This was a book group read that I was looking forward to. Basically it's about an Australian-Palestinian Muslim girl who decides to wear the hijab and how that affects her life.
There were a lot of things I liked about this book. It dealt honestly and realistically with life as a Muslim in a country where wearing the hijab is strange at best, and most people don't assume the best. It definitely had an agenda, and could be considered preachy, but since what it was preaching is what needs to be heard, it worked for me. The preachy parts came off fairly realistically too, because Amal, the main character is written so enthusiastically normal.
And that takes me to what I didn't like. Amal is a typical teenager and she got on my nerves. I think it's important for her to be interested in what a lot of teenage girls like, like boys, clothes, etc. She needs to be normal in every other way so that wearing the hijab means something. But really, I got tired of reading about the boys and clothes (and the not-so-skinny friend obsessing about food) and the ever-so-stereotypical mean girl. I also thought the part about the debate at the end wasn't very well developed, especially when it prompted Amal to go into law.
I think this will be an interesting one to discuss, particularly with a group of women who share many of the same goals Amal has. It was worth reading, if only because the author does a good job of presenting a fresh and reasonable Muslim character.
I read this one earlier this week, while we were moving. So I read it in bits and pieces through a couple of days even though it's a fairly short book. I thought it was a good book. Of course, any book about a genocide is going to be violent and disturbing, but this book handles those scenes well. It's also a very religious book, but not in an in-your-face sort of way. The author is simply a very religious woman who relies on her faith in God to help her, but she doesn't seem to be trying to convince the reader to believe what she does. It reminded me a bit of The Hiding Place with its emphasis on forgiveness. Recommended. And no, I haven't read anything else about the genocide in Rwanda, except for news reports shortly afterwards (in fact, the only novel I've read about Rwanda is Baking Cakes in Kigali, which hardly counts).
I loved this book. 
This was a very short and delightful little book about a Norwegian-American woman and her family. Did I mention it was short? It hardly felt like I'd gotten into it and it was over, and I wanted more. Still, it's certainly recommended. Even if it was too short.
I hadn't read this book in years and years, probably since I read it in French in high school. I certainly couldn't read it in French again, but I thoroughly enjoyed it in English. This was for a book group or I probably wouldn't have thought to pick it up. I'm glad I did. I think it'll be interesting to talk about. 
I can't remember who recommended this one, but I'm glad she did because I enjoyed this book. It's a memoir by a woman who was a midwife in London in the 1950s. It talks about lots of different things, from poverty to prostitution to the survival of premature babies. I think this one would be interesting for a book group.
Despite my 
A woman I don't know recommended this at our last book group, and since it was about Persia I wanted to read it since I was probably the only person in the room who cares about Central Asia. After I got it from the library and quickly read a few reviews, I didn't think I'd like it much, but decided to try it anyway.
There was a lot that was good about this book. It was interesting to learn a little more about depression-era circuses in the US, and the parts with the old Jacob were quite good. It was a fast read. But there was a lot that wasn't so good. Except for old Jacob, the characterization wasn't great- all the characters were predictable, except for young Jacob, and he was just boring. The plot almost felt floppy, just moving from one thing to another. It certainly was vulgar, as many people had told me. And it suffered from one of my biggest pet peeves, which is having an unreasonable number of wild things happen in a short time. Yes, the author says all the outrageous events were historical, but just because something really happened, doesn't mean that 50 other unlikely things happened to the same person in a few weeks' time. It was worth reading to learn about train circuses.