Nadolny, Sten "The Discovery of Slowness"

Nadolny, Sten "The Discovery of Slowness" (German: Die Entdeckung der Langsamkeit) - 1983

Interesting tale based on the successful arctic explorer, Sir John Franklin.

A wonderful account of his life and discoveries but also a great description how something that is usually conceived as negative, in this case a "slowness" that is regarded as "mental retardation" can be used for the good of something. In this case, the "slowness" enables the character to concentrate better on what he wants to achieve.

Very well written, interesting perspective, I really enjoyed this book.

(I did read the German original, so can't vouch for the translation.)

From the back cover:

"Nadolny's masterpiece, a huge commercial and critical success in Germany and across Europe, recounts the life of one of the most interesting explorers of the nineteenth century - Sir John Franklin who, amongst other achievements, paved the way for the discovery of the NorthWest Passage. By means of Nadolny's acute reading of history and his storytelling prowess, the reader follows this misfit's development from awkward schoolboy to expedition leader, Governor of Tasmania, icon of adventure. Not only a riveting account of a remarkable life, 'The Discovery of Slowness' is also a profound and thought-provoking meditation on time. The result is an extraordinary reading experience that justifies the novel's reputation as one of the classics of contemporary German literature."

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

Clarke, Stephen "A Year in the Merde"

Clarke, Stephen "A Year in the Merde" - 2004

"A Year in the Merde" is a comic novel about an Englishman in France. The author brings about the cultural differences between the British and the French in a funny way.

I stumbled across this book a while ago and found the title quite funny already. Being an expat myself (spent more than a third of my life abroad) I can never overlook these kind of books and therefore had to read it right away.

I was not disappointed. The author goes through all the stereotypes that you come across, the prejudices you have before, the experiences you make that either reinforce these prejudices or - better still - teach you something better.

The book is quite funny. Don't see it with a critical eye towards prejudices, you come across this all the time when you live in another country. These observations can be positive or negative, the author definitely has a positive view about his host nation. The author himself says: "There are lots of French people who are not at all hypocritical, inefficient, treacherous, intolerant, adulterous or incredibly sexy … They just didn't make it into my book." which shows that he doesn't dislike the French people entirely. Well, Paul West (the main character) doesn't, since he tries to stay in Paris even though he has to face a lot of obstacles.

If you hate stereotypes, don't even think about reading this book. But if you like to think about the cultural differences between nations and like to laugh about the problems arising that way, this is a good book for you.

From the back cover:

"Paul West, a young Englishman, arrives in Paris to start a new job - and finds out what the French are really like.

They do eat a lot of cheese, some of which smells like pigs' droppings. They don't wash their armpits with garlic soap. Going on strike really is the second national participation sport after pétanque. And, yes, they do use suppositories.

In his first novel, Stephen Clarke gives a laugh-out-loud account of the pleasures and perils of being a Brit in France. Less quaint than A Year in Provence, less chocolatey than Chocolat, A Year in the Merde will tell you how to get served by the grumpiest Parisian waiter; how to make perfect vinaigrette every time; how to make amour - not war; and how not to buy a house in the French countryside."

He has written several sequels, all probably just as successful as the first one:
"Merde Actually" - 2005
"Merde Happens" - 2007
"Dial M for Merde" - 2008

I'm also looking forward to:
"Talk to the Snail" - 2006,
"1000 Years of Annoying the French" - 2010 and
"Paris Revealed: The Secret Life of a City" - 2011 ("Not because I dislike the French, on the contrary, I love them.")

Young, William Paul "The Shack"

Young, William Paul "The Shack" - 2007

Even if you're not into spiritual books, this one is extraordinary. A man has to come to terms with the death of his daughter. He receives a mysterious invitation to a meeting in a shack. He drives there and meets three special people.

This book describes the way to God in such a brilliant way that it will be around for generations. Certainly one of the books that make the most impression on anybody. It might still leave you with more questions than answers but if will make you think.

From the back cover:

"Mackenzie Allen Philips' youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation, and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his 'Great Sadness', Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend."

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

Fry, Stephen "Stephen Fry in America"

Fry, Stephen "Stephen Fry in America" - 2009

I have a lot of American friends and have read a lot of books about the States or situated in the States or written by American authors but I don't think I've ever read one that has given me so much information about that huge country.

Travelling through half a continent in a London taxi, this could only have been the idea of a Brit. I adore Stephen Fry, he is a very smart and witty person, everything a great comedian should be. Well, he did just as great a job as a reporter about America. He visited all 50 states and had a lot to say about every single one. The way he describes the individual ones makes you want to visit almost everyone immediately. He even found nice words for the ones he wasn't so impressed by.

I loved this book.

This was also a television series which is available on DVD.

From the back cover:

"`I could have been American; after all I was nearly born there. So I wanted to find out what is it that makes the United States of America so unique, so diverse, so very American...'

The beauty. The grandeur. The extraordinary contradictions.
But enough about Stephen.

What of America, the thrillingly varied colossus of a country that Stephen went to explore? What is the reality beneath the stereotypes of gun-toting and Bible-bashing?

In his chariot of Englishness - a black London cab - Stephen starts his epic journey on the east coast and zig-zags across America, stopping in every state from Maine to Hawaii. En route he discovers the south Side of Chicago with blues legend Buddy Guy, marches with Zulus in New Orleans' Mardi Gras, and drums with the Sious Nation in South Dakota; joins a Georgia family for Thanksgiving, `picks' with Bluegrass hillbillies, and finds himself in a Tennessee garden full of dead bodies.

Whether in a club for failed gangsters (yes, those are real bullet holes) or celebrating Halloween in Salem (is there anywhere better?), Stephen is welcomed by the people of America - mayors, sheriffs, newspaper editors, park rangers, teachers and hobos. This is the best of the big country, the best of the big brain and the best book about America by Stephen Fry you'll ever read. What more need be said?"

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

Kertész, Imre "Fateless"

Kertész, Imre "Fateless or "Fatelessness" (Hungarian: Sorstalanság) - 1975

The author is a Holocaust survivor, in fact he was in two of the major concentration camps and as such has a lot to tell about his history. But it's the unique way he chooses to tell us about his early life that makes his work so special. He tells the life of a fifteen year old boy who grows up in Hungary during World War II. Despite a lot of similarities to his own life, the author claims this is only a story based on his life.

Anyway, we see the Nazi regime and the concentration camps through the eyes of a child who doesn't know anything else. This is his life. It is "normal" for him that his father is sent to a labour camp, that his friends disappear, so he is not too surprised when he is sent there, as well. He describes his time in the camp as if everything that happens there is the most normal thing in the world. How awful that must have been! He has more problems adjusting back into normal life when he returns to Budapest after the war where he meets people whose lives went on and who didn't go to the camps.

Apparently, Imre Kertész received a lot of criticism for his "naïve" portrayal of one of the worst genocides that ever happened. I think his writing is very interesting, who knows what a child thinks when they grow up in a crazy world, it's the only world they know. I'm not the only one who thinks so, though, because:

Book Description:

"On his arrival Gyuri finds that he is unable to identify with other Jews, and in turn is rejected by them. An outsider among his own people, his estrangement makes him a preternaturally acute observer, dogmatically insisting on making sense of everything he witnesses."

Imre Kertész received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2002 "for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history".

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

Another interesting book by a Nobel Prize winner on the same topic:
Wiesel, Elie"Night"

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Sington, Philip "The Einstein Girl"

Sington, Philip "The Einstein Girl" - 2009

Apparently, an intriguing, first rate historical thriller. Revelations about Albert Einstein's life, correspondence between him and his first wife, a tragedy in their life.

Okay, granted, there seems to be some kind of mystery around the young woman found almost dead in the woods near Berlin and the psychiatrist who tries to find the truth is somewhat inquisitive, his own life seems more interesting than that of the young woman who has lost her memory, can't even remember her name.

Not my type of book, neither dark nor mysterious. The only unanswered question I had at the end: Why did I waste my time reading this?

From the back cover:
"At the heart of truth lies madness...

Two months before Hitler's rise to power, a beautiful young woman is found naked and near death in the woods outside Berlin. When she finally wakes from her coma, she can remember nothing, not even her name. The only clue to her identity is a handbill found nearby, advertising a public lecture by Albert Einstein: 'On the Present State of Quantum Theory'.

Psychiatrist Martin Kirsch takes the case, little suspecting that this will be his last. As he searches for the truth about 'the Einstein Girl', professional fascination turns to reckless love. His investigations lead him to a remote corner of Siberia via a psychiatric hospital in Zurich. There the inheritor of Einstein's genius - his youngest son, Eduard - is writing a book that will destroy his illustrious father and, in the process, change the world."

Turner, Nancy E. "The Water and the Blood"

Turner, Nancy E. "The Water and the Blood" - 2001

After reading "These is my Words , The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901", I just had to read Nancy E. Turner's next novel.

I loved it just as much as the first book of this interesting author. She writes vivid stories with a lot of heart and emotion, I'm looking forward to more of her work.

This book is about a young girl growing up in Texas during World War II, a white society, a religious society, a KKK society. A girl who observes everything well and has to come to terms with racism. A novel about poverty, religion and bigotry, growing up, even murder.

From the back cover:
"Rare is the gift of a writer who is able to conjure up the voices of very different worlds, to give them heat and power and make them sing. Such is the talent of Nancy E. Turner. Her beloved first novel, These Is My Words, opened readers to the challenges of a woman's life in the nineteenth-century Southwest. Now this extraordinary writer shifts her gaze to a very different world -- East Texas in the years of the Second World War -- and to the life of a young woman named Philadelphia Summers, known against her will as Frosty.

From the novel's harrowing opening scene, Frosty's eyes survey the landscape around her -- white rural America -- with the awestruck clarity of an innocent burned by sin. In her mother and sisters she sees fear and small-mindedness; in the eyes of local boys she sees racial hatred and hunger for war. When that war finally comes, it offers her a chance for escape -to California, and the caring arms of Gordon Benally a Native-American soldier. But when she returns to Texas she must face the rejection of a town still gripped by suspicion -- and confront the memory of the crime that has marked her soul since adolescence.

Propelled by the quiet power of one woman's voice, The Water and the Blood is a moving and unforgettable portrait of an America of haunted women and dangerous fools -- an America at once long perished and with us still."

Nancy has continued the account of her grandmother's life with "Sarah's Quilt. A Novel of Sarah Agnes Prine and the Arizona Territories, 1906" and "The Star Garden". 

Turner, Nancy E. "Sarah's Quilt"

Turner, Nancy E. "Sarah's Quilt. A Novel of Sarah Agnes Prine and the Arizona Territories, 1906" - 2006

The second part of the trilogy that started with "These is my Words", the continuation of the life of Sarah Agnes Prine after the death of her beloved husband. Life has to go on for the widow and her children and Nancy Turner describes the events in her courageous grandmother's life as well as in her first book.

If you liked "These is my Words", you should carry on reading this one.

Nancy has continued the account of her grandmother's life with "The Star Garden". If you like her books, you might want to try "The Water and the Blood", as well.

From the back cover:

"In These Is My Words, Sarah Agnes Prine told the spellbinding story of an extraordinary pioneer woman and her struggle to make a home in the Arizona Territories. Now, in this mesmerizing sequel, a three-year drought has made Sarah desperate for water. And just when it seems that life couldn't get worse, she learns that her brother and his family are trapped in the Great San Francisco Earthquake. A heartwarming blend of stubbornness and compassion, Sarah Agnes Prine will once again capture the hearts of readers everywhere. "

Calvino, Italo "If on a Winter's Night a Traveller"

Calvino, Italo "If on a Winter's Night a Traveller" (Italian: Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore) - 1979

One of the most weird - but also most interesting - books I ever read, a reader is trying to read a book called "If on a Winter's Night a Traveller". The book is partly about the reader's life and partly about the books he is trying to read.

An interesting concept, I never read a book like this before. I'm not into short stories but these aren't short stories, these are beginnings of long stories, however, we never hear the end, so we have to make them up ourselves. Makes you think.

I really like this book.

From the back cover:

"Italo Calvino's masterpiece combines a love story and a detective story into an exhilarating allegory of reading, in which the reader of the book becomes the book's central character.

Based on a witty analogy between the reader's desire to finish the story and the lover's desire to consummate his or her passion, If On A Winter's Night A Traveller is the tale of two bemused readers whose attempts to reach the end of the same book, If On A Winter's Night A Traveller by Italo Calvino, of course, are constantly and comically frustrated. In between chasing missing chapters of the book, the hapless readers tangle with an international conspiracy, a rogue translator, an elusive novelist, a disintegrating publishing house, and several oppressive governments. The result is a literary labyrinth of storylines that interrupt one another - an Arabian Nights of the postmodern age."

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

Trollope, Anthony "Barchester Chronicles"

Trollope, Anthony "The Warden" - Barchester Chronicles 1 - 1855
Trollope, Anthony "Barchester Towers" - Barchester Chronicles 2 - 1857
Trollope, Anthony "Doctor Thorne" - Barchester Chronicles 3 - 1858
Trollope, Anthony "Framley Parsonage" - Barchester Chronicles 4 - 1861
Trollope, Anthony "The Small House at Allington" - Barchester Chronicles 5 - 1864
Trollope, Anthony "The Last Chronicle of Barset" - Barchester Chronicles 6 - 1867

I love these novels because there are so many different themes in the whole series. If you look for a long term commitment and like classical novels, this one's for you.

Trollope, Anthony "The Warden" - Barchester Chronicles 1 - 1855

This novel from the middle of the 19th century describes the life of the people in the Victorian world, a fictive town, Barchester, in a fictive county, Barsetshire, with a cathedral and all its paraphernalia. Trollope describes mainly the life of the ecclesiastical population, this time the main character is the warden of an almshouse and his conflicts.

From the back cover:
"This book centres on Mr. Harding, a clergyman of great personal integrity who is nevertheless in possession of an income from a charity far in excess of the sum devoted to the purposes of the foundation. On discovering this, young John Bold turns his reforming zeal to exposing what he regards as an abuse of privilege, despite the fact that he is in love with Mr. Harding's daughter Eleanor."

Trollope, Anthony "Barchester Towers" - Barchester Chronicles 2 - 1857

I read this second and probably most popular novel of the Barchester Chronicles with my former book club in England, so more than a decade ago. In the meantime, I have finished them all, so I put the descriptions about all of them into one post.

The novel centres around the appointment of a new bishop and all the intrigues around that. It continues the story of the warden and his daughters and introduces new characters that will become more important as the story progresses.

You can read this novel on its own but it is so much more fulfilling if you read "The Warden" first.

As I said above, I really love these novels, they are so diverse.

We discussed this in our British Book Club in July 1999.

From the back cover:
"After the death of old Dr Grantly, a bitter struggle begins over who will succeed him as Bishop of Barchester. And when the decision is finally made to appoint the evangelical Dr Proudie, rather than the son of the old bishop, Archdeacon Grantly, resentment and suspicion threaten to cause deep divisions within the diocese. Trollope’s masterly depiction of the plotting and back-stabbing that ensues lies at the heart of one of the most vivid and comic of his Barsetshire novels, peopled by such very different figures as the saintly Warden of Hiram’s Hospital, Septimus Harding, the ineffectual but well-meaning new bishop and his terrifying wife, and the oily chaplain Mr Slope who has designs both on Mr Harding’s daughter and the fascinating would-be femme fatale Signora Vesey-Neroni."

Trollope, Anthony "Doctor Thorne" - Barchester Chronicles 3 - 1858

Even though I like all of the Barchester Chronicles, this is my favourite.

Trollope manages to describe the people in his fictive city so well, you think you live among them. The life of Mary Thorne and her uncle is quiet though there are quite a few skeletons in the closet.

From the back cover:
"Doctor Thorne, considered by Trollope to be the best of his works, is a telling examination of the relationship between money and morality.

It recounts the story of the son of a bankrupt landowner, Frank Gresham, who is intent on marrying his beloved Mary Thorne despite her illegitimacy and apparent poverty. Frank's ambitious mother and haughty aunt are set against the match, however, and push him to make a good marriage to a wealthy heiress. Only Mary's loving uncle, Dr Thorne, knows of the fortune she is about to inherit - but believes she should be accepted on her own terms. The third book in the Chronicles of Barsetshire."

Trollope, Anthony "Framley Parsonage" - Barchester Chronicles 4 - 1861

As all the other novels of the Barchester Chronicles, this book is very interesting as it describes the life of ordinary and non-ordinary people of the author's time so well. The problems the main character has seem so well known even a century and a half after his story. He is a young clergyman with ambitions who gets caught up in politics. As in all the other novels, Anthony Trollope manages to tell the story with great compassion.

From the back cover:
"The fourth of the Barsetshire Chronicles, Framley Parsonage was published in 1860 to wide acclaim and has always been one of Trollope's most popular novels. In it the values of a Victorian clergyman Mark Robarts, are put to the test. Through a combination of naivety and social ambition, Robarts is compromised and brought to the brink of ruin. Trollope tells his story with great compassion, offsetting the drama with his customary humour. Like all the Barsetshire novels, it is an extraordinarily evocative picture of everyday life in nineteenth-century England.

The only printing of Framley Parsonage that Trollope himself supervised was the serial version in the Cornhill Magazine. The editors of this edition have returned to that text and thus present Trollope's work as he himself would have wished, avoiding hundreds of later corruptions and restoring a number of manuscript readings."

Trollope, Anthony "The Small House at Allington" - Barchester Chronicles 5 - 1864

A lot of events happen in this novel that would probably not happen today, at least not in that way. However, as all the other books in this series, Trollope is able to portray some very lively and modern personae, describe life at the end of the 19th century in a very interesting and accessible way and write a fascinating and enthralling story.

From the back cover:
"Engaged to the ambitious and self-serving Adolphus Crosbie, Lily Dale is devastated when he jilts her for the aristocratic Lady Alexandrina. Although crushed by his faithlessness, Lily still believes she is bound to her unworthy former fiancé for life and therefore condemned to remain single after his betrayal. And when a more deserving suitor pays his addresses, she is unable to see past her feelings for Crosbie.

Written when Trollope was at the height of his popularity, The Small House at Allington contains his most admired heroine in Lily Dale - a young woman of independent spirit who nonetheless longs to be loved - and is a moving dramatization of the ways in which personal dilemmas are affected by social pressures."

Trollope, Anthony "The Last Chronicle of Barset" - Barchester Chronicles 6 - 1867

As the title suggests, this is the last book in the series. It includes a couple of scandals and a lot of other social problems. We see many of our old friends again and meet quite a few new ones. This is the longest of the novels, almost 900 pages, very detailed and descriptive. Together with “Doctor Thorne”, this is one of my favourites.

From the back cover:
"When Reverend Josiah Crawley, the impoverished curate of Hogglestock, is accused of theft it causes a public scandal, sending shockwaves through the world of Barsetshire. The Crawleys desperately try to remain dignified while they are shunned by society, but the scandal threatens to tear them, and the community, apart.

Drawing on his own childhood experience of genteel poverty, Trollope gives a painstakingly realistic depiction of the trials of a family striving to maintain its standards at all costs. With its sensitive portrayal of the proud and self-destructive figure of Crawley, this final volume is the darkest and most complex of all the Barsetshire novels."

I am glad I read the series.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

Interesting Links

The web is full of interesting links, links to books I read, links to subjects covered in the books I read, links to subjects not covered in the books I read. Some are helpful, some are interesting, some are just funny.

I would like to share some of those links that interest me, hopefully they will be interesting for some of you, too.

My Goodreads Profile

Everything about books

"Ten best bookshops in the world" - nice page about some great bookshops

"Tien beste bookhandels/mooiste ter wereld" - and another one in Dutch (but the shops are also all over the world.

And here some interesting bookshelves.

The Book Surgeon - what one person can do with books.

Best Sellers the week you were born

Bookmans does dominoes

Did you know the BOOK?

For a better world

Half the Sky - How women can get help all over the world
A Walk to Beautiful - a fascinating movie about how Ethiopian women get help

The Girl Effect - how a twelve year old girl could be the solution to what the world needs now.

The Kindness Movement - it started with a small idea

Languages
"Third Culture Kids" - a helpful site for everyone who raises their children abroad or who grew up in a different country from their parents.

Bilinguals see the world in a different way - an article about the studies to this .

The English Spelling Society - Spelling Poems

Spell Checker Poem

The worst language I've ever seen

Top list of the Hardest Languages to learn

"Mayday, Mayday, we're sinking ..."

Esperanto

You will find a lot of information about Esperanto in my Esperanto List.

Health

"The Spoon Theory" - someone with a chronic disease explains how it feels to someone who is always healthy.

How to understand someone with Chronic Pain

There are more links about migraine in my list "Migraine Books and Links".

My talented friends:

The Artwork of Ardith Goodwin
Hanka and Frank Koebsch 

Other Art Pages

Alternative Christmas Trees

Other topics

The True Size of Africa

Learn Morse Code

Evolution - a video all girls (and boys) should see

Some fun

London Underground Anagram Map

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch - Learn it in 4 minutes

Cheap Flights by Fascinating Aida - great explanation how we end up paying a lot anyway

Axis of Awesome - 4 Chord Song

The Perils of Voice Recognition Technology

The Mom Song

Lamb, Wally "She's Come Undone"

Lamb, Wally "She's Come Undone" - 1997

The first Wally Lamb I read, one of the books I discussed with my Dutch book club. I don't remember the discussion very well, it's been more than a decade ago but we never had very big discussions about our books there. I do remember the book, though.

Mother-daughter relationship, religion, death and coming to terms with it, obesity, self-delusion, women-men relationships, change in our culture, this book has it all. A lot of familiarity with the characters, sometimes you have to laugh about that, sometimes you feel "touché".

If you like a book that addresses problems and is fun to read, this will be a book for you. I liked it a lot.

We discussed "The Hour I First Believed" in our international book club in January 2010 and this in our Dutch International Women's Book Club in 2000/2001. I have since also read "I know this much is true" and his next books, find the reviews here.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

From the back cover:

"In this extraordinary coming-of-age odyssey, Wally Lamb invites us to hitch a wild ride on a journey of love, pain, and renewal with the most heartbreakingly comical heroine to come along in years.

Meet Dolores Price. She's 13, wise-mouthed but wounded, having bid her childhood goodbye. Stranded in front of her bedroom TV, she spends the next few years nourishing herself with the Mallomars, potato chips, and Pepsi her anxious mother supplies. When she finally orbits into young womanhood at 257 pounds, Dolores is no stronger and life is no kinder. But this time she's determined to rise to the occasion and give herself one more chance before she really goes under."

Kristof, Nicholas D. & WuDunn, Sheryl "Half the Sky"

Kristof, Nicholas D. & WuDunn, Sheryl "Half the Sky. How to Change the World" - 2009

"Half the Sky" - What shall I say about this book other than it is the most extraordinary one ever? Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn are an American-Chinese journalist couple who have travelled the world and give us a heart-rendering account of women's lives all over this globe, women struggling to make ends meet, women who have to fight for every little thing but especially for their life.

The authors don't just tell us about the problems that exist in various parts of Africa and Asia, they also come up with a lot of ideas on how to help these women, ideas that already work, ideas that help. That is the best thing about this report, it gives us hope that something can be done to end this misery and injustice.

The subjects go from human trafficking, slavery, prostitution, rape, honour killings to genital mutilation, maternal mortality, family planning, education, microcredits, anything you can think of that can be done to a human being will be done somewhere, and it's usually the women who have to suffer.

They also have started a foundation, read more about it here: "Half the Sky Foundation"

This book can change your life. Read it.

We discussed this in our international book club in May 2012.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

From the back cover:

"A call to arms against our era’s most pervasive human rights violation: the oppression of women in the developing world.

With Pulitzer Prize winners Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn as our guides, we undertake a journey through Africa and Asia to meet an extraordinary array of women struggling under profoundly dire circumstances: a Cambodian teenager sold into sex slavery; an Ethiopian woman left for dead after a difficult birth; an Afghan wife beaten ruthlessly by her husband and mother-in-law. But we meet, as well, those who have triumphed - a formerly illiterate fistula patient who became a surgeon in Addis Ababa; an Indian woman who saved herself and her children from prostitution - and those who make it their work to provide hope and help to other women: the victim of gang rape who galvanized the international community and created schools in rural Pakistan; the former Peace Corps volunteer who founded an organization that educates and campaigns for women’s rights in Senegal. Through their stories, Kristof and WuDunn help us see that the key to progress lies in unleashing women’s potential - and they make clear how each of us can help make that happen.

Fiercely moral, pragmatic, and inspirational, Half the Sky is essential reading for every global citizen."

The authors won the Pulitzer Prize for their reports about China in the New York Times in 1990.

Rutherfurd, Edward "The Forest"

Rutherfurd, Edward "The Forest" - 2000

After having read and enjoyed "London", I was really looking forward to another one of Edward Rutherfurd's historical novels. Sometimes, you read one book by an author and then put so much hope into his next one that it can only be a disappointment. Not in this case. "The Forest" is just as exciting and detailed as "London".

Edward Rutherford describes the history of the New Forest, from William the Conqueror until today through the people living there. This book has it all, from the Normans to the Spanish Armada, the days of witchcraft, smuggling and Jane Austen, the people stay faithful to the forest that is giving them their livelihood.

If you love England, this is the book for you. If you love Ireland and/or Edward Rutherfurd, I also recommend "Dublin" and "Awakening"

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

From the back cover:

"Few places lie closer to the heart of the nation's heritage than the New Forest. Now, Edward Rutherfurd, weaves its history and legends into compelling fiction. From the mysterious killing of King William Rufus, treachery and witchcraft, smuggling and poaching run through this epic tale of well-born ladies, lowly woodsmen, sailors, merchants and Cistercian monks. The feuds, wars, loyalties and passions of generations reach their climax in a crime that shatters the decorous society of Jane Austen's Bath, and whose ramifications continue through the age of the Victorian railway builders to the ecologists of the present day."

Find a link to all my reviews on his other novels here.

Albom, Mitch "Tuesdays with Morrie"

Albom, Mitch "Tuesdays with Morrie" - 1997

This book is telling the relationship between Mitch Albom, a sports reporter, and his former university professor. The author hears about his professor falling sick and starts visiting him every Tuesday.

It is a very moving and touching book. You learn about life and death and how to deal with it.

For me, it was even more personal when I found out that a friend of mine had been diagnosed with ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease) a couple of weeks later. Unfortunately, she was too far away by then for me to help her but she had a great circle of friends who accompanied her until the end.

From the back cover:

"Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher or a colleague. Someone older, patient and wise, who understood you when you were young and searching, and gave you sound advice to help you make your way through it. For Mitch Albom, that person was Morrie Schwartz, his college professor from nearly twenty years ago.

Maybe, like Mitch, you lost track of this mentor as you made your way, and the insights faded. Wouldn't you like to see that person again, ask the bigger questions that still haunt you?

Mitch Albom had that second chance. He rediscovered Morrie in the last months of the older man's life. Knowing he was dying of ALS - or motor neurone disease - Mitch visited Morrie in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final 'class': lessons in how to live."

We discussed Mitch Albom's next book "The five people you meet in heaven" in our international book club in December 2008.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

Kehlmann, Daniel "Measuring the World"

Kehlmann, Daniel "Measuring the World" (German: Die Vermessung der Welt)  - 2005

Apparently, this is the most successful German novel since Patrick Suskind's "Perfume" and has knocked J. K. Rowling and Dan Brown off the bestseller lists.

I can very well believe that. The author talks about two brilliant German scientists of the 18th century, the explorer and naturalist Alexander von Humboldt and the great mathematician and physicist Carl Friedrich Gauss. These two guys were the brain of the late 18th century. Humboldt explored the world, well, mainly South America and accounts for a lot of discoveries and findings of that time, Gauss was one of the biggest mathematicians ever, already as a young boy he developed mathematical formulas we still use today, he found out a lot about space, you can say together they "measured the world" as we know it. This is a wonderful story of two extremely successful and interesting lives, and  even if you're not interested in science at all, there is a lot to be learned from that period.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading about it.

Eleven years after reading this myself - alone, this was our international online book club novel for April 2022.

Comments:

• The last book was a huge success among the Finnish members. Everybody really enjoyed it and considered the author to be a great artist in telling the story.
   
• He really managed to make the story pull you in and make you laugh and really want to read all the way through to the end.
  
  
• The characters were interesting to follow and it felt great reading about characters that share some qualities with our members.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

From the back cover:

"The young Austrian writer Daniel Kehlmann conjures a brilliant and gently comic novel from the lives of two geniuses of the Enlightenment.

Toward the end of the eighteenth century, two young Germans set out to measure the world. One of them, the Prussian aristocrat Alexander von Humboldt, negotiates savanna and jungle, travels down the Orinoco, tastes poisons, climbs the highest mountain known to man, counts head lice, and explores every hole in the ground. The other, the barely socialized mathematician and astronomer Carl Friedrich Gauss, does not even need to leave his home in Göttingen to prove that space is curved. He can run prime numbers in his head. He cannot imagine a life without women, yet he jumps out of bed on his wedding night to jot down a mathematical formula. Von Humboldt is known to history as the Second Columbus. Gauss is recognized as the greatest mathematical brain since Newton. Terrifyingly famous and more than eccentric in their old age, the two meet in Berlin in 1828. Gauss has hardly climbed out of his carriage before both men are embroiled in the political turmoil sweeping through Germany after Napoleon’s fall.

Already a huge best seller in Germany, Measuring the World marks the debut of a glorious new talent on the international scene."

Byatt, A.S. "Possession"

Byatt, A.S. "Possession" - 1990

Possession is a great book. I love it. There are two stories playing at the same time. Roland Mitchell, an American researcher at a London university, tries to find information about the fictitious Victorian poet Randolph Henry Ash. This leads him to Maud Bailey, a professor at Lincoln University who is an expert on another fictitious Victorian poet, Christabel LaMotte. While they discover a common past of the two poets and unfold a mystery, their lives begin to take on a turn parallel to that of the two poets.

The different chapters always start with a poem written by one of the two poets. When I read the book for the first time, I just left them out, I'm not a big poetry lover. However, when I read it again, I concentrated on them because they add a lot to the story.

I love classic novels and although this isn't one, it reads like one. Plus there is the time the two poets lived in that gives you the feeling of being in a classic book. Did I say I love it?

There is also a movie starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Aaron Eckhart as the contemporary and Jennifer Ehle and Jeremy Northam as the Victorian characters, I am often disappointed about movies made of my favourite books but this one is just as interesting as the novel.

I have read this book about half a dozen times and my paperback is falling to pieces. So I have decided that I need another copy - something I hardly ever do.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

A.S. Byatt won the Booker Prize for "Possession" in 1990.

From the back cover:

"Possession is an exhilarating novel of wit and romance, at once a literary detective novel and a triumphant love story. It is the tale of a pair of young scholars investigating the lives of two Victorian poets. Following a trail of letters, journals and poems they uncover a web of passion, deceit and tragedy, and their quest becomes a battle against time."

In the meantime, I have also read "Ragnarok. The End of the Gods" by A.S. Byatt. I did not enjoy it as much as this one.

Abdolah, Kader "The House of the Mosque"

Abdolah, Kader (Hossein Sadjadi Ghaemmaghami Farahani) "The House of the Mosque" (Dutch: Het huis van de moskee) - 2005

This book had been on our wish list since 2005, unfortunately, it took a couple of years until it was translated, even though it was elected the 2nd best Dutch novel ever (after "The Discovery of Heaven" which we read in February 2004). It seems to always take ages to translate novels into English. Our Dutch member heard a lot about the novel in the Netherlands, even saw the author.

Even though this is not an autobiography, the author's life resembles that of his main character, e.g. he wanted to study literature but studied physics.

Everybody present liked or really loved the book, most really loved it. We liked to read about the symbols, grandmothers, place of women, warning against fundamentalists, fanaticism. The book is a good teacher. The novel contains a lot of information about Iran, immigrants, the political situation.

It is told on three different levels, mythical, mystical, actual. Many symbols. Each chapter is introduced by a phrase from the Koran, we loved that. Persians seem intelligent, educated, beautiful, elegant. It is a beautiful description of the sense of displacement and loss. The author shows life in different classes, the power of industrialisation, the power of the bazaar. This book definitely makes you want to know more about the topic.

It is hard to  imagine living in the midst of the revolution, therefore this gives you a very good account. They had an ordinary society before, then everything went wrong.

Some were also more interested in the political aspects, communism, religious dictatorship, this book had it all. It also contains a lot of poetry which not all of us liked. We loved the description of people, society, history.

Apparently, Kader Abdolah suggests "My Father's Notebook", he likes it better. He also writes a weekly article in the "Volkskrant", a Dutch newspaper.

We discussed this in our international book club in September 2010.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2023.

From the back cover:

"A sweeping, compelling story which brings to life the Iranian Revolution, from an author who experienced it first-hand.

In the house of the mosque, the family of Aqa Jaan has lived for eight centuries. Now it is occupied by three cousins: Aqa Jaan, a merchant and head of the city's bazaar; Alsaberi, the imam of the mosque; and Aqa Shoja, the mosque's muezzin. The house itself teems with life, as each of their families grows up with their own triumphs and tragedies.

Sadiq is waiting for a suitor to knock at the door to ask for her hand, while her two grandmothers sweep the floors each morning dreaming of travelling to Mecca. Meanwhile, Shahbal longs only to get hold of a television to watch the first moon landing. All these daily dramas are played out under the watchful eyes of the storks that nest on the minarets above.

But this family will experience upheaval unknown to previous generations. For in Iran, political unrest is brewing. The shah is losing his hold on power; the ayatollah incites rebellion from his exile in France; and one day the ayatollah returns. The consequences will be felt in every corner of Aqa Jaan's family."

Pollock, David C., & Van Reken, Ruth "Third Culture Kids"

Pollock, David C. & Van Reken, Ruth "Third Culture Kids: The Experience of Growing Up Among Worlds" - 2001

"In this publication, the authors explore the experiences of those who have become known as 'third culture kids' (TCKs) - children who grow up or spend a significant part of their childhood living abroad."

If you live/d abroad with your children for only a couple of years or if you grew up in different countries or in a country different from your parents, this is the book to read. The authors examine the impact on children moving from their home country (1st culture) to another country (2nd culture) who generate a 3rd one. They look at the challenges of both moving to the new culture and returning to the old one. We found the book insightful and helpful, and it gave some practical advice on how to approach some of the challenges.

Everything in this book is so true for children of our international book club members. Maybe the culture shock isn't as large as if they moved from Asia or Africa to Europe or America. Or is it larger because you don't expect a huge difference between, for example, Germany and England or England and the Netherlands? We agreed that our children are definitely more independent, better equipped for living on their own.

We discussed this in our international book club in September 2007.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2023.

From the back cover:

"Third Culture Kids speaks to the challenges and rewards of a multicultural childhood; the joy of discovery and heartbreaking loss, its effect on maturing and personal identity, and the difficulty in transitioning home." 

The authors have set up a website for more information:
TCKWorld: The Official Home of Third Culture Kids (TCKs) 
An interesting blog: Language on the Move

Gruen, Sara "Water for Elephants"

Gruen, Sara "Water for Elephants" - 2006

The majority of our readers liked this book. I didn't. The pro arguments: it was a nice, light, easy, fast read. Not necessarily something I'm usually looking for.

Anyway, an old man in a care center reminisces about his life in the circus. The readers who liked the book quite liked the stories about the circus and some of us were caregivers and they liked that description. I'm not a huge fan of circuses in the first place and I didn't like that the main character more or less threw his life away. I found the story shallow (and I wasn't the only one).

From the back cover:

"When Jacob Jankowski, recently orphaned and suddenly adrift, jumps onto a passing train, he enters a world of freaks, grifters, and misfits the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth a second-rate travelling circus struggling to survive during the Great Depression, making one-night stands in town after endless town.

Jacob, a veterinary student who almost earned his degree, is put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. It is there that he meets Marlena, the beautiful young star of the equestrian act, who is married to August, the charismatic but twisted animal trainer. He also meets Rosie, an elephant who seems untrainable until he discovers a way to reach her.

'Water for Elephants' is illuminated by a wonderful sense of time and place. It tells a story of a love between two people that overcomes incredible odds in a world in which even love is a luxury that few can afford."

We discussed this in our international book club in September 2009.

Sobel, Dava "Galileo's Daughter"

Sobel, Dava "Galileo's Daughter: A Drama of Science, Faith and Love" - 2000

A very interesting book. Although, we thought the title is not entirely correct since this book is more about Galileo himself than about his daughter.

However, the life Galileo led is portrayed very well. He was a brilliant mind - and so was his daughter. The book describes the time and the difficulties scientists had to deal with as well as the different circumstances in which people lived at the time. The choice women had was not great, well, almost non-existent. They could either marry or enter a convent. They had to deal with a lot of illnesses, including the plague. The inhabitants of the Franciscan convent had to endure a hard life, they almost starved themselves to death because of their poverty. They showed tremendous courage.

I liked this book very much because I love reading about people in different times. We agreed that most of us would never have picked up this book if it wasn't for the book club.

My favourite quote: "The Bible is about how one goes to Heaven - not how Heaven goes." (page 65)

We discussed this in our international book club in September 2006.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2023.

From the back cover:

"Galileo Galilei is famous for many things: for his science (Einstein called him the 'father of modern physics'); for his flamboyant style (he wrote in Italian not Latin, enlivened texts with rough humour, argued loudly in staged debates) and for his harsh treatment by the Catholic Church. What's less well known are the details of his private life - a life that, as Dava Sobel points out in Galileo's Daughter, was just as complex as the scientist's public life. Galileo had three illegitimate children; the book's title refers to the oldest, Virginia, later Suor Maria Celeste (she took the name in acknowledgement of her father's fascination with the stars). Unable to marry because of her illegitimate status, Virginia entered a convent at 13 and maintained a lifelong correspondence with her father. Sobel has translated Virginia's surviving letters for the first time and, combining those letters, commentary, and gorgeous illustrations, she sets out in Galileo's Daughter to illuminate a different side of Galileo, the father deeply committed to his daughter and to her faith."

Cullen, Bill "It's a long way from Penny Apples"

Cullen, Bill "It's a long way from Penny Apples" - 2003

The story of an Irish boy who grew up in poverty and made it to one of the top businessmen in Ireland. I liked the way Bill Cullen told his story as much as the story itself. It's funny and full of love. You got to know the family and everything well. A story that shows how determination and hard work can get you somewhere with a little bit of luck. And, I finally understood the pre-decimal monetary system. I really liked this autobiography.

We discussed this in our book club in September 2004.

From the back cover:

"Cullen's memoir attempts to do for Dublin what Angela's Ashes did for Limerick. Born in the slums in 1942, one of 12 children, Cullen lived a life shaped by hard work, the Catholic Church and family. But unlike McCourt's unrelentingly sad account, Cullen's work trumpets the inner strength and humanity of Irish tenement dwellers. The Cullens may have been poor, but they were resilient. Young Liam, as he was called, worked the market stalls, selling everything from fish to newspapers. En route, he acquired an early and invaluable business education. His parents are a study in true grit, often toiling 15-hour days, while his grandmother instills in Liam a fierce pride in all things Irish, insisting, 'Never forget your roots.' And he never does. Indeed, he parlays a gift for math into a scholarship, managing to attend school and work every day. By the time he's a teen, he's putting in 75 hours a week at a Ford dealership. And it's there, aided by luck and street smarts, that he strikes it rich. The poor boy turns millionaire, moving from Ford franchise owner to CEO of Glencullen Motor Group. Although his early years are far more colorful and compelling than his later adult experiences, Cullen tells this rousing, heartfelt story with flair, honestly recounting the verbal and sexual brutality of some priests, the generosity of his community and his drive to succeed."

Milton, Giles "Nathaniel's Nutmeg"

Milton, Giles "Nathaniel's Nutmeg: How One Man's Courage Changed the Course of History" - 1999

"Would you believe that nutmeg formed the basis of one of the most bitter international conflicts of the 17th century, and was also intimately connected to New York City's rise to global preeminence? Strange but true: nutmeg was, in fact, one of the most prized commodities in Renaissance Europe, and its fascinating story is told in Giles Milton's delightful "Nathaniel's Nutmeg'".

This historical book is written like a crime novel. We learned a lot about the history in the Pacific, as well as colonialism, and how one guy and small island can change the whole world forever. Very interestingly written, hugely fascinating story.

The book spans the history of the 17th century, how the British East Indian Company and the Dutch East Indian Company fought over parts on the other side of the world and how that affected even today's world.

How did it happen that we chose this book as our first ever read? We all had brought our favourite books to the first meeting at my house but then decided we'd rather choose a book nobody had read so far. I then brought in some new books that I'd just bought and this sounded so interesting, we only found out while reading it that it is non-fiction. Still, it was a great start.

We discussed this in our international book club in September 2001.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2023.

From the back cover:

"In 1616, an English adventurer, Nathaniel Courthope, stepped ashore on a remote island in the East Indies on a secret mission - to persuade the islanders of Run to grant a monopoly to England over their nutmeg, a fabulously valuable spice in Europe. This infuriated the Dutch, who were determined to control the world’s nutmeg supply. For five years Courthope and his band of thirty men were besieged by a force one hundred times greater - and his heroism set in motion the events that led to the founding of the greatest city on earth.

A beautifully told adventure story and a fascinating depiction of exploration in the seventeenth century, NATHANIEL’S NUTMEG sheds a remarkable light on history."

Soueif, Ahdaf "The Map of Love"

Soueif, Ahdaf "The Map of Love" - 1999

I have read this book a couple of times now, first with my old Dutch book club, then I suggested it to the international one.

The story informs about the history of Egypt, is a family saga and a love story, well, actually a couple of love stories. An American woman discovers old documents of her family, both in English and Arabic. Through a friend she is directed to an Egyptian woman and the two of them go through the documents and their mutual history. Most of the documents relate to the love between an English Lady and an Egyptian Nationalist in 1900. The two women find a link between their two families.
This book describes British Colonialism, Egyptian nationalism and the difference between the two people both a hundred years ago and today.

The novel has everything, drama, history, modern times, love story, politics, you name it. I loved it. It might be even more important today than it was ten years ago.

We discussed this in our international book club in September 2002 and in our Dutch International Women's Book Club in 2000/2001.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2023.

From the back cover: 

 

"In 1900 Lady Anna Winterbourne travels to Egypt where she falls in love with Sharif, and Egyptian Nationalist utterly committed to his country's cause. A hundred years later, Isabel Parkman, an American divorcee and a descendant of Anna and Sharif, goes to Egypt, taking with her an old family trunk, inside which are found notebooks and journals which reveal Anna and Sharif's secret."

Ahdaf Soueif was shortlisted for the Booker Prize "The Map of Love" in 1999.

I also read "Aisha", a collection of short stories. I'm not a big fan of short stories but these are very good. One could say that I am a fan of Ahdaf Soueid's work.

Némirovsky, Irène "Suite Française"

Némirovsky, Irène "Suite Française" (French: Suite Française) - 2004

Even though Iréne Némirovsky died in the concentration camp in Auschwitz in 1942, her novel "Suite Française" was only discovered after her daughter wanted to donate all her papers to a French archive and then had it published in 2004, more than sixty years after her far too early death. Originally, she had intended to write this book in five parts, alas, she only managed to finish two of them.

The interesting side of this novel is that it was written during the war when everything was very fresh and nobody knew the outcome, especially not the author. You have the feeling you are there, it is not an account that someone wrote a couple of decades later, it is "now".

The first part describes the flight of the rich people from Paris after the Germans advance toward the city. The second part is situated in a small town during the German occupation. The third part was planned to be about the restiance and then one about the battles and the last about peace. Nice plan, would have been the greatest book about France and its role during the war, if she had been able to finish it.

However, both parts can stand for themselves (even though one or the other person appears again), so you can read it without the missing parts.

If you're at all interested in WWII, read this book. I read the French original but I've been told that the English translation is very good.

From the back cover: "In 1941, Irène Némirovsky sat down to write a book that would convey the magnitude of what she was living through by evoking the domestic lives and personal trials of the ordinary citizens of France. Némirovsky's death in Auschwitz in 1942 prevented her from seeing the day, sixty-five years later, that the existing two sections of her planned novel sequence, Suite Française, would be rediscovered and hailed as a masterpiece.
Set during the year that France fell to the Nazis, Suite Française falls into two parts. The first is a brilliant depiction of a group of Parisians as they flee the Nazi invasion; the second follows the inhabitants of a small rural community under occupation. Suite Française is a novel that teems with wonderful characters struggling with the new regime. However, amidst the mess of defeat, and all the hypocrisy and compromise, there is hope. True nobility and love exist, but often in surprising places."

Carter, Jimmy "We Can Have Peace In The Holy Land"

Carter, Jimmy "We Can Have Peace In The Holy Land. A Plan That Will Work" - 2008

You can tell Jimmy Carter has a lot of experience in this very difficult situation. His ideas are certainly worth considering. He explains the whole background about the problems in the Middle East including all his and other people's efforts to try solving the mess created decades (or even longer) ago.

Anyone should be interested in this topic since it has gone far beyond that little area. And even if it was only for that area, it is far too important to bring peace to an area that has suffered for so long.

An interesting book for anyone who is interested in world politics, especially the Middle East.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2023.

From the back cover:

"In this urgent, balanced, and passionate book, Nobel Peace Laureate and former President Jimmy Carter argues that the present moment is a unique time for achieving peace in the Middle East -- and he offers a bold and comprehensive plan to do just that. President Carter has been a student of the biblical Holy Land all his life. For the last three decades, as president of the United States and as founder of The Carter Center, he has studied the complex and interrelated issues of the region's conflicts and has been actively involved in reconciling them. He knows the leaders of all factions in the region who will need to play key roles, and he sees encouraging signs among them.

Carter describes the history of previous peace efforts and why they fell short. He argues persuasively that the road to a peace agreement is now open and that it has broad international and regional support. Most of all, since there will be no progress without courageous and sustained U.S. leadership, he says the time for progress is now. President Barack Obama is committed to a personal effort to exert that leadership, starting early in his administration.

This is President Carter's call for action, and he lays out a practical and doable path to peace."

Jimmy Carter received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2002 "for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development."

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Mortenson, Greg & Bryan, Mike "Stones into Schools"

Mortenson, Greg & Bryan, Mike "Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan" - 2009

After having read Greg Mortenson's "Three Cups of Tea.: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time" in our book club in 2005, I was delighted that his follow-up was chosen as one of our reads for this year.

Quite a few of us had read "Three Cups of Tea" but you can easily read this just on its own because he gives a good introduction and also revisits stations of his projects throughout the book.

We all loved it, thought this was even better than the first one, maybe it was because he had a different co-writer or he was getting further with his project, whatever, it was a very pleasurable read.

We could not help thinking about him and his wife. They raised lovely kids. He has a great strength of character and patience. If he is a hero, his wife is a saint.

He describes his local co-workers as "The Dirty Dozen", they reminded us more of the United Nations, and being the head of such a diverse group is a great achievement.

Even though someone said she had more questions after than before, and we all agreed to that, we did find the book has a great message. Education is important, especially for women. Being able to read is so essential. If you cannot read, you cannot achieve anything.

Someone quoted "Teach a man and you teach an individual, teach a woman and you teach a generation". This is true, today more than ever.

We also learned that it is very important that help is coordinated, we have to know what people need. And: Listen more, speak less.

My favourite quote from the book: "When you take the time to actually listen, with humility, to what people have to say, it's amazing what you can learn. Especially if people who are doing the talking also happen to be children."

We discussed this in our international book club in April 2011.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2023.

From the back cover:

"From the author of the #1 bestseller Three Cups of Tea, the continuing story of this determined humanitarian's efforts to promote peace through education.

In this dramatic first-person narrative, Greg Mortenson picks up where Three Cups of Tea left off in 2003, recounting his relentless, ongoing efforts to establish schools for girls in Afghanistan; his extensive work in Azad Kashmir and Pakistan after a massive earthquake hit the region in 2005; and the unique ways he has built relationships with Islamic clerics, militia commanders, and tribal leaders. He shares for the first time his broader vision to promote peace through education and literacy, as well as touching on military matters, Islam, and women-all woven together with the many rich personal stories of the people who have been involved in this remarkable two-decade humanitarian effort.

Since the 2006 publication of Three Cups of Tea, Mortenson has traveled across the U.S. and the world to share his vision with hundreds of thousands of people. He has met with heads of state, top military officials, and leading politicians who all seek his advice and insight. The continued phenomenal success of Three Cups of Tea proves that there is an eager and committed audience for Mortenson's work and message."