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923 reviews for:
The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After
Clemantine Wamariya, Elizabeth Weil
4.25 AVERAGE
923 reviews for:
The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After
Clemantine Wamariya, Elizabeth Weil
4.25 AVERAGE
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
I rate this book with some trepidation, as one of Wamariya's main themes seems to be that no one else can fully understand or identify with her story, so to evaluate it in some fashion seems anathema. Another theme is Wamariya's struggle to understand herself, and so, as a high school English teacher, I might consider reading it in a unit on personal identity rather than one on genocide, a term she discusses with some loathing as it is indeed too tidy a description for the horrors she endured as a young Rwandan refugee roaming through various war-torn African nations. Thanks to goodreads and Doubleday for the advanced copy.
Side note (and a vague spoiler): I would personally like to know if Rob ever received the justice he deserved for being a despicable human being.
Side note (and a vague spoiler): I would personally like to know if Rob ever received the justice he deserved for being a despicable human being.
Loved this book. Talks about surviving a genocide and the adversity people of color and immigrants face. Great writing and amazing story.
Wamariya is incredibly introspective and self-aware for someone her age. This book deserves to be placed among Elie Wiesel and others who have written soul-baring memoirs of the atrocities humans commit against each other. Since it is not incredibly graphic, the book would also be appropriate reading material for young high schoolers.
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
A beautiful, heartbreaking memoir about trauma, upheaval, resistance and resilience. Clemantine Wamariya tells of experience as a Tutsi woman living in Rwanda during the Rwanda Genocide. Her memoir tells of her journey as a Rwandan refugee living in 7 different countries before coming to the United States in 2000.
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I did a buddy read of this with my dear friend @diariesofbibliophile and it is without a doubt that we were both in awe of the resiliency and strength of Clemantine throughout this harrowing journey. Clemantine and her sister, Claire, were each other's constants throughout the journey and I was in awe of them both for very different reasons.
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Wamariya describes the stark differences between how she was able to survive from how her sister survived. And, she continued to describe the differences in how the trauma rooted within them to influence how they navigated their way through cultures, relationships, and healing.
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From a mental health aspect, it was so powerful to see that trauma can (and does) present in different ways for every person. There is a therapist and researcher from Canada, Vikki Reynolds, who has devoted her work to researching and advocating for marginalized populations and survivors. She writes about the power of the resistance and I could help but think of this work as I read. If you're interested, check out her episode of The Radical Therapist Podcast (episode 15) or read her work at Vikkireynolds.ca
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I did a buddy read of this with my dear friend @diariesofbibliophile and it is without a doubt that we were both in awe of the resiliency and strength of Clemantine throughout this harrowing journey. Clemantine and her sister, Claire, were each other's constants throughout the journey and I was in awe of them both for very different reasons.
•
Wamariya describes the stark differences between how she was able to survive from how her sister survived. And, she continued to describe the differences in how the trauma rooted within them to influence how they navigated their way through cultures, relationships, and healing.
•
From a mental health aspect, it was so powerful to see that trauma can (and does) present in different ways for every person. There is a therapist and researcher from Canada, Vikki Reynolds, who has devoted her work to researching and advocating for marginalized populations and survivors. She writes about the power of the resistance and I could help but think of this work as I read. If you're interested, check out her episode of The Radical Therapist Podcast (episode 15) or read her work at Vikkireynolds.ca
3.5/5
This is a moving memoir about a six year old girl who lives in Rwanda when war breaks out. Her parents send her and her older sister away to live with their grandmother. This book tells their tale as refugees traipsing all across the African continent to survive. Clemantine describes their eventual departure to America and the struggles they encountered there.
This is a moving memoir about a six year old girl who lives in Rwanda when war breaks out. Her parents send her and her older sister away to live with their grandmother. This book tells their tale as refugees traipsing all across the African continent to survive. Clemantine describes their eventual departure to America and the struggles they encountered there.
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Touching and raw. I hope she has found peace.
Hats off to Clemantine Wamariya for writing an essential book about the trauma of losing your family to escape genocide - I was deeply moved. She must have revisited some very painful memories to retrace her steps through seven countries and multiple refugee camps. The writing was beautiful. There was no neat ending, and I appreciated that difficult truth. The author clearly has a lot of trauma to still work through. Their family though physically reunited remains fractured, and she continues to suffer and re-trigger some serious PTSD, although she never calls it that. While I empathize with self-examination through art and literature as a method of healing, I would wish for her to talk to someone. In the end, she just seemed very alone to me.