A kind of strange book about Josh, a high school boy hitch-hiking across the country.  He is robbed, left for dead, and then picked up by a strange woman and brought back to an even stranger town.  Desperate to continue his journey and free to leave, Josh discovers that for some reason, he is unable to escape from the town.  It’s an imaginative plot, but the book as a whole didn’t do much for me.

A fictional book, based on the real-life Iqbal Mashih.  As a child, Iqbal was forced into slavery in a carpet factory.  He escaped and dedicated the rest of his life as a free child to helping other children escape.  This is a short, powerful book.   Although it’s supposed to be for children ages 8-12, I would use caution when reading it with younger children.  It gives a very accurate portrayal of modern day slavery, and deals with issues that could be very frightening for children.  With some care, it would be an excellent addition to a discussion of freedom, courage and slavery.

Lou Ann Walker is the oldest daughter of deaf parents.  As a young toddler, she learned to help her parents with tasks that they could not accomplish in the hearing world.  Walker loved her parents, but struggled to come to terms with their deafness and what it meant for her and their family.

I found this book fascinating for two reasons. First, I haven’t before read such an intimate portrait of what it means to be deaf.  A quote from Helen Keller that Walker used is a good summary of the difficulties that Walker’s parents faced:  “Blindness cuts people off from things; deafness cuts people off from people.”  Second, because Walker was born in the 1950′s, most of the technology that we take for granted today was not in use.  When Walker’s parents had to make a doctor’s appointment, they had to drive to the doctor’s office to make the appointment.  There was no email, no fax, no internet, and TTY machines were just in their beginning stages.  I wonder how the isolation that Walker’s parents felt and their dependence on others would be different today.

There’s so much more I could say about this unique book, but I just don’t have the time.  Walker should be commended for her sensitve exploration of such a personal and tender subject.

Seierstad is a Norwegian journalist who came to Afghanistan with the Northern Alliance in 2001.  She soon met an Afghani bookseller named Sultan Khan.  After visiting his bookshop and getting to know him, Seierstad decided to write a book about Sultan and his family.  In order to gather the information necessary to do this accurately, she moved into Sultan’s home and lived the life of an Afghani woman with Sultan’s family.

The Bookseller of Kabul is not Seierstad’s story.  It is the story of Sultan Khan’s family, as seen through their own eyes.  As a Western woman, it was hard for me to read.  Although Sultan’s family is relatively well-off for a family in Afghanistan, the women in his family are treated as slaves in my mind.  It’s hard for me to imagine letting my father, mother, brothers and male cousins decide when I could leave the house, if I could get a job, what job I could get, whom I could like, and whom I could marry.  The hopelessness that some of the women expressed is heartbreaking.  This is not a “happily ever after, against all odds” type of story.  It is a simple account of life as it really is for one Afghani family.

Courtesy of a friend, I was gifted several chick lit novels which of course I read ASAP.  While not life-changing, they were certainly enjoyable.  My favorite was The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger.  I’ve heard of it, but never read the book or seen the movie.  If you enjoy the “rich evil boss bested by overworked, underpaid peon” type of story, you’ll love this one.  Highly recommended, if a bit stressful to read.

Next up was Bookends by Jane Green.  This was a fun friendship book, set in Great Britain.  A group of college friends enter the real world, with all of its ups and downs.

And then we have Little Earthquakes by Jennifer Weiner.  This was a humorous and tender look at four women as they experience the first few months of motherhood.  It brought back some good and some not-so-good memories for me.

And finally, courtesy of my local library, Past Secrets by Cathy Kelly.  The women of   Summer Street deal with various secrets.  Faye must repair her relationship with her daughter Amber, Maggie returns home to nurse a broken heart and her sick mother, and Christie confronts a secret that could destroy her marriage.  I think I’ve had my fill of chick lit for awhile!  Time to read something that doesn’t turn my brain to mush…

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