Somewhere Sisters: A Story of Adoption, Identity, and the Meaning of Family by Erika Hayasaki

(Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book!)

 

about book: (summary from Goodreads)

Identical twins Isabella and Hà were born in Vietnam and raised on opposite sides of the world, each knowing little about the other’s existence, until they were reunited as teenagers, against all odds.
 
The twins were born in Nha Trang, Vietnam, in 1998, where their mother struggled to care for them. Hà was taken in by their biological aunt, and grew up in a rural village, going to school, and playing outside with the neighbors. They had sporadic electricity and frequent monsoons. Hà’s twin sister, Loan, spent time in an orphanage before a wealthy, white American family adopted her and renamed her Isabella. Isabella grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, with a nonbiological sister, Olivia, also adopted from Vietnam. Isabella and Olivia attended a predominantly white Catholic school, played soccer, and prepared for college.

But when Isabella’s adoptive mother learned of Isabella’s biological twin back in Vietnam, all of their lives changed forever. Award-winning journalist Erika Hayasaki spent years and hundreds of hours interviewing each of the birth and adoptive family members and tells the girls’ incredible story from their perspectives, challenging conceptions about adoption and what it means to give a child a good life. Hayasaki contextualizes the sisters’ experiences with the fascinating and often sinister history of twin studies, the nature versus nurture debate, and intercountry and transracial adoption, as well as the latest scholarship and conversation surrounding adoption today, especially among adoptees.

For readers of All You Can Ever Know and American Baby, Somewhere Sisters is a richly textured, moving story of sisterhood and coming-of-age, told through the remarkable lives of young women who have redefined the meaning of family for themselves.

my thoughts:

What a meaningful and powerful read. Somewhere Sisters is about Vietnamese twin sisters, Hà and Loan, who were separated. Hà was raised by an aunt in a rural village; while Loan went to an orphanage where she was eventually adopted by a wealthy, white American family. Loan grew up in Chicago and was renamed Isabella. Her new family had also adopted another girl from Vietnam, Olivia.  However, when they eventually find out about Isabella's twin sister, they set out to find her. Eventually, they reunite the two sisters and bring Hà to America for her education. 

Erika Hayasaki, an award-winning journalist, researched this story. She interviewed the families, she explored scientific studies regarding twin studies, and she also looked at the current dialogues surrounding adoption. She wanted to provide a thorough look into this specific case and allow for the families to share their thoughts and feelings about their experiences with it. And, she wanted to utilize her research as a way of looking deeper into the complexities of the situation and how it had affected/impacted the sisters. It all made for an engaging and compelling read. I found myself reading through the book slowly, as I couldn't help but stop every now and then, and just think about what these sisters had gone through and about their families. Such a great book.

I would definitely recommend Somewhere Sisters to anyone and everyone looking for their next nonfiction read - you are going to fall in deep with this one. Make sure to check it out!

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book!

Can We All Be Feminists? edited by June Eric-Udorie

(Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book!)

about book:

“As timely as it is well-written, this clear-eyed collection is just what I need right now.”
—Jacqueline Woodson, author of Brown Girl Dreami                   

“The intersectional feminist anthology we all need to read.”—Bustle

“In an eloquent and searing introduction, debut editor Eric-Udorie . . . calls to mind a young Audre Lorde, and her anthology feels like a 21st-century version of This Bridge Called My Back.”

—Kirkus Reviews

In the wake of her 2012 Ted Talk of the same name, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s book We Should All Be Feminists sold hundreds of thousands of copies and became a touchstone of feminist literature. But in the lead-up to last year’s historic Women’s March, it became clear that there were serious divisions within the movement—between women of color and white women, and between younger and older feminists—that begged the question: can we all be feminists? 

CAN WE ALL BE FEMINISTS? (Penguin Books Original; On-sale: September 25, 2018; 9780143132370) is the first of its kind: a definitive anthology on intersectional feminism. Edited by feminist activist, writer, and current Duke University student June Eric-Udorie, it lifts up the voices of Black, queer, trans, Latinx, and non-gender-conforming writers, putting them at the center of a conversation too often focused on the needs and priorities of cis-hetero, upper-middle class white women. 

CAN WE ALL BE FEMINISTS? invites this brilliant group of diverse young writers to explore their relationships with feminism through the lenses of their particular identities and experiences, confronting issues of exclusion and discrimination and asking how we can create a feminism that is truly for all. Essays include:

• Gabby Bellot on trans-exclusionary feminism
• Brit Bennett on Christianity and the black female body
• Nicole Dennis-Benn on internalizing the harmful way society treated her as a black lesbian, and how the beautifully loud, defiant Jamaican singer Lady Saw taught her to be unapologetic
• Evette Dionne on intersectionality in the Black Lives Matter movement, including #SayHerName, which focuses on the women and girls killed by police brutality.
• Mariya Karimjee on adapting to white culture for the comfort of others as a Pakistani immigrant growing up in Texas, and how coming to terms with her identity as an adult affected her relationship with her white best friend.
• Frances Ryan on the exclusion of people with disabilities from discussions of major issues within mainstream feminism, from healthcare access to reproductive rights to domestic violence.
• Selina Thompson on fat activism’s role in ending the “default body” lens that modern feminism often maintains.
• Juliet Jacques on trans-feminism and film, demonstrating the importance of increased representation of trans and gender non-conforming people in pop culture to developing more evolved language and political movements.
  

Together, these fearless, challenging, and galvanizing essays in CAN WE ALL BE FEMINISTS? form a crucial primer for readers seeking to challenge their own worldview and better understand their privilege, and a powerful and affirming recognition for those who will (perhaps for the first time) see their own adversities represented.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

June Eric-Udorie is a twenty-year-old British writer and feminist activist. Named Elle UK’s “Female Activist of the Year” for 2017, she has been included on lists of influential and inspiring women by the BBC, the Guardian, and more. A co-founder of “Youth for Change,” an initiative that works to combat female genital mutilation and forced marriage around the world, her advocacy has taken her to classrooms, the Southbank Centre’s Women of the World Festival, the United Nations, and more. In 2015, she spearheaded a successful campaign to overturn the British government’s decision to remove feminism from the nationally mandated A-level (high school) politics syllabus; more recently, she raised funds to take five hundred underprivileged girls and young women of color to see the film Hidden Figures. Her writing has appeared in the Guardian, the Independent, New Statesman, the Telegraph, ESPN The Magazine, and Fusion, among others. She is currently an undergraduate at Duke University, where she is a recipient of the University Scholars merit scholarship, established by Melinda French Gates, and a Human Rights Scholar at the Kenan Institute for Ethics.

my thoughts:

A must-read for feminists, Can We All Be Feminists? is an important and illuminating anthology that will shed light on intersectional feminism by calling into question just what feminism really is.  I absolutely LOVED reading these sharp and thought-provoking essays - they inspired me to reflect on my own introduction to feminism and how that term has broadened over the years, but still remains rather limiting. I really enjoyed learning about these writers' personal perspectives regarding feminism, how it related to them, and the issues at large with regards to the term itself.  I found myself jotting down notes, highlighting passages, and just taking in all of these powerful thoughts. 

The writing in this collection of essays is top notch - smart, personal, authentic, and eye-opening.  Topics range from race, immigration, abortion, religion, and disability.   So many important issues are explored and shown to be integral to feminism's agenda.  Feminism is deemed a broad term, but truthfully it is narrow in scope and this anthology shows us how important it is to rectify those limitations and redefine its meaning to be inclusive.  This book is just what we need right now in today's political and social climate - it is a great introduction of feminism to the newbies and a definitive push for the first, second, and third wave feminists to broaden their minds when it comes to intersectionality and identity.  Talk about food for thought - this book has it all.

I can't wait to read this book all over again - its seriously that good.  And I can't wait to recommend Can We All Be Feminists? to friends and family - they are going to LOVE learning all about intersectional feminism.




Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book!