Tag: reading

books, reading

The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams

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Prologue: Aiden goes to his favorite place, the public library, to find solace. He picks up his favorite book, Black Water Rising by Attica Lock, and settles in. Someone sits down near him with books, and leaves a note with a list of books, in case you need them.  He ignores it and continues with his own mystery book.

Flash forward and we meet Aleisha, a teenager working at the library. She is bored with the job and doesn’t like it. Mukesh, a widower, comes to the library to return a book his late wife had checked out, The Time Traveler’s Wife, that her read and asks for help on finding another book. Aleisha, being a teenager, was rude. After this happens, her brother, Aiden, tells her she could do better. When she finds a list of books, in case you need them, she begins to take the list seriously, and read each. She then shares this list with Mukesh, one by one.

As each book is read by these people, you see how they are entangled in their own lives, and how they take the lessons from the books to help them through their days. They try to be brave like Atticus in To Kill a Mockingbird, try to learn from not being afraid of Mrs DeWinter in Rebecca, and more. Mukesh finds connections with Aleisha, and others in the world he re-enters after his wife’s death. And he uses these books to help bridge a relationship with his granddaughter, Priya.  There are other copies of the list found, and people who use these to connect to themselves and to others. But who wrote the list?  I will not spoil this for you. 

This story lays out all I hold dear for books. They take you to different worlds, teach you how others live, and provide you with tools to build a better reality based upon what you have learned. They help you build relationships with other who have shared this experience. Books open worlds for everyone. This is a story of how hard life can be and how books can help you through difficult times. I must admit, I will be re-examining these titles again (I have read most of them already but not all).

To Kill A Mockingbird

Rebecca

The Kite Runner

Life of Pi

Pride & Prejudice

Little Women

Beloved

A Suitable Boy

in case you need them

books, read around the world, reading

His Only Wife by Peace Adzo Medie

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Meet Afi Tekple of Ghana. She is about to married Elikem Ganyo – who will not be at the wedding because of a business trip. We meet Afi’s greedy Uncle Pious, her best friend Mawusi, her mother, and her mother-in-law “Aunty”. At the wedding ceremony Eli’s brother Richard stands in for him.

And we hear the story of when Afi’s father died his brother Pious did not take in Afi and her mother, but Aunty took her in and gave her a place to live and work. How generous and kind Aunty is, and how much Afi and her mother owe her. As the story continues, we learn that Afi has ambitions to be a designer – she is already a seamstress. She agrees to marry Eli, who is with an unsuitable woman according to his family that does not take care of their sickly daughter, because of what is owed to Aunty. But Afi wants the fairytale – to have him fall in love with her, to win his heart.

After the wedding Afi and her mother are sent to Accra, where Richard and Eli live. She is given a flat with modern conveniences she is not accustomed to. Yet Eli still doesn’t come. Afi decides she would like to go to fashion school to help her achieve her own goals. Eli, who she speaks to daily on the phone, supports her both financially and emotionally.  Aunty’s daughter, Eli’s sister, Yaya comes to take Afi to look at schools. As time passes it is apparent to Afi that everyone around her is reporting her actions and interactions with Eli and others back to Aunty, and she is beginning to feel uncomfortable with this – no one seems to be looking out for only her, but to protect what they had been given by Aunty’s “generosity”.

As Afi makes her own friends and her confidence grows in her fashion abilities, she is able to connect with Eli and their marriage becomes closer to what she wants, but the “other woman” remains in the picture. When Afi decides it is time to demand what she wants, regardless of anyone else’s desires, that she begins to grow for herself. As Afi defies Eli’s family, and her own family, she begins to make strides toward building her own dreams.

As Afi continues to grow up and be successful, she continues to be true to herself and her needs and desires. Ultimately this is a story of knowing who you are, what you will accept, and not compromising your values to get part of it.

This was a fun book to read. I look forward to reading more from this author.

books, read around the world, reading

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of the Shergill Sisters by Balli Kaur Jaswal

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Three sisters bicker across India as they complete a final pilgrimage taking their mother’s ashes to her homeland to be scattered. Each sister, Rajni, Jezmeen and Shirina is harboring secrets and pain as they follow the directions their mother set down for them before she died.

This is a typical story of sisters misunderstanding each other, the culture they live in, and the sacrifices that people make to help them grow. With each step of the journey the sisters face past hurt and current grief, thinking only of themselves. Over the 10 days on the Pilgrimage, they are able to achieve what their mother wanted – to have them face who they really are, and what they really want – to themselves and to each other. Through this journey they are able to come together and stand up for themselves.

Even if the secrets could be guessed at, it was a well written and fun to read book, and there were some twists that I truly didn’t expect. Those kept me on my toes and wanting to read more. 

Black Experience, books, reading

The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers

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If there was ever a book that you should read to learn of how other’s lives have been lived, this is it. This epic tale – but you are never sure exactly who the hero is. You are introduced to many individuals, all who sing a different song. None of the songs are named, but each time you see a new title page with SONG, you know the speaker has changed. It is through all these voices that moves this story along, even if not linearly. You are introduced to many people, at different times in history, in different orders. None of this makes sense until you are almost at the end. You are faced with information on the many terrible things that humans are capable of, even those that are supposed to love and protect you.  


We are introduced to the Creek Indians, those that inhabited the land. White men from Europe come and took away their land as if they had never been there. They brought slaves to do their work. And through their arrogance and ego, they abused these men and women. They sowed not only the seeds of cotton and tobacco, but also of themselves. Mixed races are common, but never acknowledged by the white men that made them.

This history of a people is complex and confusing. The book reflects this in the intertwined stories of sisters, generations, family, tragedies, and fears. Throughout the book, however, Uncle Root, an educated Black man with a doctorate in History, understands that the history of the family comes from the women. He extolls the strength of Black women especially, because the burdens they have carried is so heavy.

I can never imagine having lived this history and surviving it. The brutality and ongoing ramifications are horrifying. The truth of these pains and these slights are not shied away from to make it easier for someone else to read it. The racism that still exists within the hallowed halls of education and throughout the country is astounding. I am humbled that I have probably erred without knowing or understanding, and I hope that I will not make the same mistakes again.

This book challenges you. You need to understand that we are the sum of our ancestors, as well as our times. While this book is well over 750 pages, I never once wanted to skim a page, because I was so involved in the number of people we are introduced to. I felt the pain of loss, the pain of betrayal, and the pain of self-doubt. This was worth every single page – and there is not a word I would keep out to make it shorter. We need to do the work to understand what these families have endured, and continue to endure. Until we face it and learn, things will not change.

books, read around the world, reading

Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

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This is the story of courage. Of a young woman, born in Somalia on the brink of war, carrying the weight of clan, gender and religious expectations, who is able to raise her head to question Why? She is able to do this despite the institutions around her trying to beat her into complete submission – literally and figuratively.

Ayaan is the eldest child of her father’s second marriage. Her beloved father, a prominent scholar and revolutionary leader in Somalia, was away fighting to build Somalia into an Islamic country for much of her childhood. This left her mother and grandmother to raise Ayaan, her sister and brother by the grace of clan members that were providing funding and other supports while the family was in exile – in Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and Kenya. Devoted to Islam, the family was exposed to the developing Muslim Brotherhood and the strict rules of observance demanded by the religion. Ayaan was able to survive despite the obstacles set before her. She was beaten by her mother for not doing enough around the house (cleaning, cooking, laundry) even though Ayaan was actually trying to complete her school work; when in Ethiopia her cousins arranged for all three children to be circumcised – for a woman that mean cutting out her clitoris and sewing her genitals together to keep her pure; friendships outside of the religion are shunned – it is forbidden to befriend someone outside the faith – and the Quran was taught to be a holy book that could not be questioned. But when men began asking for Ayaan’s hand in marriage – never to her directly – she began to question why she had no choice or voice in who or when she was to marry.

After years of deflecting, and a hidden marriage that was not consummated due to her circumcision, her father came home from the mosque and announced she was to marry a man from Canada he had met that morning. Without asking, her fate was bound to a man her father knew for two hours. After pushing back, and not attending the wedding ritual (she was not required to be there, only her father) the deed was done. As her new husband was a Canadian, she was sent to Germany to improve her odds at getting a visa. While there, Ayaan planned her escape and made it to the Netherlands where she was granted refugee status. While there Ayaan became enthralled with the way the government worked – so helpful and caring. But what she witnessed was her clansmen – and her religion – keeping to the words of the Quran to not mix with non-believers. Through her strong ability to learn languages, she became a translator and was able to hear the stories of women being beaten by husbands and not prosecuting, honor killings for having a boyfriend, doctors trying to help women through births after being sewn as a child, and more “norms” that are foreign to people outside the construct of what Ayaan was brought up in. When the planes hit the World Trade Center in New York on 9/11, she heard the words from the Quran being used to justify the attacks, and knew that was not a fringe element, these were quotes from the Quran that are meant to be literal. Through this horror, Ayaan realized that Muslim Brotherhood had no desire to become part of the societies they moved to as refugees – that they wanted the protections but also wanted to remain outside the norms of the society they now resided in. That included the ongoing subjugation of women.

It became her purpose in life to speak out about the injustice women in the closed Muslim communities faced, and worked to encourage a reformation of Islam to not live by the Quran as unquestionable – she saw it as a way to remain in the middle-ages when it was written – but to interpret its texts for the age we live in. It was through her outspokenness that she came to be part of the Dutch parliament, trying to raise her voice to have others speak about the atrocities that were occurring that were being explained away by “multiculturalism” and allowing others to be different while turning a blind eye to the fact that there was no interest in becoming part of the social ethics that created the space for these people to come to. Due to her need to be heard, she did not shy from debates. Now under constant threat for her life, the fear was realized when her collaborator on a film, Theo Van Gogh, was murdered in broad daylight, with a 5 page memo to her stabbed in his torso on why she must die too.

While she is now in hiding, she continues to work for an American think tank to help create policy for protecting these Muslim women and girls. No longer in touch with her family for turning her back on Islam, she is nevertheless cut from the same cloth as her father – both worked to make a government bring about a better world for others.

For me, the biggest why is why is are you not allowed to ask questions? Why, in so many places on earth, for so many millennium, is a woman denied a voice? What makes us so powerful that we are to be smothered? Is it because Eve tempted Adam with an apple? Is that the reason women are not allowed to speak, to be seen, to be beaten into complete subjugation? For asking what else there may be in the world? This placing of blame ignores the fact that Adam – or any man – should have a brain, and ethics, to react and be held accountable for their own actions. By removing any responsibility for making choices creates a world where power is absolute and unquestioning.

We need to make sure that women and men understand that each has responsibility for each other – to treat each other with compassion, to do what is right for others now and in the next life, and to be judged by this alone. Until we lift each other up, protecting those who can’t, we are all doomed to remain in the dark.

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Visiting Oceania with J Maarten Troost

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J Maarten Troost is a travel writer that has lived an extraordinary life. First, he follows his girlfriend to the Equatorian Atoll of Kiribati for two years, returned to Washington DC, only to get restless again. He then follows his wife (same person) to the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu. Through both of his books, The Sex Lives of Cannibals and Getting Stoned with Savages, the raw truth, and the raw sewage, is exposed while living on the other end of the earth. While never taking himself quite seriously, these books impart both the absurdity of island life and some well researched facts on the areas he visits. You actually hear of the colonial history, the remains of this including racial hatred, as well as details of the Neckowiar of Tanna (a rare three-day alliance ceremony between villages) they witnessed, including details of the leaf men wear over their penis for a full day of dance. You learn about the tribal history of the people of Vanuatu, the colonial history of invasion, cannibalism, how to make kava, and how centipedes there can kill. Through it all, you learn of the differences in the cultures of other, how the customs came about, and how it may seem like paradise, but don’t look too closely to see the cracks. These were two fun reads.

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All the broken places

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Guilt and complicity. What you have done and what you have not done. Both are things that can torment people. I had heard John Boyne speak about his book All the Broken Pieces , and was intrigued by the idea of what you are complicit of allowing versus what you have committed – and how the sins of the parent are cast on the child. All these ideas led me to buy this book.

I admit, I never read the first book, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.  I also admit I had no idea of the backlash – that the book was considered controversial in its way of conveying the atrocities

The story is simplistic, while trying to deal with complex issues. Gretel grew up faithful to the Third Reich, proud of the part her family played in it, including her father’s role as commander of Auschwitz. As Gretel’s mother states, it was the Jewish problem – first the problems they made for Germans that forced the need for extermination, and then for the problems they wouldn’t stop talking about after the camps were closed – that were a disgrace. Gretel, however, understood the terrible things her father had led. She knew her place in allowing this to happen, even as she hid behind “I was only a child” excuses.  This was underscored in the book by others excuses – they were only following orders or they didn’t know anything about it. Being forced to see the horrors by the French Underground, other Nazi hiders, documentary films and camp survivors, Gretel understood she would live with guilt for the rest of her life. She kept her true self away from others. She tried to atone for the sins she knew, in the only way she knew how.

As the parts of history are unraveled, and the new realities of cruelty she faced within her own building, Gretel finally takes action – to not be one that stands by doing nothing, fulfilling her destiny as she and others had hoped it would be. It is, however, a destiny that is rooted in violence – acting on the brutality of her father’s answers for solving a “problem.”   

I felt this was an interesting read. I am glad I have taken my time to read this. With so much hatred in the world, in the US particularly, understanding the need to stand up and speak out is just as important as jumping into the fight directly.  While I understand that it only glimpses at the true horrors that were experienced by those that were taken and lost their lives at these camps, I don’t believe this story is about them. As in every story, there are always two sides. You do not need to agree with them both, but to ignore them is to do the same thing the Germans did to the Jews. Not all Germans are monsters, just as not all Jews are bad. For me, it is Gretel’s final decision to act with brutality to solve a problem that doesn’t make her a saviour but that allows her to accept she is her father’s child.

books, read around the world, reading

2022 Year in Reading

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Key statistics:

I have read 54 books and listened to 9:  51 Fiction; 11 Non-Fiction; and 1 Poetry

Average book size = 293 pages   

  • Longest 561
  • Shortest 23

These books were based in 32 different countries or regions of the world, helping me expand on my quest to read around the world. Of the 117 countries I am working toward reading, I have read books from 93.

Ten favorite reads of the year (in alphabetical order):

  • A General Theory of Oblivion by Jose Eduardo Agualusa
  • Baking Cakes in Kigali by Gaile Parkin
  • Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson
  • Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
  • In the Midst of Winter by Isabel Allende
  • Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
  • Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitil Gonzalez
  • The Unseen World by Liz Moore
  • Trust by Hernan Diaz
  • Women Without Men: A Novel of Modern Iran by Shahrnush Parsipur

There were many other books that were good, but these were my favorites this year.

I now have over 150 titles in my “To Be Read” list, and it keeps growing. Next year’s goal is to read from 10 more countries on my list.

Happy new year all! 

books, read around the world, reading

Reading Dangerously

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I am not what you can consider “cutting edge” when it comes to technology and what is offered. I have only recently joined Spotify and found some podcasts that I am really enjoying, and I am sure there are many more for me to find. One podcast that I have been enjoying is The Book Case with Kate & Charlie Gibson. In the episode I am currently listening to (originally aired June 9, 2022) they are interviewing an author, Azar Nafisi. Her new book “Reading Dangerously” is a challenge to readers to choose books outside our comfort zone. She contends that reading fiction can be a liberating and even subversive act. She should know, having been an intellectual leader in Iran when the clerics took over.

This is something that I have been thinking about a lot lately. In the US the number of book bans is on the rise. The news stations are bifurcated so you choose what slant you want to hear before you choose the source. We are interacting less with people that are not like ourselves. Personally, I believe that this insular world we are living in has created deeper fissions. The concept of “News” is no longer a factual reporting of just who, what, why, where, when and how. It is all about sensationalism. Edward R Morrow, the man that single-handedly went after and exposed the lies of the McCarthy era, is rolling in his grave. Only opinion is spouted – not the facts. Just look at the differences in how Fox news spoke about the attack on Paul Pelosi versus how CNN spoke of it.

My biggest concern is that in our race to be MORE and BIGGER we are putting others down to achieve this. It is not until you can walk in someone else’s shoes that you can begin to understand why they feel a certain way. That is why the concept of reading dangerously is so intriguing to me. If I don’t know what someone else’s view of the world is, how am I to understand why their stance may be different? I don’t need to agree, but it would be good to understand why so that perhaps there can be a way that each person’s beliefs can be respected.

I have been reading around the world to provide myself with different perspectives and learn about how others live. I know this has impacted me. I had been a lover of the pomp from the Royal families since I was a child. Now, however, when I was watching the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, I have a different reaction. I am disgusted by the pomp, especially seeing the military in force. It is the egos of this family’s ancestors that went around the world spreading disease and hatred, killing off cultures that had been in place long before them. The legacy they left is something that the world continues to struggle with daily.

Azar Nafisi’s theory that having a curious mind leads to challenge and understanding is one I believe in. It is two sides of a coin. You are to ask questions, but also gain empathy toward others. It should be our responsibility to do both. If we do not, we will only continue to divide ourselves into small groups that continue to belittle and dismiss others. That is the most dangerous thing to do. The lack of empathy will be the fall of our civilization.  

So go out and choose something to read that you would not usually pick.

books, Hispanic Cultures, reading

Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez

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This book is very complex, but also very simple.

The story begins with us following Olga while she is working to make a bride and her uber-rich family happy by ordering hand-made napkins, while making sure she has added enough to use at her cousin’s wedding in a few weeks. We meet her congressman brother, Prieto, as he greets his constituents – the part of the job he loves most. After he returns to his office, we hear him being summoned for a meeting with Arthur Selby – someone not a constituent or a donor – which will be resentfully attended.

As we learn more from each of these siblings, you learn of how their father Johnny was a revolutionary looking to change schooling to make the next generations of kids more equal, but returned from Vietnam as a heroin addict. After meeting and marrying Blanca, also a revolutionary, they had two children. While clean for a stretch, Johnny descended back into drugs, crack and became infected with HIV/AIDS. Blanca kept her eye on the revolution, giving speeches globally, until one day she left on one of these trips, but never returns. Olga was 13 and Prieto was 17 when their mother left. Because of their father’s habit that kept him in and out of jail, their Abuelita raised them, with the large family all helping.

While physically abandoned, each child continued to hear from Blanca and what she thought of their life choices via mail – no return address and no way to contact her. Neither shared with the other that they received these communications. The revolutionary diet of rhetoric they were brought up on, even with absent parents, impacted them, as did watching their father struggle with trying to provide for them while being chained to his addiction.  

Prieto took a grassroots approach to this revolution, first as a councilman, then as a congressman. Teased as “pollyanna” he didn’t have a side hustle – something that everyone else seemed to have going as an open secret. Olga took the educational route, gaining entry into an ivy league school where she looked safe enough, but never felt like she fit in or what to do next. Getting in had been the goal for her, while for those of Ivy-type families it was only the start of the chase.

Both siblings were faced with the realities of what the “establishment” was and how this establishment abused the power of it. Those with money, status, and skin were always plotting to keep it, and more importantly keep it from people not like them. Because of the systemic biases that have been built into all systems, education, housing, pay, healthcare and more, life is stacked against everyone “else.” The story highlights how people of color must decide on buying into the establishment version of success, or their own culture’s version.

The story is about how to use power to get what you want. It also highlights that these traits exists on both sides of the coin – the revolutionary mother was manipulating them and countless others to get what she wanted. It is the extremes of each side that pit us against each other – and that power itself, regardless of where it comes from, corrupts.

Extremely well written, engaging and thought provoking. This story of disenfranchisement, hidden secrets and the desire to be loved lays bare that we each must find our own definition of success, embrace the life you have and be open to ask for help when you need it.