i am malala: the girl who stood up for education and was shot by the taliban. malala yousafzai. christina lamb. (239)

i am a horrible person and never really keep up with anything outside the realm of my little world.  i am  horrible about knowing what is going on in the world, current events and politics are sadly not concerns of mine.  i get most of my news scrolling through facebook, but never take the time to read an actual article, must headlines, nor do i take the time to research anything.

and to be perfectly honest, i knew of malala only because madonna had her name written on her back at the concert i went to at the staples center.  madonna, of course, also spoke about what happened to malala. but again to be horrible and honest, i don't remember much, i mean i was in the golden triangle for a madonna, my mind was freaking out over that fact.

i had seen post about i am malala, but when malala was awarded the nobel peace prize and became the youngest recipient of the award, i decided to put in my request for it at the library.

before i go on, i must share one critique, since this work was written with christina lamb, i couldn't help but be skeptical about what i was reading.  i know it doesn't really matter because at the end of the day, it's the message that is important versus how authentically this was malala.  but i couldn't help but wonder how much of what i read was framed by lamb.

in addition to this, i know that malala's cause is important, but the book did become redundant with malala really driving to home her point about education.  it was like okay, i get it.  at some points.  the book also seemed to be very aware of its audience and played it safe for the most point, it painted malala as this very pious and studious girl.  i mean i complained about anne frank being too #teenageproblems but it would have been nice to see malala the girl versus malala the advocate.  i hope when she is an older she will write another book on her own and be completely honest.

other than that this is amazing book because malala's story is truly amazing.

i am confused by the middle east, i don't whose side to be on or who to trust.  i don't know who should be allowed to rule over what area and who has actual claims to what lands.  this work demonstrated just how chaotic it really is.  everyone is confused.  malala lived in the swat valley of the pakistan.  the book discussed the history of swat valley. it went through and explained the confusing past of the militant leaders that plagued the area.  some of things mentioned reminded me of salman rushdie's midnight's children.  i can not give you a clear time line or explanation of leaders.  however, the real trouble of the area started with a radio personality, maulana fazlullah, leader of the taliban.  he began to call minor adherence to islamic law ie. destroying CDs and DVDs but soon it snowballed into bigger things like the restriction of women rights and girls' rights to education. it is scary to think how easy it is for someone like fazlullah to come into power and how willing people are to follow his lead though it destroys lives.

i was appalled and frighten by all that had occurred in swat, even more so because i had no idea how bad it truly was.  when i read about horrible things in history, ie the holocaust, i was always think to myself, how did the world allow this to happen?  why didn't anyone stop it?  pre-internet, the excuse that no one knew what was going on was acceptable.  but what about now?  i mean malala had a blog on the bbc website that explained how her daily life was in swat and yet i had no idea about it. furthermore, how did pakinstan not intervene with all of this?  or the us?  i mean we were all for stopping al-qaeda yet didn't help out against the taliban.  i have to add that i admired how malala did critique the us government.  our relationship with the middle east is always messy and at times we truly are the enemy, and this was demonstrated here.  the taliban is truly frightening.  i can not imagine living with all of that violence and having to see dead bodies everywhere.  its sad to think how destructive humans can be, have we not learned from the past?  but then again, i am part of the problem not knowing what is going on in the world.

majority of this work was the history of the swat valley and malala's background.   i had always assumed she was just a random girl that was shot but it turns out that there was more to it.  kinda like learning that rosa parks and the bus incident was staged.  her father was an owner of a school and spoke out against the taliban and another political leaders.  as malala grew older, she began to speak out as well ie the bbc blog (though it was anonymous).  there was discussion about how her father putting her up to everything, which she addressed.  malala did it for herself and i believer her.  but obviously if she did not have her father as her father, i doubt any of this would have happen.

the last handful of chapters are devoted to the actual shooting.  again, i had no idea what was going so was very confused when she mentioned that she was shot in the eye in the foreword.  i even looked at pictures to see if she had a glass eye (i told you i'm horrible).  she was on a bus and man came up on the bus and asked who is malala?  no one answered but the other girls looked to her and she was shot at three times.  she was taken to the hospital and started to be treated.  two visiting doctors from england were in pakistan and asked to check on her.  one of the doctors remarked that the hospital was unfit to care for her and sadly none of her suggestions were taken into account.  they then decided to take malala abroad to have her treated.  and here is what shocked me, how political issues were the main priority in her recovery versus where would malala be treated the best.  there was an offer from john hopkins in the states, but due to the recent killing of osama bin laden (which the us did without notifying the pakistani government) the pakistani government did not want to send malala here.  i am not saying that america is the best place to be treated (though it probably is, see recent ebola outbreak) but politics should not have been a factor in helping malala recover.  i was appalled by what i had read.  malala ended up going to england, where she was taken excellent care of. sadly, she went on her own with a doctor as her legal guardian.  there was an issue with her parents passports, having to do with the pakistani government  being worried that her family would seek asylum in the uk or something.  again, really? that poor child woke up in a foreign country, after being shot in the head and her parents have been stopped by their own government from being with her.

as we know, malala did recover.  i was shocked to read about how they removed part of her skull and put in her stomach! her brain was swelling and part had to be removed to allow it do so.  her skull become infected so they couldn't use it so they gave her a platinum skull piece.  she also had an issue with one of her nerves and couldn't smile.  this was big thing for her parents apparently, but i felt like it was played up a bit.  i mean if my kid got shot in the head, i would be happy s/he were alive and alert and not the least bit concerned with a smile.  but to each their own.

malala also mentioned the hollywood celebs that tweeted about her etc.  and madge was actually trumped by angelina jolie in her book, i mean jolie did make a donation to her organization.

but this was an excellent read and i highly recommend it.  especially to every girl and woman!  as i said before, malala's story is truly amazing, and this book is a must read.  i mean the girl is the youngest nobel prize winner and the un has given her her own day.  and everyone, especially girls should have the right to learn!

  

foxfire: confessions of a girl gang. joyce carol oates. (186)

i picked up foxfire after i discovered that joyce carol oates was giving a talk at the new york public library during my trip.  i decided to read it in preparation for her talk.  i chose this one out of her catalog because it was also listed on flavorpill's list of books to fill the girls void in your life.  they wrote:

This novel — the tale of a riotous 50′s girl gang in Upstate New York led by “Legs” Sadovsky – won’t exactly approximate the world of Girls, but if we know anything about Hannah, it probably reflects some corner of her secret fantasies (we know it reflects a few of ours). Not to mention the book’s portrayals of young female friendships and bonding — they may be outlaws, they may get in trouble, but these girls love each other.

as seen in the above description foxfire is about a girl gang set in the 50's and i have to admit that due to the time period i difficulty visualizing the setting for the book.  my mind kept on visualizing the time period as the 70's.  i think of the 50's as such a wholesome era even though it probably wasn't, certainly not in this book.  i then started to visualize the setting of girl, interrupted once legs went into red bank correctional facility for girls.  i then also started to see angelina jolie as lisa from girl, interrupted as legs.  you have to agree with me that jolie would have been perfect as her for if there was a movie adaption of foxfire. (omg!!!! i just googled and discovered on the foxfire wikipedia page that a movie was made in 1996 and guess who played legs?!?!?!? angelina jolie!!!!!!!  lol, i swear to god i had no idea that this movie existed when i read this book and made the above comment!)  (also i just looked and the trailer for the jolie film set place in the 90s, but there was another film that i just saw the trailer for that was made in 2012 that looks like a better adaption of the book.)

back to the novel, so living in a gang-infested community, resulted in my disapproval of foxfire.  i understand how gangs are created by individuals from broken homes in attempt to have a family.  gangs are where they find the love they lack, but the violence and crime that are a result of gangs is inexcusable.  

i was quite frightened of foxfire toward the end.  the petty crimes that foxfire started off with, painting that pervert teacher's car and protesting the animal store were invigorating to read about especially since they were girls with limited rights and voices, yet here they were standing up against injustice.  oates created such great imagery for their antics.  i imaged the girls in cat and dog masks ala breakfast at tiffany's protesting outside of the pet store.  i also enjoyed the scene at the train tracks with the painted car.  i have admit that based on these acts, teenage me would have wanted to join foxfire but everything beyond that was too extreme for me. 

i, like maddy, would have bailed.  the turning point for me was when they attacked maddy's uncle, yes he deserved it, but the wildness that occurred as they beat him was frightening.  up until then everything seemed like a fair punishment but their beating of him went too far.  i mean he did deserve it, trying to molest his niece, but i think the lost of self and mob mentality is what scared me. all the other crimes that followed pushed me into the adult category of the book, i started to view foxfire as hoodlums.

before i go on, i have to add that oates created some serious twist and turns in this book.  there were times that i was reading and was like omg!  i can't believe this is going on or what the f***!?!?!  the story was definitely entertaining and intriguing though i wasn't 100% on foxfire's side.

though i must admit that hoodlum an extreme term for legs.  she was definitely a diamond in the rough.  she was a good kid born into a poor situation, as demonstrated in father's story of her birth.  legs was truly unwanted, which given this background sheds light on her wanting to create the foxfire commune and care for her half-sister.  this side of legs makes it difficult to paint her as a harden criminal.  she was very generous as giving what money (regardless of where it came from) to others.  she was compassionate, not being racist towards blacks and befriending the ex-priest.  her heart was in the right place, but due to her lack of proper upbringing she went about things the wrong way.

for example, the hooking, though in a certain light a great means of exploiting men who exploit women, however, it was extremely dangerous.  the girls were lucky that majority of their hooking did not end up like maddie's.  as a female, it was great to see the girls turning the tables on the men that they hooked but being a watcher of "law and order: svu", i only thought of how those hooking attempts could have gone wrong.  even the idea of the foxfire homestead ,which can be seen as the girls finally creating the type of home they never had, is an example of legs' good intentions that were not execute according to plan.  (which is something we will see again and on a larger scale.) as a youth, its a great dream to live with your best friends, i mean college was a blast for me,  however, all i could think as i read that legs was going to turn into charles manson, which she kind of did.  my hippie tendencies causes me to think communes can be lovely places, however, logic tells me that it is one step away from helter skelter.

in the end, legs turned into a crazed cult leader, overwhelmed by a desire for money and to an extend power, she ended up making a stupid (for lack of a better adjective) plan.  in an attempt to get money, legs decided to kidnap and hold for ransom the rich father of her friend, a good christian girl that she met through a program at the correction facility.  they kidnap him and hold him for ransom but due to his faith in god (believe it or not) he does not succumb to fear and thus the girls do not get their money. in the end, a reckless error made by a young girl (in the end they are all just children) shot him, foiling their ransom plan.  due to this, legs becoming a fugitive, some believed she survived though she is claimed to be dead.

foxfire was a very entertaining read, but not necessarily my cup of tea.  maybe it's because i am just too much of a goodie too shoes because unlike flavorpill, i was more appalled than secretly wishing i could be apart of foxfire.  it was sad to see legs end up the way she did.  i did admire her free-spirit and grab life by the balls mentality, but in the end, she turned into a monster.  as a female, i was disappointed to see legs go out like that.  shouldn't we, girls, be allowed to be as reckless as the boys yet still have a place for us in society? though i must admit that legs ending had to be just as mysterious as she was, i mean, i can't imagine her in some 9 to 5 functioning like a proper societal women.  in my eyes, she was in that photo for cuba.  i mean that ending makes the most sense.  legs still inspiring hope for the girls of foxfire.

ps for those of you who are wondering, i did not see joyce carol oates when i was in nyc.  i decided to try to win lotto tickets for kinky boots instead, which i did win!