Lit Vibes Only

Ep. 67: Lit Recs: Universal Human Rights Month

• Lit Vibes Only Podcast

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Join Amanda and Kelsey as they explore captivating books that highlight diverse human rights issues. Discover stories of resilience, from Romanian revolutions to the struggles of incarcerated individuals, and add some meaningful reads to your TBR list.


00:00 Welcome to Lit Vibes Only

00:31 Follow Us on Social Media

01:35 Our Current Reads

05:16 What This Month is All About

07:44 'The Marrow Thieves' by Cherie Dimaline

13:52 'I Must Betray You' by Ruta Sepetys

23:14 ‘The Syrian Ladies Benevolent Society’ by Christine Estima

28:35 ‘Just Mercy’ by Brian Stevenson

38:08 Recap and Final Thoughts


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See you on Mondays!

Amanda:

Welcome to Lit Vibes Only where we lit the shit out of books we love and hate. I'm Amanda, the insightful, thrill seeker, and historical fiction nerd.

Kelsey:

And I'm Kelsey, the unhinged, diehard romantic and fantasy reader.

Other:

Welcome.

Kelsey:

It's so funny, I always forget, like

Other:

I know you, there's always

Kelsey 2.0:

a pause. Always forget. There's always a pause. It's okay people. I'm like, I did it. And then, and I'm done. And then yeah, and then you're not done. I'm supposed to support you heading to our socials and Yes. Rating and reviewing our podcast. So we are at Live Vibes Only podcast at. Instagram or on Instagram rather, and then Lit Vibe's only podcast on TikTok and YouTube. Come find us on those platforms. And of course always rate and review your favorite podcast because that is how we get more podcast listeners to our little side of what is that called? The web,

Other:

our little slice of the podcast sphere.

Kelsey:

And yeah, so if you rate it takes two seconds. But then if you review it takes a minute. So that's all you gotta do. So yes please go do that. Pause the episode and just go do it.

Other:

Or you don't even need to pause, as Kelsey has pointed out. No, me too. You could technically rate and review while you're listening. You could multitask. If you are one of those people that are skilled at doing that, by all means, we would deeply appreciate it. Consider it an early Christmas present for us. Thank you. Us.

Kelsey:

Yeah. Thanks. So what are we getting into today, Amanda?

Other:

We're gonna talk about our current reads, but we were chatting briefly before the podcast about. What we're currently getting into in terms of our book club reads. And yeah, you were telling me a little bit about the book that you're reading.

Kelsey:

Yeah. If you all don't know, Amanda and I have our own respective book clubs and mine has four people in it, and we're all educators. It's so funny. I am good friends with one of them, and then the other two, she the third one. She knew the third one and the third one knew the fourth one. It was like that kind of mixture, domino

Other:

effect.

Kelsey:

And we have completely different personalities, and I love it so much because we all also have very completely different tastes in books.

Other:

That sounds

Kelsey:

familiar. And it's so fun. Yeah, so I, I already know how to navigate that. But yeah our book club read this month is Kim J. Young born 1982. That's the whole title. Amanda was like, wait, is that the author? That's not the author. I'm like, no, that's the title. And then the author is Cho j And yeah. So I'm excited. It's only 163 pages and I was about to tell Amanda that we're doing like this themed evening next weekend. Okay. And we're going to order in Korean food and we're gonna go, we're gonna like. Watch a movie together. You can't remember what we're watching, but yeah, we're just hanging out.

Other:

Nice. I love that. Yeah. I yeah, obviously I'm in a book club as well. It's been going on for I think seven years at this point. Yeah, that's wild. Maybe a little bit longer, but when we were, we're not in person anymore.'cause it started when I lived in New Jersey and now we've been scattered to the four winds. So we meet virtually now, but when we all were together in Princeton, that was one aspect of our book clubs, is we would have themed food and beverages to go along with the book. So that was always like a fun little addition. But it's funny because we are also reading a. Super short book for our next book, club book and it's small things like these by Claire Keegan. It's this book that's set in 1980s Ireland during the Christmas season. So it's very much a Christmas read and that it's set in that time of year. Yeah, 128 pages. Super short. And there's a movie, that came out in 2024 that I'm really excited to watch'cause it's basically this town in Ireland. And I think there's like some secrets that are uncovered because the Roman Catholic church is very much kind of controlling things in this Irish town. So very excited to read the book and then watch the movie after. But we wanted to choose a. Because this will be for our December book club. And it gets crazy, as you'll know with the holiday season. So we wanted a book that was really quick, really short. We could all squeeze in time to read it. Yeah. In the hustle and bustle of the holiday season.

Kelsey:

Yeah.

Other:

So I'm excited to dive into it and it's, and I've heard such good things. It's so well rated. It's got like a 4.1 on good read,

Kelsey:

So I. Realized the movie is this movie. There is a movie to this book, and that's what we're gonna be watching.

Other:

You

Kelsey:

reminded me, saying this movie. Oh, that's also based, okay.

Other:

Yeah. Very cool. Okay. That's crazy.

Kelsey:

That is great. That'll be fun.

Other:

Look at those parallels between our book clubs. You'll have to let me know what you think and I'll definitely let you know what I think about this one. But is that what you're currently reading or is that. Just

Kelsey:

what's that's I'm gonna be reading next.

Other:

Okay.

Kelsey:

And then I'm gonna be reading BrightHaven next. Next. Yes. Blood

Other:

over BrightHaven. That's my recommendation. Yeah. So tune in next week

Kelsey:

next

Other:

for that episode.

Kelsey:

Oh yeah, it do. It would be next week.

Other:

It'll be next week. Yeah. Yeah. I know.

Kelsey:

The time.

Other:

It's confusing. Time is weird when you're making a podcast. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. We are doing our December lit Rex episode, and as we've been saying since September, we want to rethink, reinvent each of these months as we go along so we're not doing the same exact thing every single year. And so last year for December. We did immigrant stories just because it's not associated with a particular month and yeah, we wanted a little bit of leeway to do what we wanted to do, but December is Universal Human Rights month, and so we wanted to celebrate that this year, and it's observed every December to recognize and promote the fundamental rights and freedoms of all people. As established by the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the reason why December was chosen as Universal Human Rights Month is because December 10th is International Human Rights Day. And the reason why December 10th is International Human Rights Day is because that was the day in 1948 that the Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations. And so this month just encourages. Advocation. Lemme try that again. This month encourages education. Advocacy and action to protect human dignity, equality and freedom worldwide. And so the four books that we've chosen today are focusing on different issues, right? And I can tell just looking at my choices and Kelsey's choices, that it's covering a lot of different marginalized and oppressed groups, right? Because. Women's rights are human rights, immigrant rights are human rights. Indigenous rights are human rights. And so you'll see that as we go through our book choices, that we really tried to provide a wide array, of ways to be thinking about human rights and the ways in which those rights can be violated or taken away. Yeah. So really excited. Yeah. For this episode, and

Kelsey:

also

Other:

how.

Kelsey:

Stories can help highlight those issues. Yes.

Other:

Yeah. And raise awareness. Absolutely. And how literature and stories can also be used to, in addition to that, to combat, these injustices, like the power of the written word really can do a lot to promote those. Those causes and those movements against oppressive regimes and governments. So yeah, really excited. Do you wanna kick things off or do you want me to start?

Kelsey 2.0:

So my first book is The Marrow thieves by Sherry Deline. And this has been on my TBR for a while now. And I'm excited to get into it. Sherry is a member of the Metis Nation in Ontario. And specifically comes from the historic Georgian Bay t community there her heritage and upbringing in that community. Play a central role in her storytelling. She Notes that her grandmother family stories and community traditions are the source of a lot of her work. And to give some background on her, like before she was focusing like riding full-time she had different roles in her community or indigenous communities. Including women's resource centers, government funding work, and like other rural supporting indigenous organizations. So a tidbit about. Indigenous governments is we do have our own government. And then there's various roles that we get to identify what's needed. Like we need a mental health department and we need obviously finance department, but there's also all these areas where you can do really great work. Around community need. And the Marrow thieves was like her breakout novel and it was published in 2017. And it received like a lot of recognition. It won the government Governor General's literary award. Oh my God. For English language. Children's literature. Gosh, that is a handful. That's an

Other:

awful.

Kelsey:

Yeah, what you said, not what I said. And the Kirks prize for young readers literature. So it is a YA novel. That's something to note. And, interestingly enough she also uses her platform to uplift like indigenous stories and voices, not only through her own writing, but via editing and mentoring and participating in festivals and literary gatherings. So that's like nice. She's probably hiring, maybe within her community or like folks that she knows. Which is really cool. And then. Thinking about her work in general, it's often studied and discussed in an academic setting for how it reframes indigenous experiences and uses genres such as dystopia, which is what the ma thief is and myth to retail history. And engages readers like in a different way with themes of cultural resilience. Thinking about awards as well. She was also named Emerging Artists of the Year by Ontario's pre Wow. Premier's awards of Excellence in the Arts. Why do they have such giant names? I don't

Other:

know. It's so pretentious. It's if it's the longer the name, the more pretentious the award.

Kelsey:

And then in 2021, she received the wider writers trust angle. Is that how you say that?

Other:

I

Kelsey:

think so. Finley Award. Which honored her as a fearless and transformative storyteller. Her devotion to craft and character manifest prose that threads together indigenous heritage with historical and contemporary real realities. Oh my gosh. Alright. That was about, that was all about sharing. She just seems like a busy lady.

Other:

Yeah.

Kelsey 2.0:

And then she's a good thing. The actual book I want to highlight and focus on is called The Marrow thieves And I'm like so intrigued about this book. I can't wait to read it. It has a 3.95 star rating on good reads. It's one of these short books as well. It's only 234 pages. But basically it's about, it's a dystopian novel. In the near future where like the climate is collapsing. And a lot of people have lost the ability to dream. Oh, it's very random. Okay. And only indigenous people are still dreaming and their bone marrow becomes like a a target because it holds like the ability to dream. Oh. And people can extract it. I use it to dream essentially. Oh. And so it follows this young Metis boy named Frenchy, which is also funny fact native peoples also often have like funny nicknames for

Other:

Okay.

Kelsey:

Each other. Like my uncle's name was Squeaky and for the longest time I didn't know his actual name. Because everybody just called him Sy.

Other:

I'm sure there's a story there,

Kelsey:

so I'm sure Frenchie is. One of those as well. But anyway, Frenchie is on the run after a traumatic loss. And joins a group of indigenous survivors heading north for safety and community, probably because people are trying to steal their marrow. And so thinking about why this pertains exactly to human rights. I wanted to make sure I like, called it out. Yeah. The novel explores the power of culture, language, memory, and dream life as forms of resistance and survival. And by portraying the erasure and resilience of indigenous peoples, the story underscores the global need to protect. Obviously marginalized communities from exploitation and cultural genocide. Yeah. Which is the central purpose of. The book itself.

Other:

Yeah.

Kelsey:

So yeah, that's Marrow Feed. Wow. I know, I'm so intrigued. That

Other:

sounds intense and it almost feels I don't, obviously it's ya, but it feels like there's like an element of body horror to it with the fact that Yeah, like humans are tracking down other humans and extracting their bone marrow. I,

Kelsey:

it's wild.

Other:

It's quite brutal. But I I'm sure that was a really intentional choice because Oh yeah. The exploitation and genocide that has happened in so many places in the world due to colonization yeah. Has very viciously and violently wiped out entire peoples, and so there is so much violence there. Yeah, I definitely need to read that book too.

Kelsey:

Yeah.

Other:

Added to my

Kelsey:

what? Short.

Other:

Yeah. Added to my never ending TBR. Thank you. Okay. Yeah. So I'm gonna start off with surprise, a historical fiction novel by one of my, it

Kelsey:

fits very nicely into this theme.

Other:

Oh, does

Kelsey:

theme of ours.

Other:

Honestly, all of her books do the ones that I've read so far, but I'm gonna be talking about, I must betray you by Ru Tis. And this is a historical fiction author that I discovered at the beginning of the year through some amazing recommendations from some of our book Talk friends. So thank you. And yeah, I wanna share a little bit about her and then specifically about this book. Rudis is a number one in New York Times bestselling author of historical fiction, and her books have been published in over 60 countries and 40 languages okay. Yeah. Very well established author. And she was born in Detroit, Michigan back in 1967 to a Lithuanian refugee. So her father is a Lithuanian refugee who actually fled. The Soviet occupation during World War ii, and that's important because it comes up in a lot of her stories. Okay, so she actually did not start off as a writer or wanting to write, per se. She studied. International finance in college and then moved to Los Angeles where surprisingly she worked in artist management and then founded her own entertainment company, which I think is really cool. Yeah. And then ultimately she decided to transition to writing full-time because she wanted to dive into her father's experiences as a refugee from the Baltic states. And she wanted to tell the untold stories of the Baltic states,'cause they're often overlooked. In history classrooms. Yeah. I know I personally learned next to nothing about them. When I was in school. So in total, she has written eight books and her books have won or been shortlisted for more than 50 prizes. They appear on over 40 state reading lists, and multiple of them are currently in development for film and television, or already have a film associated with them. So her very first book. It was published in 2011, and that was between Shades of Gray, which I've read, and it tells the story of unsurprisingly, a Lithuanian teenager during World War ii. Mm-hmm. Who is deported to a Siberian labor camp because during World War ii Stalin basically had these mass deportations that were happening within the Baltic states. Baltic states specifically. So it's a really. Heart wrenching and eyeopening story, and this book was translated into more than 60 languages and was made into a film called Ashes in the Snow in 2018. Her third novel sold to the Sea, which I've also read. Is a multi-perspective narrative about this. Thinking of the Wil Helm Gustav, which is the deadliest maritime disaster in history. I made a TikTok video about this months and months ago, and again, had never heard of it, not something we learned about in American history classes, and this book was awarded the Carnegie Medal, so did really well. She continues to be an advocate for both historical literacy and global storytelling and her kind of. Driving motivator is to tell untold stories and to shed light on narratives and experiences that we don't often see in literature, which I think is so important. And you'll see that in a moment specifically within the novel that I'm gonna focus on. And right now she lives in Nashville, Tennessee. It's a little bit about Ruda the book itself.

Kelsey:

Oh, LA To Nashville.

Other:

I know. From Michigan to LA to Nashville.

Kelsey:

Yeah.

Other:

So been all over. So I must betray you as published in 2022. So a relatively recent book. It's 321 pages. And as with Kelsey's first book is also a Ya novel

Kelsey:

Oh.

Other:

It has a 4.4 Good Reads rating and was nominated on Good Reads. For reader's favorite young adult fiction in 2022 when it was released

Kelsey:

Okay.

Other:

Really cool. And this novel takes place in Romania. In 1989, and at this time, Romania was underneath the dictatorship of Nikolai. It's really hard to say.

Kelsey:

Yeah.

Other:

And he and his, yeah, he and his wife ruled the country with an iron fist. But one of the defining characteristics of their regime was that they had this system or this network of citizen spies. In other words, they were recruiting. Everyday folks to spy on each other. And so there, there was just this sense of mistrust and fear and betrayal that was just pervasive throughout this country. The other thing was most citizens did not have access to, a lot of their basic needs. And so you see in this story, which we'll get to in a second people just struggling to make ends meet and survive in communist Romania. So it provides a window into what life was like underneath his dictatorship. And yeah, look at the way in which fear and surveillance were used to control the country and its citizens. So the story follows a young man named Christian who essentially is blackmailed. By the government into becoming one of these informers and I, and again, no spoilers, but we, you find out that he's doing this in order to get medicine for his ailing grandfather. And ultimately, he chooses to join the revolution, the fight for freedom and change and. It's, again, I knew nothing about Romania. I didn't study it in school. Yeah. I had no idea who this dictator was.

Kelsey:

Yeah.

Other:

I had no idea what the, just the living conditions were like. And yeah, folks had such limited access to basic necessities and were incredibly impoverished and had zero civil liberties. And one of the other characters in the book that Christian befriend is the son of, I believe, yeah. A United States ambassador to Romania and just. Seeing the contrast between lifestyles and access. So these young people in Romania are watching videos from America that, that have been smuggled in'cause, right? They're illegal and they're seeing people in homes with refrigerators like full of food and hot running water and all of these things. And they're like, this can't be real, because their lives have been their access to the outside world has been completely cut off.

Kelsey:

Wow.

Other:

And so very much ties into, so many different human rights. But in this one specifically, it's like the right to privacy. And the right to be able to speak out against the government when it's doing things that are harmful to you and your fellow citizens. And. I, yeah. Again, for me, this was a huge blind spot. I had a lot of ignorance in this area. Yeah. So for me it was also. Yeah, like I said before, so eye-opening to see the ways in which so many of their civil rights and human rights were either taken away or repressed in this really horrible regime. They did end up overthrowing the government and assassinating, or I guess not assassinating, executing Nikolai and his wife pretty dramatically. But,

Kelsey:

Like the military, like a military coup or

Other:

like the, so yeah, it was partially that, but partially just like private citizens, they just revolted and they overthrew them and they ended up, I think basically shot them against the side of a building. It was like a really famous photo of them being executed because they had hoarded all of this money and wealth, so they were living like emperors wow. And. No one knew what was happening within Romania. Wow. So he was going out and meeting with our president who I think at that time was Reagan and all of these other foreign dignitaries. And they thought he was doing great things within Romania. Wow. And people were happy and healthy and hardy. And it was total lie. Yeah. Yeah, because there's just like a complete moratorium on the information that was coming out of Romania and

Kelsey:

what years were the, was this again?

Other:

So the book takes place in 1989, which is the year when kind of everything. Yeah. It's not that long ago. Not that long ago, yeah. And when I was

Kelsey:

born.

Other:

Yeah. Yeah. So not ancient history by any means. Yeah. And yeah, it's a really beautiful story of seeing, this country come together to ous this really awful leader.

Kelsey:

Dang.

Other:

Yeah.

Kelsey:

Okay. I saw how long it was and I was like maybe it's not too long.

Other:

It's not too long. And her books are, they're ya, they go pretty quickly. I've read Redden. I have read I think four of her books at this point. And I have a fifth one that just came in on my Libby. And I love all of them. They're. They're so good and they're so well researched. Oh my gosh. They're so well researched. Yeah.

Kelsey:

Is she a woman of color or She's Romanian?

Other:

She is Lithuanian.

Kelsey:

Lithuanian, okay.

Yeah.

Kelsey:

Yeah. Which, okay, cool.'Cause yeah, I was just thinking about how horse left a bad taste in my mouth.

Other:

Yeah, no, it's cool because like she's telling the story of her people and shedding light on, on her heritage and

Kelsey:

Yeah. That's very different then.

Other:

Very different. And she does her work. Like she goes out and conducts like interviews and oh, goes straights to the source. That's really cool. Yeah. Like she's very intentional and deliberate and detailed with her work, which is so evident.

Kelsey:

Yeah. And is a must for. So

Other:

he's a must. I think so. Absolutely. Yeah.

Kelsey:

So for my second rec, this is another book that's been on my TBR for a while. I actually think I have it on my Cobo. I started reading it and just haven't finished it. Okay. But feels like a really important book for me to pick up. And a big window for me, rather than the mirrors I often get into. So this book is The Syrian Ladies, A Benevolent Society by Christine Estima and Christine is from Canada. Okay. Now lives in Toronto, but grew up in Montreal. Okay. And she's an Arab woman of like mixed ethnicity. She's she's Lebanese, Syrian, and Portuguese.

Other:

Okay.

Kelsey:

And she holds her Masters of Arts in interdisciplinary studies from York University, which is in Toronto. And Amanda. She studied theater, has a background in theater and performance Uhhuh. Um, And we'll get into that in just a second and also wait. Oh,

Other:

okay. Go ahead.

Kelsey:

And also has a creative writing degree in ba that that's

Other:

what I was gonna say. I have that same combination I did writing.

Kelsey:

Oh

Other:

That's why I was like, oh my gosh. That's crazy.

Kelsey:

Yeah. You're meant to be an author in the end

Other:

clearly.

Kelsey:

So her family Heritage and Roots in the Arab immigrant community deeply informed her storytelling and so coming back to that performance piece she also engages in spoken word performances. Very cool. And has appeared at events like The Moth in New York City. Mm-hmm. Spark London and other storytelling festivals. Amazing. Her debut book was the Syrian Ladies Benevolent Society. And that was published in 2023. It was published by house of Ananzi Press and received critical acclaim and included being named one of the best books of 2023 by CBC.

Other:

Okay.

Kelsey:

She brings attention to intersectional issues of migration, female experience and especially in this book like cultural transmission across generations and the vitality of underrepresented Voices in Canadian literature. It's funny, both of my authors are Canadian.

Other:

Yeah.

Kelsey:

The Syrian Ladies Benevolent Society. The book itself, it's a collection of interlocking stories that trace like her Arab Canadian family roots to all the way back to the Middle East in the 19th century and to her life then and her family's life in Montreal in the 20th. And so I feel like you would really love that because it's like across generations and across, across timelines. And then comes fully. Back into the 21st century. The book includes like multiple generations of women dealing with migration, war displacement tradition versus modernity. Is that how you say it? Modernity. Modernity. Mm-hmm. Ity um, sexuality, identity, and home. So it's. Layered.

Other:

Yeah.

Kelsey:

And I'm sure all of the generations, have their own perspective. And I'm, yeah, I'm just so curious to read it. And then at the central of the collection is a woman named Azuri who is living. In the echoes of her ancestors voices and like really contending with like her heritage the weight of lineage and her own like search for belonging. Sure. So connecting it all back to our theme for the month. Really, I think it speaks for itself almost, but Yeah, to call it out through the generations of like women navigating. Displacement and identity. It underscores like the right to cultural expression and personal dignity. Showing how migration and memory shape one's self sense of self. And then of course, like the narrative also speaks to gender equality and women's empowerment. And as we hear from each woman's perspective yeah. I'm so excited to get into this one. And finally finish it.

Other:

So is it, I'm curious, is it a. Memoir or is it a novel? Novel?

Kelsey:

I don't think so. I think

Other:

Okay.'cause you started off saying that it was tracing like her roots from the Middle East to Montreal. But it's not, it's fictional.

Kelsey:

I think it's fictional, but it, I think, yeah, it's,

Other:

there's like parallels and connections between her

Kelsey:

experience. Okay.'cause her family did that exact. Thing.

Other:

Okay. Yeah. So it's Okay. A fictionalization of some of the things that she and her family have experienced. Yeah. It reminds me, I feel like we've certainly highlighted in this past year, several novels that deal with Arab women and like the Arab immigrant experience to the United States. Yeah. And it sounds like this very much fits within that not genre, but. Theme form, theme topic. Yeah. In area. And yeah, I do love generational stories that have a sweeping saga over that multiple decades. I love those so much. Okay. Thank you. All right. My last book is Just Mercy by Brian Stevenson, and I was so excited to include this book because I understand that a fair amount of people are familiar with. This story because of the movie that came out relatively recently with Michael B. Jordan, but I actually have gotten to see Brian Stevenson speak twice. Okay. One at the National Association for Independent Schools People of Color Conference and once at the National Council for Teachers of English Conference that I went to last year. And he is just as. Phenomenal, impeccable, astute, amazing in person as he is in his books like he and also so insanely like humble when you look at all that he has done and how accomplished he is. But for those of you who don't know, Brian Stevenson is. A lawyer, a social justice advocate, a law professor, and the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative. He was born back in 1959 in Delaware and grew up in a really segregated community, so he had a front row seat. To the consequences of racial inequality because they were directly impacting him and his family and his community members. He went on to attend Eastern University because he received a scholarship and graduated in 1981 with a degree in both philosophy. And social studies, and then didn't stop there. He went on and got his JD from Harvard Law School and a Master of Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School in 1985. It's

Kelsey:

busy.

Other:

He's a busy man. Like I said, insanely intelligent and well read. He ended up, and this is where things really got going for him, while he was a student at Harvard, he did this internship where he was working with death row prisoners, and that really had a huge. Influence on both his thinking and his career path, and was the fuel that got him started on this lifelong commitment to defend the marginalized and more specifically individuals who have been incarcerated. So right after graduation from Harvard. He moved to the South and in 1989, so here we are in 1989. Once again, lots of things were happening that year. He founded the Equal Justice Initiative, which goes by EJI, and then in 2014, that's when he wrote and published Just Mercy, and we'll get to the details of that in just a moment. But essentially since founding EJI. He has of course, done so much great work in advocating for the rights of incarcerated individuals and also seeking for sentences to be overturned for folks who have been wrongfully convicted. But beyond that, he's also done a lot of other social justice work and. One of the big accomplishments that he and EJI have accomplished is in 2018 in Montgomery, Alabama, he opened these two monumental sites. One of them is the Legacy Museum which kind of traces the story of African Americans from slavery to mass incarceration. And then the second one is the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which is the nation's. First large scale memorial dedicated to victims of lynching. So yes, if we're talking about human, whoa, human rights violations, like we, we can't not talk about lynching. And the horrible history of lynching in our country. His work has earned him numerous honors. I'm not gonna read all of them, but a couple that I did want to include are the MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant. The American Bar Association Medal, which is the organization's highest distinction, and the National Humanities Medal, which was awarded to him by President Obama, which is so cool. And then right now he serves as a professor of law at New York University School of Law, where he teaches, about criminal justice. Capital Punishment and human rights. So that brings us to Just Mercy, which like I said was published in 2014, has a 4.62, that's huge. Good Reads rating, which is like so high, so huge. It's 336 pages and. Has won an astonishing number of awards, has been nominated for so many more, but a couple of the awards that it has won include the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for nonfiction, the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Nonfiction, the NAACP Image Award for nonfiction, and the Alabama Author Award for nonfiction. So people love this book and there's a good reason why. Essentially it's a memoir, so it follows the founding of EJI and how that all came to be. And it was a struggle, understandably, being a black lawyer in the South, trying to advocate for the rights of incarcerated individuals, many of whom were poor. And or people of color. And so the book talks very broadly about a lot of the injustices that happen within our criminal justice system, but it also focuses specifically on the case of Walter McMillan, who was a black man who was wrongfully sentenced to death in Alabama. And who in the, in this memoir Brian Stevenson, is actively working to get that sentence overturned. So it's, yeah. It talks so much about, obviously. Racism, the racial inequities within our criminal justice system. Also, how economics plays a role. And how folks who are coming from lower socioeconomic backgrounds face much different treatment within our criminal justice system. It talks about justice and the lack thereof in our justice system. Yeah. So this book, because it. Ended up getting so much acclaim and so much attention, really provided him with this massive platform that he now has. And he is currently one of the most sought after speakers on issues of justice, race in American history. And then all of that was elevated even more when the movie came out in 2019 featuring Michael B. Jordan. This book has really shed light for a lot of individuals on all of the human rights violations that are happening right now in our criminal justice system and against incarcerated individuals, even if they were quote unquote, rightfully accused. The way that we treat prisoners and inmates and our prison system is really important. So he the, like I said, the novel focus is specifically on Walter McMillan, but it goes so far beyond just his story and provides you with so many insights in general into how individuals are treated in our criminal justice system, including minors, which is just

Kelsey:

Yes.

Other:

So some, this entire book is distressing in so many ways, but that those elements in particular were just absolutely gut wrenching. So if you've watched the movie, I would strongly encourage you to read the book because yes, the movie's great. And yes, it does focus on Walter's story, but the book does so much more. And there's so much more there to learn and ponder. And I think unfortunately, the last thing I'll say is that when we think about human rights, we often don't think about incarcerated individuals. Sure. They're often like at the bottom of the pile. And they also have rights, and they also should be treated with kindness and equality and compassion. And so I really wanted to take this opportunity to highlight that I was going to recommend Chain Gang All Stars.'cause it also touches mm-hmm. on these same themes, but I've already talked about that book at length.

Kelsey:

Yeah.

Other:

On this episode or this podcast. So I wanted to recommend a different book. So yes. Don't think, oh my gosh, I've watched the movie. I'm good. Like, no, no, no, no, No. Go and read the book. There's a lot That's lot better. Lot more good stuff there. There's so much more information. Yeah.

Kelsey:

Yeah. Just piggybacking on that, it's just. When you're talking about his work in trying to get that sentence either removed or at least his sentence changed. So much work goes into doing something like that. Yes. And. Yeah. Years of work. And I'm just thinking about like the case of Leonard Peltier too. He was uh, imprisoned indigenous man from the seventies after what happened to two FBI agents who was convicted of murdering them. Okay. And then he was wrongfully convicted and there was lots of evidence showing that over the years. But the FBI had the loud voice around this, and he wasn't released. For 50 years. Oh

Other:

my God.

Kelsey:

And finally, president Biden, it was just this year that, that happened. Like he was released to home confinement, which still isn't like free. No, it's, no, he, yeah. It's so fucking wild. And people were working on that case for 50 years.

Other:

Wow.

Kelsey:

That's wow. And that's just one and yeah. Oh, you highlighted there. That's just one. And,

Other:

So many stories. Many, I often think about that if I was wrongfully accused and knew I was innocent and it was sentenced to a hellhole of a prison for multiple decades, like I don't. I don't know if I,

Kelsey:

how do you survive that?

Other:

I don't know. I feel like my mind would just fracture. I don't know if I guess I wouldn't know unless I was in that situation, but I'm like, I don't know if I would have the wherewithal

Kelsey:

right

Other:

To know that I did literally nothing wrong. And I may never, be free again. I'm gonna die in this prison and no one will believe me.

Kelsey:

Yeah.

Other:

Everyone is, Ugh. Yeah. Yeah.

Kelsey:

And there's thousands of people in our system currently.

Other:

Yeah.

Kelsey:

Yeah. It's like that.

Other:

Yeah, it's pretty wild. But yeah. Okay. So as you can see, wide range of genres and human rights focuses in these books. We hope that you'll check out at least one of them. Kelsey, do you wanna recap your two and then I'll do my two.

Kelsey 2.0:

Yeah, gimme a second. My first book recommendation was the Me Thiefs by Sherry Dimin, and the second was the Syrian Ladies Benevolent Society by Christine Estima.

Other:

Awesome. And mine were, I must Betray You by Ruti and Just Mercy by Brian Stevenson. So definitely hop on our social, shoot us an email, let us know either if you've read these books, if you're planning to read them, and or if you have other books that really focus on human rights that you think would make for Great reads. We always love good recommendations. So once again, you can find us on Instagram at Lit Vibes Only under Podcast. Or on TikTok or YouTube at Lit Vibes only podcast, so you can. Leave us information there. You can comment there. Send us a dm if you're not on socials. Our email address is lit vibes only podcast@gmail.com. And also you can rate and review and you can also leave your thoughts in your review either on Apple Podcast. Or in a comment on this episode on It's So easy, Spotify, it's so easy. Again, it takes no time at all. It is a gift that costs you$0 that you can give us$0 and 0 cents. And it's a great way to celebrate the season of giving. So there you go. Thank you guys so much. We hope you learned something new today and have some more books to add to your TBR. Thanks for hanging out with us and we'll see you next Monday.

Kelsey:

Bye

Other:

bye.