#American Memoirs

[redgoldsparks]

Transcript below the cut.

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Panel 1: For the second year in a row, Gender Queer was the most challenged book in the US, reported the American Library Association.

Panel 2: It’s been a weird two years. Number of unique titles challenged in the US by year. 2000: 378 titles. 2005: 259 titles. 2010: 262 titles. 2015: 190 titles. 2020: 223 titles. 2021: 1858 titles. 2022: 2571 titles.

Panel 3: It’s been a hard two years. The ACLU is tracking 469 anti-LGBTQ bills in the US.

Panel 4: Usually I prefer to wait until something is over before I write about it, so I have time to reflect. But this experience has not ended.

Panel 5: It has only gotten louder. (A series of screen shoots of news headlines about Gender Queer, book challenges and an obscenity lawsuit against the book being dismissed in the state of Virginia).

Panel 6: I’m constantly wondering, “When should I speak and when should I let the book speak for itself?”

Panel 7: I remember when I realized that the previous most challenged book spent five years in the top five.

2020- Melissa by Alex Gino at #1 2019- Melissa by Alex Gino at #1 2018- Melissa by Alex Gino at #1 2017- Melissa by Alex Gino at #5 2016- Melissa by Alex Gino at #3

Panel 8: Oh, I think I can take my time figuring out how to respond. I think I’m in this for the long haul...

Panel 9: Ways to support libraries and challenged authors: Check out and read challenged books. Vote for and attend library board and school board meetings. Report censorship to the ALA and PEN America. Vote to fund libraries. Speak up against legislation limiting the teaching of queer history, sex ed, abortion and the history of racism in the US.

Panel 10: Most challenged books of 2022:

1. Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe

2. All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M Johnson

3. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

4. Flamer by Mike Curato

5. (tie) Looking For Alaska by John Green

5. (tie) The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

7. Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison

8. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

9. Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez

10. (tie) A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas

10. (tie) Crank by Ellen Hopkins

10. (tie) Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews

10. (tie) This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson

#gender queer a memoir #maia kobabe #book bans #book challenges #american library association

[rosalie-starfall]

Michelle Yeoh

August 6th 1962 Happy Birthday Babe!

#Michelle Yeoh #Happy Birthday Michelle Yeoh #Happy 61st Babe! #Supercop #American Born Chinese #Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon #Everything Everywhere all at once #memoirs of a geisha #shang chi and the legends of the ten rings #Star Trek: Discovery #The School of Good and Evil #The Witcher Blood Origins #Tomorrow Never Dies

[feral-ballad]

You were suspicious of their feelings because you had no reason to love yourself—not your body, not your mind. You rejected so much gentleness. What were you looking for?

Carmen Maria Machado, from In the Dream House: A Memoir

#carmen maria machado #memoirs #self loathing #writings #literature #prose #excerpts #american literature #fragments #selections #words #quotes #poetry #lit #prose collection

[longreads]

“I don’t know exactly when I gave up on America. I only know that it was long after America gave up on me. There are many stories of America, but this story is one we don’t hear so often. It’s the version of ourselves we don’t like to think about, the one where poor people can’t always pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, where not every smart kid makes it out of the ghetto. The one where the American Dream is a lie. How do I tell it? How do I tell it so you will understand? Not for sympathy, just so you will understand what it has done to us, growing up poor.

John C. Calhoun said, “The two great divisions of society are not the rich and poor, but white and black.” With that pronouncement, he told one lie to hide another. He asserted one divide that does not naturally exist and denied one that does. There is no natural division between black and white or brown. Indeed, as James Baldwin and Toni Morrison and Ta-Nehisi Coates and others have pointed out, there is no black or white. The artificial division between black and white was invented by white people in the early days of America’s formation through the court system, specifically, by wealthy white people. They needed a reason to justify their right to profit from the labor of others, so they invented labels. Black and white. There absolutely is a division between rich and poor, but the rich would prefer to pretend it doesn’t exist. Otherwise, it would be clear that they have taken far more than their fair share and left the rest of us without.”

This excerpt from Christian Livermore’s new book, We Are Not Okay, from Indie Blu(e) Publishing, is a timely and deeply necessary read on the lasting repercussions of growing up poor in America. 

#poverty #american dream #white trash #longreads #longform #memoir #excerpt

[grants-blue-eyed-stare]

Thinking about the time Ulysses S. Grant thought "Yeah, I can use a pulley to get myself down from this ship. I've been watching people do it all day!" and then immediately plummet into the Rio Grande.

#THIS WAS IN HIS MEMOIRS #DURING THE MEXICAN AMERICAN WAR #I wish we got more stories like this #He didn't include as many stories about the civil war like this since his cancer was getting really bad <\3 #american civil war #acw #civil war #ulysses s grant #us grant

[in-the-stacks]

Presenting Leslie F*cking Jones by Leslie Jones. Reviewed by Read Local for In the Stacks.

https://www.inthestacks.tv/2024/03/read-local-leslie-fcking-jones

#in the stacks #books #reading #librarian book reviews #michelle zaffino #video book reviews #guest librarian #writing #mylibrarian #librarians #african american actresses #african american women #memoir #california #new york #humor #comedians #leslie jones

[swartzmark]

I'm teaching an adult ed course Weds evenings (March 15, 22, and 29; April 19 and 26; and May 3) via Zoom and open to all: "Reading (and Writing) the Jewish-American Memoir."

#Jewish American #memoir #adult education

[tenderscience]

so upset about living in fuckass lithuania where i cant buy any records i want for cheap im booting up american truck simulator

#relapsed. #as my dear friend roxy would say i love to appropriate american culture #memoirs

[clove-pinks]

The War of 1812 was a conflict of global proportion and international impact. And yet, in a study of this nature it is the human element which reveals itself most clearly. Here we perceive an emotional dimension standing in crisp relief that in studies of a larger scale tends to lose definition and focus. We feel the loneliness and sense the frustration of life in a frontier garrison. We share the terror of a lonely watch on a darkened night; we fear for the safety of comrades. We rejoice in victory and lament in defeat.

— Larry L. Nelson, Men of Patriotism, Courage & Enterprise: Fort Meigs in the War of 1812

Building of Ft. Meigs 1813 (detail), Glen M. Shaw, 1942 (New Deal Art Registry)

#war of 1812 #fort meigs #military history #glen m shaw #dressed to kill #us army #this book is so good #for being written in 1985 it has aged well. larry nelson is a great historian and writer #he relies heavily on primary sources (this is how i found alfred lorrain's memoir) #but acknowledges that many of these men hated and feared native americans and their narratives reflect this #it's such a messy and fascinating conflict full of deeply flawed people #sorry for terrible pic quality #i promise i am trying to move to perrysburg i will stalk this painting 🙏🏻

[quoting-life]

It seems like such a paradox to me that human beings are both great adapters to change and terrified by it at the same time. So often we drift through life bound by the poor decisions we've made in the past, too afraid of the uncertainty that comes with challenging our status quo. We find ourselves stuck on a ship that is headed full speed to a place we're pretty sure we don't want to go, but we also don't want to deal with the discomfort of jumping. So we say nothing, watching helplessly as we sail toward our doom like silent prisoners of our own past.

Simu Liu, We Were Dreamers: An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story

#simu liu #we were dreamers #we were dreamers: an immigrant superhero origin story #family #humans #human #humanity #happiness #survival #immigrants #dream #american dream #nonfiction #autobiography #memoir #biography #lit #literature #quote #quotes #book quote #book quotes #book #books

[horsesarecreatures]

Book review: Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot

This is a short but very impactful memoir. The author is a Salish woman who wrote this book as a series of essays when she was hospitalized. The writing style is quite unique. A lot of it is in second person, and other parts are almost stream-of-consciousness. Additionally, some parts are very poetic and/or ambiguous, and others are very direct/blunt. The author talked about her feelings of anger from years of parental neglect, a teenaged marriage that was violent, losing custody of one of her sons, childhood sexual abuse, another relationship with emotional neglect/cheating/abandonment, poverty, institutionalized racism, and being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress and bi-polar II disorder. What I liked about this book was that a lot of it was basically a giant call-out to many people either directly responsible for her suffering, or were too dense and judgmental to understand why she had the problems she had. 

#heart berries #terese marie mailhot #native american literature #book #bookblr #book review #memoir

[redgoldsparks]

Gender Queer is the most banned book in the United States for the second year in a row, according to data collected by the American Library Association Office of Intellectual Freedom.

#gender queer a memoir #Maia Kobabe #book bans #book challenges #american library association

[almost-a-class-act]

"We noticed immediately how often the local citizens used the word 'black'. We were accustomed to the use of the word as an adjective, not as a racial designation. Of course, we had heard it when it was meant to be derogatory. (Twenty years later we were beginning to accept that designation, with pride and dignity.)"

-Lt. Col. Charity Adams Earley, in reference to her posting in the UK as the commander of the only unit of black American women to serve overseas during WWII

#this got my attention because I thought immediately about Eugene Roe referring to 'the black girl' in Band of Brothers #and I'm 100% sure that the writers of BoB did not bother to look up the history of racism #so it was not intentional #but worthy of note that they managed to bungle both Anna's real name (which was Augusta) #and also the only other way another character refers to her #anyway i'm really enjoying Earley's memoir called One Woman's Army #i'm learning a lot! #wwii #women's army corps #charity adams earley #one woman's army #american history

[feral-ballad]

You were all mind; anxiety was your lifeblood, your fuel. You were young. You didn’t know your mind could be a boon and a prison both; that someone could take its power and turn it against you.

Carmen Maria Machado, from In the Dream House: A Memoir

#carmen maria machado #excerpts #writings #literature #fragments #selections #words #quotes #poetry collection #lit #american literature #prose #memoir #anxiety

[gregor-samsung]

My Salinger Year [aka My New York Year] (Philippe Falardeau, 2020)

#My Salinger Year #drama film #Joanna Rakoff #Douglas Booth #Philippe Falardeau #Colm Feore #memoir #love story #books #Sigourney Weaver #Seána Kerslake #New York City #computer #American literature #J. D. Salinger #Margaret Qualley #culture #Hapworth 16 1924 #manuscript #girlfriend #typewriter #NYC #Brían F. O'Byrne #The New Yorker #literary agency #emotions #cinema of Canada #cinema of Ireland #technophobia #office

[evadneares]

Viet Thanh Nguyen

"The gap between imagining an emotion and feeling it is the distance between empathy and experience. The divide both writer and reader face as empathy brings them closers to others but cannot make them into those others. Empathy cannot turn a son into his father and mother, even if the son is also a father" (page 50-51).

#a man of two faces #viet thanh nguyen #writing #literature #creative writing #writers #writer things #writers on tumblr #writerscommunity #writers and poets #quotes #memoir #non fiction #autobiography #vietnam #vietnamese #the american dream is a lie