Review of Oxford Soju Club
Oxford Soju Club by Jinwoo Park is an incredibly satisfying combination of spy intrigue and rumination on the struggle immigrants face with finding identity and meaning while navigating different cultures.
Book
Time is running away
So here we are less than four months away from the launch of my book and I'm five days late in making my monthly post.
It's kind of reflective of where I find myself. It's been a very busy month for me personally but my book marketing has suffered as a result.
So instead of giving an overview of how my month went as I usually do I want to talk about why I think I haven't been focusing on getting the word out about "Under the Full and Crescent Moon".
The InterFaith we can do, but between ourselves?
I attended an inter faith dialogue event a few months ago in my hometown that was setup by a Shia Muslim group on the topic of end times prophecies. It was a well attended and well run panel with a number of religious leaders explaining their own theology's views of the end times. Most of the presenters were incredibly respectful of each other and the topic itself was a pretty neutral one.
So I was pretty flabbergasted when the Muslims on the panel started going after each other with aggressive rhetoric.
Life Events and Lack of Focus
In my end of March blog post I stated that I wanted this month to be far more focused on marketing my book.
That mostly did not work as expected. But still I was able to get stuff done and it has been an eventful month.
Review of If I Must Die
If you do not wish to read further then the TL;DR is:
Summary: This is a collection of short form poetry and prose by one of the many shining lights of Palestinian literature, Refaat Alareer. It feels like both a journal and journalism as it describes the reality of Palestinian life under Israeli occupation and oppression.
My conclusion: This book proves one thing more than anything else. Israel is built on myths that shatter on contact with Palestinian reality. Refaat Alareer's words, demonstrate that reality with stunning clarity and is necessary reading.
This review has been posted on other platforms with code words to avoid suppression. The version here does not.
Belated Ramadan Mubarak and early Eid Mubarak
Ramadan started a week after my last monthly post, please accept my belated congratulations for all those who celebrate the blessed month. And since Eid will be in a week from now please accept an early Eid Mubarak!
Ramadan has gone well this year, not only did all denominations start Ramadan on the same day, which is rare, but it also coincided with the month of March. This has made tracking the days of the month incredibly easy. It has also not been a particularly hard three weeks as this year the month has fallen between the long and thirsty days of summer and the shorter and far more pleasant winter fasts.
That last sentence of the paragraph is the second sentence from my novel, only slightly re-written. Think of it as a little preview six months out from launch!
Not going to lie February was kind of difficult
A lot happened in February and a lot of it was pretty difficult. I lost a close family member, my elderly mother had an accident which required a greater amount of care, and there was an unprecedented amount of snow that was dumped onto my part of the world in the space of a week which meant that there were hours and hours spent on snow clearing. Time and energy that I would have loved to spend elsewhere.
For me it's important to put my difficulties into perspective as a lot of other people in the world are going through so much worse than I am, but also to recognize my own fatigue, pain, and frustration as well. It's an impossible balancing act to maintain with perfection, but the closer I get to that balance the more I feel I'm able to both give myself time and space to recover, as well as keep from wallowing in self-pity, saying Alhamdullilah, and persisting.
A part of maintaining that perspective is to recognize what I have accomplished over the last month. The biggest of which is moving into a different phase in the journey to publication of "Under The Full And Crescent Moon"
Getting back into social media
I took a bit of an unplanned break from social media since I made my cover reveal and preorder opening posts. Life has been happening pretty fast and there were a few family things to take care of. I've learned from Palestinians to say Alhamdullilah for it all and get back to it. I'm blessed to be able to rest for a bit but I do not want to let it lead to stasis or despondency.
So what I want to do here is to write out my ideas as 'scripts' for the short videos that I want to make. That way I'll get my thoughts out of my head and onto paper and it might make for interesting blog content as well. It'll definitely shed some light on how I approach social media posting. More after the click.
Preorder Now!
There are a lot of milestones that I'm looking forward to as a new author. Seeing the book in my local library or in a bookstore, holding it in my hands for the first time. I am incredibly grateful to have these events to look forward to Inshallah.
Two of those milestones have been reached this month. The first is preorders have opened for Canada and the United States, Alhamdulillah!
I would be really honoured if you could preorder it. The various options are on my link tree Here
The second is the cover reveal! Click on for more.
A busy month and a time for reflection
It's been a busy month and I've had a few accomplishments that I feel is worthy of being highlighted, and some reflection that goes along with it.
Most relevant to the site... I've actually put out more than one blog a month!
But there's more...