Resilience.

That has been a word I have been coming back to in 2019 for many reasons. Once in a while a book I am reading resonates perfectly with how I am feeling and the events that are happening around me. Reading The Bridge of Little Jeremy was one of those experience that thematically aligned with my lived-experiences at the time of reading. Author Indrajit Garai’s new novel is centered on deep resilience, care and commitment to family, and the love and passion for art. And instead of leaving my final thoughts to the end, I want to be transparent at the beginning of my review: I very much enjoyed this novel and would highly recommend it to other readers.

I was first familiarized with Indrajit’s writing when I read and reviewed his short story collection, The Sacrifice – a highly thematic collection of well-written, engaging stories. The following year, he followed up his first short story collection with a second titled, The Eye Opener. When I learned Indrajit was releasing a novel, I was excited to experience his story telling in a longer format. Throughout reading Indrajit’s writing, one aspect is always consistent. As a reader, I am engrossed with his ability to unfold a story, develop his main characters over the period of the story, and infuse candid, honest human emotions and experiences into his characters.

The Bridge of Jeremy follows a young man, Jeremy, as he faces many challenges in his life – contending with his heart condition, supporting his family as they are pressured to pay an undue amount of inheritance tax, and dealing with a neighbor who at best can be described as misogynistic but more likely a perpetrator of violence against women. Jeremy is extremely optimistic in his experience and has an mazing, supportive best friend Leon, an intelligent, loving, and protective dog. Who is always by Jeremy’s side This novel is his journey of trying to save his family by restoring and selling a painting while pursuing his love of art and learning about his family history.

I think the story is meaningful for readers to discover themselves and do not want to write about how the story progresses. I will say that Ingrajit Garai touches on many different topics on interest that impact our modern world through this novel. This includes the role of social media in social movements, the morals and ethics of tax, particularly inheritance tax, discovering unflattering family histories, health care access, single parent households, and more! The amount of topics he chooses to put in his stories, the way he is able to weave them together, and the commentary on each through Jeremy’s journey is a testament to Ingrajit’s ability to write and tell stories.

Indrajit Garai is an independent author who writes stories that I have always enjoyed. His writing style disrupts the mainstream way of telling stories and I think worthwhile for readers to check out. While his style and stories might not be for everyone, his voice as a storyteller, along with other independent authors, is vital to the landscape of literature. Please take a bit of time to find out more about his book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Bridge-Little-Jeremy-Indrajit-GARAI-ebook/dp/B07PT936PZ

Final Rating: 4.5/5

I received a free e-copy of this book in exchange for my open and honest review.

I find it difficult to write about fantasy novels because often, many of the same tropes are used – the oppressive king/dictator, the band of spunky rebels, forbidden magic, etc. And because many of these tropes are used often, it unfortunately impacts how I receive new novels in the genre. I am not sure if this is fair and the truth of our lived-experiences is our lens is framed by what we have experienced in the past. When new authors publish a book, whether with a publishing house or independently, I am looking for the aspects of the story that makes it unique and engaging.

Oasis by Bharat Krishnan is a fantasy novel that aims to mix an epic journey with Asian/API mythologies. Below is a brief description of the book from the author:

Once, there was a truce. Desperaux controlled the west with magic, and Desire claimed the east with steel and science.

But now magic has disappeared, and the world has changed.

The kingdom of Desire will stop at nothing to maintain the new world order. On Juno’s wedding day, their Mengery soldiers came marching through the Nine desert to rip his world apart. Now he journeys east with his adopted brother, Trey, in search of revenge after the death of his family. Along the way, the two face bandits and the magical creatures of the Nine. When the two finally reach Desire, they’ll face something even deadlier – their own fears and ambitions.

This is a tale of brotherhood, a revenge story that will remind you that everything has a cost – a cost that will be paid to Desire, and to the inner demons that govern us all.

Unfortunately, Oasis was a bit hit or miss for me, often leaning in the miss direction for periods of time. When I finished the novel, I could not put my finger on one aspect and I took some time to think through my experience with Oasis. I found I could not necessarily identity one common thread of dislike and found it easier to identify certain aspects I enjoyed and certain aspects I did not like so much.

What I enjoyed: 

• The use of API mythologies. Fantasy, written by White authors, have used Asian mythologies in their own stories in ways that are appropriative or stereotypical. I am always looking for Asian Pacific Islander (API) authors that are writing from an own voices perspective, infusing culture, mythologies, and experiences in their characters and stories. Author Bharat Krishnan does just that in the creation of his world and magic system.
• The magic system. I guess this is the point where I talk about the magic system. I found it unique and one of the most compelling parts of the story (where Juno is learning to harness magic) what individuals can do with magic, the toll it takes on their bodies, the different planes magic users can access, and how it is intertwined with the creatures that inhabit the Nine. My favorite part of the book followed Juno exclusively and was the first half of the story. Outside of Juno’s story, magic came up a bit and magic use came up rarely.
• The two part narrative. I absolutely love storytelling from multiple perspectives and characters. I love experiencing the same events / timeline in different ways – and at the very least, know what is going on in two places concurrently. Oasis follows Juno in the first half of the book and Trey in the second half. When the story reaches it’s climax, the two character’s perspectives meet. While the overall story and writing did not compile me, I think the two part narrative was the right choice to tell this story.
• The commentary on immigration and refugees. One of the most powerful parts of the book for me was when Trey reaches the city of Desire. He has an encounter with officials in Desire which for me mirrors much of the discourse the United States is having about immigration and refugees. Maybe this was Bharat Krishnan’s intention or maybe it my perception of this piece of the book was heightened by my own experience. Nevertheless, the encounter made me reflect on… who gets let into our country and why? The surrounding lands of Desire are in crisis and to see the experience of immigrants and refugees in the book be similar to actual immigrants and refugees was… tiring but also refreshing that it was called out so blatantly.

What I did not like so much:

• Characters seemed to make hasty decisions about critical issues without thinking of the possible outcomes and consequently, characters seemed to act outside of their developed characters (e.g., I was not able to believe a character would actually make the decision they did in the book). This aspect was probably my biggest issue with the book and I want to explain using one example from the story, although it happens multiple times. If you do not want to know anything about the book (this could be considered minor spoilers), please skip to the next bullet. When Trey first entered the city, he tells a lie that he is linked to royalty from another city. Without so much as a background check, he is accepted into the city where he meets the daughter of the king and a little while later dines with the king himself. For a city that is the source of oppression and suffering for so many people, I would expect them to deny refugees, do background checks on large claims, and at the very least, have more limited access to the city’s royalty! I could not believe that these characters would simply trust Trey and bring him into the inner royal court. This is one example – and the repetition of these ‘unbelievable actions’ frustrated me as a reader.
• Time seemed to go very fast. There were moments in the book where I felt it jumped weeks or months without much indication. Whether it was Juno’s training in the rebel camp or Trey forming relationships in Desire, I found the experience of reading to be jumpy – time was very slow, focusing on many details and then suddenly we were somewhere else. I think the best way to describe it is I felt the pacing was off.
• The old fantasy tropes present. Evil dictator oppressing people outside of the city, a rebellion with a prophesied savior, the corruption of power and wealth… it all seemed so old to me when reading Oasis. I do want to acknowledge that these tropes exist for good reason – they often are engaging and readers can relate to the struggles of the main characters. For me, I think I have been worn out by these tropes and was looking for something refreshing.
• World creation. A new fantasy world has to grip me. A world that grips me is one where I can recall names of most characters, places, and significant events. This is achieved through stellar world building and development that slowly leads the reader to care about the characters, places, and events connected to the story. Unfortunately, I never felt very connected to the world and the lack of connection framed what I thought of the book overall.

I want to give a disclaimer with my rating – while I was not head over heals for Oasis, I do think there is merit in this novel. I would recommend you give Oasis a look because it is very well possible you will connect more with the story and characters than I did.

Final Rating: 2.5/5

Check out Oasis on Goodreads.

I wrote this review back before the Ghost in the Shell movie released. I am not sure why I did not publish this review back then because I was very involved in the conversations about whitewashing in Hollywood as it pertains to APIDA people in the industry. I want to be clear that this is still going on and we are still seeing White actors being chose over APIDA actors. Years later, I present you with my review / reflection of Ghost in the Shell. I understand that Ghost in the Shell exists in many different mediums – graphic novel, animation, live action – this review is of one volume of the graphic novel. Enjoy!

With all of the casting controversy around the Ghost in the Shell movie and the continuation of whitewashing in Hollywood, I decided I wanted to engage with the original Japanese content. Plus, with the loss of culture myself and my quest to reclaim a little of what I lost, I thought this would be a good exercise. To be honest, I never really engaged with manga when I was growing up (there could be many reasons for this: identifying with Whiteness, trying to assimilate, etc.) and actually some of the first people who introduced manga to me were White. As I reflect, this was a common experience for me… meeting White folks who could ‘educate’ me more on my culture and history than my family or my experience. In my more current experience, I have found I enjoy stories like Death Note and I was looking forward to expanding my horizon. I went to my local library and found a copy of the Ghost in the Shell manga and I requested it through inter-library loan.

I found the experience with Ghost in the Shell to be quite disorienting. Masamune Shirow is such a detailed artist, many of the panels were almost distracting from the dialogue and general story line. As I continued to read, I got into the flow of Shirow’s style of storytelling, but it did take me a while. One thing I do want to note up front about his artwork is Shirow’s choice of how different robots are portrayed. Most of them (medical bots, service bots, etc.) are drawn as scantily clad women. This causes me to ask, who was the manga drawn for? I find this very unfortunate and it seeped into every part of the manga and made my overall experience reading Ghost in the Shell to be disappointing. I would have rated this higher if there was a better portrayal across gender identity.

The manga is organized into different chapters (or issues since this is a collection) and there was some story lines persisting between each chapter. But I found more meaning and enjoyment if I read them as a collection of vignettes with little connection besides the characters. The stories are a variety of “let’s stop the terrorist or robot uprising” trope. These tend to get old for me, but with Ghost in the Shell and the futurism and technology featured in the stories make a lot of the plot lines compelling until the final resolutions.

The manga follows a team comprised of humans and ghosts, including the main character Major Kusanagi and in each chapter/issue they are on a mission to take down criminals in a futuristic vision of Japan and Japanese culture. I see the importance of Ghost in the Shell to Japanese culture at the time that it was written. My favorite story brings up questions about future technology advances, sentient life, creating life, and what actually qualifies as life. Within all of these stories comes the idea of Ghosts which are…spirits, souls, consciousnesses?…  housed in robotic bodies (hence the name Ghost in the Shell). These Ghosts are robots but have a quality of life to them that pushes the question of ‘senientness’ and self-actualization of artificial intelligence. While the plots seem rather basic, the most enjoyment comes with the conversation as Japan is on the edge of a technological revolution. The story is distinctly Japanese and this is why when Scarlett Johansson was cast as  Major Kusanagi there was push back in the APIDA community – how can a distinctly Japanese story be told if the cast is whitewashed?

Ultimately, I do not think I will pursue consuming further media regarding Ghost in the Shell and I definitely will not be seeing the movie. A good experience, but do to some artistic choices, not one I would recommend to everyone. There are many fantastic graphic novels and manga out there -> go find them! If you have been wanting to get into Ghost in the Shell, this is honestly a hard place to start.

Final Rating: 2.7/5

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35870.Ghost_in_the_Shell

Folks who know me a bit know that my family was interned in the 1940s during WWII. This is a piece of family history that stays with me and I constantly reflect on its impact on my family and on me. I often talk about it in terms of my personal culture and in terms of the larger impact on racism. I continually come back to Japanese interment because the impact of that decision is generational. I feel residual impact and if I have children, they will also feel impact. This impact includes loss of culture, heritage and traditions, loss of family wealth, and I think one thing that I continue to fixate on, loss of language. While I consider it a personal goal to learn about internment and ways my family persisted, I think it is even more important for others to learn about it, the experiences of the Japanese people, and the politics used/abused to make it happen. Well, let’s move on to the actual content!

A Boy of Heart Mountain by Barbara Bazaldua

My grandmother was in the interment camp at Heart Mountain, Wyoming and I was able to visit the camp back in 2014 when I was driving from California to Massachusetts. I think Wyoming is a beautiful state to drive through but when I was in Heart Mountain, there is literally nothing around. When I was there, I purchased this book about the experience of a Japanese boy in the Heart Mountain camp. This book is simple and captures the dissonance between a child’s innocence and the hardship of living in the camp. As a part of my own journey towards understanding of my family’s history, this book is a treasure I will always own.

Citizen 13660 by Mine Okubo

I have boosted this graphic novel at any chance I can get. Mine Okubo writes and draws matter-of-fact-ly about her experiences in the internment camp. Her panels capture the pain, humiliation, resilience, and strength of the Japanese people in the camps. Two parts stood out to me: the first is about the close quarters and tiny things that I take for granted with my own space. The other were the scenes depicting the hypocrisy of honoring certain rights for citizens of the United States while keeping them in internment camps based on their cultural heritage. This will always be a sticking point for me when it came to enrolling Japanese men in the draft and pitching it as a civic duty.

Growing Up Nisei by David K. Yoo

My thoughtful and loving partner researched and gave this book for me as a gift. This is a non-fiction look into the Nisei or second generation of Japanese people in the United States and looks at where the Nisei fall in the US context. This is a much broader look at Japanese people in the United States, starting in 1924, but this book goes through the end of the 40s which will deal with the fallout of World War II and the internment camps. The Nisei generation born as United States citizens, have a unique experience with internment. I put this book on the list because I think it is important to understand the context of Japanese people in the US before the time of internment and get a sense of the experience of citizenship (maybe when other family members were not citizens) juxtaposed with the experience of internment.

Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston

Another entry into the non-fiction category is this memoir by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston. I find personal accounts of internment to be very compelling and humbling. Jeanne in her memoir shares her experience as a United States citizen and being uprooted as a child to live in the camps. This is a story of resiliency, family, and finding ways to live in the camp at Manzanar. While not stated explicitly, I think this book was written for or intended for a younger audience. Here is where I struggle with the book. It is often compared to memoirs of Holocaust survivors or The Diary of Ann Frank. Let’s be clear: While the interment of the Japanese was a terrible point in US history and infringed on the civil rights of Japanese people, I find it unhelpful and disrespectful to compare this event to the Holocaust.  Let’s acknowledge both happened and center the voices that share their lived experiences.

Bonus: Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki

While I have not read this children’s book, I have heard stories about the importance of baseball in the internment camps for children. My grandparents were in the camp as children and had to figure out how to be a kid while under such terrible circumstances. I look forward to reading Baseball Saved Us and learn more about my grandparents experiences in the camps.

I received a free e-copy of this book in exchange for an open and honest review.

I read and reviewed a collection of short stories by Indrajit Garai around a year ago and really enjoyed the collection holistically. The theme of sacrifice ran through each story and poses the reader with the question: what would you sacrifice? Indrajit Garai comes back with his second collection of short stories called The Eye Opener. The themes are a little more muddled compared to the bold title of The Sacrifice, but each story is written with a specific intention about people overcoming huge challenges. One of the main differences I noticed about the two collections is the scope of time involved in the stories. In The Sacrifice, the stories were told over short periods of time. In The Eye Opener, time flows much more freely and the stories span years and decades. While Garai’s writing style is distinct and it is evident these two collections are from the same style, I found that the collections read differently.

As a content waring, the stories in this collection deal with domestic violence, suicide ideation, miscarriage, homelessness, and death.

The Alignment starts with a couple expecting a child. Franck is a part of a firm and to ‘keep up’ with his colleagues, he and his wife Armelle have moved into a nicer place. This is all a part of a plan to go toe to toe with colleagues and hopefully get a promotion. Franck is put on a project overseas in the United States right in the middle of the pregnancy. This is a make or break moment for him – if it goes smoothly, he is sure to get the promotion. Everything is going fine until Franck is in the US and Armelle is having issues with the pregnancy.  The plan did not go as planned and their lives get radically shaken up. Time passes very fluidly and very fast as each Franck struggles with the why of what happened.

The Changing Turf follows an international student Nathan who travels to the United States to study. While walking around one night very late, he becomes lost and stumbles on a bridge. He sees a women named Kelly on the bridge and deduces that she is thinking about jumping off. He uses his situation of being lost to ask if the women could direct him back to his residential hall and then calls to get her help. This moment sets off a chain of events that drastically changes Nathan life, ultimately bringing him full circle back to the bridge with the same woman, Kelly. A lot happens in this story and a lot of time passes from Nathan’s initial arrival and the end of the story. For me, the story tried to take on too many topics – it seemed like Nathan was a magnet for them – domestic violence, homelessness, suicide ideation. What I did find powerful in the story was Nathan’s initial expectations of coming to the United States and his assimilation over the years.

The Eye Opener is the final story in the collection and one of the most intriguing stories of the collection. This story follows Cedric (in first person). His brother has been killed and he has been framed for drug possession. Between trying to maintain a semblance of a relationship with his mother and dealing with his brother’s old friends, Cedric is trying to put his life and back together. He connects with a city official, Vincent who helps him out along the way an ultimately supports Cedric as he is pursuing new jobs. Similar the The Changing Turf, there are a lot of character interactions and topics that are brought up a explored: drugs, prison system, coping with death, family relationships, socioeconomic status. While there is a lot going on, I liked this one better than The Changing Turf because of the first person perspective – it felt real and raw.

Final Rating: 3.6/5

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37422766-the-eye-opener

I review Leviathan from designer Greg Loring-Albirght and published by Past Go Games. They had a Kickstarter late last year which didn’t fund but they are back with a relaunch. check out my review and consider backing this neat, tactical two player game based on the novel Moby Dick by Herman Melville.

Board Game Review: Leviathan

Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pastgo/leviathan-2-player-micro-game

First reaction, I kid you not: What just happen?!

Muir Woods or Bust by Ian Woollen has to be one of the most unique books I read this year and I can honestly say I am still trying to process what happened and the themes that came from the story. The book follows a middle-aged therapist, Gil Moss, in the near future as a new mental health issue sweeping the globe: Eco-mood disorders. This phenomenon happens as climate change continues to ravage the earth causing catastrophic weather events in virtually every part of the world. Or so it seems because the main character himself has hallucinations about the destruction of the Earth via catastrophic natural disasters. We start by following Gil as he is abducted by one of his clients, Doyle who used to be an actor for an anti-environmental program. This provides instant issues with Gil because his wife was closely tied to the Earth Liberation Front before she passed away and Gil himself seems to land (while not too extreme) on the side of pro-environment. The story follows them as the two journey west in search of the Muir Woods and the revival of that once popular anti-environmental TV show.

Well actually, the book jumps between different perspectives which includes Gil, a book the that Gil wrote (and was lost) about John Muir, his son Chum, his son’s video game about vampire nurses, and an eager graduate student named Amanda who wants to use Chum’s programming and storytelling ability to sell the idea to an entrepreneur out in California. The bits and pieces from each perspective change adds details and layers to the main storyline of Gil, but it is pretty jarring the first couple of times it happens. The writing style between the actual events happening, the recollection of the Muir book, and the vampire video game is quite distinct and rightly so. At first read, it almost seems like the passages are from separate books and put together. But the parts do have common threads and comes together at various points, all tying together at the end.  

The concept of eco-mood disorders is one of the most interesting pieces of the novel. While it still is unclear whether or not it is a real thing in the book, it did resemble aspects of posttraumatic stress disorder. Eco-mood disorder is a result of global warming and the common occurrences of catastrophic weather events. Due to living in that type of environment, people develop intense anxiety and triggers around these weather events. For example, the main character Gil has triggers pertaining to earthquakes which prevents him from traveling west and impacts his sleep. The reason why I find this aspect of the story so interesting is because… this could be a reality. We have already seen research done on the impact of systemic racism and the impact of poverty of a person’s mental health – Is climate change and the potential/real trauma it brings so far fetched? Particularly for communities who are disproportionally impacted by climate change. We may not see it in the near future or we may not even code it as a different disorder, but even in this work of fiction, I thought to myself, “It could happen.”

This book is truly odd – and in a good way I think. I found myself having to reread certain parts to find the connection in the overall story. The drastic changes in writing style kept me on my toes and distracted me at the same time. There is no other way to describe the feeling – you will have to read it for yourself. If you are looking for a book with a fresh writing style and a story that you would not read normally, check out Muir Woods or Bust by Ian Woollen.

Final Rating: 3.7/5

It’s that time of year again! Time to look back on the calendar year and reflect on all the books I read over the course of the year. 2017 was a pretty good year of reading for me. I managed to shatter my original goal of 70 books, by reading over 100 books, totaling over 23,000 pages! The shortest book I read was a 16 page novella by Nnedi Okorafor and the longest was the fantastic 1,157 page 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. To be honest, reading goals create a culture of competition among readers which I don’t particularly like – one that also has a lot to do with access to resources (books, libraries, etc.) and access to leisure time to read. It does not matter how much you read this year in comparison to how much someone else has read. The goal of this post is to highlight books for all readers in hopes that one might spark interest in you.

Without further ado, here are the top 11 books in no particular order that I read in the year 2017:

• The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas – How could I leave this powerful, best-selling contemporary young adult novel out of the end of the year mix?! This. Book. Was. Amazing. Simply put, THUG delivered on everything I was looking for in a YA book – fantastic and digestible writing, a compelling contemporary story from the experience of a young person of color, character depth with emotion that came right off the pages, and a very timely commentary of race/racism in the US. If you have not read this yet, do not wait another day!
• Temporary People by Deepak Unnikrishnan – Wow! This collection of stories is threaded heavily with themes of immigration, discrimination, family, love, hate, and temporary status. Many of the stories stuck with me long after I read the collection. This is a book that deserves more than one read – and I am sure I will find more that moves me with each subsequent read. Temporary People is not a well-known book, but one that rises above the mass market publication noise. See my review here.
• Pachinko by Min Jin Lee – Pachinko is a heart wrenching, multi-generational story about a Korean family who left Korea during the Japanese occupation and resettled in Japan. Not many Westerners know about the colonial atrocities that Japan commitment in the name of uniting Asia and decolonizing countries from Europe. One of the countries to get hit the hardest was Korea. This is a story of family resilience in the face of enormous oppression, hate, and violence. Pachinko is a must read of 2017 in my opinion.

• Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi – Another multi-generational novel that tears at the reader’s heartstrings. Homegoing explores the devastating impact of colonialism in African nations and how to transatlantic slave trade impacted a family through generations – two sisters, one married a slave trader and one was sold into slavery. These powerful narratives give voice to the many different lived-experiences born out of the African diaspora. Another must read that I would highly recommend.
• White Tears by Hari Kunzru – I recognized the title as I was briefly browsing the newly released books at the library and had no idea what the story was about. It starts off seemingly normal about two White guys very much into blues music and started their own music studio. After they forge an old blues record, things get interesting and weird. A mix of magical realism, horror, and crime along with a compelling narrative on historical and contemporary racism, White Tears blew me away.
• Exit West by Mohsin Hamid – There are many different doors in this world leading to many different places. Exit West looks to explore these doors through the narrative of refugees. Mohsin Hamid writes with elegance and sparseness to capture the raw emotions of two people fleeing their home, through a door, and into a new place that is not only just new, but alien to them. This is just a wonderful piece of writing and literature which tells a story that I think everyone needs to hear.

• Human Acts by Han Kang – I read a lot of sad books this year but Human Acts was one of the saddest. Taking on the historical events in South Korea when there was an uprising of students that turned violent. This book masterfully threads together different stories and narratives around the death of a young boy. Each character has their own struggle as they are trying to find hope and a voice amidst a brutal and oppressive conflict.
• The Boat Rocker by Ha Jin – The Boat Rocker was the first Ha Jin book I ever read and I picked it up randomly at the library… and wow, it blew me away. From Ha Jin’s engaging writing style, to the compelling narrative about Chinese expatriates living in the United States, I love every single moment of my experience reading The Boat Rocker. This book takes a critical look at the challenging position some Chinese folks living in the US are in with freedom of the press in the US and the pressure from the Chinese government. It was a timely read too as I was having conversation with Chinese students about the decision of the UC system to invite the Dalai Lama as their commencement speaker. I look forward to reading more Ha Jin in the upcoming year.
• Daytripper by Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá – A beautifully written and drawn graphic novel about life and death. Brás de Oliva Domingos writes obituaries for a living. Each chapter looks at a different year and event in Brás’ life – the birth of his son, his first kiss, the day he meets the love of his life. While he is writing the end for so many people, we look at the most important moments that make up Brás’ life. Each story ends with a twist.

• Amina’s Voice by Hena Khan – This middle school chapter book was one of the first #OwnVoices book about a young Muslim girl and her life – family, schools, religion and spirituality, friends, and more. This story is very important. It is about culture, assimilation, and the struggle of the coded term ‘American.’ This is everything young people are going through while growing up in the United States. Amina’s story is powerful and moving and the struggles her friend Soojin was going through resonated a lot with me. Definitely one to check out and a book to recommend to all those middle schoolers in your life.
• 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami – Haruki Murakami is my favorite magical realism contemporary author and I knew it was time to take on the HUGE task of 1Q84. Even though this book is incredibly long, I did not feel labored in reading it. The storied flowed well and kept me engaged the entire time as two characters are floating through the alternate reality of 1984 towards one another. This book was everything I hoped for and it re-solidified how fantastic Murakami is at constructing worlds and stories with a magical flair. See my review here.

What were your favorite books you read in 2017?

Temporary People by Deepak Unnikrishnan is a collection of hauntingly beautiful, violent, raw short stories interwoven into a masterpiece of fiction exploring themes of human value, immigration, culture, love, hate, hardship, evil, family, citizenship, and more. This collection of stories is so complex and nuanced that it deserves more than one read to fully grasp all the complexities. At its heart, Temporary People is about that: temporary people. Those who are used, abused, and then thrown out when not needed anymore. The harsh realities for guest workers in the UAE is blended with magical realism in each story and packs a powerful punch to the reader about how these workers navigate and suffer through their experiences and living conditions.

One story stood out to me and continues to occupy my thoughts as I reflect on my reading experience: Le Musée

We start off at the end of a violent conflict where the commander of the victorious forces orders the construction of two homes. The he orders his men to identify men, women, and children from the enemy captive to live in these houses. The “families” can be observed at any time of day for any reasons so that the dominant people can learn about the culture of the people they defeated. This story was so powerful because it reminded me how the dominant culture literally, well… dominates marginalized cultures. This story may seem like it’s an extreme example of this but in reality, the amount of power that a dominant culture has over the others is astounding. Le Musée was established to assert this domination and then to remind the dominant culture about why their culture is superior. To be quite honest, I am not sure what the author’s intention was in writing this piece in particular, but regardless, it moved me.

The other story that stood out to me was the second story in the collection: Birds

For me, this is when the themes of Temporary People started to come through as we follow a medical worker as she roams the streets looking for workers who have fallen off buildings. She looks for the fallen and then tapes them back up so they can continue on working. And sometimes these workers pass from their injuries and there is nothing to be done except comfort them and listen to their stories. This short story was heartbreaking to me because of the larger theme that so few people care about this population of worker – the majority will allow them to work in dangerous conditions but few support and care for them. They are, as the title describes, Temporary People, never fully accepted as a person in the environment they live in. I often think about what justice and inclusion looks like on a structural and cultural scale. In this story, justice could take many forms yet the story explores the interpersonal relationship between the person giving medical care and the fallen workers. One person can care about these fallen workers, but the impact of the systemic problem of falling workers is still there regardless of how many she helps.

The collection overall explores the vast intersections of immigrant identity and provides dialogues about race, culture, gender, sexual orientation, and more. While this cannot be held up as the definitive voice of immigrants (no one should have to bear that burden nor should we expect them to), this is one of the first novels I have read with such a unique style and approach to these topics. Using magical realism, Unnikrishnan does not abstract the challenges, violence, and oppressions but actually elevates the descriptions giving me, the reader, a visceral, raw feeling at the end.

I know some folks would say this book is not for everyone, but I have to disagree. This may not be the style you read and the some of the stories may not resonate with you AND I really would encourage you to pick this up. The stories are powerful and challenging and will stick with you long after you finish. Deepak Unnikrishnan rightfully won the first New Immigrant Writing prize and his voice amplifying the experiences of immigrants, is a powerful and unique narrative that is much needed in the landscape of literature. Keep an eye on Restless Books and the winners of the New Immigrant Writing prize moving forward – they are publishing really great voices.

Final Rating: 4.8/5

When I accept books or board games to review, I do a small amount of preliminary research to see if the game, book, author, designer, publisher, etc. aligns with the values and goals of my blog. Usually I do not find much out, even in this day and age when it seems to be okay to show your hate on your sleeve. Once in a while I do find something that is a deal breaker. One example came up while I was asking authors of color if they would be willing to be featured in a blogging event I was hosting. I got one response and as I looked into the novel, I found that the message was oppressive and hateful to trans folkx. While I wanted to feature authors of color, I could not feature this particular author and wrote back explaining why. But more often than not, I find a general bio or description of the company with no indication on where their philosophies might lie when it comes to inclusion of all gamers. This poses an interesting dilemma as my blog focuses heavily of social justice and inclusion. I tend to take an “assume good intentions and address the impact” approach. But…

What happens when you find out a truth that conflicts with your values and goals after publishing or supporting a company/author/designer?

This exact situation happens to me on occasion in both the books and board game world. I may reference in vague terms different situations I have been in but…this post is less about specific incidents and more general look at inclusion as it comes to working with different folks across the industry.

In one particular situation, a friend, who also sees inclusion as a top priority in the board gaming hobby, sent me a message and an article focused about an incident that was marginally related to a post. After reviewing the article, I was very troubled with what I read and it pointed towards a perspective I not only disagreed with but I found to be discriminatory. I took some time to reflect on this new information and the post I published. I stood by what I wrote in my initial post and I felt I needed to respond to the information I found out. The action I took was to outline an article to talk about confronting problematic things when they come up and my thoughts around an inclusive hobby.

I want to recognize that this is not new and this article does not outline all the problematic stuff with broad game companies and content creators. Just last year, Academy Games hired a PR person named David Lowry. Lowry is no longer with the company but he was well known for decrying diversity in videos and around the Twitter community. There comes a moral decision to make for content creators and consumers. Do we continue to buy games from Academy? Do we continue to review and promote their games? Many podcasts and review channels still did without a second thought while a small minority refused to go anywhere near Academy Games. I own one Academy game – Freedom: The Underground Railroad, which is often hailed as a groundbreaking, educational, diverse representation game (which it can be but be on the lookout for a future article titles “White Saviorism Masking as Diversity”), but after learning about the hire, I really stopped paying attention to Academy Games. Money tells me a lot about the mission and values of a company and institution. So if the company is paying someone who is known for certain things, I can only assume that’s what they support as well. As I stated, Lowry left the company – I am not sure the reason behind him leaving but I am still hesitant about Academy Games in general. Companies and content creators take on the burden of the views and values of who they associate with and hire and need to be accountable.

Back to my reaction and thought process when I am in these situations.

I find myself in an interesting position because I care about inclusion and to reach that end goal, we need everyone involved and engaged. Now there are some who will never join the conversation and never think that inclusion is a positive thing. But there are many folks we can bring back into the fold of our inclusive community. A lot of questions come up for me as I think about my relationship or potential relationship with this small gaming company moving forward:

1. What is our responsibility to create a truly inclusive community?
2. How can we talk about impact of words and actions instead of fighting over free speech and ideologies?
3. When does inclusion work cross the line and is more harmful (to marginalized folks) than helpful?
4. How can allies with privilege step in to share the work that marginalized folks do daily?
5. How do we approach inclusion with an intersectional lens?
6. How do we acknowledge that the board gaming hobby was founded on privilege and how that disproportionally excludes certain groups of people?

I think question number two is the most important to achieving the goal of an inclusive community. It is easy (and I recognize sometimes necessary) to burn an individual, block them, and shut them out as a hateful bigot. A lot of the time these folks who do or say hurtful things are not hateful bigots but come from a different frame and set of lived-experiences. I have no idea where the the majority of people in this hobby come from. I have no idea what experiences they might have that results in an incident I find harmful. But there is a framing experience, there is a socialization process for everyone that shapes how one approaches life. This does not provide an excuse for the behavior BUT understanding other folks’ lived-experiences gets us closer to our goal: inclusion. It changes the conversation from “You are wrong” to “Your lived-experience is true and valid AND the impact on other people is harmful.” I can do much more with the latter than the former.

I want to make it clear that as a marginalized person, it is okay to opt out. We need to opt out sometimes for our own health and wellness. Plus it is not solely one us to change the culture around inclusion and social justice. It is not solely on us to change systems and institutions founded on racism, sexism, etc. AND opting out and expecting change to happen in our communities is unrealistic. It just is. I have heard the mantra time and time again:

Do your own work. 

Which I agree with to an extent – folks need to take responsibility for their own understanding of difference and the impact of their identities. But if we rely only on that mantra, nothing will change. Actually, I think the state of inclusion for all people will get worse. Back to question number 1, what is our responsibility?

Designing opportunities for play (e.g., board games) for as short as 15 minutes has shown through research to build empathy between people (look out for a more in depth post exploring this in the future with actual links to the research). If we are in a hobby that is conducive to building empathy across different lived-experience, why aren’t we leveraging this? Here is what I do know: I know many people who hold views I disagree with and I find harmful. I know I love board games and gaming can be a way to try to build empathy with those folks. I also know that we can come to understanding of each other and recognize how our individual views might harm the other person.

The conclusion? Maybe the way forward is not about shutting people out. Maybe this is time to reach out and ask the tough questions about my concerns and then listen. Actually listen to the response.