Skip to main content

Featured Post

Infinite Country by Patricia Engel | Thoughts

   Published : 2021   ||    Format : print   ||    Location : Colombia ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆   What was it about the country that kept everyone hostage to its fantasy? The previous month, on its own soil, an American man went to his job at a plant and gunned down fourteen coworkers, and last spring alone there were four different school shootings. A nation at war with itself, yet people still spoke of it as some kind of paradise.. Thoughts : Infinite Country follows two characters - young Talia, who at the beginning of this book, escapes a girl’s reform school in North Colombia so that she can make her previously booked flight to the US. Before she can do that, she needs to travel many miles to reach her father and get her ticket to the rest of her family. As we follow Talia’s treacherous journey south, we learn about how she ended up in the reform school in the first place and why half her family resides in the US. Infinite Country tells the story of her family through the other protagonist, El

Friday Finds -- August 13, 2010


Friday FindsHosted by MizB at Should be reading, this meme asks you what great books did you hear about/discover this past week?

I've come across some really exciting books over the last couple of weeks. Although I had been busy, I still managed to go through my Google Reader.

Life as we Knew it by Susan Beth Pfeffer

I've realized that I quite enjoy dystopian or apocalyptic books or movies. (I was the only one in my group who actually enjoyed the movie 2012.) So when I recently saw this book reviewed at Alyce's At Home with Books, I knew I had to read this for sure!
It's almost the end of Miranda's sophomore year in high school, and her journal reflects the busy life of a typical teenager: conversations with friends, fights with mom, and fervent hopes for a driver's license. When Miranda first begins hearing the reports of a meteor on a collision course with the moon, it hardly seems worth a mention in her diary. But after the meteor hits, pushing the moon off its axis and causing worldwide earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanoes, all the things Miranda used to take for granted begin to disappear. Food and gas shortages, along with extreme weather changes, come to her small Pennsylvania town; and Miranda's voice is by turns petulant, angry, and finally resigned, as her family is forced to make tough choices while they consider their increasingly limited options. Yet even as suspicious neighbors stockpile food in anticipation of a looming winter without heat or electricity, Miranda knows that that her future is still hers to decide even if life as she knew it is over.

Half the Sky by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn

When I first saw this book, I was attracted to the cover. All those women from across the world gracing the cover, and that blue sky looks so magnificent. And then, Helen @ Helen's Book Blog wrote a wonderful review of this book. (You have to check out Helen's blog! I have come across so many wonderful books at her site.)
With Pulitzer Prize winners Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn as our guides, we undertake an odyssey through Africa and Asia to meet the extraordinary women struggling there, among them a Cambodian teenager sold into sex slavery and an Ethiopian woman who suffered devastating injuries in childbirth. Drawing on the breadth of their combined reporting experience, Kristof and WuDunn depict our world with anger, sadness, clarity, and, ultimately, hope.

They show how a little help can transform the lives of women and girls abroad. That Cambodian girl eventually escaped from her brothel and, with assistance from an aid group, built a thriving retail business that supports her family. The Ethiopian woman had her injuries repaired and in time became a surgeon. A Zimbabwean mother of five, counseled to return to school, earned her doctorate and became an expert on AIDS. Through these stories, Kristof and WuDunn help us see that the key to economic progress lies in unleashing women’s potential.

Comments

I like the premise of Half the Sky!

Read about my Friday Find!
bermudaonion said…
Half the Sky looks fantastic to me! Have a great weekend.
Half the Sky sounds really beautiful! I'd love to read it. I did read Life as we Knew It, though. It was enjoyable, but not one of the best books out there. Cool finds!
Alyce said…
I hope you love Life as We Knew It!

Half the Sky sounds very hope-filled and uplifting for a book about such serious topics.
Life As We Knew It was definitely one of my favorite reads last year -- it was so thought-provoking, and I literally couldn't stop reading. Definitely recommend it!