Music & Dreams (The Road to Rocktoberfest 2023)
10.0
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Book
Can one man’s dreams help him reach another man’s heart? Lorcan Swain has the world at his...
Contemporary Rockstar MM Romance
Miracle at the Forks: The Museum That Dares Make a Difference
Peter C. Newman and Allan Levine
Book
On July 18, 2000, Israel "Izzy" Asper, the renowned Canadian businessman and philanthropist, first...
Museum Buildings: Construction and Design Manual
Christian Schittich and Hans Wolfgang Hoffmann
Book
The museum as a building type and architectural space bear a complex relationship to each other....
Zakat and the Islamic Money System, and a new Islamic Society for the 21st Century
Podcast
In these tals we are reminded that we must obey Allah both in command AND prohibition. The first...
The Greed for Ilm Podcast
Podcast
Welcome to the top American Muslim podcast: Walid Darab, host of The Greed for Ilm Podcast, delivers...
Baghdad During the Abbasid Caliphate: From Contemporary Arabic and Persian Sources
Book
The history of Baghdad as a metropolis coincides with the history of the rise and fall of the...
Internment
8.5
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Book
Rebellions are built on hope. Set in a horrifying near-future United States, seventeen-year-old...
Kristy H (1252 KP) rated Love, Hate, and Other Filters in Books
Apr 15, 2021
Maya Aziz feels like she lives two lives. In one, she's the dutiful daughter to her Indian Muslim parents: attending college near home, marrying a suitable Muslim boy, and becoming a lawyer. In the other, she goes to school in New York City to become a filmmaker and falls in love with whomever she wants--maybe even Phil, the boy she's loved forever. And in Maya's real world, horrible things happen, often hate crime motivated, that can turn her world upside down.
This is such a beautiful book, and I completely fell in love with Maya and her voice. As the child of the only Indian Muslim family in her small suburban Chicago town, she's always felt different. She dreams of making films, not conforming the way her parents desire. But she also wants to please them. And she's scared, as she deals with all the terrible bigotry and Islamophobia that her family faces.
Ahmed writes so lyrically, weaving her story about Maya finding her way in the world, while still painting a stark and timely picture of racism. It's a bit of a love story, yes, but also one of discovering yourself and finding strength in yourself and the people around you. Maya and Phil's relationship is sweet, and it's so easy to root for her on all levels.
I found this to be a profound read. In many ways, it's simply about a teenager trying to stand up for herself, but it also speaks deeply about Islamophobia. It's often sad, but it's quite hopeful too. I found myself tearing up a bit while reading. Definitely worth a read. 4.5 stars.