by Azadeh Moaveni

I have to admit, this book is not what I thought it was going to be. I have to admit, I did not like it at first. I have to admit, I have since changed my mind and am now considering not allowing it into the PC-Ecuador book trade, for fear that I might not get it back again...

So what did I think it was going to be? Well, given the title, I thought it was going to be some glamourous tale about a woman who moves to Iran, fights against the system to wear her lipstick (and wear it proud!) and tells us the stories of all of her glamourous Iranian friends that are doing the same thing. I thought it would be a beautiful story of middle eastern women coming together, taking on the regime, and fighting for their right to be women.

Okay, so I am an idiot, but thats what I thought. What I got instead was a historical-biography-turned-accidental-memoir about and Iranian-American who never felt quite Iranian nor quite American. Yes, there were parts about struggling with the veil. Yes, there were parts about underground efforts to let the fashion out. But no, its not glamourous, and in reading it, I think part of what I learned is that expecting something to be exotic and exciting just because of the region that it comes from and your assumptions on that region is just a silly expectation to have (ugh, I disgust myself with my use of the word "exotic" but it fits...). Yeah, I got a bit bored when the text slipped away from "memoir" and into "Times article," but the bulk of the book was well worth it.

I told a friend here that this book is like a PCV memoir minus the PCV, plus the open critique of the host country government. For anyone interested in Iran or the middle east in general, you should read this book. For anyone in the midst of an identity crisis, you should read this book. (Therefore, I should read this book; therefore, I loved this book).

By Anne Fadiman

This is a book about a lot of things, and for that reason it’s a bit difficult to follow. The title misleads you into thinking that its about a Hmong girl in the States with epilepsy and the struggle between her family’s traditions and her doctors’ traditions…but really only about 50% of the book is directly about that. The rest of it is the back-story, the side-story, a (at time exhaustive) tale about Hmong history, their coming to the States, the struggles they face.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a really good book. For me, though, it was a book that I had to really push myself to finish…it was a stuggle. I am not a history buff and I do not pretend to be, so the chapters about ancient Hmong migration and the Vietnam war—those got to be a bit much for me. Even what I normally would enjoy, the study of a “culture clash” and how it relates to the protection and care of children in the United States, even that part got a bit much for me with the incessant footnotes and the author’s seemingly obssessive quest to show all details of all sides involved.

At the end of the day, it’s a good book. At the end of the book, you will find yourself asking, So who was right? And, if you ask me, the answer is: nobody was.

(oh, and ps: sorry Professor Martin, when I said in HBSE class that I read this book, I was lying...please fogive me...)

by Elyn Saks

I chose to read this book at perhaps not the best time…the day that I believe I had the first panic attack of my life (which I tell you, was a very frightening experience). I thought maybe reading a book about a woman with schizophrenia would make me feel better. I don’t know that it did, but I did enjoy the book quite a bit!

It’s a memoir about a woman born into a perfectly normal family, who turns out to be very smart, in fact she is probably a genius I would guess. Trouble is she is VERY schizophrenic (well, I don’t know that you can be a little schizophrenic, but either way…). As it goes with many people, in my experience, with a mental disorder, she struggles for several years before admitting that there is something seriously wrong. She gets these thoughts (not hearing a voice, its her own voice but she knows the thought is not her own) that tell her that she is evil and bad and must be punished because she has killed millions of people with her mind. Then she starts babbling in a sort of nonsensical way, but if you really listen you and knew her, you could sort of read through what she was trying to say. She never does hurt anyone, but these thoughts and babbling (and the occasional visual hallucination) wind her up in psych hospitals many times over and in several years of therapy and on serious levels of some serious medications. And she resists it all the time—sorta like a drug addict that doesn’t want to admit there is a problem and truly believes if they just try hard enough they can stop. How scary must that have been?

The twist is that because she is so wicked smart, she ends up studying law as it relates to the rights of people with mental disorders. Its really interesting to see how her colleagues and professors treat her because they believe she is “normal,” they think she believes physically restraining patients to beds is wrong because it looks bad, they don’t know that she knows how it feels to be in a completely psychotic state, scared further by strange nurses latching her arms and legs to a bed and covering her with a net.

An interesting read on many levels. But scary in its upfront-ness to the reality of psychosis as well as what people who are not psychotic do to people who are.

by Nadhid Rachlin

A friend of mine asked me what this book is about, I think my answer was about 20 minutes long. Its about a lot of things. It’s about a girl who was born and raised in Iran, born to her mother and raised by her aunt (who she considers her mother) because her aunt couldn’t have children and her mother had plenty. She is raised by her very religious, very traditional widowed aunt until one day when she is 9 and her biological father comes to her school at recess and takes her away to her “real” family. She hates living there, and the only saving grace is her sister, Pari. Pari loves American cinema and wants to be an actress but cannot because in Iran that’s basically the same thing as aspiring to be a whore. Nahid, the author, wants to study in an American university and wants to be a writer.

Its about being raised in a family that you do not consider to be your own, its about sibling rivalry and being treated as less-than because you were born as a daughter rather than a son. Its about what it was like growing up in a ever-more-conservative-Iran for these two non-traditional young women. Its about courting rituals in Iran and how the sister ends up in an arranged marriage. Its about the author worrying her father so much by her constant reading of banned Western books and anti-government newspapers that he actually allows her to leave and study in the States. Its about an Iranian immigrant in the States in the early 1980s, and how ignorant Americans made her feel totally alone and forced her into being more different than she really was from them. Its about how once she was away from Iran, she became consumed with thinking about her homeland, consumed with worry for her sister who was spiraling downwards in failed marriages in a still-more-conservative-Iran. Its about what happens when she goes back home. Its about what happens after she gets late-night-call that her sister is dead. Its about why her sister died.

Its about a lot of things. Just read it; I bet for you it will be about something different than it was for me.

by David Sedaris

I tried to read one of this author’s previous memoirs (Naked…that’s the name of the book, I had my clothes on while reading) but just couldn’t get into it. Not so with Me Talk Pretty One Day, I LOVED this book. Its not really about anything, but then again, it doesn’t claim to be, so that makes it okay. It’s a series of stories about the author and his family and growing up. Every story about his father is HILARIOUS, and you should read the book just for that.

Part Duex of the book is about his life after he moves with his boyfriend to Paris, France. I would suggest Part Duex of this book as required reading for anyone who has spent (or is spending) an extended period of time living abroad. Though I doubt that France is much like Ecuador, I could totally relate to the author and his trying to remember nouns as masculine or feminine, his love of wearing headphones in public because it makes it so that people don’t talk to him, and the amount of time he spends going to movies in English instead of tourist destinations. At a time when I have had it up to my ears with Ecuador, this book really gave me some perspective and made me smile. And spit up my coffee through my nose…

by Dorothy Allred Solomon

I actually started this book before I started My Horizontal Life, but this book does not make for a good beach read, so I took a break from it and then came back later to finish. Daughter of the Saints is a memoir about a woman who is the 28^th of her fathers 48 children, all born to a Mormon Plural Marriage between her father, her mother and 6 other “sister-wives.”

Its an interesting read, though it gets really dry at times and I really had to push myself through Part I (the history of her family starting with her great-grandparents). A friend of mine asked as I was reading this book, “How could he take care and provide for all those children?” The answer is, he didn’t. Read the book and find out more. The author ends up not living Plural Marriage and is thus considered a traitor to her fundamentalist Mormon group (and then rubbed salt in the wound by writing two books about it).

What really gets me about this book is the lack of research. I mean, you really shouldn’t have to do research to write a book about your own life, but if you are going to extend your memoir into the genre of “autobiography,” then you need to do some digging to really understand the motives of your ancestors. The difficult part for the author is that she is estranged from the group she is writing about, so I assume folks didn’t want to talk to her. This results in the words “maybe” and “perhaps” being used WAY too often, and in the author tossing in her personal reflections and hindsight about various issues. Besides that, the author’s personal story is not all that interesting, as it would happen, the interesting stuff happened to her half-siblings, and the real story in this particular marriage is from the wives—none of whom are talking. And one more thing—the original title to this book is Predators, Prey and other Kinfolk, which gives a very different feel than the current title. Also, the author wrote a previous book, In My Father’s House, which in the forward to this current book she claims no longer adequately describes who she feels about her childhood. Finally, there is an opening page where the author states that this is a true story although other peoples’ accounts of the events may differ, but that this is how she sees it. These three things together make it seem like the author is apologizing for what she is about to say before she even gets around to saying it. And she is, because in my opinion, as much as she wants us to believe that this is an expose to her childhood and her father’s wayward ways, when it comes down to it she is still a Daddy’s girl, terrified of disappointing her father. Why then, would I want to read it? Ehhh, but I did anyhow.

Maybe its just the style of the writing, but I just don’t like memoirs that are written in this way, with the author constantly telling you what she thinks other people where thinking, constantly reminding you that she learned from her actions and would do things differently now. Besides that, the author makes it seem that living Plural Marriage is the NUMBER ONE most important thing to her group of Mormons, and I find this an unlikely and unfair assumption. Plus, call me crazy but I don’t see a lot of difference between Plural Marriage and having 7 baby-mammas. At least he was trying to make a commitment to caring for all 7 wives…

by Chealsea Handler

This book was lent to me by a new friend who had just finished reading it, with whom I share the quality of enjoying discussions about sex. My Horizontal Life is an account of one-night-stands by an author who practically does them for a living. She has one-night-stands with all kinds of men, including midgets, and then she writes a book about it to share with the masses.

I was, however, brought back to my feelings about a similar memoir—Round Heeled Woman by Jane Juska. These two authors seem to share the trait of plowing ahead with their dedication to the memoir, despite the fact that reality is too personal for them to really share, and filling-in what is missing with fluff. At least the fluff in this book was interesting and laugh-out-loud funny. It’s a good beach book, in fact, I read it while on vacation at the beach. It’s a fast read, its fun, it is what it is, and it is little more than that.

by Jodi Picoult

This is a fantastic Picoult novel about a dead baby found in an Amish farm. Was the baby murdered? What kind of Amish person kills a newborn baby? Did the mother kill it? The woman who is found to be the mother is an unwed teenager, who insists that its not her baby, that she has never had sex before, and moreover, that she did not kill the child. A lawyer is needed to defend the girl, but Amish people do not become lawyers unless they leave the group, and Amish people do not believe in participating in the English (meaning American) legal system. Luckily the girl has an aunt who left the group, the aunt has a niece by marriage who just happens to be a well known big city lawyer visiting the Amish community at the time the baby is found. The Picoul-ness of storytelling unfolds from there (and the reels of the would-be Lifetime movie play out in my head)

This is a really great book, but not just because it’s a good read and an interesting and gripping story. The thing I found most interesting were all the details about Amish life that were reveled. It really gave you an outsider-allowed-in view of Amish people on a day-to-day basis. In the Q-and-A section at the end, the author discusses how she researched for the novel, and how she was allowed to spend time in an Amish community, wherefrom she gathered such details. I would recommend this book for its study of a subculture just as much as for it being a great novel.

by Jane Juska

A woman reaching her 67^th birthday decides she wants to have “lots of sex with a man she likes.” She puts out a personal add to this effect, the responses come rolling in, and she sets out to decide who the lucky man is. Or men, rather, since she ends up having sex with a handful of men she likes. This is an interesting memoir, but the author seems to have a hard time staying on task. She digresses from the story on several occasions to talk about other parts in her life, including her philosophies on teaching high school and her tactics on teaching writing to prisoners, and of course—detailed accounts of her childhood, how her mother taught her that sex was bad and dirty, and her counseling to get over her resulting complex (as a reader we should practically get paid for reading the book, because her therapist retired and I am pretty sure she wrote the book as a replacement to counseling).

I think the author is trying to say that to her, pleasure can be found in the most random of places: a prisoner telling a good story, a trip to the library, her Freudian counseling sessions. I, however, found these stories to be distracting and wanted her to get back to the sex-search. Details! I want details! But the only time the author got detailed was in her side-stories. When it came to telling the actual story upon which the title is based, she sweeps over the details and becomes easily derailed. You get the feeling that the author decided before hand that she was going to write this book, but then reality got a little to personal for her to share with the masses, so she filled the missing two-thirds of the story with loosely-related anecdotes on whatever sprung to her mind at the time.

My final answer: Ehhhhh. Read it or don’t read it, whatever.

By Khaled Hosseini

I originally thought this book was a follow-up to Kite Runner, but its not. Really the only similar character, besides historical political figures, is an orphanage owner. Still though, this book is beyond good.

Just like Kite Runner, I doubt there is much I can say that has not already been said. This book is the linking story between women in Afghanistan, brought together by the changes in their lives. Its a really interesting look into the life of women in Afghanistan, and its worth reading just for that. But what I really enjoyed about the book were the more detailed historical references, the book teaches you a bit about the history of war in Afghanistan, without getting dry like a history class.

Go read it now. Or read it again if you already have.

By Khaled Hosseini

What can I say about this book that has not already been said? It is fantastic, you need to read it now, if you have not already. Maybe read it again and look for symbolism, read it with a book club, that’s what I really want to do. I don’t tend to like fiction all too much, but this book is an exception. Fiction tends to lead to predictable plot twists in a way that real life does not, and this book is no exception to that, but it doesn’t really take anything away from it.

In case you don’t know: it’s a story about two boys who grow up together in Afghanistan in the 1970s. One is poor, the other is rich. One is a Hazara, the other is Pashtun. One is Shi’a, the other is not (I would assume he is Suni but my knowledge of those things is, admittedly, limited and his father wasn’t religious, so I don’t remember if it was mentioned). One is the servant, the other is, essentially, the master. They are best friends, though if you asked each one separately they would probably describe their friendship in very different terms. It’s a story about what happens when the reality of decades of war rip Afghanistan apart, and what one of the boys does in the end to “be good again.”

It’s a quick read, but in a really good way. The kind of book that makes you stay home, leaving only for food, and coming back quickly. It continues to make me want to go there. I would like to read the other boy’s account of what happened, too. That’s the thing about a good book: it always leaves me wanting more.

By Wade Rouse

This book makes me feel how maybe my (and other peoples’) blogs perhaps make the masses feel. By that I mean that it was probably very therapeutic for the writer to write it. The writer probably thinks, at least on some level, that what happened to him is interesting for the masses to know. The writer probably believes that his story is different than those of the masses.

But is it? (And while we’re at it, Is mine?)…bygones. It’s a memoir about a guy who lives in small town, Midwest USA, and knows from his earliest memories that he was “different.” Osea…gay. He hides it from his family…and its in this hiding that the plot gets lost for me: His family is a bit odd—he dedicates chapters describing each grandparent and his parents (my favorite chapters of the book are about his parents). This leads to a 60-plus page description of the cabin his family goes to each summer. This leads into the story about how his older brother passes away. Peppered throughout is his battle with overeating. Then he goes to college and the story comes back to his coming out battle. Then it all ends happily.

Sorry kids, but the story just didn’t resonate for me. I’m not all that big on my-life-is-interesting-because-I’m-from-a-weird-small-town memoirs. Nor am I big on the coming out memoirs. I guess if I wanted to hear about gay folks from small(ish) Midwestern towns, I would just talk to my friends in the States. A friend of mine here in Ecuador would diagnose the writer with “Terminal Uniqueness” and I would agree.

by Anonymous


By Anonymous? Sounds interesting…I think I saw something about this book on TV, or heard something on the radio (of course while in the States)…Open to the first page, first line reads, “The first thing you should know is that I’m a whore.” Well, first things first. Yes, please. I’m sold.

This is a true story…or at least its said to be, but you can’t very well hold “Anonymous” accountable to what she says the way they did James Frey, you know. Anyhow, I would assume that its true, because why else hide your and your friends identities? Even if its not true, its still a great read. I would echo the words of one reviewer in the book, and tell you that this is not a Pretty Woman sorta story. There are no intimate love scenes on pianos, no prince riding up in a limo with flowers at the end. There is, however, open discussion about fisting, double fisting, and ejaculation on faces. All voluntary, mind you, she does this for a living.

Anyhow, I loved the book. Its also full of really cute side stories and interesting insights into the “type of guy” who calls a call girl. And I consider it a feminist proclamation for a woman to write a book (albeit anonymously) about how she enjoys working hard for the money.

by Anne Lamott

I wanted to like this book, I really did. Its was a gift from a very special lady I am friends with, who is part of a pair of very special ladies (as daughter to a mother, rather than girlfriend to a girlfriend, which is odd given my circle of friends...). I thought, hey its got "traveling" in the title, I like traveling. Maybe she travels, like...with mercy?

Trouble was it wasnt about travel. In fact, I am not really sure what it was about, except for the authors randomly linked thoughts on her faith in her God. She compared herself at one point to being a child at a birthday party, spinning spinning spinning trying to find the donkey on the wall, and for her that donkey is Jesus. Um...I just couldnt relate. The stories about her son were cute, though. I hope he grows up and is allowed to create his faith for himself, just like his mom's or just like his own, whatever works for him.

In the meantime, if you are into random, non-fiction-Alice Walker-esqe (I am sure the author would be complimented by that, but I mean it in that it was hard for me to follow) writings on the Christian faith, pick yourself up a copy.

by Cupcake Brown

Um, yeah, pretty much one of the best books I have ever read.

This is the story of the California Foster Care System gone bad; a child ripped from the only family she´s ever known into the cycle that becomes her life: get abused, run away, do drugs, get caught and sent back, get abused, repeat cycle.

The things that Cupcake Brown saw and did by the time she was 20 years old is more than any human should have to live through. I dont want to ruin the story for you (not like thats really possible, theres just TOO much to tell) but I will tell you that it includes finding her mother dead, rape, prostitution, the Crips gang, and every drug imaginable. And of course, its a true story.

Read the book people, read it now.

by George Crile

I broke my 3 cardinal rules of book reading with this one...

1. I saw the movie first.
2. I went to the bookstore for new books before I finnished.
3. I quit...

Sorry kids, but just see the movie (probably the first and last time you will ever hear me say that). I was only about 100 pages into the book, but even so, I found it to be a bit sensationalized and it used the word "bravado" WAY more than I consider to ever be necessary.

by William Cope Moyers

This is an addiction-recovery memoir that takes you through the authors SEVERAL year struggle with a serious addiction to crack cocaine and alcohol. Its a super good read, but it gets really frustration because it takes you through about 3 or 4 relapses. But thats the way addiction goes, so its real, you know.

The author does eventually get full into recovery and actually ends up working at Hazelden recovery center in MN, which is one of the best recovery facilities in the US and is where James Frey alludes to spending his rehabilitation. (I'm not ruining any of the book that you wouldnt figure out from reading the "about the author" part, so dont worry!).

My favorite part of the book? Despite how frustrated I was with the relapses, I like the way he approached them in the book. It wasnt this big, built up thing that climaxed with his first puff on the crack pipe and falling into the high. Its more plainly stated than that, each time its like he made a decision, he followed that decision, he suffered the consequences. I liked that. Read it.

by Jodi Picoult

This is your typical Jodi P. book, written from the perspective of several main characters and looks into what happens when there is some major rift between members of an otherwise normal American family. This one is about a woman who marries a whale research scientist, has a child with him, and as time moves on realizes that shes not really in love with him.

So she leaves him: thats the rift. Then her and her daughter go on a cross country trip to meet up with her brother, her most trusted advisor. And they end up on an apple farm...and the rest is Jodi P. history.

If you like Jodi, check it out.

by Deborah Rodriguez

This book came to me just when I needed it (for reasons that I will discuss at later dates on my blog I am sure for your reading pleaure...). It might just be one of the best books I have ever read in my life, its one of those change-the-way-you-think books. You must read it.

Its about this lady, Debbie, who decides she wants to go to Afghanistan (pre and post Sept 11, 2001). She starts off feeling useless in her team of care providers, but ends up figuring out that a beautician is just what the women of Kabul, Afghanistan need. Eventually she becomes the director of the Kabul Beauty School where she meets a cast of totally amazing (although depressingly commonplace) women with heartbreaking stories about their normal lives. Things happen in this book that you would hope only happen in the mind of a fictional novel, but its all true. So sad, so true, so life-ingly real.

I was so happy while I read this book, which is why I was confused about how the friend who sent it to me said it was the "saddest book" she had ever read. Then I got to the end, not just the end but the Afterword is what really broke my heart. You just gotta read it to understand. Go read it now.

by Hollis Gillespie

This book is suuuuuper okay. Its a memoir, although its not really about anything in particular. I guess its sort of about the time frame in which the author had her child...I guess maybe it would have made more sense if I had read the pre-quel first. I guess it was okay.

Its randomly stringed together stories remind me of Simpsons episodes because they start off being about one thing and end up being about something totally different. She swears a decent amount, often times unnecessarily in my humble opinon...I guess I just dont get why she thinks the greater public would want to know about the random, common life lessons she learns (I mean, not like I dont do the same thing on this here blog of mine...)

by Jane Hamilton

This is a really fantastic book. It wraps you in like a big 'ol down comforter and you stay in bed all day reading it. Or, in the event that you live in Guayaquil like I do, you wrap yourself up in your flat sheet until it gets too hot, but you still stay in bed all day reading...

Anyhow, its a little hard to describe what this book is about. At first you are going to think that its about the death of a family friend's child...and it is, but its more than that. So if you, like I, get tired of Alice's wallowing in the first third of the book, keep on keeping on because the real plot is right around the corner!

I especially loved it because of the involvement of many of my favorite themes: Wisconsin, prisons and child abuse. Now are you tempted??? I know you are! Get that booty to the library or bookstore immediately!

by M. A. Harper

This is a really wonderful book and you should read it right away. Its a fictional book (but it reads like a memoir) about a woman who makes the decision to care for her aging mother who is falling deeper and deeper into Alzheimers Disease. The narrator becomes really wrapped up in herself, quite self loathing as she waits for recognition from the rest of the world for the good deed she is doing. But its not a negative book at all, really its quite funny.

Its hard to describe, so just trust me and read it. Theres a really great chapter about how worrying feels good because it tricks the mind into thinking that you are making plans. I can relate to that...

by Tom Miller

So basically the last page of this book sums up the question the author set out to answer. On the last page the author tells an American buyer of a Panama Hat (who paid about $35 for the hat) that the original weaver of the hat was paid about 65 cents for her work. I am sure he said it in a way so as to evoke some kind of emotion from the shopper. The response? "Well, thats quite the markup" he said.

This book (loosely) is about the process of getting a Panama Hat onto the head of an American: from the weavers in Ecuador, to the middle man buyer, to the American distributers, to factory workers, to the shops in New York that sell them. Its an interesting story, though not terribly surprizing that the people on the bottom (ie the people who start the process) get exploited from every step above them. What I found more interesting personally were the random little insights on this land I call home in Ecuador. If youre down with Ecuador, youll get down with this book.

Ian McEwan
This is a fictional book about what happens when a young girl convinces herself and everyone else that she saw a family friend raping a family member.

With that description, you would think it would be a gripping, cant put you down kind of book. And sorta it is, but not really. Really I found it way too detailed, way too wordy (I know, this coming from the wordyness queen). But I also really liked it.

It was sad from the get-go, and the ending only leaves you feeling sadder. But its good. Read it, then we can play book-club!

by Jeannette Walls

Yeah, still my favorite book. Such a good book. Go read it now, even if you have already read it, I liked it better this time than the last!

by Tracy Kidder

So now that I finnished the book, I can say for sure that Paul Farmer is not Greg Mortenson. But hey, he's doing good work, too.

This is a book about Paul Farmer, a man who grew up, moved to Haiti and decided he would like to rid the world--and especially the members of a small, rural, more than poor Haitian community--of Multiple-Drug-Resistant Tuburculosis.

I suppose thats a good goal to have. It was slightly (muchly) less interesting for me PERSONALLY to get into than a man who builds schools so that young girls will have a fighting chance. But, my friends here in the Rural Public Health Program sweat them some Paul Farmer. So I admit: hes a good guy (despite the fact that his personality got on my nerves), hes doing good work, the book is worth reading (despite the fact that the writing was not all that good, but whatever).

Check it out, especially if you are into MDR-TB and other Farmer acronymns (you'll understand when you read it).

By Elizabeth Gilbert

So for an author who includes at least three reviews in the print version of her book that call her "self-depreciating," Elizabeth Gilbert sure does like to talk about herself. I guess we all do, I guess thats the basis for my favorite genere of books. Yes--she speaks of herself often in a depreciating manner, but speaking so often of yourself means that you think someone wants to hear, which means that you appreciate yourself....right?

Anyhow, the book... Its a good book. I would recommend it. The first part in Italy and the last part in Indonesia are really good. The middle part in India, well, not so much my cup of tea. I mean, finding your personal relationship with God is just that: very personal. So it seems kinda contradictory to write about it in such an open manner. Besides, its hard to talk about being taken into the "palm of God's hand" without sounding a little kooky in my opinion. But maybe thats just me.

Jump on the bandwagon and read it. I did...everybodys doing it!

by Maya Angelou

Read this book as a quick filler between books. Like a palette cleansing mint ice cream. Honestly, I didnt really like it at first, but it grew on me.

Its basically a random collection of thought by Maya Angelou. Some of them get a bit to psuedo-deep for me, but some of them are really interesting. And man, can this lady come up with some sweet metaphors about life. She said that jealosy in a relationship is like salt in food. A little is good to add flavor, but too much ruins the taste, and in some instances, can be life threatening. Brilliant!

by Michael Moore

What can I say? This book was like reading a Michael Moore movie; and his movies are good so the book was good to.

The most frustrating thing about the book is that its full of all this interesting, angering little facts about our wonderful leader and Commander in Chief, George W. Bush. All these slimmey things that he does, has done, etc. The book was originally released just before the 2004 elections, so the last chapter is all about mobilizing people to get the vote out and get Bush out of office. My friend (who loaned me the book) told me it would be bittersweet to read this, because we all know how that one ended. And that time around he actually won the popular vote, which still baffles me to this day.

Anyhow, my one major critique for the book is that it doesnt stick to one story. The book starts out talking about the Sept. 11 attacks and how they were immediately found to be connected to bin Laden and Al Qaeda; and how it was quickly discovered that the Bush Administration had ignored warnings from the Clinton Administration about Al-Queda. He then goes on to talk about how the Bush family and the Saudi Arabian royal family are basically best buds. Then he asks why, since 14 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers were Saudis, we do not blame Saudi Arabia for the attacks, rather than bin Laden who was appearantly on dialisis for kidney failure in some cave in Afghanistan at the time. He also argues that the Saudi royal family has connections to the bin Laden family and bin Laden himself (seeing how bin Laden is also from Saudi Arabia, although I believe he was exiled from there). He screams (in print) that its ridiculous to blame bin Laden for masterminding this, and that the only reason we do is because Bush told us to, in an attempt to take attention of his close family friends, the Saudi royal family. Then the rest of the book basically goes back to the original blame-bin Laden stance, and slides just as smoothly as Bush did into switching track and talking about war in Iraq.

Moore presents several questions for Bush in the book (which again, I stress, is a great book and you should read it if you dont mind getting angery about the past). I then, have some questions for Moore: What is this book about? Is it about bin Laden and how he and Al Queda were behind 9/11? Is it about Saudi Arabia and how they are behind 9/11, and how we ignored it because of Bush's connections to them? Or is it about the war in Iraq? Because honestly, to string the three together in so few pages feels dangerously familiar to me...

By Sara Gruen

Its a book about people in the circus during the Depression Era.

I know, when I was given that description, I also thought, "Blech. No gracias." But I recognized the title so that made me want to read it. So I did...AND I LOVED IT.

Really its a love story about this young kid who "runs away" with the circus and falls in love with a woman he cannot have. Its filled with all these crazy tales about life in the circus, like showing a hippo in fermaldahyde (please dont judge my spelling...you get the drift right?). Its super funny, like the kind of book that you read on the bus and people look at you funny because you are laughing to yourself.

Its fantastic. Go get it now and read it.

by Greg Mortenson

Go to the store now and get this book.

Its the story of this guy who decides that he wants to climb this mountain, but he fails and ends up wandering into some random village in Pakistan. Then he finds out they dont have a school, so he decides to build them one. Then he finds out lots of kids in Pakistan dont have schools, so he decides to build schools for them too. Then September 11th happens, and instead of running away, he decides to start building schools in Afghanistan, too.

When I grow up, I wanna be Greg Mortenson.

by Jodi Picoult

I cheated...I started a new book before I was done with the one I was already reading! I couldnt help it, my mom send me a Jodi Picoult and I couldnt resist!

Vanishing Acts is a super good book. Its written in the style like My Sister's Keeper (although I am pretty sure that this book was written first) with the narrator changing in each chapter. Its about a girl who was kidnapped by her father, doesnt find out until she is in her 30s, and the criminal court case that follows.

Its a very Jodi Picoult book: its ridden with foreshadowing, the characters ask themselves retorical questions to make sure you are getting the point, it examines what happens when seemingly normal families get messed up, it took me about 3 days to read. It also describes in detail how to make crystal meth...but you will just have to read it to figure that one out.

Five Stars! And now back to 100 Years...(which I swear is a good book, its just kinda long and heavy...)

by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Not so much reading anymore, as I am passing it often and sighing a deep sigh of regret that I am not a smarter, more patient person with the will to keep reading...
Officially added to my mental list of Books to Finnish.

by Alice Walker

Got this book as a gift from a totally rad lady in Minnesota that I met here in Ecuador. I really didnt know what to expect, but I thought, hey--say yes more.

Alice Walker is quite the character. I think it would be hard to be Ms. Walker, because she does not seem to think in a straight line. The book offers lots of insights on lots of things, but for me, it was hard to read because nothing is really connected to anything else. She jumps from talking about an article on sexual abuse in Native Canadian Boarding Schools, to how it made her cry, so she meditated, and for that: yoga is good. What? There is also a long excerpt about eating a peach with a child as a way to explore the wonders that are the senses of the human body and the fruits of out mother earth.

She did have some interesting things to say about Fidel Casto and the Cuban Revolution; but it was not cool when she dissed Hustle and Flow's "Hard out there for a Pimp" winning the Grammy: if censorship of violence in communities is bad, its always bad, whether its a cause you find worthy or not.

by Barbra Ehrenreich

Follow up to one of the best books ever written, Nickled and Dimed, which gave me a new found respect for workers at Target and Applebees; this book is about the unemployed white collar worker world. Its a quick read, super intersting.

Going in, I felt like maybe I would have some framework for what this book was about, but I think I was wrong. I think I dont really know what "corporate America" means...if you understand that term, please enlighten me...

Its a good book, yeah, but it doesnt hold a candle to Nickled and Dimed, in my opinion. First of all, she doesnt seem to give it her all in this book. She stays living in her house, using her internet access that she pays for from her bank account, she spends about $6000 of her own money on her jobsearch (coaches, seminars, plane tickets, hotel stays, etc) and she takes a one month break to work her "real job." It was good, but it was frustrating. I wanted to really understand what its like in this elusive "corporate America" but I think I came out more confused than I went in.

If you are looking for a witty account of what its like to apply to lots of jobs on internet postboards, attend lots of networking workshops and rewrite your resume with the assitance of a $100/hour career coach, this is your book. If you want to know what its like to work (outside of the work of the jobhunt) in corporate America, look elsewhere.

by, Franz Wisner

I got this book because the librarian at the Brown Deer Public Library in Wisconsin recommended it. She let me use the internet even though I didnt have a library card, so I figured I would follow her advice.

Overall, the book is a good read. The story goes that dude was sweating his girlfriend for years to marry him. After years of signs that it was never going to happen, he convinced himself that because he had a wedding date set the girl would go thru with it. Didnt work out that way. So he decided to have a party with friends and family in place of the wedding and take the honeymoon with his brother. They later quit their jobs and extended the trip for 2 years.

The book is alright, but he got on my nerves a bit. He gets quite a bit up on his high horse about being a "traveller" as opposed to a "tourist" which gets old for me real quick. Besides that, when he came to Ecaudor, he went to Gringoland in Quito and the Galapogos Islands. Way to get of the beaten trail...

by, Jen Lancaster

This is a follow-up memior to one of my favorite books, Bitter is the New Black. The story is that Jen Lancaster used to be rich from some dot-com job, then she was poor because the company went over. Her adjustment to that happens in the first book.

The follow up is really a memior about nothing, which I usually can´t stand but because Jen Lancaster is so funny, I love it. My favorite part of the book is when she (who is a Republican) is denyed access to the tanning salon because it hasnt been 24 hours since the last time she used it, which aids her in finally understanding why people dont like the new anti-abortion supreme court justice.

Funny lady, great book.

by, Kamran Nazeer

Be not offended by the title, you will understand it within a few pages of the book, and he means it in a totally non-offensive manner.

This is a "where are they now" type of book. The author was a student at a then cutting edge (of course later shut down for lack of funding) specialized school for children with autism in the 1980s. He decided to look up a group of his old classmates to see what they are up to now. The results were varied, as to be expected on the spectrum: one is a speech writer for a US political party, another communicates through puppets (wait, is there a difference...?)

Overall, a very good read.

by, Moriz Thomsen

I went to B&N the day I got my invite to serve in Ecuador to order this book. Its the only book I have encountered about serving in Peace Corps Ecuador.

The author served in the 1960s in a small town on the coast of Ecuador in an agricultural program. The book is an ok read, gets pretty dry at times unless you are really into chickens and corn cultivation...and he get pretty negative about service, the country and the Ecuadorian people in general.

Some folks really like this book, I wouldnt recommend it.