Has any well-informed person not heard of Ayaan Hirsi Ali? She is the scholar and activist who was to receive an honorary degree from Brandeis this year, but whose offer was rescinded after protests by student groups and CAIR.She's a brave and outspoken advocate for women's rights, particularly when it comes to female castration, honor killings, and forced marriages justified by Islam. Infidel is her story from war-torn Somalia to the American Enterprise Institute in DC, and it is amazing.
This is an amazing book by an amazing woman. As she says herself, how many girl babies born in Somalia in 1969 are even still alive, let alone living the life she has lived for the last 20 years? From Somalia to Saudi Arabia, to Kenya and finally The Netherlands and the United States, she survives all of the hardships in her path, and even thrives. Her dedication to her education and her refusal to be a victim make her a role model for all of us.
She first rose to prominence as a member of the Dutch Parliament, and gained terrible fame when movie maker Theo Van Gogh was brutally murdered - with a note stabbed into his chest indicating that she would be next. An outspoken and brave opponent of the evils of radical Islam, she lives her life seemingly without fear. As she writes in her book, during her childhood in Somalia and Saudi Arabia, anything could kill you - a germ, a flood, the police, even your father or brother. To live in fear is just not in her to do.
Her book is a revelation, and her life is an education to everyone, female or male. She is an amazing woman. I highly recommend her book.
Infidel
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
Monday, June 2, 2014
Admission
I had a hard time initially getting into this novel about Portia Nathan, a dedicated Princeton admissions officer who's life seems to be unraveling around her. I didn't really find Portia that likeable, and she spends way too much time in her own head. But the Korelitz paints of the Ivy League admissions process is interesting, and Portia does become a bit more likeable as she makes her way through her problems.
I don't see how this novel became the movie with Tina Fey and Paul Rudd... I didn't see the movie, I admit, but I didn't particularly see them in the characters. And I have to say the book made me very glad I'm not applying to colleges right now, it seems to much more competitive and crazy than it did when I was applying.
I liked the novel, but I admit to doing a lot of skimming through Portia's more tortured inner monologs.
Admission
I don't see how this novel became the movie with Tina Fey and Paul Rudd... I didn't see the movie, I admit, but I didn't particularly see them in the characters. And I have to say the book made me very glad I'm not applying to colleges right now, it seems to much more competitive and crazy than it did when I was applying.
I liked the novel, but I admit to doing a lot of skimming through Portia's more tortured inner monologs.
Admission
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Once Upon a Time There was You
This is a sweet novel about a divorced couple finding their way, and refining their relationship, after their daughter's traumatic experience. It was a quick read with very realistic situations and characters.
John and Irene got married late - they were 36-years-old - and both had doubts going in. Fast-forward 20 years, and they're divorced and living in separate cities, he in Minneapolis, she in San Francisco. The one thing they share is their beloved 18-year-old daughter Sadie. When Sadie runs into some trouble, John flies to San Francisco to be with Irene.
I really like John and Sadie, but found Irene kind of annoying (though I think that added to the believability of the books/characters). Elizabeth Berg is an author I read regularly, and this book was one of her best. Just a nice, enjoyable story.
Once Upon a Time There was You
John and Irene got married late - they were 36-years-old - and both had doubts going in. Fast-forward 20 years, and they're divorced and living in separate cities, he in Minneapolis, she in San Francisco. The one thing they share is their beloved 18-year-old daughter Sadie. When Sadie runs into some trouble, John flies to San Francisco to be with Irene.
I really like John and Sadie, but found Irene kind of annoying (though I think that added to the believability of the books/characters). Elizabeth Berg is an author I read regularly, and this book was one of her best. Just a nice, enjoyable story.
Once Upon a Time There was You
Monday, May 5, 2014
Shadow Spell
For the 3 of you who follow this blog, you know I have a love/hate relationship with Nora Roberts. She's like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. You know they're bad for you and you're going to regret having them moments after you scarf them down, but you just can't resist them. That's the way her books are for me, especially the trilogies, especially the mystical realism trilogies. So I scarfed down Shadow Spell in like two days, and I feel so guilty.
This is the second book in the Cousins O'Dwyer trilogy, where the Irish witches have to destroy the evil sorcerer Cabhan to fulfill their destiny. Of course they can't defeat him in this book, otherwise why have a third one? But in this book we focus on the relationship between long-time friends Connor and Meara, who find their relationship changing from friends to lovers.
I love the characters, I love the very "Irishness" of everything, and of course I'll be back for the third book to find out what happens with Branna and Fin and how they vanquish Cabhan. But I'll still be ashamed about it.
Shadow Spell
This is the second book in the Cousins O'Dwyer trilogy, where the Irish witches have to destroy the evil sorcerer Cabhan to fulfill their destiny. Of course they can't defeat him in this book, otherwise why have a third one? But in this book we focus on the relationship between long-time friends Connor and Meara, who find their relationship changing from friends to lovers.
I love the characters, I love the very "Irishness" of everything, and of course I'll be back for the third book to find out what happens with Branna and Fin and how they vanquish Cabhan. But I'll still be ashamed about it.
Shadow Spell
Monday, April 28, 2014
On Such a Full Sea
I've never read anything by Chang-Rae Lee before, but this book was highly-rated and looked interesting, so I got the ebook from the library. After having read the book, I'm honestly still not quite sure what I think about it.
The novel is set in a distant future where everyone either lives in "facilities," "charters," or "open counties." The facilities are specialized highly-regimented (but not horrible) working towns that provide high-end goods for the lucky wealthy who live in the charters. The open counties are wild areas where the government has pretty much given up and you pretty much take your life in your hands. The story focuses on Fan, a young woman who raises fish in the B-Mor facility, which was once Baltimore, and her boyfriend Reg, who raises plants there. When Reg suddenly disappears, Fan leaves the safety of B-Mor to take her chances in the counties, hoping to find him.
Lee does a wonderfully detailed job creating his future world, and he uses an odd technique of having the story told by a nameless, faceless, but still interested third party, almost like a descendant of Fan's passing on a piece of family lore to the next generation (which makes for an interesting experience for the reader, because the narrator tells a lot of things that he doesn't actually witness). But the characters were disappointingly one-dimensional to me, and I never really felt a connection with Fan (and Reg was totally flat).
I have a sense that there is something larger here, that I need to think more about the story before forming my final opinion. There are a lot of layers, and different ways of reading things. This was definitely one of the most intriguing novels I've read in a while, and that's certainly worth something.
On Such a Full Sea
The novel is set in a distant future where everyone either lives in "facilities," "charters," or "open counties." The facilities are specialized highly-regimented (but not horrible) working towns that provide high-end goods for the lucky wealthy who live in the charters. The open counties are wild areas where the government has pretty much given up and you pretty much take your life in your hands. The story focuses on Fan, a young woman who raises fish in the B-Mor facility, which was once Baltimore, and her boyfriend Reg, who raises plants there. When Reg suddenly disappears, Fan leaves the safety of B-Mor to take her chances in the counties, hoping to find him.
Lee does a wonderfully detailed job creating his future world, and he uses an odd technique of having the story told by a nameless, faceless, but still interested third party, almost like a descendant of Fan's passing on a piece of family lore to the next generation (which makes for an interesting experience for the reader, because the narrator tells a lot of things that he doesn't actually witness). But the characters were disappointingly one-dimensional to me, and I never really felt a connection with Fan (and Reg was totally flat).
I have a sense that there is something larger here, that I need to think more about the story before forming my final opinion. There are a lot of layers, and different ways of reading things. This was definitely one of the most intriguing novels I've read in a while, and that's certainly worth something.
On Such a Full Sea
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Where Nobody Knows Your Name
This is John Feinstein's latest book, and it's a must-read if you're a baseball fan(atic). Feinstein basically spends one season in the Triple-A International League, chronicling the highs and lows of life as a player, manager, and umpire in the highest of the minor leagues of baseball.
This is one of those books that I kept marking passages in to read to my husband. Feinstein is a great storyteller who is given a lot of access, and he uses that combination to share some funny, amazing, and heart-wrenching real stories about people both whom you've heard of and of whom you will never hear. He focuses mostly on 3 or 4 teams and a dozen or so people who are either on their way up or on their way down (that's pretty much the way it is in AAA, nobody wants to stay there). But he also shares great stories of baseball lore, like what Tommy Lasorda had to say about Bobby Valentine when he managed him in the Dodgers farm system (the book is worth the read for that story alone).
I learned a lot of things from the book that I didn't know about all the movement in baseball if you're not a "hot prospect" or signed to a multiyear contract, and read some really great baseball stories. I highly recommend this book for any fan of the game.
Where Nobody Knows Your Name
This is one of those books that I kept marking passages in to read to my husband. Feinstein is a great storyteller who is given a lot of access, and he uses that combination to share some funny, amazing, and heart-wrenching real stories about people both whom you've heard of and of whom you will never hear. He focuses mostly on 3 or 4 teams and a dozen or so people who are either on their way up or on their way down (that's pretty much the way it is in AAA, nobody wants to stay there). But he also shares great stories of baseball lore, like what Tommy Lasorda had to say about Bobby Valentine when he managed him in the Dodgers farm system (the book is worth the read for that story alone).
I learned a lot of things from the book that I didn't know about all the movement in baseball if you're not a "hot prospect" or signed to a multiyear contract, and read some really great baseball stories. I highly recommend this book for any fan of the game.
Where Nobody Knows Your Name
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
TWO Books I just read!
So I just got back from Las Vegas, and in the course of my travels I read two novels. The first, That Part Was True by Deborah McKinlay, I finished on the plane ride there. The second, The Ashford Affair by Lauren Willig, I started before I left and finished on the way home. Both books were great, different, but very enjoyable.
That Part Was True is the story of a correspondence that grows to be a friendship, between two people who don't actually meet during the course of the story. Jackson Cooper is a novelist living in the Hamptons, and Eve Petworth is a lonely, well-off British woman living in the English countryside. Eve enjoys one of Jack's novels so much that she decides to write him a letter, and so begins a correspondence that turns into a deep and caring friendship. I really like these characters, and their interactions through snail-mail and e-mail are interesting and engaging. This is just a really sweet book, and the end is just lovely.
The Ashford Affair is two connected stories in different times and places. In the early 20th century, Addie Gillecote is orphaned and goes to live with her aunt and uncle and cousins, and she and cousin Bea develop a special friendship. At the turn of the 21st century, Clementine Evans' Granny Addie dies at the age of 99, and a family secret finally comes to light. Alternating between Addie's point of view in the past, and Clemmie's point of view in the present, Willig presents an intriguing story of love, betrayal, and what it means to be family. This was a real page-turner.
That Part Was True
The Ashford Affair
That Part Was True is the story of a correspondence that grows to be a friendship, between two people who don't actually meet during the course of the story. Jackson Cooper is a novelist living in the Hamptons, and Eve Petworth is a lonely, well-off British woman living in the English countryside. Eve enjoys one of Jack's novels so much that she decides to write him a letter, and so begins a correspondence that turns into a deep and caring friendship. I really like these characters, and their interactions through snail-mail and e-mail are interesting and engaging. This is just a really sweet book, and the end is just lovely.
The Ashford Affair is two connected stories in different times and places. In the early 20th century, Addie Gillecote is orphaned and goes to live with her aunt and uncle and cousins, and she and cousin Bea develop a special friendship. At the turn of the 21st century, Clementine Evans' Granny Addie dies at the age of 99, and a family secret finally comes to light. Alternating between Addie's point of view in the past, and Clemmie's point of view in the present, Willig presents an intriguing story of love, betrayal, and what it means to be family. This was a real page-turner.
That Part Was True
The Ashford Affair
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