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!

  

midnight's children. salman rushdie. (87)

i waited almost a year for salman rushdie's "midnight children". a year. i think the library has a policy where if a person requests a book from the library it is originally from they get priority over others already on the request list. i can only assume this is why i waited forever.

it had been so long that when i finally got "midnight's children" i forgot why i checked it out, i know it was flavorpill inspired. i tried googling it but came up with nothing. (though i did discover that a movie version is coming out so that became a reason to read it.). since i couldn't find a post, i realized that i had requested the book by mistake. i had wanted his new book and ended up with "midnight's children" instead. (i just realized how this mix-up was a perfect set up for this book.)

but even with the mix-up the book looked interesting. the cover declared it as a winner of the booker prize. and when i googled it, "midnight's children" was compared to "one hundred years of solitude" (which we all know i absolutely love). however, i did not fall in love "midnight children" like i expected. "one hundred years" it was not. with garcia marquez's classic, i couldn't put it down and became invested in the family. this didn't exactly happen with "midnight'd children".

to be completely honest, i found "midnight's children" a challenge to read. i never give up on books, but the thought to stop often crossed my mind. and it's not that the premise for the book is bad. saleem sinai is born at the stroke of midnight on the day of india's independence and ends up with special powers. he and all the children born in that hour have special powers and they make up the midnight's children conference. intriguing , right?

i think that part of my issue with the book was that based on synopses i read online, i was expecting a book about the midnight children's conference but instead it is solely saleem's biography. so in my head i kept waiting for them to appear and they rarely did. i have to add i blame googling for this, if i just read the backcover i would have known better. lesson: read don't take short cuts.

another thing that i struggled with were the historical references. saleem's life truly mirrored the course of india's history. i am not familiar with indian and pakistani history so a lot of the references went over my head. though thanks to google i did learn that indira ghandi did have white and black hair (and just like saleem wrote, i was misled by her surname). and that morarji desai was actually a urine drinker, though the book made it sound more sinister like some sexual perversion instead of being for health reasons. however, i often got lost in the political and war talk so those parts were quite tedious for me. i also felt like i was missing out on some foreshadowing because i wasn't familiar with india's history. for example, was the midnight child who could time travel correctly predict the future? if anyone can help me i would greatly appreciate it!

but what i found the most tedious was how long it took rushdie, as saleem, to get to the point or the meat of his stories. i mean the climax of the story comes at page 491 . . . there are 533 pages total. and i mean his stories are great, brilliant! but he's kinda liked my sister, jill, she gets so lost in random details that i often stop listening to her stories or ask her to pick it up.

but let me reiterate his stories are brilliant! and i have to admit that there was mythical element to his tales that was very one hundred years-esque (but garcia marquez is the superior storyteller.) i loved the tale of how his grandparents met and the perforated sheet. i like saleem, fell in love with his sister, brass monkey and enjoyed how as a child she would set fire to shoes. the story of saleem's birth and the secret of mary pereira took me by surprise. i was on the edge of my seat with the tale of commander sabarmati's baton. i was scare of the jungle which reminded me of the forest of "the hobbit". and i loved hearing about all of the secret powers of the midnight children but wished he would would have wrote more about them.

there were also some very sad and tragic moments in the story. like how saleem lost his family. or what happen to his favorite uncle. i was also heartbroken with the end of the midnight's children. what made their end was worse was that it was pointless. because the widow didn't even come into power. and i believe in the end of shiva, i believe saleem's lie.

the heart of the story was great it was just cluttered which made it difficult to love. if rushdie was more straight forward with his writing and focused on the stories, it would have been great.

also this was the first book that i used my first bookmarks for my friends shawn and dan. they are super cute and allow me to take notes which is helpful with the blog. this is the one i wrote for this book:

so here are my notes:

i wrote down "mercurochrome" because it reminded me of my grandfather. saleem's grandfather was a doctor and he helped care for protesters for india's independence and appliesd it to them which results in him looking bloody which frightened his wife. this reminded me of my grandfather, he used to use mercurochrome which always confused me as a child. he would put on his cuts which made him look more bloody.

i wrote down swastika because when saleem told the story of lifafa das. saleem described the scene of his attack with a swastika on the wall but not the "nazi swastika which was the wrong way round, but the ancient hindu symbol of power. svasti in sanskrit for good." i am not sure how the nazi ended up using it but it was interesting to see how a symbol can take on one negative connotation and be ruined for all of history.

last but not least, padma from "top chef". so the first thing i noticed was the character padma and wonder if she was named for padma lakshmi. padma was rushdie's second wife but they were not married, let alone knew each other at the time that he wrote "midnight's children" so that was not the case. but how odd that he ended up marrying the name of a lover of one of his characters?!? also padma is nothing like the other padma in terms of looks/size but both cook. i read that a character in his new book is based on her and their troubled marriage, so will have to check that out.

so yes even though this book was tedious, i have not given up on salman rushdie and look forward to reading his works. hopefully they don't take another year to get to me when i request them.