I read
Love in the Driest Season for my local book group. I thought it was an good book, and well told. It’s the story of an American couple who adopts a baby from Zimbabwe in 1999 and 2000. It does follow Neely Tucker’s trips around Africa some, as a foreign correspondent, and can be graphic in those sections, but mostly, it focuses on the adoption.
Not surprisingly, I was rather invested in this story after volunteering in an orphanage in Kyrgyzstan. There were details that reminded me so clearly of my orphanage, even though the situation in Bishkek is relatively so much better than in Zimbabwe. Orphanage life is never great anywhere.
Just to be clear, I am a supporter of adoption, including international, as one of the ways to help children anywhere in the world. However, it’s not a perfect solution, or even the best solution. It’s one tool that, if used wisely, can help reduce the number of street children and children living in orphanages and foster homes.
As the story is told, Neely and Vita Tucker choose international adoption for all the right reasons, and they go about it in the right way. They follow the laws of Zimbabwe, they don’t pay bribes. They live in Zimbabwe and hope to be able to stay there longer, but aren’t able to because of the political situation. They continue to work with the orphanage their daughter was at. Before reading this book I’d read some misleading reviews that criticized the Tuckers, but I have to heartily disagree.
My biggest concern with this book is that it’s a bit limited. Even though it wasn’t meant to be a primer on international adoption, I do think that at least an afterword or something about international adoption would have been appropriate. A brief explanation of why there are concerns about international adoption (you can make a good case for its being the worst kind of colonialism, and there are worse places in the world for a child to be than an orphanage) and why Zimbabwe was, at the time, so reluctant to allow international adoption would have been helpful. Even some book suggestions would have been good, because I’d imagine that more than one person who reads this book might want to adopt, and this book says not a word about the time after the adoption is completed, which can be harder than the adoption itself.
But that's a small limitation. It's a book well worth reading.
A friend in Sweden mentioned this book a couple of weeks ago, so I found an English translation here to read and I enjoyed it. It's probably not the sort of book I would have picked up (mother-daughter relationships), but it was worth the time to read it. I'm hoping my Swedish friend and another friend finish it soon because there are a few things worth discussing from it.
Yes, I've read this one before, and blogged about it too, but it's such a good book it's worth writing about again. It's too rare a combination to have a scholar like Piers Vitebsky
I read this book by Muhammad Yunus for a book group and enjoyed it very much. Yunus writes and interesting and readable book. He has good and important ideas. The book is recommended, although it didn't really clear up any of the controversy over microcredit, for me.
I rather enjoyed this book by Ami McKay despite its flaws. It was a quick read. Dora's evolution from a conservative and rather simple girl to a dynamic woman was interesting to read, although most of the other characters could have been better developed- fewer characters might have been better (and Dora was dumped into too many historical events). I would think this book would be well received right now with the increasing interest in midwifery and homebirth. But the whole midwife/wisewoman and young female apprentice is pretty familiar.
I liked this biography of Theodore Roosevelt's early years. I did skim the last bit, since I rarely make it through biographies with a strong finish, but McCullough has a knack for writing about what I'm interested in. And it helped that this book stopped (rather abruptly) when Roosevelt was about 25.
I wasn't going to read travel and food books for a while, but I picked this one up at the bookstore while I was there today with middle son. This one was quick to read, like his graphic novel, so we both finished our books at the bookstore. Two less things on hold.
Sometimes you stumble on a book that's wonderful. A pleasure to read and interesting. One that you're not in any hurry to get through because every time you pick it up you know you'll be reading something you like. I don't remember where I found this recommendation, but I really enjoyed Tender at the Bone. It wasn't perfect (memoirs almost never are), and the food isn't necessarily my style, but Ruth Reichl's writing makes it all worth it. I'll be reading more of her books.
I think I've now read all of Geraldine Brooks' books, both fiction and non-fiction. This one is a memoir of her growing up in Australia and especially her pen pals. Like all of Brooks' writing, this book is interesting and well written, which I really think is too a unique combination in a journalist. However, it wasn't really what the back of the book said it would be. Most of the book focused on Brooks' letters to and from her American pen pal, with only short mentions of her other pen pals. At the end Brooks manages to track down the old penpals, but that's hardly the focus of the book. 
I'm debating why I can't say that I loved this book. I thought it was a good story and very well written. It explored interesting ideas. The characters didn't seem to be entirely modern, although they were a little. But I didn't like it as much as Geraldine Brooks' other novels I've read, People of the Book and Year of Wonders. I'm wondering if it's because March is so opposite of Little Women and maybe I'm more attached to Little Women than I thought I was.
I never thought I'd have a reason to say this but...