Katelyn’s Comments (group member since Jan 07, 2016)

Katelyn’s comments from the Our Shared Shelf group.

I just read about this story and it sounds wonderful. It's not out yet so I haven't read it, but it might be worth checking out:

Rise: How a House Built a Family

A woman and her children build a house without any experience, just by watching YouTube videos, as a way of healing from their abusive past.

Hey all!

Happy New Year!

Do you have any books you're looking forward to reading in the coming year? Whether it's a new release that will happen in 2017 or just something you're planning to read.

Ross wrote: "Katelyn, I am not being defensive I am stating a fact I did not insult anyone nor have I broken any of the guidelines. If you read through the thread, this and others you will see I have not gone o..."

You've now had two moderators say otherwise. Jo did not address you directly but you seem to have known she was directing her post to you (as well as others) nonetheless. We just ask that you be more careful and considerate in the wording and tone of your posts. We are simply enforcing the group rules. If you'd like to discuss further, you can message me or Jo about it, so that we don't continue to clog this thread. Otherwise, please continue the discussion respectfully.

Ross wrote: "For the record Jo I did not attack or insult anyone I never do."

Getting defensive doesn't help the thread return to the original topic here. Let's all hold ourselves accountable and make sure we're following the group guidelines, please!

Hi Astrid,

Thanks for the recommendation. In the interest of organization, we do not allow individual threads for book suggestions. You can suggest it for the group by following the directions here: How to Suggest a Book
Additionally, you can suggest it in relevant book lists in the book suggestion folder. Those lists are based on subject matter, genre, etc. You can start your own list if you don't see one for a particular subject or genre already, but please check first, as we will remove duplicate threads.

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Hi Mir,

Please use the thread Pay It Forward thread for Persepolis for book exchange requests. Thank you!

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Hi Timothy,

Thanks for the recommendation. In the interest of organization, we do not allow individual threads for book suggestions. You can suggest it for the group by following the directions here: How to Suggest a Book
Additionally, you can suggest it in relevant book lists in the book suggestion folder. These lists are based on subject matter, genre, etc. You can start your own list if you don't see one for a particular subject or genre already, but please check first, as we will remove duplicate threads.

Locked and Archived

Lauris wrote: "What an excuse. Grade A genius. "

Hi Lauris,

We strive to be polite on Our Shared Shelf, whether we are in agreement or debating with one another. Sarcastic, belittling comments like this are not appropriate for the level of conversation we are attempting to have here.

I understand that you were not attempting to derail the conversation away from feminism, rather using the issue of animal rights as an illustrative example. Do keep in mind, however, that everyone here comes from a different background, language facility, cultural differences, and this is all compounded by the difficulty of interpreting others' ideas on the internet. It's possible that your point was taken literally rather than as an example. It's helpful to keep this in mind on Our Shared Shelf, as an international community, in order to avoid unnecessary confrontation.

We don't generally delete threads or comments unless they are in direct violation of the rules. We avoid censoring members unless absolutely necessary.

That said, Alia, I do find many of your comments condescending. And I mean toward other members here before you make an accusation against me again suggesting that I am "coddling" "[my] idol." My job here as a moderator is to ensure that discussions remain respectful. You are entitled to your opinion, but if you continue to level belittling remarks at anyone here, that may then be considered in violation of our community standards.

Furthermore, if you don't want to have to explain things to others who ask straightforward questions, then I won't answer yours, either. The list of books that have been chosen is readily available. You can discover for yourself which ones are about non-Western and/or non-white experiences. But perhaps you should have done that before making unfounded claims about the content of this group.

And finally, as a friendly reminder to all, this is a book club, not an Emma Watson fan club. We encourage general discussions on feminism and miscellaneous topics, but we are here to read and discuss the books first and foremost. If you are here only to discuss whether or not Emma is this-or-that type of feminist and haven't engaged with the reading material in any way and do not plan to, there are probably internet communities out there that would be a better fit for your interests.

@ Sherrie, I deleted your message just to get rid of the quoting. Thanks for bringing it to our attention, it is much appreciated!

Tim wrote: "Message 38: I think either the same troll has just returned (info's private, but it still shows 0 books rated or read), or Ms. Watson has been up to some really dark stuff lately :d"

We are working on it -___-

Alia wrote: "One book about black women and five about white women is also not that impressive."

I'm already said my piece on this topic in general but for the record, three books by women of color, two about specifically non-white/non-Western experiences, out of the 7 books we have read so far. You're entitled to your opinion, but I think it is worthwhile to have your facts straight if you're going to make an argument.

Furthermore, the 7th book was chosen from a poll that included dozens of options, mostly write-ins, but of the nine that Emma placed at the top of voting, there were a number of titles by women of color.

So in reality, of the six books read by this club that were chosen by Emma herself, three were written by women of color about non-white/non-Western experiences. That's half. Is that not significant?

I'm also a bit baffled by the issue of ableism. It's one thing to suggest that she is not as inclusive as she could be, but it seems that you are accusing her of actively being exclusionary. Can you elaborate?

I think part of the reason we've had this question a number of times is because not long after Our Shared Shelf began, Emma announced her year-long hiatus from acting, so people seemed to connect the two. Hopefully this club will be around for a good long while. As we know, there is not shortage of relevant books, and more people getting involved by the day!

This topic was posted twice accidentally so I am going to lock and archive this one since it has fewer replies so far. Feel free to repost your responses in the other thread here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

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Meelie wrote: "Robert wrote: "I know this is not the right place for the following suggestion for improvement, please move it (if you find a better one ;-) )

When you login to Our Shared Shelf, you can see a sta..."

And I'll add on, that this is not something that our moderation team can create. That would be a job for the Goodreads programmers, and I don't think they can make changes like that just for one group. Perhaps if there were a need for that across groups, it might be something they'd look into. You could perhaps suggest it to them by contacting them: https://www.goodreads.com/about/conta...

I agree with everything Ross and Jennifer said in the last two posts!

Arwena_Demonia wrote: "I am not sure I follow you on the message 73 and the first part of it with the genre you designate as "popular" and yet problematic. Can you develop please?"

Sure! this genre is music made by and for a limited demographic of people, namely white supremacists, racists, skinheads, etc. (those groups have many subdivisions and there are differences between them and whatnot, I won't go into that). This music tends to be hard/heavy punk/rock/metal. So already, the music itself is not really mainstream, before the lyrics are even examined. The lyrics are even more marginalizing as they are usually about preservation of a white culture, a return to old European lifestyles, Aryan ideals, etc. Neo-Nazi ideology galore.

The music is not widely popular, but they will always have an audience because the limited number of people that like and listen to that music are devoted fans. That's why I put "popular" in quotations. Because it is not a particularly lucrative genre for music making, the musicians tend not to make their living that way. They usually have day jobs and then they make music, record, and tour festivals the side.

I used this as an example because we were discussing boycotting as a method of eradicating music with harmful lyrics. But in this case, boycotting won't do any good, because the music isn't being listened to anyway, and the people making the music are not motivated by the money they earn from it. The community that listens and plays this music is exclusive and a boycott by outside forces would not matter to them. It would perhaps even spur them on!

Ross wrote: "Katelyn wrote: "long history of policing art of all kinds and usually that is tied up in fascist regimes"

Well nice to know you don't think I am advocating fascism that's a relief :)

Since this ..."

I think there is a huge difference between hate speech that incites violence and lyrics that are merely offensive. I don't disagree that they should be challenged and criticized, but to ban lyrics or prosecute an artist because they've offended someone or a group of people would be a huge problem, in my opinion.

Zainab wrote: "Hello, Emma.
I'm from Iraq and I want to join you in reading. But I am unable to get the books you are reading. Is there a link or anything that will enable me from reading them?
Love, Zainab."

Hi there, Zainab,

Unfortunately, we cannot distribute PDF copies or links of the books for copyright reasons. It would be illegal and we would get in trouble!

Check out the Pay It Forward threads where people are offering used copies of the book to one another. You can request copies of the books there.

Hope that helps!

Welcome, all!

I hope you find what you are looking for here, Dilyana. I understand the frustration of having interests different from the people around you. The internet is a great way to engage with new and shared ideas. Check out the feminism folder on the discussion board, there are a lot of great conversations there. And like Sara recommended, I hope you get the chance to dive into some of the books we're reading here :)

Ross wrote: "Katelyn Wrote: " usually that is tied up in fascist regimes, but also totalitarian regimes in general, right and left"

I am not a totalitarian nor support them in any from I don't think having law..."

I haven't accused you yourself of being or supporting totalitarianism. I am merely stating that there is a long history of controlling artistic output in this way that has propped up and helped to legitimize fascist and totalitarian regimes. As an individual, you can disagree with that if you'd like, but I've written a master's thesis on this and it is part of my larger area of study. If you'd like to learn more, I'd start with the Reichskulturkammer in Nazi Germany, but that is hardly the only example.

So again, just to be clear, I did not accuse anyone of supporting totalitarianism. I'm just adding to the conversation in general by pointing out that suggestions regarding legislation and monitoring of art in any form is usually a bad idea. This is nothing to do with individual choice in the art that one consumes, and that kind of action can indeed be useful (see my earlier post for examples), but blanket legislation against certain language or whatever else is something that has been used in the past by governments to scary effect.