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Meet Someone New! Read a Memoir: How to Say Babylon

3 Nov

On November 14, we are kicking off our new Memoir Book Club at the Grand Street Branch! Many people’s first foray into memoirs is through celebrity memoirs. We’ll read a few of these, but we’ll also choose titles that expand the definition of “memoir” and show us what’s possible in the genre. Memoirs in essays, auto-fiction, and hybrid memoir, alongside traditional memoirs such as our first pick, How to Say Babylon by Safia Sinclair.

How to Say Babylon
by Safia Sinclair
Sinclair is a poet, and the world she builds for us—her world—is rich, evocative, and breathtakingly vivid. It’s one thing to tell a story of your life, and another to take the reader by the hand and show them. Her memoir traces her journey from childhood to young adulthood, as she grapples with an oppressive childhood at the hands of her militant father and fights to break free. She contextualizes her story and that of her father through the lens of patriarchy, colonialism, and the history of the Rastafari movement. In my estimation, the best memoirs are meaningfully universal in their incisive specificity, and this one is no exception. Readers may also be moved by the role poetry played in helping Sinclair shape, change, and save her own life. If you enjoyed memoirs like Educated by Tara Westover, Memorial Drive by Natasha Trethewey, Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward, or Born a Crime by Trevor Noah, consider checking out How to Say Babylon. Published in 2023, How to Say Babylon was considered a best book of the year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, Goodreads, NPR, Barack Obama and more, and was a Read with Jenna Book Club Pick. 

You can borrow How to Say Babylon from BCCLS in print, large print, eBook (from elibraryNJ and eBCCLS), and audiobook formats. Please reach out to grandstreet@hobokenlibrary.org if you have any questions or would like us to place a copy aside for you to pick up! Hope to see you on November 14th for the discussion.

Written by:
Ally Blumenfeld
Grand Street Branch Manager

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Memoirs of Loss and Love: Everywhere I Look and Crying in H-Mart

24 Jul

Everywhere I Look
by Ona Gritz
Ona Gritz is a former Young Adult Librarian at Hoboken Public Library and we are always excited when she comes back to visit and debut one of her new works such as her new memoir, Everywhere I Look which she discussed with us in May. All though the memoir is newly available, it is a piece that Gritz had been working on for many years. It details her relationship with her older sister, whose life was sadly ended too soon by a horrible crime. Gritz explores and uncovers a variety of family secrets that allow her to have a fuller picture of her sister and their relationship. This story has a moving bittersweet quality, but also manages Ona’s goal of celebrating the life of her sister, even if it was cut short so briefly. The book is being added to our local author collection. Fans of true crime, memoirs, and those interested in complex family dramas will enjoy this work. You can also check out additional books by Gritz including her other new work, a YA Novel, The Space You Left Behind which was published this June and her memoir On the Whole, about raising a baby boy while dealing with her own disability.

Crying in H-Mart
by Michelle Zauner
Crying in H-Mart is the moving and at times also quite funny memoir about Michelle’s Zauner, the woman behind musical act, Japanese Breakfast, and her relationship to her mom, a Korean immigrant who passed away from cancer (they emigrated with Michelle’s American dad from Korea when Michelle was nine months old). H-Mart is the Korean Grocery Store Chain, that sells all the delicious ingredients Zauner’s mother would use to recreate the food of her homeland. Food and her music are the two of the main ways that Zauner uses to celebrate and grieve for her mom. I enjoyed Crying in H-Mart as an audiobook which was read by Zauner. She mentions that some of her relatives had done narration work and to me she must have inherited some of these talents since she did an excellent job telling her engaging story. Even if you are not familiar with her music, her story still has a lot of heart and universal appeal of the bittersweet love and guilt combo that fuels many mother/daughter relationship. I do recommend though if you enjoyed the story checking out Japanese Breakfast’s debut, Psychopomp which has enjoyable pop rock melodies and songs which bring in some autobiographical elements of this period in Zauner’s life and her loss; it is a picture of her mom on the album cover.

Written by:
Aimee Harris
Information and Digital Services Manager

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