Baking Cakes in Kigali by Gaile Parkin (O.T. #7 of 10)

Angel Tungaraza and her husband moved from Tanzania to Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, a few years after the end of the genocide. Angel has a talent for making cakes, and not just ordinary cakes either. Angel has to know enough about the person the cake is for to make it special whether that means making a cake in the shape of a cell phone or a 3-d airplane. And while each of these cakes celebrate something, each person who orders one has had incredible pain in his or her life. Angel's customers have lost family members to AIDS and the genocide. They are relief workers and prostitutes. But Angel's compassion and goodwill touches each of them as her life has also been filled with sorrow and with joy.

I loved this book. Loved it. Angel's voice is beautiful. She wants to be a good mother and grandmother and sometimes just doesn't know how. She loves her husband but sometimes doesn't know how to talk to him. She is so aware of those around her and always wants to give but sometimes struggles with the decisions she makes.

I have never read a book about Rwanda or the horrors that existed for so long in that country. This book touches on those difficult subjects in a way that allowed me to feel more than sorrow for such huge losses both from AIDS and all out slaughter - Baking Cakes is about people, about individuals and how they survived so much suffering. I will be coming back to this book again I think.

All But My Life by Gerda Weissmann Klein (O. T. 2009 #6 of 10)

Klein's memoir of her time as a Nazi prisoner/slave laborer in Poland in the three years before her liberation was at first difficult for me to delve into. I am not sure what it was...certainly there was tension and the author expressed herself well...I just wasn't there at first. But as the book progressed, I became amazed by her strength and her spirit. She truly never despaired. Even when things were horrific beyond my imagining, one day at a time she survived and lived the best way she could. I can't remember having read holocaust literature in which the main character was not in the concentration camps...but Gerda never was. She was at work camps and was marched all over Poland towards the end of the war.

There were times when I felt very connected to her...when I could see her fears being exactly as mine would be. I loved the love story of her and her husband. It truly is beautiful. A worthy read.

In the Land of Invisible Women (O. T. # 5 of 10)

I am not sure how to review this book...I didn't really like it but I didn't really
dislike it. It took me a while to read...it is a pretty decent size. And the subject matter was interesting - it is a memoir written by Qanta A. Ahmed, a British Palestinian female doctor living and practicing medicine in Saudi Arabia. She had some amazing stories. Stories about her patients, about her experience when she undertook a Hajj to Mecca, her relationships with other doctors and patients, the terrifying power of the Muttawa (the religious police). All very cool.

I think what sort of took away from the power of the book for me were her super involved descriptions of the looks, clothing, and accessories of pretty much every person she met. Details down to the brand of wrist watch he or she was wearing. She spent much time extolling the beauty of different women she encountered. Not that this is a bad thing...but so much of what she did was important and powerful that these passages become rather boring to me. I wanted to know more about what she did than what people looked like.

It was interesting to read a book by a Muslim woman who is incredibly religious and yet incredibly tolerant. Her frustration with having to wear the full abbayah in public, her outrage at the treatment of Saudi women, and horrified reaction to the celebration of many of her colleuges during and after the 9/11 attacks seemed very real and personal. She obviously has a very deep faith and vehemently rejects the interpretation of the Quran that led to the oppression of women and men (this was an interesting discussion) in Saudi Arabia.

So again, it's a mixed review. I think she could have taken out about 100 pages of description and had a better book. Still, I'm not sorry I read it.

We Are On Our Own (O. T. #4 of 10)

This is the second graphic novel I've used for the Orbis Terrarum 2009 challenge and it was so good. Miriam Katin is from Hungary and this book is about her experiences as a Jew living in Hungary during the Nazi regime. In the story, Katin is only a child and her father is away fighting in the army. Her mother fakes her own death and that of her child to escape Budapest when the German army invades. What follows is a story of survival - of incredible hardship, of both cruelty and kindness. Some of the illustrations flash forward to a grown up Katin trying to reconcile her faith with her experiences. It is a powerful World War II memoir and the illustrations were amazing.

Persepolis (O. T. #3 of 10)

Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical graphic novel. Satrapi's story spans her life as a girl living in Tehran, Iran between age six and age fourteen - 1975-1984. The novel's art is stark black and white, simple illustrations. Satrapi was an incredibly intelligent girl who lived in a time where things didn't make sense. She remembers being forced to wear a veil at school, her parents demonstrating against the Shah, the friends of her parents being jailed, tortured, even executed. Satrapi grew up both relieved by and a bit ashamed of her parents' wealth and status. She heard and witnessed terrifying things for anyone let alone a child. But her story is so important and so well told. I plan on looking for Persepolis 2 when I have a chance.

Koyal Dark, Mango Sweet (Orbis Terrarum 2009 #2 of 10)

Jeeta has two older sisters which means she has to survive their husband hunts before its her turn, and she's in no hurry to have her parents arrange her marriage. Jeeta's mother tells her that her skin is too dark to make it easy to find her a man. Koyal dark (the koyal is a dark feathered bird) is no good.

Mubai, India is the setting of Kashmira Sheth's story about family and love and courage. It's about tradition and coming of age and making your own way. It read very quickly and I was dissapointed when it ended because I wanted to know more of Jeeta's story. The use of Hindi phrases was interesting but I couldn't always pull out of context what they meant. There is a glossary at the end but I hate breaking up my reading so I didn't look at it until the end. I would read another book by this author.

Orbis Terarrum 2009 Challenge

Bethany is hosting this very cool challenge.

Challenge Rules:
*The Orbis Terrarum Challenge begins March 1 2009(you are welcome to join later) Through the end of 2009.
*For the challenge each reader is to choose 10 books (for the 10 months).
*Each book must from a different country, I have decided to go by the country of origin of the author, or the country he/she lives in is fine as well.
*You don't have to have a list, that means you can change your mind at any time. As long as there are 10 from 10 different countries, written by 10 different authors: Anything goes.

The bottom line: choose 10 different books, written by 10 different authors, from 10 different countries.

I love making lists so here is my preliminary one:

India - Koyal Dark, Mango Sweet by Kashmira Sheth
Egypt - A Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif
Iran - Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Cuba - Where the Flame Trees Bloom by Alma Flor Ada
France/Israel - A Bottle in the Gaza Sea by Valerie Zenatti
Japan - Silence by Shasaku Endo
England - The Midwife by Jennifer Worth
Hungary - We Are On Our Own by Miriam Katin
Poland - All But M y Life by Gerda Weissmann Klein

Silence

Ow ow ow. This book, while amazingly well written, was incredibly painful to read. Shusaku Endo, a Japanese Christian, wrote a historical fiction (based very heavily in fact) about a Portuguese Catholic priest, Sebastian Rodrigues, who travels clandestinely into Japan to find his apostatized mentor, Christovao Ferreira. Things have not been going well for the Christians in Japan. They are cruelly tortured and murdered for not apostatizing and sometimes they are even if they do. And Father Rodrigues keeps wondering why God keeps His silence - why He does not deliver the faithful from their persecutions. It is a fascinating insight into faith and doubt and forgiveness. It made me think about what I would do to save myself from pain and what I would do to save others from pain. I am glad this was a bookclub choice because I am sure I never would have read it otherwise.