-
We Have Always Been Here
- A Queer Muslim Memoir
- Narrated by: Parmida Vand
- Length: 5 hrs and 14 mins
- Categories: Biographies & Memoirs, Women
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $26.53
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
From the Ashes
- My Story of Being Métis, Homeless, and Finding My Way
- By: Jesse Thistle
- Narrated by: Jesse Thistle
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this extraordinary and inspiring debut memoir, Jesse Thistle, once a high-school dropout and now a rising Indigenous scholar, chronicles his life on the streets and how he overcame trauma and addiction to discover the truth about who he is. Abandoned by his parents as a toddler, Jesse Thistle briefly found himself in the foster-care system with his two brothers, cut off from all they had known. Eventually, the children landed in the home of their paternal grandparents, whose tough-love attitudes quickly resulted in conflicts.
-
-
Poverty, addiction, oppression and overcoming it!
- By herardo_olibarria on 11-13-20
By: Jesse Thistle
-
Real Queer America
- LGBT Stories from Red States
- By: Samantha Allen
- Narrated by: Samantha Allen
- Length: 7 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Real Queer America, Samantha Allen takes us on a cross-country road-trip stretching all the way from Provo, Utah to the Rio Grande Valley to the Bible Belt to the Deep South. Her motto for the trip: "Something gay every day." Making pit stops at drag shows, political rallies, and hubs of queer life across the heartland, she introduces us to scores of extraordinary LGBT people working for change, from the first openly transgender mayor in Texas history to the manager of the only queer night club in Bloomington, Indiana, and many more.
-
-
Shout-out to a queer hero for an excellent job!
- By dupuytren on 01-26-20
By: Samantha Allen
-
Son of a Trickster
- By: Eden Robinson
- Narrated by: Jason Ryll
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everyone knows a guy like Jared: the burnout kid in high school who sells weed cookies and has a scary mom who's often wasted and wielding some kind of weapon. Jared does smoke and drink too much, and he does make the best cookies in town, and his mom is a mess, but he's also a kid who has an immense capacity for compassion and an impulse to watch over people more than twice his age, and he can't rely on anyone for consistent love and support, except for his flatulent pit bull, Baby Killer (he calls her Baby) - and now she's dead.
-
-
eden robinson writes truth in fiction
- By kitty heite on 04-08-21
By: Eden Robinson
-
In the Dream House
- A Memoir
- By: Carmen Maria Machado
- Narrated by: Carmen Maria Machado
- Length: 5 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the Dream House is Carmen Maria Machado's engrossing and wildly innovative account of a relationship gone bad, and a bold dissection of the mechanisms and cultural representations of psychological abuse. Tracing the full arc of a harrowing relationship with a charismatic but volatile woman, Machado struggles to make sense of how what happened to her shaped the person she was becoming. And it's that struggle that gives the book its original structure: each chapter is driven by its own narrative trope - the haunted house, erotica, the bildungsroman....
-
-
Devastatingly Beautiful
- By SeattleBookLover on 02-04-20
-
Vox
- By: Christina Dalcher
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the day the government decrees that women are no longer allowed more than 100 words daily, Dr. Jean McClellan is in denial. This can't happen here. Not in America. Not to her. This is just the beginning. Soon women are not permitted to hold jobs. Girls are no longer taught to read or write. Females no longer have a voice. Before, the average person spoke 16,000 words a day, but now women only have 100 to make themselves heard. But this is not the end. For herself, her daughter, and every woman silenced, Jean will reclaim her voice.
-
-
Please ignore the negative reviews.
- By Amanda W. on 09-05-18
-
How We Fight for Our Lives
- By: Saeed Jones
- Narrated by: Saeed Jones
- Length: 5 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From award-winning poet Saeed Jones, How We Fight for Our Lives is a stunning coming-of-age memoir written at the crossroads of sex, race, and power. Blending poetry and prose, Jones has developed a style that is equal parts sensual, beautiful, and powerful - a voice that’s by turns a river, a blues, and a nightscape set ablaze. How We Fight for Our Lives is a one-of-a-kind memoir and an audiobook that cements Saeed Jones as an essential writer for our time.
-
-
Spectacular
- By BAGalen on 08-30-20
By: Saeed Jones
-
From the Ashes
- My Story of Being Métis, Homeless, and Finding My Way
- By: Jesse Thistle
- Narrated by: Jesse Thistle
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this extraordinary and inspiring debut memoir, Jesse Thistle, once a high-school dropout and now a rising Indigenous scholar, chronicles his life on the streets and how he overcame trauma and addiction to discover the truth about who he is. Abandoned by his parents as a toddler, Jesse Thistle briefly found himself in the foster-care system with his two brothers, cut off from all they had known. Eventually, the children landed in the home of their paternal grandparents, whose tough-love attitudes quickly resulted in conflicts.
-
-
Poverty, addiction, oppression and overcoming it!
- By herardo_olibarria on 11-13-20
By: Jesse Thistle
-
Real Queer America
- LGBT Stories from Red States
- By: Samantha Allen
- Narrated by: Samantha Allen
- Length: 7 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Real Queer America, Samantha Allen takes us on a cross-country road-trip stretching all the way from Provo, Utah to the Rio Grande Valley to the Bible Belt to the Deep South. Her motto for the trip: "Something gay every day." Making pit stops at drag shows, political rallies, and hubs of queer life across the heartland, she introduces us to scores of extraordinary LGBT people working for change, from the first openly transgender mayor in Texas history to the manager of the only queer night club in Bloomington, Indiana, and many more.
-
-
Shout-out to a queer hero for an excellent job!
- By dupuytren on 01-26-20
By: Samantha Allen
-
Son of a Trickster
- By: Eden Robinson
- Narrated by: Jason Ryll
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everyone knows a guy like Jared: the burnout kid in high school who sells weed cookies and has a scary mom who's often wasted and wielding some kind of weapon. Jared does smoke and drink too much, and he does make the best cookies in town, and his mom is a mess, but he's also a kid who has an immense capacity for compassion and an impulse to watch over people more than twice his age, and he can't rely on anyone for consistent love and support, except for his flatulent pit bull, Baby Killer (he calls her Baby) - and now she's dead.
-
-
eden robinson writes truth in fiction
- By kitty heite on 04-08-21
By: Eden Robinson
-
In the Dream House
- A Memoir
- By: Carmen Maria Machado
- Narrated by: Carmen Maria Machado
- Length: 5 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the Dream House is Carmen Maria Machado's engrossing and wildly innovative account of a relationship gone bad, and a bold dissection of the mechanisms and cultural representations of psychological abuse. Tracing the full arc of a harrowing relationship with a charismatic but volatile woman, Machado struggles to make sense of how what happened to her shaped the person she was becoming. And it's that struggle that gives the book its original structure: each chapter is driven by its own narrative trope - the haunted house, erotica, the bildungsroman....
-
-
Devastatingly Beautiful
- By SeattleBookLover on 02-04-20
-
Vox
- By: Christina Dalcher
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the day the government decrees that women are no longer allowed more than 100 words daily, Dr. Jean McClellan is in denial. This can't happen here. Not in America. Not to her. This is just the beginning. Soon women are not permitted to hold jobs. Girls are no longer taught to read or write. Females no longer have a voice. Before, the average person spoke 16,000 words a day, but now women only have 100 to make themselves heard. But this is not the end. For herself, her daughter, and every woman silenced, Jean will reclaim her voice.
-
-
Please ignore the negative reviews.
- By Amanda W. on 09-05-18
-
How We Fight for Our Lives
- By: Saeed Jones
- Narrated by: Saeed Jones
- Length: 5 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From award-winning poet Saeed Jones, How We Fight for Our Lives is a stunning coming-of-age memoir written at the crossroads of sex, race, and power. Blending poetry and prose, Jones has developed a style that is equal parts sensual, beautiful, and powerful - a voice that’s by turns a river, a blues, and a nightscape set ablaze. How We Fight for Our Lives is a one-of-a-kind memoir and an audiobook that cements Saeed Jones as an essential writer for our time.
-
-
Spectacular
- By BAGalen on 08-30-20
By: Saeed Jones
-
Ace
- What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex
- By: Angela Chen
- Narrated by: Natalie Naudus
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What exactly is sexual attraction and what is it like to go through life not experiencing it? What does asexuality reveal about gender roles, about romance and consent, and the pressures of society? This accessible examination of asexuality shows that the issues that aces face - confusion around sexual activity, the intersection of sexuality and identity, navigating different needs in relationships - are the same conflicts that nearly all of us will experience.
-
-
Thank you, Angela!
- By akaMike on 10-10-20
By: Angela Chen
-
Save Yourself
- Memoir
- By: Cameron Esposito
- Narrated by: Cameron Esposito
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Save Yourself is full of funny and insightful recollections about everything from coming out (at a Catholic college where sexual orientation wasn't in the nondiscrimination policy) to how joining the circus can help you become a better comic (so much nudity) to accepting yourself for who you are-even if you're, say, a bowl cut-sporting, bespectacled, gender-nonconforming child with an eye patch (which Cameron was).
-
-
Beautiful, Relatable, Inspiring
- By Meagan on 10-15-20
By: Cameron Esposito
-
A Queer History of the United States
- By: Michael Bronski
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Queer History of the United States abounds with startling examples of unknown or often ignored aspects of American history - the ineffectiveness of sodomy laws in the colonies, the impact of new technologies on LGBT life in the 19th century, and how rock music and popular culture were, in large part, responsible for the devastating backlash against gay rights in the late 1970s. Bronski documents how, over centuries, various incarnations of social purity movements have consistently attempted to regulate all sexuality, including fantasies, masturbation, and queer sex.
-
-
Good read, misleading title
- By Morgan on 11-13-19
By: Michael Bronski
-
Sissy
- A Coming-of-Gender Story
- By: Jacob Tobia
- Narrated by: Jacob Tobia
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a young child in North Carolina, Jacob Tobia wasn't the wrong gender, they just had too much of the stuff. Barbies? Yes. Playing with bugs? Absolutely. Getting muddy? Please. Princess dresses? You betcha. Jacob wanted it all, but because they were "a boy", they were told they could only have the masculine half. Acting feminine labelled them "a sissy" and brought social isolation. It took Jacob years to discover that being "a sissy" isn't something to be ashamed of. It's a source of pride.
-
-
Surprised!
- By Amazon Customer on 03-30-19
By: Jacob Tobia
-
Gods of Jade and Shadow
- By: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
- Narrated by: Yetta Gottesman
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Jazz Age is in full swing, but Casiopea Tun is too busy cleaning the floors of her wealthy grandfather’s house to listen to any fast tunes. Nevertheless, she dreams of a life far from her dusty small town in southern Mexico. A life she can call her own. Yet this new life seems as distant as the stars, until the day she finds a curious wooden box in her grandfather’s room. She opens it - and accidentally frees the spirit of the Mayan god of death, who requests her help in recovering his throne from his treacherous brother.
-
-
Room for improvement
- By Jacuna on 08-13-19
-
Pleasure Activism
- The Politics of Feeling Good (Emergent Strategy)
- By: Adrienne Maree Brown
- Narrated by: Adrienne Maree Brown
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How do we make social justice the most pleasurable human experience? How can we awaken within ourselves desires that make it impossible to settle for anything less than a fulfilling life? Author and editor Adrienne Maree Brown finds the answer in something she calls “pleasure activism,” a politics of healing and happiness that explodes the dour myth that changing the world is just another form of work. Drawing on the black feminist tradition, she challenges us to rethink the ground rules of activism.
-
-
This book is worth so much to me ❤️
- By Kristina Kelly on 11-10-20
-
Unapologetic
- A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements
- By: Charlene Carruthers
- Narrated by: Charlene Carruthers
- Length: 5 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawing on Black intellectual and grassroots organizing traditions, including the Haitian Revolution, the US civil rights movement, and LGBTQ rights and feminist movements, Unapologetic challenges all of us engaged in the social justice struggle to make the movement for Black liberation more radical, more queer, and more feminist. This audiobook provides a vision for how social justice movements can become sharper and more effective through principled struggle, healing justice, and leadership development.
-
-
you should read this
- By Alida Cardos Whaley on 04-12-19
-
The Vanishing Half
- A Novel
- By: Brit Bennett
- Narrated by: Shayna Small
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, Southern Black community and running away at age 16, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: Their families, their communities, their racial identities. Many years later, one sister lives with her Black daughter in the same Southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for White, and her White husband knows nothing of her past.
-
-
Soap opera material
- By Sheila S on 06-06-20
By: Brit Bennett
-
You Exist Too Much
- A Novel
- By: Zaina Arafat
- Narrated by: Zehra Jane Naqvi
- Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a hot day in Bethlehem, a 12-year-old Palestinian-American girl is yelled at by a group of men outside the Church of the Nativity. She has exposed her legs in a biblical city, an act they deem forbidden, and their judgement will echo on through her adolescence. When our narrator finally admits to her mother that she is queer, her mother's response only intensifies a sense of shame: "You exist too much," she tells her daughter. Told in vignettes that flash between the US and the Middle East, we trace her progress from blushing teen to sought-after DJ and aspiring writer.
-
-
Narrator is distractingly bad
- By K. Tannous on 09-11-20
By: Zaina Arafat
-
Queer Brown Voices
- Personal Narratives of Latina/o LGBT Activism
- By: Uriel Quesada - editor, Letitia Gomez - editor, Salvador Vidal-Ortiz - editor
- Narrated by: Ozzie Rodriguez, Marisa Blake, Kyla Garcia, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the last three decades of the 20th century, LGBT Latinas/os faced several forms of discrimination. The greater Latino community did not often accept sexual minorities, and the mainstream LGBT movement expected everyone, regardless of their ethnic and racial background, to adhere to a specific set of priorities so as to accommodate a “unified” agenda. To disrupt the cycle of sexism, racism, and homophobia that they experienced, LGBT Latinas/os organized themselves on local, state, and national levels.
By: Uriel Quesada - editor, and others
-
The Book of Pride
- LGBTQ Heroes Who Changed the World
- By: Mason Funk
- Narrated by: Mason Funk, Robin Miles, Eileen Stevens, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Book of Pride captures the true story of the gay rights movement from the 1960s to the present, through richly detailed, stunning interviews with the leaders, activists, and ordinary people who witnessed the movement and made it happen. These individuals fought battles both personal and political, often without the support of family or friends, frequently under the threat of violence and persecution.
-
-
Pure Joy for EVERYONE
- By Micah D on 06-03-19
By: Mason Funk
-
Juliet Takes a Breath
- A Gabby Rivera Novel
- By: Gabby Rivera
- Narrated by: Lillian Claire
- Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Juliet Milagros Palante is leaving the Bronx and headed to Portland, Oregon. She just came out to her family and isn't sure if her mom will ever speak to her again. But Juliet has a plan, sort of, one that's going to help her figure out this whole "Puerto Rican lesbian" thing. She's interning with the author of her favorite book: Harlowe Brisbane, the ultimate authority on feminism, women's bodies, and other gay-sounding stuff. Will Juliet be able to figure out her life over the course of one magical summer? Find out.
-
-
Decent
- By Amazon Customer on 04-25-18
By: Gabby Rivera
Publisher's Summary
National Best Seller
WINNER of Canada Reads 2020
WINNER of the 2020 Lambda Literary Award
Longlisted for the 2020 RBC Taylor Prize
How do you find yourself when the world tells you that you don't exist?
Samra Habib has spent most of her life searching for the safety to be herself. As an Ahmadi Muslim growing up in Pakistan, she faced regular threats from Islamic extremists who believed the small, dynamic sect to be blasphemous. From her parents, she internalized the lesson that revealing her identity could put her in grave danger.
When her family came to Canada as refugees, Samra encountered a whole new host of challenges: Bullies, racism, the threat of poverty, and an arranged marriage. Backed into a corner, her need for a safe space - in which to grow and nurture her creative, feminist spirit - became dire. The men in her life wanted to police her, the women in her life had only shown her the example of pious obedience, and her body was a problem to be solved.
So begins an exploration of faith, art, love, and queer sexuality, a journey that takes her to the far reaches of the globe to uncover a truth that was within her all along. A triumphant memoir of forgiveness and family, both chosen and not, We Have Always Been Here is a rallying cry for anyone who has ever felt out of place and a testament to the power of fearlessly inhabiting one's truest self.
“Gutting and redemptive, We Have Always Been Here is the story of one woman’s path to self-determination against every odd. Habib’s voice is sensual and mesmerizing, her talent fierce and necessary. A transformative reading experience.... Habib’s every word lifts off the page, vital and bright as a match being struck.” (Claudia Dey, author of Heartbreaker)
Critic Reviews
“I fell in love with this book. We Have Always Been Here is more than one person’s memoir; it’s a record of who and what we are as a people living in a time of great migrations, of cultures bumping into cultures, of politics of exclusions. In prose as economical, crisp, clear, and truthful as poetry, Samra Habib offers a map of how we might - each and every one of us - learn to see and treasure one another and ourselves. In this way it calls to mind the works of James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, and Jane Rule. I predict that this book will never go out of print - it will become required and desired reading for people of all ages, persuasions, and backgrounds. How I wish I had had it to keep close to my heart when I was younger.” (Shani Mootoo, author of Cereus Blooms at Night)
“A remarkable and unfolding meditation on self-discovery. Habib's voice is warm, honest, and spiritual. I could not put down this drama of crossing borders, both external and interior, that teaches us to look into ourselves more deeply and to see others with more empathy. This book is a gift in a historical moment of many struggles, and we are lucky to share Habib’s generous and courageous story. I will be giving everyone I know this book!” (Kim Echlin, author of The Disappeared)
“A memoir of coming of age and coming out told in rich detail. Samra Habib’s account of growing up queer and Muslim in Pakistan and Canada is at once searching and tender. Weaving together the threads of her family history with her sexuality, faith, and culture, Habib speaks for a community that has often been muted, but writes with a voice and style that is all her own.” (Rachel Giese, author of Boys: What It Means to Become a Man)
"A poignantly told memoir about a life fiercely lived.... Religious and secular readers alike will be touched by the way Habib's faith has been strengthened, rather than undermined, by Islamophobia as well as by the compassion and candor with which she examines her complex filial relationships." (Kirkus Reviews)
More from the same
Author
Narrator
What listeners say about We Have Always Been Here
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Evan
- 03-31-21
Required reading for Queers and Allies
This memoir was absolutely excellent. The story is well written and weaves through the many elements of Samra’s identity. It is also incredibly relevant and important during this time as western civilization faces a fresh wave of Islamophobia.
The narrator did an excellent job as well and the story moves at a crisp yet engaging pace.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Linda H.
- 03-28-21
Blessed to have read this book
I had to read this book for class but I am so very glad I did. It is a very enlightening and touching book that reaches not only to your heart but your mind.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Catriona Sofi
- 12-14-20
Beautiful story about Queer and Muslim intersectio
I loved this book! As a Queer Muslima, I'm hoping many more books like this are published in the future.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Shrewsie Shrew
- 12-08-20
Engaging memoir
I enjoyed listening to this memoir, the author is about my age and has lived a very different life from mine. Firstly this is a focused memoir, it's not about her entire life, it's about her immigration to Canada from Pakistan as a child, finding her queer identity, and rectifying that with her Muslim identity. She wrote the book after her photo portraits of queer Muslims were exhibited and garnered acclaim, as she realized that young queer Muslims might see her as a role model. I think this book is for everyone though. I was interested in her relationship with her mother-- healing that relationship after its many hurdles felt very familiar to me even from far outside of her specific experience. The narrator is excellent, and I enjoyed listening to this book. If you're looking for a similar memoir, All Boys Aren't Blue by George Johnson is about growing up Black and gay in the US.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Maria Fernandez
- 09-24-20
Eye opening!
I think this should be a required read for everyone, very well written and giving voice to an unknown world for me.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 01-31-20
A great perspective
Nice to shed light on something that I did not consider much of prior. Nice to hear a voice and point of view from a specific minority.