trafficking Archives | Karla J. Strand

It’s been way too long since I’ve posted What I’m Reading – so here’s a new one.

In the last month or so, I’ve finished reading several books:

The Book of M by Peng Shepherd
A Little in Love With Everyone by Genevieve Hudson
Heads of the Colored People by Nafissa Thompson-Spires

My reviews of these books are coming soon.

The following articles caught my attention during this time:

“A24 Lands ‘Native Son’ WW Rights Package: Rashid Johnson Helms, Ashton Sanders to Lead Ensemble on Richard Wright Novel Adaptation” by Mike Fleming Jr. in Deadline Hollywood
“The Librarian at the Nexus of the Harlem Renaissance” by Cara Giaimo in Atlas Obscura
“You Don’t Look Like a Professor” by Nichole Margarita Garcia in Diverse Issues in Higher Education
“The ‘Roseanne’ Reboot is Funny. I’m Not Going to Keep Watching.” By Roxane Gay in The NY Times
“‘Our Bodies, Ourselves’ will stop printing new editions” by Stephanie Ebbert in The Boston Globe
“Andrew Carnegie built 1,700 public libraries. But some towns refused the steel baron’s money.” By Robert Mitchell in The Washington Post
“Grace Jones on a Lifetime of Doing Whatever She Pleases” by Melena Ryzik in The NY Times
“The Deaths of Devonte Hart and His Siblings is Why We Don’t Trust White Allies” by Sherronda J. Brown in Wear Your Voice
“The Groups ‘Rescuing’ Sex Trafficking Victims are as Bad as the Pimps” by Laura LeMoon in Wear Your Voice
“With ‘Lost in Space,’ Parker Posey Finds an Unlikely Home in Serial TV” by Dave Itzkoff in The NY Times
“Re-Writing Black Gendered Stories” by Celeste Henery in Black Perspectives

I’ve finally caught up with this season of The Walking Dead. Like many of you, my partner and I are watching Wild Wild Country which is such a strange story that I had actually never heard before. We love Santa Clarita Diet with Drew Barrymore; it is hilarious. Oh and I also loved the documentary, Seeing Allred, about the indomitable Gloria Allred. It’s a Netflix original and you should watch it.

What are you reading and watching? What are your thoughts on these articles? Comment below and let me know!

This post contains affiliate links.

Shobha Rao’s Girls Burn Brighter is an intense story of survival and sisterhood.

And so much more.

Set in India against a backdrop of a strict caste system, arranged marriages, and harsh poverty, the two main characters of Rao’s poetic story develop an unlikely friendship that proves to be an enduring constant on which they build the strength needed to endure the violence and powerlessness they experience. This alone is reason enough to read the book but I knew it was important to push myself past the initial awe at this story of strength and resiliency. When I did, I experienced an even deeper story of multidimensional characters navigating their lives and attempting to balance tradition with self-realization.

The book begins with a story about a temple in the village of Indravalli and the old childless woman who was responsible for growing the trees whose wood was used to build it. Referring to the trees as her children, the old woman is complimented on her good fortune to have so many sons. At this, with “her eyes on fire,” the woman quickly gives the correction that the trees are not her sons but her daughters. This story and its subtle emphasis on fire, wholeness, and the girl-child sets the tone for the book and these recurring themes.

As the book continues, the reader witnesses Rao’s distinct talent for detailed descriptions of the surroundings of her main characters, Poornima and Savitha. She offers us a vibrant, albeit stark, picture of life in Indravalli and the ever-present gender inequities women face. Both characters experience trauma that forces them apart and drastically changes the trajectories of their lives.

Shobha Rao

There was a door, she remembered, a hidden one. Where all her treasures lay. And it remained closed, through the tea stall and the concrete room and the drugs, through the men and the men and the men. And it was through this door that the words found their way.

In her book, as in her BookPage “Behind the Book” article, Rao challenges her reader to reflect upon what a girl is worth.

A brown girl. A poor girl. A disabled girl. An uneducated girl. An ugly girl.

A girl in Khayelitsha, South Africa. A girl in Aleppo, Syria. A girl in Indravalli, India.

Any girl.

What is she worth, anyway? And why should we care?

Throughout Girls Burn Brighter, we must keep these questions in our minds. We must answer them honestly, then interrogate and re-interrogate those answers as well as our biases to get to the truth. The truth may be uncomfortable and unexpected. But to go through this process by reading this book and others like it, is one place to begin to explore the worth of girls. To see their light, their wisdom, their energy, their complexities, their fire, their spirit burning brighter.

For further reading:

Shobha Rao’s homepage: http://shobharaowrites.com/
An original essay written by Shobha Rao: http://www.powells.com/post/original-essays/the-badlands
An interview of Shobha Rao by Book Dragon: http://smithsonianapa.org/bookdragon/cant-think-happier-story-shobha-rao-talks-girls-burn-brighter-booklist-reader/
BookPage “Behind the Book” by Shobha Rao: http://bookpage.com/behind-the-book/22376-every-day-all-over-world-what-girl-worth#.Wsi0eIjwbIV
“What’s in a Page” from Entertainment Weekly: http://ew.com/books/2018/03/30/shobh a-rao-girls-burn-brighter-interview/
Other reviews:

Summary:

Title: Girls Burn Brighter
Author: Shobha Rao
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Pages: 320
Publication Date: March 6, 2018
My Rating: Highly recommended

Disclosures:
I received this ebook from NetGalley. This review is honest and my own.
This post contains affiliate links. Support your local independent bookstore!

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What I’m Reading – 17 April 2018

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The Light Within: A Review of Shobha Rao’s GIRLS BURN BRIGHTER

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