Read The World - Kurdistan - My Father's Paradise

 Book: My Father's Paradise

Author: Ariel Sabar

Pages: 369

Book takes place in the country: YES (just about 50%)

Author is from the country: NO - but his father was

I have visited: NO

This is my 87th read for the year

This is the story of the author's family.  Born and raised in the United States, Ariel Sabar sets out to discover his family's past in Kurdistan.  For 3000 years, Jews lived in Kurdistan, spoke Aramaic, and lived peacefully among the Christians and Jews who surrounded them.  However, in the earlier part of this century, all of that changed and the Jews in Kurdistan fled to Israle where Ariel's father spent a portion of his life.  His father finally moved to the United States and became a well known professor in Los Angeles.  Ariel never really connected with his father growing up - never understood his old world traditions he held on to.  Until Ariel had a child of his own.  Ariel journeys with his father to his old village in Kurdistan- Zakho - to discover who his father and family really are.

This is a very good book.  It is no doubt that I am a lover of non-fiction, but my favorite is storytelling from usually the author or about a particular person/family.  The books for me that should the loudest are the personal stories - not just a straight history.  Ariel weaves a story of his father's family and how they lived, their traditions, their flee, and finally the return to visit the land they once called home.  You get great insight into the Jewish story in this land.  It shouldn't be missed.

Stars: 4 1/2

Extra Book - Clap When You Land

 Book: Clap When You Land

Author: Elizabeth Acevedo

Pages: 432

This is my 86th read for the year

This is the story of two sisters who knew nothing of each other.  Yahaira who grew up in New York City with her mother and father.  And Camino who grew up in the Dominican Republic with an aunt and a father who visits in the summers.  Camino is at the airport to meet her father when she finds out that his plane has crashed.  Yahaira is told the same truth about her father's death when she is pulled from her classroom and taken home.  The girls start to recolect on who their Papi was and soon discover each other.  Camino - more excited about the idea of having another relative than Yahaira is - reaches out to her on facebook to see if there is a chance they can get to know each other.  Yahaira decides that when her father's wishes to be buried in the Domincan Republic are granted, she would fly to be with him there and meet this long lost sister.

This was an okay book.  It has a large amount of 5 star reviews and I can see their reasons.  For me, I listened to it, and I think that might have been the problem.  The language of the book was okay, the story intriguing, but the way it was read was very choppy.  It is written almost in a poetry form, and so when it is read outloud, to me it was hard to develop feelings for the characters.  It is a personal thing more than about the book in general.  My thoughts would be to get the print copy and try it that way.  The relationship that forms between the sisters is the best part of this book, but overall - it was just....fine.

Stars: 3

omen reading it 

Read The World - Jordan - Leap Of Faith- Memoirs Of An Unexpected Life

 Book: Leap Of Faith - Memoirs Of An Unexpected Life

Author: Queen Noor

Pages: 480

Book takes place in the country: YES

Author is from the country: YES

I have visited: NO

This is my 85th read of the year

This is the story of the author and how she became the Queen of Jordan, and her work in that role.  Born in America, as Lisa Halaby, Queen Noor was a Princeton graduate who quickly found herself in love with King Hussein after a chance meeting 2 years after she graduated.  He was recently widowed, and after a whirlwind romance they were married.  They had 4 children together, and the book covers her time as Queen and the work that she and King Hussein did to bring peace to Jordan and the countries around them.  King Hussein died of cancer in 1999 and Queen Noor continued her work for Jordan long after.  

This was a very well written book.  I am always intrigued by stories coming from this part of the world because I know so little about it.  It is always interesting to hear personal stories and read their point of view.  Queen Noor gives a personal account of her time as Queen and also the unrest that took place during her rein from the 1970s through the late 1990s and how she and King Hussein fought to settle that unrest.  She was very involved with the political aspects of her country.  You can tell from her writing how much she loved her husband, her adopted country, and her life as a leader in Jordan.

Worth the read.  

Stars: 4 1/2

Extra Book: Practical Magic

Book: Practical Magic

Author: Alice Hoffman

Pages: 286

This is my 84th read of the year

This is the story of the Owens family - 200 years after Maria Owens lands in Massachusetts.  The family of witches is always blamed for all the bad things that happen in their area.  Sally and Jillian Owens have their own set of problems.  Sally falls in love and marries a wonderful man and has two beautiful children.  Jillian falls for a man that is awful.  In the end, both men's lives end as goes the fate of the Owen's family when it comes to love.  The sisters have a secret that they are trying to protect, but it soons catches up with them.  Jillian and Sally will do anything to protect their family.  So they call on their elderly aunts to help.  Their family bond cannot be broken no matter what the cost.

This was an okay book.  It is the 3rd book in the series.  I have read Rules of Magic and Magic Lessons recently, so had to finish the series with this one.  The other two had much more depth and character development with this one.  I listened to this one as an Audiobook and it was only 3 1/2 hours long.  So short that I never really developed feelings for any of the characters or really saw a development of the actual story.  It was fine - just not as good as the other two.  I know it was actually the first book she wrote and other other two, though prequels, were more recent.  However, I was just hoping for more.

I have never seen the movie and I have read that this is pretty different.  I might check it out anyway just because.

Stars: 3

 

>xtra Book - Becoming Brianna

 Book: Becoming Brianna

Author: Terri Libenson

Pages: 320

This is my 83rd read for the year

In this graphic novel by Libenson, Brianna has decided to have a bat mitzvah.  At first she is doing it because her mom wanted her too, but she soon discovers she wants to do it for herself as well.  However, Brianna has terrible stage freight, and is struggling to learn the Hebrew language.  She doesn't feel that she will ever be ready.  At the same time, the whole school has gotten the idea that Brianna is having a huge Bat Mitzvah party with celebrities and musical guest, and she doesn't know how that started.  As she struggles with being ready for the Bat Mitzvah, and friendships, she starts to think none of this was worth it.

What a cute book.  Finley and I have read all of Terri Lbenson's books, and they never disappoint.  And they usually have a surprise ending that is quite clever.  I have to say for this one - the ending wasn't nearly as clever as past books, but cute none the same.  An overall great story and great read.  I recommend this one for your middle schoolers or late elementary kids.

Stars: 4

Extra Book - New Kid

 Book: New Kid

Author: Jerry Craft

Pages: 256

This is my 82nd read for the year

This graphic novel is about a young middle school boy named Jordan who is starting at a new school.  His parents wanted to help him get ahead, so they are moving him to an exclusive private school.  Jordan doesn't want to go to this new school and meet all new kids.  He wants to stay at his old school, or go to an art school.

It is hard to be the new kid.  Jordan is assigned a buddy to show him around the school, and in the process he meets a few nice kids and a few not so nice.  He learned to find his way in his new environment as not only the new kid, but as a person of color.

This was a good graphic novel.  Finley and I read it together.  She had picked it out because we have recently returned to America and she is now the new kid in school.  It has been a hard transition for her.  We read it all in one afternoon, and it was a well thought out novel.  Highly recommend.

Stars: 4

Extra Book - The Shadows

 Book: The Shadows

Author: Alex North

Pages: 326

This is my 81st read for the year

This is the story of Paul and his friends.  Paul meets a kid named Charlie while he is in high school that talks him and his friends into trying lucid dreams. Charlie thought he and his friends could meet each other in the dreams and "deal with" people they didn't like.  Charlie commits a murder, and 25 years later, Paul is still dealing with the aftermath of that murder.  Copycats have tried to replicate Charlie's murder, and things are getting out of hand.

Paul returns to the town he grew up in to see his dying mother.  After the murder, Paul had walked away from his hometown and never looked back.  That included not seeing his mother in many years.  His mother - now sick with dementia - tells Paul that there is something inside her house, so Paul starts to investigate.  New murders are popping up in town, and what Paul finds in his mother's house leads him down the path of his past that he swore he would never go again.

This was a pretty good book.  I enjoyed North's "The Whisper Man" earlier this year, and felt that one of his haunting tales were needed for Halloween.  This one wasn't as good as the Whisper Man, but it held my attention.  Just like Whisper Man, it drew me in, leading up to the big revelation, but it ended up being not as scary as I hoped.  Not as mythical as I imagined.  While I found The Whisper Man much more intense, I am not sorry I read this one.  I read it slowly over the course of a few weeks, k  between some other books, and maybe that was the problem - should have read it a little faster for more story continuity.

Stars: 4