Litsy

What We Owe | Golnaz Hashemzadeh Bonde

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When I started this book,I immediately wanted to bail.Nahid,the narrator has just been diagnosed with cancer.She came across to me as a despicable person-angry,nasty, to her daughter & those around her.But something pulled me back into her story & I am so thankful I responded to that pull.As her life story slowly emerged,as she struggled to understand her journey herself & cope with her diagnosis,I began to feel empathy.A refugee of the Iranian🔽

kspenmoll 🔼 Revolution,she threw herself into her role with idealism & little understanding. She was marked as traitor to the Iranian regime for life.So she& her husband immigrated to Sweden.The trauma of herself as a refugee,& her compounded losses:family,culture,roots,country, never left her.She cannot get over all these losses- she states starkly:”You are condemned and your children are too. Everything remains, and everything is passed down.”🔽 (edited) 1w

kspenmoll 🔼 Her statement reminds me of The Postcard & the idea that the Holocaust & its resulting trauma stays in survivors‘ body cells for generations. (edited) 1w

65 likes2 stack adds2 comments

rmaclean4

Martyr!: A novel | Kaveh Akbar

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Love this novel about recovery from addiction, trying to find your place in the world, and choosing life. It is entertaining and surprising. Loved the audio book. Highly recommend. 4 🌟

20 likes1 stack add

rwmg

Darius the Great Deserves Better | Adib Khorram

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After the family's return home from Iran, Darius gets a boyfriend, his dream job as an intern in a tea shop, and a spot on the school's soccer team.

There were times I felt the intricacies of tea connoisseurship and sports were taking over the story, but I still want to know how various relationships were going to develop further at the end. There wasn't really a cliffhanger, it just left me wanting the story to continue.

Reggie Is this the one where he goes and advocates for his little sister against her teacher? 3w

rwmg @Reggie Yes 3w

24 likes2 comments

rwmg

Darius the Great Deserves Better | Adib Khorram

#coffeeandabook

24 likes

rwmg

Darius the Great is Not Okay | Adib Khorram

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Darius Kellner, a high school sophomore (which makes him what, 15 or 16?) and his family go on a trip to Yazd in Iran where he meets his mother's family for the first time.

I enjoyed this story of a teenage boy trying to navigate a culture unfamiliar to him when he doesn't really fit in at home either. ⬇

rwmg The author says in an afterword that he 'wanted to show how depression can affect a life without ruling it'. I don't think he did. Darius seemed a normal enough rather self-absorbed teenager coping with a bully at school and a hypercritical father. If it weren't for the references to him and his father taking their medication I wouldn't have known depression was an issue until a conversation about 30 pp before the end about the events 7 years b4. 3w

28 likes1 stack add1 comment

rwmg

Darius the Great is Not Okay | Adib Khorram

#teaandabook

I recently found my stash of genmaicha, which had disappeared during my last move, so time to re-read this

25 likes

Soubhiville

Darius the Great is Not Okay | Adib Khorram

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Darius is the best book about adolescent depression I think I‘ve ever read. I loved his family, and felt for him as he met his family in Iran for the first time. His feelings of not fitting in, of feeling like an “other”, were relatable. I‘d definitely recommend this to any teens, but especially to anyone struggling with mental health or who feel like having immigrant parents set them apart from peers.

Soubhiville @Yenya1954 I‘m putting this in a new stack to send to you. Eventually 🙂 3w

Gissy I loved this book and there is a sequel. 3w

Soubhiville @Gissy oh that‘s good to hear! I‘ll have to look it up 🙂 3w

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Soubhiville That was easy 😁

Darius the Great Deserves Better

dabbe 🖤🐾🖤 3w

vivastory I read this over the weekend and thought it was fantastic 3w

rwmg Having found my stash of genmaicha and the sequel being on my virtual TBR shelf, I decided to re-read it
3w

Suet624 I liked this one too. 3w

Caryl I loved Darius. ❤️ Wonderful review! 2w

76 likes2 stack adds9 comments

booklover3258

Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return | Marjane Satrapi

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My review of this book can be found on my YouTube Vlog at:

https://youtu.be/NNKIFf8siHI

Enjoy!

32 likes

vivastory

Darius the Great is Not Okay | Adib Khorram

Darius Kellner, born in America, & a self-described Fractional Persian visits Yazd for the first time in his life with his younger sister & his mother & father due to his grandfather's terminal disease. Darius filters the world through LoTr & Star Trek references, making for often funny observations but these are heightened by his own difficulties with mental health issues. This is a YA novel. but I found it to be free of a lot of the (CONT)

vivastory tropes prevalent in YA literature, even when discussing similar topics. Although the overall message at the end is a simple one, I do think it is an important one (esp during these times of increasing suicide rates) that it is okay to not be okay. I know that there is a follow-up to this one, but I don't think I will be reading it, as I really liked how this one unfolded & don't feel the need.
PS-Be prepared to make yourself some tea while (CONT) (edited) 4w

vivastory reading this one! I am a coffee convert, but boy did I crave tea while reading it. And some of the food descriptions def made me rethink my dinner plans for the upcoming week to include a stop by my favorite Mediterranean restaurant! 4w

BarbaraBB It sounds so good, and intriguing about the tea and the restaurant. Stacked! 4w

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TheLudicReader It‘s a beautiful book. 4w

rwmg As it happens, I am sipping genmaicha, Darius's favourite tea, this evening. 4w

vivastory @rwmg I had never had genamaicha, but the description of it made me want to go seek out a good tea shop & order some! Luckily I will be close to one tomorrow afternoon 4w

vivastory @BarbaraBB One of my favorite areas in KC used to be filled with coffee shops, record stores, book stores, venues for live music & great restaurants. All within a fairly small radius. A lot of those places have closed down now, but one of my favorites is a Mediterranean restaurant I love called Jerusalem's. A lot of great memories associated w/ that place & area in general 4w

BarbaraBB I wish I could walk through the KC of your memories, including Jerusalem‘s. It sounds amazing! 4w

vivastory @BarbaraBB 💙 It''s pretty special 4w

Reggie I loved the grandma in here. 3w

Branwen I'm glad you liked this one! It's definitely one of my favorite YA reads! 3w

53 likes1 stack add11 comments

Pinta

Martyr!: A novel | Kaveh Akbar

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Family, siblings, deathdrive, dreams. Shifting 1st person POV centered on orphaned Iranian-American poet Cyrus Shams. Obsession with martyrdom and “a death that matters” masking a search for meaning and “goodness.” Open and heartfelt. Saw the twist coming, but it still did its work. 2024

10 “Cyrus didn‘t write so much as he drank about writing”

114 “It‘s possible, he thought, that the experience of gratitude was itself a luxury”

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