Book For The Week - 3/26/2011

Three Cups of Tea:
One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace,
One School At A Time.
By Greg Mortenson
 and
David Oliver Relin

While I was sitting with the lights out on Earth Day 2011 I cheated a little and finished listening to the book I have been listening to for the last couple weeks.  I can imagine my contacts on FB will be glad that I am done as I have been posting links while listening to this book.  But my contacts here on Multiply have not been pestered yet (except those of you who are on both of the contact lists) so here is a post on "Three Cups Of Tea". 

This is a very inspiring book about a man who becomes lost while attempting to mountain climb in Pakistan and is taken in by villagers who he becomes fond of in the time it takes for his guide to find him.   As a result of relationships that were built while he was staying in the village he finds his passion for life in returning to Pakistan at regular intervals and building schools for the villages children and encouraging education, especially for girls.   The book covers his struggle to get the first project off the ground and covers approximately ten years of Greg Mortenson's hard work.   The message is clear through out the book that the real way to fight terror is not with bombs but rather with education and through building relationships.   Please click on the three links scattered through out the title and the author's names to learn more of this man's work.   And do some searching on your own over at YouTube to enjoy many fine videos on this subject.

Watched an Oscar Winner

After a dinner of corn beef and cabbage topped off with key lime pie,  Mark and I watched the AWARD WINNING documentary INSIDE JOB.  As a result I have a better understanding of our current economic situation.( although I really need to watch it a second time to get all the details)  I would put this movie right up there with FOOD INC,  THE WORLD ACCORDING TO MONSANTO and AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH  which are all documentaries I have  found really  good in recent years.  

Book For The Week - 3/15/2011

The Translator

by
Leila Abolela

From Publishers Weekly:

"Sammar, a young Sudanese widow, is working as a translator in a Scottish university when love blossoms between herself and her Scottish supervisor, Rae Isles, a scholar of the Middle East and of Third World politics. A religious Muslim who covers her hair, Sammar has left her young son in Khartoum to be raised by her aunt and quells her loneliness by throwing herself into her job translating terrorist documents for kindly divorcé Rae. The two signal their growing love for one another with sympathy (and chastity). On the eve of her trip to Khartoum to see her son and bring him back with her, she confronts Rae, desperate to know if he will accept Islam—since a relationship to her is impossible without marriage, and that marriage is impossible without his conversion. His hesitation reveals the cultural gulf between them, and Sammar is pierced to the quick. Though The Translator is Aboulela's second novel to be released in the U.S., it is the Sudanese-British author's first, published in the U.K. in 1999. (Her third, Minaret, appeared here last year.) With authentic detail and insight into both cultures, Aboulela painstakingly constructs a truly transformative denouement."


(This is the second book by this title I have posted about in the last month.  If you remember,  the last one was one I listened to by mistake and found very meaningful.  This is the book that I was supposed to read for the book group at the library this month.  I had to stay up most of Sunday night to get through it in time for book group yesterday before work.   I can't say that I liked this book very much.   First of all it was mostly a love story and I am not real fond of love stories unless there is something else to them that interests me.   Second of all the author weaves in and out of the present,  the past and dreams and I spent a lot of the book trying to figure out where the story was at the moment.  Third,  the main character in the book was a woman that I had little patience with.  I know the book is supposed to help a person understand a different culture but I felt the woman the book was about needed to get a grip in general.  Even though it was probably her religion and her culture that made her so depressed and mealy mouthed I just was not impressed.   If you are in the mood for something a little different perhaps you will enjoy this book.  It did make for some lively conversation at book group.   I make it clear I never met a man I would pine over for four years and eat moldy bread because I was so depressed over him.   As always, click on the title and the author's name above to learn more.)

Faith and Globalization 2008 - Audio

http://deimos3.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Feed/yale.edu-dz.4359493321.04359493323
I only get one audio book a month from Audible.com for my Ipod. So I have been exploring other free sources of audio books and podcasts. ITunes offers free course lectures in an area called ITunesU. The first one I enjoyed listening to was from Standford University and was about Benjamin Franklin. Currently I am listening to one from Yale called Faith and Globalization 2008. It has panel members from BP, Goldman Sacs, and experts on China and Islam involved in discussions and making presentations.

Book For The Week - 3/10/2011

Walden

by

Henry David Thoreau

I took the above photo while on vacation to the Boston area last fall.  It is taken in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord Massachusetts and is of the Thoreau family grave plot.  The day we spent in Concord we visited a house called The Manse that was related to Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathanial Hawthorne,  we visited the home where Louisa Mae Alcott grew up,  and toward the end of the day we drove by Walden Pond.  It was too close to dark and raining too hard to get out of the car and explore but even driving by it was clear that the area was beautiful.  I promised myself to expose myself to the works of Emerson, Hawthorne, Alcott,  and Thoreau and tonight as I walked on my treadmill after work I finished up listening to Walden in an audio format.  It was a beautiful book.  As always click on the author's name and the book title to follow links to learn more.   And below find both a video of the area and below it and audio  presentation of the book.

We Didn't Start The Fire by Billy Joel

Universal Declaration Of Human Rights

   "On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights."   If you don't have time to watch the entire thing please scroll to 15:18 and listen to one right in particular.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights animation

Book For The Week - 3/1/2011

The Translator
by
Daoud Hair

( It was by accident that I obtained this audio book and listened to it.  The March selection for the book group I am in at the local library is The Translator by Lelia Aboulela.  When I did a search on Audible.com and the book by the same title different author came up I was confused and chose it to listen to.  It was a mistake that was a real eye opener.  I will have nightmares for a long time over some of the images described in the words of this story.  Nevertheless I recommend that others educate themselves about this situation and listening to or reading this book would be a good start.  Please click on the title and the author's name to learn more.  And follow THIS LINK to learn of recent headlines in the area where the book takes place.)