Merry Christmas (Taken with instagram)
Book Review: A Stolen life by Jaycee Dugard
Many of us know the story of Jaycee Dugard who was kidnapped at age 11 and held in captivity for 18 years. She had two children from her captor and this story amazes me, confusing at times when i wondered why she didn’t try to escape when she had the chance. But most of all I would say this book is life changing. I look at life completely different now that I’ve read this book. Reading the part about her reunification when she was finally able to speak her real name touched a nerve with me and made me cry uncontrollably. This book is graphic at times and very sad, however you can help out missing and exploited children through Ms. Dugard’s charity foundation JAYC.
I encourage all to check this website out or read the book.
Book Review: Quiet Hero by Rita Cosby
I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Rita Cosby when she spoke of the story that is documented in her book, Quiet Hero. She’s also autographed my book. This however did not influence in any way my opinion on this book. If I had to choose one of my most favorite books. This would be it. Rita tells the story of uncovering her father’s past in which it is revealed that he was an underground fighter during Nazi occupation. He was injured after a mortar attack and then taken into custody at a POW camp, in which he later escaped from. He escaped just in time because those that did not escape were later killed or put into work camps by communist Russia.
My favorite quote from the book:
The scene is after his group had escaped from the POW camp. A plane flies low and drops something out of the plane. The group thinks its a grenade and dives to the ground to take cover. When no explosion occurs, they realize what it was:
“We all stood up and dusted ourselves off, trying to make out what it was that had been tossed out of the plane.
“What was it?” I ask.
He smiles. “It was a chocolate bar,” he says. A chocolate bar with a note tied to it with red ribbon. The sergeant untied the ribbon and opened the note, but the whole thing was written in English. It had been an American plane! ‘Quickly,’ the sergeant shouted to us as we gathered around him, ‘I need someone who can read English.’ Stalag IV B [The Nazi POW camp] had its fair share of American and British prisoners of war, and a few of us had picked up some English. One of the Poles came forward and read the note…
It said ‘Welcome. You are safe to walk now during daytime. There are no troops between you and our lines. You have fifteen miles to walk and you’re free.’”
I loved this book and I consider it a must read.
Book Review: Me by Ricky Martin
Ricky Martin’s book starts out with a bunch of cliches. I must say I was totally unimpressed by his choice of words etc. at the beginning of the book. However, toward the end, his passion came through. He told the story of having two twin boys from a surrogate mother and his coming out letter he wrote when he was 38. He also told the story of how he got involved with stopping human trafficking.
Overall this book was awesome, by the end of the book I was in tears when he told his story about coming out.
My favorite quote from the book is this:
“What you think of me is not my reality, but instead your own.”
I think we can all live by that quote.
Here’s a link to the Ricky Martin foundation which helps to fight against human trafficking and other things as well:
Book Review: Decision Points by George W. Bush
While my opinion hasn’t changed much about our former president, I have come to somewhat of an understanding on many of the decisions he made during his presidency. I felt like if he was as candid as he was in his book during his presidency many Americans may have thought twice before criticizing him.
One part I loved was when the Saudi delegates were getting ready to leave the talks at Bush’s Crawford, Texas ranch. Just as the delegation was heading for the door, Bush remembered something about the lead delegate, he liked farming. So as the team was ready to leave Bush asked to give them a tour of his ranch before they left. He agreed to stay to take the tour. Just as they were driving around the ranch a turkey appeared in the road forcing president Bush to stop because the bird wouldn’t budge at all. The Saudi delegate asked the president what it was and Bush replied, it’s a turkey, Benjamin Franklin loved the bird so much that he wanted to make it the national bird. The Saudi grabbed Bush’s shoulder and said my brother it’s a sign from Allah! The team then decided not to leave and finished the talks. Bush claims to have never seen a turkey on that ranch before this and never after.
My favorite quote from the book:
“I took Barney for an early morning walk around our neighborhood. I hadn’t done anything like that in more than a decade. Barney never had — he’d spent his entire life at the White House, Camp David, and Crawford. Barney spotted our neighbor’s lawn, where he promptly took care of his business. There I was, the former president of the United States, with a plastic bag on my hand, picking up that which I had been dodging for the past eight years.”
Overall this is a great book, and I encourage anyone with the slightest interest in current events and/or the Bush legacy to pick this one up, and this is coming from a bleeding heart liberal.
Tornado hits Joplin, Missouri
The tornado that has hit Joplin, Missouri has devastated the small city leaving 118 people dead with the death toll rising. If you would like to help out I have the link posted.
photo courtesy of techeblog.com
Japan
Hey Guys,
Once again I feel the need to speak out. I’m sure most of you know what happened with the 8.9 earthquake/tsunami in Japan. I’ve posted a link to the red cross if you’d like to help out with the recovery efforts.
Libya
Protests dominating the headlines. Demonstrators demanding the step down of government. Use of force against the people. This kind of thing is happening around the Middle East and North Africa. It started with Tunisia. Egypt is now in control of its military while Mubarak has stepped down. However, a leader that has been in power longer than Mubarak and who has been a thorn in the side of the west for a long time, Muammar al-Gaddafi, the 40+ year long dictator of Libya is in trouble. His son came on state television yesterday warning protesters to stop what they’re doing or force would be used. Since then the city of Benghazi has fallen to the protesters, hundreds of people have been shot, Gaddafi is nowhere to be seen, the US state department and the EU have ordered its nationals to get out of the country. Things have escalated to the point where this is not just like the other protests going on in other countries around the middle east, but bares the hallmarks of Egypt. This is a revolution in the making. The fluidity of this situation is staggering. To my peers: These revolutions will take hold across the world and in the coming months dictators will fall and democracies will begin to form. All I ask is that you watch what is going on not with ambivalence but with an attitude of solidarity for the people who crave political and economic freedoms. As I’ve said before, think about how good you have it in comparison.
