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sarah_thebooknerd's Reviews (879)
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
This is an essay collection by many Palestinian authors. This is a book that talks about so many various aspects of what the siege has been like for Palestinians in Gaza and goes into details so we the readers can understand. It talks about agriculture, architecture, education, travel, libraries, impact on families, and so much more. I highly recommend this book to people trying to understand more in depth about the ways culture and daily life is impacted and stripped from them while living under a brutal occupation.
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
challenging
emotional
inspiring
medium-paced
đź“–: They Called Me A Lioness by Ahed Tamimi and Dena Takruri
Thank you Penguin Random House Audio for a free copy of the audiobook to read.
This memoir should be required reading. I have read some nonfiction history books about Palestine and the occupation of Palestinian people but this book brought a level of emotion to it that will sit with me for a very long time.
Ahed grew up in the West Bank and learned quickly what living under occupation was like. She watched family members experience violence. Witnessed neighbors lose their homes due to the land theft. And she also saw the resistance of Palestinian people in her community as they tried to hold on their homes, land and fight for the freedom of their people. She had many interactions with the IOF but at 16 when she slapped an IOF officer in the face and it was caught on camera and uploaded for the world to see, her family began to fear that Ahed would be arrested.
She was arrested and convicted and placed in prison. She talks about the solidarity in the prisons but also the raw emotions of separation from her family. Ahed was one of the few girls in the prison allowed visits from her mother and she and her mom noticed quickly how their interactions would bring sadness and longing to the other girls. Ahed’s mother became a surrogate mother to them for affection and motherly love and Ahed’s interactions with her mother were tamed to not cause pain to her fellow friends. This part broke me and made me just cry.
Ahed has had to grow up quickly to adjust and survive a brutal occupation that continues to rip apart her family, friends, neighbors and people. Since October 2023, Ahed was arrested again for “inciting violence” but it was proven that she did not do any such thing and was released after spending days under IOF custody.
As always, keep calling for a permanent and lasting ceasefire and an end to the occupation. Free 🇵🇸
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
challenging
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
đź“• Lunar New Year Love Story by Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham
Format: Physical
Source: Library
I came across this book while looking for books at Walmart and the cover drew me in. I immediately requested it from my local library and patiently waited for it to arrive.
This is a YA graphic novel about a young teen, Valentina who was named after Valentine's Day. She loves Valentine's Day and every year the spirit of Saint Valentine comes to spend the day with her and she loves to make cards and celebrate with her family and friends.
Until, one really bad Valentine's Day, when she is rejected from her peers for continuing to do the valentines and her entire world is turned upside down when she learns family secrets.
Valentina then learns from Saint Valentine that she is cursed like others in her family, and that curse is that she will never have love. Before she relinques to this fate she joins in on the Lunar New Year celebrations and becomes a Lion Dancer and runs into the boy that rejected her Valentine the most, Jae.
This is a story of connecting with yourself, your culture, your family, learning where you come from and and how to allow others in to help when you need it. It's about loss, grief, abandonment and love.
The graphics are STUNNING and the story will captivate you. I now need to go back and purchase the book because I loved it so much and want it for my shelves so I can revisit this one again and again.
Format: Physical
Source: Library
I came across this book while looking for books at Walmart and the cover drew me in. I immediately requested it from my local library and patiently waited for it to arrive.
This is a YA graphic novel about a young teen, Valentina who was named after Valentine's Day. She loves Valentine's Day and every year the spirit of Saint Valentine comes to spend the day with her and she loves to make cards and celebrate with her family and friends.
Until, one really bad Valentine's Day, when she is rejected from her peers for continuing to do the valentines and her entire world is turned upside down when she learns family secrets.
Valentina then learns from Saint Valentine that she is cursed like others in her family, and that curse is that she will never have love. Before she relinques to this fate she joins in on the Lunar New Year celebrations and becomes a Lion Dancer and runs into the boy that rejected her Valentine the most, Jae.
This is a story of connecting with yourself, your culture, your family, learning where you come from and and how to allow others in to help when you need it. It's about loss, grief, abandonment and love.
The graphics are STUNNING and the story will captivate you. I now need to go back and purchase the book because I loved it so much and want it for my shelves so I can revisit this one again and again.
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Thank you, Leonor, for an eARC copy of the book. I started purchasing the books when Leonor releases the paperback, she puts them up the same day as her ARCs go out and I run and buy it to go with my ritual post completion of the book. I always hug it to my chest, take a deep breath in pure joy and happiness.
Max and Eva are in Vegas and run into one another and they make an agreement to get married. Both wake up not remembering what had happened and go their separate ways, until Max realizes they are married and shows up in Laguna Beach for his wife. Laguna Beach is a small town that was a community primarily for the Latine community, but it needs to be revitalized. Max comes from a billionaire family, and he wants to take the company in a different direction that does not exploit people, but his father is not on board with that. Eva needs the money from the agreed marriage to help with the investment of the town and bring in stability to her café business.
Leonor has this way of making me fall for a new couple so much that they become my new favorite couple. Max is this flirty, cheeky, charmer of a man who loves his suits and likes to keep this persona up a bit for his protection. He is Chilean and has a close group of friends that make you just want to be part of the crew. Eva, has the town, her parents immediately left when she was 18 and they didn’t raise her to be connected to her Latine culture. She has found family within the town and that is why it is so important to her. She is more reserved, cautious and careful with her heart. Eva is fat and it is body positive, fat neutral.
I LOVED their friendship as they got accustomed to their marriage. This is a SLOW BURN and (cue fans) that pays off when it heats up!
I also cried seeing the thank you note Leonor wrote and having my name in it. I adore her with all my heart, and I am so happy to see more and more people pick up her cozy romances that center Latine characters that are fat. They mean the world to me.
Max and Eva are in Vegas and run into one another and they make an agreement to get married. Both wake up not remembering what had happened and go their separate ways, until Max realizes they are married and shows up in Laguna Beach for his wife. Laguna Beach is a small town that was a community primarily for the Latine community, but it needs to be revitalized. Max comes from a billionaire family, and he wants to take the company in a different direction that does not exploit people, but his father is not on board with that. Eva needs the money from the agreed marriage to help with the investment of the town and bring in stability to her café business.
Leonor has this way of making me fall for a new couple so much that they become my new favorite couple. Max is this flirty, cheeky, charmer of a man who loves his suits and likes to keep this persona up a bit for his protection. He is Chilean and has a close group of friends that make you just want to be part of the crew. Eva, has the town, her parents immediately left when she was 18 and they didn’t raise her to be connected to her Latine culture. She has found family within the town and that is why it is so important to her. She is more reserved, cautious and careful with her heart. Eva is fat and it is body positive, fat neutral.
I LOVED their friendship as they got accustomed to their marriage. This is a SLOW BURN and (cue fans) that pays off when it heats up!
I also cried seeing the thank you note Leonor wrote and having my name in it. I adore her with all my heart, and I am so happy to see more and more people pick up her cozy romances that center Latine characters that are fat. They mean the world to me.
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Jude is 12 years old when she and her mother immigrate to the United States from Syria. They are fleeing from the war and upheaval happening but she is leaving behind her father and brother. We see her as she navigates a new world, culture, language and dynamics. She also finds out that her other is pregnant. Jude wrestles with trying to fit in and joins theater but is told by others that she doesn’t know English well enough and girls that wear hijabs are not the stars of the play but she continues to try. Also seeing the way in which Americans at times treat her and her mother for wearing a hijab by telling them they are free now and can stop wearing them. The author has a note in the back of the book about how hard it was to see the world moving forward like nothing was happening in Syria and how many just thought it was expected for that part of the world. It highlighted how I feel with the current genocide in Gaza .
challenging
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
DNF @ 25% the misogynistic way women are written is just so frustrating. It’s also painfully predictable- wife cheating, husband meets a beautiful femme fatal with a painful SV past and who volunteers to help him off his wife. Yeah… I could handle it any more.
adventurous
challenging
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes