Day 1 (Reading Rush 2020)

Hi bookish friends!

Today is the first day of The Reading Rush 2020. I’m planning to blog about my progress daily, as well as sharing updates on my Instagram and Twitter.

Like I mentioned in my last post, this is the first time I’ve participated. I kept my TBR list deliberately vague by only choosing two books in advance, and I’ll be picking out the others later in the week.

Technically I read the final 10% of Nevada by Imogen Binnie [goodreads] in the early hours of this morning – I’ll be counting Nevada towards my Transathon goals, but haven’t included it in my Reading Rush count (mostly because I’m not entirely sure how many pages I read after midnight). Nevada is available for free or to purchase; it’s a contemporary book which has multiple trans characters, though it’s mostly about a trans woman called Maria who sets out on a journey after her life starts to unravel. Content warnings for drug use, alcohol use, and graphic sexual details.

For the first book which I will count towards my Reading Rush goals, I decided to start by reading We Have Always Been Here by Samra Habib [goodreads], which I got in a Queer Book Box at some point in 2019. I was in a reading slump with several patially-read books at the time so it’s been sitting on my bookshelf since, waiting for me to be in the right space to be able to give it the attention it deserves.

This book covers two Reading Rush prompts for me:

1. Read a book in a genre that you’ve always wanted to read more of.

2. Read a book that takes place on a different continent than where you live.

I haven’t read many memoirs (which I realised last month while reading All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson; goodreads), and it’s definitely a genre I want to read more of. As a white reader I think it is particularly important for me to ensure that I am reading about the lived experiences of people of colour as well as reading diverse fiction.

Samra Habib is from Pakistan, where she lived until her family moved to Canada in 1991 as refugees to escape religious persecution. Since I’m from the UK and have never been able to travel outside of Europe, that means this book takes place on two different continents to where I live.

I set up some cushions at the foot of our bed at about 12pm to get comfy with a fresh cup of tea (and Misty, who had already set himself up in my usual “sitting on the bed to read” spot for a nap).

I took two breaks from reading. First to eat lunch (on page 43, the start of chapter 3) and then to get another cup of tea (on page 85, the start of chapter 5). I finished reading the last page just after 6pm and immediately gave it 5 stars on Goodreads & The Story Graph.

I’m so glad I took the time to read this book today. Samra’s writing is beautiful, engaging, and insightful. She discusses family dynamics, friendships, her journey to discovering her queer self, her relationship with her religion as a queer Ahmadi Muslim, trauma, travel, and so much more. Content warnings for CSA and mentions of domestic violence.

If you’ve seen her photo project, Just Me and Allah, Samra’s memoir will show you how and why she decided to start taking and compiling those beautiful photographs of queer Muslims. If you haven’t seen her project, I recommend clicking that link just as strongly as I recommend reading this book! I’ve revisited those photos after putting the book down this evening and found myself recognising a few of the names from her story.

The next book I’ll be reading is The Deep by Rivers Solomon [goodreads]. It’s a fantasy novella inspired by the song of the same name by clipping. My paperback copy arrived today and given how much I loved An Unkindness of Ghosts [goodreads] when I read it earlier this month, I’m really looking forward to reading this! I’ll let you know how it goes in tomorrow’s post.

As a sidenote – when I marked We Have Always Been Here as finished on Goodreads, I got the confetti filled screen to tell me that I’d met my reading goal for the year. Wow. I haven’t read this much in 6 months since I was in my early teens, raiding the bookshops of Hay on Wye on family camping trips and wearing out the batteries in my headtorch to read them at night! I’m going to up my 2020 goal to 45 so that I still have something to work towards, but it feels so good to be reading again.

What are you reading this week? Have you read any of the books I’ve mentioned here? Please comment or message me and let me know!

Maisie Rose x

(PS: I mentioned that I got this book through my Queer Book Box subscription. Did you know that I have a link for you to get £5 off a box of your choice? If you use my link, I’ll get £5 off my next box too. Click here!)