Loving the books I've been into lately. I have a HUGE TBR (to-be read) list on my phone (e-books) and Kindle, as well as a pile next to my bed of physical books that I'm "saving" for a special occasion (I don't know why this is a thing with me). I really want to read them all, but at the same time I *LOVE* the anticipation of those books. I love staring at the covers,especially. I love the fact that I can get the covers in color on my iPad now, too. The only thing missing from those e-version covers is that I can't run my hand over them...
Here's what I read this month:
Call Me American by Abdi Nor Iftan | This was the March book for the book club I'm participating in on Goodreads (Hearts and Homes for Refugees). I've just been lurking but I absolutely LOVE being a part of a book club. Being part of a (physical) book club is something I have on my bucket list that probably won't ever get checked off while I'm living here, so I am really enjoying being on this online one, having been invited by a friend who lived here in Ecuador about 10 years ago. The topic is terrific, too, something that is close to my heart.
Call Me American was a really nice book, probably my favorite so far from the book club list. I love reading about the Somali culture, especially since my experience working with Somali refugees at IIM. It fascinates me that people can live so differently from what we, in the Western world, would call "normal". Abdi's account of his experiences with the war also made the conflict and problems in Somali make more "sense" in my mind (although after reading about them there is nothing that could actually make sense of what's happening there). Just a really interesting, harrowing glimpse into a part of the world and a culture that I don't know much about.
A Woman Is No Man by Etaf Rum | This is a book I'd been hearing a lot about. It is the story of three generations of Palestinian Americans, and their struggle to adapt to each other and make sense of their past lives in the context of living in the U.S. I love these kinds of books that bring you through the generations, telling the story from different points of view (in this case of the mother, daughter, and the mother-in-law). Even though you know the fate of the mother in the story early on in the book, there was still a need to read and find out what happened, which just means the writing was great and driven by plot. I really like a book that makes me re-assess my feelings towards the characters the whole time I'm reading.
The Girl Who Smiled Beads by Clemantine Wamariya | This book is the true-life story of the journey a young girl takes while fleeing the genocide in Rwanda. I'll admit, I know almost nothing about this "chapter" in the history of Rwanda (I know almost nothing about Rwanda), so I was excited to learn a bit more about what happened. Unfortunately, Wamariya was only a small child when she fled her home country with her older sister, so there wasn't much in terms of explanation of the politics and culture behind the whole conflict. Nevertheless, Wamariya's story is an important one to read, in particular because she has very strong views about colonialism and the refugee "experience" that every well-intentioned do-gooder should hear. A lot of the things she "complains" about are things I have thought about here in my time in Ecuador - the idea that people want to do good often because they see themselves as superiors, as the "saviors of the savages" (this is an attitude I have seen time and again here and it really bothers me, because they'll get upset if they are not received as such), and the fact that by giving and giving they are actually doing harm in some cases (making the displaced "dependent" on material or consumer goods) - both ideas were very insightful. I am sure I am oversimplifying her message, but those were the parts of the book I identified with the most, although I'll admit they were the parts that were also the most difficult to read. At points she seems so ungrateful and rude, since she has clearly had many MANY opportunities that most people could only dream of (I mean, she was on OPRAH!). But I get it - the way Oprah reunited her with her family was probably garish and jarring, meant only for ratings, and her anger at people laughing because some refugees in a war zone had asked for photo storage over other "necessities", are justified. As she says, refugees have lost everything, have no physical proof or account of who they were and where they came from, so photo storage may seem more important to them than food. Anyways, a LOT to think about with this one, and while I didn't love it, I think sometimes that was the whole point of why Wamariya wrote it.
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