April Read - The Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Margaret's pick for the month of April.

One on-line review shares this:

Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali — recounts her terrorized childhood in Africa and, much later, her embattled political career in Holland in her book Infidel.

Summary: Brilliant, brave, inspiring. Read this book.

In a review this brief, I can't possibly do justice to the breadth of Hirsi Ali's journey or the dangers she's faced down. She's literally retraced the history of human progress in the span of a single lifetime, traveling from a nomadic Stone Age existence to an elected leadership position in a modern, industrialized democracy. Along the way, she's overcome obstacles most of us can scarcely conceive, and shown more courage than I hope any of us will ever be called upon to display.

We who are born in the First World, who are taught ideas of individual liberty and human rights from childhood, can take these concepts for granted, but Ayaan Hirsi Ali was born in a world where they are nonexistent. To escape the suffocating bonds of repression, she had to face down family, clan, culture, religion - the entire universe of her society aligned against her, all teaching in unison that a woman's role in life is to be a pious, unprotesting slave, to be handed off like property from father to husband, and to be silent and submissive in the face of abuse and degradation.

She did not live through the Enlightenment, when the landscape of ideas changed around her. Rather, she had to reinvent and rediscover them all for herself, forging a new identity from scratch, and then finding the courage to act on those newfound ideals to flee her home for a society she had never known. That she not only did so, but excelled and thrived there, is a testament to her courage and her passion for justice and equality.

Hirsi Ali speaks with eloquence and passion, not just with her words but with her life, when it comes to the dangers of excessive tolerance.

March Read - Mistaken Identity

Syd's pick for March

Thanks Syd for a great evening!

I thought I'd post two different reviews from Amazon readers...one positive and one a little on the negative side. I think we brought both of these points out in our discussion on Wednesday night.

POSITIVE NOTE:

I couldn't put this book down. It was such a compelling read that I kept turning page after page wanting to know what came next...even though I already knew how it ended. It is beautifully written, almost like reading a fiction book, and yet, of course, frightenly real. It is tragic that this actually happened, but I'm thankful to each family that they have chosen to tell their story.

To share with us the grace and mercy, and abundant love that these two families have for one another. They have been a wonderful example of how we, too, can love and forgive, and have compassion towards one another when life doesn't play out how we would like. This book makes me want to live a deeper faith-filled life and always love and have faith...no matter what!

NEGATIVE NOTE:

Like many readers I was mesmerized by this story, first hearing of it when it happened and then more recently when it received more media attention on Dateline, Oprah, and via People magazine coinciding with the publication of the book. How could this have happened? How did the families react? How is Whitney doing? All these questions were answered by the media yet I wanted to know more and was glad to see the book was available for download on my Kindle.

The Van Ryns and Ceraks seem like such nice people who are truly living their faith. Even in their grief how they were able to reach out to one another was really amazing. We should all learn from how they handled this tragic situation.

That said, I wanted to know more about Whitney's brain injury itself and other than the first five weeks, the TBI portion was really not covered in very much detail. These families are the epitome of Christian kindness. In a world where evangelical Christians sometimes have a negative connotation, where they say they pray but their actions seem to be full of hypocrisy, these people really do walk the walk and talk the talk. When I see those buttons that say "WWJD" these are the people who definitely I would think of.

However, although well written, the families use so much praise and prayer in their story that they end up alienating the readers who could really benefit from the message. Another sore spot with me was that they did a lot of bragging about the people that evidently became Christians due to this tragedy. Does that make them somehow feel better? The story itself really gets bogged down in all the religion. To some readers this is a positive point, to others like myself who considers themself spiritual rather than religious, this was way overdone. I found myself skimming many parts - making this a very quick read. For those who are interested in a book detailing more about traumatic brain injury, I highly recommend Where is the Mango Princess by Cathy Crimmins who details her husband's TBI in detail and how it affected her family. I would recommend Mistaken Identity to evangelical Christians who aren't concerned about details of traumatic brain injury itself.

So there you have it - and there is another book reccommendation for those looking for more tramatic brain injury stories. - Mango Princess.

Syd made a good comment that if we have more comments on the book - something that came to mind after our meetings we can just share it here on the blog. Thanks Syd.