The Smell of Ink/Lukten av Trykksverte

I fjor endte jeg opp med å lese biografien Vitne av Immaculée Ilibagiza og med det, kunne jeg krysse av Rwanda i forbindelse med "Land i verden"-prosjektet mitt. I dag kommer omtalen av boka. Beskrivelse fra forlaget 1994: Rwandas hutupresident dør i en flystyrt, og store grupper hutuer dreper nærmere en million av landets andre folkegruppe, tutsiene. 22-åringen Immaculée Ilibagiza er som tutsi en av dem dødsskvadronene jakter på, men hun klarer seg - etter at hun og syv andre kvinner har gjemt seg tre måneder på et toalett. Boka har vært på New York Times bestselgerliste. En sterk og spennende skildring fra konflikten i Rwanda. Mine tanker om boka Det er en sterk og rørende historie som bare må leses. En kan lese opp og i mente om selve konflikten, men Vitne får frem en personlig historie innunder folkemordet.

Last year I was fortunate enough to recieve a press copy of the autobiographical comic colletion My Life in Transition: A Super Late Bloomer Collection by Julia Kaye through Netgalley. Although I read it shortly afterwards, I haven't published my review until now. Description from Goodreads The follow-up to the critically acclaimed autobiographical comics collection Super Late Bloomer, documenting transgender artist Julia Kaye’s life post-transition. My Life in Transition is a story that’s not often told about trans lives: what happens beyond the early days of transition. Both deeply personal and widely relatable, this collection illustrates six months of Julia's life as an out trans woman—about the beauty and pain of love and heartbreak, struggling to find support from bio family and the importance of chosen family, moments of dysphoria and misgendering, learning to lean on friends in times of need, and finding peace in the fact that life keeps moving forward. After the nerve...

For en liten stund siden leste jeg boka Flukten fra leir 14 - en beretning fra Nord-Korea av Blaine Harden og i dag kommer omtalen. Beskrivelse fra forlaget Nord-Korea har mellom 150 000 og 200 000 politiske fanger. Gjennom historien til Shin Dong-hyuk får vi et innblikk i de lukkede fengslene i verdens mest totalitære stat. I leiren betraktet han sin mor som en motstander i kampen om maten, vaktene oppdro ham til å bli en tyster og han var vitne til henrettelsen av sin egen familie. Boken er en opprivende fortelling om Shins liv og hans utrolige flukt. Mine tanker om boka Flukten fra Leir 14 er en hjerteskjærende og tankevekkende bok som ikke er egnet for sarte sjeler. Allikevel, det er en bok som bør leses på grunn av tematikken - nemlig arbeidsleirene i Nord-Korea og Nord-Korea på generelt basis med tanke på hvor lukket landet faktisk er.

Ages ago, I read the memoir A Thousand Miles to Freedom: My Escape from North Korea by Eunsun Kim and today I'll post my review. Description from Goodreads Eunsun Kim was born in North Korea, one of the most secretive and oppressive countries in the modern world. As a child Eunsun loved her country…despite her school field trips to public executions, daily self-criticism sessions, and the increasing gnaw of hunger as the country-wide famine escalated. By the time she was eleven years old, Eunsun's father and grandparents had died of starvation, and Eunsun too was in danger of starving. Finally, her mother decided to escape North Korea with Eunsun and her sister, not knowing that they were embarking on a journey that would take them nine long years to complete. Before finally reaching South Korea and freedom, Eunsun and her family would live homeless, fall into the hands of Chinese human traffickers, survive a North Korean labor camp, and cross the deserts of Mongolia on foot. ...

As I have a World Literature Project going on, I ended up reading Weeding the Flowerbeds by Sarah Mkhonza, who is from Swaziland. Today I'll post my review. Description from Amazon Weeding the Flowerbeds is a memoir of boarding school at Manzini Nazarene high school in Swaziland, a country in southern Africa. In this book Sarah explores life in the boarding school at Manzini Nazarene high school, a school that produced many graduates. She explores life in an educational institution where growing up is takes place under strict hostel rules in the seventies. As young swazi girls Bulelo, Sisile and Makhosi grow up learning about life and christianity. They learn to love school and also to appreciate writing and literature. All the time they feel as if they are being pushed in a certain direction and it is one of the teachers Mr. Fields and others who come to the school and make them understand the importance of choosing to be * in ones spirit. With all that education they leave the s...

Jeg har som nevnt et "Land i verden"-prosjekt når det gjelder bøker og det er ikke alle land det er like lett å finne noe fra. I forbindelse med Burundi, endte jeg opp med å lese Kryssild - mitt liv som flyktning av John Bosco Ngendakurio og Jostein Holmedahl og i dag kommer omtalen av boka. Beskrivelse fra forlaget Den usminkede og rørende historien til en unggutt som kjempet seg gjennom krig og fornedrelse - til en trygg tilværelse i Norge. John Bosco Ngendakurio (født 1980) overlevde så vidt folkemordet i Burundi i 1993. Året etter klarte han å flykte til Tanzania. I 2003 kom han til Norge som FN-flyktning, og i dag bor han med kone og datter i Mosterhamn på Bømlo. Med støtte fra institusjonen "Fritt Ord" har Bosco Ngendakurio gått opp igjen sine flyktningspor, og i samarbeid med forfatter Jostein Holmedahl presenterer han her sin historie. Utgivelsen er støttet av "Leser søker bok", en allianse som jobber for tilrettelagt litteratur. - Det er vikt...

For en stund tilbake leste jeg boka En amerikansk slaves liv av Frederick Douglass og i dag kommer omtalen. Beskrivelse fra forlaget En amerikansk slaves liv er et enestående portrett av borgerrettighets­aktivisten og statsmannen Frederick Douglass som barn og ung mann. Den autentiske førstehåndsberetningen gir et direkte og usminket inn­blikk i Sør­statenes nedverdigende og brutale slaveri. Biografien dekker perioden fra Douglass ble født, sannsynligvis i 1818, på en plantasje i Maryland, frem til 1838 da han la slaveriet bak seg og først rømte til New York og siden til New Bedford i Massachusetts. Boken ble første gang utgitt av Massa­chusetts Anti-Slavery Society i Boston i 1845. Det var sju år før Harriet Beecher Stowe skrev den popu­lære anti­slaveriromanen Onkel Toms hytte, og seksten år før den amerikanske borgerkrigen brøt ut. I løpet av årene før borgerkrigen solgte boka i over 30 000 eksemplarer og ble et uvurderlig verktøy for abolisjonister, og ikke minst en sentral inspir...

As I’m having the World Literature Project, I decided to read the memoir The Dark Child by Camara Laye, who is from French Guinea. Today I’ll post my review.  Description from Goodreads The Dark Child is a distinct and graceful memoir of Camara Laye's youth in the village of Koroussa, French Guinea. Long regarded Africa's preeminent Francophone novelist, Laye (1928-80) herein marvels over his mother's supernatural powers, his father's distinction as the village goldsmith, and his own passage into manhood, which is marked by animistic beliefs and bloody rituals of primeval origin. Eventually, he must choose between this unique place and the academic success that lures him to distant cities. More than autobiography of one boy, this is the universal story of sacred traditions struggling against the encroachment of a modern world. A passionate and deeply affecting record, The Dark Child is a classic of African literature.    My Thoughts on the Book The Dark Child was a fa...

I've had Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi on my TBR list for some time and I've finally read it. Today I'll post my review. Description from Goodreads Every Thursday morning for two years in the Islamic Republic of Iran, a bold and inspired teacher named Azar Nafisi secretly gathered seven of her most committed female students to read forbidden Western classics. As Islamic morality squads staged arbitrary raids in Tehran, fundamentalists seized hold of the universities, and a blind censor stifled artistic expression, the girls in Azar Nafisi's living room risked removing their veils and immersed themselves in the worlds of Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James, and Vladimir Nabokov. In this extraordinary memoir, their stories become intertwined with the ones they are reading. Reading Lolita in Tehran is a remarkable exploration of resilience in the face of tyranny and a celebration of the liberating power of literature. My Thoughts On The Book ...

A while ago I read How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran and today I'll post my review of the book. Description from Goodreads Caitlin Moran puts a new face on feminism, cutting to the heart of women’s issues today with her irreverent, transcendent, and hilarious How to Be a Woman. “Half memoir, half polemic, and entirely necessary,” (Elle UK), Moran’s debut was an instant runaway bestseller in England as well as an Amazon UK Top Ten book of the year; still riding high on bestseller lists months after publication, it is a bona fide cultural phenomenon. Now poised to take American womanhood by storm, here is a book that Vanity Fair calls “the U.K. version of Tina Fey’s Bossypants….You will laugh out loud, wince, and—in my case—feel proud to be the same gender as the author.” My Thoughts on the Book For me, it was an okay book. How to Be a Woman wasn't bad, but it wasn't extraordinarily good either. It was funny at times while also highlighting a few feminist struggles. If you w...

Ages ago, I recieved a digital press copy of the book I Flew for the Führer by Heinz Knoke through Netgalley. I read it shortly afterwards and today I'll post my review. Description from Goodreads Heinz Knoke was one of Nazi Germany’s outstanding pilots, and this dramatic record of his experiences, illustrated with personal photos, has become a classic among aviation memoirs. He joined the Luftwaffe at the outbreak of the war, rose to the rank of commanding officer, and received the Knight’s Cross. Knoke’s account crackles with vivid accounts of air battles; and captures his utter desolation at Germany’s defeat. My Thoughts on the Book Although I am no fan of nazism to say it the least, I Flew for the Führer was still a fascinating read considering that it was informative about how it was to be a pilot on that side of the war. While reading, I also noticed a few familiar lines, so I suspect the documentary series Nazi Megastructures used this book as inspiration in one of their ep...

A while ago I was fortunate enough to recieve an ARC of the biography Lightning Sky: A U.S. Fighter Pilot Captured During WWII and His Father's Quest to Find Him by R.C. George through Netgalley. I read it shortly afterwards and today I'll post my review. Description from Goodreads A U.S. fighter pilot captured by the enemy. A father determined to rescue his son. One of the most remarkable and moving true stories of faith and perseverance to come out of World War II. October 6, 1944. Twenty-year-old Army Air Corps Second Lieutenant David "Mac" Warren MacArthur was on a strafing mission over Greece when a round of 88-mm German anti-aircraft flak turned his P-38 Lightning into a comet of fire and smoke. Dave parachuted to safety as the Lightning lived up to her name and struck the Adriatic Sea like a bolt of flames. In minutes, he was plucked from the water--only to find himself on the wrong end of a German rifle pointing straight at his head. Dave's father...

Earlier this year I recieved an ARC of the memoir Faculty Brat: A Memoir of Abuse by Dominic Bucca through Netgalley. I read it shortly afterwards and today I'll post my review. Description from Goodreads At the most prestigious preparatory schools in the United States, the children of educators are referred to as “faculty brats.” Though generally lacking the privilege of the institution’s wealthy students, faculty brats enjoy access to the school’s extensive grounds and facilities and are part of everyday campus life. Dominic Bucca’s art teacher mother married his music teacher stepfather twice, and the young boy wondered if the union might be twice as strong as a result. Instead, this faculty brat quickly discovered that the marriage was twice as flawed. When Dominic was nine years old, his stepfather began sexually abusing him in the faculty housing attached to the boys’ dorm his parents oversaw. Years later, he found escape by reaching out to his biological father, and lea...

Earlier this year I was fortunate enough to recieve an ARC of the biography Dr. Wangari Maathai Plants a Forest by Rebel Girls through Netgalley. I read it shortly afterwards and today I'll post my review. Description from Goodreads From the world of Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls comes the historical novel based on the life of Dr. Wangari Maathai, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning activist from Kenya. Wangari lives in a magical place in rural Kenya where the soil is rich for planting, the trees abundant, and the nearby pond full of mysterious creatures. She drinks from cool, clean streams and plays beneath her favorite fig tree under her mother’s watchful gaze. Then Wangari grows up and goes away to school, and things start changing at home. Farmers chop down the trees. Landslides bury the stream. The pond dries up. The soil becomes overworked, dry, and unusable for planting. And people go hungry. Dr. Wangari Maathai has a simple solution to all of these problems: plant trees...

Last year, I recieved an ARC of the memoir Man Fast by Natasha Scripture through Netgalley. I read it shortly afterwards and today I'll post my review. Description from Goodreads An exhilarating memoir about one woman’s globe-trotting journey of inspiring awakening and self-discovery. Shaken by the loss of her father, drained by her job at the United Nations, and conflicted over failed relationships, Natasha Scripture asked herself the question at the heart of her anxiety: What is my purpose? The answer was not about finding love; it was about recognizing its source. The result is Man Fast, a true and intimate spiritual detective story. With courage, honesty, and wit, Natasha shares the story of her awakening. Starting with the decision to fast from dating, she embarks on a journey that takes her from New York to an ashram in southern India to toiling in a vineyard on Mount Etna to a solo safari in southern Tanzania. In stepping away from the modern demand to couple up, Na...

Last year I was fortunate enough to recieve an ARC of the non-fiction book Ronnie and Hilda’s Romance by Wendy Williams through Netgalley. I read it shortly afterwards and today I'll post my review. Description from Goodreads Ronnie and Hilda Williams met by chance aged 21 in Lancashire in November 1945, when Ronnie was home on his first leave after fighting in some of the most bitter campaigns of the Second World War in Italy. With the uncertainty of the future and Ronnie's obligation to return to active duty as a soldier abroad, Hilda and Ronnie took the ultimate leap of faith and became engaged after knowing each other for only ten days. Until Ronnie was demobbed in May 1947, their letters, over 250 of which remain, were their principal means of getting to know each other and form the main part of this heart-warming story. These eloquent letters, which are in turn happy, sad, humorous, serious and informative, provide a fascinating and vivid glimpse of what life was like ...

Last year I was fortunate enough to recieve an ARC of the memoir Twelve Unending Summers: Memoir of an Immigrant Child by Cholet Kelly Josue through Netgalley. I read it shortly afterwards, but I haven't published my review until now. Description from Goodreads Bahamian. Haitian. American. Where can I fully belong? At age sixteen, Cholet Josué arrived on the shores of Miami in a wooden boat—and immediately put the past behind him. More than two decades later, the elusive question of identity pursues him, forcing him to confront a difficult truth: the cultures that formed him have each indelibly stamped his soul. Courageously, Cholet dismantles his own story to uncover a way to unashamedly, unabashedly fit in with three different worlds while belonging to none. Honest and compelling, Twelve Unending Summers is a deeply personal journey that resonates with the universal human need to find a home and embrace the legacy of family heritage. My Thoughts on the Book Twelve ...

(This post contains affiliate links.) Last year I was fortunate enough to recieve an ARC of the graphic novel memoir  Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe through Netgalley. I read it shortly afterwards and today I'll post my review. Description from Goodreads In 2014, Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, thought that a comic of reading statistics would be the last autobiographical comic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortable with strangers knowing about em. Now, Gender Queer is here. Maia's intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears. Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: it is a useful and to...

For en god stund siden leste jeg boka Himmelgraven av Xinran. I dag kommer omtalen. Beskrivelse fra forlaget Om kjærlighet og grusomhet -; en gripende og fascinerende dokumentarfortelling fra Kina og Tibet, av forfatteren bak lesersuksessen Stemmer i natten. I 1994 møtte Xinran kvinnen Shu Wen gjennom sitt berømte innringerprogram på kinesisk radio, og ble så sterkt preget av hennes livshistorie at hun har gjenfortalt den i denne boken. I 30 år -; et halvt liv -; vandret Shu Wen i fjellene Nord-Tibet, på leting etter sin forsvunne ektemann, soldat i Kinas hær. Dette er fortellingen om denne vandringen og dens konsekvenser. Foruten å gi et unikt innblikk i Tibets landskap, religion og nomader, gir historien et fascinerende beskrivelse av det komplekse forholdet mellom Tibet og Kina. Men mest av alt er Himmelgraven beretningen om hva det innebærer å ofre alt for den du elsker. Mine tanker om boka Himmelgraven var interessant lesning, spesielt siden jeg ikke kan så mye om Tibet...

A little while ago, I came across a request on a book blogger group on Facebook about needing more bloggers for a blog tour. I volunteered to participate and today I'll review the memoir Seduced Into Darkness: Transcending My Psychiatrist's Sexual Abuse by Carrie Ishee. Description from Goodreads Seduced Into Darkness: Transcending My Psychiatrist's Sexual Abuse is a vivid and captivating story of hope for survivors of abuse as well as a case study in a skilled manipulator's tragic exploitation of his professional power. This poignant memoir chronicles the traumatic psychological abduction and sexual exploitation of depressed college student Carrie Tansey at the hands of her psychiatrist, Dr. Anthony Romano--thirty-one years her senior. For three years, their secret "affair" was carefully calculated and controlled by Romano, as Carrie's mental and emotional health continued to deteriorate, bringing her closer and closer to the edge. Their dual-relatio...