Review: Incarceron by Catherine Fisher

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Series: Yes, link to my review of sequel, Sapphique
Copyright: 2010
Publisher: Dial
Buy: Amazon

Summary:
Incarceron is a prison with a conscious. The realm outside the prison once knew great progress and scientific advancements under the Sapient who created the prison. The prison was created as a place for prisoners to reform and create a new perfect society. Claudia is the daughter of the Warden of the prison. She does not understand the prison nor her father. Claudia was engaged to the prince of the realm who disappeared. She does not want to marry the new prince. Wanting to know more about her father and out of frustration she steals a key from his office. The key connects her to the world inside the prison and Finn a young man who remembers the stars something not seen in Incarceron. Finn and Claudia talk of the world inside the prison and the failure of the Sapienti to create a peaceful world full of moral and perfection. They begin to plan Finn and his friends Attia and Keiro's escape from the prison.

Feelings: 
I enjoyed the idea of a futuristic prison that is animated and can talk and think for it's self. The characters in the book are human while existing in a world that is foreign and strange and changing even to the inhabitants of the prison. Curiosity plays a big part in what happens in the story. Sapphique idolized by both the prison itself and those within the prison has escaped to the outside world. None know how he did so and the prison itself have a conscious of it's own craves knowledge of what is beyond itself. There are so may things about this book that make you stop and wonder or ponder the possibilities of such inventions. While the realm outside of the prison has been trapped in the 18th century without progress Incarceron is full of change and uncertainty. The differences between the inside and outside of the prison are what drive the story. I recommend Incarceron by Catherine fisher, and I look forward to the next book.

Review: Tears of the Desert by Halima Bashir with Damien Lewis

Genre: Memoir
Series: No
Pages: 316
Copyright: 2008
Publisher: One World Books, Random House
Buy: Amazon

Summary:
Tears of the Desert: A Memoir of Survival in Darfur is a brave book of self exposure. Many would have been scared to share what Halima Bashir has shared in her memoir. The book follows Halima from her childhood in a Zaghawa tribe village in Darfur. Halima is a good student and she is sent off to school by her father who believes because she has one white eye lash she has good fortune and will do great things. Away from her village and in the town of Hashma, Halima studied working her way to the top to the school even though she was not Arabic and they were often favored by the teachers. The conflict between Arabs and African's starts about the time she is finishing school. Her father wanted her to become a doctor and after finishing and passing the exams she applies for college. She is accepted to medical school and travels to the capital city of Khartoum where she will study. She is now very far from her family and the conflict in the south is increasing but it has not affected her home. On the university campus she observes a lack of racial tension that she had felt other places but as the conflict spreads this dissipates. She finishes her studies and returns to her village to wait for placement within a hospital. She worries that the janaweed who have raided and killed near by villages will come to hers but the fighting is still somewhat removed from her village. Halima is placed in Hashma and this is when her troubles start that lead to her fleeing the country.

Feelings:
This is a powerful book that should have helped many who were unsure of the damage of the conflict in Sudan to see the destruction of the lives of the people there. This book will make you smile, cry, and yearn to help those within its pages. Dr. Halima Bashir has escaped to a safer life in England but many in her country have not. Something that shocked me was that she does not know where her family is? Her mother and sister who ran to try and safe her from the government and her two brothers who joined the resistance. It is hard for me to imagine not knowing where my family was. I tried to do a few searches to see if maybe in the four years since it had been published she had been able to locate her family, I was unable to find any indication that she had. I found that I didn't want to stop reading the story even though it was heart breaking at times. It is detailed but not so much so that we are overwhelmed by the grotesque events that take place. There is a genuine dislike for the janaweed  as well as the government police and military who abuse the Africans just because of the color of their skin.

After having finished reading Tearsof the Desert, I wondered what had happened in the country since then. There hasn't been as much media coverage recently. The president of Sudan Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir has been convicted of war crimes and genocide by the International Criminal Court, he is the only sitting leader of a country to be convicted on such acts by the court.  There is an issue for his arrest but so far Sudan has refused to act upon it.

With the independence of South Sudan in 2011 from Sudan the conflict has changed. The Sundanese government is denying having bombed villages in South Sudan and South Sudan is considering stopping talks with the north over oil (for more on the conflict this is a good source Sudan: Murder by Proxy. Much is not being covered by the media, this site lists events by day).

Today in Darfur region the conflict is not the Arab janaweed fighting the African tribes, specifically the Fur and Zaghawa ethnic groups. This new strategy uses the Tunjur, Bergid, and Berti tribes to fight the Fur and Zaghawa, making it an African fighting African conflict. The militia is still supported heavily by the government of Sudan (Sudan: Murder by Proxy). The government in "Khartoum has done all it can to ensure that there is no news reporting from Darfur that it does not control, that there are no human rights reporters, and that every humanitarian nongovernmental organization understands full well that any reporting-even on basic humanitarian conditions-will result in its expulsion and perhaps that of others" (allAfrica South Sudan: Darfur Moves Yet Deeper Into the Shadow of Lies). Many international organizations and media sources clam that the Darfur crisis is winding down and is no longer an international issue. This is not the case and the fact that the Sudanese government is doing all it can to keep the media out, as well as the newly appointed expert for the UN human rights on a visit in June 2012 is evidence that the conflict is far from over (allAfrica South Sudan: Darfur Moves Yet Deeper Into the Shadow of Lies). What has happens is that there is less media coverage of Darfur, where are our brave journalists that report in conflict areas so that the international community sees what is happening? I have to admit that I too would have naively thought that since I was no longer seeing reports in the media that the conflict was resolving, if I had not read this book. There is still much that the international community needs to address in Darfur before refugees will be able to return home in safety. One wonders if anything will happen to resolve this conflict.

Review: Half The Sky by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn

Genre: Non-Fiction International Development
Series: No
Pages: 294
Copyright: 2009
Publisher: Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc.
Buy: Amazon

Summary: 
Through story and example Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity For Women Worldwide looks at how women in the majority of developing countries, as well as some developed countries, do not have as many rights as men. The book focuses on four main issues which women face. 1. Sex Trade: women who are sold into the sex trade, often across borders and are unpaid. 2. Women's Honor: women are supposed to remain chased but men often rape them leading to marriages to the rapist or women killing themselves. 3. Health Care: health care standards for women are often shatteringly dismal. Maternal health care is not at the standard it should be and many more women die in child birth than should. 4. Education: education is often seen as optional for women. When families are stressed financially girls are the first to loss access to education were as male family members will continue to attend.

By addressing these issues and putting forward creative solutions from examples of women who succeeded Kristof and WuDunn are looking at the most powerful tool for global reduction of poverty and an increase in potential. Women are half of the population and by oppressing them we are reducing the potential for creativity and innovation by half.

Feelings: 
Half the Sky was a really fast read. I enjoyed it much more than I expected to. Non-fiction is often slow with detail after detail rather than stories that can be remembered later. The stories included to illustrated the points they are making are amazing and heart breaking. We get to read about women who have succeeded and gone on to make a new life for themselves. It also looks at women who struggled in childbirth and are majorly injured because they did not have proper care and are then outcasts because of the injury. The book also provides some tools and suggestions for individuals who want to help make a change in the lives of women worldwide. The book would not be such a powerful statement in support of women's rights if it were not for the stories included here. This book should be read by all men and women who think women (and men) in the third world are a second class citizens.

Review: The Winter Rose by Jennifer Donnelly

Genre: Historical Fiction
Series: Yes, first The Tea Rose, third The Wild Rose
Pages: 536
Copyright: 2008
Publisher: Hyperion
Buy: Amazon

Here is a link to my review of the first in the series The Tea Rose.

Summary: 
This novel follows India Selwyn Jones a young woman who has recently graduated from medical school. She is head strong and does not want to be stopped from practicing medicine. Her fiance Freddie Lytton, an up and coming star in the House of Commons, does not want her to practice. India starts working in a medical clinic in Whitechapel where she comes across poverty that she has not seen before. She does not agree with the owner of the medical establishment she is working at and leaves to start her own. While doing this she meets Fiona, who helps her start the medical practice. She also meets Sid Malone, when she saves his life after an injury, who she falls in love with against her better judgement. Sid Malone and his gang who control Whitechapel are involved in bettering the area but must remain a gang. When Sid tries to leave the criminal life things don't go as planed. India is left wondering what to do and Sid flees without telling India. This leads to a life of unhappiness for both.

Feelings: 
The Winter Rose is a good second book for the series. It did take me a while longer to get into this book than it did the first. That isn't to say I didn't like it, just that I found it slightly harder to follow as we jumped between three story lines rather than following just one. Once I got used to the difference in writing style the book was much more enjoyable to read. I liked that we followed, all of the Finnegan siblings in this story. It picks up with Fiona where it left off, and starts the story of Sid Malone, Fiona's brother who was thought to be dead, and begins the story of Seamie. I would recommend starting at the beginning of the series if you are going to read this. Jennifer Donnelly is a consistent writer and while both The Winter Rose and The Tea Rose have similar plot structure there are different enough characters to make it a good read.

Review: The Tea Rose by Jennifer Donnelly

Genre: Historical Fiction
Series: Yes, second Winter Rose, third Wild Rose
Pages: 675
Copyright: 2002
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
Buy: Amazon

Summary:
This story takes place in Whitechapel, East London, in 1888 during the time of Jack the Ripper. Fiona Finnegan, and her family live and work with the tea factory there. Fiona is a strong willed young woman, who is in love with Joe Bristow a friend since childhood. Whitechapel takes the lives of Fiona's family except for her younger brother Seamie. Having lost family, love, and fearful of her safety and that of her younger brother Fiona flees London for New York where she has family. She meets Nicholas Soames at the harbor and in desperation, when she cannot get tickets, she travels in his company to New York. On arrival in New York things are not everything they seemed to be, the shop Fiona had hoped to work in, which her uncle owned is shut down and her uncle has lost his family and become a drunk. She sets out to fill her and Joe's dream of opening a shop, but life in New York is not everything she expected, but at least she and her brother are safe.

Feelings: 
This is a good read. I enjoyed the language around tea and how it played into many parts of the book. I felt at times that the book was predictable, but sometimes that is preferable to everything falling apart and nothing turning out the way you hope it would. The book is at times heart-breaking and yet it also is beautiful. The descriptions vary by location from dull and dirty to full of color and texture. I would definitely recommend this book to others looking for a fast easy read. I will be looking into reading the others in the series and possibly more by the author.