Women around the world...

The Secretary: A Journey with Hillary Clinton from Beirut to the Heart of American Power by Kim Ghattas (2013)

Very few people have access to the Secretary of State on her travels around the globe.  Kim Ghattas was part of the press corps that traveled with Secretary Clinton and gives us an inside look not only at HRC, but the intricate web of diplomacy, the United States on the world stage and her own life.  Ghattas has a unique perspective on U.S. diplomacy, having been born and raised in the Middle East and later working on the other side, seeing that the delicate dance America has to do is not as cut and dried as people believe it to be.

Also explored are Clinton's relationships with the world leaders as well as the people of their countries, how she dealt with wikileaks, round the clock preparation for talks in the Middle East and elsewhere, reclaiming our former status with other nations and negotiating during the Arab Spring.

This one is a wealth of information about diplomacy and if you like HRC, that is icing on the cake.
 

Out of Order: Stories from the History of the Supreme Court by Sandra Day O' Connor (2013)

From the inception of the Court through the modern day, this book gives a behind the scenes look at the institution that almost had no role and then grew into one of the most respected bodies of government in the United States.  History, anecdotes and photos fill out this book about the evolution of the Court.


Wave by Sonali Deranyigala (2013)

Disaster strikes.  How do you go on after tsunami takes your husband, children and parents from you?  This is what the author tries to convey and almost can't even a decade later.  While on Sri Lanka with her family, the waves rage at the hotel where Deranyigala and her family are and minutes later they are fleeing in a jeep which is soon taken over by water.

Catatonic, she leaves the town and stays with relatives awaiting word of survivors or more likely found bodies.

Years go by and she seeks a reason to keep going.  But reminders lurk at home and abroad.  All because of that wave.

When Religion Turns Bad

fathermothergod: My Journey Out of Christian Science by Lucia Greenhouse (2011)

In the 1800s, Mary Baker Eddy created a religion where the self is perfect and if illness is present, it is a spiritual deficiency which needs to be rectified through prayer.  Hence the unwillingness to seek medical help in a world where prayer alone is not known to save and heal.

The author grew up in a Christian Scientist family with a father who became a practitioner (they do not have clergy) and a mother who said if Lucia's father was a Rabbi, she would have converted to Judaism.  Christian Science was pervasive in the lives of Lucia and her siblings so much so that sickness at school would not garner them a ticket home but a prayer and admonishment that they are better than this and must return to class.

As an adult, Lucia did not keep to the practice, yet her parents were ever steadfast.  So one day when she saw her mother, frail and suffering, she was faced with the question, am I able to help?  Powerless to intervene with the decisions of an adult, Lucia stood by as her mother deteriorated under the watchful, prayerful eye of her father while the extended family was torn apart.


Banished: Surviving My Years in the Westboro Baptist Church by Lauren Drain with Lisa Pulitzer (2013)

Once you get past that this isn't actually a 'church' and it's not affiliated with the Baptist movement, you get to the heart of this hate group masked as religion.

Drain, one of the vast minority not part of the Phelps family who lived on the WBC compound and picketed with them, tells the story of her life, how her formerly secular father was seduced by the group and how she found a community with them and later saw the error of their ways.


Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape by Jenna Miscavige Hill with Lisa Pulitzer (2013)

Jenna Miscavige Hill is niece to David Miscavige, the Church of Scientology leader.  She grew up in the upper echelon of the organization and speaks candidly about its functioning regarding families, self- help and how members are treated.  She is very clear that she wanted out, struggled to leave and is very happy to have put that life behind her.

Separated from her parents for long periods of time at school age and forced to do physical labor, Hill explains that families in the Sea Org (the upper rank organization of Scientologists) were often separated:  spouses separated from each other, children from parents.  She portrays Scientology as oppressive.  Sea Org members could only be romantically involved with other Sea Org members.  Having children while in the ranks was not allowed and abortions were strongly recommended.  Personal freedoms were heavily restricted.  Involvement with non-Scientologists (wogs) was forbidden.  If you did not follow the rules, you were punished through a number of measures (exhaustingly invasive interrogations or even years banishment to a 'program.')

The celebrities involved are also addressed.  In fact, they do not face the restrictions and controls that the most devoted members must live with.  They are granted special rights, privileges and facilities.  Therefore, they do not know or experience the abuses and oppression that the other members do.  Which makes sense if you think about them being very wealthy, very public, well-liked and well-known ambassadors for the controversial church which began as a sci-fi self-help program.

After meeting her future spouse and realizing that Scientology was not taking over the world, that it was targeting people for dollars and growth without regard for their needs, that they were being abused and lied to, Hill wanted out.  But it was not that easy.  Obviously she made it.  The book talks about how she got there.

Today she speaks out about human rights violations by the organization, helps others leave and the abuse and neglect she suffered as a child and teen.


A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash (2012)

In the tradition of southern fiction, Cash dreams up a story told in three voices for this, his debut novel.

A corrupt pastor at a charismatic church, a mute boy bonded with his younger brother, an adulterous spouse and a faithful community all conspire to create a religious thriller where the elderly Sunday School teacher/midwife, the brother of the mute and the town sheriff narrate the events as they unfold.

It's difficult not to be carried away with the story when the death of a main character propels the plot forward and urges us to understand not why it happened, for that we already discovered, but how.   The weight of the world was on two young boys in a North Carolina town where religion was not the panacea it was intended to be and a tragedy played out in grand form.

I read, therefore I am,
the lowercase b

Let them entertain you!

This week's reading was comprised of the quirky novel, pop science and the anti-spin doctors.  All in all, entertaining reads for different reasons.  One took your mind on a wildly creative ride, the second took you into historic realms that only science, good and bad, could offer and the last was a series of cautionary tales with sensible advice in a world anxious to get its next scoop.


Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple (2012)

In this quirky novel, agoraphobic, eponymous title character drives the story in ways we couldn't even imagine.  Though Semple makes us snicker against our better judgment.

We meet Bernadette through her teen daughter, Bee, a bright young lady who ultimately pieces together why her mother disappeared and where she went.  And Bernadette is hardly the mom we think she is.  No, that is not sinister as it sounds.

The Seattle family relocated years before from California, after which Bernadette's agoraphobia escalated to the point where her most mundane errands were delegated overseas to an Indian assistant.  Bee is unique on her own, but her mother's idiosyncrasies take her differences at the school community into another realm.  Father, Elgie, an outlier in his own way, works for Microsoft.

Reminiscent of Mr. Popper's Penguins in my mind, the family has booked a trip to Antarctica to celebrate Bee's academic achievements.  Though family discord and Bernadette's disappearance has thrown the plans into disarray.  Where has Bernadette gone?  Finding out was a bizarre joy.


The Violinist's Thumb: And Other Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius, as Written by Our Genetic Code by Sam Kean (2012)

How did the 1945 atomic bombs on Japan physically affect the individuals who survived?  Are cats like potato chips and are some people predisposed to not just having one?  Did Stalin support humanzee hybrid experiments?

These questions and many more are addressed in this scientific history.  Even Einstein's brain and JFK's tan are discussed in terms of their DNA in accessible terms for those who are not cohorts of Watson and Crick.

In fact, Kean offers a look at the history of genetic discovery and the men (and women!) behind the science, such as Mendel, Lamarck, Watson, Crick and others.

At times, the material is dry but more often than not it piques the curiosity of even the non-scientifically inclined and explains many phenomena through a genetic lens.


Masters of Disaster: The Ten Commandments of Damage Control by Christopher Lehane, Mark Fabiani and Bill Guttetag (2012)

Spin?  That's the natural inclination and everything we've been 'told' to do.  But it's actually not best if you want to walk away from a crisis with minimal damage and your credibility intact.  According to these partners in a 'strategic communications' firm with high profile clients like Bill Clinton and Goldman Sachs, if you feed the 24 hour internet/news cycle and can't keep your story straight, you're doing it wrong.

Lots of real-life anecdotes from the always-in-crisis political, sports, entertainment worlds on what to do and what not to do when disaster strikes, often of your own making.

I read, therefore I am,
the lowercase b

Variety is the spice of life...

The past week was full of great reading and consisted of quite the variety.  Dark humor on the fiction side.  A mix of non-fiction regarding the immigrant student experience in New York City, taking the bar exam and bridging the gap between atheists and people of faith, rather than driving a wedge between them.

The Death of Bees by Lisa O' Donnell (2013)

If this is the foretelling of how the year's fiction is going to be, it will be a very good year for fiction, indeed:

"Today is Christmas Eve.

Today is my birthday.

Today I am fifteen.

Today I buried my parents in the backyard.

Neither of them were beloved."

Through the voices of daughters Marnie and Nelly and their neighbor Lennie, this story is told.  You'll keep turning the pages until there are no more and then you'll think about what you just read.  Marnie and Nelly are left with no parents.  Who killed them?  Why did Marnie bury them in the backyard?  Will the secret be safe?  Who will care for the girls now?  Dark comedy, sad family tale, love story, thriller.  How does nosy neighbor Lennie play into this?

Watch the story unfold.  You may not be able to help getting pulled into this gripping, morbid scene.

The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson (2012)

Looking for a darkly charming story taking place in Scandanavia that flashes back to major events in history?  Look no further.  

Compared to Forrest Gump, we meet Allan Karlsson at a nursing home, on the verge of a celebration of his 100th birthday.  A celebration he has no plans to attend.  He embarks on a journey with no clear agenda, starting with his escape through his bedroom window.  Hilarity and deaths ensue.   Police follow.

Flashbacks involving Stalin, Mao, Truman, et al, tell the story of Karlsson's accidental fortuitous discoveries and mishaps, intertwined with the present-day adventure where he picks up cohorts along the way, a la "The Muppet Movie" making his 100th birthday one to remember.  Entertaining and well told.  Though not meant to be 'realistic fiction.'

The New Kids: Big Dreams and Brave Journeys at a High School for Immigrant Teens 

by Brooke Hauser (2012)

After many underperforming NYC high schools were closed and reinvented according to the population needs, Brooklyn's International High School at Prospect Heights was developed to serve the needs of immigrant families, here fewer than four years. 

The school is a United Nations of educational facilities, bringing together students who speak over twenty languages from forty-five different countries.  The mandate of the school is to integrate students into the American culture while teaching them English, academics and hopefully preparing them for college or other post secondary programs.  It is no easy task.  

Many students escaped nations where there was war, no clean water, education was a rich-man's privilege, getting out meant hiding in a suitcase for 24 hours, arranged marriages were the norm and still expected when the children arrived in America.  The staff made their advisory groups into family units.  Not every story was a success story.  And not every child who wanted a space at the school was able to get one.  Space was finite and immigrants seeking an education seemed infinite.

When immigration is a front-page story and a theoretical talking point for many, this book tells the reality.  It's a scary reality for many.  Even just getting to school is a daunting task.  If you want to know what it's like to live the immigrant experience, this book gives a good look at that slice of life.

Barman: Ping-Pong, Pathos, and Passing the Bar by Alex Wellen (2003)

If you have a loved one or a friend taking the Bar exam, you might want to read this book.  Alex Wellen takes us through this experience like no other.  From his law school days, internship interviews, bar review, the exam, the waiting period, the results and life after the bar,  Wellen shares one man's experience taking what is probably one of the most notoriously difficult Bar examinations in the country, the New York Bar exam.

He obsesses over the Tier 2 status of his law school and what that means for his employment prospects.  In fact, every lawyer he encounters along the way, in interviews (tier 1), in dating prospects (tier 1) in friends (tiers 1 and 2), we find out exactly where they stood.  Depending on your aspirations, this may be an entirely accurate reality or a ridiculous portrayal of what it means to study law and join the profession.

Ultimately, as many lawyers, he does not end up where he originally thought he would.   He shares a lot about his own life at the time, that while very important to him and surely bearing on his 'bar experience' may not particularly interest the reader or reflect on the average law candidate's bar experience.  However, the point is driven home that no matter how much you strive during law school, there is the distinct chance that you will not pass the bar exam, especially not on the first try.  And without it, you will not practice law.    Hence, if you went to law school, it IS entirely fair to say that if you want to practice, at some point in your life, everything will turn upon the results of this exam.

Faitheist: How an Atheist Found Common Ground with the Religious by Chris Stedman (2012)

Written by the Assistant Humanist Chaplain at Harvard, this book is truly respectful and passive outreach.  And what it is NOT is proselytization.

The New Atheist movement, with headliners like Dawkins and Hitchens, angry, argumentative and loud, are not the type of people who can be described as having found 'common ground' with the religious.  In fact, quite the opposite is true.  Part of their dogma, if you will, is to tear down the belief systems of the religious by showing how they can harm society and at times they degenerate farther into calling the people who sign onto such belief systems as having blinders on or being duped, stupid or foolhardy.  Not exactly a way to bridge gaps or garner understanding.  Though the New Atheist movement doesn't want anything of the kind.

Steadman, an atheist trained in theology, is concerned with finding common ground, working together to understand each other and use similarities to improve the world.  Angry New Atheists, he says, don't represent atheists in general, though they are the loudest and currently quite popular.  They are actually Anti-theists, which is very different from being atheist, without a belief in a god, for they are against people having a belief in gods.  Stedman has no problem with others believing, though he does not.  If this is what drives them to do good works and be the good in the world, that is fine with him.  If atheists and religious folk can get to know one another to eradicate hate and work together, all the better.

Formerly a Fundamental Christian, and now a specialist in Interfaith Relations, Stedman's thesis is that more can be accomplished in the world by bringing the non-secular together with the secular to work toward common goals, more plentiful than we know.  Sounds far more positive than angry debate and hatred and debunking other's beliefs.  From either side of the aisle.  For an angry New Atheist is nothing but a Fundamentalist on the opposite end of the spectrum.   Worth a look for this young man's mature attitudes about how to have a strong opinion but not push it on others.

I read, therefore I am,

the lowercase b

YA Lit -- Not just for kids anymore.

As promised, here is another post in my 2012 genre review series.  This time, it's all about YA (Young Adult) Literature.  In recent years there has been a crossover.  Not only have tweens and teens been toting around books written for them, but so have their parents, and not just in the interest of knowing  what their kids are reading but simply for their own pleasure and entertainment.

Blockbusters like The Hunger Games and Twilight are the ones that make the headlines and even end up on the movie marquis.  But the genre has grown and the writers know the audience is more sophisticated.  So much so that the 'Young Adult' nomenclature signals propriety for the younger reader, but it is not a limiting factor.

To that end, this list of YA books that I read in 2012, might appeal to both you and your young reader.  These are great as read-alouds that you can share (a practice of which I am a huge proponent, yes, even for the middle school demographic and beyond), to read independently and then discuss, to savor yourself (forget about the kid;  don't have one?  No problem!) or simply to recommend to your child, reluctant reader or not.  

The Hunger Games (Book 1) by Suzanne Collins (2008)

In dystopian North America, annual televised games are fought to the death until one player is left standing.  Those players are all youth.  This book explores class struggles, our voyeuristic 'reality' culture, government control of its people and so much more.  Watch Katniss, a strong female protagonist, in the fight for her life in this first volume of this bestselling trilogy.

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys (2011)

A WWII story unlike any other you've read, this one follows Lina, a teen girl deported from her home in Lithuania by Stalin's forces.  Separated from her father, an academic, punished for expression of ideas, she and her family are loaded onto cattle cars, traveling ever North, ultimately into frigid Arctic Circle conditions.  Little known slice of history brought to life in this wonderful fictional piece.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (1999)

This epistolary novel is told from the perspective of teenager Charlie who is not popular, though not an outcast, either.  He manages to plunge full-on into friendships and all the rites of high school life (sex, drugs, alcohol) though it all seems inorganic.  He has a trusted teacher and a realization about a beloved aunt.  Though this book is beloved by many, for me it fell short.  I am in the vast minority.  Find out where you stand on Wallflower.

The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker (2012)

The Earth's rotation has begun to slow.   The change was sudden, yet subtle and everything is thrown into disarray.  Days and nights grow into uncertainty, gravity changes, agriculture is affected.  No one should have to come of age like young Julia.  While succumbing Earth's frightening end, she still battle's life's normal uncertainties like relationships, parents, illness and death.  This book does what a book should do.  It makes you think.

Wonder by R.J. Palacio (2012)

Some books are so full of "wonder" that you read it yourself and immediately read it again, aloud to your children.  This is that book.  August Pullman had a facial deformity so profound that the surgeries and treatments he required as a child prevented him from attending school.  Until the 5th grade, where we are privileged to meet him.  He struggles to convince people at school that he is not just his face.  Read this, give it to you children, recommend it to friends and also, to your children's teachers.

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson (2008)

You are 17 years old in a futuristic world.  You were in a coma for a year after an accident and just woke up.  You're not sure who you are or what happened.  Slowly, you start realizing things.  Secrets are being kept.  Questions of biomedical ethics abound.  Once you pick up this novel, you probably won't want to put it down.  Carve out some time.

Feed by M.T. Anderson (2004)

Trips to the moon.  Hackers.  Malfunctioning humans.  Malfunctioning humans?  That's right.  But not humans as you and I know them.  Consumer-driven humans directly hooked into electronic media, hardwired to their brains at birth.  Protagonist, Titus's world is turned upside down when he meets Violet, homeschooled free-thinker, who infects him with her truths.  

I read, therefore I am,

the lowercase b

Slim volumes, big stories?

A Free Man: A True Story of Life and Death in Delhi by Aman Sethi (2012)

If you read Katherine Boo's 2012 award winning book, Behind the Beautiful Forevers , then you read the better-researched more meaty version of Sethi's book, A Free Man.

He attempts to do what Boo already did and falls short.  You meet a cast of destitute characters working, doping, drinking and sleeping on the streets of Delhi.  Consumed by tuberculosis, the lifespan is short for the homeless and it's an equally sad story as Beautiful Forevers, but less coherent with no thread woven throughout.  Because it is brief and disjointed, you aren't so invested in what happens.


Schroeder: A Novel by Amity Gaige (2013)

What happens when you love your child and because of an impending divorce, you believe the end of your relationship with your child is imminent?  Desperation intervenes where good sense used to reside.  You take off during visitation and...

But wait, that's not the entire problem.  You aren't exactly who you said you were.  Your wife doesn't know you by your real name, you have a history you tried to leave behind and the law isn't interested in  excuses.

Actually, you go by the name Kennedy.  All American, adopted when you came as a German immigrant years ago.  You made a life here, married have a daughter but did not live happily ever after.  Now, your story is being poured out in one long flashback as an apology to your wife from the correctional facility after the law caught up with you.  So we aren't wondering 'if' when we read this, but 'how?'  And since the book's moniker isn't Kennedy there are a number of 'hows' we ask throughout this short novel.

I read, therefore I am,
the lowercase b

Brushes with Cape Cod

Coincidentally, I picked up two novels that have connections to Cape Cod, Massachusetts.  Each of these books is new fiction that is notable and one or both may appear on 'best of' lists at the end of this year.

Truth In Advertising: A Novel by John Kenney

Finbar Dolan is admittedly a pretty average guy who wasn't sure what he wanted to do with his life and somehow ended up on Madison Avenue convincing us to buy a certain brand of diapers.  Then, he broke up with his fiance shortly before their wedding.  He could have been unlikable and indulgent but he's quite the opposite.  One of four children to an abusive father and a beloved mother, victim to a tragic childhood that unfolds through flashbacks, Fin is the one compelled to do the right thing, most often not the easy choice.

Meanwhile, the family he was born into is not one giving him support and comfort.  Fortunately he finds that support in his workplace, the cocoon of a Madison Avenue ad agency, strangely enough.

This novel is funny and ironic with a skeptical protagonist front and center, but simultaneously has a bittersweet commentary about family and if blood really is thicker than water and whether that really matters.


Wise Men: A Novel by Stuart Nadler

Sometimes a book starts off strong and goes a direction we don't want to follow, waiting for it to get back on track.  You wonder, where is it going?  Am I going to be sorry I stayed for the ride?  If you stick with Wise Men, you won't be sorry.  This book hooked me in the beginning, but I was quite sure I was in for the story of a poor family gone rich and the ramifications of that, when young white Hilly met the black handyman's young niece, Savannah on 1950s Cape Cod.  A cliche class/race romance at a time when these things were not simple at all?  Not that they are simple now.

But this was not the story.  This set the stage for THE story.  Hilly Wise, son of now prominent New York attorney Arthur Wise, moved with his parents to their Cape Cod home the summer before his studies at Dartmouth.  The events of that summer would reverberate throughout the lives of Hilly's family and Savannah's for their foreseeable futures and beyond.

The story spanned decades.  Questions were left unanswered throughout and the fear that they never would be addressed dwelled in your mind.  If you want a book you won't be able to put down, this might be the one.    You will ask WHY things happened in Cape Cod, Summer of 1952.  The book finally answers you.  After you're answered, both satisfied and surprised, you will reconsider everything you just read.

I read, therefore I am,
the lowercase b