two book reports

my name is Rosamond & I read a great book!

Hey! You’re here. Thank you.

Yaya’s got the first watch so you can pour a cup of coffee and settle in because I’ve got two little book reports for you.

One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El-Akkad

I finished this book on Saturday morning and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. It is a book that is both difficult to categorize and brilliantly simple. It’s all right there in the title, which was pulled from El-Akkad’s viral tweet posted on October 25, 2023.

misanharriman

A post shared by @misanharriman

On one level, the book is a memoir in which El Akkad reckons with his allegiance to the West throughout the course of his life from Egypt, the country of his, birth to a childhood in Qatar to his coming of age as a young journalist in post-9/11 Canada. Just beneath El Akkad’s own story, though, is a fierce and clear-eyed indictment of the West’s response to and active role in the genocide in Gaza. Again, it’s right there in the title.

I was in third grade on September 11, 2001, and I realize I have become dangerously comfortable with the idea that some things are too complicated for me to understand, that there are leaders I can trust to do the right thing and they just know more about “everything going on over there” than me.

So often I have heard, “it’s all so complicated.” Yes, of course global politics is complicated. But El Akkad forces his reader to face the question: At what point is it not complicated at all? At what point is the mass murder of tens of thousands of people not complicated but an abomination plain and simple?

I am still aware of the pernicious fear that maybe I am not smart enough to talk about this book. But I think it’s brilliant and it’s brilliance lies in it’s moral clarity.

I want you to read it.

Right now, the US Government is holding captive a legal permanent resident of the United States, Mahmoud Khalil, threatening him with deportation for his role in the Pro-Palestine student protests at Columbia last year. The government has provided no evidence that Khalil has supported any kind of terrorist organization. What he did was protest genocide. And now our government is calling his the first of “many arrests.”

kieselaymon

A post shared by @kieselaymon

Mahmoud Khalil’s wife is eight months pregnant. It’s complicated right up until it’s not.

I want you to read this book.

I might feel like I am not smart enough to talk about this book, but bookselling legend Paul Yamazaki, who has been the chief buyer for City Lights Bookstore for over fifty years had this to say about One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This:

“In my life as a bookseller, there have been only a handful of books that I feel are absolutely necessary. This is one of those books. El Akkad’s analysis and fury stand as beacons that will illuminate our path forward. I urge you to read and find a place in your heart for this book.”
—Paul Yamazaki, City Lights Books, San Francisco, CA

I want you to read this book.

Make Room for Love by Darcy Liao

One of the best things that’s happened in my reading life so far this year is I started taking romance recommendations from my friend Grace (@dogbuttsandbooks on instagram). In addition to being extremely smart and cool fellow dog parent and obsessive, Grace is a veritable expert on the romance genre. We only know each other through the internet and somehow she knows exactly what I am looking for in a romance. Which leads me to Make Room for Love by Darcy Liao.

This is a forced proximity romance in which Classics graduate student Mira finds herself falling for her hot, soft butch electrician roommate, Isabel. Guys it’s all here. Mira is trans and busy organizing her fellow graduate students to form a union at their university. Isabel is a curvy butch who shares her organizing expertise as a union certified electrician. Mira’s transness is never a problem or a plot point. Isabel is grieving the death of her sister and trying to figure out how to be the caregiver in a relationship while still asking for care for herself.

This book was, as they say, my catnip.

If you are looking for a romance to read during the Trans Rights Readathon, look no further!

In my first newsletter after the election, I wrote a little about how I rely on two book lists: one is called Books for Joy & Comfort and the other is Books for Dreaming of a Better World.

Reading Make Room for Love brought me joy, and it invited me imagine a better world. Reading One Day, Everyone Will Always Be Against This was brutal and devastating, and it reminded me that there must be a different, better way forward. If we can pay attention, books are lighting the way.

don’t worry Dunkin is on watch now too.

When trans readers tell me that a big name author is dangerously transphobic, I am going to listen. That’s what standing beside, and when necessary in front of, my trans siblings looks like.

This is also what standing beside and for our trans siblings looks like. As the brilliant

Cree Myles

says, if you are about that solidarity, if you are willing to catch strays for trans people, when a trans person or a group of trans people tells you something is transphobic, it’s not your job as a non-trans person to decide if it’s transphobic, it’s your job to stand there and keep catching those strays.

creemyles

A post shared by @creemyles

Reading is not just a cozy little hobby I do on the side. Whether I am reading smutty sapphic romance or a book about global politics, my reading is the beginning of my living, and I hope my reading and my living reflect the world I want for us.

I love you.

I’m glad you’re here.

Love,

Rosamond