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3.89 AVERAGE
3.89 AVERAGE
informative
sad
slow-paced
emotional
funny
reflective
fast-paced
Beautifully told, giving a deeply personal account of growing up between two cultures. El Sayed shows reflective accounts that interrogate her memories as she remembers them, while acknowledging than that is only part of reality; that some things remembered are different for each person, and that what is true for us is what’s most important for our own feelings. El Sayed writes with a clear and distinctive voice and I am really glad that I listened to the audio recording as memoirs can be understood differently through the authors own voice.
I am from a different country and culture from either of El Sayed’s, though her memoir reminds me that however different our specifics, complicated relationships to our family and our elders expectations for us are complex, flawed and (hopefully always) from a place of love. El Sayed paints a vivid portrayal of her family, of who they were to her at each point of her childhood and how she sees those interactions differently as an adult.
I hope I get the chance to read more of El Sayed’s work in the future, I look forward to seeing her writing develop and how her voice translates into fiction.
I am from a different country and culture from either of El Sayed’s, though her memoir reminds me that however different our specifics, complicated relationships to our family and our elders expectations for us are complex, flawed and (hopefully always) from a place of love. El Sayed paints a vivid portrayal of her family, of who they were to her at each point of her childhood and how she sees those interactions differently as an adult.
I hope I get the chance to read more of El Sayed’s work in the future, I look forward to seeing her writing develop and how her voice translates into fiction.
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
emotional
informative
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
emotional
informative
fast-paced
emotional
funny
medium-paced
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
Basically a 5 star book - this was really engaging.
It took me a while to get into the groove of the writing and understand the time shifts. I also struggled a little sometimes to know exactly who she was talking about if a few characters had been mentioned. I feel like they both could have been better flagged. I also had follow up questions to a few things that I thought could have been easily addressed.
But the story was touching and interesting. I enjoyed reading a very different perspective to my own.
It took me a while to get into the groove of the writing and understand the time shifts. I also struggled a little sometimes to know exactly who she was talking about if a few characters had been mentioned. I feel like they both could have been better flagged. I also had follow up questions to a few things that I thought could have been easily addressed.
But the story was touching and interesting. I enjoyed reading a very different perspective to my own.
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced