Nairoby Pena > Recent Status Updates

An easy read. It's a stereotypical story of the move from DR to America trying to do everything you can for your family back home. I wish I could read this in Spanish. I like that it's set up like a play with each chapter being a different scene.

Oh grief! How important the topic and how well Hooks writes about it. She shares how "love invites us to grieve for the dead as ritual of mourning and as celebration" this gives me insight on the Dominican tradition to mourn the dead for 9 days. To truly remember and honor them and their lives. "We need not contain grief when we use it as a means to intensify our love for the dead and dying..." best chapter imo

Hooks poses forgiveness as an act of respect and gives an anecdote of her friend who spoke ill of her work but she forgave her anyway and has a space in her heart should her friend wish to claim it. I just don't think everyone who we forgive deserves our respect. Some wrong doings are irreparable imo. "True forgiveness requires that we understand the negative actions of another." Understand is different from allow...

This idea that movie stars and singers became the only relevant cultural icons, leaving behind policital leaders and activists really shines in his time period. Hence why people think celebrities should speak out about human rights issues and politically relevant topics. While this may be nice, our society is not set up for them to do so without ruining their "brand." To Hookes' points about me > community.

Hooks states that it is possible to bypass identification of when and where we received negative socialization and still create a foundation for building self love. I'm not sure that I agree with this. How can we move on to the introduction of "life affirming thought patterns and behavior" if we can't dig into why we have to make the changes in the first place?

I like this idea of "love is as love does." And the breakdown that the components of love that we may be used to (e.g care, affection, etc) are not love by themselves. It allows room for duality. Someone can care for you and not love you. I think that makes a lot of sense, actually.

Theodore Finch is a funny guy.

I'm already attached to finch

I messing w the book! It has good character development and it feels like a mystery.

Idk what to think yet, like I want to get into it but it's a little boring / slow start. I want to give it a chance, I'll keep reading.

I didn't expect the book to be in poetry form but I'm used to it now, I like it.

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