We Wait You - A Book Review

We Wait You by Taryn R. Hutchison
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Taryn Hutchinson goes to Eastern Europe after the fall of communism with Campus Crusade for Christ. In this memoir she recounts her life there over a period of ten years. Ultimately, what began as a short one year mission trip became a life choice that changed her outlook on life and her feeling of belonging in the world.

Hutchinson began her life as a foreign missionary in Eastern Europe in Romania as a "college student" studying the Romanian language. She and her colleagues ministered to the other college students. As Romania became more open, they were able to be more forthcoming about their intentions in the country and openly minister to students and their neighbors. She does an excellent job describing the living conditions in this newly free country and the openness of the people there.

After a couple of years in Romania and in Hungary, Hutchinson takes on a more supervisory role and begins to work with staff and volunteers in the other Eastern European countries. She weaves in information about the history of the region, the living conditions in each country, the varying receptions they received from the people, as well as more personal information. She doesn't shy away from describing her own difficulties in dealing with the lack of basic necessities or the spiritual struggles she experienced.

At the end of 10 years there with only short trips home to see family and connect with sponsors, she returns to live in the US. The transition is not an easy one. Life in Eastern Europe has changed her. Returning in 2000, she has missed the 1990s and has to adjust to many new things. Most of the people she knows don't understand her perspective, and she often feels like she doesn't belong in either world. She takes the reader on this personal journey of reintegrating into life in the US.

This book is on the recommended reading list for the United Methodist Women for 2012. I picked it up because I have always been interested in Eastern Europe. I was not disappointed. The book is funny, sad, sometimes a little scary, and very informative. I would recommend it to anyone who has an interest in the area or in mission work.

A Jerusalem Memoir - A Book Review

It's Easier to Reach Heaven Than the End of the Street: A Jerusalem Memoir by Emma Williams

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Emma Williams' memoir of her time living in Israel is an important book to read if you want to understand the nuances of the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Williams and her family moved to Israel just prior to the beginning of the second Intifada in August, 2000. Her husband works for the UN; she is a doctor who tries to work and provide some normalcy for her 3 children and a 4th born in Bethlehem. They live in Jerusalem in a village with one Jewish family and an extended Palestinian family.

Throughout the book Williams weaves personal stories and events with the bigger picture of the struggle between Jews and Palestinians. She is in a unique position to develop friends and colleagues on both sides of the issue and tries to convey the fears, desires, and attempts to maintain daily life on both sides. She is also open about her own attempts to understand and how difficult it is at times to face the reality. She quotes frequently from conversations with journalists, soldiers, politicians, and ordinary people. Keeping close and frequent communications with friends and family in the US and Britain, she is also able to compare what appears in the press in those countries with what is happening in the country. We definitely don't see the entire picture here.

The Williams lived in Israel until 2003, just before the invasion of Iraq, when her husband was transferred to another country. She continued to visit frequently through 2006 when the book was first published in Britain. The edition I read was an updated edition published in the United States in 2010.

It isn't necessarily an easy book to read. It's beautifully written, but the reality is harsh. As with any emotion packed issue, there are people on both sides of the issue who have extreme views, but also people on both sides who above all else want peace. I get the feeling that this is a situation that is almost impossible to understand unless you've lived with it. For that reason, this is an important book to read, especially if you think that you understand the issues you owe it to yourself to read this. It might give you a different perspective or at least a more in depth understanding of the situation.

View all my reviews on Goodreads

December Book Club meeting

Don't forget the book club meets on Friday Dec 2 at 6:00 pm at Tokyo Bistro in Wingate. We are discussing Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Don't worry if you haven't read or finished the book, I'm not finished either. It's good and flows nicely, so it's easy to read, but it is long. After this meeting we won't meet again until the last Friday in January.

I got sidetracked by a book for the UMW Reading Plan It's Easier to Reach Heaven Than the End of the Street: A Jerusalem Memoir by Emma Williams. Emma Williams is a doctor who moved to Israel in 2000 with her husband and three children. Her husband worked for the UN. They were there during the second Intifada living in a village in Jerusalem that was home to a Jewish family and an extended Palestinian family. She made both Israeli and Palestinian friends during her time there and began writing news articles to send home. In this book she provides a unique insight to both sides of the ongoing conflict. I'm not finished with it yet, but hopefully I'll have it back on the shelf at the church soon, so that others can read it.

If you're interested in American History, or just good conversation, please consider joining us next Friday.

November Book and Meeting

Just a reminder, our November book is Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin. It's not available on Kindle, but I did find a nice hard back copy at the used book store. This month we will meet on Dec. 2 at Tokyo Bistro in Wingate. Anyone is welcome. Although, to date most of the people attending have been members of our church, anyone is welcome.

The original intention of the book club was not to be a church book club anyway. I had originally planned to advertise at Waldenbooks, but that's long gone. If anyone else has ideas for how to get the word out that are not church related, please comment. We always skip the last Friday in December because of holiday obligations, which makes our next meeting the last Friday in January. This will give everyone plenty of time to read January's book. We will decide on that book on Dec. 2. If you have any non-fiction ideas, you can leave them as a comment here as well. We are a non-fiction book club, but read a wide range within that genre.

Happy Reading!

November Meeting

Our November meeting will be in December! We will do the same thing that we have for the last couple of years. Because the last Friday in November is the Friday after Thanksgiving, we will meet on the first Friday of December instead (Dec. 2.) Then we will delay our next meeting until the last Friday in January. This will give us plenty of time to read the next book, hopefully, even with busy holiday schedules.

Our book for Dec. 2 is Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

I'm still trying to finish Lincoln by David Herbert Donald, that I wanted to finish first. Better get busy.
Hope you can join us on Dec 2.

A Woman Among Warlords

A Woman Among Warlords: The Extraordinary Story of an Afghan Who Dared to Raise Her Voice by Malalai Joya

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


First off let me say, there have been 2 versions of this book released. I just bought it for my Kindle last week, so I have the latest edition. I did not find the writing as objectionable as some reviewers have. I'm sure as in most books there are areas where it could be improved, but it was not a distraction to me at all.

There are many extraordinary men and women in this world and this book is the story of one of them. Although Malalai Joya is a young woman, she has an important story to tell. Born into war-torn Afghanistan, she was fortunate to have a father who was educated and wanted his children to be educated as well - an estimated 80% of Afghan women are illiterate. Her father also instilled in her a love of democracy.

Malalai Joya is not her real name, but it is the name she goes by in most areas of her life in order to protect her family. Born in 1978, she has never known a time when her country was not at war. In A Woman Among Warlords, Joya describes her life in rural Afghanistan, refugee camps in both Iran and Pakistan, teaching in underground schools for girls, and finally being elected to the new Parliament only to be ejected for speaking out. Her life is constantly in danger, and although she has traveled outside of Afghanistan to speak and carry her message, she won't consider staying out of the country. Love for the real Afghanistan, the people, comes through on every page.

The book gives a brief history of Afghanistan to fill in background for the current struggle. She speaks knowledgeably about the roles other governments have played in this history and credits the research team who helped her gather this information. I have read several other books about Afghanistan and the facts are consistent with what I've read.

Although the book carries a message of hope, it is not a feel good book. She conveys a picture of the horrors that the Afghan people have had to endure and is critical of the people who have brought it about. This includes both Afghans such as the warlords and the president Hamid Karzai, but also the former Soviet Union and the current US/NATO occupation. However, just as she is able to distinguish between the Afghan government and the people of Afghanistan, she distinguishes between the people of western countries and their governments. Joya is thankful for being able to carry her message to Europe and the US, and for the help she has received from some western organizations.

The message could sound hopeless, but she doesn't see it that way. In the last chapter Joya gives suggestions to people who want to help. As an American, I have often wondered how we could leave Afghanistan with so many problems, many of which we caused, knowing that there are so many warring factions. Joya is insistent that, if democracy is to be attained in Afghanistan, it will be because the people secure it for themselves. The message I get from this book is that yes they would like our help, but from a distance.


View all my reviews

What are you interested in reading?

Do you have something that you want to read? Carolyn and I have been the only regulars for a long time and have gotten used to picking things interesting to us, but we are certainly both open to reading a lot of different types of books. So please make suggestions. Hopefully we can decide on a book by the end of October which will give us all time to get ready for the last week in November.

Eleanor and Roosevelt

Sometimes life just catches up with us and we have to adjust. So, we are currently taking a break from the bookclub. There will be no meeting in October, but I do hope we can resume in November.

In the mean time what are you reading? I have been reading in the area of US history lately, more specifically about US presidents. Within the last few months I've read biographies of Theodore Roosevelt, Harry S Truman, and Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt. They were all books that I pulled off of my bookshelf or my Dad's bookshelf. Both of us have been buying at used book stores at a faster rate than we read for years. My current economic situation has required that I slow my rate of buying and as a consequence I have discovered some gems that I had overlooked.

One of these is Eleanor and Franklin by Joseph Lash. It was originally published in the 70s and based largely on Eleanor Roosevelt's correspondence. The book is dense, but fascinating. Eleanor is the focus as the author was a long time friend of hers. For this reason, it may be more forgiving than other biographies, but it is well documented. The biography covers the time from her childhood through FDR's death in 1945. You get insight into this fascinating woman who, because of her childhood, began her adult life with an intense desire to please.  Where she has a desperate desire to connect intimately with other humans, she marries a man who rarely shares intimacies with anyone and brings with him a very dominating mother. Franklin's father was much older than his mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt, so when he died, Franklin was her life. She would dominate his life until she died, even to the point of building Eleanor and Franklin a townhouse in New York City next to her own with sliding doors on each floor connecting the two homes.

In the book, Lash shows how Eleanor evolves through time, gradually freeing herself from the influence of Sara and to a degree from Franklin. By the time they are in the White House, Eleanor has become a force independent of Franklin. The transformation began with her discovery of his affair with Lucy Mercer. Although they stayed together, in many ways Eleanor was set free from that time.  She was still his partner in and always sensitive to not wanting to hinder his political success, in fact wanting to enhance it. She kept him in the public eye, after he was struck down by polio, when he couldn't do it himself.

While FDR was focused on his health, Eleanor began to get involved more and more with politics. She made new friends, learned about social issues, and developed skills in speaking and writing.  Eleanor and Franklin tells the story of how Eleanor discovered her own causes, how she influenced FDR, and how she couldn't influence him. She was in many ways an idealist, where he was a realist, but she was also often his conscience.

Lash has written another book about Eleanor's life, Eleanor: The Years Alone. Fortunately, my Dad has it, so I may have to raid his book shelf again.

Well, we've neglected this blog for quite a while even though the bookclub is still running. Over the next week or so I'll try to update books we have read, etc. We've dwindled down to 2 or 3 members, but still publish the book to read in the church newsletter each month.

The fact that only 2 of us are regulars may account for a more narrow selection of books and therefore less interest from others. However, we are definitely open to suggestions from others, so here's your chance. Hopefully with a little prodding we can get some others interested and expand our choices for books over the next few months.

If you happen to stumble upon this blog and have any suggestions, please leave a comment. We're always open to new ideas.