December 13, 2025 • 40 mins
Join Amanda and Kelsey as they explore captivating books that highlight diverse human rights issues. Discover stories of resilience, from Romanian revolutions to the struggles of incarcerated individuals, and add some meaningful reads to your TBR list.
00:00 Welcome to Lit Vibes Only
00:31 Follow Us on Social Media
01:35 Our Current Reads
05:16 What This Month is All About
07:44 'The Marrow Thieves' by Cherie Dimaline
13:52 'I Must Betray You' by Ruta Sepetys
23:14 ‘The Syrian Ladies Benevolent Society’ by Christine Estima
28:35 ‘Just Mercy’ by Brian Stevenson
38:08 Recap and Final Thoughts
Follow us on TikTok & Youtube @litvibesonlypodcast and on Instagram @litvibesonly_podcast. You can also email us at litvibesonlypodcast@gmail.com We'd love to hear from you!
See you on Mondays!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Amanda (00:04):
Welcome to Lit Vibes Only where we lit the shit out
of books we love and hate.
I'm Amanda, the insightful,thrill seeker, and historical
fiction nerd.
Kelsey (00:12):
And I'm Kelsey, the unhinged, diehard romantic and
fantasy reader.
Other (00:17):
Welcome.
Kelsey (00:19):
It's so funny, I always forget, like
Other (00:21):
I know you, there's always
Kelsey 2.0 (00:22):
a pause.
Always forget.
There's always a pause.
It's okay people.
I'm like, I did it.
And then, and I'm done.
And then yeah, and then you'renot done.
I'm supposed to support youheading to our socials and Yes.
Rating and reviewing ourpodcast.
So we are at Live Vibes Onlypodcast at.
Instagram or on Instagramrather, and then Lit Vibe's only
(00:44):
podcast on TikTok and YouTube.
Come find us on those platforms.
And of course always rate andreview your favorite podcast
because that is how we get morepodcast listeners to our little
side of what is that called?
The web,
Other (00:59):
our little slice of the podcast sphere.
Kelsey (01:04):
And yeah, so if you rate it takes two seconds.
But then if you review it takesa minute.
So that's all you gotta do.
So yes please go do that.
Pause the episode and just go doit.
Other (01:15):
Or you don't even need to pause, as Kelsey has pointed
out.
No, me too.
You could technically rate andreview while you're listening.
You could multitask.
If you are one of those peoplethat are skilled at doing that,
by all means, we would deeplyappreciate it.
Consider it an early Christmaspresent for us.
Thank you.
Us.
Kelsey (01:32):
Yeah.
Thanks.
So what are we getting intotoday, Amanda?
Other (01:38):
We're gonna talk about our current reads, but we were
chatting briefly before thepodcast about.
What we're currently gettinginto in terms of our book club
reads.
And yeah, you were telling me alittle bit about the book that
you're reading.
Kelsey (01:51):
Yeah.
If you all don't know, Amandaand I have our own respective
book clubs and mine has fourpeople in it, and we're all
educators.
It's so funny.
I am good friends with one ofthem, and then the other two,
she the third one.
She knew the third one and thethird one knew the fourth one.
It was like that kind ofmixture, domino
Other (02:11):
effect.
Kelsey (02:12):
And we have completely different personalities, and I
love it so much because we allalso have very completely
different tastes in books.
Other (02:20):
That sounds
Kelsey (02:20):
familiar.
And it's so fun.
Yeah, so I, I already know howto navigate that.
But yeah our book club read thismonth is Kim J.
Young born 1982.
That's the whole title.
Amanda was like, wait, is thatthe author?
That's not the author.
I'm like, no, that's the title.
And then the author is Cho j Andyeah.
So I'm excited.
(02:41):
It's only 163 pages and I wasabout to tell Amanda that we're
doing like this themed eveningnext weekend.
Okay.
And we're going to order inKorean food and we're gonna go,
we're gonna like.
Watch a movie together.
You can't remember what we'rewatching, but yeah, we're just
hanging out.
Other (02:58):
Nice.
I love that.
Yeah.
I yeah, obviously I'm in a bookclub as well.
It's been going on for I thinkseven years at this point.
Yeah, that's wild.
Maybe a little bit longer, butwhen we were, we're not in
person anymore.
'cause it started when I livedin New Jersey and now we've been
scattered to the four winds.
So we meet virtually now, butwhen we all were together in
Princeton, that was one aspectof our book clubs, is we would
(03:19):
have themed food and beveragesto go along with the book.
So that was always like a funlittle addition.
But it's funny because we arealso reading a.
Super short book for our nextbook, club book and it's small
things like these by ClaireKeegan.
It's this book that's set in1980s Ireland during the
Christmas season.
(03:39):
So it's very much a Christmasread and that it's set in that
time of year.
Yeah, 128 pages.
Super short.
And there's a movie, that cameout in 2024 that I'm really
excited to watch'cause it'sbasically this town in Ireland.
And I think there's like somesecrets that are uncovered
because the Roman Catholicchurch is very much kind of
(04:00):
controlling things in this Irishtown.
So very excited to read the bookand then watch the movie after.
But we wanted to choose a.
Because this will be for ourDecember book club.
And it gets crazy, as you'llknow with the holiday season.
So we wanted a book that wasreally quick, really short.
We could all squeeze in time toread it.
(04:21):
Yeah.
In the hustle and bustle of theholiday season.
Kelsey (04:23):
Yeah.
Other (04:23):
So I'm excited to dive into it and it's, and I've heard
such good things.
It's so well rated.
It's got like a 4.1 on goodread,
Kelsey (04:30):
So I.
Realized the movie is thismovie.
There is a movie to this book,and that's what we're gonna be
watching.
Other (04:38):
You
Kelsey (04:38):
reminded me, saying this movie.
Oh, that's also based, okay.
Other (04:40):
Yeah.
Very cool.
Okay.
That's crazy.
Kelsey (04:42):
That is great.
That'll be fun.
Other (04:44):
Look at those parallels between our book clubs.
You'll have to let me know whatyou think and I'll definitely
let you know what I think aboutthis one.
But is that what you'recurrently reading or is that.
Just
Kelsey (04:53):
what's that's I'm gonna be reading next.
Other (04:55):
Okay.
Kelsey (04:55):
And then I'm gonna be reading BrightHaven next.
Next.
Yes.
Blood
Other (04:59):
over BrightHaven.
That's my recommendation.
Yeah.
So tune in next week
Kelsey (05:04):
next
Other (05:04):
for that episode.
Kelsey (05:06):
Oh yeah, it do.
It would be next week.
Other (05:07):
It'll be next week.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I know.
Kelsey (05:10):
The time.
Other (05:10):
It's confusing.
Time is weird when you're makinga podcast.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Awesome.
We are doing our December litRex episode, and as we've been
saying since September, we wantto rethink, reinvent each of
these months as we go along sowe're not doing the same exact
thing every single year.
And so last year for December.
(05:32):
We did immigrant stories justbecause it's not associated with
a particular month and yeah, wewanted a little bit of leeway to
do what we wanted to do, butDecember is Universal Human
Rights month, and so we wantedto celebrate that this year, and
it's observed every December torecognize and promote the
(05:56):
fundamental rights and freedomsof all people.
As established by the UnitedNations Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, and the reason whyDecember was chosen as Universal
Human Rights Month is becauseDecember 10th is International
Human Rights Day.
And the reason why December 10this International Human Rights
(06:16):
Day is because that was the dayin 1948 that the Declaration of
Human Rights was adopted by theUnited Nations.
And so this month justencourages.
Advocation.
Lemme try that again.
This month encourages education.
Advocacy and action to protecthuman dignity, equality and
(06:38):
freedom worldwide.
And so the four books that we'vechosen today are focusing on
different issues, right?
And I can tell just looking atmy choices and Kelsey's choices,
that it's covering a lot ofdifferent marginalized and
oppressed groups, right?
Because.
Women's rights are human rights,immigrant rights are human
rights.
Indigenous rights are humanrights.
(06:59):
And so you'll see that as we gothrough our book choices, that
we really tried to provide awide array, of ways to be
thinking about human rights andthe ways in which those rights
can be violated or taken away.
Yeah.
So really excited.
Yeah.
For this episode, and
Kelsey (07:17):
also
Other (07:17):
how.
Kelsey (07:18):
Stories can help highlight those issues.
Yes.
Other (07:21):
Yeah.
And raise awareness.
Absolutely.
And how literature and storiescan also be used to, in addition
to that, to combat, theseinjustices, like the power of
the written word really can do alot to promote those.
Those causes and those movementsagainst oppressive regimes and
governments.
So yeah, really excited.
Do you wanna kick things off ordo you want me to start?
Kelsey 2.0 (07:44):
So my first book is The Marrow thieves by Sherry
Deline.
And this has been on my TBR fora while now.
And I'm excited to get into it.
Sherry is a member of the MetisNation in Ontario.
And specifically comes from thehistoric Georgian Bay t
(08:07):
community there her heritage andupbringing in that community.
Play a central role in herstorytelling.
She Notes that her grandmotherfamily stories and community
traditions are the source of alot of her work.
And to give some background onher, like before she was
focusing like riding full-timeshe had different roles in her
(08:30):
community or indigenouscommunities.
Including women's resourcecenters, government funding
work, and like other ruralsupporting indigenous
organizations.
So a tidbit about.
Indigenous governments is we dohave our own government.
And then there's various rolesthat we get to identify what's
needed.
Like we need a mental healthdepartment and we need obviously
(08:53):
finance department, but there'salso all these areas where you
can do really great work.
Around community need.
And the Marrow thieves was likeher breakout novel and it was
published in 2017.
And it received like a lot ofrecognition.
It won the government GovernorGeneral's literary award.
(09:13):
Oh my God.
For English language.
Children's literature.
Gosh, that is a handful.
That's an
Other (09:19):
awful.
Kelsey (09:21):
Yeah, what you said, not what I said.
And the Kirks prize for youngreaders literature.
So it is a YA novel.
That's something to note.
And, interestingly enough shealso uses her platform to uplift
like indigenous stories andvoices, not only through her own
writing, but via editing andmentoring and participating in
(09:42):
festivals and literarygatherings.
So that's like nice.
She's probably hiring, maybewithin her community or like
folks that she knows.
Which is really cool.
And then.
Thinking about her work ingeneral, it's often studied and
discussed in an academic settingfor how it reframes indigenous
experiences and uses genres suchas dystopia, which is what the
(10:05):
ma thief is and myth to retailhistory.
And engages readers like in adifferent way with themes of
cultural resilience.
Thinking about awards as well.
She was also named EmergingArtists of the Year by Ontario's
pre Wow.
Premier's awards of Excellencein the Arts.
Why do they have such giantnames?
(10:26):
I don't
Other (10:27):
know.
It's so pretentious.
It's if it's the longer thename, the more pretentious the
award.
Kelsey (10:32):
And then in 2021, she received the wider writers trust
angle.
Is that how you say that?
Other (10:39):
I
Kelsey (10:39):
think so.
Finley Award.
Which honored her as a fearlessand transformative storyteller.
Her devotion to craft andcharacter manifest prose that
threads together indigenousheritage with historical and
contemporary real realities.
Oh my gosh.
Alright.
That was about, that was allabout sharing.
(11:02):
She just seems like a busy lady.
Other (11:05):
Yeah.
Kelsey 2.0 (11:06):
And then she's a good thing.
The actual book I want tohighlight and focus on is called
The Marrow thieves And I'm likeso intrigued about this book.
I can't wait to read it.
It has a 3.95 star rating ongood reads.
It's one of these short books aswell.
It's only 234 pages.
But basically it's about, it's adystopian novel.
(11:26):
In the near future where likethe climate is collapsing.
And a lot of people have lostthe ability to dream.
Oh, it's very random.
Okay.
And only indigenous people arestill dreaming and their bone
marrow becomes like a a targetbecause it holds like the
ability to dream.
(11:46):
Oh.
And people can extract it.
I use it to dream essentially.
Oh.
And so it follows this youngMetis boy named Frenchy, which
is also funny fact nativepeoples also often have like
funny nicknames for
Other (12:06):
Okay.
Kelsey (12:06):
Each other.
Like my uncle's name was Squeakyand for the longest time I
didn't know his actual name.
Because everybody just calledhim Sy.
Other (12:15):
I'm sure there's a story there,
Kelsey (12:17):
so I'm sure Frenchie is.
One of those as well.
But anyway, Frenchie is on therun after a traumatic loss.
And joins a group of indigenoussurvivors heading north for
safety and community, probablybecause people are trying to
steal their marrow.
And so thinking about why thispertains exactly to human
rights.
(12:37):
I wanted to make sure I like,called it out.
Yeah.
The novel explores the power ofculture, language, memory, and
dream life as forms ofresistance and survival.
And by portraying the erasureand resilience of indigenous
peoples, the story underscoresthe global need to protect.
Obviously marginalizedcommunities from exploitation
(12:58):
and cultural genocide.
Yeah.
Which is the central purpose of.
The book itself.
Other (13:05):
Yeah.
Kelsey (13:06):
So yeah, that's Marrow Feed.
Wow.
I know, I'm so intrigued.
That
Other (13:09):
sounds intense and it almost feels I don't, obviously
it's ya, but it feels likethere's like an element of body
horror to it with the fact thatYeah, like humans are tracking
down other humans and extractingtheir bone marrow.
I,
Kelsey (13:23):
it's wild.
Other (13:24):
It's quite brutal.
But I I'm sure that was a reallyintentional choice because Oh
yeah.
The exploitation and genocidethat has happened in so many
places in the world due tocolonization yeah.
Has very viciously and violentlywiped out entire peoples, and so
there is so much violence there.
Yeah, I definitely need to readthat book too.
Kelsey (13:46):
Yeah.
Other (13:46):
Added to my
Kelsey (13:47):
what?
Short.
Other (13:47):
Yeah.
Added to my never ending TBR.
Thank you.
Okay.
Yeah.
So I'm gonna start off withsurprise, a historical fiction
novel by one of my, it
Kelsey (13:58):
fits very nicely into this theme.
Other (13:59):
Oh, does
Kelsey (14:00):
theme of ours.
Other (14:00):
Honestly, all of her books do the ones that I've read
so far, but I'm gonna be talkingabout, I must betray you by Ru
Tis.
And this is a historical fictionauthor that I discovered at the
beginning of the year throughsome amazing recommendations
from some of our book Talkfriends.
So thank you.
And yeah, I wanna share a littlebit about her and then
specifically about this book.
(14:22):
Rudis is a number one in NewYork Times bestselling author of
historical fiction, and herbooks have been published in
over 60 countries and 40languages okay.
Yeah.
Very well established author.
And she was born in Detroit,Michigan back in 1967 to a
Lithuanian refugee.
So her father is a Lithuanianrefugee who actually fled.
(14:45):
The Soviet occupation duringWorld War ii, and that's
important because it comes up ina lot of her stories.
Okay, so she actually did notstart off as a writer or wanting
to write, per se.
She studied.
International finance in collegeand then moved to Los Angeles
where surprisingly she worked inartist management and then
founded her own entertainmentcompany, which I think is really
(15:07):
cool.
Yeah.
And then ultimately she decidedto transition to writing
full-time because she wanted todive into her father's
experiences as a refugee fromthe Baltic states.
And she wanted to tell theuntold stories of the Baltic
states,'cause they're oftenoverlooked.
In history classrooms.
Yeah.
I know I personally learned nextto nothing about them.
(15:28):
When I was in school.
So in total, she has writteneight books and her books have
won or been shortlisted for morethan 50 prizes.
They appear on over 40 statereading lists, and multiple of
them are currently indevelopment for film and
television, or already have afilm associated with them.
(15:50):
So her very first book.
It was published in 2011, andthat was between Shades of Gray,
which I've read, and it tellsthe story of unsurprisingly, a
Lithuanian teenager during WorldWar ii.
Mm-hmm.
Who is deported to a Siberianlabor camp because during World
War ii Stalin basically hadthese mass deportations that
(16:11):
were happening within the Balticstates.
Baltic states specifically.
So it's a really.
Heart wrenching and eyeopeningstory, and this book was
translated into more than 60languages and was made into a
film called Ashes in the Snow in2018.
Her third novel sold to the Sea,which I've also read.
(16:31):
Is a multi-perspective narrativeabout this.
Thinking of the Wil Helm Gustav,which is the deadliest maritime
disaster in history.
I made a TikTok video about thismonths and months ago, and
again, had never heard of it,not something we learned about
in American history classes, andthis book was awarded the
Carnegie Medal, so did reallywell.
(16:53):
She continues to be an advocatefor both historical literacy and
global storytelling and her kindof.
Driving motivator is to telluntold stories and to shed light
on narratives and experiencesthat we don't often see in
literature, which I think is soimportant.
And you'll see that in a momentspecifically within the novel
(17:16):
that I'm gonna focus on.
And right now she lives inNashville, Tennessee.
It's a little bit about Ruda thebook itself.
Kelsey (17:22):
Oh, LA To Nashville.
Other (17:23):
I know.
From Michigan to LA toNashville.
Kelsey (17:27):
Yeah.
Other (17:28):
So been all over.
So I must betray you aspublished in 2022.
So a relatively recent book.
It's 321 pages.
And as with Kelsey's first bookis also a Ya novel
Kelsey (17:40):
Oh.
Other (17:40):
It has a 4.4 Good Reads rating and was nominated on Good
Reads.
For reader's favorite youngadult fiction in 2022 when it
was released
Kelsey (17:49):
Okay.
Other (17:49):
Really cool.
And this novel takes place inRomania.
In 1989, and at this time,Romania was underneath the
dictatorship of Nikolai.
It's really hard to say.
Kelsey (18:04):
Yeah.
Other (18:04):
And he and his, yeah, he and his wife ruled the country
with an iron fist.
But one of the definingcharacteristics of their regime
was that they had this system orthis network of citizen spies.
In other words, they wererecruiting.
Everyday folks to spy on eachother.
(18:26):
And so there, there was justthis sense of mistrust and fear
and betrayal that was justpervasive throughout this
country.
The other thing was mostcitizens did not have access to,
a lot of their basic needs.
And so you see in this story,which we'll get to in a second
people just struggling to makeends meet and survive in
(18:46):
communist Romania.
So it provides a window intowhat life was like underneath
his dictatorship.
And yeah, look at the way inwhich fear and surveillance were
used to control the country andits citizens.
So the story follows a young mannamed Christian who essentially
is blackmailed.
By the government into becomingone of these informers and I,
(19:08):
and again, no spoilers, but we,you find out that he's doing
this in order to get medicinefor his ailing grandfather.
And ultimately, he chooses tojoin the revolution, the fight
for freedom and change and.
It's, again, I knew nothingabout Romania.
(19:28):
I didn't study it in school.
Yeah.
I had no idea who this dictatorwas.
Kelsey (19:31):
Yeah.
Other (19:32):
I had no idea what the, just the living conditions were
like.
And yeah, folks had such limitedaccess to basic necessities and
were incredibly impoverished andhad zero civil liberties.
And one of the other charactersin the book that Christian
(19:52):
befriend is the son of, Ibelieve, yeah.
A United States ambassador toRomania and just.
Seeing the contrast betweenlifestyles and access.
So these young people in Romaniaare watching videos from America
that, that have been smuggled in'cause, right?
They're illegal and they'reseeing people in homes with
refrigerators like full of foodand hot running water and all of
(20:15):
these things.
And they're like, this can't bereal, because their lives have
been their access to the outsideworld has been completely cut
off.
Kelsey (20:21):
Wow.
Other (20:21):
And so very much ties into, so many different human
rights.
But in this one specifically,it's like the right to privacy.
And the right to be able tospeak out against the government
when it's doing things that areharmful to you and your fellow
citizens.
And.
I, yeah.
Again, for me, this was a hugeblind spot.
(20:42):
I had a lot of ignorance in thisarea.
Yeah.
So for me it was also.
Yeah, like I said before, soeye-opening to see the ways in
which so many of their civilrights and human rights were
either taken away or repressedin this really horrible regime.
They did end up overthrowing thegovernment and assassinating, or
I guess not assassinating,executing Nikolai and his wife
(21:05):
pretty dramatically.
But,
Kelsey (21:07):
Like the military, like a military coup or
Other (21:09):
like the, so yeah, it was partially that, but partially
just like private citizens, theyjust revolted and they overthrew
them and they ended up, I thinkbasically shot them against the
side of a building.
It was like a really famousphoto of them being executed
because they had hoarded all ofthis money and wealth, so they
were living like emperors wow.
And.
(21:30):
No one knew what was happeningwithin Romania.
Wow.
So he was going out and meetingwith our president who I think
at that time was Reagan and allof these other foreign
dignitaries.
And they thought he was doinggreat things within Romania.
Wow.
And people were happy andhealthy and hardy.
And it was total lie.
Yeah.
Yeah, because there's just likea complete moratorium on the
information that was coming outof Romania and
Kelsey (21:50):
what years were the, was this again?
Other (21:51):
So the book takes place in 1989, which is the year when
kind of everything.
Yeah.
It's not that long ago.
Not that long ago, yeah.
And when I was
Kelsey (21:58):
born.
Other (21:58):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So not ancient history by anymeans.
Yeah.
And yeah, it's a reallybeautiful story of seeing, this
country come together to ousthis really awful leader.
Kelsey (22:10):
Dang.
Other (22:11):
Yeah.
Kelsey (22:11):
Okay.
I saw how long it was and I waslike maybe it's not too long.
Other (22:16):
It's not too long.
And her books are, they're ya,they go pretty quickly.
I've read Redden.
I have read I think four of herbooks at this point.
And I have a fifth one that justcame in on my Libby.
And I love all of them.
They're.
They're so good and they're sowell researched.
Oh my gosh.
They're so well researched.
Yeah.
Kelsey (22:34):
Is she a woman of color or She's Romanian?
Other (22:36):
She is Lithuanian.
Kelsey (22:38):
Lithuanian, okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Which, okay, cool.
'Cause yeah, I was just thinkingabout how horse left a bad taste
in my mouth.
Other (22:47):
Yeah, no, it's cool because like she's telling the
story of her people and sheddinglight on, on her heritage and
Kelsey (22:54):
Yeah.
That's very different then.
Other (22:56):
Very different.
And she does her work.
Like she goes out and conductslike interviews and oh, goes
straights to the source.
That's really cool.
Yeah.
Like she's very intentional anddeliberate and detailed with her
work, which is so evident.
Kelsey (23:08):
Yeah.
And is a must for.
So
Other (23:10):
he's a must.
I think so.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Kelsey (23:14):
So for my second rec, this is another book that's been
on my TBR for a while.
I actually think I have it on myCobo.
I started reading it and justhaven't finished it.
Okay.
But feels like a reallyimportant book for me to pick
up.
And a big window for me, ratherthan the mirrors I often get
(23:34):
into.
So this book is The SyrianLadies, A Benevolent Society by
Christine Estima and Christineis from Canada.
Okay.
Now lives in Toronto, but grewup in Montreal.
Okay.
And she's an Arab woman of likemixed ethnicity.
She's she's Lebanese, Syrian,and Portuguese.
Other (23:56):
Okay.
Kelsey (23:56):
And she holds her Masters of Arts in
interdisciplinary studies fromYork University, which is in
Toronto.
And Amanda.
She studied theater, has abackground in theater and
performance Uhhuh.
Um, And we'll get into that injust a second and also wait.
Oh,
Other (24:15):
okay.
Go ahead.
Kelsey (24:15):
And also has a creative writing degree in ba that that's
Other (24:20):
what I was gonna say.
I have that same combination Idid writing.
Kelsey (24:23):
Oh
Other (24:23):
That's why I was like, oh my gosh.
That's crazy.
Kelsey (24:27):
Yeah.
You're meant to be an author inthe end
Other (24:31):
clearly.
Kelsey (24:31):
So her family Heritage and Roots in the Arab immigrant
community deeply informed herstorytelling and so coming back
to that performance piece shealso engages in spoken word
performances.
Very cool.
And has appeared at events likeThe Moth in New York City.
Mm-hmm.
Spark London and otherstorytelling festivals.
(24:53):
Amazing.
Her debut book was the SyrianLadies Benevolent Society.
And that was published in 2023.
It was published by house ofAnanzi Press and received
critical acclaim and includedbeing named one of the best
books of 2023 by CBC.
Other (25:13):
Okay.
Kelsey (25:13):
She brings attention to intersectional issues of
migration, female experience andespecially in this book like
cultural transmission acrossgenerations and the vitality of
underrepresented Voices inCanadian literature.
It's funny, both of my authorsare Canadian.
Other (25:34):
Yeah.
Kelsey (25:35):
The Syrian Ladies Benevolent Society.
The book itself, it's acollection of interlocking
stories that trace like her ArabCanadian family roots to all the
way back to the Middle East inthe 19th century and to her life
then and her family's life inMontreal in the 20th.
And so I feel like you wouldreally love that because it's
(25:59):
like across generations andacross, across timelines.
And then comes fully.
Back into the 21st century.
The book includes like multiplegenerations of women dealing
with migration, war displacementtradition versus modernity.
(26:19):
Is that how you say it?
Modernity.
Modernity.
Mm-hmm.
Ity um, sexuality, identity, andhome.
So it's.
Layered.
Other (26:29):
Yeah.
Kelsey (26:29):
And I'm sure all of the generations, have their own
perspective.
And I'm, yeah, I'm just socurious to read it.
And then at the central of thecollection is a woman named
Azuri who is living.
In the echoes of her ancestorsvoices and like really
contending with like herheritage the weight of lineage
(26:51):
and her own like search forbelonging.
Sure.
So connecting it all back to ourtheme for the month.
Really, I think it speaks foritself almost, but Yeah, to call
it out through the generationsof like women navigating.
Displacement and identity.
It underscores like the right tocultural expression and personal
(27:13):
dignity.
Showing how migration and memoryshape one's self sense of self.
And then of course, like thenarrative also speaks to gender
equality and women'sempowerment.
And as we hear from each woman'sperspective yeah.
I'm so excited to get into thisone.
And finally finish it.
Other (27:33):
So is it, I'm curious, is it a.
Memoir or is it a novel?
Novel?
Kelsey (27:39):
I don't think so.
I think
Other (27:40):
Okay.
'cause you started off sayingthat it was tracing like her
roots from the Middle East toMontreal.
But it's not, it's fictional.
Kelsey (27:47):
I think it's fictional, but it, I think, yeah, it's,
Other (27:50):
there's like parallels and connections between her
Kelsey (27:52):
experience.
Okay.
'cause her family did thatexact.
Thing.
Other (27:55):
Okay.
Yeah.
So it's Okay.
A fictionalization of some ofthe things that she and her
family have experienced.
Yeah.
It reminds me, I feel like we'vecertainly highlighted in this
past year, several novels thatdeal with Arab women and like
the Arab immigrant experience tothe United States.
Yeah.
And it sounds like this verymuch fits within that not genre,
(28:16):
but.
Theme form, theme topic.
Yeah.
In area.
And yeah, I do love generationalstories that have a sweeping
saga over that multiple decades.
I love those so much.
Okay.
Thank you.
All right.
My last book is Just Mercy byBrian Stevenson, and I was so
(28:40):
excited to include this bookbecause I understand that a fair
amount of people are familiarwith.
This story because of the moviethat came out relatively
recently with Michael B.
Jordan, but I actually havegotten to see Brian Stevenson
speak twice.
Okay.
One at the National Associationfor Independent Schools People
(29:03):
of Color Conference and once atthe National Council for
Teachers of English Conferencethat I went to last year.
And he is just as.
Phenomenal, impeccable, astute,amazing in person as he is in
his books like he and also soinsanely like humble when you
(29:24):
look at all that he has done andhow accomplished he is.
But for those of you who don'tknow, Brian Stevenson is.
A lawyer, a social justiceadvocate, a law professor, and
the founder and executivedirector of the Equal Justice
Initiative.
He was born back in 1959 inDelaware and grew up in a really
segregated community, so he hada front row seat.
(29:48):
To the consequences of racialinequality because they were
directly impacting him and hisfamily and his community
members.
He went on to attend EasternUniversity because he received a
scholarship and graduated in1981 with a degree in both
philosophy.
And social studies, and thendidn't stop there.
He went on and got his JD fromHarvard Law School and a Master
(30:11):
of Public Policy from theHarvard Kennedy School in 1985.
It's
Kelsey (30:15):
busy.
Other (30:15):
He's a busy man.
Like I said, insanelyintelligent and well read.
He ended up, and this is wherethings really got going for him,
while he was a student atHarvard, he did this internship
where he was working with deathrow prisoners, and that really
had a huge.
Influence on both his thinkingand his career path, and was the
(30:38):
fuel that got him started onthis lifelong commitment to
defend the marginalized and morespecifically individuals who
have been incarcerated.
So right after graduation fromHarvard.
He moved to the South and in1989, so here we are in 1989.
Once again, lots of things werehappening that year.
He founded the Equal JusticeInitiative, which goes by EJI,
(31:02):
and then in 2014, that's when hewrote and published Just Mercy,
and we'll get to the details ofthat in just a moment.
But essentially since foundingEJI.
He has of course, done so muchgreat work in advocating for the
rights of incarceratedindividuals and also seeking for
(31:22):
sentences to be overturned forfolks who have been wrongfully
convicted.
But beyond that, he's also donea lot of other social justice
work and.
One of the big accomplishmentsthat he and EJI have
accomplished is in 2018 inMontgomery, Alabama, he opened
these two monumental sites.
One of them is the Legacy Museumwhich kind of traces the story
(31:47):
of African Americans fromslavery to mass incarceration.
And then the second one is theNational Memorial for Peace and
Justice, which is the nation's.
First large scale memorialdedicated to victims of
lynching.
So yes, if we're talking abouthuman, whoa, human rights
violations, like we, we can'tnot talk about lynching.
And the horrible history oflynching in our country.
(32:07):
His work has earned him numeroushonors.
I'm not gonna read all of them,but a couple that I did want to
include are the MacArthurFoundation Genius Grant.
The American Bar AssociationMedal, which is the
organization's highestdistinction, and the National
Humanities Medal, which wasawarded to him by President
Obama, which is so cool.
And then right now he serves asa professor of law at New York
(32:30):
University School of Law, wherehe teaches, about criminal
justice.
Capital Punishment and humanrights.
So that brings us to Just Mercy,which like I said was published
in 2014, has a 4.62, that'shuge.
Good Reads rating, which is likeso high, so huge.
It's 336 pages and.
Has won an astonishing number ofawards, has been nominated for
(32:53):
so many more, but a couple ofthe awards that it has won
include the Dayton LiteraryPeace Prize for nonfiction, the
Andrew Carnegie Medal forNonfiction, the NAACP Image
Award for nonfiction, and theAlabama Author Award for
nonfiction.
So people love this book andthere's a good reason why.
Essentially it's a memoir, so itfollows the founding of EJI and
(33:17):
how that all came to be.
And it was a struggle,understandably, being a black
lawyer in the South, trying toadvocate for the rights of
incarcerated individuals, manyof whom were poor.
And or people of color.
And so the book talks verybroadly about a lot of the
injustices that happen withinour criminal justice system, but
(33:40):
it also focuses specifically onthe case of Walter McMillan, who
was a black man who waswrongfully sentenced to death in
Alabama.
And who in the, in this memoirBrian Stevenson, is actively
working to get that sentenceoverturned.
So it's, yeah.
It talks so much about,obviously.
Racism, the racial inequitieswithin our criminal justice
(34:03):
system.
Also, how economics plays arole.
And how folks who are comingfrom lower socioeconomic
backgrounds face much differenttreatment within our criminal
justice system.
It talks about justice and thelack thereof in our justice
system.
Yeah.
So this book, because it.
Ended up getting so much acclaimand so much attention, really
(34:25):
provided him with this massiveplatform that he now has.
And he is currently one of themost sought after speakers on
issues of justice, race inAmerican history.
And then all of that waselevated even more when the
movie came out in 2019 featuringMichael B.
Jordan.
This book has really shed lightfor a lot of individuals on all
(34:48):
of the human rights violationsthat are happening right now in
our criminal justice system andagainst incarcerated
individuals, even if they werequote unquote, rightfully
accused.
The way that we treat prisonersand inmates and our prison
system is really important.
So he the, like I said, thenovel focus is specifically on
Walter McMillan, but it goes sofar beyond just his story and
(35:11):
provides you with so manyinsights in general into how
individuals are treated in ourcriminal justice system,
including minors, which is just
Kelsey (35:18):
Yes.
Other (35:19):
So some, this entire book is distressing in so many ways,
but that those elements inparticular were just absolutely
gut wrenching.
So if you've watched the movie,I would strongly encourage you
to read the book because yes,the movie's great.
And yes, it does focus onWalter's story, but the book
does so much more.
And there's so much more thereto learn and ponder.
(35:41):
And I think unfortunately, thelast thing I'll say is that when
we think about human rights, weoften don't think about
incarcerated individuals.
Sure.
They're often like at the bottomof the pile.
And they also have rights, andthey also should be treated with
kindness and equality andcompassion.
And so I really wanted to takethis opportunity to highlight
that I was going to recommendChain Gang All Stars.
(36:02):
'cause it also touches mm-hmm.
on these same themes, but I'vealready talked about that book
at length.
Kelsey (36:06):
Yeah.
Other (36:07):
On this episode or this podcast.
So I wanted to recommend adifferent book.
So yes.
Don't think, oh my gosh, I'vewatched the movie.
I'm good.
Like, no, no, no, no, No.
Go and read the book.
There's a lot That's lot better.
Lot more good stuff there.
There's so much moreinformation.
Yeah.
Kelsey (36:21):
Yeah.
Just piggybacking on that, it'sjust.
When you're talking about hiswork in trying to get that
sentence either removed or atleast his sentence changed.
So much work goes into doingsomething like that.
Yes.
And.
Yeah.
Years of work.
And I'm just thinking about likethe case of Leonard Peltier too.
He was uh, imprisoned indigenousman from the seventies after
(36:45):
what happened to two FBI agentswho was convicted of murdering
them.
Okay.
And then he was wrongfullyconvicted and there was lots of
evidence showing that over theyears.
But the FBI had the loud voicearound this, and he wasn't
released.
For 50 years.
Oh
Other (37:03):
my God.
Kelsey (37:03):
And finally, president Biden, it was just this year
that, that happened.
Like he was released to homeconfinement, which still isn't
like free.
No, it's, no, he, yeah.
It's so fucking wild.
And people were working on thatcase for 50 years.
Other (37:19):
Wow.
Kelsey (37:20):
That's wow.
And that's just one and yeah.
Oh, you highlighted there.
That's just one.
And,
Other (37:24):
So many stories.
Many, I often think about thatif I was wrongfully accused and
knew I was innocent and it wassentenced to a hellhole of a
prison for multiple decades,like I don't.
I don't know if I,
Kelsey (37:39):
how do you survive that?
Other (37:39):
I don't know.
I feel like my mind would justfracture.
I don't know if I guess Iwouldn't know unless I was in
that situation, but I'm like, Idon't know if I would have the
wherewithal
Kelsey (37:48):
right
Other (37:48):
To know that I did literally nothing wrong.
And I may never, be free again.
I'm gonna die in this prison andno one will believe me.
Kelsey (37:58):
Yeah.
Other (37:59):
Everyone is, Ugh.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Kelsey (38:01):
And there's thousands of people in our system currently.
Other (38:04):
Yeah.
Kelsey (38:04):
Yeah.
It's like that.
Other (38:05):
Yeah, it's pretty wild.
But yeah.
Okay.
So as you can see, wide range ofgenres and human rights focuses
in these books.
We hope that you'll check out atleast one of them.
Kelsey, do you wanna recap yourtwo and then I'll do my two.
Kelsey 2.0 (38:23):
Yeah, gimme a second.
My first book recommendation wasthe Me Thiefs by Sherry Dimin,
and the second was the SyrianLadies Benevolent Society by
Christine Estima.
Other (38:38):
Awesome.
And mine were, I must Betray Youby Ruti and Just Mercy by Brian
Stevenson.
So definitely hop on our social,shoot us an email, let us know
either if you've read thesebooks, if you're planning to
read them, and or if you haveother books that really focus on
human rights that you thinkwould make for Great reads.
(38:59):
We always love goodrecommendations.
So once again, you can find uson Instagram at Lit Vibes Only
under Podcast.
Or on TikTok or YouTube at LitVibes only podcast, so you can.
Leave us information there.
You can comment there.
Send us a dm if you're not onsocials.
Our email address is lit vibesonly podcast@gmail.com.
(39:20):
And also you can rate and reviewand you can also leave your
thoughts in your review eitheron Apple Podcast.
Or in a comment on this episodeon It's So easy, Spotify, it's
so easy.
Again, it takes no time at all.
It is a gift that costs you$0that you can give us$0 and 0
(39:41):
cents.
And it's a great way tocelebrate the season of giving.
So there you go.
Thank you guys so much.
We hope you learned somethingnew today and have some more
books to add to your TBR.
Thanks for hanging out with usand we'll see you next Monday.
Kelsey (39:55):
Bye
Other (39:57):
bye.
Welcome to Lit Vibes Only where we lit the shit out
of books we love and hate.
I'm Amanda, the insightful,thrill seeker, and historical
fiction nerd.
Kelsey (00:12):
And I'm Kelsey, the unhinged, diehard romantic and
fantasy reader.
Other (00:17):
Welcome.
Kelsey (00:19):
It's so funny, I always forget, like
Other (00:21):
I know you, there's always
Kelsey 2.0 (00:22):
a pause.
Always forget.
There's always a pause.
It's okay people.
I'm like, I did it.
And then, and I'm done.
And then yeah, and then you'renot done.
I'm supposed to support youheading to our socials and Yes.
Rating and reviewing ourpodcast.
So we are at Live Vibes Onlypodcast at.
Instagram or on Instagramrather, and then Lit Vibe's only
(00:44):
podcast on TikTok and YouTube.
Come find us on those platforms.
And of course always rate andreview your favorite podcast
because that is how we get morepodcast listeners to our little
side of what is that called?
The web,
Other (00:59):
our little slice of the podcast sphere.
Kelsey (01:04):
And yeah, so if you rate it takes two seconds.
But then if you review it takesa minute.
So that's all you gotta do.
So yes please go do that.
Pause the episode and just go doit.
Other (01:15):
Or you don't even need to pause, as Kelsey has pointed
out.
No, me too.
You could technically rate andreview while you're listening.
You could multitask.
If you are one of those peoplethat are skilled at doing that,
by all means, we would deeplyappreciate it.
Consider it an early Christmaspresent for us.
Thank you.
Us.
Kelsey (01:32):
Yeah.
Thanks.
So what are we getting intotoday, Amanda?
Other (01:38):
We're gonna talk about our current reads, but we were
chatting briefly before thepodcast about.
What we're currently gettinginto in terms of our book club
reads.
And yeah, you were telling me alittle bit about the book that
you're reading.
Kelsey (01:51):
Yeah.
If you all don't know, Amandaand I have our own respective
book clubs and mine has fourpeople in it, and we're all
educators.
It's so funny.
I am good friends with one ofthem, and then the other two,
she the third one.
She knew the third one and thethird one knew the fourth one.
It was like that kind ofmixture, domino
Other (02:11):
effect.
Kelsey (02:12):
And we have completely different personalities, and I
love it so much because we allalso have very completely
different tastes in books.
Other (02:20):
That sounds
Kelsey (02:20):
familiar.
And it's so fun.
Yeah, so I, I already know howto navigate that.
But yeah our book club read thismonth is Kim J.
Young born 1982.
That's the whole title.
Amanda was like, wait, is thatthe author?
That's not the author.
I'm like, no, that's the title.
And then the author is Cho j Andyeah.
So I'm excited.
(02:41):
It's only 163 pages and I wasabout to tell Amanda that we're
doing like this themed eveningnext weekend.
Okay.
And we're going to order inKorean food and we're gonna go,
we're gonna like.
Watch a movie together.
You can't remember what we'rewatching, but yeah, we're just
hanging out.
Other (02:58):
Nice.
I love that.
Yeah.
I yeah, obviously I'm in a bookclub as well.
It's been going on for I thinkseven years at this point.
Yeah, that's wild.
Maybe a little bit longer, butwhen we were, we're not in
person anymore.
'cause it started when I livedin New Jersey and now we've been
scattered to the four winds.
So we meet virtually now, butwhen we all were together in
Princeton, that was one aspectof our book clubs, is we would
(03:19):
have themed food and beveragesto go along with the book.
So that was always like a funlittle addition.
But it's funny because we arealso reading a.
Super short book for our nextbook, club book and it's small
things like these by ClaireKeegan.
It's this book that's set in1980s Ireland during the
Christmas season.
(03:39):
So it's very much a Christmasread and that it's set in that
time of year.
Yeah, 128 pages.
Super short.
And there's a movie, that cameout in 2024 that I'm really
excited to watch'cause it'sbasically this town in Ireland.
And I think there's like somesecrets that are uncovered
because the Roman Catholicchurch is very much kind of
(04:00):
controlling things in this Irishtown.
So very excited to read the bookand then watch the movie after.
But we wanted to choose a.
Because this will be for ourDecember book club.
And it gets crazy, as you'llknow with the holiday season.
So we wanted a book that wasreally quick, really short.
We could all squeeze in time toread it.
(04:21):
Yeah.
In the hustle and bustle of theholiday season.
Kelsey (04:23):
Yeah.
Other (04:23):
So I'm excited to dive into it and it's, and I've heard
such good things.
It's so well rated.
It's got like a 4.1 on goodread,
Kelsey (04:30):
So I.
Realized the movie is thismovie.
There is a movie to this book,and that's what we're gonna be
watching.
Other (04:38):
You
Kelsey (04:38):
reminded me, saying this movie.
Oh, that's also based, okay.
Other (04:40):
Yeah.
Very cool.
Okay.
That's crazy.
Kelsey (04:42):
That is great.
That'll be fun.
Other (04:44):
Look at those parallels between our book clubs.
You'll have to let me know whatyou think and I'll definitely
let you know what I think aboutthis one.
But is that what you'recurrently reading or is that.
Just
Kelsey (04:53):
what's that's I'm gonna be reading next.
Other (04:55):
Okay.
Kelsey (04:55):
And then I'm gonna be reading BrightHaven next.
Next.
Yes.
Blood
Other (04:59):
over BrightHaven.
That's my recommendation.
Yeah.
So tune in next week
Kelsey (05:04):
next
Other (05:04):
for that episode.
Kelsey (05:06):
Oh yeah, it do.
It would be next week.
Other (05:07):
It'll be next week.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I know.
Kelsey (05:10):
The time.
Other (05:10):
It's confusing.
Time is weird when you're makinga podcast.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Awesome.
We are doing our December litRex episode, and as we've been
saying since September, we wantto rethink, reinvent each of
these months as we go along sowe're not doing the same exact
thing every single year.
And so last year for December.
(05:32):
We did immigrant stories justbecause it's not associated with
a particular month and yeah, wewanted a little bit of leeway to
do what we wanted to do, butDecember is Universal Human
Rights month, and so we wantedto celebrate that this year, and
it's observed every December torecognize and promote the
(05:56):
fundamental rights and freedomsof all people.
As established by the UnitedNations Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, and the reason whyDecember was chosen as Universal
Human Rights Month is becauseDecember 10th is International
Human Rights Day.
And the reason why December 10this International Human Rights
(06:16):
Day is because that was the dayin 1948 that the Declaration of
Human Rights was adopted by theUnited Nations.
And so this month justencourages.
Advocation.
Lemme try that again.
This month encourages education.
Advocacy and action to protecthuman dignity, equality and
(06:38):
freedom worldwide.
And so the four books that we'vechosen today are focusing on
different issues, right?
And I can tell just looking atmy choices and Kelsey's choices,
that it's covering a lot ofdifferent marginalized and
oppressed groups, right?
Because.
Women's rights are human rights,immigrant rights are human
rights.
Indigenous rights are humanrights.
(06:59):
And so you'll see that as we gothrough our book choices, that
we really tried to provide awide array, of ways to be
thinking about human rights andthe ways in which those rights
can be violated or taken away.
Yeah.
So really excited.
Yeah.
For this episode, and
Kelsey (07:17):
also
Other (07:17):
how.
Kelsey (07:18):
Stories can help highlight those issues.
Yes.
Other (07:21):
Yeah.
And raise awareness.
Absolutely.
And how literature and storiescan also be used to, in addition
to that, to combat, theseinjustices, like the power of
the written word really can do alot to promote those.
Those causes and those movementsagainst oppressive regimes and
governments.
So yeah, really excited.
Do you wanna kick things off ordo you want me to start?
Kelsey 2.0 (07:44):
So my first book is The Marrow thieves by Sherry
Deline.
And this has been on my TBR fora while now.
And I'm excited to get into it.
Sherry is a member of the MetisNation in Ontario.
And specifically comes from thehistoric Georgian Bay t
(08:07):
community there her heritage andupbringing in that community.
Play a central role in herstorytelling.
She Notes that her grandmotherfamily stories and community
traditions are the source of alot of her work.
And to give some background onher, like before she was
focusing like riding full-timeshe had different roles in her
(08:30):
community or indigenouscommunities.
Including women's resourcecenters, government funding
work, and like other ruralsupporting indigenous
organizations.
So a tidbit about.
Indigenous governments is we dohave our own government.
And then there's various rolesthat we get to identify what's
needed.
Like we need a mental healthdepartment and we need obviously
(08:53):
finance department, but there'salso all these areas where you
can do really great work.
Around community need.
And the Marrow thieves was likeher breakout novel and it was
published in 2017.
And it received like a lot ofrecognition.
It won the government GovernorGeneral's literary award.
(09:13):
Oh my God.
For English language.
Children's literature.
Gosh, that is a handful.
That's an
Other (09:19):
awful.
Kelsey (09:21):
Yeah, what you said, not what I said.
And the Kirks prize for youngreaders literature.
So it is a YA novel.
That's something to note.
And, interestingly enough shealso uses her platform to uplift
like indigenous stories andvoices, not only through her own
writing, but via editing andmentoring and participating in
(09:42):
festivals and literarygatherings.
So that's like nice.
She's probably hiring, maybewithin her community or like
folks that she knows.
Which is really cool.
And then.
Thinking about her work ingeneral, it's often studied and
discussed in an academic settingfor how it reframes indigenous
experiences and uses genres suchas dystopia, which is what the
(10:05):
ma thief is and myth to retailhistory.
And engages readers like in adifferent way with themes of
cultural resilience.
Thinking about awards as well.
She was also named EmergingArtists of the Year by Ontario's
pre Wow.
Premier's awards of Excellencein the Arts.
Why do they have such giantnames?
(10:26):
I don't
Other (10:27):
know.
It's so pretentious.
It's if it's the longer thename, the more pretentious the
award.
Kelsey (10:32):
And then in 2021, she received the wider writers trust
angle.
Is that how you say that?
Other (10:39):
I
Kelsey (10:39):
think so.
Finley Award.
Which honored her as a fearlessand transformative storyteller.
Her devotion to craft andcharacter manifest prose that
threads together indigenousheritage with historical and
contemporary real realities.
Oh my gosh.
Alright.
That was about, that was allabout sharing.
(11:02):
She just seems like a busy lady.
Other (11:05):
Yeah.
Kelsey 2.0 (11:06):
And then she's a good thing.
The actual book I want tohighlight and focus on is called
The Marrow thieves And I'm likeso intrigued about this book.
I can't wait to read it.
It has a 3.95 star rating ongood reads.
It's one of these short books aswell.
It's only 234 pages.
But basically it's about, it's adystopian novel.
(11:26):
In the near future where likethe climate is collapsing.
And a lot of people have lostthe ability to dream.
Oh, it's very random.
Okay.
And only indigenous people arestill dreaming and their bone
marrow becomes like a a targetbecause it holds like the
ability to dream.
(11:46):
Oh.
And people can extract it.
I use it to dream essentially.
Oh.
And so it follows this youngMetis boy named Frenchy, which
is also funny fact nativepeoples also often have like
funny nicknames for
Other (12:06):
Okay.
Kelsey (12:06):
Each other.
Like my uncle's name was Squeakyand for the longest time I
didn't know his actual name.
Because everybody just calledhim Sy.
Other (12:15):
I'm sure there's a story there,
Kelsey (12:17):
so I'm sure Frenchie is.
One of those as well.
But anyway, Frenchie is on therun after a traumatic loss.
And joins a group of indigenoussurvivors heading north for
safety and community, probablybecause people are trying to
steal their marrow.
And so thinking about why thispertains exactly to human
rights.
(12:37):
I wanted to make sure I like,called it out.
Yeah.
The novel explores the power ofculture, language, memory, and
dream life as forms ofresistance and survival.
And by portraying the erasureand resilience of indigenous
peoples, the story underscoresthe global need to protect.
Obviously marginalizedcommunities from exploitation
(12:58):
and cultural genocide.
Yeah.
Which is the central purpose of.
The book itself.
Other (13:05):
Yeah.
Kelsey (13:06):
So yeah, that's Marrow Feed.
Wow.
I know, I'm so intrigued.
That
Other (13:09):
sounds intense and it almost feels I don't, obviously
it's ya, but it feels likethere's like an element of body
horror to it with the fact thatYeah, like humans are tracking
down other humans and extractingtheir bone marrow.
I,
Kelsey (13:23):
it's wild.
Other (13:24):
It's quite brutal.
But I I'm sure that was a reallyintentional choice because Oh
yeah.
The exploitation and genocidethat has happened in so many
places in the world due tocolonization yeah.
Has very viciously and violentlywiped out entire peoples, and so
there is so much violence there.
Yeah, I definitely need to readthat book too.
Kelsey (13:46):
Yeah.
Other (13:46):
Added to my
Kelsey (13:47):
what?
Short.
Other (13:47):
Yeah.
Added to my never ending TBR.
Thank you.
Okay.
Yeah.
So I'm gonna start off withsurprise, a historical fiction
novel by one of my, it
Kelsey (13:58):
fits very nicely into this theme.
Other (13:59):
Oh, does
Kelsey (14:00):
theme of ours.
Other (14:00):
Honestly, all of her books do the ones that I've read
so far, but I'm gonna be talkingabout, I must betray you by Ru
Tis.
And this is a historical fictionauthor that I discovered at the
beginning of the year throughsome amazing recommendations
from some of our book Talkfriends.
So thank you.
And yeah, I wanna share a littlebit about her and then
specifically about this book.
(14:22):
Rudis is a number one in NewYork Times bestselling author of
historical fiction, and herbooks have been published in
over 60 countries and 40languages okay.
Yeah.
Very well established author.
And she was born in Detroit,Michigan back in 1967 to a
Lithuanian refugee.
So her father is a Lithuanianrefugee who actually fled.
(14:45):
The Soviet occupation duringWorld War ii, and that's
important because it comes up ina lot of her stories.
Okay, so she actually did notstart off as a writer or wanting
to write, per se.
She studied.
International finance in collegeand then moved to Los Angeles
where surprisingly she worked inartist management and then
founded her own entertainmentcompany, which I think is really
(15:07):
cool.
Yeah.
And then ultimately she decidedto transition to writing
full-time because she wanted todive into her father's
experiences as a refugee fromthe Baltic states.
And she wanted to tell theuntold stories of the Baltic
states,'cause they're oftenoverlooked.
In history classrooms.
Yeah.
I know I personally learned nextto nothing about them.
(15:28):
When I was in school.
So in total, she has writteneight books and her books have
won or been shortlisted for morethan 50 prizes.
They appear on over 40 statereading lists, and multiple of
them are currently indevelopment for film and
television, or already have afilm associated with them.
(15:50):
So her very first book.
It was published in 2011, andthat was between Shades of Gray,
which I've read, and it tellsthe story of unsurprisingly, a
Lithuanian teenager during WorldWar ii.
Mm-hmm.
Who is deported to a Siberianlabor camp because during World
War ii Stalin basically hadthese mass deportations that
(16:11):
were happening within the Balticstates.
Baltic states specifically.
So it's a really.
Heart wrenching and eyeopeningstory, and this book was
translated into more than 60languages and was made into a
film called Ashes in the Snow in2018.
Her third novel sold to the Sea,which I've also read.
(16:31):
Is a multi-perspective narrativeabout this.
Thinking of the Wil Helm Gustav,which is the deadliest maritime
disaster in history.
I made a TikTok video about thismonths and months ago, and
again, had never heard of it,not something we learned about
in American history classes, andthis book was awarded the
Carnegie Medal, so did reallywell.
(16:53):
She continues to be an advocatefor both historical literacy and
global storytelling and her kindof.
Driving motivator is to telluntold stories and to shed light
on narratives and experiencesthat we don't often see in
literature, which I think is soimportant.
And you'll see that in a momentspecifically within the novel
(17:16):
that I'm gonna focus on.
And right now she lives inNashville, Tennessee.
It's a little bit about Ruda thebook itself.
Kelsey (17:22):
Oh, LA To Nashville.
Other (17:23):
I know.
From Michigan to LA toNashville.
Kelsey (17:27):
Yeah.
Other (17:28):
So been all over.
So I must betray you aspublished in 2022.
So a relatively recent book.
It's 321 pages.
And as with Kelsey's first bookis also a Ya novel
Kelsey (17:40):
Oh.
Other (17:40):
It has a 4.4 Good Reads rating and was nominated on Good
Reads.
For reader's favorite youngadult fiction in 2022 when it
was released
Kelsey (17:49):
Okay.
Other (17:49):
Really cool.
And this novel takes place inRomania.
In 1989, and at this time,Romania was underneath the
dictatorship of Nikolai.
It's really hard to say.
Kelsey (18:04):
Yeah.
Other (18:04):
And he and his, yeah, he and his wife ruled the country
with an iron fist.
But one of the definingcharacteristics of their regime
was that they had this system orthis network of citizen spies.
In other words, they wererecruiting.
Everyday folks to spy on eachother.
(18:26):
And so there, there was justthis sense of mistrust and fear
and betrayal that was justpervasive throughout this
country.
The other thing was mostcitizens did not have access to,
a lot of their basic needs.
And so you see in this story,which we'll get to in a second
people just struggling to makeends meet and survive in
(18:46):
communist Romania.
So it provides a window intowhat life was like underneath
his dictatorship.
And yeah, look at the way inwhich fear and surveillance were
used to control the country andits citizens.
So the story follows a young mannamed Christian who essentially
is blackmailed.
By the government into becomingone of these informers and I,
(19:08):
and again, no spoilers, but we,you find out that he's doing
this in order to get medicinefor his ailing grandfather.
And ultimately, he chooses tojoin the revolution, the fight
for freedom and change and.
It's, again, I knew nothingabout Romania.
(19:28):
I didn't study it in school.
Yeah.
I had no idea who this dictatorwas.
Kelsey (19:31):
Yeah.
Other (19:32):
I had no idea what the, just the living conditions were
like.
And yeah, folks had such limitedaccess to basic necessities and
were incredibly impoverished andhad zero civil liberties.
And one of the other charactersin the book that Christian
(19:52):
befriend is the son of, Ibelieve, yeah.
A United States ambassador toRomania and just.
Seeing the contrast betweenlifestyles and access.
So these young people in Romaniaare watching videos from America
that, that have been smuggled in'cause, right?
They're illegal and they'reseeing people in homes with
refrigerators like full of foodand hot running water and all of
(20:15):
these things.
And they're like, this can't bereal, because their lives have
been their access to the outsideworld has been completely cut
off.
Kelsey (20:21):
Wow.
Other (20:21):
And so very much ties into, so many different human
rights.
But in this one specifically,it's like the right to privacy.
And the right to be able tospeak out against the government
when it's doing things that areharmful to you and your fellow
citizens.
And.
I, yeah.
Again, for me, this was a hugeblind spot.
(20:42):
I had a lot of ignorance in thisarea.
Yeah.
So for me it was also.
Yeah, like I said before, soeye-opening to see the ways in
which so many of their civilrights and human rights were
either taken away or repressedin this really horrible regime.
They did end up overthrowing thegovernment and assassinating, or
I guess not assassinating,executing Nikolai and his wife
(21:05):
pretty dramatically.
But,
Kelsey (21:07):
Like the military, like a military coup or
Other (21:09):
like the, so yeah, it was partially that, but partially
just like private citizens, theyjust revolted and they overthrew
them and they ended up, I thinkbasically shot them against the
side of a building.
It was like a really famousphoto of them being executed
because they had hoarded all ofthis money and wealth, so they
were living like emperors wow.
And.
(21:30):
No one knew what was happeningwithin Romania.
Wow.
So he was going out and meetingwith our president who I think
at that time was Reagan and allof these other foreign
dignitaries.
And they thought he was doinggreat things within Romania.
Wow.
And people were happy andhealthy and hardy.
And it was total lie.
Yeah.
Yeah, because there's just likea complete moratorium on the
information that was coming outof Romania and
Kelsey (21:50):
what years were the, was this again?
Other (21:51):
So the book takes place in 1989, which is the year when
kind of everything.
Yeah.
It's not that long ago.
Not that long ago, yeah.
And when I was
Kelsey (21:58):
born.
Other (21:58):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So not ancient history by anymeans.
Yeah.
And yeah, it's a reallybeautiful story of seeing, this
country come together to ousthis really awful leader.
Kelsey (22:10):
Dang.
Other (22:11):
Yeah.
Kelsey (22:11):
Okay.
I saw how long it was and I waslike maybe it's not too long.
Other (22:16):
It's not too long.
And her books are, they're ya,they go pretty quickly.
I've read Redden.
I have read I think four of herbooks at this point.
And I have a fifth one that justcame in on my Libby.
And I love all of them.
They're.
They're so good and they're sowell researched.
Oh my gosh.
They're so well researched.
Yeah.
Kelsey (22:34):
Is she a woman of color or She's Romanian?
Other (22:36):
She is Lithuanian.
Kelsey (22:38):
Lithuanian, okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Which, okay, cool.
'Cause yeah, I was just thinkingabout how horse left a bad taste
in my mouth.
Other (22:47):
Yeah, no, it's cool because like she's telling the
story of her people and sheddinglight on, on her heritage and
Kelsey (22:54):
Yeah.
That's very different then.
Other (22:56):
Very different.
And she does her work.
Like she goes out and conductslike interviews and oh, goes
straights to the source.
That's really cool.
Yeah.
Like she's very intentional anddeliberate and detailed with her
work, which is so evident.
Kelsey (23:08):
Yeah.
And is a must for.
So
Other (23:10):
he's a must.
I think so.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Kelsey (23:14):
So for my second rec, this is another book that's been
on my TBR for a while.
I actually think I have it on myCobo.
I started reading it and justhaven't finished it.
Okay.
But feels like a reallyimportant book for me to pick
up.
And a big window for me, ratherthan the mirrors I often get
(23:34):
into.
So this book is The SyrianLadies, A Benevolent Society by
Christine Estima and Christineis from Canada.
Okay.
Now lives in Toronto, but grewup in Montreal.
Okay.
And she's an Arab woman of likemixed ethnicity.
She's she's Lebanese, Syrian,and Portuguese.
Other (23:56):
Okay.
Kelsey (23:56):
And she holds her Masters of Arts in
interdisciplinary studies fromYork University, which is in
Toronto.
And Amanda.
She studied theater, has abackground in theater and
performance Uhhuh.
Um, And we'll get into that injust a second and also wait.
Oh,
Other (24:15):
okay.
Go ahead.
Kelsey (24:15):
And also has a creative writing degree in ba that that's
Other (24:20):
what I was gonna say.
I have that same combination Idid writing.
Kelsey (24:23):
Oh
Other (24:23):
That's why I was like, oh my gosh.
That's crazy.
Kelsey (24:27):
Yeah.
You're meant to be an author inthe end
Other (24:31):
clearly.
Kelsey (24:31):
So her family Heritage and Roots in the Arab immigrant
community deeply informed herstorytelling and so coming back
to that performance piece shealso engages in spoken word
performances.
Very cool.
And has appeared at events likeThe Moth in New York City.
Mm-hmm.
Spark London and otherstorytelling festivals.
(24:53):
Amazing.
Her debut book was the SyrianLadies Benevolent Society.
And that was published in 2023.
It was published by house ofAnanzi Press and received
critical acclaim and includedbeing named one of the best
books of 2023 by CBC.
Other (25:13):
Okay.
Kelsey (25:13):
She brings attention to intersectional issues of
migration, female experience andespecially in this book like
cultural transmission acrossgenerations and the vitality of
underrepresented Voices inCanadian literature.
It's funny, both of my authorsare Canadian.
Other (25:34):
Yeah.
Kelsey (25:35):
The Syrian Ladies Benevolent Society.
The book itself, it's acollection of interlocking
stories that trace like her ArabCanadian family roots to all the
way back to the Middle East inthe 19th century and to her life
then and her family's life inMontreal in the 20th.
And so I feel like you wouldreally love that because it's
(25:59):
like across generations andacross, across timelines.
And then comes fully.
Back into the 21st century.
The book includes like multiplegenerations of women dealing
with migration, war displacementtradition versus modernity.
(26:19):
Is that how you say it?
Modernity.
Modernity.
Mm-hmm.
Ity um, sexuality, identity, andhome.
So it's.
Layered.
Other (26:29):
Yeah.
Kelsey (26:29):
And I'm sure all of the generations, have their own
perspective.
And I'm, yeah, I'm just socurious to read it.
And then at the central of thecollection is a woman named
Azuri who is living.
In the echoes of her ancestorsvoices and like really
contending with like herheritage the weight of lineage
(26:51):
and her own like search forbelonging.
Sure.
So connecting it all back to ourtheme for the month.
Really, I think it speaks foritself almost, but Yeah, to call
it out through the generationsof like women navigating.
Displacement and identity.
It underscores like the right tocultural expression and personal
(27:13):
dignity.
Showing how migration and memoryshape one's self sense of self.
And then of course, like thenarrative also speaks to gender
equality and women'sempowerment.
And as we hear from each woman'sperspective yeah.
I'm so excited to get into thisone.
And finally finish it.
Other (27:33):
So is it, I'm curious, is it a.
Memoir or is it a novel?
Novel?
Kelsey (27:39):
I don't think so.
I think
Other (27:40):
Okay.
'cause you started off sayingthat it was tracing like her
roots from the Middle East toMontreal.
But it's not, it's fictional.
Kelsey (27:47):
I think it's fictional, but it, I think, yeah, it's,
Other (27:50):
there's like parallels and connections between her
Kelsey (27:52):
experience.
Okay.
'cause her family did thatexact.
Thing.
Other (27:55):
Okay.
Yeah.
So it's Okay.
A fictionalization of some ofthe things that she and her
family have experienced.
Yeah.
It reminds me, I feel like we'vecertainly highlighted in this
past year, several novels thatdeal with Arab women and like
the Arab immigrant experience tothe United States.
Yeah.
And it sounds like this verymuch fits within that not genre,
(28:16):
but.
Theme form, theme topic.
Yeah.
In area.
And yeah, I do love generationalstories that have a sweeping
saga over that multiple decades.
I love those so much.
Okay.
Thank you.
All right.
My last book is Just Mercy byBrian Stevenson, and I was so
(28:40):
excited to include this bookbecause I understand that a fair
amount of people are familiarwith.
This story because of the moviethat came out relatively
recently with Michael B.
Jordan, but I actually havegotten to see Brian Stevenson
speak twice.
Okay.
One at the National Associationfor Independent Schools People
(29:03):
of Color Conference and once atthe National Council for
Teachers of English Conferencethat I went to last year.
And he is just as.
Phenomenal, impeccable, astute,amazing in person as he is in
his books like he and also soinsanely like humble when you
(29:24):
look at all that he has done andhow accomplished he is.
But for those of you who don'tknow, Brian Stevenson is.
A lawyer, a social justiceadvocate, a law professor, and
the founder and executivedirector of the Equal Justice
Initiative.
He was born back in 1959 inDelaware and grew up in a really
segregated community, so he hada front row seat.
(29:48):
To the consequences of racialinequality because they were
directly impacting him and hisfamily and his community
members.
He went on to attend EasternUniversity because he received a
scholarship and graduated in1981 with a degree in both
philosophy.
And social studies, and thendidn't stop there.
He went on and got his JD fromHarvard Law School and a Master
(30:11):
of Public Policy from theHarvard Kennedy School in 1985.
It's
Kelsey (30:15):
busy.
Other (30:15):
He's a busy man.
Like I said, insanelyintelligent and well read.
He ended up, and this is wherethings really got going for him,
while he was a student atHarvard, he did this internship
where he was working with deathrow prisoners, and that really
had a huge.
Influence on both his thinkingand his career path, and was the
(30:38):
fuel that got him started onthis lifelong commitment to
defend the marginalized and morespecifically individuals who
have been incarcerated.
So right after graduation fromHarvard.
He moved to the South and in1989, so here we are in 1989.
Once again, lots of things werehappening that year.
He founded the Equal JusticeInitiative, which goes by EJI,
(31:02):
and then in 2014, that's when hewrote and published Just Mercy,
and we'll get to the details ofthat in just a moment.
But essentially since foundingEJI.
He has of course, done so muchgreat work in advocating for the
rights of incarceratedindividuals and also seeking for
(31:22):
sentences to be overturned forfolks who have been wrongfully
convicted.
But beyond that, he's also donea lot of other social justice
work and.
One of the big accomplishmentsthat he and EJI have
accomplished is in 2018 inMontgomery, Alabama, he opened
these two monumental sites.
One of them is the Legacy Museumwhich kind of traces the story
(31:47):
of African Americans fromslavery to mass incarceration.
And then the second one is theNational Memorial for Peace and
Justice, which is the nation's.
First large scale memorialdedicated to victims of
lynching.
So yes, if we're talking abouthuman, whoa, human rights
violations, like we, we can'tnot talk about lynching.
And the horrible history oflynching in our country.
(32:07):
His work has earned him numeroushonors.
I'm not gonna read all of them,but a couple that I did want to
include are the MacArthurFoundation Genius Grant.
The American Bar AssociationMedal, which is the
organization's highestdistinction, and the National
Humanities Medal, which wasawarded to him by President
Obama, which is so cool.
And then right now he serves asa professor of law at New York
(32:30):
University School of Law, wherehe teaches, about criminal
justice.
Capital Punishment and humanrights.
So that brings us to Just Mercy,which like I said was published
in 2014, has a 4.62, that'shuge.
Good Reads rating, which is likeso high, so huge.
It's 336 pages and.
Has won an astonishing number ofawards, has been nominated for
(32:53):
so many more, but a couple ofthe awards that it has won
include the Dayton LiteraryPeace Prize for nonfiction, the
Andrew Carnegie Medal forNonfiction, the NAACP Image
Award for nonfiction, and theAlabama Author Award for
nonfiction.
So people love this book andthere's a good reason why.
Essentially it's a memoir, so itfollows the founding of EJI and
(33:17):
how that all came to be.
And it was a struggle,understandably, being a black
lawyer in the South, trying toadvocate for the rights of
incarcerated individuals, manyof whom were poor.
And or people of color.
And so the book talks verybroadly about a lot of the
injustices that happen withinour criminal justice system, but
(33:40):
it also focuses specifically onthe case of Walter McMillan, who
was a black man who waswrongfully sentenced to death in
Alabama.
And who in the, in this memoirBrian Stevenson, is actively
working to get that sentenceoverturned.
So it's, yeah.
It talks so much about,obviously.
Racism, the racial inequitieswithin our criminal justice
(34:03):
system.
Also, how economics plays arole.
And how folks who are comingfrom lower socioeconomic
backgrounds face much differenttreatment within our criminal
justice system.
It talks about justice and thelack thereof in our justice
system.
Yeah.
So this book, because it.
Ended up getting so much acclaimand so much attention, really
(34:25):
provided him with this massiveplatform that he now has.
And he is currently one of themost sought after speakers on
issues of justice, race inAmerican history.
And then all of that waselevated even more when the
movie came out in 2019 featuringMichael B.
Jordan.
This book has really shed lightfor a lot of individuals on all
(34:48):
of the human rights violationsthat are happening right now in
our criminal justice system andagainst incarcerated
individuals, even if they werequote unquote, rightfully
accused.
The way that we treat prisonersand inmates and our prison
system is really important.
So he the, like I said, thenovel focus is specifically on
Walter McMillan, but it goes sofar beyond just his story and
(35:11):
provides you with so manyinsights in general into how
individuals are treated in ourcriminal justice system,
including minors, which is just
Kelsey (35:18):
Yes.
Other (35:19):
So some, this entire book is distressing in so many ways,
but that those elements inparticular were just absolutely
gut wrenching.
So if you've watched the movie,I would strongly encourage you
to read the book because yes,the movie's great.
And yes, it does focus onWalter's story, but the book
does so much more.
And there's so much more thereto learn and ponder.
(35:41):
And I think unfortunately, thelast thing I'll say is that when
we think about human rights, weoften don't think about
incarcerated individuals.
Sure.
They're often like at the bottomof the pile.
And they also have rights, andthey also should be treated with
kindness and equality andcompassion.
And so I really wanted to takethis opportunity to highlight
that I was going to recommendChain Gang All Stars.
(36:02):
'cause it also touches mm-hmm.
on these same themes, but I'vealready talked about that book
at length.
Kelsey (36:06):
Yeah.
Other (36:07):
On this episode or this podcast.
So I wanted to recommend adifferent book.
So yes.
Don't think, oh my gosh, I'vewatched the movie.
I'm good.
Like, no, no, no, no, No.
Go and read the book.
There's a lot That's lot better.
Lot more good stuff there.
There's so much moreinformation.
Yeah.
Kelsey (36:21):
Yeah.
Just piggybacking on that, it'sjust.
When you're talking about hiswork in trying to get that
sentence either removed or atleast his sentence changed.
So much work goes into doingsomething like that.
Yes.
And.
Yeah.
Years of work.
And I'm just thinking about likethe case of Leonard Peltier too.
He was uh, imprisoned indigenousman from the seventies after
(36:45):
what happened to two FBI agentswho was convicted of murdering
them.
Okay.
And then he was wrongfullyconvicted and there was lots of
evidence showing that over theyears.
But the FBI had the loud voicearound this, and he wasn't
released.
For 50 years.
Oh
Other (37:03):
my God.
Kelsey (37:03):
And finally, president Biden, it was just this year
that, that happened.
Like he was released to homeconfinement, which still isn't
like free.
No, it's, no, he, yeah.
It's so fucking wild.
And people were working on thatcase for 50 years.
Other (37:19):
Wow.
Kelsey (37:20):
That's wow.
And that's just one and yeah.
Oh, you highlighted there.
That's just one.
And,
Other (37:24):
So many stories.
Many, I often think about thatif I was wrongfully accused and
knew I was innocent and it wassentenced to a hellhole of a
prison for multiple decades,like I don't.
I don't know if I,
Kelsey (37:39):
how do you survive that?
Other (37:39):
I don't know.
I feel like my mind would justfracture.
I don't know if I guess Iwouldn't know unless I was in
that situation, but I'm like, Idon't know if I would have the
wherewithal
Kelsey (37:48):
right
Other (37:48):
To know that I did literally nothing wrong.
And I may never, be free again.
I'm gonna die in this prison andno one will believe me.
Kelsey (37:58):
Yeah.
Other (37:59):
Everyone is, Ugh.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Kelsey (38:01):
And there's thousands of people in our system currently.
Other (38:04):
Yeah.
Kelsey (38:04):
Yeah.
It's like that.
Other (38:05):
Yeah, it's pretty wild.
But yeah.
Okay.
So as you can see, wide range ofgenres and human rights focuses
in these books.
We hope that you'll check out atleast one of them.
Kelsey, do you wanna recap yourtwo and then I'll do my two.
Kelsey 2.0 (38:23):
Yeah, gimme a second.
My first book recommendation wasthe Me Thiefs by Sherry Dimin,
and the second was the SyrianLadies Benevolent Society by
Christine Estima.
Other (38:38):
Awesome.
And mine were, I must Betray Youby Ruti and Just Mercy by Brian
Stevenson.
So definitely hop on our social,shoot us an email, let us know
either if you've read thesebooks, if you're planning to
read them, and or if you haveother books that really focus on
human rights that you thinkwould make for Great reads.
(38:59):
We always love goodrecommendations.
So once again, you can find uson Instagram at Lit Vibes Only
under Podcast.
Or on TikTok or YouTube at LitVibes only podcast, so you can.
Leave us information there.
You can comment there.
Send us a dm if you're not onsocials.
Our email address is lit vibesonly podcast@gmail.com.
(39:20):
And also you can rate and reviewand you can also leave your
thoughts in your review eitheron Apple Podcast.
Or in a comment on this episodeon It's So easy, Spotify, it's
so easy.
Again, it takes no time at all.
It is a gift that costs you$0that you can give us$0 and 0
(39:41):
cents.
And it's a great way tocelebrate the season of giving.
So there you go.
Thank you guys so much.
We hope you learned somethingnew today and have some more
books to add to your TBR.
Thanks for hanging out with usand we'll see you next Monday.
Kelsey (39:55):
Bye
Other (39:57):
bye.
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