DMPL Book Chat discussion

See which book staff read for this challenge below. If you've completed this challenge, let us know which book you read and what you thought about it! Also, don't forget to register for the 2022 Reading Challenge at dmpl.org/readingchallenge.

I read Paper Daughter by M. Elaine Mar.

I read Somebody's Daughter by Ashley C. Ford.

I just finished When They Call You a Terrorist by Patrisse Khan-Cullers. I absolutely loved it.

I'm about half way in A Promised Land, good read so far even though it's 700 pages!

I read a few last year for other book challenges that might work for others:

* When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir by Patrisse Khan-Cullors. I know someone mentioned this but I second that.

* I should have Honor: A Memoir of Hope and Pride in Pakistan by Khalida Brohi. This one was also excellent!

* They Called Me Number One: Secrets and Survival at an Indian Reservation school by Bev Sellars which would work. It wasn’t the best memoir I e read, but still good and important to learn about.

I read Missed Translations by Sopan Deb. Deb grew up in a house with parents who were deeply unhappy in their marriage. The house was filled with recriminations and silence. After leaving for college Deb grew increasingly distant from his parents until he realized it had been years since he had really spoken with either. At one point he learns his father has moved back to India without telling anyone.

This book is the story of how Deb sets out to renew and repair those bonds and what he learns about his parents and their immigrant experience. This book is funny, sad, and wistful, but ultimately heart-warming. A portrait of parents doing the best they can and the healing power of reaching out and meeting people where they are.

I read Becoming by Michelle Obama. I found it uplifting. I don’t usually read memoirs, but I do enjoy them when they are from a different perspective from my own.

The Girl with Seven Names – incredible story of a woman who escaped North Korea.

Crying in H Mart.

I read 'Braiding Sweetgrass' by Robin Wall Kimmerer for the BIPOC author challenge but it could be applied to other reading/bonus challenges.

The book is beautifully written to elicit the author's themes while also honoring her culture and scientific consensus. While this makes Braiding Sweetgrass quite enjoyable to read, it also presents these themes in a rational, constructive, and nonthreatening manner. The following passage elucidates this, "In winter, when scarcity is at its zenith, the Windigo rages beyond control, but when abundance reigns the hungry fades away and with it the power of the monster." Presenting in such a manner allows Kimmerer to regularly challenge social normatives and political theories.