Bookstagram has been attacked, by @vulture and @guardian (no less!), and I cannot stand the fact that my happy and safe space be debased, stereotyped and caricatured like this.
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So I wrote a small piece to defend it which is now online on my blog. It is not perfect, but I wrote it with all the passion bookstagram kindled in me when I discovered this community. I mentioned many, many of you in this article but I also forgot many and I apologise for this.
However I hope the diversity of bookstagrammers I mentioned will show how rich our community is; I hope the loving descriptions I wrote will convince readers that bookstagram is not just about picturing mugs of coffee next to unread books and accompanying them with meaningless captions. I hope that my words will make them curious about us.
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Also, this was the occasion for me to realise how bookstagramming has helped me out a terrible lack of confidence about my reading and writing skills (not that I’m super confident now but at least, I write). It’s helped me to resume my love of reading (maybe a little bit too much since I’m on the verge of brain exhaustion again! 😂). And it’s made me meet so many, SO MANY kind, intelligent and wonderful people. For this, I am grateful to each and everyone of you who interacts with me, and that’s why I wrote a “little” piece in defence of bookstagram. #linkinbio .
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#bookstagram #bookstagrammers #bookblogger #bookreviews #bookreviewers #bloggingforbooks #bookishfeature #bookfeatures #literaryfiction #nonfiction #zadiesmith #renieddolodge #salmanrushdie #carylphillips #ayobamiadebayo #tonimorrison
@onemorestoryplease tagged me a few days ago to do the #skincarebooktag and given my present condition, this is the perfect moment for me to compose a sweet and pink picture, with soothing colours & a candle, and thinking of the books I love most, which I cannot read right now lest my brain decides to let me down.
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🌸CLEANSER (A book that made you feel like a new person): Half of a Yellow Sun since, hey, it led me to preparing a PhD.
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🌸EXFOLIATOR (A book that made you feel raw): definitely Homegoing.
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🌸 TONER (A book that changed your perspective about something): The Poor Christ of Bomba, when it all started: African lit, writers of colour, PhD research.
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🌸MOISTURIZER (A book that was a real treat): nobody will be surprised here to see me choosing On Beauty, and for the occasion I pictured my brand new signed copy offered by my darling @bookish.soph.
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🌸SERUM (A book that helped you through something tough): I know it is a controversial book and I’m aware of its racial bias now but at the time, its spiritual and healing effect saved me: Eat, Pray, Love (sorry @nonfirqtion, I promise I grew up, since!)
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🌸SHEET MASK (A book that restored you): Here is only an example but every book by my spiritual mentor Daisaku Ikeda is like a lighthouse in a dark night. His words go deep into my soul and help me believe in myself, my life and our world, and get up again when I fall. I have no words to express my gratitude for this incredibly wise man.
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🌸SUN LOTION (A book that must be protected at all cost): I was not sure how to interpret this so I went for Little Women which is my “Madeleine de Proust” but obviously books like 1984, Bad Feminist, The Handmaid’s Tale and other politically committed books must be protected.
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Feel free to join in and share your skin care book routine! 😁
#zoyapartnership: Nail polishes from L to R: #zoyaleia, #zoyadot #zoyagiegie .
—— #bookblogger #bookreviewers #bloggingforbooks #bookfeatures #literaryfiction #writersofcolour #blackliterature #zadiesmith #chimamandangoziadichie #homegoing #daisakuikeda #littlewomen #eatpraylove
“What’s that?, I hear you think, a non-bookish picture from Julia?!” No, dear friends, worry no more. I am not transforming my bookish account into a nail polish one. It’s just that 2 things happened.
The first is a package, generously sent by Danielle from @zoyanailpolish, which contained the beauties you behold on this picture. When she asked what colours I had an eye on, little did I imagine that she would send ALL OF THEM, PLUS so many goodies! So this is to thank you, Danielle, for your kindness & generosity. I am happy to start a #partnership with Zoya, because they are the only brand that I know that are vegan & cruelty free, toxin-free, of extremely good quality (I usually keep my manicure 6 or 7 days), with the most elaborate colours, AND affordable (most vegan brands will charge ridiculously high for nail polishes of lesser quality, trust me I’ve tried them all). I wouldn’t advertise for Zoya if I wasn’t so completely in love with them, and as I am committed to making this world better, I believe that so is Zoya. Finally, I just love the fact that Zoya, the founder, was a Russian pianist.
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The second thing that happened is that I am fighting a burnout again. My brain doesn’t work properly. bell hooks’ sentences which I found easy to read 2 weeks ago now leave me in utter puzzlement. My brain is agitated, exhausted: it functions at night when I try to sleep and it refuses to help me when I want to prepare my classes. My doc ordered rest. I can’t read. I can’t even read.
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When I am in such a state, I love to watch colours. I colour mandalas & anti-stress drawings. I look closely at the shades of green on my plants. I pray to see the dignity of my life and what my mind visualises are beautiful and sparkling colours. So I thought receiving a package of deep green, rich red, baby pink, shimmering blue was the perfect moment to post about my present mental condition.
I’ll be back to reading soon.
If you’re interested, here are the names of the nail polishes, from left to right: #zoyagiada, #zoyastacy, #zoyadanica, #zoyatalia, #zoyadarby, #zoyalibby, #zoyasnowwhite. Whenever a bottle appears on a pic, you’ll find its name here. —
#burnout #mentalhealth
One year ago, the movement #metoo, though not new, knew an international success (if one can call success the speaking up of thousands of women denouncing sexual harassment in all possible forms and contexts) and seemed to shake our societies out of their comfort bubble and the idea that we, naive women, constantly misinterpret men’s actions.
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In France, a year and a half ago, this horrendous figure came out: 100% of women confirmed having been sexually harassed at least once in their lives.
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Yet it is an understatement to say that France’s response to #metoo is shameful. 100 wealthy and white women signed an open letter in which they claimed their “right to be importuned”. You read their sickening sentence right. In France, they take pride of two contradictory exceptions: French gallantry and French bawdiness. For these two preposterous reasons, we shouldn’t ask men to stop catcalling or harassing us.
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But ain’t I a woman?! On that body which for once I show on my grid, isn’t there a head, a thinking head? Under that short and sexy dress, isn’t there a feeling heart? My body and my pussy are MINE, NOT yours! And if I chose bell hooks’ book to illustrate my anger, it’s also because white women throughout history have been complicit of the sexual aggressions of black women, and THIS CANNOT CONTINUE. Feminism must be intersectional. It cannot recreate another form of oppression when it is fighting one. Social advancement is social when it includes everyone.
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So today I speak up to claim my body as mine and to be able to wear that short and sexy dress without fear of being raped in a dark alley. I speak up for all the women who are oppressed around the world by the heavy weights of sexism, racism, islamophobia, homophobia... Our bodies, our decisions.
Ours. Not yours.
#speakupoctober #speakupphotochallenge
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PS: I am posting this just after having had a violent row with an anti-abortion activist in front of the uni and to say that I am upset is an understatement. MY BODY. MY CHOICE. NOT YOURS. NOT SOCIETY’S.
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#nonfiction #readwomen #feminism #bellhooks #aintiawoman
I came across 2 opposite ideas about the writing of PoC and I wanted to submit this question to the wisdom of those among you who are interested in the topic. I guess I am talking from the somewhat still naive point of view of a white woman, but as Adichie would say, this question comes from a good place and I hope you see it.
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@readviveblog evoked in a story, that I reposted on Sunday, the problem of books written by PoC being so heavy. She was wondering why there wasn’t “fluffier and lighter stories by/about PoC”. And she continued mentioning the trend that “to get attention non-white authors have to write something about their struggles of not being white.” She wondered if really no one wanted to read a story about a happy Black person or if PoC’s books had to be educational. I thought she made a good point with these questions because I can’t really remember reading happy stories about PoC (that being said, I don’t have many happy stories in mind about white people; looks like writers are sufferers!)
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And yesterday night, I read this page from the wonderful anthology #allthewomeninmyfamilysing that @nothingbutthetruthpublishing kindly sent me and it echoed these thoughts. Hope Wabuke reflects that “to keep her son safe she would need to use her writing to help make the world a safer place for Black boys”, and notices that she would be labelled “a political writer”, in a negative way. “‘Too political’ is touted as critique... But there are more important things. There are some things that need to be said. There are some moments in history when, if you are a writer... you have a responsibility to look.” To speak for those who couldn’t & still can’t.
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What do you make of all this? Would you consider a writer of colour not dealing with racial issues disappointing (or insert another adjective here)? Can a writer extract him/herself from his/her reality? All the books pictured here deal with race, some in a lighter way than others. But race is always a looming question.
How do you reconcile these two points of view?
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—— #bookblogger #bookfeatures #literaryfiction #nonfiction #writersofcolor #blackliterature #chimamandangoziadichie #zadiesmith
What’s that? October 6th? Well I say it’s not too late to share my #smallandproudbookwrapup of September!
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Like I said in my previous post, I didn’t have much time to read but I managed to finish The Mysteries of Udolpho thanks to the constant support and cheerleading of @readbynight. I have to say I started this book in 2014. Don’t judge me. If it wasn’t for Emma, it’d still be on my bed pile, gathering dust. I’ll post a review as soon as my brain has some free space to think of something else than my PhD or my teaching.
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I also read, in a horrified, hurried pace, The Handmail’s Tale. I’m still processing it. The horror of it. The shock of it. The metaliterary dimension of it — what appealed me the most. As soon as I’m done processing, I’ll post a review. I know I haven’t reviewed books for a while but I have to take care of my work tool, which is my brain, which gets tired very easily since my burnout.
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The funny contrast between these two books, apart from their obvious epoch and literary differences, is the fact that I didn’t get the horror where I expected it. Udolpho qualifies more as a romance, in my humble opinion, and yes, there is some gothic in it but oh so few, compared to what I was expecting from the 700p. However, The Handmaid’s Tale, in its condensed 300p, gave me my share of horror, though not gothic, for a good while. I’ll probably not watch the show, thank you very much!
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What’s a book that has taken you ages to finish? And why?
—— #bookblogger #bookreviewers #bloggingforbooks #bookishfeature #bookfeatures #literaryfiction #readwomen #bookwrapup #smallandproudbookwrapups #margaretatwood #thehandmaidstale#annradcliffe #themysteriesofudolpho #forgottenvoicesofliterature
