Meet incredible women from around the world

Our next book for March will celebrate International Women's Month by reading Half the Sky - Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women worldwide by Nicholas Kristoff and Sheryl DuWann. We'll be meeting on Sunday March 28 at 2pm - our next coffeeshop will be Cafe Abir in the NOPA neighborhood. 

Here's a book summary:

New York Times columnist Kristoff and his wife, WuDunn, a former Times reporter, make a brilliantly argued case for investing in the health and autonomy of women worldwide. More girls have been killed in the last fifty years, precisely because they were girls, than men were killed in all the wars of the twentieth century, they write, detailing the rampant gendercide in the developing world, particularly in India and Pakistan. The authors reveal local women to be the most effective change agents.

I just found out that this book has a long waiting list at the Library - so here are some options:

1) You can read the New York Times magazine that featured this book at the following link: www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/magazine/23Women-t.html

2) You can read the book online through Borders website at the following link: www.borders.com/online/store/TitleDetail?sku=0307267148 - click on "Look Inside"

3) If you're willing to purchase the book - check out Green Apples or go to BookSmith, which gives 15% discount when you say you're a WOW book club member

Books to read in the future:

April - Spirit catches you - Anna Fadiman

Next Month - The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingslover

Impressed with the power of a young Afghan woman

We were all in awe of an incredible young woman living in a place where women don't have freedom of speech and can be killed for it - and yet we discover the story of someone who has overcome incredible odds to speak about women's rights in Afghanistan. We are all surprised how she is still alive.

We valued how much her parent's support has been key to maximizing her potential to become such an empowered woman from the moment she decided to return to Afghanistan from a refugee camp to lead education program underground for women. 

She has the support of her community to represent them at the parliament level and it was insightful for us to read how courageous and beautiful the community is. We don't usually get to hear how active and brave the Afghan people are when we read about Afghanistan in the US newspaper. 

We hope to support her and other women who are fearless in voicing out injustices around the world - we all left inspired to do something!

Insight into Aghan people and its history

A Woman Among Warlords: The Extraordinary Story of an Afghan Who Dared to Raise Her Voice by Malalai Joya


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book was such a wonderful unique insight into knowing the people from Afghanistan - after hearing so many negative news from that country - it was inspiring. The first part of the book was definitely an easier flow and the second part was quite harder to read, but so powerful. I hope everyone gets a chance to read this book and see how inspiring and beautiful Afghan people are.

View all my reviews >>

Going to Afghanistan

Let's travel to Afghanistan! We'll be reading another memoir written by Malalai Joya called A Woman Among Warlords: The Extraordinary Story of an Afghan Who Dared to Raise Her Voice. We'll be meeting in the Haight/Ashbury neighborhood on Sunday February 28, 2010.

Here's a book summary:
One of the few women, and the youngest, to win a seat in Afghanistan's Parliament, Joya recounts in strong, uncompromising language her march to activism, from her humble origins to recognizing a burning need to bring the corrupted leaders to justice in her war-torn country. Native to the western Afghan province of Ziken, and later Farah City, Joya—a name she had to adopt in order to protect her family—grew up mostly in desperate, unsafe refugee camps in Pakistan after the Russians invaded Afghanistan in 1978. 
With only a high school education (and one wonders how she wrote this book in English), she nonetheless became a teacher in the camps, then worked to organize underground classes for girls in Herat in defiance of Taliban edicts.

Her activism grew, supporting orphanages and war victims after the Taliban fled and the U.S. began air strikes and became an armed presence; Joya is adamant in underscoring the responsibility America holds in reinstalling to power the same warlords (commanders she names in the Northern Alliance) who once tore the country apart during the civil war of the 1990s. Having won election to Parliament in 2005 at age 27—Eva Mulvad's film Enemies of Happiness documented her election—Joya was outspoken in condemning these warlords she called criminals and antiwomen, enduring the shutting off of her microphone, assassination threats and, finally, suspension from Parliament.
Note: Get 15% discount for your book choice by saying you're a WOW book club member at BookSmith - support your local independent bookstore.

Books to read in the future:
March - Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristoff
April - Spirit catches you by Anna Fadiman
Join our Facebook Group: Women of the World (WOW) Book Club

Lessons of Faith for Reflection

An insightful discussion starting in 2010 on learning from Anne Lamott's journey with faith and realizing how little we talk about faith and spirituality. Lamott's genuine thoughts on faith and her sharing of her life stories made her messages and experiences accessible to many of us. 

It was great to see how Lamott went through her own process to find faith or to use faith in key moments of her life... such as deciding whether to let her son paraglide on his birthday at 5, or what to do when a man starts beating up his dog in front of her son. 

Lamott is secured in telling us her flaws and her mistakes and how she feels without shame or judgment. We learn about her lows and ups and at the end of the day, it can be better to look at a bright side and find a learning experience in each moment. A favorite one that we learned on page 107: "when a lot of things start going wrong all at once, it is to protect something big and lovely that is trying to get itself born - and that this something needs for you to be distracted so that it can be born as perfectly as possible."

Starting 2010 with a little bit of faith!

Happy Holidays! What a better way to enjoy the holidays by reading a book that shares a journey from well-known local author Anne Lamott. Our first book of 2010 will be Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott. We'll be meeting in the Hayes Valley neighborhood on Sunday January 24, 2010.

Here's a book summary: 

A chronicle of faith and spirituality that is at once tough, personal, affectionate, wise, and very funny. Anne Lamott claims the best two prayers she knows are "Help me, help me, help me" and "Thank you, thank you, thank you." Despite — or because of — her irreverence and wit, faith is a natural subject for Lamott. With an exuberant mix of passion, insight, and humor, in Traveling Mercies she takes us on a journey through her often troubled past to illuminate her devout but quirky walk of faith. In a narrative spiced with stories and scripture, with diatribes, laughter, and tears, Lamott tells how, against all odds, she came to believe in God and then, even more miraculously, in herself.

Whether writing about her family or her dreadlocks, sick children or old friends, the most religious women of her church or the men she's dated, she shows us the myriad ways her faith sustains and guides her, shining light on the darkest part of ordinary life and exposing surprising pockets of meaning and hope.

Hoping that everyone has a wonderful holiday!

See you in 2010!

A beautiful memoir on a piece of Isabel's life

We had an incredible discussion on Isabel Allende's first memoir that gave us a glimpse in a period where her daughter was in a coma on her life story that highlighted the time her grandparents' story, her parents' story, the coup that ousted Salvador Allende in Chile, her exile, her marriage, and so forth.

Her writing really brought us to the moments when she's with Paula and is talking to her about where she comes from. We see Isabel as a gutsy woman who is trying to seize as many opportunities as she's presented with and explore her relationships with different family members. We are all interested in how Paula might have foreseen her death and how she communicated with her mom what to do through a sealed envelope. We were also curious to find out what made her fall in love with the men mentioned in the book, particularly with Willie in the end.

We don't get to know so much about Paula, even though she's the book title. But we thought it was intentional as the book was originally meant to be a letter to Paula so she can catch up with her life at the end of her coma.

It's a beautiful read and one that inspires you to read her other books!