2024 the best clubs in manhattan review

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This program is read by the author.

For fans of On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous and My Brilliant Friend, an unforgettable story about female friendship and queer love in a Muslim-American community

"I LOVED EVERY MOMENT." —Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia!

"Bushra Rehman performs her novel of a queer Pakistani American girl who is coming of age in the 1980s and '90s. As Razia begins rebelling in small ways, Rehman adds a layer of emotional intimacy to Razia's conflicted feelings. "- AudioFile

"The lush and poetic descriptions of the setting and culture serve as a love letter to the Pakistani American community and to Queens, with the audiobook elevated by Rehman’s finely tuned narration."- Library Journal

Razia Mirza grows up amid the wild grape vines and backyard sunflowers of Corona, Queens, with her best friend, Saima, by her side. When a family rift drives the girls apart, Razia’s heart is broken. She finds solace in Taslima, a new girl in her close-knit Pakistani-American community. They embark on a series of small rebellions: listening to scandalous music, wearing miniskirts, and cutting school to explore the city.

When Razia is accepted to Stuyvesant, a prestigious high school in Manhattan, the gulf between the person she is and the daughter her parents want her to be, widens. At Stuyvesant, Razia meets Angela and is attracted to her in a way that blossoms into a new understanding. When their relationship is discovered by an Aunty in the community, Razia must choose between her family and her own future.

Punctuated by both joy and loss, full of ’80s music and beloved novels, Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion is a new classic: a fiercely compassionate coming-of-age story of a girl struggling to reconcile her heritage and faith with her desire to be true to herself.

A Macmillan Audio production from Flatiron Books.

Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Worth it! Great for next book club read!
Review: This was our august ‘23 bookclub read and I was so happy with the pick! A book you can finish in a few sessions (subway ride/commute). I devoured the last half and loved it. Hope there will be a sequel!

Reviewer: Jazelle
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Compelling, Raw, and Real
Review: 🦇 Roses in the Mouth of a Lion Book Review 🦇🦇 Razia Mirza grows up amid the wild grape vines and backyard sunflowers of Corona, Queens, alongside her best friend, Saima. When a family rift drives the girls apart, Razia’s heart is broken. She finds solace in Taslima, a new girl in her close-knit Pakistani-American community, all while trying to manage the religious and cultural expectations of her family. When Razia is accepted to a prestigious high school in Manhattan, the gulf between the person she is and the daughter her parents want her to be, widens. There, she meets Angela, and is attracted to her in a way that blossoms into a new understanding. When their relationship is discovered by an aunty in the community, Razia must choose between her family and her own future.💜 Razia resonated with me so much. Growing up Muslim, not realizing your sexuality is even an option, then realizing it's wrong, a sin your parents may never accept...it's heartbreaking for a child, for anyone. Muslim communities are tight-knit, breathing truth to the "it takes a village" mentality of raising children. That community can become supportive, empowering, encouraging; a warm, soothing blanket of security. However, it can also become hot, itchy, stifling; it can keep you from recognizing who you truly are. Sometimes you need to leave that security to recognize that person, and who you want to be. Bushra Rehman has done a stunning job of conveying that sense of community while showing us the little ways Razia began feeling like an outsider among the friends and family who raised her. This is the type of book, a potential classic, I wish was required reading (because when has a book with a Muslim, Pakistani FMC ever been considered required reading?).💙 Raiza is a compelling, real and raw character. The story begins from her childhood, allowing us to see her grow and recognize the woman she wants to become over time. Because of that, there are some pacing issues. However, the prose is so enthralling, almost hypnotic in a sense, that it keeps you going until the end. Though I didn't LOVE the abrupt ending, I understood why it stopped there; everything moving forward would be up to Raiza, perhaps for the first real time in her life.🦇 Recommended for fans of Evil Eye and The Skin & Its Girl.✨ The Vibes ✨🌹 Pakistani-American FMC🦁 Muslim-American FMC🌹 Lesbian / Queer🦁 Female Friendships🌹 Coming-of-Age Story🦁 Literary Fiction🌹 Friends to Lovers🦁 Sapphic Romance💬 Quotes❝ I wanted to be chosen by someone. ❞❝ You can’t wait for anyone to teach you. Otherwise you’ll learn all the wrong things. ❞❝ Our parents had left their homes and the thread had unraveled, then been woven again with us. This was how it always was, an unraveling and a raveling of the earth, the ground we stood on. Nothing was sacred, everything was sacred, everything changed, everything stayed the same. ❞❝ I hate having to lie, but there’s no other way I can make them happy and still live my life. ❞❝ But the rest of us, the majority, were children of not- so- rich immigrants. We were the dreams, the ones expected to take our paper airplanes and turn them into rocket ships rising into higher orbits. ❞❝ The rumors, not the truth, were enough to destroy a girl’s reputation. ❞

Reviewer: Satya J. Palit
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A gracious memory of growing up in a convent school in Calcutta in the fifties and sixties.
Review: I loved reading this account by four very accomplished ladies. I too studied in a missionary school in Calcutta in the same era. Their accounts brought back wonderful childhood memories. A quick read, the book will entertain you for sure.

Reviewer: Tabitha V Maze
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A sweet tale of a Pakistan teen dealing with her parents culture and her new home cultural differenc
Review: This was a sweet little book. I liked that it took you back to the 80's and this took me back down memory lane. This book tells the story of a Pakistan teen girl who falls in love with a girl.

Reviewer: Kindle
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Beautiful coming of age /immigrant story
Review: This book defied my expectations. I rooted so hard for Razia, but all the characters were nuanced and real.

Reviewer: Miss Print
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: one to watch
Review: Corona, Queens in the 1980s is changing as the area's first wave of primarily Italian immigrants are replaced with Pakistani family's like Razia Mirza's. The tension between the old and new in the neighborhood is palpable; the criticism clear as carefully tended gardens turn to weeds in the hands of new tenants and change keeps coming.That tension between old and new is familiar to Razia Mirza. As the daughter of Pakistani immigrants who herself feels increasingly more American than Pakistani, Razia sees that same tension in herself; in her own life. Being a kid in Corona felt easy. Razia could understand the dimensions of her childhood even while she chafed against the narrow boundaries of her role as a "good girl" and a respectful part of her Muslim community.But now, like her neighborhood, Razia is changing. She buys miniskirts from thrift stores, she listens to music her mother would call wild. Then she gets accepted to Stuyvesant all the way in the East Village in Manhattan where, for the first time, Razia feels like she has the space to be who she wants to be and not who her parents expect.When her deepest friendship at Stuyvesant blossoms into something bigger, Razia has to decide if she can reconcile her family, her heritage, and her faith with the future she is chasing in Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion (2022) by Bushra Rehman.Short, vignette-like chapters unfold Razia's story from early childhood into adolescence. For an even more immersive reading experience, check out the audiobook read by the author. Be aware of a few incidents of animal violence throughout the book if that's a point of concern for you as a reader.Vivid descriptions bring Razia's world to life as her sphere slowly expands from the careful influence of her conservative parents into the punk scene surrounding Stuyvesant's East Village neighborhood. Razia's first person narration hints at larger stories unfolding with the circle of girls and women that comprise the Pakistani-American community in Corona but the tight focus on Razia's experiences leave many plot threads open to interpretation by readers as they unpack Razia's experiences alongside out protagonist.Although romance in the conventional sense doesn't appear in the story until the final act, Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion is a love story at its core. Again and again, Razia's world expands as she discovers learning whether it's at school, borrowing books from her local library, or gaining a deeper understanding of what her faith means to her while reading the Quran with her mother and other female community members at regular Vazes--religious parties--in the neighborhood.Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion is a tantalizing window into one girl's life as her world starts to expand, creating a friction between family obligations and personal growth as Razia tries to reconcile her own wants with the expectations of her family and community. Richly detailed prose bring Razia--and New York City--to life alongside provocative feminist themes of agency and freedom; this book and its author are ones to watch.Possible Pairings: Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi, My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante, All the Rage by Courtney Summers, All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong, Frankly in Love by David Yoon

Reviewer: Nish Thaver
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: The ending came too fast and wasn’t developed enough … but the story was endearing. Felt good to read about and see queer brown love in print.