Help Spread the LitWorld Girls Clubs for Literacy

Throughout the world, 774 million people are illiterate, and 2/3 of that number are women.

Because of this, one of the biggest programs of the global literacy organization LitWorld is the LitWorld Girls Clubs for Literacy, a reading and writing program that empowers young women to tap into their extraordinary strengths and meet their personal needs. LitWorld Girls Clubs for Literacy provide support, mentorship, and a safe space for girls to learn, connect, and become part of an international network of young women, encouraging a global perspective and a global connection.


LitWorld has 20 Girls Clubs for Literacy in the U.S., Kenya, Liberia, Ghana, Iraq, and the Philippines, and would like to expand to more cities in the U.S. and to different countries. If you are interested in starting a LitWorld Girls Club for Literacy, please email girlsclubs@litworld.org. LitWorld staff provides training (via Internet video conference) and fully supports new partners as they launch this program.

Together, we can create a safe, supportive world for all girls.



[Pictures above from the LitWorld Girls Clubs in Iraq, the U.S., and the Philippines.]

Review: Please Look After Mom by Kyung-Sook Shin

Please Look After Mom

Kyung-Sook Shin

Translated from the Korean by Chi-Young Kim

256 pages

Publication Date: April 5, 2011

Publisher: Knopf

Source: Bought it

It’s been one week since Mom went missing. . .

Park So-nyo is an elderly woman who's’ trailing behind her husband in a crowded Seoul subway station when the two become separated as it’s time to board. It should have been a routine trip to the city from the country but turns into a mysterious disappearance as hours turn into days without Park’s return. What follows is a sometimes lazy, other times desperate search for Mom by her husband and five grown children as they reflect on their lives with her.

Usually when an author uses a second-person narrative, I can’t read past the first page. I often find this point of view gimmicky and too distracting to become engaged in the book. I think it speaks volumes of not only Shin’s talent as a writer but Chi-Young Kim’s talent as a translator that PLAM doesn’t read this way.

There’s so much that I can say to describe PLAM. I can tell you that it’s about family and motherly love. I can also say that it’s about guilt and the role of mothers in any culture. As a mother, I can tell you that being a mom is one of the most rewarding roles that I have ever had but it’s also the most demanding and hardest. There’s no off-days, no breaks, and you’re “on call” for the rest of your life. Shin expertly illustrates how much women sacrifice for their children without children always being aware of it. Park is the mother who sells her wedding ring so that her child can have what they need and who’s constantly working in the fields to make sure her children have enough food to eat. I’ve read reviews about this book that described Park as a martyr and I think that shows how cynical people have become of mothers. A martyr is someone who accepts their suffering which is the opposite of this character. Park doesn’t accept her suffering but gets through it without harming others.

Shin does a beautiful job exploring the life of Park through the eyes of her family and herself. Readers learn about a woman who was slowly becoming sicker the older she became, who had headaches that were so bad she couldn’t cry when she learned that her only sister died. But readers also learn the roles about the family has played in Park’s disappearance: the husband who was so selfish that he refused to acknowledge the growing pain his wife was in; the daughter who’s also a famous writer and her inability to have a conversation with her mom about the places she travelled; or the son who was his mother’s favorite but never did enough for her.

You don’t understand why it took you so long to realize something so obvious. To you, Mom was always Mom. It never occurred to you that she once taken a first step, or had once been three or twelve or twenty years old. Mom was Mom. She was born as Mom. Until you saw her running to your uncle like that, it hadn’t dawned on you that she was a human being who harbored the exact same feeling you had for your own brothers, and this realization led to the awareness that she, too, had had a childhood. From then on, you sometimes thought of Mom as a child, as a girl, as a young woman, as a newlywed, as a mother who had just given birth to you.

Even with such a selfish family, I carried hope with each turned page that Park would be found. I hoped that her family would have a chance to write the wrongs of the past. I believe good writing does that: it makes you carry hope when there is none, it makes you even despair with characters as though they are real. I glanced through the eyes of these children as they saw their mother as a person not just a role and admitted their wrongs while wishing for a second chance.

Told with tenderness, Please Look at Mom is a story that will have readers exploring their own relationships with their moms.

Bollywood Babes - Narinder Dhami

Bollywood Babes by Narinder Dhami
14 yr old Geena, 12 yr old Amber and 11 yr old Jazz are sisters and very close. In Bindi Babes their Auntie from India moved to England to look after them. After the sisters stopped trying to marry Auntie off, everyone got along.

Auntie agreed to help put on a Bollywood party to raise money for the girls school. The sisters find out Molly Mohal, a former Bollywood star is living very close to them. Amber is the sister with the great ideas. These schemes never work out but the sister's still try. That's part of the fun and the charm.

This time Amber thinks it would be a great a idea to invite Molly Mohal to be a guest of honor at the Bollywood party. When they find Molly, she's about to get evicted. Amber invites her to stay with them. The former Bollywood star is still a diva, and all the women in the house want her to leave. Especially Auntie, Molly's wearing all of her good clothes. All the men are wowed by Molly. Even the girls dad is acting different.

This is the second book in this series. I enjoyed this one even more and now it's offical I love this series. Dhmai's created some wonderful characters. The sisters play off of each other very well. Auntie can hold her own with them as well.

I love that the author takes the time to develop a few secondary storylines that will continue throughout the series. Allowing for the surrounding characters to play a larger roll. When I picked up Bollywood Babes I was excited to enter the sisters world again. You can read this first but I highly recommend starting with Bindi Babes. This is great tween chick lit fun. 11up

NPR's Racially Inappropriate look at Please Look After Mom

I stumbled across a critique of Please Look After Mom by Kyung-Sook Shin at NPR by Maureen Corrigan There are so many unnecessary classless adjectives, it's beyond ridiculous, inappropriate and unprofessional. Corrigan tops it off with a nice little racial dig at the end. I am so disgusted and trying to calm down to start from the beginning.

Please Look After Mom is Shin's English language debut. It sold over a million copies in South Korea. A few weeks back, I told Vasilly another Color Online contributor about Please Look After Mom. Vasilly started reading it first and said it was amazing. I quickly added it to my reading queue. I finished the book in three sittings and loved it.



There's a lot of buzz around this release, so I decided to search for a few literary reviews to link to when I did my review this coming week. This lead me to the NPR, whatever that is, I refuse to call it a review and I barely want to call it a critique.

Part of me is screaming inside because I felt Please Look After Mom was so beautifully done. Though I understand everyone isn't going to feel the same way. So I can easily put that aside. Even if I hadn't yet read Shin's novel I would still take offense to what Corrigan wrote. I am not the only one. It's received 59 comments. Many have noted the line of the last paragraph.

"Having just read Patti Smith's award-winning memoir, Just Kids, for the second time, I'd urge you to pick her empowering female adventure tale about getting lost in the city instead. Smith will get your book club on its feet and pumping its collective fists in the air, rather than knocking back the wine and reaching for the cheap consolations of kimchee-scented Kleenex fiction"

How in the hell was kimchee-scented Kleenex, even allowed to see the light of day. That's some serious racial BullShit

Even before that last line there was so much bitterness and uncalled for personal jabs. As well as inaccuracies.

"Did you catch the anti-city, anti-modernist, anti-feminist messages in that passage?"The lost mother clearly stands for values that are fading from Korean culture as industrialization and urbanization triumph."

If you've read Please Look After Me, you know that's incorrect. Corrigan only shares what she hopes will prove her point. While clearly dismissing the strength of the mother and her desire for her children to have more opportunities than she did.

Corrigan and NPR also felt the need to include a photograph of the author.

Now every time Shin looks at that photo she may be reminded of this ugliness.
As far as I know neither Corrigan or NPR as issued a statement of apology. Not even a half ass one, where they simply claim ignorance.

Is the NPR Review of Please Look After Mom Racist? @ Ask a Korean (a must read)

Corriagan's critique of Please Look After Mom went up on Apr 5 the same day Kyung-Sook Shin had her American Debut Celebration. Do I think this is a coincidence? Hell NO. Just more ugliness.

Vasilly's lovely review of Please Look After Mom

Just A Reader ( Nothing More) Part I

The bookstore I am working at is closing in May. We haven't gotten new releases since the closing sale started. So I not on top of the new releases and bestsellers and it feels a bit weird. I know when this is all over, I will probably be even less informed about what's coming out. I'll be dare I say it just a reader. I must admit that scares some.

I will never turn into the customer who ask for the new James Patterson (please don't do this. booksellers HATE this question)but I know I'll miss finding new authors by accident. Also its not helping that I don't have much faith in finding many books by authors of color reviewed in mainstream media.

I do like the reviews in People magazine. They are usually on point. I also enjoy publishers weekly reviews. I find the NYT Review of Books is too dry for me. Half the time I feel like I need cliff notes. All of the time I am left wondering how the reviewer felt about the book. And the reviews are the length of a novelette.

I know there are great reviews in Vogue and O magazine. Though unless someone tells me about them I won't read them. It takes forever to find the reviews. With People magazine, simply start from the back to find books reviews quickly.

Since, I will be returning to just reader status very soon, any suggestions for where I should look for book recommendations. Please include any blogs you love.

A Few Questions - I'll go first

1 What are you reading now?

I finally started, If Sons Then Heirs by Lorene Cary. I had to wait because I didn't want to pick it up during my slump. I falling hard for this book. Carey writing is beautiful and well crafted.

Yesterday, I started The Apple Pie Dream by Jenny Han, after reading Nathalie's review. It's an early middle grade novel, and a lot of fun

2 What have you recently finished?

Bindi Babes by Narinder Dhami. Its a middle grade novel featuring three South Asian sisters. It was so much fun.

3 What are you reading next.

I have no idea

4 Do you finish every book you start?

No, I put the bad ones down. Though I will skip to the last chapter to see how it ends. Normally, I feel justified for not finishing the book.

5 What was the last book you read because you liked the cover? Did you like it?

Learning How to Swim by Sara J. Henry. It's a mystery and I loved it. A great debut.

New Crayons

It's a new week, spring finally seems to be in bloom (at least in my neck of the woods), and we've got some new books to share for your reading pleasure.

Doret

When the Thrill is Gone by Walter Mosley

The economy has hit the private-investigator business hard, even for the detective designated as “a more than worthy successor to Philip Marlowe” (The Boston Globe) and “the perfect heir to Easy Rawlins” (Toronto Globe and Mail). Lately, Leonid McGill is getting job offers only from the criminals he’s worked so hard to leave behind. Meanwhile, his life grows ever more complicated: his favorite stepson, Twill, drops out of school for mysteriously lucrative pursuits; his best friend, Gordo, is diagnosed with cancer and is living on Leonid’s couch; his wife takes a new lover, infuriating the old one and endangering the McGill family; and Leonid’s girlfriend, Aura, is back but intent on some serious conversations…
So how can he say no to the beautiful young woman who walks into his office with a stack of cash? She’s an artist, she tells him, who’s escaped from poverty via marriage to a rich collector who keeps her on a stipend. But she says she fears for her life, and needs Leonid’s help. Though Leonid knows better than to believe every word, this isn’t a job he can afford to turn away, even as he senses that-if his family’s misadventures don’t kill him first-sorting out the woman’s crooked tale will bring him straight to death’s door.

Natasha 

Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones

Set in a middle-class neighborhood in Atlanta in the 1980s, the novel revolves around James WItherspoon's families-- the public one and the secret one. When the daughters from each family meet and form a friendship, only one of them knows they are sisters. It is a relationship destined to explode when secrets are revealed and illusions shattered. As Jones explores the backstories of her rich and flawed characters, she also reveals the joy, and the destruction, they brought to each other's lives.

At the heart of it all are the two girls whose lives are at stake, and like the best writers, Jones portrays the fragility of her characers with raw authenticity as they seek love, demand attention, and try to imagine themselves as women.

Please Look After Mom by Kyung-Sook Shin

A million-plus-copy best seller in Korea—a magnificent English-language debut poised to become an international sensation—this is the stunning, deeply moving story of a family’s search for their mother, who goes missing one afternoon amid the crowds of the Seoul Station subway.
Told through the piercing voices and urgent perspectives of a daughter, son, husband, and mother, Please Look After Mom is at once an authentic picture of contemporary life in Korea and a universal story of family love.

Color Me Brown

I've been MIA for the past week and a half, I apologize! It's been a bit overwhelming trying to catch up on all the blog posts and I admit, I sort-of gave up. Definitely leave links for me this week because I'm sure I missed lots of good posts. Links can be about anything literary, specifically literary that deals with people of color. Interviews, guest posts, reviews, discussion posts, videos. It's important that we support people who contribute to the important discussion of race in literature. We certainly don't need to agree on everything, but we should discuss and act.

Steph Su interviews Cara Chow, author of Bitter Melon Gracie raises Frances as a single mother. Was there a reason you decided not to include the presence of a father figure in BITTER MELON? In the first draft of the book, Frances had a mom, an aloof, deadbeat, biological father, and a loving step-dad. Later, I axed the deadbeat biological father and made the loving step-dad into Frances’s only dad. This father figure was very important in the story. By the second or third draft, it became clear that my story lacked focus. It had too many plots: the mother-daughter plot, the father-daughter plot, and the overachievement plot. To tame my story, I would have to choose one. At one point, I was considering making it a father-daughter story, putting the mother in the background. In the end, I decided to make it a mother-daughter story, with the overachievement issue being a symptom of the mother-daughter dynamic. To intensify the power struggle between Frances and Gracie, I decided to axe the dad. This nearly killed me because Frances’s dad was so lovable and I had received so much positive feedback on this character. But doing so strengthened the story. Without a dad to support the family, Gracie is much more dependent on Frances, which increases Frances’s obligation to her mother, as well as her guilt

Zetta Elliott writes about Unpacking the Past I may eventually learn to let go of the past, but I cannot—will not—accept the fact that black children in Canada (or the US) still don’t have books that reflect their varied realities. For if black children can’t see themselves in books, then children of other races can’t see them, either. I write speculative fiction, in part, because it is a genre that allows me to play with the past—to reshape, revise, and repair a world where children of color are too often invisible, or marginal, or powerless. It took a long time to heal my own imagination, to undo the damage caused by years of consuming distorted representations of black people; for me, writing is therapeutic because I am finally able to “talk back” to the adults and institutions that failed me as a child. I come from a long line of disappearing people and perhaps that, too, drives my insistence upon being seen and heard.

Edi, a high school librarian, recently highlighted Georgia Scott, who shines a spotlight on headwraps and the women around the world who wear them.

In, 2000, Georgia Scott became fascinated with the fad in the US Black community of wearing headwraps. Her passions overtook her, she re-arranged her life and parted for a year-long voyage to discover why women in various parts of the globe cover their heads, who wears headwraps and what they have in common. She seemed to have found more variations than commonalities. Head coverings can be made of silk, muslin, gauze, wool or other fabrics that are tied, wrapped, folded or twisted.

B is for Beauty by Alberto Ferreras reviewed @Livin la Vida Latina

"B" is someone we can all relate to. She is all of the above and more--a woman who is not happy in her own skin; a woman whose body is not accepted by "skinny" society; a woman who is the "Mexican Burro" at her job (the only one who does any real work;) and, finally, like many of us, she is a woman desperately trying to climb up the corporate ladder for a better salary, a better lifestyle, a better everything.

Blogger S. Krishna's - Reorganization of South Asian Review Database If you’ve visited the South Asian Review Database today, you may have noticed a change. As I’ve been perusing the database lately, I’ve been struck by the disorganization and clutter of the Mr. Linkys and have realized that it can be difficult to find a review or see what the database has to offer, as well as what it’s missing. I like clean lines on blogs, and I discovered that the database was driving me slightly crazy but I didn’t know what to do about it.

Fury of the Phoenix

Fury of the Phoenix by Cindy Pon 2011 (ARC) Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins

Incredible Quote "I would fast for you, Li Chen Yong." Ai Ling pg. 310

*No spoilers for Silver Phoenix (well 1 tiny spoiler about relationships and a big one about a death) or Fury of the Phoenix are in this review*

Oh my goodness if you've read Silver Phoenix (and if not WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR, GO!) then you understand the significance and awww factor that line has. And I rarely aw, especially not out loud, but that line made my heart melt a bit. But things aren't purely sweet for Ai Ling and Chen Yong. Chen Yong has decided to go search for his birth father, to do so he will need to set sail from Xia, heading for Jiang Dao. Ai Ling has a dream that Chen Yong will be in danger on the voyage so she decides to follow him by sneaking on board. Hopefully she won't be discovered until after the ship sets sail and hopefully she will be able to save Chen Yong. But it's Ai Ling who may end up needing to be saved as well.... There's less action in this book but still plenty of excitement leaping off the pages! Everything is described in meticulous detail from the food, clothes, Jiang Dao, the ship, and of course, the mythical creatures that terrorize Ai Ling and Chen Yong.

While I was both delighted and disturbed by the new creatures and fantasy elements we were introduced to (the Sea Shifters, learning more about reincarnation, etc) I was even more pleased by the character development. You all remember Zhong Ye, the villain from Silver Phoenix right? He was evil, eviillllll! Well not quite. I didn't think Cindy Pon could make me care about him, but to my complete astonishment (and I'm not exaggerating) Zhong Ye's story tugged at my heartstrings. While he starts off ambitious, he wasn't always power mad and there's a lot of talk about the sacrifices made by an eunuch. In a way the process of being an eunuch is like genital mutilation and rarely does anyone voluntarily go through that. So to think that Zhong Ye willing gave up such a delicate body part. *winces* I still don't like him but I understand how he was driven to do what he did in the previous book.

And for those who like some romance with their fantasy, be prepared because there is a A LOT of sexual tension and it's intense, smoldering. I was equally annoyed, happy, or heartbroken because of Ai Ling and Chen Yong not being able to pull themselves together. Everyone else can see that they need each other, they complement each other perfectly. Why can't they??? There's lots of teasing, stolen glances, misunderstanding and awkward moments (awkward for the characters, not the reader ;) There is also the romance between Zhong Ye and Silver Phoenix and it actually borders on sweet, again, the author makes you start to care about Zhong Ye. There are a few new characters introduced in this book and they move the plot along, adding significant intrigue. *SPOILER: highlight to read* Not that I ever seriously though Chen Yong would marry Ah Na, but I did wonder if he would want to stay in Jiang Dao.*End of Spoiler* The afterlife is explored and I don't want to give much away but it's absolutely spellbinding and I wanted to stay in that afterworld for a little longer, to learn more about how it works (the Mirror of Retribution!)

Fury of the Phoenix is a seducing, irresistible tale. I loved this book even more than the first. The worldbuilding is just as wonderful as in the first, but we also get to see further character development and while in the first book I wanted more character interaction I felt thoroughly satisfied in this sequel. At first I was sad to leave the action-packed world of Xia behind, but it was a nice change of pace to slow down and really observe (and smile knowingly) at Ai Ling and Chen Yong's relationship. Life in Jiang Dao seemed slower in general and while Xia reminds me a bit of China (says the girl whose never been), Jiang Dao reminded me more of a Western European country (loosely based of course). The ending was satisfactory, although I did think that a certain relationship was a bit too perfect (not between Ai Ling and Chen Yong but another significant relationship). A discerning attention to detail, smooth transitions from present to past, fabulous wordbuilding and great, fully-realized characters.

And guess what? Cindy Pon is coming to Chicago on May 10th so I can get Fury of the Phoenix signed! YES

PS while I didn't know what the Chinese characters meant, I thought they were a lovely touch. Such a talented and well rounded author is Ms. Pon ;D

New Week, New Crayons

Another week has gone by and leaves us with a diverse array of books. This might be one of our most diverse New Crayons, not just in terms of culture/ehncity, but in terms of subject matter. Middle grade, adult, funny, serious.

On another note, has anyone else's Blogger been acting up? It took me forever to compile this post because it refused to cooperate. Everything (words and pictures) were squeezed together and I had to keep editing the HTML. Ugh. Maybe it's just my computer. Anyway, back to new crayons

Nathalie

Clara Lee and the Apple Pie Dream by Jenny Han

Clara Lee likes her best friends, her grandpa, kimchi, candy necklaces (her signature look!), and the idea of winning the Little Miss Apple Pie contest. Clara Lee doesn't like her mom's fish soup, bad dreams (but Grandpa says they mean good luck!), speaking in public, or when her little sister is being annoying. One day, after a bad dream, Clara Lee is thrilled to have a whole day of luck (Like!). But then, bad luck starts to follow (Dislike!). When will Clara Lee's luck change again? Will it change in time for the Little Miss Apple Pie contest?

Terri

An Atlas of Impossible Longing by Anuradha Roy

The story is of three generations of an Indian family, brilliantly told, in which a sensitive and intelligent foundling boy orphan who is casteless and without religion and Bakul, the motherless granddaughter of the house, grow up together. The boy, Mukunda, spends his time as a servant in the house or reading the books of Mrs Barnum, an Anglo-Englishwoman whose life was saved long ago by Bakul's grandmother, by now demented by loneliness. Mrs Barnum gives Mukunda the run of her house, but as he and Bakul grow, they become aware that their intense closeness is becoming something else, and Bakul's father is warned to separate them. He banishes Mukunda to a school in Calcutta, where in the years after Partition he prospers, and whence in time he will return to rediscover all that he has lost.The novel begins in 1907 with the founding of a factory in Songarh, a small provincial town where narrow attitudes prevail. Amulya and Kananbala have two sons and as their family grows, and the house and their garden too, a microcosm of a society develops. It is scholarly, eccentric, hide-bound, fraught with drama, destined to self-destruct. The many strands of this intensely-fashioned narrative converge when Mukunda, by now a successful businessman, returns to Songarh years after he has been exiled from the only home he knew, to resolve the family's destiny.

Vasilly

Pym by Mat Johnson

comic journey into the ultimate land of whiteness by an unlikely band of African American adventurers Recently canned professor of American literature Chris Jaynes is obsessed with The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, Edgar Allan Poe’s strange and only novel. When he discovers the manuscript of a crude slave narrative that seems to confirm the reality of Poe’s fiction, he resolves to seek out Tsalal, the remote island of pure and utter blackness that Poe describes with horror. Jaynes imagines it to be the last untouched bastion of the African Diaspora and the key to his personal salvation. He convenes an all-black crew of six to follow Pym’s trail to the South Pole in search of adventure, natural resources to exploit, and, for Jaynes at least, the mythical world of the novel. With little but the firsthand account from which Poe derived his seafaring tale, a bag of bones, and a stash of Little Debbie snack cakes, Jaynes embarks on an epic journey under the permafrost of Antarctica, beneath the surface of American history, and behind one of literature’s great mysteries. He finds that here, there be monsters.

Doret

If Sons Then Heirs by Lorene Cary

A mother who abandoned her son as a child is faced with the prospect of meeting him again as an adult. A young woman hopes her boyfriend will finally commit to her and her son so they can start truly building a life together. A young man goes in search of his parentage and the answers that have plagued him all his life. An African-American family is visited by sorrow and grace. A past that haunts them all. These are the elements of Lorene Cary’s new novel, If Sons, Then Heirs, an unsparing and triumphant look at ordinary people whose intertwined lives are part of the country’s racial destiny.