Helen’s Comments (group member since Oct 06, 2017)

Helen’s comments from the Our Shared Shelf group.

Dear Our Shared Shelf Members:

We feel the weight of a world without Toni Morrison in it. A brilliant novelist, editor, essayist and professor, we are fortunate that her prolific writings and interviews remain to console us, inspire us and set us straight.

“We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the
measure of our lives.”
-Toni Morrison during her 1993 Nobel Lecture

We are pleased to announce that the Toni Morrison book you have chosen via our OSS Members Choice poll for September/October is Beloved. Inspired by the story of Margaret Garner, a slave who escaped Kentucky and fled to Ohio with her children, this book won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Toni Morrison’s lyrical prose contrasts with the horrific spectre of slavery and manages to be both beautiful and devastating all at once.

We hope you are able to read along with us. This book is a true classic and an important one to deepen understanding and dialogue around race and the heavy legacy of slavery. We look forward to your topics, comments and reviews. Please also feel free to tag us in your pictures with it on social media @oursharedshelf.

With love,

Team Our Shared Shelf

Monica G. wrote: "Hello! Here I come with an idea.

I understand, since this is an international group, that proposed books are in English. I'm Spanish and, what I do, is look for the proposed books in Spanish, so I..."

Hi Monica,

Thanks so much for your comment! OSS is very interested in choosing books that are as widely available and accessible as possible.

For this month: I believe that Butterfly is available in Spanish. https://www.goodreads.com/es/book/sho...

Solito/Solita is published out of a very small, independent press and they did not have the resources yet to offer a translated edition, though I certainly hope they will in the future.

Last selection: Pachinko was also available in Spanish - maybe you got a chance to read that one?

Kind regards,
Helen

Katelyn wrote: "Hi Florian and Hélène—sorry to hear that the books are too expensive this time around. In case you haven't seen it, Helen posted a thread about book availability in the Announcements folder that yo..."

Hi,
Just a friendly reminder that Solito/Solita is available as an e-book from the publisher directly for about $5 US. It can be a challenge to make sure all books are widely available in bookstores in every country where we have members, and though e-books are not for everyone, it's an affordable way to provide access worldwide.

Thanks for your understanding,
Helen

Dear OSS Members:

We are continually striving to provide access and availability options to our global book-loving members. For July/August, we have chosen two books to highlight the plight of refugees in different parts of the world. We know that not everyone can afford the time or budget to read two books, but we feel these book selections are important for unique reasons and will provoke meaningful and timely dialogue on common themes.

BUTTERFLY: FROM REFUGEE TO OLYMPIAN – MY STORY OF RESCUE, HOPE AND TRIUMPH
by Yusra Mardini

Butterfly has been published in several languages. Publisher provided link to global avails:
http://pages.panmacmillan.com/butterf...

In the UK, we are pleased to announce we obtained a £5 discount with this code exclusively for our members.

Get Butterfly from Refugee to Olympian for £12.99 - with this discount code from WHSmith.co.uk
Discount code: BUTTERFLY

Ts&Cs to be included on any reference to code:
This discount code is valid from midnight on 14/06/19 until 11.59pm on 01/09/2019. This is not valid with any other product or offer and is only available online, not in store. Subject to availability.
Further wording included below, should this format be preferable or required:
Offer valid online only. To qualify for this offer, add your products to your basket and enter promo code BUTTERFLY. The discount will show in the basket and is only valid once per transaction. Discount applies only to the listed product. Offer subject to availability. No cash alternative. Cannot be used in conjunction with any other online promotion codes.

Link to order the book and then enter the discount code:

https://www.whsmith.co.uk/products/bu...

The book is currently £8.99 in ebook from Amazon; it's available in audiobook from Audible as part of a subscription.


SOLITO/SOLITA: CROSSING BORDERS WITH YOUTH REFUGEES FROM CENTRAL AMERICA
Edited by Steven Mayers and Jonathan Freedman

This book, from a small press, is currently available in English.

Buy from Haymarket Press directly and it’s discounted 30% ($13.96) and with any purchase of a book, you receive a free ebook.

The ebook purchase from the publisher is discounted to $5.10. Link here: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/...

On Amazon U.S., we are seeing a price of $13.36, but does not come with the free ebook. Link here: https://www.amazon.com/Solito-Solita-...

Any resourceful members who want to add to this list are more than welcome!

We are happy to say we have managed to secure some generous giveaways from the publishers. Because we have more than one giveaway, we will be choosing winners from the first people who respond to the question and can provide their contact info promptly within the time allotted. So, please watch for these giveaways and be sure to follow up with your contact info if you're one of the first 25 to respond to remain a book winner!

Thank you again for supporting these important voices.

With love and gratitude,

Helen

Dear Our Shared Shelf Members:

The words we use are important. As readers, writers and storytellers, we know this. The names we use and those used by others to label us are important, too.

Terms like: “Illegal alien” are intentionally misleading. How can personhood be illegal? If a person is “alien”, isn’t it easier to imagine they are not like you or me? Is this how one begins to justify separating young children from their parents, even though seeking asylum is not a crime? If we are opposed to criminalizing refugees or detaining children without adequate food, hygiene or sleeping conditions, we must resist the labeling, the dehumanizing rhetoric. And to that end, we turn to the narratives of people behind the news headlines.

Our two OSS book choices for July/August help shine a spotlight on the astonishing, bravely-told stories of young people forced to flee their homes. We are honored to have introductions from Soledad Castillo, a narrator from Solito/Solita: Crossing Borders with Youth Refugees from Central America, edited by Stephen Mayers and Jonathan Freedman and Yusra Mardini, author of Butterfly: From Refugee to Olympian – My Story of Rescue, Hope and Triumph.

These narratives moved us deeply and we hope you will feel the same. We understand that not everyone will read two books – so let us know which one you choose and please join us for some much-needed dialogue.

With love,

Team Our Shared Shelf


Introduction to Solito, Solita for Our Shared Shelf

I believe that telling one’s story is a way to healing. Sharing my own story has changed my life. When I was fourteen, I left my home country of Honduras after being abused by my stepfather, abandoned by my mother, and forced into child labor. Heading north to the United States was my only option to survive.

In Solito, Solita: Crossing Borders with Youth Refugees from Central America, you will find fifteen oral histories detailing the experiences, including my own, of young refugees fleeing their countries to seek safety and security in the US. I hope these stories not only shed light on the violence, abuse, and abandonment many young refugees and immigrants face, but also the bravery, hope, community, and resilience in our experiences.

Ultimately, this book helped me accept and love myself, and I would never be the person I am today without my experience. Sharing my story, it’s inspired me, and I hope it will inspire others as well.
—Soledad Castillo


Introduction to Butterfly for Our Shared Shelf

I am a refugee. That wasn’t always easy for me to say, but I realise now there is no shame in being forced out of your home. Butterfly tells the story of how, in 2015, together with my elder sister Sara, I left war-torn Syria and sought safety in Germany. On our perilous journey, when our boat began to sink, we used our swimming skills to help save the lives of our fellow passengers. Later, I fulfilled my childhood dream of competing at the Olympic Games.

My story isn’t only about heroics. It’s also the tale of an ordinary girl in extraordinary circumstances. These experiences thrust me onto the world stage and set me on a mission to change perceptions of refugees, to remind the world that we are just ordinary human beings. My life in Syria before the war was just like yours; I had a home, I had roots, I belonged. Then, one day without warning, war arrived, and split my world apart. None of us chose to flee our homes, our only choice was to die at home or risk death trying to escape.

I am a refugee, and I am also a feminist. In my country girls are often brought up believing they are inferior to men and are encouraged to limit their ambitions to the home. With the support of our parents, my sister and I fought to break out of that restrictive mould. We kept swimming and showed the world we could achieve anything a man could. Butterfly tells that story, too.
I wrote Butterfly because I wanted to show how much we all have in common: man and woman, those forced to flee, and those who live in peace. I want everyone to understand why we came to seek a future in a place where death doesn’t fall at random from the sky. A place to live out calm days after the storm.

Happy reading,

Yusra Mardini

Hi Booklovers!

Grand Central Publishing has generously agreed to a global giveaway to 25 lucky winners.

What do you think Min Jin Lee wanted to express with her first line of the book?: History has failed us, but no matter.

Reply here for a chance to win a copy of Pachinko.

Good luck,
Helen

Dear Our Shared Shelf:

We are extremely excited to announce that our selection for May/June is: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. This National Book Award finalist was included on 75 Best Books of the Year lists when it debuted. We were aware of the discrimination that Koreans living in Japan faced and still endure today, but were wholly unprepared for how Lee’s writing captivated us from the very first sentence and never let go: “History has failed us, but no matter.”

Min Jin Lee is unabashedly a feminist and her resilient female characters propel this riveting story. Lee has written a moving, historical saga that is also a timeless masterpiece; almost 500 pages long, and we didn’t want it to end. This brilliant, eye-opening novel is about outsiders, minorities, the disenfranchised and yet somehow embraces us all.

We asked the author if she would share an introduction to herself and the book for Our Shared Shelf members and she graciously agreed. All of us at Team OSS are looking forward to discussing Pachinko with you.

With love,

Team OSS


From Min Jin Lee, author of Pachinko and Free Food for Millionaires:

I learned about the lives of the Korean-Japanese people, also known as the Zainichi, when I was nineteen years old. At university, I heard a lecture about how Koreans ended up in Japan during the colonial era (1910-1945) and how they remained after the Pacific War ended. At that time, I had no intention of becoming a fiction writer. Nevertheless, even then, I knew that the story of these people meant something important to me. It took me almost three decades to write Pachinko, a novel of a poor Korean woman’s migration to Japan. In the story, a very young woman becomes pregnant, rejects the man who has deceived her, then marries a poor man who takes her to live in a foreign country. Illiterate and without resources, my character earns money to support her family in a nation that is hostile to her people.

Often, I am asked why I write novels. I write fiction, because stories have the power to connect the reader to our collective experiences and struggles. Whether it is attraction, rejection, inclusion, or exclusion, whether we seek love, work, or homeland, we can re-imagine our lives differently through the lives of characters and their desires.

Thank you for including Pachinko in Our Shared Shelf, a vibrant and vital community of thoughtful readers who care about our world and the liberation of all peoples from hatred, cruelty and inequality. Reading is a powerful space of paradigm reconstruction and literary imagination, and, this is a temporal space you and I can share. I am humbled to be included in your lives, and I share your vision of a greater, broader, and freer world, where you and I can better care for ourselves, friends, and for all those who need us. We are a global family, and we are powerful together.

Hi Kai Cheng,

The writing and imagery in Fierce Femmes is so evocative, wildly imaginative and poetic. I'm so looking forward to reading more of your poetry. Can you tell us a bit about your writing/editing process for poetry vs. longer form? Do you free write, then edit? Do you outline the story?

Thank you so much for answering some of our questions.

With much admiration,
Helen

The publisher has informed us that the iBook version of Fierce Femmes is now available in 50 countries, I believe on any apple device. https://itunes.apple.com/ca/book/fier...

Hi all:

I'm thrilled to report that Kai Cheng Thom will be answering a few of our questions. Please post here by April 14th and we will make sure she gets them.

Thank you!
Helen

Hi all,

I love the thinking behind this thread. And I love libraries even more! We don't always have advance notice of the book selections, however, maybe it makes me wonder if there's a way we can get access to certain library associations that might agree to some confidentiality, yet be able to start ordering for people?

Let me know your thoughts!

Warmly,
Helen

I have a copy of Fierce Femmes to share and can send (U.S. only). Please PM me.

Hi all! Got an update from the publisher about avails for Fierce Femmes... and it's arrival at brick and mortar bookshops in the UK. *denotes online

AMAZON *

BLACKWELLS ONLINE *

BOOK DEPOSITORY *

BOOKS ETC *

BRICK LANE BOOKSHOP - LONDON

BRITISH LIBRARY BOOKSHOP - LONDON

BURLEY FISHER BOOKS, LONDON

FOYLES CHARING CROSS ROAD, LONDON

GAYS THE WORD, LONDON

JOHN SMITH BOOKSHOP - SOUTHAMPTON

LIGHTHOUSE BOOKSHOP, EDINBURGH

LONDON REVIEW BOOKSHOP

NEWHAM BOOKSHOP, LONDON

OCTOBER BOOKSHOP - SOUTHAMPTON

PAGES OF HACKNEY, LONDON

PBSHOP *

WATERSTONES – SELECTED BRANCHES

Books are on their way from the U.S. to the UK/Europe. Bookstores in the UK have placed orders. Please stay tuned for more info.

In the U.S., the book is also in stock at Abe Books and Small Press Distribution:

https://www.spdbooks.org/AdvancedSear...

If you don't want to buy the pdf from the publisher, more copies are on their way to Europe/UK. Should be restocked by end of this week or early next week, we hear.

Thanks for your patience,
Helen

Our pleasure. Hope you are as inspired by it as we were.

Thank you,
Helen

Dear OSS Members:

If there’s anyone out there who loves books more than we do, it might be a small press publisher. They demonstrate their passion and devotion to books daily and take on financial risks to amplify the voices of amazing authors like Kai Cheng Thom, who wrote this month’s selection, Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl’s Confabulous Memoir. At Team OSS, we are honored to be able to support a small press like Metonymy Press out of Montreal, Canada who actively tries to reduce barriers to publishing for authors whose perspectives are underrepresented to produce books that are relevant to queer, feminist and social justice communities. By reading, purchasing and engaging in dialogue around these books, you are supporting small presses like Saqi Books who published The Things I Would Tell You and Counterpoint Press who published Heart Berries and more!

Small presses generally have less resources and less reach, so we also understand that availability and pricing may be less desirable for some in our global community. To help, we have worked closely with the publisher and they have been working hard to provide options to aid with access and availability:

For those in the U.S. and Canada, you may opt to buy from Metonymy Press directly – prices are in Canadian dollars:

https://metonymypress.com/shop/

There is also a pdf of the book available directly from the publisher for $10CAD. (Approx US$8 or £6)

For worldwide free delivery, try:

https://wordery.com

https://www.bookdepository.com

Books should be in stock on Amazon.

Metonymy pulled some strings to quickly obtain distribution in the UK and physical books are on their way (currently in the air, flying over us) to brick and mortar bookstores in the UK and Europe. Stay tuned for bookstore names and feel free to chime in here.

The distributor and bibliodata code allows the library system and bookstores to access the books in the UK and Europe, so feel free to request it. Same goes for the U.S. and Canada.

Any resourceful members who want to add to this list are welcome!

Thank you for supporting small presses and diverse voices!

With love and gratitude,

Helen

Dear OSS Members:

So many books, so little time.

Books that are selected for Our Shared Shelf undergo a rigorous selection process and we wanted to share some of this process with you. We scour book lists, book reviews and read member suggestions. It’s a team approval process. Moderators and other OSS team members suggest books that pass our criteria. We look for all kinds (fiction, nonfiction, memoir, short stories, anthologies, poetry, essays, graphic novels…) of inspiring books:

- by empowering feminist writers and underrepresented voices
- with diverse, intersectional themes
- by international authors
- that have been translated into many languages
- that are affordable and accessible for our global members
- that are timely or offer wisdom that is currently relevant

At OSS, we are constantly searching for books that fit our criteria that are also translated into other languages, so all our global members can participate. The fact remains that the vast majority of book publishers are based in the U.S., UK or Canada. While we are continually grateful to publishers as this must be a challenging business these days, we also really wish that they were more willing to publish and translate international authors that do not originate works in English. Generally, books must be very popular in their original language before a publisher will take on the work and expense of translating it. This definitely narrows the field of available intersectional feminist books that are readily available in multiple languages. Even classic works can be difficult to find in multiple languages or can be prohibitively expensive. Perhaps we should expand our selection to self-published books?

Ideally, we want all our books to fit in a reasonably affordable range and be available in libraries with plenty of stock worldwide. E-books, audio books and pdf’s definitely help, though we realize that not everyone likes to read the same way. We limit the number of new releases that we feature in a year for that reason. Sometimes we find a book that we really want to share that doesn’t check all the boxes, so we debate and weigh pros and cons before deciding to bring it forward. With books that are newer releases, we work hard to get book publishers to donate books and postage for giveaways to our members.

We are huge fans of libraries and work with library associations to let them know what books we are featuring in hopes that they will order them for our members before they even have to ask.

OSS strives to support small presses when we can. Small publishers lift up underrepresented voices and can take chances on new authors that bigger publishers may not. However, this also means that the books are often more expensive. It’s a tough choice. We wish it weren’t this way, but once in a while, we hope you’ll understand that paying more for books from a small press (when you are able) can mean supporting more diverse voices and emerging writers.

Our Shared Shelf never favors a single publisher and does not consider book solicitations from authors who approach us. We encourage author engagement and do our best to create opportunities for author-member interaction and original content.
We have never accepted money or renumeration in exchange for selecting a book or for helping to promote a book. In fact, OSS incurs expenses for staff, social media management, book purchases, video production, office supplies, postage and other expenses that must continually be funded for OSS to continue operating.

We look forward to member choice months where you pick the book. One of the most popular books this past year was Rebecca. It was a classic that was widely translated, available worldwide, used and in paperback and not too pricey. We can see why many loved it. Others felt it was not very feminist or intersectional, but no choice is perfect. We know that we make mistakes and just keep trying to learn from them. With limited time and budgets, we also understand not everyone can join on every discussion of every book. We are grateful that when you can, so many of you have chosen to share and walk alongside us on this book-lovers journey.

With love,

Team Our Shared Shelf

Winston wrote: "Hi All! I'm participating in a Winter Wishes event this Christmas, and the letter I received is from a fourth grade girl.

I would like to add a couple books to her gift to encourage reading habits..."

Forgot to add: I am Malala. (Young Reader's Edition)

Winston wrote: "Hi All! I'm participating in a Winter Wishes event this Christmas, and the letter I received is from a fourth grade girl.

I would like to add a couple books to her gift to encourage reading habits..."

Love this question! Some great book suggestions here. I second:

One Crazy Summer
Amina's Voice
Brown Girl Dreaming
Marley Dias Gets it Done

Young Marley Dias has a great list you can check out: #1000Blackgirlbooks

I see lots of other great titles I need to catch up on!

Would also like to add:

Full Cicada Moon by Marilyn Hilton
Lightning Dreamer: Cuba's Greatest Abolitionist
by Margarita Engle
See Saw Girl by Linda Sue Park
Gracefully Grayson by Ami Polonsky