These Books Made Me

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents

October 06, 2022 Prince George's County Memorial Library System Season 3 Episode 1
These Books Made Me
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
Show Notes Transcript

We are back for season 3 with a coming of age story told in reverse. This episode we dive into Julia Alvarez's How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, the 1991 reverse chronology story of four sisters who flee to the United States from the Trujillo regime in the Dominican Republic. As we look through Yolanda's eyes at the world of New York City and the Dominican Republic in the 60s, 70s, and 80s,  we dissect Alvarez's depiction of class, race, acculturation, and machismo.  We delve into the dynamics of sisterhood, boyfriends with ludicrous names, the ubiquity of certain aspects of adolescence, and  complicated families. We also learn that some of us are Sandies but some of us are Lauras. Finally, we are taking it to the streets, er... stacks, with our new Person in the Stacks segment and asking what tastes like home.

These Books Made Me is a podcast about the literary heroines who shaped us and is a product of the Prince George's County Memorial Library System podcast network. Stay in touch with us via Twitter @PGCMLS with #TheseBooksMadeMe or by email at TheseBooksMadeMe@pgcmls.info. For recommended readalikes and deep dives into topics related to each episode, visit our blog at https://pgcmls.medium.com/.

We mentioned a lot of topics in this episode. Here’s a brief list of some informative articles about some of them if you want to do your own further research:

Rafael Trujillo: https://www.biography.com/dictator/rafael-trujillo

The Parsley Massacre: https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/10/07/555871670/80-years-on-dominicans-and-haitians-revisit-painful-memories-of-parsley-massacre

Which Garcia Girl are you?  https://www.buzzfeed.com/thesebooksmademe/which-garcia-girl-are-you-78z2e2u4rp

Speaker 1:

Hi, I'm

Speaker 2:

Haa. I'm Heather.

Speaker 3:

I'm Hannah.

Speaker 4:

And I'm Darlene.

Speaker 1:

And this is our podcast. These books made me. Today we're going to be talking about how the Garcia girls lost their accent only warning. As always, the podcast contains spoilers. If you don't yet know who gets a flat tire on the quest for fresh guava proceed with caution. Also, this book contains discussions of mature topics including sexuality, depiction of disordered eating slash institutional mental health treatment, racism and child sexual abuse. And this episode is rated T for teen.

Speaker 4:

So we're back this season with a really great book and it how the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents. And I guess I just wanted to ask everyone, what does this book mean to you?

Speaker 2:

This is another book that I discovered when I was in high school, suggested to me by a teacher that taught the multicultural literature class that I took in high school. I loved a lot of the other books we read in there like bless me Ultima. And when I was looking for more things to read, he suggested Julia Alvarez to me. And I, I love this book. The first time I read it, it really resonates for me in a lot of ways and love it now. I really enjoyed doing the reread. I'm excited to talk about it with you all.

Speaker 1:

So as always, uh, this is my first time reading this book. I really love a coming of age story. So for this to be kind of one that was like in reverse, um, I've never read anything like this. I can't believe this is the first time I've ever read a book by this author and it definitely will be the last.

Speaker 3:

So this falls into the category of the mini many books that I've heard wonderful things about and had yet to make time to read. So I was really glad for the chance to find them, make time to read this the way they do the chronology and some of the really clever, beautiful, interesting she does with language is really impressive.

Speaker 4:

I really love this book. I think for the longest time I would introduce it as my favorite book of all time. I think that's still the case. I was kind of like nervous to reread it because of that. I mean even if one day it's no longer my most favorite, it's still probably the most important like I think that I can kind of divide my life into like how I read books before this book and then how I read them after. Cuz I'm not a big poetry person, but I think this book opened my eyes to the fact that maybe I do like poetry<laugh>, it's just in a very particular sense. And then before this, I don't think that I really related to a lot of the book that um, I read. So I read this in high school and I remember there was like a good three, I think between 10th and 11th grade where it was just male authors and like male centered stories. And so it was like Lord applies a separate piece. I think the only female author that I read during that time was Joan Didion, who's great by the way. I love her stuff too. But yeah, I was just really thankful to have read this book and even though the experiences are not quite quite the same, I related to it enough in a way that I hadn't, you know before. Just a quick plot summary. How the Garcia Girls lost their accents is a reverse chronology coming of age novel that follows the lives of four Dominican sisters, Carla, Sandra, Yolanda and Sophia who immigrate to the United States during the Throughhi dictatorship in the 1950. It weaves in details of their struggles of a acculturation and personal identity and traces back to how being uprooted from their country social position and larger familial unit when they were younger informed these struggles and feelings of displacement.

Speaker 3:

So to pair with the plot summary, we wanted to give you a brief author bio for Julia Alvarez, like the Telar characters of her celebrated novel, how the Garcia Girls lost their accents. Julia Alvarez is one of four daughters in a family from the Dominican Republic. She was born in New York City on March 17th, 1950. And that very same year her family moved back to their native country. Fast forward 10 years and her parents were forced to move differently back to the United States. After supporting an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow dictator Raphael Tru, they made a new home for themselves in Brooklyn, New York. In 19 60 10 year old Alvarez struggled with the adjustment to a new country and a new language and sorely missed her former home. She would graduate with a bachelor's degree from Middlebury College in 1971 and then graduate again from Syracuse University in 1975 with a master's degree in creative writing. EZ has written poetry and essays as well as novels and is known for writing about the bicultural experience. How the Garcia Girls lost their accents published in 1991 was her first novel, but she is also known for in the time of Butterflies. Yo and in the time of Somme Alvarez also writes Books for Children including the Tia Lola series among others. She has been the writer in residence for Middlebury College since 1998 and a professor of English there since 1988. Alvarez's accolades include the Pure Bill pre and America's Awards, the Hispanic Heritage Award, the F Scott Fitzgeral Award and the National Medal of Art.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so this book is pretty dense. There's a lot to unpack here. I thought we could jump in sort of chronologically even though that's reversed chronology because of the way that the book is written and start with Yolanda's returned back to the Dominican Republic as a an adult and there's a bunch of things that jump off the page almost immediately. There's class issues, there's colorism.

Speaker 4:

I think that was one of my issues when I was rereading it back then. I had no real like thoughts or opinions on like how a person should present certain issues. And so obviously like I just loved the book. I don't think that I was very critical of it in any sort of way. But I think reading it now, I would keep thinking to myself that I wish that rather than just take on an observational role and just kind of telling the reader how a situation is that there would be some sort of like critique of that sort of colorism and the classism. Because I guess something that we haven't explained yet is that the Four Sisters come from a well to do family in Dominican Republic and that's why essentially they had to lead to the United States was because the dad was part of some underground movement, I guess through Heal

Speaker 2:

It comes out at the end of the book basically that the CIA had sent agents and latched onto folks that were in the high class social status because they already had some connections. I think the one CIA agent went to Yale with one of the men in the book and sort of sponsored their attempts to overthrow ruhi,

Speaker 4:

Right? I think knowing that and then knowing how they act in relation to their main and AVAs does youth very specific language to the note, kind of the difference in their skin tones and and the way that they dress and the way that they act. And so it mentioned and it's observed but there's never really any sort of criticism about it and about like just the amount of wealth that they really get to enjoy. Even as you know, they may also be fearing this dictator and then the military state that follows after. But since then I, I think I did go back and just, I kind of listened to some of her of Juliet's interviews cuz someone had asked if she had always intended to do novels with the sort of like social purpose and she said that that was kind of like accidental and she thinks that really her I guess influence would just be like seeing clearly it's very revolutionary or I guess that's how she would phrase it. And so she said that a quote that she really lives by is check off saying that the task of the writer is not to solve the problem but to state it correctly. And so I think her intention is never really to like solve or make any sort of judgements on what's going on, but rather present it to the reader and have the reader kind of make that assessment for themselves. So I guess when I looked at it with that perspective and just maybe that books around that time also took that perspective, I think I gave it a bit more allowances. Thank

Speaker 1:

You for giving that insight because as I was reading it, I mean there was nothing that really like the instances of colorism and classism and things like that. I think I kind of just read it as this is being presented as how it was for the time giving that insight kind of confirms that as opposed to just me making that assumption for the author.

Speaker 2:

It was interesting to me because obviously the oldest that we see the characters is at the beginning of the book and then the youngest we see them is at the end. And I did feel that those issues do get addressed somewhat more at the end when they're younger, which is not the perspective they would've had as children. And she does that by letting us into internal lives of some of the characters that are on the other end of the spectrum from the Garcia family. So the maid Ccha who's been with them for a long time, we find out that she came to them as you know, a refugee basically when the government decided to essentially slaughter all of the people who were Haitian who were in the Dominican Republic on the wrong side of the border at that time. And that included her entire family. She's taken in by the Garcias and there's some gratitude to them for that because she's a child when she comes to them. But there's also real bitterness there. And I think when she sees them having to flee, there is this sense that she knows what they're going to experience now because she also lost everything. She lost her family, she lost her home, she, she gave up all of these things. I thought the depiction of Chicha at the end was really nuanced. You see her internal struggles and you see almost like the reverse negative of what you've seen from the family compound, right? Yes. You've gotten this really like shiny, beautiful, tropical gorgeous setting and like all of these trappings of wealth, it's just very idyllic in many ways. The children have this wonderful childhood and that's not how it was for Chicha. So you see it from the eyes of somebody that's living in that same place in the same surroundings but is on the other side of the divide of wealth and poverty and is on the other side of the divide of light skin versus dark skin, Dominican versus Haitian. We at least have observational moments where you can see the totality of the picture a little bit more, but definitely true. Like Darlene says that no point in the book does she tell us what to think about that or, or make any judgements on it? I do think she is a little bit more judgemental on some of the machismo stuff. Mm-hmm<affirmative>, you know, I don't know if that's because that issue impacted her more directly, whereas the colorism especially is interwoven like, oh Sandy's the pretty one because she's light but it's not really judged in any significant way. Like the machismo is where clearly that they're thinking less of these characters and you're meant to think this character is foolish for acting like this. Yeah,

Speaker 1:

I think the closest we get to judgment, like you mentioned with them talking about Ccha being the maid and I think they said something like her face was so dark and it was so scrunched up almost like somebody tried to ring the black out of it and I was just like, wow, that's very descriptive. But then you kind of, and then they describe her as being almost like this weird made lady that nobody wants to be around because she has all these like rudely ways but, and I think that's kind of the only judgment against that you kind of get, well this is why she does it, this is her spirituality, this is how she feels about it and you hear her why it's important to her from her perspective. So I thought that was interesting.

Speaker 4:

I did like that because then I think like others said, you get the totality of it because even though yes the Garcias are now about to experience the same thing of having to flee their country, they still do it with the leg up in the world, right? Like you can make the case that maybe they are starting from the bottom but not really because they have a lot of help along the way. The Garcia girls' mom, Laura, she mentions that her dad is still helping them out and he has a lot of money.

Speaker 2:

The fanning's are helping with the job. Yes.

Speaker 4:

Oh yeah. And then, and then obviously just all the education that they had access to before they moved to the United States just makes it that much easier for them to kind of move up. It's there for like the reader to kind of catch on and make their own judgements of it. But yeah, she doesn't have this outward dialogue about it and I think that that's sort of what I was waiting for during the second reading. Especially because colorism is a really big thing in the Latino community at the Latinx community and I feel like for so long I think people really negated it or would they would downplay it because they would say things like, no, we're like, we're all, you know, Latinos or Latinx. I feel like yeah there was just a lot of downplaying of Afro Latinos and basically what they have to deal with. I thought for a bit that it was kind of more of the same like yeah there's this colorism that does happen but like we just don't talk about it. And I think that's why I really wanted her to like say something more pointed about it. I did appreciate that chapter where we get to just experiences cuz it kind of reminded me of kind of like taking Jane air and Wide sarga seed together. Oh yeah. So yeah. Right where like you get the main perspective from like the white presenting person or family and then you get the backs story of the person who from that main narrative is considered like an outsider or the crazy one or whatever human I

Speaker 2:

Should totally do wide sarga. So see someday that is, that's maybe my favorite book

Speaker 4:

Ever. Oh really? Yeah. No it's great.

Speaker 2:

So one of the impressions that I get is colorism is talked about a lot. It comes up repeatedly throughout the book. People's appearance almost always mentions their skin color, whether they're dark, whether they're light. But you do get this sense Yolanda and maybe by extension Alva is very much a product of that society and that environment I almost feel like it's not commented on because it is so like hardwired in so there's no judgment passed because that's just, it just is how it is in that world. And that time that she lives in every single character basically remarks on it at some point Carla with her hair growing in when she hits puberty is you know, upset about visible leg hair kind

Speaker 1:

Of. Yeah. That's why she didn't, she leaves the socks on or something like that. Yeah,

Speaker 2:

Her mom freaking out, one of the sisters uses hair removal cream and then her mom's like, no, it's gonna come back darker and is upset about that. Her mom and Sandy being lighter, her being lighter skinned, Maita being lighter skinned is is brought up a lot. And then she

Speaker 1:

Was having a family that comes from Sweden or something like that. Yeah.

Speaker 4:

The like, but that's why Sandy is lighter,

Speaker 2:

Great grandmother that look, you know, that was Swedish Poppy brings up the like conta door blood game where he like holds them upside down to like make them say if they have like the blood of the kinkies, the dos in them.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. That was angering. I was like no

Speaker 2:

<laugh>. Yeah. It just comes in so often. Gladys the other maid that wants to be an actress, I don't know that

Speaker 1:

I was trying to pick up on if she was black, but I think I was moving too fast. That's why I wasn't sure. She's darker scream

Speaker 2:

Darker skin, get darker skinned. That character just broke my heart cuz then they like sent her away about the bank and it was like totally not her fault. Yeah. And they did that even after they knew it wasn't her fault and but like her wanting to be an actress is like so dismissed and it felt like that was because of the color. It's like, oh come

Speaker 1:

On. Yeah. He was like, Yeah maybe she'll end up in New York and you said that and I'm like, come on, you don't mean that. And it's like he started off by saying, oh well she'll find somewhere else better. But then you just try to make it seem like, oh well no she left on her own. Like

Speaker 2:

That's, and the kids know that that's not

Speaker 4:

True. Yeah. They pick up on

Speaker 2:

It like they know like she's not gonna make it in New York. That's not what an actress would look like, you know?

Speaker 4:

Yeah. I mean even uh, Sophia's uh be marrying a German. Mm-hmm<affirmative> a guy from Germany and then having a child with him and then it says there's like a direct quote that's like there was now good blood in the family. Yeah. Against a future bad choice by one of its women. Which I didn't actually quite understand cause I don't know that it told us what that bad choice would

Speaker 2:

Event mean. I think that the idea was like there would still be a lineage of, because the baby is described as like blonde and blue eyed. Mm-hmm<affirmative> that baby's light enough that like at least there would still be a line of the family that's light. Even if the girls in the family ran off with dark men. Mm-hmm<affirmative>, you know, it, it just, ugh. Yeah. That was very cringy

Speaker 1:

When I talked about Sandra, one thing that I took note of was when they talked about Sandra and I think they were doing the interview with her, her therapist or her doctor or whatever, when they wanted to have her committed and they basically made it seem like, oh well she just was losing weight and that's why they wanted to have her committed. And then the mom was like, well you know, she started to put on some weight so you know, it was kind of needed. But then you know, she's like the lighter colored one and she wants to be dark like her sisters like what's wrong with her? Like mm-hmm<affirmative> that was, I was like mom pretty much just straight upset. It was just like yeah this is the ideal and she doesn't wanna be the ideal. That's strange. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Well and Laura also said when she was talking to the guy that she picks up at the nursery, which is just so funny picks,

Speaker 1:

I

Speaker 2:

Actually really

Speaker 4:

Love the mom. I just love that she just picks up men like they said she was fresh<laugh>.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. She's such a great character and like her

Speaker 4:

Stories are funny.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I know that woman, you know like it's like, oh that's my friend's mom. Yeah. Immediately was like I know this person but she makes the com about like, like how she knows like sometimes babies look lightish when they come out but they change that she can tell by looking by at a baby if they're gonna stay light or not. Ugh.

Speaker 1:

Yeah you always say you, you can look at the tips of the ears and you see the the baby's complexion<laugh>, which I'm just like, why are we even checking for that? Like why can't it just be, you know,

Speaker 4:

<laugh>. Yeah. But it does that often. I think it's sort of this idea that there are people with privileges and you know, I think it acknowledges that they all have privileges in several ways and yet you know, they still suffer in their own ways sometimes because of those privileges. Right. Like Sandy feeling like she actually stands out more mm-hmm<affirmative> because she isn't of a darker complexion like her sisters it, I think it's made mention about how they should have everything in the world. Right. Like happy provided for them everything and yet they're still dissatisfied with something and kind of like always searching for something.

Speaker 2:

We've been talking a lot about how it's colorism within the Dominican community that's depicted in here, but like it's all everywhere in the book. Yeah. Because even Rudy in the chapter about Rudy which

Speaker 4:

Said it's just like

Speaker 2:

That whole chapter is so wild. Yeah.

Speaker 4:

I still don't know how to pronounce his name. Like I think every time I like this is my second time rereading it and I think like I just skip over his name. I just know he has

Speaker 2:

Something. Elman Hearst the third. Yeah.

Speaker 4:

But

Speaker 2:

You know, obviously he's presented as the whitest white guy ever. He's a trust fund baby

Speaker 1:

Rudolph Broder man. Elman Hearst the third. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

He has this quite and familial name. I still not remember, he is a prep school kid, but at the point that things really like start to break down between him and Yolanda, he basically comes out and says, well like because you look Latin, I just assumed once I could like get you into bed you were gonna be wild. But he makes this assumption because of her coloring and like because of her accent. Her being

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

A certain way.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. There are those stereotype. Yeah. I mean it's, it comes up in like pop culture all the time in one of my classes, which was like Latinos and pop culture, the hot blooded Latina is a really strong stereotype that has been going on since maybe like 30. There's like a lot. I

Speaker 1:

Didn't realize it went back that far.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, it goes back that far. And I think before it used to be like Spanish actresses like from Spain that has history embedded in it. I mean when he said that I was like of course. Yeah. It sucks cuz then I guess just kind of going off of him real quick, like his parents

Speaker 2:

Saying,

Speaker 4:

Saying that like they wanted him to date a Spanish girl because it should be interesting for him to find out about other people, people culture from other cultures. And I was like, what?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I love that she straight up said like it bothered me that they treated me like a geography lesson for their son. But she's also expressed that, you know, she didn't, back then she didn't have the vocabulary to ex to explain to herself what annoyed her about that. So she's kind of looking back like, dang that was kind of really messed up. And it, and I think in certain ways, like even things that I've experienced in my life that have come across that that I look back on, I realize now were like, yeah that was this kinda racist

Speaker 4:

At

Speaker 1:

The time when especially when you're younger, like she's a maybe like what freshman in college or sophomore in college. Mm-hmm<affirmative> still figuring things out, learning about herself. She wouldn't have had the vocabulary to express those things or even maybe felt some type of way

Speaker 2:

About it. Yeah. Their experience with racism in their earlier years at that point has been like very overt, right? Mm-hmm<affirmative>, it's like slurs. The boys are like throwing things at Carla and basically attacking her while they're calling her racial slurs. Now she's seeing what like woke racism looks like. Yeah. Right.

Speaker 1:

Right. And it's like, oh well I'm attracted to you or I want to get with you so I can't possibly be racist. Mm-hmm<affirmative> because I, I'm viewing you in this, which you should take as a, a great light. Like you should be honored that I want to have sex with you.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. She's like a merit badge he can put on like his Boy Scout uniforms. Yeah. Look how great our son is going after the Spanish girl. Which drives me crazy too. How many times people are described as Spanish and it's like not from Spain. I know<laugh>.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. That bothered me too. Oh,

Speaker 2:

What's head into the discussion about toxic masculinity in this book? Men do not come off well here except for maybe Otto.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Otto seems like a pretty cool

Speaker 4:

Dude. Oh he's just like jovial. What did they say? Did they say he looked like a young Santa Claus<laugh>?

Speaker 2:

Yes.<laugh>. I love that. He's like all like red face and like Cheer Barbie.

Speaker 4:

Oh and he's like the peacemaker. Yeah. I love o No he's

Speaker 2:

A delight And I was like so happy for Fifi that she found somebody that seems like a sweetheart and like very smart and cares for her.

Speaker 1:

She did what made her happy.

Speaker 2:

But woo, none of the other guys in the book come off well at all.

Speaker 1:

Her dad was real mad that uh, she, she went beyond the palm trees. Oh

Speaker 2:

She was big mad about those letters. Oh yeah. That scene is like, that scene hits so well cuz you really can see it. Yeah. Oh my god. Yeah. That's a very cinematic way of writing.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

These interpersonal moments with the family, like so many of these scenes you can just visualize so well like that scene with the letters where he is freaking out and she's trying to grab'em back and she's so hurt cuz those are her personal things. The tearing up the essay that Yolanda wrote. Yes. The party where Yolanda's doing musical chairs and sitting on all of the men cuz she's had too much to drink. Yeah. And then they break the chairs

Speaker 1:

Or even in like the very beginning when she describes the 70th birthday party for the dad and I guess cuz you know, him and Sophia are like beefing and he's guessing all the daughters but he's not guessing Sophia's name so she, she like licks his ear and kisses him and he's just like, Okay, party's

Speaker 2:

Over. Yeah. I

Speaker 1:

Was like wow. That just felt so

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 4:

Unseen.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 4:

Described him so well that I feel like I got a sense of who he was because going back to that scene about when he finds the letters, it was saying like he was like all fury and then he was like in the Sophia's face and because she was so IPAs because obviously you know, there's like a strength to her behind her eyes. Um, that that made him even more angry. And yeah, going back to what Heather said about how like cinematic that is, like I could picture that. And then for the seven 70th birthday he understands kind of like that he is getting older and he's ba looking around the room and seeing basically that his daughters don't really need him anymore. He's feeling like a little like useless. I think they had made mentions of him looking a little frailer. Uh, yeah. I just feel like you really got into his head space during that time and he was, he's judging all of uh, their husbands and being like, yeah none of them have have the strength to really be there for his daughter. He

Speaker 2:

Was okay with Otto, he was

Speaker 4:

Okay

Speaker 2:

With o moment where he like slapped auto on the back kind of thing and he could see that too. But it was but gave him a boy grandson. Right?

Speaker 4:

Yeah. But he also said that Otto, he said even Otto the famous scientist is a boy or something like that. Like he still thought of them as just these childish young men that could never like

Speaker 2:

I feel that was ironic coming from him though because he's incredibly childish in the book like at many points. Yeah. He does try to like make reparations after he blows up. He buys the typewriter for her after he destroys her essay in the moment. He is very

Speaker 4:

Temperamental,

Speaker 2:

He's very temperamental. Almost everything is about him. The girls are largely just a reflection of him. So it's always through that lens. The good bull sire cows that keeps coming.<laugh>. Yeah. That down,

Speaker 4:

I mean Yeah. But even just I guess like still talking about like just the sexism, the machi in it and then like the women's role there was like a really interesting line and this is Lynn Sophia I think is still trying to make men's and she feels like she has the bridge, that gap even though he was really the one that took it way too far. He said like every year after that the daughter came for her father's birthday and in the way of women soothed and stitched and patched over the hurt feelings. So it was almost like because she was the woman, it was her duty to really patch the like sore spot between them even though he was really the one that he was the cause. Yeah. He was the one that invaded her privacy, went into her drawer, said that what he was looking for nail clippers and then found her letters, read them in detail and then uh, yeah it was in her face like yelling to

Speaker 2:

Her on the issue with, with machismo throughout the book the women are presented as stronger than the men. Mm-hmm<affirmative>, I mean really at every step of the way, even when the women are referred to as frail in some way, Poppy essentially says that he worries about Laura in the situation where the secret police basically show up and the the military show up at their compound that she can't keep her nerves together for it. And Ccha also comments that Laura's always had like basically been frail, like she's weak nerved kind of thing. But we never see that Laura's incredibly strong. She's the one that holds it together while he's hiding in the closet. And I think that that's really a theme throughout is that the men are very dismissive of the women at many points, but the women are the ones that are keeping things together and like they're the clever ones that're the ones that are like really driving the action for the family for their lives. Like they're the organizers. There's like a real strong circle of power for the women in the family. Um, and I, I think that's an interesting, again, she doesn't make like commentary like that particularly. She's not telling us what to think about that, but it, the way that she observes all of the characters and what we see of them, even though they certainly have fr I mean we see two of the sisters have, you know, breakdowns to the point that they have to be hospitalized but they're still all presented as very strong individuals. Mm-hmm<affirmative> and in many ways stronger than the men.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. And I wrote down this quote and I, it kills me that I can't remember like who story this was from, but it says how we lied to ourselves when we fallen in love with the wrong men. And I was just like, wow. That I read that line. I was just like, wow, this is so poor

Speaker 4:

<laugh>. Oh was that Yoland

Speaker 1:

Wish I, you said what?

Speaker 4:

It sounds like something Yolanda would say.

Speaker 1:

I was gonna say I think probably because she was just so, and I also enjoyed that about the book. Like she was the poet and when she spoke it felt extra poetic.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Cause you know, she had her fair share of guys that were trash. I think in the beginning we find out that she's just uh, getting over her, her breakup I guess with the, the college professor who went back to his wife or something like that. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>. Yeah. Um, yeah I, I like that this book is in reverse chronological order but sometimes it did have me wondering more about like what was going on like currently in their lives. Um, especially because we talk about how trash a lot of these men, men are and I think in the beginning of the book they're still pretty young. Like they're like the thing the youngest was like in their twenties and the oldest like in their thirties or something like that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Early in the book the range is like 26 to 31.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. And I mean yeah going off of just talking about like their strength, I really liked, I wanna say the whole chapter was on Laura and like her little inventions. Mm-hmm<affirmative>. I thought that was so beautiful. Yeah. First off she could have been the one to have done rolling luggage and no one believed her. Well

Speaker 2:

Even her double walled sippy cup is a thing now

Speaker 1:

And the potty that when the kid sings that plays music.

Speaker 4:

That's a big tail thing.<laugh>. Yeah. They also sounded like wonderful inventions but I just thought that it was so interesting cause if you're talking about like the strength of like women but also like within their family unit, I mean yeah she really helped it down for the girls and you know, she would often like play it to sympathy. She'd be like, well you guys just don't know what it was like to like have four girls. That's why I had to color coach your stuff. Like don't talk to me about identity. You're gonna make

Speaker 2:

Me go to Bellevue. She started it so

Speaker 4:

Bell. Yeah. That was her favorite threat. Um, but yeah I thought that that was a beautiful chapter cuz then at the end, you know, she does uh, you know, she stops doing these on intervention. You know, she says that she's no longer uh, gonna be you know, writing in her little notepad or whatever. But she said her last final or Yolanda remarks that her last final sendoff is helping her create the speech that d would eventually that Yolanda would give to um, what was it, the school at the school at a school,

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Commencement.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. And so I don't know, I just thought that was beautiful. Like you know she, that she does take like a step back when um, and kind of like really uplift her daughters whenever she can. And that I think that's why she was probably one of my favorite. Like at least between the parents was definitely my favorite. Um Oh absolutely. Because she was just so supportive. Like even the fact that, I mean she doesn't really know her daughters that well in some cases, but in some sense she really does. But how she would always go to all of Yolanda's like poetry readings and Yolanda would be like very embarrassed. Um, and she was like, yeah um, you know, cuz you talked about her sexual encounters in her poetry and the mom, she's like, I don't know if she just like doesn't understand that or she thinks it's just my wild imagination. But she's supportive nonetheless. So yeah, there's like that quiet friend that you're talking about where it's not like that obvious but really like she really holds it down for that family.

Speaker 1:

She shows up to the poetry readings without even like being invited. Like she

Speaker 2:

Shames out about it when she's like trying to hide it and she still shows up and,

Speaker 1:

And she's like sitting in the front row telling a story with like her, her professor slash her professor

Speaker 4:

Lauren

Speaker 1:

And she has no idea that's who she's talking to when they're waiting for the event to start and everyones like sitting listening to her. Well

Speaker 2:

She'll talk to anyone like she picked up that guy at the nursery. So

Speaker 4:

Like

Speaker 3:

That was also a very cinematic scene. Like I could see it cutting between the Yolanda being embarrassed at her mom being enthusiastic. Like that could be a very funny scene in a movie.

Speaker 2:

I did wanna talk a little bit about um, Yolanda and the poetry. Darlene mentioned it when she was talking about what the book meant to her that like she didn't really think like she was super into poetry and this book kind of changed her mind on that. Her being a poet definitely works into her longer fiction in that way. We saw that with Eros as well. Both of them have a very poetic feeling to their writing that I think is, is pretty unusual for long form pros.

Speaker 4:

Oh yeah, no definitely. I think I had many thoughts on it cause I feel like that's what really made me gravitate towards this book. I think before like when I remember, I remember when I was first reading it and just kind of going through it and yes I really liked it but I think once I got to Yo's chapter, I think that's when it specifically kind of hit me. Like just how much, just how rich language could be and how you could kind of use this really poetic language to really describe what you were feeling. Because what stuck out was that theme where she is like in the hospital and there's like that theme about like the black bird, like mm-hmm<affirmative> like trying to come out of her and it was just like so poet and I feel like that's the kind of thing that I would've probably not responded well to in a book before. But she brought it like around in such a like wonderful way because it tied to when she was younger and her mom made her recite um, the po Yeah the PO um,

Speaker 2:

I think was the poem she did, but yes. That's presumably she's like the man that wrote about the Blackbird.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. Yeah.<laugh> po Yeah. So yeah, so just the way that she ties all of that and just essentially trying to say that there's just so much that she wants to get out that she just really cannot really get out. And I think that's the scene where essentially she really wants to tell her doctor that she has fallen in love with him and she can't. And it was just a really striking scene that I think to this day like still is vivid in my mind. And that's when I knew like, oh yeah. Language could be so vivid that like even years later, even though I mix up things like all the time, like that's still so fresh in my mind. I think all of her Anytime. Yeah. Like Paul always said like anytime it was Yolanda's chapters, I feel like that was just very memor and I, I thought it was really interesting that she had so many hangups about her name. So her name has a lot of different nicknames so people call her, her full name is Yolanda, but people call her Yo Joe or Yoyo and she said when she gets key chains or whatever, she gets them for Joey cause they're so Yolanda. I, I just found it really interesting that in one of the first chapters that really focuses on her. Yeah. She does meet Rudy who has like three names and is the third and has like this whole like, history behind his name. Yeah. Then we find out that as a character, like she feels like yeah, name is like really important to your personal identity and she's been struggling really to find that because of yeah. Because of her family and just being uprooted from, from the Dominican Republic and just everything that's happened in her life. She's never really felt like she's been able to claim her name

Speaker 1:

And wasn't she the one that was married to that guy who basically called her everything but her name? Yeah.

Speaker 4:

I think I saying had

Speaker 2:

That pro so violent.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. I was like okay. And then he had that ProCon list as to whether or not he should marry her and she found it. It was just, just like, yeah, this is not working.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. And Laura too though. Sorry. She did have that little line about how um, when she first came to the United States and she like enunciated her last name and no one knew what it meant. She was like, that's okay, you guys will find out what it means one day. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

To and that was like, her family's very prominent and she came here and nobody cared. Yeah. Whereas like dropping that name when she was back home, everybody would've, Oh, oh let me get something for the lady. Let me take care of this. Let me drive you here. You know? Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1:

<affirmative>.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. There's the part where she's with her sisters and I think they call her by one of her nicknames and then one of her sisters says she wants to be called Yolanda now. And she's like, What do you mean I wanna be called that? Like that's my name. She just asked cause she goes off on them, but I was just like,

Speaker 4:

<laugh>. Yeah. The the sisterhood dynamic is so funny cause I'm like yeah, that could be you and your sisters. You take

Speaker 2:

Things of,

Speaker 4:

Even though that's not how they mention it. Yeah.<laugh>. Yeah. And that's who you can be the most

Speaker 2:

With is so funny. Just four of them interacting together and seeing them in the roles they have with each other, the roles that they see themselves in. It's really, really well drawn. It's super nuanced and not a whole lot of pages, you know, it's a couple pages of dialogue but it's so revealing about all four of them. Yeah. In a short space. It's really beautifully done. We haven't really talked too much about their journey once they got to the us We've alluded to it a few times, but I think one of the big pieces of this book is the, the experience of assimilating. I mean even, even the title relates to that about how the Garcia girls lost their accent.

Speaker 1:

I think it's so interesting because um, it always makes me think of how my parents always say like, you know, they came to this country so their kids could have like a better life. And it's interesting because it's like all these girls go on, like they're different paths that are probably, they're not terrible, but their parents probably would've wanted something different for them. And, and they kind of expressed that in a way they, they feel like their daughters are being bad girls. Uh, I think when they're teens they get sent back to the Dominican Republic. I think they said they, they would send them every summer to try to, uh, for the whole every summer. For the whole summer. And that was their thing. They were like, Does it have to be for the whole summer? And the mom's like, What are you guys doing? I guess get them kind of in touch with that culture. So I thought that was interesting. That kind of is what that made me think of.

Speaker 4:

I grew up in an immigrant household. I was born here so I didn't like fully, I guess relate to every aspect of it. Right. Cause I, I was, um, I was born here but I, I just thought it was really interesting the way that she talked about it. And Julie Alvarez has talked about her experiences growing up between these two cultures. That's why she called it I think the, the Garcia girls lost her accents cuz she did say that in the process of like migrating somewhere and then like assimilation or a acculturation, whichever I guess you ascribe to um, you do lose something along the way. He does try really hard to kind of explain I guess like how you end up being in that sort of middle space. He did mention about, it was still the chapter with Rudy and Yolanda and basically she was like, you know, I too would be having sex and smoking dope. I too would have like sun tan parents who looked me, or wait, sorry, who took me skiing in Colorado over Christmas break. And I too would say things like, no without feeling like I'm imitating someone else. I thought that was really powerful because even though at that point she has been there for a few years, there's just certain things about American culture that just doesn't feel hers. And so she's like still navigating it and that's, that's still within, I think she's in college at that point, but even into adulthood. Right. Cause Yolanda's the one that wants to go back to the Dominican Republic. So again, like navigating her position within these two cultures and you see that throughout the whole book with the other sisters as well and kind of where they situate themselves within those two points.

Speaker 2:

It is one of those books like Mango Street that really deals with those sort of the liminal space of being neither but both mm-hmm.<affirmative> simultaneously and how the characters navigate that. So you see it from sort of all angles. The one who seems to really navigate both spaces the best in many ways is Fifi. Yeah. And maybe because she's the baby, but like then she's, you know, she goes back to Dominican Republic and she's like immediately like got the hair and she's like got the boyfriend and she's integrated herself into that society very easily in a way that the other sisters seem to struggle more on both ends. I

Speaker 1:

Thought that whole thing was uh, funny because it's like they get up, the sisters get off the plane cuz their sister's been there for like six months at this point and they're just like, Wait, is she, has she turned basically almost had like has she turned on us and then they meet her, they realize that she has a boyfriend and they devised this whole plan to basically like get her in, almost kind of get her in trouble cuz they know that she's getting herself into some stuff that she probably shouldn't be. Yeah. The mom thought that sending her back would do this and they're like, well you can't really get the American out of them or something like that. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

She thought sending her back would protect her from bad choices. But then she goes there and she immediately makes a bad choice in a guy and is getting herself into the same kind of trouble she would've gotten herself into in the States. So like that to me also is uh, you can't change who someone is right at their core and Fiy is beefy. She is with one guy and she's like, Yeah you kind of suck. Nevermind. And she immediately like, it's

Speaker 4:

Auto

Speaker 2:

And then you know, find out she's pregnant and goes to Germany and just shows up at his doorstep and is like, you know, we're gonna make this work. And she just really is very true to herself no matter where she is. I think everything else is just almost like window dressing on her.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

She can look the part there, she can look the part here, but it's always her. Mm-hmm.<affirmative> and I think the other sisters really struggle with their like self identity more. Like who am I? Yeah. Seems much more of a, a struggle for them.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. P is so strong. I, I wonder if, I mean like you said it is cuz she's younger but also she didn't spend that much time in Dominican Republic and I think that that kind of helped her in a way because the other sisters do get chapters on kind of like a pivotal moment in their young childhood life and they're all in the Dominican Republic for the most part. And these are like things that really like fundamentally changed them mm-hmm.<affirmative>, um, or affected them in some way and yeah, I don't think that Fifi has that.

Speaker 2:

No, she was like a toddler when they left at

Speaker 4:

Same time. Yeah. And so I think there is like a part where she says that she doesn't really remember as much and that some things are, you know, she pieces together from other people's stories but I think it ties into the fact that I wanna say it's Yolanda or maybe, maybe it's just the author, like speaking of Sophia saying that like she has no degrees. Like there's no like history there. And I think that because of that she can kind of hard forward. Yeah. There's nothing that she's like beholden to like a degree or anything that like people are like, Oh that's wasted opportunity. Like there was nothing laid out for her so she kind of paved her own way.

Speaker 3:

I mean I do think that's always different for the youngest. Um, I wouldn't say that it's easier, but I think the young younger children, the families, sometimes I think the parents have maybe abandoned some of the strict path they were laying out for the older kids or amended them or maybe the younger are benefiting a little bit from the older children's experience. Younger or youngest are given kind of a freer space to figure out who they are and what they want to do.

Speaker 1:

No, I think you're absolutely right. I've seen that play out like in my own family and in other families. And I think also it's funny cuz in the book they, they sit around talking about, I think they sit around talking about their quote unquote their sins and all the things that they've kind of been up to. And I, the oldest sibling that said like, you know, I, I kind of had to do a little bit more to give you all some leeway pretty much like that's not exactly what she said, but it's basically what she said and that makes sense because I think about my family and I think that, you know, my older sister, she was able to, you know, kind of do a lot and I think that if my older sister had like different values or if she was like more of a close mind person, that that would've had an impact on all of us as well. So sis I know you're not listening but if you are shout out to you<laugh> the way No, it

Speaker 4:

Is like, she's not listening

Speaker 2:

Of course

Speaker 4:

As the older sister, she's very supportive. I'm sure

Speaker 1:

You're absolutely right. I'm gonna send her the episode

Speaker 2:

<laugh>,

Speaker 4:

But yeah, no, as the older sister, I'm also, I told that show my sister all the time, I'm like, you guys have it so easy

Speaker 2:

Know. Yeah. You don't even know<laugh>. Right. Do we have anything else that we didn't touch on during discussion that we wanted to touch on? We didn't end up touching on the, the the guy in the car and Carla. Yeah. We did give a trigger warning about uh, that, so I guess we could talk about that scene. I,

Speaker 1:

Oh,

Speaker 2:

We've all been there. Yeah. Like I feel like every girl has like, oh God. Like that just that hit like so hard cuz it's like everybody has had that like horrible experience Yeah. With a man way too young. Mm-hmm

Speaker 1:

<affirmative> and it, it was, it was sad cuz like, you know, she runs home and they call the police and they're trying, she's trying to explain to the police what happened and her mom's trying to speak for them. Um, and we don't really get a gist of what happened after they left of course, but it, it kind of made me feel like, and that could be over overthinking it, but it kind of made me feel like, you know, they called the police and they tried to explain to the police what happened. The police are trying to put together bits and pieces and they kind of just maybe didn't take it as, not that they didn't take it as seriously, but I feel like there was definitely no follow up. And um, and I don't know necessarily if it was because you know, that they're this immigrant family, so they're not really, you know, they're like, they're not getting, they feel like they're not getting the full story and they don't wanna keep asking or, and they feel like maybe there's some kind of like language barrier. Um, and I know that like in the past I know that like even experiences that like, um, that have happened in the past, like just dealing with authority figures or people who, uh, you know, are from a different culture. My mom has often felt like, you know, people may not be taking what she's trying to say as seriously because of the accent or the language barrier. Um, and it kind of felt like that's what happened in this situation.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. It was weird because the initial like, um, call to the police was presented pretty positively. I thought, at least with the police, like they came in, they're like, Yeah, for sure. We don't want people like that on the street doing this to our kids. Yeah. And like they seemed very like raring to go and get this guy, but then like when there was any sign of communication breakdown, they just kind of like, were like this too hard. Nevermind. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. And I mean, you know, I guess, you know, they, they tried to get as much of the story out as they could and they just, you know, couldn't, But I guess also like she, she, she kind of was really just learning English, so she's trying to grasp those words to try to describe what happened to her. And also just, she's also probably like traumatized, but what she had just experienced,

Speaker 2:

It wasn't just like, oh, bunch of racist police officers showed up. It was just like, there's a lot of just really lazy people and they showed up and it was not exciting. Let's go get the bad guy. It actually took work and they just kind of like, eh, nevermind. And, and how that makes then the person on the other side of that feel where she just was like, Oh I guess I'm stupid, I guess no one cared. You know, like it just, she felt like work instead of a person. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>, she felt like, you know, a burden instead of the victim there. And that's, that sucks regardless of why, why they did that. Yeah. You know, I thought it was an interesting depiction of that, um, scene cuz again, it was just very observational. It didn't really feel like there was a lot of judgment being put on it by the author, but trying to like make the judgment for myself, it was like, I'm not, I don't know what happened here, but this wasn't good. You know, I trying to figure out why did it break down And

Speaker 3:

There was, I mean, not just the language barrier, like she was, even if English was her first language where she was completely fluent, she's describing something very awkward. There's a lot of stuff she probably doesn't fully understand.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. I mean she wouldn't have even had words in Spanish for a life because that like anatomically correct. Do Mun had it like had livers and kidneys and stuff and then it was like a ken do like it just was missing.

Speaker 4:

Right. But yeah, I was thinking like, I don't think that even in Spanish you would've had the language to explain herself and no. Yeah, I did think that the police officers were like very impatient, but I also think that they weren't making allowances that I feel like they would've made for like anyone else. You mentioned that she could have just spoken through her mom who's,

Speaker 2:

But they English

Speaker 4:

Is a little better. Yeah. Cause

Speaker 2:

Laura was trying to like explain to them what she had told her and they're like, No, no, no. And like

Speaker 3:

She's child's been through a traumatic experience.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. She can't tell you like, she doesn't have the language for that. And like we did, there's another scene at one point she said like, the word that she had for male anatomy at that point was a peer. Yeah. Like she had clearly been given no language for it, but like she said something like it was what I called a peer in my head or something like that. There was no sex ed obviously in this family. That's very clear. Yeah. Um, in the book, the like go behind the palms thing is like

Speaker 4:

The, like the Catholicism Yeah. Catholic guilt.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So there's that, that was a barrier. Then the language on top of that where she's struggling with like describing the person vividly enough that they could, he didn't

Speaker 3:

Even say he was bald. She was like, Oh, he didn't have anything on his head. And the guy's like hat pretty much like no

Speaker 4:

Hair. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

But then it's also like one of those things which I think is very true of like a moment of trauma or just shock is like, no, she probably wasn't really paying attention to what the guy looked like because at the point that she realized that like he's masturbating and he's got all his junk out in the open, she's fixated on the things she's never seen before. That's scary. Like everything else has gone away because at that point you're just in like, Oh, I gotta get outta here mode. This is horrible. That's what you're seeing. That's what she's gonna remember from that. Not, Yeah. Oh, the guy was this old in this fall and this, you know, it's

Speaker 5:

Like, why would I be taking note of all those details

Speaker 6:

Or

Speaker 2:

The car?

Speaker 3:

Like he's not thinking about the make and model of the car. He's know what the heck is happening.

Speaker 2:

This season with the help of our teen volunteers, we'll be heading into this stacks and talking to you. Well not you, but people like you right here in the library today. We wanna know what's the one food that reminds you of home?

Speaker 6:

Uh, what food makes you feel most at home?

Speaker 7:

Chipotle, Is that weird?<laugh>? No, that's fine. I love Chipotle. It's like comfort food. The first time I came to DC I was at a basketball game. We all got Chipotle. Loved it. Ever since

Speaker 6:

<laugh>, I'd say curry beans tell

Speaker 5:

You,

Speaker 6:

Or pastels, something like that.

Speaker 8:

Chicken and dumplings.

Speaker 6:

May I ask why?

Speaker 8:

Um, my grandmother used to make it, um, usually just as a surprise before I would come home from school. Um, and it's just a very warm and it's a very heavy dish, but you know, when you're having a bad day or even a good day, it's a, a nice way to wind down.

Speaker 6:

Probably beans because I, that's what hosts me like, like everything in my house.

Speaker 9:

PPOs. I used to really, my mom would used to make some good ones when, when I was younger. She doesn't make them that much anymore, but she used to sell'em on the weekends and she would give me a bunch. It was amazing. I could eat like nine at a time.

Speaker 6:

Steak with rice home. I would set a Mals

Speaker 10:

Po because uh, my dad makes it and uh, he makes it really well.

Speaker 11:

I don't have a favorite food, but my mom is cooking's my favorite. I love my mom

Speaker 6:

Tacos, but why? Because they're good. We call it Ma Say is Sweet Tama and it's really good. You put sugar in the curry. Chicken and rice.

Speaker 12:

Well for me it's probably fried chicken and french fries since my mom used to make it when I was little and she still makes it to this day, which is like the best chicken I've ever had.

Speaker 13:

Um, they're called p uh, the person who makes it was be mostly my mom. She's the one that makes them best. I enjoy them really much.

Speaker 5:

So the food that brings me closest to home is I'm from Jamaica. My family's from Jamaica. So our favorite food that we eat over there is dumplings with su fish and Aki. So that's, that brings me closest to home cuz it's a part of my culture.

Speaker 2:

We have designed our very own Buzzfeed quiz. Woo. Yes. First ever these books made me Buzzfeed quiz designed by us for us. And for you.<laugh> learning off season three strong. Yes. Right.

Speaker 3:

I would like to point out that Buzzfeed has a disclaimer on the page going, This post has not been vetted or endorsed by Buzzfeed's editorial staff

Speaker 2:

<laugh>, but it has been vetted and endorsed by us. Exactly.

Speaker 1:

That's what matters.

Speaker 2:

We are bringing you high quality bonus content. This quiz is called, Which Garcia Girl Are you,

Speaker 1:

Are you gonna take it?

Speaker 2:

I'm not. I wrote the quiz.

Speaker 1:

Oh, oh yeah. Duh.<laugh>. Sorry.

Speaker 4:

<laugh>.

Speaker 2:

In your family friend group. You are the life of the party. Overthinker mother. He bossy one or free spirit

Speaker 1:

For me. I'm the overthinker for sure.

Speaker 3:

Dido.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. Same. I kind of, I, I kind of know who Sophia is. I was like, I Sophia, but I'm not a Sophia. I don't

Speaker 2:

What is your dream job? Mother, dancer, inventor, psychologist or author?

Speaker 1:

Honestly, low key. None of these. But at one point I did wanna be a psychologist but also I like to read to what that, but I don't wanna ever write anything. So

Speaker 4:

I think I chose author I think once upon a time.<laugh>, that was a dream.

Speaker 3:

I'm gonna be a complete wild card and pick adventure.

Speaker 2:

Okay, interesting. I would've thought dancer. I

Speaker 1:

Thought so too.

Speaker 3:

I can't, I can't mean too, you know, I have to be unexpected.<laugh>. I think this answer is a hard life. I like to do it recreationally.

Speaker 2:

<laugh>. That's understandable. Which word best describes you? Vivacious, talented, original, assertive or nurturing?

Speaker 1:

<laugh>. Original nurturing. I think I can be kind of nurturing.

Speaker 4:

I think I'm gonna go with nurturing as well.

Speaker 3:

I'm gonna go with original as

Speaker 1:

<laugh>. That was my second. I was like, I'm reading original and I'm thinking, okay, I'm kind of weird. So that could, Does that make me original? Like<laugh>.

Speaker 4:

There's only one ho.

Speaker 3:

Thank you. Exactly.

Speaker 2:

Your biggest fear is not being respected, losing yourself, being alone, losing control or losing the ones you love.

Speaker 4:

Ooh, that's hard.

Speaker 1:

I'm very much torn between being alone and losing the ones you love because they're both things that I feel like have been on my mind a lot recently. Which sounds kind of dark. I'm gonna say being alone, losing

Speaker 3:

Control.

Speaker 4:

I feel like the ones I gravitate towards are like opposing. It's either losing the ones you love or losing yourself.

Speaker 2:

Those are the two that I would be torn between two Darling. Yeah.

Speaker 4:

<laugh>? Uh, I think the bigger one is losing the ones you love though, for

Speaker 2:

Me. Okay. And which image appeals to you the most? The first one is two people embracing in front of a sunset. The second one is two little girls who look like sisters laughing and sitting next to each other. The third is a red sports car. The fourth is a typewriter. Mm-hmm<affirmative>. And the fifth is a very neat and clean and organized library full of books.

Speaker 1:

Oh well I'm gonna be that obvious librarian and pick the one with all the books. It's so like when you all take this quiz cuz you have to take the quiz, you'll see how beautiful this library is arranged. Like this would be a dream to have in my own home. It's

Speaker 3:

A super cool looking library.

Speaker 4:

Not even to work at. You're like, I want this in my house. Yeah,

Speaker 2:

No, definitely dangerous though because I don't think the stairs have rails.<laugh> just like, I was just like, I'm looking at it and thinking all of the incident reports you would have to write when these people falling my face class. I feel like before

Speaker 4:

Working at a library, I never thought about that. And then now I pass by libraries and I'm like, that must be a pain to close up. Yes.

Speaker 2:

There's too many doors there.

Speaker 4:

Too many floors.

Speaker 1:

You gotta check every and crane and make sure that everybody's gone.

Speaker 2:

All right. What did everybody get?

Speaker 1:

Wait, which ones did y'all pick?

Speaker 4:

Oh, I, I'm

Speaker 2:

All said library my bathroom.

Speaker 3:

I can pick that one. I want to like take a book cart down those stairs even though it would be a really bad idea.

Speaker 4:

I, I'm gonna choose the sisters.

Speaker 1:

Oh that's cute. My second one would've been the, the couple in front of the sunset. Cause the sunset's so pretty, but books.

Speaker 3:

Doesn't it look like that scene from a princess bride when they're like Yes. Buttercup or silhouette? I swear I thought that was still from the film for a sec.<laugh>.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so I got Sandy. It says people may sometimes forget about you or overlook you, but that would be their mistake. You have a full and rich interior life and you have a surprising array of hidden talent. You can do just about anything, but sometimes you where you haven't lived up to your potential. Wow. I feel seen

Speaker 2:

<laugh>.

Speaker 3:

I am also Sandy. It turns out

Speaker 2:

<laugh>,

Speaker 4:

It turns out. Oh, so I got Laura.

Speaker 2:

So did I. Darlene<laugh>.

Speaker 1:

So what's the description for Laura?

Speaker 4:

It's, you are the matriarch. You're a little anxious. Yes. A little impulsive, but you are made of stronger stuff than most people realize. You can talk to anyone and always have a story to tell. You would do anything to protect the people you love.

Speaker 1:

Aw, love that

Speaker 2:

<laugh>. All right. First ever original bus feed quiz. Yeah.

Speaker 4:

Heather can definitely add a quiz making to her list of

Speaker 2:

Many skills.

Speaker 3:

Source your quiz, making expertise.

Speaker 2:

I'm gonna put it on my LinkedIn. Yes.

Speaker 3:

<laugh>.

Speaker 4:

Each episode we ask whether our book passes the Bede test. The Bede test asks whether a work of features to female characters who talk to each other about something that doesn't involve men or boys. So does it pass?

Speaker 2:

Heck yeah.

Speaker 1:

Oh absolutely.

Speaker 2:

Flying colors.

Speaker 1:

It passes so well and I love it because

Speaker 3:

A

Speaker 2:

Page one

Speaker 4:

Like

Speaker 2:

Girls talking about girls hanging out with women. Yes. Mostly girl

Speaker 4:

Characters is great. Yeah. And just even like talking about their position in the world, their aspirations. I'm thinking back to like that scene of when they're talking amongst themselves like the sisters and even though they do bring up boys and men and their husbands, it's still about how they feel about certain things. It's still about their own like personal like aspirations and how far they've come in their own personal journey that it doesn't really feel like it's about the men. Mm-hmm<affirmative>, it's really about themselves. Even the way that the three other ones try to get Sophia kind of back to who she is cuz she went back to Dominican Republic, fell in love with um, one of her cousins. Yeah.<laugh>. Um, yeah. And he was very like sexist and was trying to like revert Sophia back into like, into someone that just like obey him and like pretty much tried to Yeah. Limit her personal liberties. Yeah. He was the worst. Her

Speaker 1:

Sisters were like, Girl, this is not who you are. Yeah. Stand up

Speaker 4:

<laugh>. And just the way that they devised to like kind of get them broken up. Even just that like this book definitely passes the back tell test.

Speaker 1:

Well that's it in this episode of these books Made me join us next time and we'll discuss a book where you can only stay in a world if you exchange your eyeballs from buttons. If you think you know which book we're tackling next, drop us a tweet. We're at pgc mls on Twitter and hashtag these books made me.