4.5 stars to the powerfully written My Country: A Syrian Memoir! ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ .5
The stories and images out of Syria have haunted me. I want to know mor4.5 stars to the powerfully written My Country: A Syrian Memoir! ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ .5
The stories and images out of Syria have haunted me. I want to know more, read more, understand more. I thought My Country would be a fortunate reading opportunity for me to attempt those things, and I am grateful that Kassem Eid survived to tell this story, his story.
Eid, a Palestinian immigrant, describes his childhood in Syria, the jasmine-scented streets, and his experiences in school. He notices that he is treated differently at school because he is Palestinian. He is always an outsider, and his accomplishments are somewhat limited because of that.
While Eid is growing up, Bashar al-Assad becomes the new leader of Syria, and any wish that he would be more tolerant than his father is quickly dashed. Al-Assad is known for his tyrannical ways to this day, and as his hold on Syria grows stronger, a revolution is generated in response. Al-Assad, in turn, reacts with arrests and extreme violence. As a result, Eid experienced a civil war in his country during his teen years.
In 2013, Kassem Eid is living in Moadamiya, Syria, just outside of Damascus, when there is a gas attack by the government. While a large number of residents are killed right before his eyes, Eid survives. The same day, he is hit by a mortar while he is assisting the Free Syrian Army against al-Assad’s army (i.e., the government’s military). While Eid survives physically, all around him is completely wiped out. He loses everything, and he continues to feel the aftershocks and ongoing devastation that happens in Syria on a daily basis.
This book is beyond timely and exceedingly important. Eid’s experience is human, raw, and beautifully written. My favorite parts are his descriptions of the majesty of Syria during his early childhood and his family life, but the salient, paramount parts, though difficult to read, are everything else.
Thank you to Bloomsbury for the ARC. My Country: A Syrian Memoir will be published on July 3, 2018.
5 poignant and brave stars to Beauty in the Broken Places! ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
I have been a fan of Allison Pataki’s books because she writes in my favorit5 poignant and brave stars to Beauty in the Broken Places! ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
I have been a fan of Allison Pataki’s books because she writes in my favorite genre, historical fiction. In Beauty in the Broken Places, she bares her extraordinary heart in a personal memoir.
When she was five months pregnant, her young husband had a stroke while on a flight to their babymoon. Their lives were forever changed, but Allison easily found the silver lining and highlighted it in this book.
During his recovery, Allison wrote letters to her husband every day. She made an effort to include things that happened he would not remember on his own. The letters are at the heart of this memorable book.
Bottom line, Beauty in the Broken Places is filled with stunning writing, heartbreakingly beautiful emotion, and abundant inspiration. Like Allison says, “May we always remember.�
Thank you to Allison Pataki, Random House, and Netgalley for the ARC. Beauty in the Broke Places is available now!
This and other reviews are available on my shiny new blog! ...more
Glynnis MacNicol was about to turn 40, and all-of-sudden, she began to question her life’s purpose. Up to that point, she’d had it all in her mind- a Glynnis MacNicol was about to turn 40, and all-of-sudden, she began to question her life’s purpose. Up to that point, she’d had it all in her mind- a successful career and an exciting life. But should she want more? Should she want what society says every 40 year old woman should have?
This memoir chronicles MacNicol’s 40th year, as she takes a deeply personal journey of self-discovery. It’s a tough year for her emotionally, she has an ill family member, and she has to walk through many highs and lows.
Ultimately, what she discovers about being the master of her own fate is positively empowering. I was grateful for the brave and open way she told her story. No One Tells You This is insightful, bold, and thoughtful. Recommended for fans of memoirs, especially for those that challenge traditional social mores.
Thank you to Glynnis MacNicol, Simon Schuster, and Netgalley for the complimentary copy....more
4.5 harrowing stars to Crux: A Cross-Border Memoir! ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️.5
In Crux, Jean Guerrero, an investigative reporter, writes about her search for her fa4.5 harrowing stars to Crux: A Cross-Border Memoir! ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️.5
In Crux, Jean Guerrero, an investigative reporter, writes about her search for her father, Marco Antonio, a search in the figurative and literal senses, as she seeks understanding while also trying to pinpoint why he is on the run and where he is.
Marco is gifted at creating and engineering, all self-taught, and he meets Guerrero’s mother, when she is just out of medical school. Marco says he has special powers, that he is a shaman and can talk to animals, and it turns out, others in his lineage also had powers. However, Marco has difficulty with paranoia and thinks that the CIA wants to control his mind. He also uses drugs and alcohol to excess at times.
Guerrero, the reporter that she is, researches reasons for Marco’s behavior, other than possible schizophrenia. More than anything, she wants to understand her father. Traveling through Mexico, she interviews family and that is when she discovers that others in her father’s family background were mystics. Guerrero ends up taking some risks herself while on this journey, traveling through dangerous places and experimenting with those same things that tempt her father. She puts everything she has on the line, including her life, in her quest for answers.
Guerrero’s writing is exquisite, and while the format of the narrative jumps around in time somewhat, I did not mind because the story is so engaging. Her search for her father and the symbolism involved in the title alone gives me pause at all the various meanings. Not only did her father cross actual physical borders (and Guerrero did as well in her search), but he crosses that thin line between reality and disconnection from it.
Overall, Crux is an adventure and an exploration of the relationship between father and daughter. It is powerful, fascinating, enlightening, and begs the question of, in the process of Guerrero desperately seeking to find and understand her father, will she also find herself.
Thank you to Random House for the invitation to read this original memoir. Crux will be published on July 17, 2018.
5 brave, bold stars to The Girl Who Smiled Beads! 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟
The Girl Who Smiled Beads has been the memoir I’ve most anticipated reading this year, and5 brave, bold stars to The Girl Who Smiled Beads! 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟
The Girl Who Smiled Beads has been the memoir I’ve most anticipated reading this year, and when I finally got to it, it was just after reading a fictional account of the genocide in Rwanda, In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills by Jennifer Haupt, which is definitely a favorite of mine. The Girl Who Smiled Beads was a fitting complement to In the Shadow, and I experienced on a more visceral, individual level the pain, fear, sacrifice, and absolute terror experienced by Clemantine and her family.
This book is easy to read due to the exceptional writing, and I found it hard to put down; however, at times, I had to in order to absorb the abject torment suffered by Clemantine and her sister, Claire, from fleeing practically barefoot across multiple African countries to digging bugs out of the soles of their feet.
This is Clemantine’s story, how she shares her anguish, horror, loss, and despair, and in turn, how she claims her individuality and begins to heal. This book is important, urgently so given what is happening in our world right this very minute, and raw and stunning at the same time. Highly recommended for fans of nonfiction, memoirs, cross-cultural works, and profoundly emotional writing.
Thank you to Clemantine Wamariya, Crown Publishing, and Netgalley for the ARC. The Girl Who Smiled Beads is available now! ...more
Jennifer ~ TarHeelReader
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