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Uncultured
Daniella Mestyanek Young
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I listened to the audiobook version today and it was fun! Dolly has so many stories I’m sure this book could have been a hundred chapters.
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Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics
Dolly Parton
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Very important. Very sad. “Home is the sea. It is vast and enduring, its wave carefree. No bombs can shatter it, no force can kill it, no erasure can diminish it. Home is the sea and no one can change that.”
Plestia’s voice is haunting and intimate in the audiobook. She shares her diary, her experiences, and her life with heartbreaking flashbacks to the beauty of Palestine before October 2023. She discusses displacement and how difficult her survivors guilt has been. She questions what “home” means.
Plestia encourages everyone to do what they can; to speak out about Palestine and elevate Palestinian voices, to boycott companies that have supported Israel’s occupation and genocide. We’re asked to hope for and to celebrate Palestinian success and joy, instead of only mourning their deaths.
I have lived my entire life in Ohio in the United States, halfway around the world from Palestine. But I love to read and write like Plestia, my journals are filled with the same questions Plestia raised, and I’ve read The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank just like Plestia has. I don’t understand the hatred in my own country and I don’t understand the genocides around the world. I don’t understand the disregard for human life and I never will.
I wanted to give Plestia a hug after I finished this audiobook. I hope she is finding peace in Australia and again soon has a closet she can stand in front of, baffled at having nothing to wear. I hope for a free and independent Palestine.
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The Eyes of Gaza
Plestia Alaqad
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A Curious Beginning
Deanna Raybourn
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A Curious Beginning
Deanna Raybourn
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The Eyes of Gaza
Plestia Alaqad
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The author added a lot of research including some history of rap and hip hop and the production / business side of the music industry.
This read really made my heart ache. I enjoyed the real quotes and stories from his friends and family throughout, but it felt eerie and too intimate in parts. What was definitely evident is how loved he was and how hard he worked at his art, everyone talking about his smile, his light, his joy. May Mac Miller, Delusional Thomas, Larry Lovestein et al live on in the speakers and headphones of millions around the world til infinity.
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Mockingjay
Suzanne Collins
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Sunrise on the Reaping
Suzanne Collins
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The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
Suzanne Collins