Judy

A very readable and in depth look at the lives of Islamic women throughout the Middle East. The author had many contacts and access to the women interviewed in the book, with an eye toward getting at the women's stories without their being afraid for their reputations and their lives.

I especially appreciated the organization of the book, starting with individual issues involving what female children within the Islamic family are faced with, progressing into their family roles and marriage, then the larger world of school, workplace, and politics. Finally, there is the international stage of sports and the arts. Each chapter is written to show the hidden reality of women's lives in these sociological niches, and also contrasted with what the Koran says (or doesn't say!) and/or a hadith (sayings of the prophet) interpretation concerning the role or status of women in that setting. Invariably, historical/cultural practices from within the various countries seem to be the reasoning for most of the restrictions and rules placed on women, rather than something revealed from the Koran or through Mohammed.

If you enjoy reading nonfiction that reads like fiction, you'll enjoy the writing style of this book, whether the topic interests you or not. But I hope readers will feel compelled to at least pay more attention to current events in the world that work against women in the Islamic world and bring more awareness to the issues and debates.

In 1844, Henry David Thoreau accidentally set the woods surrounding Concord, Massachusetts on fire, burning over 300 acres of forest and several farms. Luckily, the fire was contained before it could reach nearby Walden Pond, where Thoreau would eventually live as a recluse and write his famous transcendentalist reflection,[bc:Walden 16902 Walden Henry David Thoreau http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348462004s/16902.jpg 2361393][b:Walden 16902 Walden Henry David Thoreau http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348462004s/16902.jpg 2361393], the following year.This book takes the Concord Woods fire of 1844 and uses it to frame an exploration into the minds and personalities of not only Thoreau, but also several other people whose lives were affected by the fire. A variety of narrators tell how and why they are in the Concord area on the day of the fire, and we come to know a range of different backgrounds and philosophies that might have been found in the New England area during the early 19th century.I enjoyed the deep, introspective writing style and intense description of events, but I felt mixed about the obvious environmentalist message being shoved into the reading. “Man's inability to conceive of the world's limits does not render the world limitless. And there is no longer a new world for the empty-handed to flee to from here.” I found those kind of pronouncements off-putting rather than inspiring. The author did such a good job of writing about the place and describing the fire, that he shouldn't need to explain and insert himself so much into the story. I'd suggest this book to anyone who has, or wants to enjoy the writings of Thoreau or any of the transcendentalist writers of the 19th century. The book is also a good example of writing with a sense of place, so if you enjoy natural history, especially in the early New England area, you would also find the book quite readable.

A book you finish and want to share with everyone you know. Amazing use of language and style to capture the idea of words being “live” things that can help as well as harm. If you are a book lover, you'll love the way reading, books and writing become almost human in this story. At first, I struggled to get used to the idea of “Death” being the narrator, and the time-shifting in the story, but soon it became simply the “way” this story had to be told. And it works beautifully—I imagine there are thousands of quotes and “likes” from this book circulating in the Goodreads community. It is definitely well worth reading by anyone, not just “young adults”. I also think it would make a good companion read to a nonfiction account of the Holocaust, like [bc:The Diary of a Young Girl 48855 The Diary of a Young Girl Anne Frank http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1358276407s/48855.jpg 3532896]by [ai:Anne Frank 3720 Anne Frank http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1343271406p2/3720.jpg][a:Anne Frank 3720 Anne Frank http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1343271406p2/3720.jpg].

Having known absolutely nothing about the Armenian genocide in 1915, this book shocked me. It reveals a story of inconceivable cruelty and dehumanization of an ethnic group, grounded in meticulous research of the author's own family. The author switches from several narrators experiencing the genocide firsthand, as well as the viewpoint of a family member in 2012, writing the previously unknown history of her Armenian grandparents.

Although many of the events are graphic and disturbing, I wasn't repelled by the book. The characters are so well-drawn and compelling that I wanted to keep reading and learn what happens to each one. My understanding of the Ottoman Empire, World War 1, and the whole Eurasian area under dispute then and now, has been widened by this story, and I'm adding some nonfiction accounts to my reading to satisfy my need to know more.

Had no idea what this book was about, just hooked onto it because I'd never read any books by Virginia Woolf and the description mentioned this book as one of her more “accessible” works. Hmmm.... so it hit me like a brick when all of a sudden the male main character is transformed into a woman. It was a shock, and then I was somewhat disappointed because my beginning effort at getting into the book and becoming attached to Orlando and the wonderful rhythm of the language felt yanked out of my grasp. I had to go read some background on the novel to feel like it was “okay” to keep reading–that Woolf had probably based Orlando on a woman Woolf had a “crush” on, etc. I guess I just didn't have enough connection to Orlando as a main character to suspend my disbelief about his sudden gender-switching.

When I try to describe this book to others, it always sounds like I'm relating some soap-opera drama, but the experience of reading it is so much richer than most anything I've ever read. I only picked it because a reading challenge task required me to choose a book with a character with a first or last name that is the same middle name as one of my parents, and so “Larry Darrell” showed up in a search for “Darrell”. How serendipitous!

Larry Darrell's life is followed by the narrator, who is Maugham, the author, but it is a fictional story. Larry ends up searching out questions about life through experience and travel, and many of his answers are found in the practice of Buddhism and Eastern philosophy. But, the other characters in the novel are also fully realized and lived through the narrative and it was simply a very satisfying experience to read. I will definitely but Maugham's other novels on my TBR list.

I loved reading this book simply because I felt like I now have the vocabulary and framework to investigate the books I read in a more critical, thoughtful way. Sounds nerdy, but when you love to read, things like that become terribly important. :-)

The annotated list of 101 books the author writes about isn't meant to be a list of the best books or even the best examples of the various aspects of what a novel is meant to communicate. It's a review of novels evolving and becoming important or at least memorable in readers lives and why these novels might be lasting. The synopsis of each book and the discussion of what is striking or salient about the story and/or the author will be a great resource for choosing new books to read.

An accomplished ethnographer and historian gathered the oral histories, anecdotes and journals of her Greek immigrant parents, combined them with archival research and interviews, and wrote this evocative dual biography of a typical immigrant family journey from Greece to America during the late 1800s through the 1930s.

The author has written a vibrant picture of the poverty and social upheavals in Greece at the time that made immigration and family breakup the only choice for survival. Often, the industrial coal mining and railroad interests exploding in the United States, especially in the Intermountain West, orchestrated this immigration boom. A complicated “padrone” system of Greek labor agents recruiting their fellow Greeks (for a fee/commission) to work in mines and on railroads, often as strikebreakers, became the accepted way of entry into American life. But rarely did it offer a way towards good relations with non-Greek neighbors or assimilation of American culture.

While this book is written by one of the daughters of this Greek immigrant couple, she doesn't minimize or gloss over the poverty or conflicts she witnessed, nor does she seem to insert her own subjective analysis of the events in her parents' lives. She has made a coherent whole of a variety of facts and history, but also describing in rich detail the Orthodox Church and the immigrant folk culture that was dying out as she came of age.

The last few chapters of the book take a more personal turn as the author describes how she tries to care for her aging parents, their needs and wants often in conflict with the author's different season of life. She is very honest about the reality and frustrations of caregiving. Concluding the book in this way left me somewhat dissatisfied, but I don't think it could end in any other way.

This book was loaned to me by my mother, who got it from her older sister. Her older sister had married a young man who immigrated here from Greece in the 1950s, and this man, my uncle, has always been a source of fascination for me. Now I have a frame of reference for some of the family stories or brief anecdotes I've grown up hearing and the Greek culture my aunt adopted.

The recollections in this book were sparked when some family members found an old sack of letters in an abandoned family farmhouse in a rural Greek city during the 1980s. The family members who had left their Greek homes as teenagers and emigrated to the U.S. had faithfully written home during all those years, and the letters had been saved as a testament of the family's sacrifice and the children's eventual prosperity in the U.S.

The author collected her mother's memories and those of her older siblings into this oral history of one Greek-American family living in Chicago, opening a restaurant/saloon during the Depression years, describing not only the hard work, but also the deep bonds of family necessary for survival.

There's a lot of incidental history to learn from this book–not only about Chicago in the 1920s, but also about blatant prejudice and discrimination against immigrants in the U.S., a regressive “dowry” policy in Greece that made parents send their girls away rather than bankrupt the family, and the pain and disruption caused by WWII for those at home in the U.S. and at home in Greece.

If you're at all interested in immigration or oral history in general, this would be a book to look for.

Quick little read compiled from discussions in a capstone MBA class at the Harvard Business School. On the last day of class, the author asks the students to apply the theories they've studied to a special case–themselves. The discussion is framed around answering 3 questions:
How can I be sure that
*I will be successful and happy in my career
*My relationships with my spouse, my children, and my extended family and close friends become an enduring source of happiness
*I live a life of integrity

The theories the students have studied are attempts to predict what will happen to a company, but now the students discuss how these theories might guide their own decision-making about themselves to arrive at a successful, fulfilling life.

I appreciated the straightforward purpose of the book and the obvious depth of commitment and integrity the authors shared through their anecdotes and thoughts. Emphasizing that finding the likeness, commitment, and metrics you're going to use to measure your life is a process, not an end, also makes this book an uplifting and motivating addition to my personal development library.

I really enjoyed the author's first book, “The Alienist”, and had great expectations for this sequel, but I was quite disappointed. I know it can sound picky, but I wanted to go through the book with “search and replace” on my computer to change every instance of “what” coming from Stevie's narration into “that”. The attempt to stay true to an early New York City slum dialect read as very contrived and even patronizing to me, as the reader, and it just didn't work with the characterization of Stevie as narrator (a secondary, though interesting character in the first book) in general.

The plot and psychological elements were interesting and unusual enough to keep me reading through to the end, but the climax involving the chase for Libby Hatch (the psycho mom/villain) was written like a half-hearted attempt to get the book finished and wrapped up, and tie in a little historical ambiance. Huge disappointment.

If you read the first book and liked it and were intrigued by the characters and the developing science of forensics and psychology during the era, I would still suggest this book. But this book just doesn't ring true in the narration or in the character development, so don't expect it to give you even half of the connection the first one did.

I've read a lot of books on procrastination and improving personal productivity, so I was pretty skeptical of this book having anything new or surprising to reveal. But, I was wrong. What I appreciated about this book was the reassuring tone and the ideas for cultivating an attitude of self-compassion as a concrete step towards tackling your willpower challenges.

Since the book was developed from the author's wildly popular continuing education course at Standford, the format and progression of the chapters lends itself easily to planning your own “willpower challenge” project.

Pretty creative application of research in both economics and neurobiology, two scientific fields that are generally separate from each other in terms of research questions and experimental models. The author makes the case that high testosterone drives a lot of the risky and/or intuitive leaps the financial trading floor is known for, and that introducing different rewards and motivations might be a step towards making the financial markets less volatile and more rational. While the book is centered on financial markets, the research the author explores has applications to many other environments.

If you're interested in how these two scientific fields might complement each other and possibly drive some public financial policy changes, this might be a book to read. But it is also an example of good scientific writing for anyone curious about our basic human need to be certain, even when it's impossible.

While I did give this book 2 stars for hooking me right into the story, after the first third of the book, I found myself rolling my eyes at some of the overwritten, hit-you-over-the-head “profound” connections she makes to events in her past history.

The last third of the book read like she was trying to make the book longer by adding a bunch of hazy off-trail experiences to match the time it took her to hike the last leg of the trail. It felt like I was reading a reality TV show, planned out to astound you with the senselessness of a person's thoughts and actions so you could maybe feel like at least you're not THAT bad.

I had higher expectations for the book as a whole, but at least I did find out about the Pacific Crest Trail–a trail system I had no idea about.

Great book to read even if you have absolutely no plans to write anything creative. It was part memoir, part discussion on his writing process and what you might take away from his story. Like sitting around a living room and listening to him chat about what makes him tick. Finding out how much rejection and reality hounded him, but he kept at it and learned to be himself. Anyone who has dreams that seem to keep getting further and further away might find some inspiration while reading this book.

I was moved to begin reading this after I read an essay about the author written by his wife after his death from ALS at the age of 62. The book is a compilation/transcription of a series of conversations between the author and Timothy Snyder, each prominent historians, but of different generations. I consider it one of the top 5 books I've read this year. A challenging book to read if you're European history-challenged, like myself, but I could follow the line of reasoning and argument despite the unfamiliar territory.
The book follows Tony's development from his early years growing up in a Marxist family, through his experience with Zionism and his education as a French intellectual. The Cold War years through the fall of the Berlin Wall all contribute to his exploration of liberalism and social democracy ideas, and he has become well-known for his brilliant and, at times, controversial historical writing. He puts each period of his life into a context of what was happening politically, economically, and socially, then discusses with Snyder the questions he was seeking to answer at that time and where his answers led him. Snyder does the job of drawing out and getting clarification for these ideas, and we are treated to a real sense of two amazing minds playing off each other.

I'm glad I read this book just for the glimpse into what being a historian is like, the purpose of history and what's possible with good scholarship and writing. I'm also thrilled that I was introduced to both these authors, and they have other books for me to check out.

Combining the magical themes of an old Russian fairy tale with the harsh realities of homesteading in the Alaskan wilderness in the 1920s, this novel manages to sweep the reader into the sights, sounds and feelings associated with the experience of snow and the other-worldliness a snowy landscape can evoke. The characters in this novel are wonderfully imagined and fulfill the job of moving the story forward despite a familiar plot. Although I knew this was inspired by a children's fairy tale, the story is told in a way that makes it universal. I found myself wrapped up in the theme of the significance of family and friends, how essential these aspects of life are especially when you are in survival mode.

Quick to read, but a lot to learn from this book. This “shame researcher” outlines ten guideposts and ways to dig deep, allowing vulnerability to become an emotion and attitude you embrace because it brings you courage, compassion, and connection with yourself and with others.

Search for the author's TED talks on “The Power of Vulnerability” and “Listening to Shame” for deep insights on two topics most people struggle with. They make a great addition to reading the book.

I found myself easily caught up in the narrative voice and language of the author's Arab-American heritage. Using the actual recipes of ethnic foods to add meaning (and flavor) to family anecdotes works for the most part, but sometimes it felt like an unnecessary stylistic distraction.

If you're a foodie and like to read lists of spices and exotic preparation techniques, you'll enjoy this book.

Very short, well-written little book about creating your lifetime reading list, not simply a list of books someone else has deemed worthy of your time. I especially enjoyed the encouragement to write in your books as a way to interact with the author, and a helpful way to review books you've enjoyed in the years to come. Read it if you'd just like a little comforting reassurance that there are other bibliophiles out there just like yourself, who think about books and how they enrich your life on a daily basis.

A lonely, single, 60-year-old man, recently laid off from an disappointing job as a history teacher at a private school, is randomly attacked in his new apartment and left with no memory of the assault. The memory loss is so upsetting that he starts investigating ways to somehow recover the episode, in a variety of unobtrusive ways, but ends up stumbling into a relationship that forces him to re-evaluate his entire life. He's always just bumbled along, avoiding confrontation and living only half-aware of the world and people around him. But this relationship makes him pull his head out the sand and attach some meaning to the memories he's avoided for so long.

A wandering, superficially aimless story, but it still expresses some understated life lessons that seem quite relevant to people who are going through transitions, or who feel like they are just going through the motions of living.

I've been a follower of Jason's podcasts for over a year and was so glad when he finally wrote a book that compiles so many of the personal and professional self-management tools he's shared in the past. I credit his book for a lot of positive habits I've introduced into my day recently, especially the habit of writing down the chatter and mental lists cycling in my head that used to cause me so much anxiety and overwhelm.

It's well-organized and has lots of actionable ideas to take away with just a little time spent reading. Nothing overwhelming or time-consuming, just some good ideas and encouragement to just try a few adjustments to what you do in a day.

I've been reading this author's Elm Creek Quilts series since the beginning and have enjoyed the historical research combined with authentic, fascinating characters the majority of her books have highlighted. However, this last one just didn't measure up to her previous work. While the information about Prohibition and wine making in Northern California during the 1920s was pretty interesting, the characters were flat and the plot predictable and rushed. The whole idea of having quilts and quiltmaking as a thread binding the series together was broken with this one. I think quilts were mentioned once or twice, and there are references to quilts from other books, but it definitely wasn't strong enough to feel part of the theme.

I'd suggest people who have already been engaged with this series to read it, just for continuity, but skip it if this is might be your first acquaintance with the author's books.

Interesting treatment of London society during the turn of the century, just after the death of Queen Victoria and the Victorian age was passing. Three children from different social classes are the main characters, with their parents, siblings and community members also forming the story. The story is told from shifting points of view as each person becomes the narrator for a time. The story follows the changing social and cultural attitudes as the children grow into young adults, leaving or clinging to Victorian sentimentalism in different ways.

I enjoyed the book, but it wasn't on the same level as some of her other books, especially Girl With a Pearl Earring. Possibly too many characters to shift between or the unconvincing maturity in the dialogue of the young children combined to make the book a little disappointing.

I've never thought of myself as someone who would like listening to opera and I mostly just like reading about the history of opera, but this book has actually encouraged me to try listening to the music. The author wrote so beautifully about the way the music makes both the singer and the listener feel, that I'm intrigued. However, the plot was somewhat melodramatic with the love stories and the foreshadowing of the unhappy ending, which is why I gave it the 3 stars.