#hope ablaze

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Title: Hope Ablaze | Author: Sarah Mughal Rana | Publisher: Wednesday Books (2024)

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We've got five different books on our radar this week! Which ones have caught your eye?

Kindling by Traci Chee HarperCollins

Once, the war was fought with kindlings—elite, magic-wielding warriors whose devastating power comes at the cost of their own young lives. Now, the war is over, and kindlings have been cast adrift—their magic outlawed, their skills outdated, their formidable balar weapons prized only as relics and souvenirs. Violence still plagues the countryside, and memories haunt those who remain. When a village comes under threat of siege, it offers an opportunity for seven kindlings to fight one last time. But war changed these warriors. And to reclaim who they once were, they will have to battle their pasts, their trauma, and their grim fates to come together again—or none of them will make it out alive.

Everything I Learned About Racism I Learned in School by Tiffany Jewell Versify

From preschool to higher education and everything in between, Everything I Learned About Racism I Learned in School focuses on the experiences Black and Brown students face as a direct result of the racism built into schools across the United States. The overarching nonfiction narrative follows author Tiffany Jewell from early elementary school through her time at college, unpacking the history of systemic racism in the American educational system along the way. Throughout the book, other writers of the global majority share a wide variety of personal narratives and stories based on their own school experiences. Contributors include New York Times bestseller Joanna Ho; award winners Minh Lê, Randy Ribay, and Torrey Maldonado; authors James Bird and Rebekah Borucki; author-educators Amelia A. Sherwood, Roberto Germán, Liz Kleinrock, Gary R. Gray Jr., Lorena Germán, Patrick Harris II, shea wesley martin, David Ryan Barcega Castro-Harris, Ozy Aloziem, Gayatri Sethi, and Dulce-Marie Flecha; and even a couple of teen writers! Everything I Learned About Racism I Learned in School provides young folks with the context to think critically about and chart their own course through their current schooling—and any future schooling they may pursue.

Snowglobe by Soyoung Park & translated by Joungmin Lee Comfort Delacorte Press

In a world of constant winter, only the citizens of the climate-controlled city of Snowglobe can escape the bitter cold—but this perfect society is hiding dark and dangerous secrets within its frozen heart. Enclosed under a vast dome, Snowglobe is the last place on Earth that’s warm. Outside Snowglobe is a frozen wasteland, and every day, citizens face the icy world to get to their jobs at the power plant, where they produce the energy Snowglobe needs. Their only solace comes in the form of twenty-four-hour television programming streamed directly from the domed city. The residents of Snowglobe have fame, fortune, and above all, safety from the desolation outside their walls. In exchange, their lives are broadcast to the less fortunate outside, who watch eagerly, hoping for the chance to one day become actors themselves. Chobahm lives for the time she spends watching the shows produced inside Snowglobe. Her favorite? Goh Around, starring Goh Haeri, Snowglobe’s biggest star—and, it turns out, the key to getting Chobahm her dream life. Because Haeri is dead, and Chobahm has been chosen to take her place. Only, life inside Snowglobe is nothing like what you see on television. Reality is a lie, and truth seems to be forever out of reach. Translated for the first time into English from the original Korean.

Hope Ablaze by Sarah Mughal Rana Wednesday Books

All My Rage meets The Poet X in this electric debut that explores a Muslim teen finding her voice in a post-9/11 America. Nida has always been known as Mamou Abdul-Hafeedh’s niece - the poet that will fill her uncle’s shoes after he was wrongfully incarcerated during the war on terror. But for Nida, her poetry letters are her heart and sharing so much of herself with a world that stereotypes her faith and her hijab is not an option. When Nida is illegally frisked at a Democratic Senatorial candidate’s political rally, she writes a scathing poem about the politician, never expecting the letter to go viral weeks before Election Day. Nida discovers her poem has won first place in a national contest, a contest she never entered, and her quiet life is toppled. But worst of all, Nida loses her ability to write poetry. In the aftermath of her win, Nida struggles to balance the expectations of her mother, her uncle, and her vibrant Muslim community with the person she truly wants to be. With a touch of magic and poetry sprinkled throughout, Sarah Mughal Rana's Hope Ablaze is heartbreaking, often funny, and ultimately uplifting, not only celebrating the Islamic faith and Pakistani culture, but simultaneously confronting racism and Islamophobia with unflinching bravery.

Tender Beasts by Liselle Sambury Margaret K. McElderry Books

Sunny Behre has four siblings, but only one is a murderer. With the death of Sunny’s mother, matriarch of the wealthy Behre family, Sunny’s once picture-perfect life is thrown into turmoil. Her mother had groomed her to be the family’s next leader, so Sunny is confused when the only instructions her mother leaves is a mysterious “Take care of Dom.” The problem is, her youngest brother, Dom, has always been a near-stranger to Sunny…and seemingly a dangerous one, if found guilty of his second-degree murder charge. Still, Sunny is determined to fulfill her mother’s dying wish. But when a classmate is gruesomely murdered, and Sunny finds her brother with blood on his hands, her mother’s simple request becomes a lot more complicated. Dom swears he’s innocent, and although Sunny isn’t sure she believes him, she takes it upon herself to look into the murder—made all the more urgent by the discovery of another body. And another. As Sunny and Dom work together to track down the culprit, Sunny realizes her other siblings have their own dark secrets. Soon she may have to preserve the family she’s always loved or protect the brother she barely knows—and risk losing everything her mother worked so hard to build.

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the author of hope ablaze replied to me!! and gave me writing advice

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i realised i said how hope ablaze by sarah mughal rana gives the best explanation of hijab but i didn't quote it. so here we go. buckle up because it's a bit long

“Hijab isn’t my choice,” I blurted. “It’s my submission. In fact, Muslim men have a hijab too. But America monopolized that conversation. You’re focused on the women’s hijab instead of how men have a hijab. All you do is focus on women’s rights in Islam, ignoring your own country’s poison.”

“No, I’m not forced,” I said, calmly. “That’s where you get it wrong. It’s submission, there’s a difference. I choose to submit to the God I believe in by wearing my hijab, but it isn’t a choice. The same way Christians go to church or wear a cross; Muslims pray and some wear their hijab. That’s part of our rulings. Is that a choice? No. We don’t have a choice in praying. It’s a commandment, just as we’re commanded to pay a charity tax and donate to the poor annually. We’re told to submit through religious practices, and hijab just happens to be one of them for men and women. Hijab isn’t just a fabric, it’s a veil. Veils are manifested in different ways; men have their own and women do too. I don’t understand why it’s a big deal: a woman’s headscarf is a damn piece of fabric. “America likes putting other cultures in the dichotomy of choice, and if it’s not American values, they call it oppression. I’m not oppressed because I’m not obsessed with trying to convince people that a piece of fabric oppresses me. It’s how I practice my religiosity. I’m proud of wearing it because now people know I’m Muslim. I look different. I’m proud of that difference. But no one should be forced to wear hijab. I was not forced.”

“Submission isn’t what you think it is; in an Islamic context, it’s the pinnacle of the religion. The contradiction of your own criticisms is that you are guilty of something worse: in the West you practice submission to your own society. You wear these clothes. You come to work wearing high heels, a skirt, and makeup. How is that different from my hijab? Do I enjoy the hijab? What a stupid question. Do I hate the hijab? Another stupid question. Might as well ask if I enjoy having hair, if I enjoy wearing pants or shoes. It’s an article of clothing. How the hell does that oppress me when I decided to wear hijab by my own volition? And who cares? People are dying because of wars, and because of your hurtful rhetoric; because all of you are obsessed with being right about your values without understanding mine.”

there's some more and i really think everyone should read hope ablaze. let me add that the mc ends her speech with this iconic statement: "Call me a terrorist again. I’d rather be depicted as a terrorist than be subjected to an interview by you. I’m done here."

once again. please read hope ablaze.

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nida "call me a terrorist again" siddiqui my girl

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If my tongue could spin a story, it would go … Once upon a time, America installed military regimes funding all kinds of terror groups, forcing people from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East to immigrate overseas; how my family lived through coups and dictatorships funded by this country they call a democracy. Death was a tragedy, but what was equally tragic was the way Americans were coerced into giving their lives to wars they had no business being involved in, lied to by politicians who simplified conflict into ideological battles by dehumanizing the people they called the enemy. There were many surviving war veterans who realized they were lied to about Iraq and Afghanistan, protesting outside of Washington. But what about the millions of Afghans, Syrians, Pakistanis, Yeminis, Iraqis, Somalis, and more left dead from these wars? Just a series of glossed-over tragedies under the guise of liberation, that we were told to be thankful for.

- Hope Ablaze, Sarah Mughal Rana

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Urdu encompassed the vast mosaics of lost cultures, lost cultures wrought into bent shapes by the hammers of colonial men. Smashing. Smashing. Smashing … molding Asia into “civilization.” Urdu in its complexity is the bazaar of linguistic resistance.

- Hope Ablaze, Sarah Mughal Rana

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Adapt, this is your new land, the world demanded, like a soul squeezed into a new mottled body, forced through the sinews, beneath the skin, stretching along the arms and fingers, rubbing a mouth that wasn’t its own, testing a tongue and language that didn’t belong.

- Hope Ablaze, Sarah Mughal Rana