Beastmomma

I actually finished this book over a month ago while I was in India doing shopping to prepare for my wedding.  Since returning to the States, I have not had much time to compose a brilliant review.  In the interest of wanting to cross an item of my to-do list, I am going to crank out a review RIGHT NOW! Oh the pressure of spontaneous brilliance.

Here is a summary of the plot from the author's website:

Bits and Ash were children when the kidnapping of their younger sister Alena, an incident for which Ash blames himself, caused an irreparable family rift. Thirteen years later, Ash is living as an Orthodox Jew in Israel, cutting himself off from his mother, Ellie, and his wild child sister, Bits. But soon he may have to face them again: Alena’s remains have finally been uncovered. Now Bits is traveling across the world in a bold and desperate attempt to bring her brother home and salvage what’s left of their family. Told from the alternating points of view of the three family members, Who By Fire is a searing commentary on guilt, grief, and the inescapable bonds of family from a fresh and extremely talented new voice in American fiction.

Even after all this time, I recall that I really enjoyed Who by Fire by Diana Spechler.  It was wonderful company for the long plane ride from London to Delhi.  Even though I had trouble with some of Bits choices, I loved how much she was driven by desire to connect with her brother Ash.  I also appreciated the complexity of their sibling relationship.   As an added bonus, I learned some additional information about the Jewish faith.  For example I had attended a Purim party prior to leaving for India, but I did not fully understand the significance of the holiday.  From reading about the holiday from the perspective of Bits, I understand more about the importance. 

Another thing, I related to in the book was the differences in the way the Mother related to her two children. Since I was immersed in intense family time, I was thinking a lot about how a past event impacts the way we interact with and treat each other.   The book has many scenes that illustrate the complexity of trying to remain close to our family members while still having guilt over past events.

I wrote about the book for two Sunday Salon posts.   I am also counting this book towards the the Orbis Terrarum challenge. 

I am very slow with completing books during this LAST year of law school while I am in the midst of wedding planning and daydreaming about making my life in a new state and figuring out how to find and create my dream job, so I thought that it would be fun to have a progress report of my reading. This is an online reading group where all the participants set aside time to read every Sunday and blog about the experience.

Later on today, I am hosting a book club session that I hope goes better than our last meeting.  I know that I should be cleaning my apartment, grocery shopping, and cooking.  This morning, I needed to ease into my day and took a few minutes to read another chapter of Who by Fire by Diana Spechler. 

I finally met the mother.  She is in a support group for parents whose children have joined a cult.  In the short chapter, I got a good sense of the mother's relationship with her children and how she feels about her son being so far away.   One of my favorite passages was about how a mother knows the secrets that lie in silence.   It reminded me of the unspoken conversations that occur between my own mother and myself.  I am looking forward to see how the characters continue to develop in the book.

Since it is March 1st, I am going to use this book as the first selection for the Orbis Terrarum challenge.

I finally finished the mini-challenge of reading one article about an international issue by the end of February for the World Citizen Challenge.  Here are the details from the challenge blog: This month, if you choose to participate, read an article from a newspaper, magazine, or journal and discuss it on your blog. The article should be something to do with ‘world citizenship,’ so just make sure it’s something international.

In the spirit of being adventurous, I decided to read a magazine from a periodical that was new to me. Mother Jones is a self-described as "a nonprofit news organization that specializes in investigative, political, and social justice reporting. Why should you read or support us? Because "smart, fearless journalism" keeps people informed–"informed" being pretty much indispensable to a democracy that actually works."  I was excited to dive into this periodical about which I had heard much, but not experienced first hand.  The issue that I purchased had a cover story about fixing food in America.   As I started reading the articles, I felt my heart sink a bit because while the information is good and important, I found the tone of many of the articles to be too self-righteous.  I am not sure what exactly was giving me that impression, but I had hard time getting past the tone to fully enjoy and absorb all the important information I was receiving.   Back to the challenge requirement:

The article I read for the mini-challenge is "Slash and Burn" by Heather Rogers.  The article discusses how bio-fuels are causing mass forest clearing in Indonesia and could destroy two villages.  In response for a larger demand for bio-fuel worldwide, developing countries like Indonesia are eligible for millions of dollars in development from the World Bank.  As part of the production, Indonesia is destroying rainforests and villages are being eradicated.  The rainforest are being cleared and replaced with oil palm plantations.  The plantations are designed to make Indonesia a competitive producer of biodiesel.  The article described the methods by which villagers were trying to stop rainforest clearing.

I appreciated that the article illustrated that the quest to live greener is complicated; trying to produce better fuel without thinking of all of the consequences can have bad environmental effects.

Congratulations to the Cleaner for winning a copy of Matrimony.  Please send me your contact information, so that the book can be sent to you.

Thanks to everyone who entered.  To find out more about the book, you can visit  Joshua Henkin's website, or you can go to amazon of indie bound for ratings and to purchase the book.

I am very slow with completing books during this LAST year of law school while I am in the midst of wedding planning and daydreaming about making my life in a new state and figuring out how to find and create my dream job, so I thought that it would be fun to have a progress report of my reading. This is an online reading group where all the participants set aside time to read every Sunday and blog about the experience.

Even though I am overwhelmed with work and preparing for a presentation today,  I took a few minutes this morning to read more of Who by Fire by Diana Spechler.  While I am only a few pages into the book, I think that I will really enjoy reading it.  So far, I like the two characters I have met both seem spunky and thoughtful.  I hope that I continue to enjoy the book.

This week, I also wrote a review of When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka.  I really enjoyed the book; you can read my review here.

Finally, I want to participate in the mini-challenge for the World Citizen Challenge.  The challenge blog is here. I decided to read a new magazine. I picked up a copy of Mother Jones because I was intrigued by the food headline on the cover.  Hopefully, I will be able to complete the mini-challenge of reading one article about an international issue by the end of the week.