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Samia Aziz | Bookstagram | Podcaster(@readwithsamia)'s profile avatar HD Profile

Samia Aziz | Bookstagram | Podcaster

@readwithsamia

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I mainly read and review books by authors from the global majority ❤️
Host of award-winning podcast🎙️ @thediversebookshelfpod
📍🇬🇧 UK
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Just a few snippets of life while I’ve been away from the gram since late last year :) by @readwithsamia
13
4 months ago
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The latest episode of the podcast is one of the most raw, open and vulnerable conversations I’ve had on the show since the very beginning. For this episode, I spoke to the incredible, Hala Alyan about her memoir, I’ll Tell You When I’m Home. We talked about infertility and baby loss, and how these experiences shape us, forever change us and influence our ideas of home, belonging, identity, safety and the self. We talked about the endless waiting, and all the ways so many of us are constantly waiting for *something*. We also talked about home, Hala’s experiences with alcohol addiction and eating disorders, exile, Palestine and so much more. These topics are pretty heavy, so please tread carefully ❤️ As always, episodes are available everywhere you listen to your podcasts. by @readwithsamia
5
10 months ago
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I’ll Tell You When I’m Home by Hala Alyan. TW: infertility, baby loss, loss of a loved one, eating disorders & alcoholism. In her memoir, Hala Alyan takes us on a journey that spans almost her whole life so far, delving deep into her years of struggles with infertility, painful miscarriages and failed cycles of IVF and fertility treatment. She shares with us challenges in her marriage at the time, previous relationships and her struggles with alcohol addiction and anorexia. It is intimate, raw and powerful, bravely putting words to her experiences that some of us carry in silence, often alone. She explores the concept of home and belonging, of the endless waiting, her family’s exile from Palestine, Syria and Lebanon, the loss of her home in Kuwait, her fractured relationships, the loss of her grandmother and her healing. This book is written in 12 chapters, each representing the months of pregnancy and early postpartum, as Hala’s daughter comes into this world and Hala becomes a mother through surrogacy. This is one of the most impactful memoirs I’ve read on infertility, as Hala does not shy away from how exhausting, painful, emotionally depleting and lonely the experience is. She lets us into the decision she made to explore surrogacy, and the toll that infertility took on all her relationships and her own mental health. While difficult to read at times due to my own struggles, Hala’s words offered comfort, a reminder I’m not alone, and sometimes gave me the words I’ve been searching for. This book is about more than Hala’s journey to motherhood - it’s about the fractured parts of her life, the contemplating of what it means to bring a child into this world with connections to places her family have been displaced from or where their homes have been lost, and it’s about understanding what home means in a world that continues to change, and changes you with every passing moment. Highly recommend. by @readwithsamia
4
a year ago
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This week’s podcast episode was a really fun conversation with Ova Ceren @excusemyreading . You might know Ova for her library in the garden or her pet ducks, but she’s now a debut author of a fantasy novel based on heartbreak, angels, family secrets and love. In this episode, we talk about Ova’s book, The Book of Heartbreak, her change of career from software engineering to writing, writing in English, heartbreak, writing fantasy, family secrets, inspiration from Turkish folklore and so much more. As always, episodes are available wherever you find your podcasts. Listen now :) by @readwithsamia
3
a year ago
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Winter is my least favourite season, but I’m trying to make this one full of healing and growth 🥰❤️ by @readwithsamia
5
a year ago
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The podcast is back with weekly episodes and I’m thrilled to be kicking things off with this incredible conversation with the hugely talented, Saima Begum, author of The First Jasmines. In this episode, we talk about the silences around the atrocities committed during the 1971 Bangladeshi War of Independence, the ways in which acts of unspeakable violence can be reduced to mere footnotes, finding the heart of stories and statistics, sisterhood, hope, faith, motherhood, redemption and the need to continue learning and collecting stories. The First Jasmines is Saima Begum’s debut novel, and it tells the story of two sisters, Lucky and Jamila, who are captured by Pakistani soldiers during the war and held in a detention camp with other women. It is a powerful story, and one that sheds light on stories erased and silenced, posing huge questions around morality, ownership of history, the choice to remain silent, forgetting, memory, sisterhood and so much more. Available everywhere you find your podcasts. Go listen now :) by @readwithsamia
1
a year ago
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The First Jasmines by Saima Begum, published by @hajarpress . Phenomenal book. Set during the final stages of the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, this book follows two sisters, Lucky and Jamila, who are captured by Pakistani soldiers and held in a detention-camp. They find themselves locked in a single room with several other women, and outside the barred window, see white jasmines blooming as the brutal violence of war rages all around. Saima Begum tells a deeply human account of survival, memory and the afterlives of violence, war and suffering. One of the stand-out elements of this book is how the women in the detention camp develop inner lives even under unthinkable oppression, talking among themselves, remembering their lives before, and reflecting on motherhood, marriage, family, beauty, and struggles for dignity. The women tell their stories as the raw truths they are, while also deeply rooted in faith, with reflections on mercy, forgiveness, shame and honour. This book raises huge questions about silence - whose voices are silenced and why, who chooses to remain silent and why, how atrocities get erased and reduced to a mere footnote, and the power of language itself. We follow these women after the war, though this is a very small part of the book - a nod to the fact that we still know so little about what happened to these women. Begum explores the challenges of returning, of the ability or inability to resume a life in the aftermath of unspeakable harm, secrecy, shame and the pressure to forget. Truly an incredible book written with a tender poeticness that brings back the heart to the statistics we may hear and read. Highly recommend. I also had the pleasure of interviewing Saima on my podcast, which was every bit powerful and moving as I expected. Episode now available wherever you find your podcasts. by @readwithsamia
3
a year ago
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After a(nother) little unplanned hiatus, The Diverse Bookshelf is back tomorrow with new weekly episodes! Keep an eye out wherever you listen to your podcasts and I promise, tomorrow’s episode is one you won’t want to miss 👀 this one is so incredibly moving, honest, thoughtful, warm and layered. It’ll leave you with much to think about! Tuesday morning!!! by @readwithsamia
8
a year ago
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Cake for weeks. Grateful, always. Alhamdulillah 🤲🏽❤️ by @readwithsamia
7
a year ago
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Been a hot minute since I shared a book review, so here’s a few thoughts on this one! Odd Girl Out is Tasneem Abdur-Rashid’s first YA book and it’s a great story that’s moving, insightful and layered. In this novel, we meet 15-year-old Mariyah whose life is turned upside down as she has no choice but to leave behind her glitzy life in Dubai and start afresh in London, following the divorce of her parents. Mariyah faces huge challenges in making friends, getting used to a new school, coming to terms with her mum’s new life and work, and faces Islamophobia for the first time. What follows, is her journey of uncovering family secrets, redefining friendships and accepting the ways that life has changed, but the love of her family and friends has not. As always, Tasneem tackles serious issues of divorce, Islamophobia, loneliness and mental health with a softness, openness and with humour. We meet our protagonist at a pivotal point in her life, as she is navigating an ever-changing world and creating the life she wants to build. This book will give a comfort to teenagers also trying to carve their own futures while facing the pressing challenges of family, community and the wider world. Overall I really enjoyed this. As always Tasneem’s writing is warm and inviting, and her stories are paced well, relatable and multi-layered. Definitely recommend :) P.s. I interviewed Tasneem about this book a little while ago, so go listen for more insights! by @readwithsamia
5
a year ago
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This week on the podcast I had the absolute privilege of speaking to professor Sunny Singh about her short story collection, Refuge. We spoke about war, love, compassion, silence, resistance, Sunny’s own life experiences and so much more. Refuge is a powerful and tender collection of short stories showing snapshots into lives of people living amid war and in refugee camps, telling their stories in a myriad of ways, reclaiming the narrative. This is an incredibly important and powerful conversation. My episode with Sunny is available everywhere you find your podcasts. by @readwithsamia
1
a year ago
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September left my heart full ❤️🥰 Alhamdulillah. by @readwithsamia
9
a year ago
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