The Dressmaker of Khair Khana by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

I am writing about this book not because I loved it (I liked it enough, but I loved the topic), but because it's an important book. Just like Imperial life in Emerald City, this book should be read by as many people as possible. 

This book should be required reading for those in the diplomatic corps. I could serve as a partial roadmap of how to get things done in a very challenging social environment. Often, I get the feeling that when a non-native organization is trying to do good in its own cultural and social context (as in Imperial life in Emerald City), it results in disaster. Kamila Sidiqi accomplished much while adhering to the rule of Taliban. This is the trick we need to learn and teach to help those who are living under most difficult circumstances.

Kamila Sidiqi comes from a family of eleven children. She is the third oldest, with an older sister and brother. Having blessed with an educated father who believed in education for all his children, she had big dreams. She hoped to become a professor in Dari or literature one day. All this suddenly came to an end when Taliban seized control of Afghanistan.

Almost immediately, brutal laws were instituted and enforced. Some of them are as follows:

•     "Accused thieves had one hand and one foot cut off, and their severed limbs hung from posts on street corners as a warning to others."  
•     Everything that they consider a distraction from worship was banned - such as music, movies, television, card playing, chess, and kite flying.
•     Creating a representation of the human figure was forbidden.
•     Wearing western clothing or hair cut was forbidden.
•     After a short grace period, the length of men's beard must meet Taliban's requirement of longer than a fist length.
•     Shaving was forbidden.
•     Modernity or anything associated with it was banned.
•     Women will stay at home.
•     Women are not permitted to work.
•     Women must wear the chadri in public.
•     Women must travel with a male family chaperone.
•     Women cannot speak to men they are not related to.
•     Women were banned from schools, offices, etc.

Women were beaten on the streets if they didn't wear chadri (a face covering that left 2 inches by 3 1/2 inches opening for the eyes), if they were out and about alone without a male family chaperone, if their wrist peeked out, if they were caught talking to a male that wasn't their relative, etc.

Initially, Kamila's family didn't have to worry about money. Her father had made wise investments, and they were able to make it. However, as time passed and the adult males of the family (Kamila's father and older brother) were forced to leave their home due to Taliban threats (Kamila's family came from northern Afghanistan associated with a rival faction headed by a charismatic mujahadeen fighter), and the household finances were more and more difficult to meet. As desperation grew, Kamila talked her oldest and married sister, Malika, into teaching her how to sew. Though Malika had a university degree and had been a teacher previously, she was now helping her husband make ends meet with her sewing.

Kamila noticed that even under Taliban rule, some women run businesses did well (such as female doctors treating female patients) as long as they heeded no contact with males rule. Kamila decided that they could start sewing clothes to sell at various markets nearby. The only danger lay in Kamila having to talk to the shopkeepers (mostly men) about her wares. In the beginning, Kamila and her sisters only sold a handful of pieces, but soon, the word spread about her work ethic, craftsmanship, quality of clothes, etc. brought in more and more work. And Kamila's enterprise spread from mouth-to-mouth and more and more desperate women came to Kamila's house to beg for work.

The remarkable thing about Kamila is that she didn't turn anyone away. In fact, she created sewing school to take in as many women and girls as possible and to train them. Her business grew and she was able to give desperate women a chance to contribute and help their desperate families.

Kamila's secret to success was that she knew the dangers and she adhere to most of Taliban's rules. This was a recipe to her success. She dealt with most women. She didn't "educate" the girls, but taught them sewing, which would serve the girls well as adults in helping out their families. Even some Taliban soldiers and commanders sent their daughters to Kamila's sewing school and ordered wedding dresses and others from her. So, she kept the big rules, but she broke what she considered less severe ones - like talking to males not related to her.

Though she minimized the risks of her sisters and those who worked for her, she took great personal risks - she went to the markets to negotiate, sometimes every day, and  she later went on to work for a UN agency against her family's wishes. Through it all, she held her family together, she provided livelihood for hundreds of people, and she made a difference in lives of many.

What I've learned from this books is that under the most draconian living conditions, we are resilient enough to find ways to not only to survive, but thrive. If Kamila can do it, I feel like I can do it, too. Then I wondered if there were any Kamila Sidiqi's in North Korea, in Syria, in Gaza, etc. and I wondered if there'd be anyone there to write their stories. 

I hope there is.

The Genesis Mystery by Jeffrey Goodman

I like interesting books. OK. That didn’t come out right.Who likes boring books?

I like books that provoke me to think or look at things differently and entertain possibilities. A friend described my taste in books as eclectic, and this book definitely falls under the eclectic, provoking category.

I have had this book for a long time (~1986), and I think I’ve read it more than five, less than ten times since I purchased it. Sometimes I read it annually, and other times, I can go a long time before I pick it up, again. But, I find that every time I read it, I get something new out of it (actually, this is the case for me for most books).

This book basically says that Homo sapiens sapiens were “smart from the start,” and that of all the  fossils we’ve found around the world show discrete and separate trend lines for the cranial capacity (as well as other physical characteristics) rather than overlapping trend lines (which would confirm the traditional evolutionary models). This means that a 4 million year old Australopithecus fossil has almost the same features as a ~2 million year old Australopithecus fossil. That nothing changed in 2 million years! The same can be said for the Homo erectus fossils ranging in age from ~1.9 million years old to ~140,000 years ago. The same discrete and separate existence applies to Homo habilis, Neanderthals, and finally, Homo sapiens sapiens. Listed below are the discrete timelines for other Homo species from Wikipedia:

Homo habilis:                  2.33 – 1.44 million years ago

Neanderthals, early:        600,000 – 350,000 years ago

Neanderthals, true:          250,000 – 25,000 years ago

Homo sapiens:                500,000 - ~200,000 years ago

Homo sapiens sapiens:     200,000 – present

I find it curious that there are no noticeable overlapping trend lines of fossils in any of these groupings. Supposedly, the fossils stayed the same over these spans of years.

This book also talks about the “impossible evolutionary reversals.”

“In all the successive species of the genus Homo, the genetically controlled traits of skull-wall thickness and brow-ridge size have undergone a series of seemingly impossible reversals.”

Skull wall thickness (species listed chronologically):

Homo erectus – Thick

Homo habilis – thin

Neanderthals – Thick

Homo sapiens sapiens – thin

Size of brow bridges (species listed chronologically):

Homo erectus – “substantial”

Homo habilis – “small”

Neanderthals – “massive”

Homo sapiens sapiens – “practically nonexistent”

Finally, this book touches upon evolutionary anomalies such as our voice box and the sudden appearance of Homo sapiens sapiens’ “sharp chin, weak brow, and high valuted forehead…,” as well as spiritual aspect of Homo sapiens sapiens development.

And according to Dr. Goodman, all these attributes point to some sort of intervention. Whether this intervention comes from God, aliens (Anunnaki from Sumerian legends), “hitchhiking spirits,” other, etc. 

Dr. Goodman doesn’t say what his conclusion is, but leaves it frustratingly or deliciously open for us to ponder.

HOWEVER, I’m writing this review because I finally read two very different thought-provoking books about the same time and everything sort of clicked to entertain an outrageous what if scenario….

Recently, I read The 12^thPlanet by Zecharia Sitchin. It talks of alien intervention in forms of creating a slave population using Homo erectus (for gold mining in Africa) and alien (Anunnaki) DNA, resulting in Homo sapiens. And as I was reading this book, the Genesis Mystery, it struck me as odd that the purported time of first Anunnaki visit ~450,000 years ago, and Homo sapiens timeline of ~500,000 years ago seemed to coincide fairly close. Hm…. 

Maybe this is the best thing about this book, that we can have fun thinking about what ifs.....

Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson

Though this book was a Junior Library Guild Selection, this is a great book for any age!

Before I get into the book, I'm curious about one thing. I wonder if it was normal for an orphaned child to be shuffled around from relative to relative like an unwanted burden in the days of old. Anne of Green Gables comes to mind along with The Secret Garden and several others. Was it because resources were scarce and adding one more mouth to feed was indeed a tremendous burden? Or was it because there were more indifferent, if not more cruel relatives abound? Or worse still, the world they lived in placed little value on these orphaned children except for what labor could be gotten from them? It's really heart-breaking.

A 16-year-old orphan Hattie Brooks lived with her Aunt Ivy and Uncle Holt in Arlington, Iowa. She lost her father to a lung disease when she was two, and when she was five, her mother died of pneumonia. Since then, she's been passed from relative to relative, some of them with thin, tenuous claim to any relation. 

"I'd stay to help out with this sick person or that until I'd run of folks who needed help and didn't mind an extra mouth to feed to get it." 

This had been Hattie's existence until she was thirteen when Aunt Ivy took her in (but it was Uncle Holt who was a distant cousin). But instead of finding love and understanding, Aunt Ivy reminded her every day that she had nothing and no one. Aunt Ivy was on the verge of forcing Hattie to work at a boardinghouse when she received a letter from her dead uncle to come and inherit his homestead claim in eastern Montana. She jumped at he opportunity to escape the dreary existence of maid at a boardinghouse and set out for an adventure in January of 1918. 

And boy did she set out for an adventure. Her naive ignorance made her dismiss what the men on the train told her, but she should have listened to some of their comments with some credence. But she didn't. And the reality of winter in eastern Montana alone in a shack with a smart, considerate horse name Plug and a cantankerous cow named Violet almost did her in, except for the kindness of strangers (her closest neighbors) kept her alive and surviving everyday.

Though she quickly learned that "inheriting" a claim was really more like a curse than anything, she was determined to "prove" a claim and keep the 320 acre her uncle left her. However, there were conditions to be met. 

1. She must build and fence (set four hundred eighty rods of fence).
2. She must cultivate at least one-eighth of the claim (or 40 acres).
3. All the conditions must be met in three years or the person loses the claim. This gave Hatti ten months to prove her claim.

A school girl from Arlington, Iowa must do all this, almost by herself, in ten months.

Hattie took up the challenge. In the process of trying to prove a claim, she faced unimaginable hardships, both physical and mental, but in her depth of despair and hopelessness, which she shrugged off quite readily, she found her own family, made of strangers who come to love and care for her more than her own relatives.

Ultimately, she failed to prove her claim due to a natural disaster (hail storm) and must relinquish the claim, she had no regrets. She had done her best, and in the process of trying to prove the claim, she had learned that her future might not lie with farming, but writing. Though she worked at the boardinghouse to pay off her (mostly her uncle's) debts, she had hopes for a brighter future. At the end of the book, she's on a train, again, on her way to Seattle where her new family (closest neighbors) and her could-be sweetheart moved.

As I was finishing this book (I finished in 1 1/2 days), I thought, this is what makes America great. Because it's populated mostly by the people or the descendants of the people who desperately wanted to be here and to "make it" here. They were more than willing to work hard to make their dreams come true, whatever that dream might have been.  

To these intrepid immigrants, failure was not an option.  Hattie worked hard to payoff her debts before she was on the train to Seattle.

The long thread of people who held this country together had the same core values (hard work ethic, the indomitable spirit, and the spirit of independence, etc.) running through them whether they were the English, the Germans, the Norwegians, the Irish, the Italians, the Chinese, the Koreans, the Vietnamese, the Mexicans, etc. 

We are but a small portion of the thread of greatness that ran from the beginning of our country's history. Hopefully, we could continue the work to make this a great country. 

Can you tell I really enjoyed this book? I think you should check it out, too.

O, Juliet by Robin Maxwell

O, what a fantastic book!

I'm a book lover, especially hardback books. I know I'm going to have to surrender to the digital age and buy an e-book reader or a tablet, but I'm still trying to hold out. However, collecting hardback books get to be a very expensive hobby. So, I frequent nearby thrift stores, dollar stores, and library book sales to get my fill of books. This was a dollar store find (I also teach science at my kids' school as a volunteer, and Dolllar Stores are great for science project supplies).

I never liked Romeo and Juliet. I prefer The Merchant of Venice, The Winter's Tale, Henry V, The Tempest, Macbeth, etc. Romeo and Juliet seemed overly sentimental and stupidly tragic. And Juliet's nurse and Romeo's Friar should have known better than to not only encourage but to aid in the teenage lovers' hair-brained schemes.

Having said that, I loved O, Juliet. If this had been Shakespeare's original play, I would have loved it, too. It added so many layers and texture to the story. Most of the characters felt real and alive, and each had strong motivation in their backstories to explain their own journey to the tragic end.

Spoiler Alert~ 

Set in the opulent world of Don Cosimo de Medici in Florence, our Juliet is best friends with Don Cosimo's would be daughter-in-law Lucrezia Tornabuoni, who replaces Juliet's nurse as her confidante. Lucrezia's upcoming marriage to Piero casts a pall on Juliet. She, too, has an upcoming marriage, except it's to a man she despises. At Lucrezia's betrothal ball, Juliet meets Romeo, and  they fall in love over Dante's love poetry.

Though they are from warring families and their hatred go back for at least two generations, there is hope. The parents on both sides, fathers especially, are more than willing to forgive one another and reconcile. However, Juliet's betrothal, Jacopo Strozzi, will not stand by and watch Juliet fall through his fingers. Though he doesn't love Juliet, he needs the business partnership with Juliet's father for secure his future, and he'll not lose out on that for something as silly and insignificant as love. 

Jacopo Strozzi sets the major pieces of Romeo and Juliet in motion and brings about the tragic end to their classic love story.

I can't say enough how much I loved this book. The original pales in comparison with this awesome book. 

Whether you pay $1 or $15, this books is well worth the price of the book (can you tell I like to buy books?). Go check it out and enjoy! I'm going to check out other books by the same author. Since I like de Medici's Florence so much, I think I'm going to check out Signora da Vinci, about Leonardo da Vinci's young mother.

War is a Racket by Smedley Darlington Butler

Wow. Wow.
 
I came across this book by accident. My curiosity got me here, and I don't know what to think. Even if only part of this book is true, this is a very scary world where greed-driven atrocities are dressed up in more palatable words. I'm hoping what he said in this book wasn't true, but I have a sinking feeling that it might.

War is a Racket was copyrighted in early 1930's (based on a speech and pamphlet) by retired US Marine Corps Major General and two-time Medal of Honor recipient Smedley Darlington Butler.

He wrote this book based on his military experiences, and it's a scathing indictment on our government's history of war (remember this book was published in early 1930's).

"I spent thirty-three years and four months in active military service, and during that period I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.

I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902 - 1912. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested.

Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate racket in three districts. I operated on three continents."

In everything I read, I tell myself that this book probably contains some partial truths, but it's hard to deny "at least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War (he means WWI)." He went on to ask "how many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many f them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them parried the bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?"

If nothing, this book is thought provoking, just like the Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekara. And just like the Imperial Life in the Emerald City, War is a Racket should be a must read for government officials because they needed to be reminded of who is actually paying the price for their decision to go to war. Mr. Butler makes an interesting proposition - the decision to go to war should  not be made by government officials who seldom have any personal stake in the decision they make, but it should reside with the population group that will have to bear arms in case of war - the young and able bodied.

I wonder what he would say about the wars that followed WWI, especially the wars in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. However, as a Korean-American whose father hails from North Korea (he made it down to South Korea during the Korean War), I am profoundly grateful for the American led UN intervention. And to be honest, I don't care if the decision to join the Korean War was based on greed orchestrated by Big Business, Wall Street, whatever entity that might have an ulterior motive.

A couple of years ago, at a 4th of July parade, I met a Korean vet and thanked him for his sacrifice. He was in the engineering corps and later worked for a Japanese company for a while. He visited Korea with his wife later on and was happy that his service meant something.

Although it seems like Iraq is imploding right now, I hope the Iraqi veterans will take heart that it, too, may be on the road to recovery and success like South Korea. You just need to give the country about 25+ years to see the first results.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in history, conspiracy theories, and war/anti-war materials.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler

For more information, check out the link.

The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel

I am a Christian, but I haven't attended church in the last year or so. I am struggling with several aspects of Christianity, and I'm trying to find my way back to the kind of faith I had when I was younger. Though I've enjoyed listening to many of Dr. Timothy Keller's sermons, his book has left me feeling flat. So, I wasn't so sure about picking up this book, but it was only at $1 at the local library book sale. So, what do I have to lose? Right? 

To be honest, I have mixed feelings about this book. I think the outline of the book appeals to people such as me - scientific and data driven. However, I think Mr. Strobel has squandered an important opportunity by interviewing and sourcing those experts who were already Christians. To me, this book's credibility has been compromised because it seems to lack independent sources. 

I know. I might be confusing. Please, allow me to explain.

Mr. Strobel divides the book into different types of evidence. Here is the list of his evidences.

1. The Eyewitness Evidence
2. Testing the Eyewitness Evidence
3. The Documentary Evidence
4. The Corroborating Evidence
5. The Scientific Evidence
6. The Rebuttal Evidence
7. The Identity Evidence
8. The Psychologica Evidence
9. The Profile Evidence
10. The Fingerprint Evidence
11. The Medical Evidence
12. The Evidence of the Missing Body
13. The Evidence of Appearances
14. The Circumstantial Evidence

Of this list of evidences, I found the Corroborating Evidence the most convincing of them all precisely because it is drawn from sources outside of Christian origins. I also found the Eyewitness Evidence fairly strong as well. 

Of this list of evidences, I found the Scientific Evidence the weakest and most unreliable of them all precisely because he went to a Christian archaeologist who affirmed Mr. Strobel's Christian beliefs. As a Christian, I am actually angry that Mr. Strobel has taken the easy way out. Could he not find one archaeologist who wasn't a Christian who could have affirmed his findings? At least some possibilities of them? To me, this kind of evidence is tainted evidence. Therefore, a lot of Mr. Strobel's evidences (1 - 10, except for 1 and 4) seemed to have been tainted in the same way. I wish he could have found experts outside of Christianity to validate Christian possibilities.  It would have been enough for them to say - we can't rule out that possibility.

BUT this is not to say I wasn't convinced by them. I felt happy and heartened by these expert testimonies affirming what the Bible said happened, but had my faith been stronger, I wouldn't need a book such as this, right?

I fear I'm always going to be a struggling Christian precisely because it means so much to me. What value is my faith if I don't have to overcome any doubts or obstacles? The bottom line is, with its flaws and all, this book has strengthened my faith. So, I would recommend it to anyone who is struggling with Christianity and wants a more data-driven book about it. Or someone who is curious about Christianity. It might give you a good start. 

Longbourn by Jo Baker

What a glorious book! I loved it. 

I am a Jane Austen junkie. Anything with Jane Austenish take on it, and I'll read at least 150 pages before I give up and decide it's a waste of time. However, I've learned to revise my rule to the first 100 pages because my time is too precious to waste on a bad book, even if it is a take on Jane Austen's books.

I'm a mom with two kids, and I finished this book in 16 hours! Call me crazy, sleep deprived woman for a day, but it was worth it. This book stayed with me long after I finished it. It gave me so much to think about...such as how a household like the Bennet's ran in Jane Austen's time. 

I never gave much thought about who cooked the meals and did household chores when Mrs. Bennet and the girls were busy socializing and attending parties, dinners, and dances. I didn't care to know how labor intensive laundry day could be for those who actually had to do it. I didn't know how unfair their world could be without rank or wealth. I didn't realize how beautiful Jane, Lizzie, Mary, Kitty, and Lydia's clothes were to others who were less fortunate. All in all, this book was a revelation, in so many ways.

SPOILER ALERT~

The characters are finely drawn. I feel as if they are living, breathing members of Bennet's home. Sarah's characterization is a work of art, with her deep thoughts and feelings driving her actions. James, though known to Sarah and seen through her eyes, he is a mysterious stranger with a heart. Each is driven by need for love, acceptance, and following their heart. I love the portrayals of Mr. & Mrs. Hill, Polly, and Ptolemy Bingley, because they are so human and anchored in reality.

On the other hand, I don't like Ms. Baker's portrayal of Mr. Bennet and his involvement or lack thereof with James' life, but I can see how it can true to what might be deemed as "acceptable behavior" of a gentleman of that time. I was never a fan of Mr. Bennet, but in Ms. Baker's book, he could be considered the biggest villain in James' life. Some might argue that that title belongs to Wikham, but I disagree. Had Mr. Bennet taken some responsibility, James might not have fallen as much as he had. Some might argue that he had done what he could, but I'd say not enough. And poor Mrs. Hill.... It must have been hell to have to bear it all because she can do nothing to improve her son's situation. She had done what she could, but not him.

The book is divided into three volumes, and in volume three, I wish there was more of James' life there, instead of Sarah's. There was James' back story in volume three, but I wanted to know more about what he did after he left Longbourn. How did he overcome his disappointment in having to leave an employment that became more like a home, but more importantly, a woman he came to love dearly. I wanted to know the kind of mental strength he had, needed, and used to survive. I was disappointed that Sarah was the one who gave up her nice, comfortable life at Pemberley and go in search of James, with absolutely no assurance of finding him. Truly a case of blind faith and courage.

Sure, I was glad that she found him, and they decided to head back to Longbourn together, but I wish James had more active role in their reunion. However, these are minor complaints. I loved this book. I absolutely loved this book, and I went back to reading it immediately after I finished it, just in case I've missed something important.

I would recommend this book to any Jane Austenphile, but to anyone who likes a good read. Stories of Sarah and James, Mrs. Hill and Mr. Bennet have stayed with me long after I finished the book.