Recent Reads: Half the Sky and A Call to Action

I recently listened to Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. It was tough, a very difficult book to listen to. Even though I knew I should stick with it, I almost had to stop it was so upsetting. Somehow, hearing about the dangerous, exploited lives of women around the world was harder to hear for me than if I'd read a physical copy of the book. On into the book there are some success stories that are really powerful, and that's what helped me get through it. I had reached more than my fill of frustratingly sad stories of women so limited by their circumstances and so abused and manipulated by men (both strangers and family members), stories that had no easy solutions. I even had to stop listening about one-third of the way in. I asked a friend I knew had read the book previously if she, knowing me well, thought I should continue the book. She encouraged me to, and I'm glad I finished it. It was perhaps THE most difficult book I've ever read.

I followed that up shortly thereafter with Jimmy Carter's latest book, A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power. In part, the same idea from Half the Sky is here, but with a little bit different spin. For one, Carter covers the injustices to women done both in the United States and  other parts of the world, which made the book feel more personal to me. And, Carter gave more solutions and success stories, which kept me from getting that completely hopeless feeling I got from Half the Sky. 

(Disclaimer: I do realize to affect change people have to be made uncomfortable.)

Have you read either of these books? What did you think? 

**A few years back I traveled to Plains, Georgia, to attend Jimmy Carter's Sunday school class, a great experience.

Book Review: White Dog Fell from the Sky by Eleanor Morse

White Dog Fell from the Sky by Eleanor Morse
Published by: Viking Books
Published on: Hardcover April 4, 2013, Paperback December 31, 2013
Page count: 369
Genre: fiction
My reading format: paperback provided by the publisher
Available formats: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle, audiobook, Audible

My review:

The story begins with an air of mystery: Isaac, a black man from South Africa, travels over the border into Botswana underneath a casket inside a hearse. He's dropped out beaten, broken and barely alive. A white dog notices, and once Isaac is well enough to walk, the dog, which Isaac names White Dog, follows him. To sustain himself, Isaac needs to find work in a place where he knows no one. After a long and dusty walk he comes upon a town where he meets Alice, an American white woman who hires him to tend her garden. Alice immediately trusts Isaac, even when he can't understand why, and he begins to creatively transform her outside space.

On the inside, Alice struggles with a marriage to an unfaithful husband, uncertainty in her career and a mother who wishes her to be back home in the United States. She sets off an a business trip with several colleagues, one of whom she becomes involved with, and doesn't return right away. While she is gone, Isaac is unfortunate enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and is deported back to South Africa and imprisoned. When Alice returns to find Isaac missing, she is determined to find him and bring him back to Botswana. While she tries to get through government red tape and other complications, a special delivery intended for Isaac arrives at Alice's and she must look after it until Isaac can be found.

I both enjoyed and struggled with this book. I loved how Morse wrote so beautifully about the setting. I could envision Botswana and Alice's home most vividly, and was reminded of how the setting of a book can become like a character, so ingrained in a book's plot and resolution. I cared immediately for Isaac's well-being. I was heartbroken when he was transported back to South Africa after such a successful tenure with Alice. It was Alice I struggled with the most. I was invested in her initially, but that began to wane when her romantic flings took center stage in the novel when it was her locating Isaac that I wanted most to see. I wanted her to be as honorable and likable a person as Isaac.

I like that even though I felt sidetracked by her business trip and subsequent romantic relationships, the importance of finding Isaac never changed for Alice. It was that part of the story that kept me quickly turning pages, wanting to know more and see a good outcome for Isaac. The ending, though abrupt and a little vague, did give me, I think, most of the satisfaction I was hoping for.

Three and a half out of five stars

If you liked White Dog Fell from the Sky, you'll like A Different Sun by Elaine Neil Orr, State of Wonder by Ann Patchett and The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, and anything by Willa Cather.