I just finished the young readers edition of "I Am Malala" by Malala Yousafzai (with Patricia McCormick). Of course, I've heard of this young girl from Pakistan who was targeted by the Taliban because she dared to speak out in favor of education for girls starting at age 10. She survived being shot in the head and several surgeries to continue to be a spokeswoman for peace and every child's right to education.
What I wasn't prepared for was the maturity, wisdom, and courage of this teenager which shines through in her story. "She is the youngest person ever nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize and she has received numerous other awards, including the International Children's Peace Prize (2013), the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, and the Amnesty International Ambassador of Conscience Award."
After she was shot Malala was taken to a hospital in Pakistan where fortunately some visiting English doctors treated her and made the determination that it was critical to go to England for her best chances of survival. Since she and her father had traveled internationally, she had a passport but the rest of her family did not. Her father had also been targeted by the Taliban and did not want to leave his wife and two sons behind in Pakistan so he made a female doctor Malala's guardian. When the family had secured passports, they all joined her in Birmingham where the family still resides.
Malala set up the Malala Fund with the help of Shiza Shahid and together they work to campaign for education for everyone. Malala Yousafzai is a blogger with a FB page and there is also a FB page for the Malala Fund, a non-profit organization. It states "The Malala Fund is focused on helping girls go to school and raise their voices for the right to education." http://malala.org/ The book cites the link malalafund.org to this nonprofit that "invests in community-led programs and supports education advocates around the world."
Sometimes I take a little longer reading a biography but I finished this one in two days around my duties at home and at work. I highly recommend it! pazt
Tuesday, April 19, 2016
Sunday, April 17, 2016
"Tragedy At Two"
"Tragedy At Two" is author, Ann Purser's 9th book in the Lois Meade Mystery series. When Lois Meade's daughter Josie's live in boyfriend, Rob, is found critically injured by the roadside, suspicion falls on the gypsies encamped at a local farm. Although Lois is leaving the investigation of his subsequent death from his injuries to Inspector Cowgill, she can't help but want to have this case solved to help Josie begin her healing.
However, not all is as it seems in the small village of Long Farnden where friends and neighbors have their own secrets. This may be the first time I've read one of the Lois Meade mysteries and had no clue (or suspicion) who the killer was! A very satisfying read....pazt
However, not all is as it seems in the small village of Long Farnden where friends and neighbors have their own secrets. This may be the first time I've read one of the Lois Meade mysteries and had no clue (or suspicion) who the killer was! A very satisfying read....pazt
Sunday, April 10, 2016
"Just Mercy - A Story of Justice and Redemption"
"Just Mercy - A Story of Justice and Redemption" by attorney, Bryan Stevenson is a powerful read. It was also a difficult read for me because of the subject matter so I'm very glad I had just finished a lighter book, "The Rosie Project." Stevenson is the Executive Director (and the initial force behind) the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama. He's also a law professor at New York University Law School.
Stevenson's story starts with him deciding to go to law school after studying philosophy in college. When he realized he couldn't make a living philosophizing, he applied and was accepted to Harvard law school. His plan was to study law while pursuing a graduate degree in public policy at the Kennedy School of Government. In 1983 at age twenty-three he ended up in Georgia on an internship. He'd never been in a maximum-security prison let alone on death row but he was sent alone to meet with a condemned prisoner. That internship changed his life and I am sure the lives of a lot of the people he's been able to help along the way.
Stevenson found himself providing legal aid to condemned prisoners (who had not received fair trials) as their execution dates were approaching. His most high profile case was probably that of Walter McMillan, a black man accused of a murder (or set up for it) when he had an iron clad alibi. Although it was a long time coming, Stevenson and his staff were able to get his sentence overturned and free him after ten years on death row. However, there were many who didn't even get the chance to have their cases retried despite discrepancies at their trials. I can't imagine how difficult it must have been to get to know these individuals and not to be able to help every one of them.
Equal Justice Initiative (or known as EJI) was selected for the Olof Palme International Human Rights Award after McMillan was freed. Stevenson was invited to Stockholm to receive it.
Stevenson had a lot on his plate - In addition to helping death row clients, EJI was "challenging excessive punishments, helping disabled prisoners, assisting children incarcerated in the adult system, and looking at ways to expose racial bias, discrimination against the poor, and the abuse of power." He found it overwhelming but also gratifying. A conservative Congress in 1994 eliminated federal funding for legal aid to death row prisoners so in addition to his case load and teaching he added fundraising to his duties. There's never any mention of a wife or family and given the traveling he did around the United States working on cases and speaking to groups I don't see how he would have had time for a private life. However, he didn't abandon those that he was trying to help. He always found time to sit with them when he visited the prison as long as they needed him to be with them. After Walter was freed, he kept in close contact with him, too, so all of them may have been his family.
Even though I was aware of it I was still appalled to learn what a big business prisons are for private businesses and the amount of money they spend trying to get tighter sentences for even small offenses and to lobby so more prisons are built, more prisoners interned in order for them to make money. There is definitely something wrong with our justice system and the poor and disenfranchised pay the highest price for it and have the least resources for health care and legal aid.
There is a particularly poignant passage in the book in a chapter called "Broken" where one of Stevenson's clients is executed and he is on the phone with him right up to the time he is taken to the execution chamber. The prisoner thanks him for all he's done for him but Stevenson questions why he's done this work for twenty-five years.
Stevenson had the privilege of meeting some of the activists in the Civil Rights Movement in Montgomery and Rosa Parks when she came to visit her friends. When she asks him what he does and he gives her his lengthy spiel, she says: "Ooooh, honey, all that's going to make you tired, tired, tired." One of the other ladies tells him: "That's why you've got to be brave, brave, brave." He said for a little while those three ladies made him feel like a young prince.
There are some amazing people that Stevenson has met over the years who have had an impact on his life and all those stories gave me hope. Although reading this has made me very sad at times -- so sad that I've had to put the book aside for a while but, like I said, parts have also given me hope and this is a project I want to help support. Go to www.eji.org to learn more about the Equal Justice Initiative and the work they do and some of their newer projects. pazt
Stevenson's story starts with him deciding to go to law school after studying philosophy in college. When he realized he couldn't make a living philosophizing, he applied and was accepted to Harvard law school. His plan was to study law while pursuing a graduate degree in public policy at the Kennedy School of Government. In 1983 at age twenty-three he ended up in Georgia on an internship. He'd never been in a maximum-security prison let alone on death row but he was sent alone to meet with a condemned prisoner. That internship changed his life and I am sure the lives of a lot of the people he's been able to help along the way.
Stevenson found himself providing legal aid to condemned prisoners (who had not received fair trials) as their execution dates were approaching. His most high profile case was probably that of Walter McMillan, a black man accused of a murder (or set up for it) when he had an iron clad alibi. Although it was a long time coming, Stevenson and his staff were able to get his sentence overturned and free him after ten years on death row. However, there were many who didn't even get the chance to have their cases retried despite discrepancies at their trials. I can't imagine how difficult it must have been to get to know these individuals and not to be able to help every one of them.
Equal Justice Initiative (or known as EJI) was selected for the Olof Palme International Human Rights Award after McMillan was freed. Stevenson was invited to Stockholm to receive it.
Stevenson had a lot on his plate - In addition to helping death row clients, EJI was "challenging excessive punishments, helping disabled prisoners, assisting children incarcerated in the adult system, and looking at ways to expose racial bias, discrimination against the poor, and the abuse of power." He found it overwhelming but also gratifying. A conservative Congress in 1994 eliminated federal funding for legal aid to death row prisoners so in addition to his case load and teaching he added fundraising to his duties. There's never any mention of a wife or family and given the traveling he did around the United States working on cases and speaking to groups I don't see how he would have had time for a private life. However, he didn't abandon those that he was trying to help. He always found time to sit with them when he visited the prison as long as they needed him to be with them. After Walter was freed, he kept in close contact with him, too, so all of them may have been his family.
Even though I was aware of it I was still appalled to learn what a big business prisons are for private businesses and the amount of money they spend trying to get tighter sentences for even small offenses and to lobby so more prisons are built, more prisoners interned in order for them to make money. There is definitely something wrong with our justice system and the poor and disenfranchised pay the highest price for it and have the least resources for health care and legal aid.
There is a particularly poignant passage in the book in a chapter called "Broken" where one of Stevenson's clients is executed and he is on the phone with him right up to the time he is taken to the execution chamber. The prisoner thanks him for all he's done for him but Stevenson questions why he's done this work for twenty-five years.
Stevenson had the privilege of meeting some of the activists in the Civil Rights Movement in Montgomery and Rosa Parks when she came to visit her friends. When she asks him what he does and he gives her his lengthy spiel, she says: "Ooooh, honey, all that's going to make you tired, tired, tired." One of the other ladies tells him: "That's why you've got to be brave, brave, brave." He said for a little while those three ladies made him feel like a young prince.
There are some amazing people that Stevenson has met over the years who have had an impact on his life and all those stories gave me hope. Although reading this has made me very sad at times -- so sad that I've had to put the book aside for a while but, like I said, parts have also given me hope and this is a project I want to help support. Go to www.eji.org to learn more about the Equal Justice Initiative and the work they do and some of their newer projects. pazt
Wednesday, April 6, 2016
"The Rosie Project"
Many thanks to my friend who recommended "The Rosie Project" by Graeme Simsion. What a fun read!
We're introduced to Don Tillman, a brilliant genetics professor with inadequate social skills. His life is organized to the minute so he knows when to shop, when to prepare meals, and when to sleep. When Don decides he wants a wife, it becomes "The Wife Project" and, with the help of his friends, Gene and Claudia, he develops a questionnaire to find his suitable life partner.
Along the not so smooth path to finding a wife he is introduced to Rosie by Gene -- not a candidate for the wife project -- but they develop a friendship and "The Father Project" begins. What follows is the "Great Cocktail Night," the "New York Adventure," and the "Reform Don Project" as well as "The Rosie Project." All of these events turn Don's organized life upside down and along the way he makes some very interesting discoveries.
Thanks to my husband for putting up with my reading this book in bed and insisting that he listen to parts of it as well as putting up with my waking him up when I was laughing in bed! I am looking forward to the sequel, "The Rosie Effect." It's really hard to beliee that this book is Australian Simsion's first novel. It's also been made into a movie! pazt
We're introduced to Don Tillman, a brilliant genetics professor with inadequate social skills. His life is organized to the minute so he knows when to shop, when to prepare meals, and when to sleep. When Don decides he wants a wife, it becomes "The Wife Project" and, with the help of his friends, Gene and Claudia, he develops a questionnaire to find his suitable life partner.
Along the not so smooth path to finding a wife he is introduced to Rosie by Gene -- not a candidate for the wife project -- but they develop a friendship and "The Father Project" begins. What follows is the "Great Cocktail Night," the "New York Adventure," and the "Reform Don Project" as well as "The Rosie Project." All of these events turn Don's organized life upside down and along the way he makes some very interesting discoveries.
Thanks to my husband for putting up with my reading this book in bed and insisting that he listen to parts of it as well as putting up with my waking him up when I was laughing in bed! I am looking forward to the sequel, "The Rosie Effect." It's really hard to beliee that this book is Australian Simsion's first novel. It's also been made into a movie! pazt
Tuesday, April 5, 2016
"The Best Christmas Pageant Ever"
"The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" starring Loretta Swit is probably best saved to watch during the holidays. However, it had come highly recommended by several friends so I decided to see if I could find it at the library. I did and my spouse and I viewed this hour long video last night. It's based on a novel written by Barbara Robinson.
The six Herdman kids (4 boys and 2 girls) are some of the "nastiest, dirtiest kids" around and, when the Sunday School class is asked to tell what they are thankful for, one boy says it's that the Herdmans don't attend. However, when the Herdmans hear they might find food at the church, they show up just in time to hear about the Christmas pageant. The regular pageant director ends up in the hospital and it falls to Loretta Swit's character to conduct the pageant. It's amazing what one person can do with one tryout and four rehearsals!
The Herdmans show up for the tryouts and immediately grab the major roles without dissension from any of the other children -- much to Swit's dismay! Although they may never have heard the Christmas story before and behave unconventionally, they and the rest of the cast perform a unique rendition of the Christmas Story which has many audience members declaring "it's the best Christmas pageamt ever!"
Perhaps what I liked best was that the Herdman children were allowed by Swit's character to play their roles despite the fact that the performance might not appeal to everyone. And, isn't that what Christmas is about -- inclusion, giving and receiving? pazt
The six Herdman kids (4 boys and 2 girls) are some of the "nastiest, dirtiest kids" around and, when the Sunday School class is asked to tell what they are thankful for, one boy says it's that the Herdmans don't attend. However, when the Herdmans hear they might find food at the church, they show up just in time to hear about the Christmas pageant. The regular pageant director ends up in the hospital and it falls to Loretta Swit's character to conduct the pageant. It's amazing what one person can do with one tryout and four rehearsals!
The Herdmans show up for the tryouts and immediately grab the major roles without dissension from any of the other children -- much to Swit's dismay! Although they may never have heard the Christmas story before and behave unconventionally, they and the rest of the cast perform a unique rendition of the Christmas Story which has many audience members declaring "it's the best Christmas pageamt ever!"
Perhaps what I liked best was that the Herdman children were allowed by Swit's character to play their roles despite the fact that the performance might not appeal to everyone. And, isn't that what Christmas is about -- inclusion, giving and receiving? pazt
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