I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced by Nujood Ali with Delphine Minoui

Title: I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced
Author: Nujood Ali with Delphine Minoui
Type: Non-Fiction
Genre: Memoir
Series: No
Copyright: 2010
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Summary: from Good Reads

“I’m a simple village girl who has always obeyed the orders of my father and brothers. Since forever, I have learned to say yes to everything. Today I have decided to say no.”

Forced by her father to marry a man three times her age, young Nujood Ali was sent away from her parents and beloved sisters and made to live with her husband and his family in an isolated village in rural Yemen. There she suffered daily from physical and emotional abuse by her mother-in-law and nightly at the rough hands of her spouse. Flouting his oath to wait to have sexual relations with Nujood until she was no longer a child, he took her virginity on their wedding night. She was only ten years old.

Unable to endure the pain and distress any longer, Nujood fled—not for home, but to the courthouse of the capital, paying for a taxi ride with a few precious coins of bread money. When a renowned Yemeni lawyer heard about the young victim, she took on Nujood’s case and fought the archaic system in a country where almost half the girls are married while still under the legal age. Since their unprecedented victory in April 2008, Nujood’s courageous defiance of both Yemeni customs and her own family has attracted a storm of international attention. Her story even incited change in Yemen and other Middle Eastern countries, where underage marriage laws are being increasingly enforced and other child brides have been granted divorces.

Recently honored alongside Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice as one of Glamour magazine’s women of the year, Nujood now tells her full story for the first time. As she guides us from the magical, fragrant streets of the Old City of Sana’a to the cement-block slums and rural villages of this ancient land, her unflinching look at an injustice suffered by all too many girls around the world is at once shocking, inspiring, and utterly unforgettable.

Feelings:
This is the story of a young girl who is brave beyond her years. In Yemen this is not an uncommon fate for young girls from poor families. To be married is an honor and even at a young age one must listen to their family.

One February evening in 2008, when I'd just gotten home, Aba told me he had some good news. "Nujood, you are about to be married." (p. 40)

This is just the start of the suffering that Nujood undergoes at an age where many girls are still in school or enjoying childhood pleasures.

"And why do you want a divorce?" he continues in a more natural tone, as if trying to hide his astonishment. I look him straight in the eye. "Because my husband beats me." ... Point-blank, he asks me an important question: "Are you still a virgin?" ... I'm ashamed of talking about these things. ... But in that same instant I understand that if I want to win, I must take the plunge. "No. I bled." (p. 42)

This is a book full of uncomfortable moments such as this were we wonder if there is something that could be done to have prevented this from happening. Something that could have stopped this child from learning the suffering of life, and loosing her childhood long before she should have. To say that Nujood is brave is an understatement, she had to go against family, tradition, and culture something that would be hard for even a woman of more years and experience.

While the book is simply written the emotions come through strong. For those who are interested in women's rights in third world countries this is a must read. We may feel that we are helpless to do anything for girls half way around the world who are suffering but just being aware of what happens in other countries can change the way we think and the actions we take. And little actions can sometimes make big changes.

Wars, Guns, and Votes by Paul Collier

Title: Wars, Guns, and Votes Democracy in Dangerous Places
Author: Paul Collier
Type: Non-Fiction
Genre: Economic and Political Development
Series: No
Copyright: 2009
Publisher: Harper
Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Summary: from Good Reads. 
Wars, Guns, and Votes, Paul Collier investigates the violence and poverty in the small, remote countries at the lowest level of the world economy. An esteemed economist and a foremost authority on developing countries, Collier argues that the spread of elections and peace settlements in the world's most dangerous countries may lead to a brave new democratic world. In the meantime, though, nasty and long civil wars, military coups, and failing economies are the order of the day--for now and into the foreseeable future.

Through innovative research and astute analysis, Collier gives an eye-opening assessment of the ethnic divisions and insecurites in the developing countries of Africa, Latin America, and Asia, where corruption is often firmly rooted in the body politic. There have been many policy failures by the United States and other developed countries since the end of the Cold War, especially the reliance on preemptive military intervention. But Collier insists that these problems can and will be rectified. He persuasively outlines what must be done to bring peace and stability: the international community must intervene through aid, democracy building, and a very limited amount of force.

Groundbreaking and provocative, Wars, Guns, and Votes is a passionate and convincing argument for the peaceful development of the most volatile places on earth.

Feelings: 

Paul Collier does very interesting research and what he puts forward in this book as well as The Bottom Billion are very good ideas for moving forward and trying to help those that are suck in the bottom in a cycle of poverty and living in a very poor country. 

This book took me a very long time to read for a couple of reasons: 1. His writing style seems to tell a lot about how he went about organizing his research assistants and getting the information he needed which I just don't find all that interesting. If I was the research assistant mentioned I would be honored but it seems to take up space in the book. 2. While he has ideas worth putting into action it is hard to find these ideas as they are often burred in other text.

This book addresses what we as developed countries can do to help those countries in the bottom billion and what countries in the bottom billion can do to help themselves. We have to look at power and how it effects those who have it. Is there anything that can be done to limit power and have checks and balances? What can we in the developed countries to to help the bottom billion countries not have corrupt leadership that drains the budgets?

The fundamental mistake of our approach to state building has been to forget that well-functioning states are built not just on shared interests but on shared identity. Shared identity does not grow out of the soil; it is politically constructed. It is the task of political leadership to forge it. (p.9)

 In the west we need to think about where aid dollars are going and if there is a way we can get them were they are needed without having it free up budget dollars that end up going to the military. How can we help create security in countries of the bottom billion? 

In fact, democracy had the opposite effect in poor countries to that in rich countries. ... We found that in countries that were at least at middle-income levels, democracy systematically reduced the risk of political violence. ... But in low-income countries, democracy made the society more dangerous. ... Democracies get safer as income rises, whereas autocracies get more dangerous. (p.20-21)

To offset the dangerous effects of democracy a country must have a per capita income of about $2,700 a year or $7 a day (p.21). This is a very interesting finding and one that should tell us a great deal about our efforts to use elections as a solve all for problems in the third world. 

This is just a small sample of what is included in the book. It is full of such insights. Without summarizing the entire book and having a very long list of what Paul Collier suggest it is hard to cover everything. My suggestion is slog through the extras and get to the points they are important for the successful development of the bottom billion.

If you could just read the meat of this book and skip the other parts this would be a very good book. I recommend this book to those that have read The Bottom Billion and enjoyed that. In many ways this book carries on the ideas started in there. If you have not read The Bottom Billion I would recommend starting there.

Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama

Title: Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance
Author: Barack Obama
Type: Audio Book (abridged)
Narrator: Barack Obama
Genre: Non-Fiction/Memoir

Series: No
Copyright: 2005
Publisher: Random House Audio
Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary: from Good Reads

Before Barack Obama became a politician he was, among other things, a writer. Dreams from My Father is his masterpiece: a refreshing, revealing portrait of a young man asking the big questions about identity and belonging.

The son of a black African father and a white American mother, Obama recounts an emotional odyssey. He retraces the migration of his mother's family from Kansas to Hawaii, then to his childhood home in Indonesia. Finally he travels to Kenya, where he confronts the bitter truth of his father's life and at last reconciles his divided inheritance.

Includes the 2004 Democratic National Convention speech given by Obama.

Feelings:
This is the story of Barack Obama before he becomes a politician. While the story is about an absent father and who this effects a young Barack. Race is another question that arises from having an African father and a white mother. Where does one fit in society and how can one proceed to have a black identity when living with whites?

Spending some of his childhood in Indonesia with his mother and step-father taught him about history of a people and how it effects who we are and what we become.

History of race and country is still with us and through this book we see one man's struggle and triumph as he learns to understand his past, his family ties, an unknown culture, and the importance of being true to oneself no matter what that might be.

I wish that this hadn't been abridged but there was not an unabridged version of this book. I think that even those who do not like Obama politically will find this an interesting to listen to. This book isn't about politics it is about family and the struggle of understanding what that means.

Water Ghosts by Shawna Yang Ryan

Title: Water Ghosts

Author: Shawna Yang Ryan

Type: Audiobook
Narrator: Laural Merlington
Genre: Fiction

Series: No

Copyright: 2009
Publisher:Tantor Media

Rating: 2 out of 5


Summary: from GoodReads
 Locke, California, 1928. Three bedraggled Chinese women suddenly appear out of the mist one afternoon in a small Chinese farming town on the Sacramento River, and their arrival throws the community into confusion. Two of the women are unknown to the townspeople, while the third is the long-lost wife of Richard Fong, the handsome manager of the local gambling parlor, who had left her behind in China many years earlier and had not yet returned for her. Richard's wife's unexpected arrival complicates his life in no small way-not least with two prostitutes at the local brothel he frequents. One, the beautiful young Chloe, depends on him but has eyes for someone else, someone even more forbidden: the local preacher's daughter. The other, Poppy, the psychic madam of the brothel, is desperately in love with Richard, and she begins to sink into despair as he grows further and further away from her.

As the lives of the townspeople become inextricably intertwined with the newly arrived women, Poppy's premonitions begin to foretell a deep unhappiness for all involved. And when a flood threatens the livelihood of the entire town, the frightening power of these mysterious women who arrived in the mist will be revealed.

Feelings:
The story could have been every interesting but it lacked something. I couldn't say exactly what it was that was missing. Maybe I just wasn't invested in the characters and thus didn't care what happened to them. I think that maybe the problem was that we jumped between many characters and didn't stick with just one. I might have cared more about them if there had been less jumping back and forth from one to the next. I did come to like some of the characters but the outcome didn't effect them so their story wasn't really changed at the end.

Chloe a white prostitute in a Chinese town doesn't understand many of the legends and beliefs that come from China with the immigrants. When the three women show up it affects her only in that she is no longer visited by Richard and must learn to really sell herself. She isn't interested in this and longs to leave the town. I think if this had been Chloe's story it might have worked but it isn't her story it is Richard and his wife and the two women that show up out of the river with her.

My feeling is that it could have been a very interesting story but it had to big a focus and placed importance on characters that maybe should have been minor characters. It just didn't work for me.