Three Cups of Tea

Title: Three Cups of Tea
Author: Greg Mortenson
Length: 349 pages

Brief Description: Some failures lead to phenomenal successes, and this American nurse's unsuccessful attempt to climb K2, the world's second tallest mountain, is one of them. Dangerously ill when he finished his climb in 1993, Mortenson was sheltered for seven weeks by the small Pakistani village of Korphe; in return, he promised to build the impoverished town's first school, a project that grew into the Central Asia Institute, which has since constructed more than 50 schools across rural Pakistan and Afghanistan. Coauthor Relin recounts Mortenson's efforts in fascinating detail, presenting compelling portraits of the village elders, con artists, philanthropists, mujahideen, Taliban officials, ambitious school girls and upright Muslims Mortenson met along the way. As the book moves into the post-9/11 world, Mortenson and Relin argue that the United States must fight Islamic extremism in the region through collaborative efforts to alleviate poverty and improve access to education, especially for girls. Captivating and suspenseful, with engrossing accounts of both hostilities and unlikely friendships, this book will win many readers' hearts.

Why I recommend this book: This book was recommended by a friend who went to Pakistan with us. Throughout the book I kept trying to insert myself in the real life situation Greg Mortenson has lived. He is truely an amazing person, accomplishing fantastic things with the power of education, unconditional love, and the human spirit to do good things. He is able to do this without the violence, broken promises and millions of dollars spent by our Military. It's an amazing accomplishment for someone to do what he did especially after seeing the area this book deals with.

Do I have a copy others can borrow? No

Family Matters

Title: Family Matters
Author: Rohinton Mistry
Length: 460 pages

Brief Description (back of the book): The setting is Bombay, mid 1990's. Nariman Vakeel, suffering from Parkinson's disease, is the elderly patriarch of a small, discordant family. Family Matters is a story of familial love and obligation, of memory's ability to keep truth alive, and of the danger of memory denied. At once sweeping and intimate, comic and tragic, it is a kaleidoscopic, profoundly affecting saga of home and heart.

Why I recommend this book: This was another perspective on Indian cultural values and the harsh reality of obligation and poorly developed relationships. A suffering man is carefully schemed against by his daughter, while being left helpless to her contempt towards him and her unfulfilled life. This was a tale of suffering: a father at the hands of age and illness, and a daughter in a life of loneliness and inability to find peace. These serious components are directly offset by an entertaining writing style and well developed characters. A 'champion' read, in my opinion.

Do I have a copy others can borrow: No

The Wealthy Barber

Title: The Wealthy Barber

Author: David Chilton

Length: 197 pages

Brief Description (back of the book):
In this engaging tale set in hometown, Canada, our financial hero - Roy, the wealthy barber - combines simple concepts, common sense, and an insight into human nature to shape the shaggy financial affairs of Dave, Sue, Tom, and Cathy. He does it not by hectoring them about budgeting but by giving them a set of practical, easy to implement guidelines.

Why I recommend this book:
Chilton provides a non-technical, down-to-earth guide towards investing your money. You don't need to be a financial wizard to appreciate the strategies he discusses in this book, and at a point in life where many of us are starting to look towards a career and other future ambitions, this book provides some valuable insight into making wise investment decisions. For anyone looking for some basic advice on financial planning, this is a light, easy to get through read. And if Chilton is right, if we start investing early enough, we could all be millionaires in our fifties!

Do I have a copy others can borrow: Yes

The Lost Painting

Title: The Lost Painting

Author: Jonathan Harr

Length: 283 pgs

Brief Description (back of the book): In this tantalizing book, award-winning author Jonathan Harr embarks on a spellbinding journey in search of Baroque master Caravaggio's long-lost painting "The Taking of Christ", whose mysterious disappearance has captivated the artist's devotees for years. Told with consummate skill, Harr's account is itself not unlike a Caravaggio painting: vivid, deftly wrought, and enthralling.

Why I recommend this book: Unless you are a major in the arts or have a hobby dealing in paintings one would not come across an artist such as Caravaggio. In school and in movies the painters michaelangelo and davinci traditionally come to mind. However no other artists are mentioned or heard off. This book takes you on a journey into the life of Caravaggio, an artist who could hold his own amongst the likes of michaelangelo and davinci. The story informs the reader of the difficult times artists endured before gaining recognition as great contributors to society. A delightful read that centres on the finding of the lost painting of one of the world's great forgotten artists.

Do I have a copy others can borrow: yes

The Glass Castle

Book Title: The Glass Castle

Author: Jeannette Walls

Length: 288 pages

Brief Description: The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a revelatory look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant. When sober, Jeannette's brilliant and charismatic father captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Her mother was a free spirit who abhorred the idea of domesticity and didn't want the responsibility of raising a family. The Walls children learned to take care of themselves. They fed, clothed, and protected one another, and eventually found their way to New York. Their parents followed them, choosing to be homeless even as their children prospered.

Why I Recommend It: The memoir of her childhood is extremely detailed – portraying a very disturbing story of her family life. Her childhood is filled with everything from dysfunctional parents and the pain they put her through, to a bond with her siblings that is unbreakable and inspiring. Although it is a very serious read, the stories of her life are so captivating that it makes it hard to breakaway from the book. Reading about the challenging childhood she faced was not only inspirational; it also made me truly realize how lucky I am to have the life I have had.

Do I have a copy others can borrow:
No, but you can find it from most major booksellers.

Color of Water

Book Title: Color of Water

Author: James Mcbride

Length: 352 pages

Brief Description:

The Color of Water tells the remarkable story of Ruth McBride Jordan, the two good men she married, and the 12 good children she raised. Jordan, born Rachel Shilsky, a Polish Jew, immigrated to America soon after birth; as an adult she moved to New York City, leaving her family and faith behind in Virginia. Jordan met and married a black man, making her isolation even more profound. The book is a success story, a testament to one woman's true heart, solid values, and indomitable will. Ruth Jordan battled not only racism but also poverty to raise her children and, despite being sorely tested, never wavered. In telling her story--along with her son's--The Color of Water addresses racial identity with compassion, insight, and realism. It is, in a word, inspiring, and you will finish it with unalloyed admiration for a flawed but remarkable individual. And, perhaps, a little more faith in us all.

Why I Recommend It:

This book left a mark on me not only because of the strong subject matter it deals with but more so because it stands as a remarkable testament of a son's love and appreciation for his mother. The Color of Water does not mince words or meaning and this is what gives it so much power. I struggled to put it down because I began to feel what the characters in the book were feeling and even though the feelngs were sometimes of pain and anger, the author has found a way to make the reader feel hopeful and proud of not only the characters in the book but of humanity itself. An incredible read.

Do I have a copy others can borrow:

No, but you can obtain this book from most major booksellers.

Book Title: Hey Nostradamus!

Author: Douglas Coupland

Length: 256 pages

Brief Description:
GOD IS NOWHERE GOD IS NOW HERE
GOD IS NOWHERE GOD IS NOW HERE

Using the voices of four characters deeply affected by a high-school shooting, though in remarkably different ways, Douglas Coupland explores the lingering aftermath of one horrifying event, and questions what it means to come through grief – and to survive.

Four distinct characters tell four distinct yet entwined stories, as each tries to find his or her own way. And it is through their post-shooting experiences – their scarring exposure to the media or seemingly unrelated pit stops along life’s path – that Douglas Coupland finds the truer story of our collective need. Instead of following the chain of events leading up to the massacre or dwelling on the teenage killers, Coupland concentrates on its aftermath, its long-term effects. In doing so, he is able to make us really consider what it means to survive, and to continue to believe.

Why I recommend it:
The layout of this book is truely unique. It's not so much about perspective, it's more about the everyday life that is lived after a tramatic experience. I felt it was easy to get into the reading because the location of the incident took place in North Vancouver. References made to places and things were relatable and understandable. Since I didn't have to imagine the surroundings; I was able to put more focus on the individual characters and the emotional journey's each was living. An advantage we all have living in the GVRD. This is a short and easy read that'll stay in the back of your mind in your day to day life - I still haven't figured out why.

Do I have a copy others can borrow: Yes

Ice-Candy-Man (filmed as 1947)

Book Title: !ce Candy Man

Author: Bapsi Sidhwa

Length: 277 pages

Brief Description: The story is set during the tumultuous period when India gained her independence from the loathsome British Raj. The release of the subcontinent country from European rule is overshadowed by the notorious year, 1947. The year names were replaced by religion. The year friends became enemies. The year 11 million people lost their homes. The year millions were raped, tortured, killed. The year known as Partition.

Bapsi Sidhwa tells the novel, somewhat autobiographical, through the thoughts of a precocious and very mature Lenny Sethi. "Baby Lenny" begins her story living in an idyllicbubble as a naïve four year old and concludes four years later completely stripped of herchildhood illusions and her bubble sufficiently deflated....

Why I recommend it: Bapsi Sidhwa's novel, Ice Candy Man, ... was a thoroughly enjoyable and excitable read. The award-winning authoress was born in Lahore during the days reflected upon as undivided India. Her early childhood was spent seeing her country and countrymen divided right before her eyes and this is easily deciphered through her character's narration in the novel. She has done an exceptional job of transporting her reader to that bloody era and forcing them to experience the betrayal, terror and separatism faced by a country of a billion plus citizens. The reason I decided to even pick up this book was all owing to the writer's name because I had previously enjoyed her other novels; this recent read being no exception to my delight. Her previous existing novels, Crow Eaters, An American Brat, and The Bride all reflect Ms. Sidhwa's strong sense of her Parsee culture and also consistent with this author's style Ice Candy Man is filled with humorous anecdotes and lovable characters.

Do I have a copy others can borrow: Yes

The Hero's Walk

Book Title: The Hero's Walk

Author: Anita Rau Badami

Length: 384 pages

Brief Description: The Hero's Walk, which won the 2001 Commonwealth Writers Prize for best book in Canada and the Caribbean, is set in the sweltering streets of Toturpuram, a small city on the Bay of Bengal. It explores the troubled life of Sripathi Rao, an unremarkable, middle-aged family man and advertising copywriter.
As The Hero's Walk opens, Sripathi's life is already in a state of thorough disrepair. His mother, a domineering, half-senile octogenarian, sits like a tyrant at the top of his household, frightening off his sister's suitors, chastising him for not having become a doctor, and brandishing her hypochondria and paranoia with sinister abandon. It is Sripathi's children, however, who pose the biggest problems: Arun, his son, is becoming dangerously involved in political activism, and Maya, his daughter, broke off her arranged engagement to a local man in order to wed a white Canadian. Sripathi's troubles come to a head when Maya and her husband are killed in an automobile accident, leaving their 7- year-old daughter, Nandana, without Canadian kin. Sripathi travels to Canada and brings his granddaughter home, while his family is shaken by a series of calamities that may, eventually, bring peace to their lives.

Why I recommend it: I was drawn in to this book by the story of ordinary people going through emotions any person can relate to. From disappointment, loss, to the journey one travels when coming to terms with life’s circumstances, this story grasps and tugs at your every emotion. The writer is able to vividly depict and evoke the emotions of a guilt ridden, ill-tempered father who now has a second chance and do right by his dead daughter and raise his granddaughter, Nandana. Badami’s portrait of a lost and bewildered child, Nandana, is both restrained and heartbreaking. This book hooks and reels you in with every detailed line, while providing depictions of a blistering India that are not overbearing, yet still visual. The discovery of a hero and heroism that can appear in life’s unexpected disasters is a beautiful undertone that is interlaced throughout this book.


Do I have a copy others can borrow: YES

A Thousand Splendid Suns

Book Title: A Thousand Splendid Suns

Author: Khaled Hosseini

Length: 372 pages

Brief Description:
(from the Book Jacket)

Propelled by the same superb instinct for storytelling that made The Kite Runner a beloved classic, A Thousand Splendid Suns is at once an incredible chronicle of thirty years of Afghan history and a deeply moving story of family, friendship, faith, and the salvation to be found in love.

Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are two women brought jarringly together by war, by loss and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them - in their home as well as in the streets of Kabul - they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other, and that will ultimately alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next generation. With heart-wrenching power and suspense, Hosseini shows how a woman's love for her family can move her to shocking and heroic acts of self-sacrifice, and that in the end it is love, or even the memory of love, that is often the key to survival.

Why I Recommend It:

Khaled Hosseini does an amazing job of making Afghanistan very real – he shows us intimate details of life in a world where it’s a struggle to survive. And, like in The Kite Runner, he does this through the eyes of characters you instantly connect to, this time through the eyes of two women. His writing is vivid and descriptive, and makes you feel as though you are experiencing the story and the characters emotions first-hand. This book is an incredible testament to both Afghani suffering and strength, and one that will grip you from the very first chapter.

Do I have a copy others can borrow: Yes