Besides the obvious obstacles—an extreme communication barrier, a culture so completely opposite of Western values and practices, and hoping to not get on your traveling companion’s nerves—these two innocent, naïve college girls were walking in utterly unknown territory. But in the end, mental anguish turns out to be the biggest danger of the trip.
Tag: nonfiction
A review of Stricken: The 5,000 Stages of Grief by Spike Gillespie & Katherine Tanney (Eds)
Stricken is filled with honest and heartfelt stories from a collection of very good, mostly Texas-based writers who possess the life experience and courage to share their stories with others. The next time someone I care about is in need of comfort and solace in the face of loss, I’ll be certain to pass on this worthy and life-affirming book.
A review of A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
A Brief History of Time is far more than a science book. It’s one of the renaissance books that is so seminal to the notion of who we are, and where we might be in the next fifty years, that it should be required reading for every person from high school on. If that seems like a big ask you’ve got the wrong idea about this book.
A review of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights illustrated by Michel Streich
Though it’s only small, this book packs a powerful punch in terms of its striking prose which is no less relevant today than it was 60 years ago, its apt illustrations, and its applicability to the way we choose to live our lives.
A review of Three of the Best: The Modern Woman’s Guide to Everything by Candace Lewis & Margaret O’Sullivan
All in all, Lewis and O’Sullivan have done a very clever job of distilling just about everything you need to know about life into seven key areas, and then providing three things that you need to know on that topic. If you need more than that, well you probably are too serious a person anyway.
A review of As If! by Barry Levy
Levy paints a realistic picture of what life is like for this generation of neglected youngsters, and it’s a bleak picture indeed. Bored, promiscuous, and frequently high on drugs and booze, they break into houses in groups to steal and vandalise. They are so disconnected from society that they feel no empathy for their victims, or shame over their actions.
A review of The Pill – Are You Sure It’s For You? by Jane Bennett and Alexandra Pope
It’s important that we don’t make decisions about our bodies based on what will benefit drug company shareholders. There’s far too much at stake. The Pill is one of those books that has the potential to pull off the smokescreen and show that there’s a lot more to the Pill than most people have been told. If you’re a woman and you’re on the Pill, this is a book you should read.
A review of Greek Roots by Emmanuel V Alexion
There are perceptive moments, they are just buried beneath unnecessary detail, and skillful assistance would have helped to bring them out and make this a much more lively memoir. Perhaps a second edition? Despite these problems, Emmanuel Alexion has produced a heartfelt and down-to-earth story of he and his wife’s return to their birthplaces, of particular interest to the Greek community in Australia.
A review of Swimming with Crocodiles by Will Chaffey
This sense of both the fragility of nature, and the fragility of man within nature, becomes an underlying theme that carries Swimming with Crocodiles (Picador Australia) beyond simply a travelogue. We begin to identify with Chaffey as a character, and his development becomes meaningful, but we also put his experience into our own context, and it therefore becomes meaningful to us.
A review of The After Life: a memoir by Kathleen Stewart
Kathleen Stewart’s memoir is poetic, courageous, and shocking. She shows how children can be so badly treated, how women can be so badly treated, how the mentally ill can be so inadequately treated, that they can destroy themselves and others and the world continues on, oblivious.