tiffyboomboom's review against another edition
5.0
I got this book out from the library and then halfway through reading it went out and bought it, it was that good. Eye-opening and view changing as well as beautifully written
erintby's review against another edition
5.0
“The future is dark. But what if this darkness is not our tomb, but our womb?”
I absolutely loved this book. I had no idea what or who it was about when I started it, but Valarie Kaur’s story covers so much. Sikh-American communities, 9/11, the anti-war movement, intergenerational trauma, divine rage, hate violence and state violence, self-doubt and love for self, naming white supremacy, reimagining the criminal justice system, healing from sexual assault, the injustice of Guantanamo Bay, the role of faith traditions in social justice movements, connecting with your body, building solidarity, gun violence and the Oak Creek shooting, understanding the circle of listening, breathing through labor. There are hundreds of truths in this book that I would like to incorporate into my own life. And while I wish I took better notes, I needed this message so desperately today that I just couldn’t stop. I will definitely read this again, with a pen and paper for sure.
But here is one quote that gives me hope and helps me feel grounded:
“If we take a linear view of history, then we are sliding backward. But if we see the story of America as one long labor, then we have a different view. Progress during birthing labor is cyclical, not linear. It is a series of expansions and contractions and each turn through the cycle brings us closer to what is being born. I see this pattern through US history. .... The labor is ongoing, the injustice relentless. But each time people organized, each turn through the cycle, opened a little more space for equality and justice. It also created ancestral memory. We carry the memory of movements that came before us. Like the body in labor, we have gained more embodied knowledge about what to do when the crises come, even when the crises are unprecedented. We can still turn to the wisdom of our ancestors for how to labor, to wonder, to grieve, to fight, to rage, to listen, to reimagine, to breathe, and to push, and to find the bravery we need for transition. It is our task to innovate and apply these practices in the new reality we find ourselves in.”
The wisdom in this book is astounding, and it gives me hope and determination to build patterns in my own life for sustainable activism and revolutionary love.
I absolutely loved this book. I had no idea what or who it was about when I started it, but Valarie Kaur’s story covers so much. Sikh-American communities, 9/11, the anti-war movement, intergenerational trauma, divine rage, hate violence and state violence, self-doubt and love for self, naming white supremacy, reimagining the criminal justice system, healing from sexual assault, the injustice of Guantanamo Bay, the role of faith traditions in social justice movements, connecting with your body, building solidarity, gun violence and the Oak Creek shooting, understanding the circle of listening, breathing through labor. There are hundreds of truths in this book that I would like to incorporate into my own life. And while I wish I took better notes, I needed this message so desperately today that I just couldn’t stop. I will definitely read this again, with a pen and paper for sure.
But here is one quote that gives me hope and helps me feel grounded:
“If we take a linear view of history, then we are sliding backward. But if we see the story of America as one long labor, then we have a different view. Progress during birthing labor is cyclical, not linear. It is a series of expansions and contractions and each turn through the cycle brings us closer to what is being born. I see this pattern through US history. .... The labor is ongoing, the injustice relentless. But each time people organized, each turn through the cycle, opened a little more space for equality and justice. It also created ancestral memory. We carry the memory of movements that came before us. Like the body in labor, we have gained more embodied knowledge about what to do when the crises come, even when the crises are unprecedented. We can still turn to the wisdom of our ancestors for how to labor, to wonder, to grieve, to fight, to rage, to listen, to reimagine, to breathe, and to push, and to find the bravery we need for transition. It is our task to innovate and apply these practices in the new reality we find ourselves in.”
The wisdom in this book is astounding, and it gives me hope and determination to build patterns in my own life for sustainable activism and revolutionary love.
elsiebrady's review against another edition
5.0
Tati Vao Na Lagi, Par Brahm Sarnai. The hot winds cannot touch you, you are shielded by love.
This book can be life changing. Valarie draws on ancient truths. “Truth is high, but higher still is truthful living”.
Her journey is amazing through which she shares her manifesto of revolutionary love. She inspires me to change the world, even in my small and simple ways. Her labor and birth imagery with reminders to breathe and push through trials and setbacks and challenges speak to my womanhood.
This book can be life changing. Valarie draws on ancient truths. “Truth is high, but higher still is truthful living”.
Her journey is amazing through which she shares her manifesto of revolutionary love. She inspires me to change the world, even in my small and simple ways. Her labor and birth imagery with reminders to breathe and push through trials and setbacks and challenges speak to my womanhood.
readalongwithnat's review against another edition
5.0
Absolutely heart wrenching. Touched on so many topics but they were woven together so intricately.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Gun violence, Islamophobia, Police brutality, Racism, Hate crime, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Medical content, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Death, Pregnancy, and Death of parent
alannabarras's review against another edition
5.0
"We can have all the empathy in the world for a group of people and still participate in the structures and systems that oppress them."
Part memoir, part historical account of the political and societal forces that swept the US after 9/11, See No Stranger is a powerful argument for why neither power nor empathy is enough on its own - to create true, lasting change both are needed. We must have enough empathy for those who don't look like our immediate family to sit down and understand why and what changes are needed, and we must have enough power to get those changes pushed through.
Valarie Kaur weaves together her stories of growth and learning internally with her family and externally across the US. She travels to the 9/11 memorial, multiple sites of hate crimes, and even Guantanamo Bay to better understand the underlying motivations that bring people together or push them to inflict such pain on those around them. This is a perfect bookclub book to do a chapter at a time, reflecting on your responses to her writing in each section. She focuses heavily on the importance of love and curiosity/wonder, which can be very hard to even consider in times as high-stress and angry as we're currently living through. But that's the point - love and curiosity about the 'other' is what will pull us back out of this mess, and her writing is so well structured that about a paragraph after I would think "but what about..." she would answer my question.
Go find and read this book, I'll be adding it to my rotation of books I revisit every couple of years. Written or spoken, both formats are excellent.
Part memoir, part historical account of the political and societal forces that swept the US after 9/11, See No Stranger is a powerful argument for why neither power nor empathy is enough on its own - to create true, lasting change both are needed. We must have enough empathy for those who don't look like our immediate family to sit down and understand why and what changes are needed, and we must have enough power to get those changes pushed through.
Valarie Kaur weaves together her stories of growth and learning internally with her family and externally across the US. She travels to the 9/11 memorial, multiple sites of hate crimes, and even Guantanamo Bay to better understand the underlying motivations that bring people together or push them to inflict such pain on those around them. This is a perfect bookclub book to do a chapter at a time, reflecting on your responses to her writing in each section. She focuses heavily on the importance of love and curiosity/wonder, which can be very hard to even consider in times as high-stress and angry as we're currently living through. But that's the point - love and curiosity about the 'other' is what will pull us back out of this mess, and her writing is so well structured that about a paragraph after I would think "but what about..." she would answer my question.
Go find and read this book, I'll be adding it to my rotation of books I revisit every couple of years. Written or spoken, both formats are excellent.
riotsqrrrl's review against another edition
5.0
This book is a must read with so much to offer on a personal level, community level and societal level.
mlcollette's review against another edition
5.0
just finished. don’t think i have felt a book so deeply in my soul since ‘Eat Pray Love’.
lory_enterenchanted's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
5.0
Reviews and more on my blog: Entering the Enchanted Castle
Beautiful, necessary, vital, honest, full of both blood and joy, this is the manual I wish I had had for the last twenty years to help me navigate the confusion and pain of a world in transition. Thank goodness we have it now, in a time that needs revolutionary love more than ever. Heartfelt thanks to Valarie Kaur, a prophet of the new world that we need to be birthing.
Beautiful, necessary, vital, honest, full of both blood and joy, this is the manual I wish I had had for the last twenty years to help me navigate the confusion and pain of a world in transition. Thank goodness we have it now, in a time that needs revolutionary love more than ever. Heartfelt thanks to Valarie Kaur, a prophet of the new world that we need to be birthing.