Status Updates From Standing Alone: An American...

...so i just googled asra nomani, came across a washington post piece she wrote and WOW, okay, going to own my bias because i am now inclined to cut her WAY LESS SLACK, idk if i'm even going to bother finishing this now

ahhh, and she was(?) also just not very connected to her religion or faith community generally, this makes a lot more sense now. i'll read with that context in mind then, i think it'll make it easier to not keep being like how are you forty tho :')

i think i'm seeing the effects of a generational difference here, i keep biting back the urge to be like you're HOW old and just now thinking to learn about this but things have changed a lot in the couple decades nomani has on me

And DNF'ing.

This is interesting, but kind of dry and repetitve.

My copy has only 304 pages, so that means I am done! Hurrah! Review forthcoming. Want to get this back to the library.

I'll be glad when I finally finish this. At least now Asra has gotten to what I wanted to know about: her efforts to address misogyny and human rights abuses being practiced in the name of Islam. This part is interesting and I'm cheering her efforts. Go, Asra!

This book is a personal narrative, but it explains so much about Islam in today's world as well as in history. Read it!

This book is EXHAUSTING. While I admire what she's trying to accomplish, the book is a tiresome read of an immature 36 yr old woman who spends way too much time cleaning lint out of navel and talking about her baby. The sweet mommy moments are killing me.

Meh. I expected something much more intelligent.

Her father cries a lot. She's apparently never heard of feeding her child with bottled breast milk. She is a boring writer. I dislike the structure of the book and she has yet to convince me that Islam had a "golden period" of feminism. I see I'll need to read some Karen Armstrong to get a coherent history lesson on the beginnings of Islam since this author is failing to do so.

The religious stuff is a bit thick so it's annoying me. I'm also very surprised by how little she knows of her own religion. I guess that's because she was raised in USA. She acknowledges the awful things that happens to women, but has NO thoughts on it at all, as if it's just oh, well. That's being a Muslim woman! WTF. Also, she's an idiot for taking her young son with her to Mecca, esp. as it's so dangerous.