Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill by Jessica Stern

From Goodreads:


For four years, Jessica Stern interviewed extremist members of three religions around the world: Christians, Jews, and Muslims. Traveling extensively to refugee camps in Lebanon, to religious schools in Pakistan, to prisons in Amman, Asqelon, and Pensacola she discovered that the Islamic jihadi in the mountains of Pakistan and the Christian fundamentalist bomber in Oklahoma have much in common.

Based on her vast research, Stern lucidly explains how terrorist organizations are formed by opportunistic leaders using religion as both motivation and justification to recruit the disenfranchised. She depicts how moral fervor is transformed into sophisticated organizations that strive for money, power, and attention.
Jessica Stern's extensive interaction with the faces behind the terror provide unprecedented insight into acts of inexplicable horror, and enable her to suggest how terrorism can most effectively be countered.

A crucial book on terrorism, Terror in the Name of God is a brilliant and thought-provoking work.

This audiobook was an impulse download when it showed up as a result for a completely unrelated library search. I desperately needed a new audiobook to get me through dinner prep and a quick peek at Goodreads showed that it was probably worth a listen.

This book was a perfect follow-up to Half the Sky, which I finished a few days ago. One of the things that really stood out to me was that parents in poor Middle Eastern and south Asian countries don't have state sponsored free schooling available to their children. In fact, social services of any kind are pretty much nonexistent. Militant groups often educate children and provide room and board for free. They may even provide health care as well, something that they would not otherwise have access to.

One of the terrorists Stern interviewed also bemoaned the American policy of interventionism and I actually found myself nodding in agreement. My brother wrote a paper about the USA's history of interventionism last year for a college class and it was deeply unflattering. Between his paper, Half the Sky and this book I really think the US would be better served by building schools and improving healthcare in the developing world rather than meddling in international affairs. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar, you know?

Anyway, this is a rather quick (only took a few hours listening on double speed) and super illuminating read.

The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

From Goodreads:

Jason has a problem.
He doesn't remember anything before waking up on a school bus holding hands with a girl. Apparently he has a girlfriend named Piper. His best friend is a kid named Leo, and they're all students in the Wilderness School, a boarding school for "bad kids", as Leo puts it. What he did to end up here, Jason has no idea—except that everything seems very wrong.

Piper has a secret.
Her father, a famous actor, has been missing for three days, and her vivid nightmares reveal that he's in terrible danger. Now her boyfriend doesn't recognize her, and when a freak storm and strange creatures attack during a school field trip, she, Jason, and Leo are whisked away to someplace called Camp Half-Blood. What is going on?

Leo has a way with tools.
His new cabin at Camp Half-Blood is filled with them. Seriously, the place beats Wilderness School hands down, with its weapons training, monsters, and fine-looking girls. What's troubling is the curse everyone keeps talking about, and that a camper's gone missing. Weirdest of all, his bunkmates insist they are all—including Leo—related to a god.

Oh how I love Rick Riordan and his fantastic adventure filled books! Erica recommended The Lost Hero to me as a good audiobook option and she was, as usual, giving me a good suggestion. The narrator can make or break a book and this one was fantastic. Which is funny because I feel like the first time I ever felt really attached to a narrator was the guy who narrated the Percy Jackson books (another Riordan series). So whoever is in charge of picking Riordan narrators is doing an excellent job and deserves a good pat on the head.

The formula here is familiar- demigods unaware of their origins finding out who their divine parents are and getting introduce to Camp Half Blood. It's a continuation of the Percy Jackson universe (except Percy has gone missing! Gasp!) and a fine addition at that. I always start by thinking, "I can't WAIT for my boys to be old enough to read these!" and then I forget about my boys and continue onward because I'M enjoying the story so thoroughly. I do have a minor complaint with The Lost Hero- I got kind of confused about their quest. They were all over the place geographically often with only a wisp of a plan and I kind of felt like maybe Riordan didn't know the end when he started and sort of stumbled upon it halfway through and just made it work. The book feels a bit more cobbled than its predecessors. It doesn't make it significantly less enjoyable though, and I've already put a hold on book 2.

Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt

From Goodreads:

1987. There’s only one person who has ever truly understood fourteen-year-old June Elbus, and that’s her uncle, the renowned painter Finn Weiss. Shy at school and distant from her older sister, June can only be herself in Finn’s company; he is her godfather, confidant, and best friend. So when he dies, far too young, of a mysterious illness her mother can barely speak about, June’s world is turned upside down. But Finn’s death brings a surprise acquaintance into June’s life—someone who will help her to heal, and to question what she thinks she knows about Finn, her family, and even her own heart.

At Finn’s funeral, June notices a strange man lingering just beyond the crowd. A few days later, she receives a package in the mail. Inside is a beautiful teapot she recognizes from Finn’s apartment, and a note from Toby, the stranger, asking for an opportunity to meet. As the two begin to spend time together, June realizes she’s not the only one who misses Finn, and if she can bring herself to trust this unexpected friend, he just might be the one she needs the most.

Oy. RA has mentioned Tell the Wolves I'm Home several times in blog posts and on Twitter so I knew I was in for something deep and difficult but wonderful, but I wasn't really prepared. There were some parallels in this book that made it deeply personal to me. I, too, have a gay uncle that I adore. He mercifully made it through the past 4 decades without contracting HIV or AIDS but he has lost friends to it and it's a subject I always associate with him because I think he's one of the few people I've ever even had an open conversation with about AIDS.

I also just happened to be reading this book while the Supreme Court put a pause on same-sex marriage in Utah. Knowing my wonderful uncle and then reading about Finn and Toby...I got really angry. I've called the state of Utah an asshole more times than I care to admit today. But seriously, if more people knew my uncle and people like Toby and Finn then we wouldn't be having this whole awful debate. There would be a lot more love and a lot less ignorance.

Politics aside, it's so hard to write about something that's this well done. It was such a wonderful coming-of-age story about love and loss and sisters and friends and family and gah, it's just so beautiful and also I feel like I've been punched in the face. So you should probably read it.

Half the Sky by Nicholas D. Kristof & Sherul Wudunn

From Goodreads:

From two of our most fiercely moral voices, a passionate call to arms against our era’s most pervasive human rights violation: the oppression of women and girls in the developing world.

With Pulitzer Prize winners Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn as our guides, we undertake an odyssey through Africa and Asia to meet the extraordinary women struggling there, among them a Cambodian teenager sold into sex slavery and an Ethiopian woman who suffered devastating injuries in childbirth. Drawing on the breadth of their combined reporting experience, Kristof and WuDunn depict our world with anger, sadness, clarity, and, ultimately, hope.

 
I asked Erica if she had read this one and she said she replied that she had finished it a few months ago. And then, "I was about to quit my job and go work abroad after reading that." And even though I was only 1/3 of the way through at that point I was like ME TOO. I had just finished telling Aaron that I need to go to back to college and then medical school so I could become a doctor and then move to Sub Saharan Africa in order to serve the poor women there.

So let's just say this book touches a nerve.

As I read snippets to Aaron he said, "WHY are you reading this book? It's awful!" The book itself isn't awful, but the realities it lays at your door are. The truth of the matter is that while I comfortably lay reading under the electric blanket of my clean, modern house with two healthy children there are women all over the world who CAN'T read, who are dying in child birth, being forced into marriages at absurdly young ages, being sold into the sex trade, being burned by their family as a punishment for something they may or may not have done, and worse. There are women suffering from lack of health care while I celebrate the 6th birthday of a son who survived only because I was being monitored twice a week after one of my many routine prenatal check-ups showed there was a problem.

The book frequently paints a very bleak picture but then, mercifully, talks about the people who are doing something about these horrific circumstances. And THAT'S why Erica and I suddenly felt called to move abroad. There are amazing people doing amazing things for the world's neediest and most under served populations. And those people make me feel like I'm not doing enough with my life. I'm probably going to have to add "Build a school in the developing world" to my bucket list.

The last chapter includes four things you can do to make a difference and you better believe as soon as I got my emotions under control I immediately jumped on my computer and did all of them.

Just...amazing.

Dad is Fat by Jim Gaffigan

From Goodreads:

In Dad is Fat, stand-up comedian Jim Gaffigan, who’s best known for his legendary riffs on Hot Pockets, bacon, manatees, and McDonald's, expresses all the joys and horrors of life with five young children—everything from cousins ("celebrities for little kids") to toddlers’ communication skills (“they always sound like they have traveled by horseback for hours to deliver important news”), to the eating habits of four year olds (“there is no difference between a four year old eating a taco and throwing a taco on the floor”). Reminiscent of Bill Cosby’s Fatherhood, Dad is Fat is sharply observed, explosively funny, and a cry for help from a man who has realized he and his wife are outnumbered in their own home.

Aaron and I saw Jim Gaffigan a few months ago with some friends and my face hurt so bad afterward from smiling and laughing that hard for so long.

I didn't find myself laughing quite so much while reading Dad is Fat but, more frequently, made a "true that!" face while nodding my head. The humor is definitely still there but it felt more like sharp, clever observation than the stand-up comedy I'm used to from him. He also had a lot of surprisingly sweet moments in talking about how much he loves his children and how amazing he thinks his wife, Jeannie, is. Absolutely worth listening to (especially because he reads the audiobook himself)!

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

From Goodreads:

It happens at the start of every November: the Scorpio Races. Riders attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line. Some riders live. Others die.

At age nineteen, Sean Kendrick is the returning champion. He is a young man of few words, and if he has any fears, he keeps them buried deep, where no one else can see them.

Puck Connolly is different. She never meant to ride in the Scorpio Races. But fate hasn’t given her much of a chance. So she enters the competition — the first girl ever to do so. She is in no way prepared for what is going to happen.

I listened to the audiobook version over two days while cleaning and cooking and that sort of nonsense. It made the brainless housework infinitely more enjoyable. I loved the narrators (lovely accents) and didn't get hung up on the mythology like I know some readers did.

The one thing I kept getting hung up on, though, was Puck's reasoning for entering the race in the first place. Her brother says he's going to leave the island so, to buy MINIMAL EXTRA TIME, she enters a deadly horse race. Yeah, I'm not buying it. The rest of the time she had a much better head on her shoulders and I don't see her making such an illogical decision. When losing the house came into play it made much more sense but it still bothered me.

Unbelievable character decision aside, I thought this book was well written with excellent characters and a fun bit of magical realism.

The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson

From GoodReads:

Once a century, one person is chosen for greatness.
Elisa is the chosen one.

But she is also the younger of two princesses, the one who has never done anything remarkable. She can't see how she ever will.

Now, on her sixteenth birthday, she has become the secret wife of a handsome and worldly king—a king whose country is in turmoil. A king who needs the chosen one, not a failure of a princess.

And he's not the only one who seeks her. Savage enemies seething with dark magic are hunting her. A daring, determined revolutionary thinks she could be his people's savior. And he looks at her in a way that no man has ever looked at her before. Soon it is not just her life, but her very heart that is at stake.

Elisa could be everything to those who need her most. If the prophecy is fulfilled. If she finds the power deep within herself. If she doesn’t die young.

Most of the chosen do.

I read this directly on the heels of Obsidian which made it difficult not to compare the two. Both are YA novels with female protagonists and some elements of the supernatural. However, while Obsidian was much like a shallow play pool, The Girl of Fire and Thorns is more like a great lake complete with character growth, strong female characters and depth of plot.

Elisa, the heroine, goes from a soft, naive princess to a queenly, confident leader of her country. And she does it by saving herself and others time and again, not by relying on the arm of a flawless love interest to save her. There ARE love interests, of course (3 of them!) but they are imperfect, human and more of a side note to Elisa's story rather than the focus of it. I realized halfway through that I didn't particularly care who she does or doesn't end up with. I'm just on Team Elisa and that's what matters.

Also, I appreciated that this book didn't end on a cliffhanger. Series authors so often feel the need to leave readers hanging on the edge of their seats by their fingernails but this one wrapped up nicely so that you could easily read just the one and feel happy with the story. If, however, you fell in love with the characters and the world that Rae Carson created, you may continue onward.

I'm third in line at the library for Book 2. READ FASTER PEOPLE.