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Sheba Karim

Författare till Skunk Girl

5+ verk 276 medlemmar 12 recensioner

Verk av Sheba Karim

Skunk Girl (2009) 93 exemplar
Mariam Sharma Hits the Road (2018) 85 exemplar
That Thing We Call a Heart (2017) 55 exemplar
The Marvelous Mirza Girls (2021) 40 exemplar
Alchemy: The Tranquebar Book of Erotic Stories - 2 (2012) — Redaktör — 3 exemplar

Associerade verk

Letter to a Stranger: Essays to the Ones Who Haunt Us (2021) — Bidragsgivare — 61 exemplar
Cornered: 14 Stories of Bullying and Defiance (2012) — Bidragsgivare — 47 exemplar
Electric Feather: The Tranquebar Book of Erotic Stories (2009) — Bidragsgivare — 18 exemplar
Baker's Dozen: The ELLE-Tranquebar Book of Short Stories (2013) — Bidragsgivare — 2 exemplar

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***This review and more can be found at my blog Love at First Write***

I was given a copy of this book by HarperTeen in exchange for honest review.

The first third of this book, for me, was slow going. Not being Pakistani or Muslim, I didn’t quite understand where Shabnam was coming from until she opened up further into the book. Researching the Urdu words was fun and a great learning experience for me, but I didn’t understand why she was embarrassed about her Great-Uncle or why her friend starting to wear a hijab was so important and relation-ship altering. How and why did Farah’s choice effect Shabnam? While this and more was explained towards the end of the book, the beginning of the book certainly felt closed off to me. However, once Shabnam started working at the Pie Shack, and delved into her history and herself, the book really started picking up and I couldn’t put it down.

As a second generation immigrant, Shabnam seems to struggle with balancing being a teenager with her parent’s expectations of her. She leads sort of a double-life in that regard, which she brings up on multiple occasions. What I loved was that Shabnam still has a pretty good relationship with both her mother and her father. While she doesn’t feel like she can talk to them about boy problems (what teen does?) they still seemed quite close. Shabnam even explores her family’s relationship to Urdu poetry and the Partition through the book, which was fascinating to watch develop. Even better, the author includes notes about both Partition and the poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz at the back of the book! I had learned about Partition in my Eastern Religions class in college, but it was fascinating to experience it out of the academic setting with realism and weight behind the stories. Though I assume the specific example used by the author was not a true story, it brings home the idea that horrific acts just like the one depicted did occur. The Urdu poetry I had never experienced before and it was really cool as an English major to learn about a new type of poetry along with Shabnam!

The best part about this book is my favorite character: Farah. She is such a witty sarcastic badass who is super smart and doesn’t take crap from anyone. My hero! It was great to see her navigate her religion and her relationship with Shabnam. Of course friendships aren’t perfect, and it was wholesome to see them have a rocky argument and deal with the fallout. Also, I absolutely adored Ye Olde Donut Shoppe (Shabnam and Farah’s hangout) and its owner Dino. He was so sweet and charming and really tolerated a lot of crap from Jaime. I don’t eat donuts- but it sure made me want to go out and buy one! What a fitting read for National Doughnut Day today!

This is the perfect summer read. Relationships (both platonic and romantic) are depicted realistically. Shabnam even has a cute summer fling while working at a park pie shop! This was a novel navigating through friendship, identity, and first love and while the topics may be rocky teenager experiences, the writing style dealt with it elegantly.
… (mer)
 
Flaggad
Nikki_Sojkowski | 3 andra recensioner | Aug 26, 2021 |
*reviewed from uncorrected galley*

teen fiction (realistic fiction for mature teens with diverse characters - Shabnam's Pakistani family and best friend are Muslim; she also has 2 friends who happen to be gay but they are not really a part of this story; another character is a Bosnian immigrant refugee). This wasn't an earth-shattering coming of age story, but it was good friendship story from the point of view of an outsider teen wanting to fit in, gaining the perspective of her friend who had grown to not care whether she fit in--either with Muslims or non-Muslims. The teen romance was OK but compared to Shabnam's other relationships definitely not the high point (spoiler alert: things with Jamie don't end happily) and when I got to the end of the book I flipped through the final endpages because I didn't really want it to be over.

So yes, more please. #ownvoices #weneeddiversebooks

parental note: Shabnam and Farah are 17-18 and about to go off to college; there is some pot smoking and drinking, but not an excessive amount; there is a lot of kissing/making out but they stop short of sex (because someone falls asleep).
… (mer)
 
Flaggad
reader1009 | 3 andra recensioner | Jul 3, 2021 |
Shabnam Qureshi was an misfit in high school so she is ecstatic that Jamie says she's beautiful. Her summer between high school and going to the University of Pennsylvania in the fall will be spent with Jamie. She'd love to tell her best friend, Farah, but they've had a falling out since Farah began wearing a hijab.

Also, during the summer, Shabnam became interested in Urdu poetry, a subject her mathematician father was crazy about.

That Thing We Call a Heart is part romance, part India/Pakistan history, part Muslim education. Farah is the more interesting of the two main characters, a rebel while adhering to certain old traditions. Shabnam is portrayed as a 'typical' teen experiencing her first love...all hormones and no brains.

It is an enjoyable, fast read.
… (mer)
 
Flaggad
EdGoldberg | 3 andra recensioner | Aug 15, 2018 |

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Associerade författare

Mary Anne Mohanraj Contributor
Amitava Kumar Contributor
Ananda Devi Contributor
Mohan Sikka Contributor
Rabi Thapa Contributor
M. Svairini Contributor
Abeer Hoque Contributor
Lopa Ghosh Contributor
Ranbir Sidhu Contributor
Gudiya Contributor
Shrimoyee Nandini Contributor

Statistik

Verk
5
Även av
4
Medlemmar
276
Popularitet
#84,078
Betyg
½ 3.4
Recensioner
12
ISBN
21

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