BOY DO I MISS IT so much. I never really talked about the sport in depth anywhere, maybe because it's hard to encapsulate the various joys of it. It's vastly different from any other workout I do by nature of its movement style, technique, strength, and unavoidable aspect of having to spar (train) with someone else. But I love it. I love putting on my wraps and feeling like I'm ready to take on the bag, learning how to twist my body to land a perfectly aimed punch, the footwork that keeps you nimble and always on guard, the sharpness of mind that comes with knowing when to strike, when to duck. I feel like everything is worked out when I box, and it's exhilarating. I missed that. I don't think I will do it regularly right now, but it was such a treat. I also chatted briefly to a fellow classmate at The Six Boxing at this morning class who owns this gorgeous pair of Hayabusas, that also reminded me how much I salivate over Hayabusas, has anyone ever seen a more sexy glove?? Don't think so. What the heck! If I still do boxing in the future, I promise to buy myself a pair. Possibly in pink. 2) Reading, my favourite form of escapism (pictured) Mentats of Dune I have taken to the Dune series as an on-and-off lover. After watching Dune part 1 in cinemas, which was jaw-dropping and riveting, it was only natural to blaze through the entire written works which Dune is based off of, the brainchild of creative genius Frank Herbert. Except his original series is actually quite dense and hard to read, so I got started on Brian Herbert's spin-offs instead. This one gives the history of the Mentats, Butlerians, and Spacing companies (you can understand it as pro technology v.s. against technology), and while the plot was ok, I thought the pacing was too slow and the characters superbly under developed. I didn't like any of them in the end, they just seemed really flat, like one-dimensional. Why were they speaking and thinking like robots? The House of _____ series was so much better. Ditto to this. (unpictured) The Man Who Wore His Wife's Sarong This is a Singlit collection of short stories imagining the lives of various ~largely~ queer folk and the weaving paths they take. It is evocative. It's painful. It's fresh. It's full of heart. I am a huge fan of how it manages to be Singaporean without overdoing it, without being pretentious or stereotypical or unrelatable (cough Crazy Rich Asians cough). The stories flit in between time periods, some being set in our modern day recognisable glasshouse environment, and some in 1960s-esque kampong Singapore. All of them make you take a deep breath in and just contemplate, mired in feelings. Ditto to anyone who says Singaporeans can't write. 3) Watched Sex Education S4 This may be a controversial opinion but I actually...liked Season 4? Let me start with the good parts. Eric Effiong's plot line this season had me crying alone in my room at 2a.m. He performs it flawlessly, and his interrogation of his sexuality alongside his faith was so raw and real, something that I was relieved this final season managed to really give screentime to instead of as an aside. Eric's character is someone whom I felt has stayed true and so, so likeable since the beginning. Aimee, Adam, and Ruby were also top class in this, adding their own unique innocence, humour and personality respectively. Aimee's character arc in healing herself through photographic art was a genius move and I adore that for her. That jeans-burning scene had me in a chokehold. What's not so good: Cavendish as a college was admittedly a big pill to swallow. I can kind of get it, in the sense that the producers wanted to portray that an almost perfect 'woke' Gen-Z school can still have its issues with inclusivity, but I think it's this wild departure from the rundown ruggedness of Moordale that feels like whiplash, and a too forceful hand in pushing for diversity representation. It feels heavy-handed, not sensitive, forced rather than organic. The new Cavendish characters were interesting and colourful- but almost too much so, because who's REALLY like that in real life and in such concentration? Otis and O were both really irritating in this season. Couldn't stand either of them. Overall, S4 made me laugh and cry, which is my threshold for a passable show. 4) Danced *NOT CONTEMP I took the scary leap of finally experimenting with a new genre of dance. If you know me, you're aware that for over a decade I did contemporary, one of the greatest teachers of my life. But I have in tandem always lacked the simple, irresistible swaaaag of those who do other snappy styles, and I decided in was high time to overcome my fear. So I attended my first open choreo class the other week, and I had so. Much. FUN!!! The coach taught as a few eights of a dance which was part hip hop, a bit of house?, a bit of reggae??- who knows- and it was so foreign to my body I wanted to laugh at myself, but I did my best to just groove and it was damn cathartic. He was so nice too, the class wasn't as intimidating as I anticipated, and there was a mix of everyone from young to older, amateurs and experienced dancers. One of the things I love about creation: the constant rediscovery, the endless transformation of self/Other. 5) Thoughts about the war
I couldn't finish this update without acknowledging the backdrop in which life proceeds on, blissfully ignorant of troubles that plague the world. It's contentious though, because with the cacophony that's going on online at the moment about Israel and Hamas, I've felt that I have nothing to value-add that hadn't already been said, no opinion that hadn't already been shared. I didn't want to just add to the noise at least for the sole purpose of virtue-signalling, which is quite meaningless. So in consideration of this, I leave these threads that nod to the unimaginable sorrow that war brings: for Gaza, its years of oppression and displacement, the cruelty that's been exacted to them; and for the innocent in Israel, everyone who was a mother, a father, a brother, a sister. Especially to this statement: Being able to look away is a privilege not afforded to people experiencing violence. This should always be acknowledged, and their pain can be at the heart of your desire to retain your own humanity while insisting on theirs too. DONATE: https://www.pcrf.net READ: www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/9/whats-the-israel-palestine-conflict-about-a-simple-guide Take care, L x
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Here's my honest confession. As per time of starting this post, I've had a largely unproductive day. It has seen me wake up extremely late, complete nothing but fix lunch and have some more snacks after that, catch up on Try Guys (my unabashed depression watch, they've seen me through some truly dark times), and generally screw around until I decided I must attempt a semblance of actual tasks- hence, blogging. This introduction has nothing to do with the books actually. I won't be finishing this Fresh Reads update today even, fun fact they take days to finish because it's a big mental exercise, but I took creative liberty to situate it in the heaviness and lightness of my life, which hopefully is relatable to some of you. Don't worry, because everyone has morose dog-ass days of being crusty musty potatoes, whether that was in your control or not. It's OK. Let's embrace being potatoes. Who knows, tomorrow I will become a hot French fry, or a stunning baked potato dish, or air fried wedges to perfection. In the meanwhile, we can pick up a book- five of them, to be exact- and turn those pages, for new and rude awakenings. *All read on Libby...sorry, no original pictures, but on the plus-side totally free! 1. All My Rage, Sabaa Tahir I love stories about immigrants and the immigrant experience. There's something dynamic and powerful about the journeys of moving, being uprooted, and finding home in foreign lands and people, and about general diaspora. All My Rage is primarily about two high-school Pakistani teens in California who are best friends until they have a big squibble one day. I'm telling it childishly, but it is foregrounded against important and complex histories. Noor, the girl, lives with her uncle-turned-gaurdian who oppresses her dreams of going to college after she survived a car accident in Pakistan as a kid, losing her family (thereafter foisted upon the uncle), while Salahudin, the guy, has an equally if not more bleak family situation where his parents struggle to operate their motel as his father has alcoholism and his mother, Misbah, carries a secret illness. It's written in a way that cuts or rather weaves between the past, of Pakistan when Misbah was a younger woman, and the present-day America where Noor and Salahudin take part in American quintessential high-school experiences while navigating their identity as people of colour, what that means culturally to them, and for each other. Make no mistake, there is obviously a whole teenage romance angle to it, but I liked that each character in these two families were really fleshed out and how it managed to capture that gap between two entirely different countries, even between the two generations of child and parent. The descriptions of Pakistani food are visceral and rather stomach-grumble inducing, and I would suppose is an authentic recount, since Tahir's parents are immigrants from Pakistan while she grew up in California. I like that though it is a young adult romance, it simultaneously occupies more themes than just a romance, hitting where it hurts: the pain of parental relationships, of the realities of poverty and not knowing where you next meal is going to come from, served with a steaming hot side of generational trauma. In fact, it reminded me very slightly of A Little Life, because I kept feeling like the main characters are never going to catch a break. Luckily, it's not an utterly depressing read (like the former was), and so perhaps one of the messages is that there's hope too, amidst everything. Quotable quotes: If we are lost, God is like water, finding the unknowable path when we cannot. Rate: 4/5 2. How High We Go In The Dark, Sequoia Nagamatsu This! I had high hopes, because I have found that somehow Japanese authors simply come up with the darnedest plots. Books with Japanese authors have quite a good track record with me, I don't know if that's being weird, but spoken in earnest. Okay, Nagamatsu also basically grew up in United States so maybe my hypothesis is moot, but he has lived in Japan before. Anyway, back to the book. It's a work of science fiction, with the premise being that there's a global pandemic called the Arctic Plague (no guesses as to where it originated from), which causes devastating effects on whoever it affects. If I remember correctly, the Plague mutates you until you no longer look human, and changes around your internal organs too, obviously rendering them dysfunctional- so it's both painful and disfiguring. Horrifying in short. How High We Go In The Dark is told from a multi-person perspective, hearing from several characters over a period of hundreds of years, so that it charts the course of this plague. Not going to lie, at times I found this confusing to keep track, but I don't regret pushing through it because the way that Nagamatsu describes this new-fangled, terrifying world is, well..out of this world. I love that it (as is maybe expected in the genre of sci-fi) pushes the boundaries of our understanding of Earth as we know it, painting a picture that we'd otherwise find unimaginable; like, it takes so much imagination to try to visualise what we'd be like if it ever came to shits that way. For instance, in this scenario, there's a theme park designed for terminally ill children where they basically go to live out their last days or hours in carefully constructed "fun", then are led to die just as they take the final roller coaster, right up in the air. As I said, horrifying. But it's really an exercise and a journey to find points of light and meaning in the dark. You might not get to know the characters very closely because it focuses more on breadth than depth, and needing to move the plot of the Plague forward, but it's still hard-hitting when it needs to be. It made me cry at certain points, and the ending is simply a wondrous page out of 2001: A Space Odyssey, or Interstellar (2014) or even Aniara (2018): fascinating, mind-bending, cosmic. Quotable quotes: Leaving the world should be mythic. Rate: 4.5/5 3. The Little Book of Awakening, Mark Nepo I wanted to read the full copy of this book, which would be 'The Book of Awakening: Having the Life you Want by Being Present to the Life You Have', but this was the only one available which is a truncated version of the original. I think that's just as well, because it turned out to be a read that I would have trouble finishing, but that's because it's not really what I was expecting. Let me explain. I thought it was going to be a spiritual pseudo-psychological kind of self help book, sort of like an Oprah's SuperSoul Conversation podcast but in book form. Instead, it's more like a daily reflection guide, where Nepo writes on a different inner aspect and provides reflecting questions, and each piece is quite short, no more than 2 or 3 pages. So it's not meant to be read in one long shot, but palmed through everyday and presumably in a state of peace and meditation. I was initially inspired to pick this up because of this one quote that Hitomi Mochizuki mentioned in this vlog that HIT me like a bag of bricks when I heard it. We waste so much energy trying to cover up who we are when beneath every attitude So you can tell I was moved. However, I don't think I resonate with the book in its entirety. I like it for its small soundbites, sentences here and there that I would analyse for its wisdom. I'm really just not the target audience for it, after a while it becomes almost cloying trying to find what rings true in this spiritual-speak, which he's fond of dispersing through metaphors and symbols, when I personally find more of it in my own God. Warning given- to take it in small doses. And go in with an open mind. Quotable quotes: How do we take down a wall that took twenty-five years or fifty years to erect? Breath by breath. Little death by little death. Dropping all we carry instant by instant. Trusting that what has done the carrying, if freed, will carry us. Rate: 3/5 4. Homeless, Liyana Dhamirah Maybe we are already luckier than other places where homelessness sticks out like a sore thumb everywhere you go. Singapore's clever at concealing the chinks in our armour, our cracks in a glittering facade. But we all know that just because we don't encounter them alot, doesn't mean they don't exist. They do, that's the reality. Homeless is a personal recount of one young woman's experience with being a rough sleeper; Dhamirah, who was 22 and heavily pregnant when she was forced into homelessness. As it's a memoir, Dhamirah begins the story from her childhood, which gives her person important background and context and provides a pretty relevant lead-up to how she eventually ends up unhoused later in life. Her family situation is rather tumultuous, and she grows up with the struggles of a low-income family after her parents divorce causes her family nucleus to dissolve, along with it, their executive flat. She then traces her teenage years into early adulthood, coming to a crux when she moves to Sembawang beach with only a tent for shelter. It's a really eye-opening testament because it's an inside look to homelessness that at least I don't hear about, if ever. Dhamirah talks openly about what it's like to sleep rough, both the ups and downs: being beholden to rain and harsh weather, not having enough cash to buy good, nourishing meals, needing to survive off leftover barbecue cookouts by house-dwelling visitors on the beach; and yet also, finding home and security in the welcoming residents of the unhoused Sembawang beach community (honestly, it can be total party!). Last December, I attended a small sharing by the Homeless Hearts of Singapore, and ever since then have been trying to be more observant and sensitive to the unhoused here. One interesting thing that that session (and I think Dhamirah also mentions, somewhere) is that alot of the unhoused do actually still have places to stay, they might not have totally no options for room and board- it's that circumstances have created barriers to accessing these spaces, or even that they become used to living life in the outdoors and aren't comfortable with returning. Singapore prides itself on not being a welfare state, but has a system of social security based on "enabling self reliance supported by strong family and social networks" (Civil Service College, 2007). It's evident that in these schemes still there's many who fall through the gaps. Today, Dhamirah herself is a successful entrepreneur and now-author, but when I read this, I get a glimpse into what it's like for the hundreds out there who haven't found a permanent home to feel cared for and loved in, and it's a driving force to say the least. Quotable quotes: That one simple decision was the pebble in the pond. It caused a ripple effect I have had to grapple with to this day. Rate: 4/5 5. Being Mortal, Atul Gawande What is it about these healthcare and medical books that strike a chord in you? I feel like it has to do with that universal struggle, grappling with our mortality, which takes centre stage. Think about When Breath Becomes Air. Or Tuesdays With Morrie. Both books that made me bawl because, life is fleeting and precious. I received this recommendation from Nise, who proclaimed it an "excellent" read. Excellent it was. Being Mortal is a holistic look at death and the coming of it: covering end-of-life care, what happens not only to our bodies but also our minds, emotions, and psyche when we (hopefully) approach old ages and venture that final stretch of being human. Gawande is an American surgeon, so he views the journey towards the end both in a medical, technical as well as candid and personal way- as he brings in his experiences of his own father at the late stage of his life. I say holistic because Gawande runs through the gamut of end-of-life care or hospice care types, contextualised in the U.S. of course, bringing in recounts of the elderly who fiercely guard their independence and remain self-sufficient, to those who require bedside assistance, and the various types of assisted living in between. I never knew some of these options even existed, and maybe they aren't so common in Singapore where public healthcare is stellar. One of his implied arguments is that the practice of medicine, for all its literally life-saving capabilities, and the brilliant people who run it, is not always the best solution for our elderly who really only want a peaceful and happy way to go. He's able to express articulately and show, not tell, what he's found out from interacting with the elderly and what they truly desire at that late stage of life; to retain a level of freedom and independence, to feel less pain, to hold on to dignity, and to be affirmed. This book was felt especially poignant because as I was reading the bulk of it, I was at my relatives' house in Malaysia, living with my Yeye and Mama (grandfather/grandmother), who've become increasingly dependent on simple daily tasks over the years. Seeing my Yeye, who used to be a tall and rather imposing man who never did quite speak much but had a commanded an aura of respect, now a former shell of that distinguished person and who spends all of his days sitting prone, probably not all mentally there anymore, it made me confront the realities of mortality and the inevitably of death: it shouldn't be scary, but deserves more thought and care, all the way till the end. Quotable quotes: ...our most cruel failure in how we treat the sick and the aged is the failure to recognize that they have priorities beyond merely being safe and living longer; that the chance to shape one’s story is essential to sustaining meaning in life.... Rate: 4.5/5 With that, I wrap up this series of Fresh Reads. Hope this provides inspiration for your next trip to the library, or the bookstore, or digital app..whatever piques your fancy,
L x Let me let you in on a secret which is pretty much an open secret in this blog. These fresh reads are, in fact, rather stale. I read some of the below titles as long as 9 MONTHS ago, but only got round to penning down short thoughts about it now because..well, let's just say some books take time to stew in, alright?
Nonetheless I hope it was worth the wait. I really enjoyed a number of these, so if you're looking for the last few books to smash before summer is over, you've come to the right place. Happy reading, sunshine. L x It's been a while since I touched a physical book, let alone do a review on one. I'll admit that using Libby on an iPad is much, much easier than making a whole trip down to your local library, checking out, and hauling a few kgs worth of books back home. When you have a bookstore essentially at your fingertips, sometimes you get lazy. But true bookies will know there's no other experience than feeling words on paper in your hands, being able to see where you are in the story- is it going to end soon? Will she meet her lover in the next 20 PAGES? Who will die before we flip the next page? Scintillating. On my recent visit to Orchard library during staycay with my mom, I picked up some tomes with a clandestine theme. We'll be hopping around the world today, reminding us that there's still a hundred thousand stories out there we have yet discovered. I cheated a little though, including one e-book in this otherwise tactile haul. Bon voyage. Everything Belongs to Us, Yoojin Grace Wuertz The story is set in Korea, 1987, revolving around the lives of two quite opposite people. Jisun is your rich daughter of a chaebol, living in a mansion in the wealthiest districts of Seoul. She's bankrolled by her dad who built himself from rags-to-riches, and gets chauffeured around by a driver. Namin on the other hand stays in a derelict house that still uses a latrine, which needs to be cleared every month otherwise the house will literally smell like shit. I thought it was going to be at least a semi-political book, because it's backgrounded against student protests and student unions of their university in Seoul National U. But I feel like that aspect was played more like a chess piece into fitting their lives together rather than becoming a focal point. Jisun is into protesting for worker's rights, inadvertently getting get out of jail free cards (literally) because of her inherent family connections, while Namin is focused on upward mobility in order to lift her family out of poverty. I really liked how Wuertz weaved their friendship with all the complexities a story like that would truly have in real life. It isn't a fairytale friendship is magic type trope where both of them are fearlessly united in goals and aims just because they found each other relatable in middle school. In fact, as their desires drift apart their relationship becomes fraught with conflicts, and it exposes concepts like grave inequality, privilege, and fluidity of relationships. I was super invested particularly in Namin by the end of the book. There's more meat, more drama in her life v.s. Jisun's. But there isn't a satisfying conclusion in this book, though it does give a glimpse into the future. I wish it had more of a political subplot, or maybe I know too little about Korean politics and history to pick it up. Otherwise, I think it's a skilfully written book and took me through the meandering paths of two people whose lives intersect, drift, and combine once more. Rate: 4/5 Sugarbread, Balli Kaur Jaswal SingLit, for me, is kind of either a hit or miss. I'm convinced that authors sometimes want their book to get noticed and so plonk in as many weird themes and exotic imagery they can get (cough Lion City cough- fans will disagree but I never understood that book to make it stand out in the market. Sugarbread, thank heavens, is not like that. It's about a young Sikh girl, Parveen more commonly known as 'Pin', navigating through middle-class life in the Singaporean 1930s. Along the way, her first-person narrative intersperses with a third-person perspective from her mother Jini's childhood. It's a pretty unique storytelling method and I love how it brings the reader from the present to the past in one deft move. The plot goes as Pin's grandmother needs to move in with her family as she's getting old and can't live by herself. There, old grandmama and Jini- Pins' mom- meet with conflicts because of rich, melancholic history rife with poverty, differences in thought processes and parenting. The book deals with a lot of red-hot issues we still see today. Pin has to deal with racism and elitism in her wealthy elite school where there's a clear class divide between the haves and the haves-not. (MGS / RGS / NYGS / SCGS... you seeing this?) It comes across even when she plays with her neighbours in the HDB void deck. The author also deals with misogyny and patriarchy without making the women characters seem like spineless victims of fate. I also see Singapore's multiculturalism without it being used like racial harmony propaganda. As Pin interacts with Chinese, Malay and other Indian classmates in school, their differences and similarities are highlighted. The highlight of Sugarbread is in its female characters both young and old. The most important points unfold through them with the male characters dancing along on the side. The thing about Jaswal is that she honours the rule show, don't tell. I think this book is a brilliant and probably accurate time travel journey back to 1930s Singapore. I couldn't stop reading. Rate: 4.5/5 [UNPICTURED] An American Marriage, Tayari Jones *Trigger warning*: sexual assault Now we arrive in Atlanta, the US of A. The couple in question is Roy and Celestial, the former a rising young businessman and the latter an increasingly popular doll-maker crafting artisan, life-like dolls. Both are black American, and have just gotten married, walking through the uncertain first steps of a lifetime together. Then disaster strikes when Roy is accused of raping a white woman in a hotel room, though he was with Celestial the entire night. The bulk of the book lies in the proceeding years of Roy's sentence, which is 12 years in prison. Goodreads reviewer Chai puts it: At its core, “An American Marriage” is a love story, but reading this book, it's hard to escape its condemnation of a deeply flawed system of justice. I totally agree, because while love is the central theme, it's grounded in a biased system that persecutes innocent people of colour and eventually upends their lives. To me, An American Marriage has the same vibes as Marriage Story on Netflix. It has a ton more drama, since Marriage Story didn't involve a crime or anything, but it really explores the ways a relationship can dissolve and crumble over time, not in a black and white way but with a lot of grey areas and uncertainty. There's also something about the old-fashioned way of communicating: letter writing. Roy and Celestial communicate to each other that way during his incarceration, and it's startling to see how much can be revealed about a person through a carefully curated medium of interaction. This book felt unique, so I bumped it up. I'm going to look out for Jones in the future. Rate: 5/5 Frankie Issue 96 (Jul/Aug 2020), Issue 97 (Sep/Oct 2020) I don't know how many times I can review Frankies until it all starts to sound the same. So I'm going to switch it up and only talk about my favourite parts of each issue, whenever that may be. Issue 96 'It all comes out in the wash', photography by Jimmi Ho that documents laundry day in Hong Kong. It's a series of beautifully done shots on people hanging out their laundry on the most random places in public, like playgrounds, public benches, trees, and stair railings. Honestly I've never seen that in all my time in Hong Kong, so it was something new, and looked so cute and funny but hints at a darker reason too. The city is super congested, and space itself is expensive, so people take to drying out their laundry outside where at least there's room for clothes to breathe. 'Strange Music'- artist featurette on Renee Melia, or Whistleburg. I love the human features in Frankie, and this artist was striking because of the unabashed use of bright, vibrant colours. Her pieces look like situations in regular day to day life, but squeezed in with hues and patterns until it borders on psychedelic. I like her animal pieces a bit less, because they are kinda scary though. If you have time, check her out. Issue 97 'Know your philosophers', Benajmin Law- a quick take of history's most famous philosophers from Socrates to Kant. It's like a summary for knowledge junkies who don't actually want to know philosophy. I find these short pieces so fun and easy to read, and I learnt something more about Nietzsche at the same time (he was kinda against Christianity..?) 'North Korea in pictures', Matt Kuleusz's photographic exploration of said country that are cool, so aesthetic, and actually rather happy. I guess I've known ever since Rozz from Clicknetwork did her travel series on North Korea that it's not as doom and gloom as media makes it out to be; people there are just the same everywhere else: cheerful, funny, generous. This photo series echoes that, he took pictures of students in classrooms, cute families, farms, and the North Korean landscape, which though it looks so foreign and a tad old, is gorgeous. Like a land from the past. Rate: evergreen Okay, that concludes this week's fresh reads. I've spent the past 2 hours typing and I'm famished. If you have any recommendations, leave them below please!
L x Hi friends, once again time has caught up with me because of starting uni- what's new- and so today we'll be looking at some of the books I read back when the holidays was still in season. There were some excellent ones and some that were disappointing, but if you want to take a break from the incoming wave of readings, assignments, project work and lecture webcasts (like me), go straight for the 5/5s. You will absolutely not regret.
Love, L This fresh reads series is special because it's a collective of titles that somehow or another have to do with the issue of race and race struggles in America. Today, I'm doing away with the rating portion of my book reviews that score them out of 5, because I think for these it's honestly not a purely for-fun reading. There is almost certainly intentionality if you pick these up. I'm going to continue reading up on current and relevant issues so this sort of special fresh reads series will appear as and when I add more to the list. I'll try to categorise them into themes too. Above all, I hope my thoughts are useful or helpful to you should you be on the same learning journey as me. 1. Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson This book is a brilliant indictment of the legal system in America. It's a personal recount from Bryan Stevenson, a lawyer and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), of the criminal cases that he took on or encountered throughout his career. The running case throughout the book is that of Walter McMillian, which you can read about here. Stevenson takes us through several other cases, but this is more or less the 'main' case of the book and is the one where readers are brought from beginning to end. You're really left on your seat wondering if justice will ever prevail. And you forget that this shit isn't just fiction, it happened to a real life man whose life was on the line. Not only for Walter McMillian either, but also for people like George Daniel and Avery Jenkins: people for which there are no Wikipedia pages, and number by the thousands, or even hundred thousands. Just Mercy is a beautifully written and thorough expose of how the justice system can fail an innocent man- many times over- which thus shows that racism is systematic and perpetuates because it's driven by those who hold power in the processes within systems. Aside, it also delves into concepts like convict leasing (the criminalisation of former slaves to convict them of 'nonsensical' offences so that they could be leased to businesses), as well as other aspects of U.S. Law, for example laws that let literal children be sentenced to life in jail. I'll let this piece of work explain itself with some piercing quotes:
Do yourself a favour and check this out. It is like no other. 2. So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo A couple of words I'd use to describe this book: clear, concise, and satisfyingly categorical. When you have a title like that, you either live up to your claim or you don't. It does. I would vouch that if you want to talk about race (and we really, really should be) reading this would go a long way in understanding better many of the issues and concepts that surround it. Oluo here divides her work into chapters with each having its own main topic: for example; privilege, intersectionality, microaggression and so on. Where it lacks in depth, you find a great breadth and crystal clear writing, peppered with Oluo's own unique, genuine (she is a black single mother with a white mother) and interesting experiences with race that make it an actual page turner. Here is a snippet of some personal key takeaways: History & progression of racism in the U.S.
How to determine if something is about race
On privilege
Microaggressions
I must admit that I accidentally returned the book when I was only 3/4 through so I didn't finish it to the end, but I'm in the midst of trying to complete it. While researching for resources to accompany this review, I found this reading group questions which are pretty helpful for examining yourself for reflection and affirmative action afterwards. 3. The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas If you aren't so big on the non-fiction world of literature yet, The Hate U Give is a really nice stepping stone into the perspectives of POC, specifically, a black teenage girl called Starr Carter who witnesses her friend Khalil being shot by cops while driving home from a party. The premise seems simple, but I think that deeper meaning is deftly weaved in. Starr here struggles with the PTSD of literally seeing your friend die in front of you at the hands of the people who are meant to protect you, and it is not her first time witnessing such incidents, so the emotional aspect of the book is very strong. Fictional worlds are where the impossible can happen, but we know that the imagined tale from Thomas is depicted in the real life America. Also amidst the main theme of police brutality and racial profiling, Starr has to juggle with other facets of her identity and race; among them having a white boyfriend (in terms of looks and I guess typical rich white suburban socio-economic status) the microagressions she faces from unsuspecting white friends in her private school, while physically residing and growing up in the 'ghettos' which is rife with gangs full of people she knows and sometimes loves. Things like micro aggressions, which Oluo explains above and Thomas describes here, are more apparent when we examine how they're replicated in our everyday conversations right in Singapore. Do we make racist jokes about certain minorities? Do we think it's ok to appropriate slang or language from a minority ethnicity for our own benefit and ridicule them for other aspects of their culture later on? In some ways, it prompts self-reflection too. I enjoyed reading this not only for its portrayal of race struggles in the U.S. but also for the nuance with which Thomas illustrates Starr's story, at the heart of it; a 16 year-old girl who's trying to find her place and who she is in a pretty cruel world. SHORTS- books that I attempted
4. Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates Among all on the list, this is the most unorthodox of the lot. Mainly because of its format, which reads as a letter to the authors' teenage son, and when that letter is the length of an entire book you know some serious shit is going down. What I've taken away from it so far is the told, visceral, experience of living as a black boy on Baltimore streets, then a black man in Howard University and New York City and beyond. He speaks about how bodies such as his were (are) continually under threat, and the risk of both the streets and school. There's much about America's culture as a whole, like the concept of the American Dream and 'Dreamers'- those who subscribe to that ideal. I'm not done with it yet, but I've decided to put it in this list because some of you might be able to comprehend it better than I have. 5. The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison The Bluest Eye is a dark, powerful story of Pecola Breedlove, a poor black girl who's biggest wish is to change her brown eyes to blue. Again, I found this fiction piece hard to read because of the writing style, which has the narrative change from Pecola's voice to Pecola's neighbour to Pecola's dad, with old-ish language as per the 1970s time. Honestly, some parts of the book are very disturbing, because it not only deals with societal standards on beauty and the absolute lack of minority representation, but also incidents of sexual abuse, poverty, and isolation. Those who consider themselves a reader with stamina should give it a proper go, because I feel like the story and style isn't something you can get from modern books nowadays. I would love it if you read any of these and want to talk with me. Happy page turning. L x here are my notes. see bottom for my thoughts AND SOURCES.THOUGHTSThis documentary is really, really great for people who go in blind about the history and system in the U.S. Through a series of interviews with key figures, it brings you through a succinct but no less horrifying journey about race and racism that runs in the country of the free, starting from when slavery was seemingly abolished during Lincoln's time. I had to look up some events or terms while watching it, because I am *that* uninformed, but it covers a really good breadth with how racism has been and is currently practiced in America. What I learnt is mostly summarised in my notes, but I think my main takeaway is that it's a cycle for the discriminated in the U.S. And that the cycle of poverty and criminality is enforced by the state and its legislature, which is in turn motivated by power, money and sometimes plain hatred. It's a scary thing to face up to. The black and people of colour communities all over have it so hard, and in many ways it's deeply wrong. If not a documentary, I hope I can find other resources for what goes on in Singapore too, the social inequality that I personally live in, and more importantly, why. L x SOURCES13th, by Ava DuVernay, available on Netflix
www.history.com/topics/black-history/thirteenth-amendment medium.com/@dan_nott/what-is-mass-incarceration-ff737196580 https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/04/30/shrinking-gap-between-number-of-blacks-and-whites-in-prison/ https://www.britannica.com/event/Jim-Crow-law https://www.brookings.edu/articles/alecs-influence-over-lawmaking-in-state-legislatures/ https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/hidden-history-alec-and-prison-labor/ |
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