Welcome to Litsy!

But how could this be?

We leave, we leave, we leave. We always leave. It is in our blood to leave.

But perhaps it's also in our blood to return.

Why did we ever believe home could only be one place? When existing in these bodies means holding many worlds within us. At last, we see.

We listen to our classmates say, my grandfather, father, and brother all went to this college but besides that, I REALLY didn't have a leg up. Try not to roll our eyes to the back of our heads.

[We spend] two thousand eight hundred and eighty hours over the course of four years in art classes.... this means we must also spend four years of our lives rolling our eyes at dance majors pirouetting atop lunch tables, drama students monologuing before answering questions in Pre-Calc, and instrumental music majors barging into class playing the intro to "Careless Whisper" by George Michael on their saxophones.

If I wear all my clothes on the plane, I can totally fit these books in my suitcase (she lied to herself...)

Poetically written. I enjoyed how this book was set up and the writing style.

From the plural “we” perspective, brown girls of Queens tell their stories from childhood through adolescence and adulthood. They form relationships, they struggle, they persevere. Some become mothers, others begin careers but through it all they connect with one another.
I listened to the audiobook which was excellent. This was at once a wide take on the lives of the titular brown girls, as a whole, but also includes scenes from a singular life.

What I‘ve finished recently — Friday Reads April 28: #booktube #comics #LGBTQ #memoir #poetry #Translation #audiobooks #prizelists

https://youtu.be/0HxNAbWRU2c

A song, an incantation, a celebration of brown-girlness in first-person plural. Poetic vignettes follow a multi-ethnic group of friends, growing up in the 90s in Queens NYC. From childhood into old age—and some die too young. Their parents are immigrants from Asia, Africa, Latin America & the Caribbean. They are straight & queer, shy & brash, leave & stay, have children & remain childless. A joyful, complex portrait of being American.

Why did we ever believe home could only be one place? When existing in these bodies means holding many worlds within us.

Brown girls brown girls brown girls who, in their bones, are beginning to understand that they are the sum of many identities, many histories, at once.
The colonized, the colonizers. Where do we fall?

Short-listed for the Carol Sheilds Prize. Told in a choral voice throughout this short novel. I admire the writing, but the chorus also held me at arms length. Worth a read. 3 🌟 #carolsheild

Quick lil read - a bit like a long essay, detailing growing up non-White in multicultural Queens. Got my copy autographed by the author. 💖

Impressive debut. A window into the world of brown girls coming of age and navigating adulthood between two worlds-ancestral lands and the “Promised” land, brown and white. Beautiful language. I will be watching for more from Andreades.

Supervising baby ballerinas.

It‘s that time of year - when my inbox gets filled with lists! Love a good list!

A coming-of-age story about a group of friends living in Queens. It examines their lives from girlhood to adulthood, from the good to the bad.

This audio felt so much like poetry, that I had to check a print copy to see if it actually was written in verse. (It‘s not). It‘s also written in plural first person voice, or a Greek chorus made up of all the brown girls growing up in “the dregs of Queens”. There‘s no plot, but rather a series of scenes that make up lifetimes, not centered on pain & tragedy, but not dismissing it either, but celebrating the lives of brown girls.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I loved this book about girls/women growing up in Queens NY. It‘s written as a chorus of voices (reminded me of the Virgin Suicides) and it‘s very effective this way. I highly recommend and hope to pick up whatever she writes next!

A novel written in second person, which I found interesting. I like the way it evoked experiences that are likely familiar to so many folks in the US. It had short chapters and stories and because it‘s written in second person, you‘re swept along in experiences, rather than characters individually. Also it didn‘t center pain of Brown girls; the author let them be girls, complex and excited and full of hormones, etc while also not denying pain.

Really enjoyed this quick book about growing up in Queens with friends who are like family. Explores the many directions that life takes people and the complications of making different decisions than those around you. Racism is interwoven. Well written.

What Jaclyn Woodson did for Brooklyn, Daphne Andreades does for Queens. Written as a singular WE, Brown Girls is a collective story of all girls of color but a mix of many places; Asia,India, Middle East,South & Central America, Mexico etc. Told in vignettes the author traces a group of childhood friends from elementary school through adulthood up until March 2021. It worked in many ways but it also belittled 👇🏽

Really enjoyed this one!

“If you really want to know, we are the color of 7-Eleven root beer. The color of sand at Rockaway Beach when it blisters the bottoms of our feet. Color of soil. Color of the charcoal pencils our sisters use to rim their eyes. Color of grilled hamburger patties. Color of our mother‘s darkest thread, which she loops through the needle.”

There is so much that I loved about this book- the writing which encompasses both prose and poetry; the way it puts into words the joy and frailties of female friendship; the nature of our changing relationships to our homes, our families, ourselves; but mostly I loved the choral narration, the first-person plural and the way it allows for both the grand sweep of shared experience and the intimate, singular personal details. Highly recommend!

This book is brilliant. Queens is one of the most diverse areas in America, yet many white people see all brown as the same. Having the women speak as a chorus allowed Andreades to group their shared experiences like microaggressions and ties to family/home countries while still expressing many different cultures and life choices these women represent from 14 to 40. The direction of the #audiobook is exquisite. A short (4.5 hour) must listen.

A different kind of #audiocoloring!

Enjoying this audiobook!

#NewReleaseTuesday #audiobook

Excited about this one after I received a blurb from Emma Straub through Goodreads!

Finished my December #doublespin @TheAromaofBooks

I did not love it. Creative storytelling, but the use of "we" did not allow me to connect with any characters.

A wonderful novel told in vignettes of four brown girls who are best friends growing up in Queens. #ARC