Karpov’s Comments (group member since Nov 14, 2016)

Karpov’s comments from the A Book Club for Diversity (ABCD) group.

I too just finished it and was heartbroken with what happened to Naila. I could tell her family was leading up to marrying her off in Pakistan, but was shocked they drugged her and forced her to marry while she was drugged and largely unaware of what she was doing. And then to be raped! God. And it's sad because her husband seemed like a generally kind person, but the social pressure on him, on her, on all their families, ended up trumping personal kindness, love, respect or reasonable response. And I think that's the real issue here, is that regardless of individual preferences, (like the husband who would probably have let her go when he realized what happened if he felt like he could without scathing consequences) the societal prejudice and pressure to behave in a certain way overrides everything else, and everyone is trained to reinforce the social order. This is how you have women who are at the helm of subjugating other women. It's not just men.

And this is true even in very western cultures. We might not have forced marriage (for the most part), but it's often women who are most critical of other women. Who do the most damage in tearing apart other women in an effort to keep them in their place. Slut shaming, body shaming, mother shaming... there are so many subtle and not subtle ways women (and men) work to reinforce our own cultural prejudices and stereotypes.

It's truly sad and sickening though that this could (and likely has) really happened. She was a US citizen, and was kidnapped, drugged and held hostage in another country against her will. How terrifying. All because of cultural norms in her family. Norms that do not serve women, or even the men, in the long run.

Let's use this thread to discuss thoughts and feelings about our December book selection, Written in the Stars.

This thread WILL contain spoilers.

What are your thoughts so far?
Is this book challenging your preconceptions in any way?

TOMORROW IS DECEMBER! Are you all ready to dive in to our new book? I've never led a GR reader group before, so I'm making this up as I go along, but I'll probably start discussion topics for this book as I'm reading it, and you can all join in to discuss (or start your own topics, I think?) as we go.

I'm also open to ideas and suggestions on how to do this better. Just let me know! :) ~Lux KK

We got our book and will be starting it soon. Who's excited for our first read this December? :) Have you gotten your copy of Written in the Stars yet?

Bunny21 wrote: "Hi all. I'm Hayley Baxter and I live in a tiny village in Nottinghamshire UK. I hope its OK for a Brit to join. I ask 43 years old, a widow, and live with my cockapoo Rafferty and cats Jeremy Jones..."

Of course it's okay! We are hoping people from all over the world join! It's great to have you here. <3

Written in the Stars it is! :) Go ahead and grab your copy wherever you are able. :) We'll begin in December officially.

I love the age diversity we have in this group! I hope we can all engage in great discussions and learn from each other. :)

Dalton wrote: "Hi, my name is Dalton. I am a Sophmore in Highschool and I plan on going to college to get into the IT Department (Information Technology) I know a lot about computers, I created my own Website whe..."

Also, regarding genre, we will be exploring a whole variety of books here, I think. We write fantasy and science fiction mostly, but in order to really embrace the theme of diversity we will be looking at fiction, memoirs, lit fic, genre fic, whatever we can find that will help us all expand our world views and learn about different life experiences that might be different than ours. I'm hoping it will be a fun exploration for everyone, even if the genre or book in a given month isn't always a favorite.

Having said that, it would be fun to also include some manga, since that could offer different ethnic/culture influences as well as expose many of us to new storytelling tropes. What are some of your favorite mangas?

Dalton wrote: "Hi, my name is Dalton. I am a Sophmore in Highschool and I plan on going to college to get into the IT Department (Information Technology) I know a lot about computers, I created my own Website whe..."

Welcome! And very impressive computer skills. One of our daughters is a huge manga fan (dare I say addict?) so we are very familiar with manga and anime and love both ourselves! We hope you find some fun new reads in this group. Our girls will be joining us here as well.

There's no age limit. We want all ages, which is why we are going to keep the book selections appropriate for most readers. Of course, some subject matters might contain some mature themes and each book should be looked at individually before reading to make sure it's appropriate for you. But we will be encouraging our 14 yo daughter to join.

Dalton wrote: "Is there a specific age limit as well?"

For the group? Or the books? Our thought is that it's open to everyone and the books will be at least YA and up appropriate. Not YA specifically, but not particularly inappropriate for younger teen readers.

EDITED TO NOTE: We have chosen Written in the Stars for our first read! So everyone grab your copy wherever you prefer to get your books and starting December 1, this will be our book for the month of December. We've never led a book club before, so bear with us as we figure out how this part goes. lol We're open to ideas and discussion topics from those who have participated in these on GR before. ~KK

Hello everyone!

We'd like to begin our book a month reading/discussion this December. No time like the present, right? I've been doing some research and here are a few options. Let me know which of these you'd be interested in starting with.







We'd like to settle on this soon so everyone has time to get the book before December 1. In the meantime, we're also open to suggestions moving forward. We're hoping some of these can also be found in libraries.

Lux and Dmytry KK

Hello and welcome to ABCD, our new book club to encourage and support diversity, empathy and expansive world views through the written word. We will explore all manner of genre in this group, with the goal being to explore writers and subject matters from different perspectives (LGBTQ, diversity in race and ethnicity, diversity in socio economic status, different genders, etc.)

This group is welcome to all. We have only one real rule at this point, and that is to be kind and open minded. (Well, and no self-promo. This is a reading club.)

We want everyone to feel safe here as we read and grapple with different perspectives that will (hopefully) challenge and expand the way we think about the world.

To begin, let's all introduce ourselves, shall we? For those who don't know us, Karpov Kinrade is the fantasy/sci fi pen name for Lux and Dmytry Karpov-Kinrade. We are a married couple who cowrite together. I (Lux) am originally from Long Beach, California and now live in Northern California with Dmytry and our three daughters. He's originally from Ukraine, but immigrated to Canada as a child and is now in the US with us. We've been writing most of our lives, and began publishing fiction about 4 years ago. We are now full time authors.

We began this group as a response to the divisiveness and fear that the resent US election has highlighted in our world. We wanted to create something that could encourage unity, love, hope, respect for self and others, and empathy. This is our way of doing that, through books.

We look forward to getting to know you and reading books with you! We will be starting our first book no later than January, but likely in December. We're open to suggestions and discussions about the selection.

Since we write books under KK that are appropriate for most readers, we are considering keeping the official selections in this group appropriate for most readers as well. What do you all think about that? I know it limits some great reads, but perhaps we can have a 'further reading' section to share all manner of books we don't make part of our book a month selection? (With some kind of notice if a book is for mature readers.)

Let's here your thoughts. :)

~Lux and Dmytry KK