Pam’s Comments (group member since Dec 29, 2016)

Pam’s comments from the Our Shared Shelf group.

I would say, initially Faith and Hope.

And I think that is what Lee was trying to show with (view spoiler)[ Hana and the family visiting her in the hospital room.

Side note, did you notice how Lee stuck in another Biblical name? Hannah means favor or grace. Or even with Isak, he was a peddler of faith and hope, and he was a poor man. (hide spoiler)]

And I say initially because as these institutions get larger and feel the need to show just how much they believe vs others then it becomes monetized. But initially it's just a man on a mount talking about his father's blessings.

Emma wrote: "I thought this book was very interesting using this point of view. After finishing the book, I think the author did this because her story became so broad that it involved so many different charact..."

I agree, I think Lee was also trying to show that her characters were not to be used as mouthpieces for every Korean. But that there were many perspectives involved in those moments of decision.

Hansu had been a Japanese sympathizer or at least someone who willingly worked with them. A Survivalist. A man. And someone who has had $ for a while.

Where Sunja, was a good foil for him; female; extremely poor, religious, and had non-existent thoughts on the Japanese one way or another.

Things like: (view spoiler)[
- being a mistress
- having a job
- leaving the city to work on a farm
- money (hide spoiler)]

All had different ways to approach it and thus, IMO Lee offered us two perspectives instead of a closed first person narrative.

These are fascinating; thank you OSS team and Min Jin Lee for the answers.

Hey Moonlight Eclipse Reader,

Welcome welcome! We're got plenty of books for you to look into. The ones we're read together :https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

And then all the books that members and mods have added as recommendations for your own personal perusal. https://www.goodreads.com/group/books...

Enjoy! Ask question, and enjoy making new friends!

This was hard for me. It's poverty porn in a way that each chapter depicted story after story of pain and heartache that I fortunately never had to deal with.

I vacillated between wanting to read it all in one go: to show that I had the stomach and fortitude to take it all in, to not flinch.; And the chance to pause after each story; to tattoo each name and tragedy onto my brain so that I could never forget their tale.

And then waves of selfishness hit. Here I am trying to figure out how this book effected me. Me, while I sit in my home; with free time to cozy up with a book. Me, who was trying to reflect on how these stories played against my reactions; feeling imaginary bindings holding me back from doing, learning, caring, championing for better life for them.

I've never had to think about leaving my entire family for a place that doesn't speak my language.
I've never had to come up with money for extortionists
I've never had to consider carrying the backpack

So I have to ammend my earlier statement, this wasn't hard for me. Sitting down, reading a book about suffering isn't hard. Sitting down and doing nothing with this knowledge is pretty darn easy. I need to start working against hard, to make things easier for people who know nothing else.

Evgeny wrote: "British actress Emma Watson was accused of hypocrisy after she starred in a pretty candid photo shoot for Vanity Fair magazine. Bloggers believe that the actress, who showed her breasts for the cov..."

There actually was a discussion about that on OSS way back when it happened. In the end, the general consensus dismissed claims that it was anti-feminist.

I'm right there with you Charlotte!

Morrison is such a graphic writer and throws the reader right into things; leaving us with the task of deciphering the implied environment and history.

I think a lot of this right now, especially as you are only 45 pages in, is set dressing. She is showing you the stakes of what her characters have gone through and what they are living with now before she raises the tension.

I'm currently reading Melinda Gates' The Moment of Lift so when this popped up on my dash, I thought I would share.

"On Wednesday morning, Melinda Gates announced that she is pledging $1 billion to promote gender equality in the U.S. over the next 10 years."

"Gates also outlined the strategy and goals of her pledge in a recent Harvard Business Review article, where she described that her sense of urgency was motivated by The World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index, which found that at the current rate of change, the gender inequality gap will not close in the U.S. for another 208 years."

https://www.forbes.com/sites/elanagro...

https://hbr.org/2019/10/melinda-gates...

Still waiting for my book to come in.

How about everyone else?

If it's my book, I fold the tip of the page down. This helps me to remember the location but also pushes me to remember what sentence on the page caused me to pause and think. If it's a good idea, then I'll keep the fold. If it's not... I unfold the flap.

Otherwise I will stop myself to type the quote into Goodreads on the "Update my Progress bar." GR holds on to these notes for me under the book so I don't have to worry about loosing my notes. and the quotes or notes are there for me when I am writing the review.

I'm a new reader to Morrison's work. Beloved and Bluest Eyes has been on my TRL for a long time. I'm very excited!

Thank you OSS for giving me this impetus to start

Very lovely! A heartfelt thank you to Mardini for answering our questions and to the mods for arranging this with her.

Excellent! Looking forward to hearing your thoughts Emily.

(I have finished Butterfly, still waiting on grabbing a copy of Solito/Solita)

I appreciated two items from Mardini's account.
1) that those who make the journey in Syria often are the fortunate ones who had the means to do so. I.e. they had money or knew other languages. Mardini covers this a bit with her and her sister's ability to go to hotels where as some of her fellow boat riders were not so fortunate and had to make do without.

2) I think her comment about having a "computer" back home or coming from a regular place really drives home how tenuous our safety and security is in our home country. It starts off small - a bunch of people upset. But very quickly it turned into a much larger threat that closed off their ability to return home after a day trip.

My mind goes back to the quote from Handmaid's Tale "Truly amazing what people can get used to, as long as there are a few compensations.”

👏👏👏👏

For the next few years at least let's keep with
- submitting questions every 2 months to authors
- Meet Ups scheduled with or without Mods ( still bummed I don't live in London and can hang out with Meelie and Jo!)
- the OSS Skype channel created by Agnes and Robert

Any other ideas that can lead to a thriving community?

Thanks Brandon. Sounds a bit like The Power, but from multiple Tunde perspectives.

Best place to add this is in the Book Suggestions thread

This is wonderful. Thank you Kate!

In most memoirs; time + age + other life's experiences tend to lessen the internal struggles that lead to big decisions. But for Mardini, this is all still fresh and raw; so she tells you about her and her sisters bad points, she gives really good reasons why she should just be a regular teenage athlete and then changes her mind. She shares generous moments that restores your faith in humanity and glosses over some hard parts like an exhausted survivor.

It's a great insight into the life of a teenager who was thrown into a horrendous situation and who made it out due to resiliency and dedication, family, and a bit of luck.

Assalamu alaikum, thank you. This was a beautiful love letter to athletics, to your sister, and to the refugee community at large. I really appreciated that you shared the internal strife with trying to claim YOUR identity while also becoming the voice of thousands. And for sharing how unique your journey was compared to those who may not have the same opportunities. Not many adults would be so forthcoming.

- What aspects of being a Goodwill Ambassador do you enjoy the most?
- Have you met Malala?
- Do you think the Refugee Team helped refugees?

Thank you! And good luck in Tokyo!