Review: Zel

Title:  Zel

Author:  Donna Jo Napoli

Published:  1996

Page Count:  240

Genres:  Young Adult Fiction, Fantasy

My Rating:  3/5

High in the mountains, Zel lives with her mother, who insists they have all they need, for they have each other.  Zel’s life is peaceful and protected – until a chance encounter changes everything.  When she meets a beautiful young prince at the market one day, she is profoundly moved by new emotions.  But Zel’s mother sees the future unfolding – and she will do the unspeakable to prevent Zel from leaving her…

Zel is a dark retelling of the fairy tale Rapunzel.  Very dark.  Amazon tells me that the book is meant for ages 9-12 but I am not quite sure about that classification, to be completely honest.  The book is really not a pleasant fairy tale – it’s sad and kind of scary, not something I’d expect a nine-year-old to really enjoy.  Maybe a twelve-year-old, though.  Anyway, why don’t I talk about the book?

I liked Zel.  I haven’t read too many fairy tale retellings, so I was sort of surprised when I found myself somewhat bored in the beginning.  Bored is the wrong word, actually – it was more like anxious.  I knew what was coming, since I’d heard the story of Rapunzel a million times, so for the first third of the book I was basically waiting for the “real” story to happen, the one that I was expecting to happen.  Which it did, eventually, and it was much darker and meaner than the original… more like the Grimm fairy tale, I’d imagine (which I’ve never read, but I have heard about).  

I did like when Zel’s mother revealed her true motivation for keeping Zel with her forever.  I was totally not expecting that, and I loved how it made this book so different from the actual fairy tale.  In my opinion, that’s what I imagine a fairy tale retelling to be – take a classic fairy tale and add some different elements to it, which turns it into something different but based on the same general story.  If that is what YOU think of when you think of a fairy tale retelling, then you’ll definitely like the book.  I didn’t love this one, but I think that Napoli did a great job with the book, and I know a lot of other bloggers loved it (see the list below).  I would recommend Zel for fans of fairy tales and/or fantasies.

More reviews -

• Eva at A Striped Armchair
• Raych at books i done read
• Rhinoa’s Ramblings
• Natasha at Maw Books Blog
• Nymeth at things mean a lot

Review: The Get Organized Answer Book

Title:  The Get Organized Answer Book

Author:  Jamie Novak

Published:  March 1, 2009

Page Count:  272

Genres:  Nonfiction, Self-help

My Rating:  4/5

In a world with more stuff, more to-do’s, and more wants, organizing and efficiency expert Jamie Novak offers clear and simple ideas to help readers cut through the clutter and find what’s important. Proven strategies show readers how they can better organize their lives – and find more free time and energy.

The Get Organized Answer Book tackles all areas of life and home, answering such questions as:

• Where do I start?
• How can I free up more storage space?
• What papers should I save?
• How can I help my kids stay organized?
• What can I do to get the most out of my time every day?

Novak, who frequently appears on QVC, says that about 80% of the clutter in every home or office is a result of disorganization, not lack of space. Her strategies, tips, and tools for success can help every reader conquer the messes and start living a happier, more productive life today. 

I am ashamed to admit that when it comes to my home, I am not an organized person.  I am organized at work, but that’s about it.  My closet, my car, my kitchen cabinets, my desk area… all big messes.  So when the opportunity to read and review The Get Organized Answer Book presented itself, I figured I could probably use a few tips and said that I’d be happy to read the book.  Generally speaking, this book did provide many useful ideas for how to organize in small, easy steps without getting too overwhelmed with the tasks.

What I appreciated most about the book is how simple Novak made organizing seem.  She makes it clear that it’s important not to think about things as huge projects, but instead to set small goals for yourself and to give yourself rewards when these goals are accomplished.  One example would be to set a kitchen timer for fifteen minutes and organize the pots and pans for just that amount of time, then stop, watch a short TV show or something as a reward, then move on to the next task.  Novak gave plenty of examples of tasks that can easily be accomplished in fifteen or twenty minutes, which is nice to see because I tend to get overwhelmed with those kinds of tasks and feel like I’ll never be able to get them done in a short amount of time.

I have to admit that while reading this book, I actually felt GOOD about my messiness – because I realized I’m not nearly as bad as I sometimes feel that I am.  Some people have literally years of stuff taking up entire rooms in their houses – I just have a few too many papers at my desk, too much crap in my car, etc.  The book also provided lots of advice on where to start and how to organize every single space of a home – I mean, this is detailed advice.  I did skim parts of the book that aren’t of particular interest to me, but there is a LOT of information here.

If you’re the type of person who needs a gentle nudge to organize your home, your car, your office, or your life, this is the book for you.  Jamie Novak provides great advice and instructions about how to organize just about anything, and she makes it seem very manageable and simple.  When I finished the book, I started cleaning out my closet right away!  No joke – I put together three bags of clothes to donate.  I would definitely recommend the book for anyone like me who needs a little assistance with organization.

Review: Skim

Title:  Skim

Authors:  Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki

Published:  February 28, 2008

Page Count:  140

Genres:  Young Adult, Graphic Novel

My Rating:  3/5

The time is the early 1990s, the setting a girls’ academy in Toronto. Enter “Skim,” aka Kimberly Keiko Cameron, a not-slim, would-be Wiccan goth. When her classmate Katie Matthews is dumped by her boyfriend, who then kills himself, the entire school goes into mourning overdrive. It’s a weird time to fall in love, but Skim does just that after secret meetings with her neo-hippie English teacher, Ms. Archer. When Ms. Archer abruptly leaves the school, Skim has to cope with her confusion and isolation, as her best friend, Lisa, tries to pull her into “real” life by setting up a hilarious double date for the school’s semi-formal. Skim finds an unexpected ally in Katie. Suicide, depression, love, being gay or not, crushes, cliques of popular, manipulative peers — the whole gamut of tortured teen life is explored in this masterful graphic novel by cousins Mariko and Jillian Tamaki.

This is only my second graphic novel (ever) and unfortunatly for Skim, the first one I read was American Born Chinese, so I was kind of comparing them while I was reading this one.  I tried really hard not to, but when you are just starting a genre it’s very difficult not to make comparisons.  I think the fact that I was so enthralled with American Born Chinese made it difficult for me to love Skim.  I definitely enjoyed the book, I just wasn’t enamored by it.

I think my issue with Skim is that, yes, there are a LOT of themes in the book very pertinent to teens.  The problem, at least from my perspective, is that there are perhaps TOO many themes covered in the book.  As in, I don’t know that the author did any one of the themes justice.  Like there just wasn’t enough time or space to delve deeply into any one thing, so they are all sort of covered, but nothing is really covered in detail.  I liked the character of Skim, and I liked her progression throughout the book, but for me there just wasn’t enough detail. I don’t feel that I got to understand any of the other characters, and with a book dealing with these kinds of themes, I want to understand the characters.

I don’t know.  It is a good book.  I feel bad not being super positive about it, because I did like it.  Don’t trust my opinions alone, though.  Plenty of other readers and bloggers have gushed about Skim so maybe I’m missing something.  Go ahead and read the book.  Come back and let me know what you think – am I missing something?  Is this an amazing graphic novel and I just don’t “get” it?

More reviews -

• Staci at Life in the Thumb
• Sassymonkey at Sassymonkey Reads
• Ali at Worducopia

Review: Outcasts United

Title:  Outcasts United: A Refugee Team, an American Town

Author:  Warren St. John

Published:  April 21, 2009

Page Count:  320

Genre:  Nonfiction

My Rating:  4.5/5

The extraordinary tale of a refugee youth soccer team and the transformation of a small American town.

Clarkston, Georgia, was a typical Southern town until it was designated a refugee settlement center in the 1990s, becoming the first American home for scores of families in flight from the world’s war zones—from Liberia and Sudan to Iraq and Afghanistan. Suddenly Clarkston’s streets were filled with women wearing the hijab, the smells of cumin and curry, and kids of all colors playing soccer in any open space they could find. The town also became home to Luma Mufleh, an American-educated Jordanian woman who founded a youth soccer team to unify Clarkston’s refugee children and keep them off the streets. These kids named themselves the Fugees.

Set against the backdrop of an American town that without its consent had become a vast social experiment, Outcasts United follows a pivotal season in the life of the Fugees and their charismatic coach. Warren St. John documents the lives of a diverse group of young people as they miraculously coalesce into a band of brothers, while also drawing a fascinating portrait of a fading American town struggling to accommodate its new arrivals. At the center of the story is fiery Coach Luma, who relentlessly drives her players to success on the soccer field while holding together their lives—and the lives of their families—in the face of a series of daunting challenges.

This fast-paced chronicle of a single season is a complex and inspiring tale of a small town becoming a global community—and an account of the ingenious and complicated ways we create a home in a changing world. 

I received this book from LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers program, and when I received it in the mail I truly wasn’t sure why I requested it in the first place – I am not a sports person.  Not even a little bit.  So I was a little nervous to pick it up, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t like it, and I started to feel guilty for requesting it at all.  That all changed after reading the first couple of pages – I really, really liked the book.  St. John drew me in right away with his great storytelling, and I started to care about the people in this book from the beginning.  

Outcasts United is not really a book about soccer.  Sure, soccer is the backdrop upon which the story is told, but the book is really about the refugee kids, their families, the town of Clarkston, and Coach Luma.  It is about how a bunch of kids who spoke ten plus different languages formed a tight bond and great friendships because of their common love of soccer.  It is about how Luma Mufleh came to the United States against the will of her wealthy Jordanian parents to do what was best for her, despite how difficult she would find that to be.  It is about how so many families, from so many different war-torn or poverty-stricken countries all came to live in the same town, how these families dealt with the extreme culture shock and adapted to life in the United States, and how Luma’s amazing strength and generosity helped so many of these families adjust.  It is about how the residents of Clarkston, Georgia dealt with all these new faces, languages, and cultures in their small (mostly white) town – and for some residents, how they simply weren’t able to deal with these changes.

So much about this book fascinated me.  I loved learning about the different circumstances that brought these families together in the United States, I loved learning about how they handled the huge changes they were forced into when they came to the U.S., and I loved reading about the camaraderie that developed between the boys on the team.  Some of the boys had been taught from birth to hate people of certain nationalities, only to be faced with boys of these exact nationalities playing on their soccer team – and they had to find a way to get along, and more than that, think and behave as teammates.  The story is ultimately a heartwarming one – nothing about these kids’ lives was easy, yet they were so successful in many ways (not JUST with soccer, although that’s definitely one of the ways).  

Again, I really liked Outcasts United.  Highly recommended.

WG: Animals!

I love this week’s Weekly Geeks topic because I am planning to show you pictures of my kitties, which I’ve never done before on the blog!  First, though, let me reiterate this week’s question:

How many of us remember a favorite pet from our childhood? Or have enjoyed visiting the zoo? Or relish in walking in the woods and hearing birdsong, or seeing a deer leap away through the brush? How many of us have been thrilled by a soaring eagle? How often have we sought the comfort of a dog or cat, or wept tears of loss when forced to say good-bye to a furred friend?

We are surrounded by our fellow creatures and often our lives are enriched by their presence, whether it be sharing our homes with them or simply being blessed to see them in passing.

This week you are asked to share books (fiction or nonfiction) and/or movies which center around an animal or animals.

• Which are your favorites?
• Which touched your heart the most?
• Which have found their way onto your wish lists or TBR stacks?
• Is there a childhood favorite?
• Have you ever named a pet after an animal from a book or movie?

You get the idea! Have fun with this; use your imagination. Share your thoughts!

As an adjunct to this post, consider sharing photos of animals (domestic or wild) which have inspired or thrilled you, or graced your life with their presence.

So, first I’d like to share some of my favorite books with animals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First we have Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.  This book was one of my favorite books from last year, and there are many animals in the book because the setting is a traveling circus.  The main animal character, though, is an elephant named Rosie – who is a huge (literally and figuratively) part of the story.  It’s a great book, read it.  You can read my review of Water for Elephants here.

Next we have Riding Lessons, coincidentally also authored by Sara Gruen (she wrote this one before WfE), and another fantastic book starring an animal.  This time it’s horses.  The star of this show is an old, scarred horse named Hurrah – despite his age and his scarring, this horse is no ordinary horse … but you’ll have to read the book to find out what makes Hurrah so special.  Just like WfE, Riding Lessons isn’t just about the animals, it’s a fantastic story with great characters.  Read my review of Riding Lessons here.

The third book I’d like to show you is The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle.  This one also stars horses, but just as the rest of the books I’ve shown you, there’s a lot more here than just the animals.  This book is absolutely beautiful in language, in the way Kyle wrote these heartbreaking characters, and in the relationships between some of the characters and the horses.  In my review, I stated that it may not be one of my favorite books of all time, but now that it’s been awhile since I’ve read it, and the book is STILL with me, I might have to change that.  The book is truly marvelous and I think any fan of contemporary fiction should read it.  My review of The God of Animals is here.

Fourth, we have Life of Pi by Yann Martel.  This book got a lot of buzz when it first came out, as well as won the Man Booker Prize in 2002, so I’m sure most of you know that the animal in this story is a Bengal Tiger named Richard Parker.  After sixteen-year-old Pi and his family pack up their zoo and get on a boat to Canada (from India), there is a disastrous shipwreck which leaves only Pi and Richard Parker, on a life boat, in a desperate struggle to survive without killing each other (easier on Pi’s part than Richard Parker’s, as you can imagine).  I read this book before I started my blog so I don’t have a review to show you, but I will say that I loved the book and highly recommend it.  The book isn’t for everyone – it’s slow going in parts – but if you can get through some of the slower aspects, it is amazing.

And lastly, I decided to throw in Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes.  The book is taught in many high school classrooms for a reason – it’s a really great book with tons of stuff to discuss and think about.  As I’m sure most of you know, Algernon is a mouse who isn’t exactly the main character of the story, but is very instrumental to what happens in the book.  You can read my review of Flowers for Algernon here.

And now I get to talk about my kitties!  We have three cats, Bailey, Oscar, and Annabelle.  Bailey and Oscar are brothers and I adopted them as eighteen-week-old kittens from an animal shelter back when I was in college.  Annabelle is their adopted little sister, she was brought to us when we first moved to our townhouse (where we live now) by two little girls in the neighborhood who had found her outside and weren’t allowed to keep her.  We called her our “street cat” at first because she was covered in fleas, she was snarly and hissed at everything (especially her two new brothers who were just trying to get to know her – poor guys!), and was generally terrified of life.  But once we got her cleaned up and spent a few days with her, she fit into our little family perfectly.  Now here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure!

That’s Oscar sleeping on the left (by far, his favorite activity) and Bailey looking into the camera on the right.  

And this one is Annabelle as a kitten giving Bailey a bath around his ears (which he appeared to really enjoy, as you can see).

And here we have Annabelle in one of her favorite spots, the DVD rack.  She likes to find little places where only she can fit. 

Well, I hope you enjoyed reading about animals – both ones I have loved in books, and the ones I love in real life!  

 

Review: Testimony

Title:  Testimony

Author:  Anita Shreve

Published:  October 21, 2008

Page Count:  320

Genre:  Contemporary Fiction

My Rating:  3.5/5

At a New England boarding school, a sex scandal is about to break. Even more shocking than the sexual acts themselves is the fact that they were caught on videotape. A Pandora’s box of revelations, the tape triggers a chorus of voices–those of the men, women, teenagers, and parents involved in the scandal–that details the ways in which lives can be derailed or destroyed in one foolish moment.

I chose to go with a very short description for Testimony because I think most of you have heard a lot about this novel and already know what it’s about (if not, the title links to Amazon, where you can read several other detailed descriptions).  And actually, I’m feeling pretty stuck with this review because the book has been reviewed SO many times by so many fantastic bloggers that I don’t feel that I have anything particularly new or exciting to add.  I will say that I have read several of Anita Shreve’s books, and Testimony is by far the most fast-paced and exciting of the ones I’ve read.  While I was reading the book, I was completely caught up in the story, quickly turning pages because I couldn’t wait to find out what would happen next.  But now that it’s been a week or so since I’ve finished the book, I’m feeling kind of “meh” about it.  None of the characters are overly memorable and even the story itself… it was good.  Nothing amazing.  I don’t know, I guess I was hoping for more.  A lot of the reviews I’ve linked to below share the same(ish) sentiment: I liked it, didn’t love it.  

I’m still trying to figure out how I feel about where Shreve took the plot.  Obviously I can’t say too much about that, given that I typically do spoiler-free reviews.  But there were several aspects of the book about which I’m just not sure how I feel.  Especially relating to the girl at the center of the story.  I don’t think I like how Shreve portrayed her – the girl had practically no personality, and what personality she did have made her seem to be exactly the way the boys said she was – like “she asked for it”, as they said.  I’m just not sure how comfortable I am with an author (a female author, especially) portraying a fourteen-year-old girl the way this girl was portrayed.  I don’t know.  I guess she was trying to be “edgy” or something, making the reader feel so much compassion for these boys while not allowing the reader to get to know the girl… but something about it was super uncomfortable for me.

I did like the ending.  Not what I expected, that’s for sure.  Overall, like I said – a good book.  Just nothing incredible and as I type this, I’m having a difficult time thinking of details that stand out in my mind.  So I’ll just go ahead and end the review here, and encourage you to read some of the fabulous reviews I have listed below.  

More reviews -

• Julie at Girls Just Reading
• Carrie at Books and Movies
• Julie E. Ferris at Feminist Review
• Bethany at B&b ex libris
• Alea at Pop Culture Junkie
• Kimbofo at Reading Matters
• Rebecca at The Book Lady’s Blog
• Julie at Booking Mama
• Swapna at S. Krishna’s Books
• Jill at Breaking the Spine
• Meghan at Medieval Bookworm
• Serena at Savvy Verse & Wit

Review: Dry

Title:  Dry

Author:  Augusten Burroughs

Published:  April 1, 2004

Page Count:  320

Genres:  Nonfiction, Memoir

My Rating:  4/5

You may not know it, but you’ve met Augusten Burroughs. You’ve seen him on the street, in bars, on the subway, at restaurants: a twenty-something guy, nice suit, works in advertising. Regular. Ordinary. But when the ordinary person had two drinks, Augusten was circling the drain by having twelve; when the ordinary person went home at midnight, Augusten never went home at all. Loud, distracting ties, automated wake-up calls, and cologne on the tongue could only hide so much for so long. At the request (well, it wasn’t really a request) of his employers, Augusten landed in rehab, where his dreams of group therapy with Robert Downey, Jr., are immediately dashed by the grim reality of fluorescent lighting and paper hospital slippers. But when Augusten is forced to examine himself, something actually starts to click, and that’s when he finds himself in the worst trouble of all. Because when his thirty days are up, he has to return to his same drunken Manhattan life—and live it sober. What follows is a memoir that’s as moving as it is funny, as heartbreaking as it is real. Dry is the story of love, loss, and Starbucks as a higher power. 

Several years ago, I read Augusten Burroughs’ first book, Running With Scissors, a memoir about his tumultuous and abusive childhood (and how he overcame said insane childhood to become a relatively normal adult).  The book was hugely popular at the time, and I was disappointed when I totally did not love it.  So why, you ask, did I try reading another Burroughs memoir?  Well, a few reasons.  First of all, it was one of the few audiobooks that I was remotely interested in on this particular trip to the library.  Second, and more importantly, someone very close to me is a recovering alcoholic, so the topic of Dry is something I can really relate to and have a lot of personal experience with.  When I hear about books that relate to an issue I feel emotionally tied to, I almost always want to pick them up.  So I did.

… and I really liked the book!  Burroughs’ writing is great, he really takes the reader through his journey with heart but also with a lot of humor.  I found myself laughing out loud many, many times throughout the book, as his simple observations about himself and those around him are just so hilarious and sarcastic in the right way.  The book isn’t all humor, not by any means.  The subject, getting sober and staying that way, is a very serious one, and Burroughs makes it quite clear that the journey is NOT easy for him.  There are plenty of emotional moments, including a huge one that I definitely did not see coming (and, consequently, cried my eyes out when said moment occurred).  

As I said above, I listened to Dry instead of reading it, and I highly recommend the audio format.  Burroughs narrates himself, which is great because his tone and inflection are just perfect – for me, having him read his memoir to me really added to the experience.  Whether you read the book or listen to it, however, for any fan of memoirs, Dry is not one to be missed.

Review: Wintergirls

Title:  Wintergirls

Author:  Laurie Halse Anderson

Published:  March 19, 2009

Page Count:  288

Genre:  Young Adult fiction

My Rating:  4.5/5

Lia and Cassie were best friends, wintergirls frozen in matchstick bodies.  But now Cassie is dead.  Lia’s mother is busy saving other people’s lives.  Her father is away on business.  Her stepmother is clueless.  And the voice inside Lia’s head keeps telling her to remain in control, stay strong, lose more, weigh less.  If she keeps on going this way – thin, thinner, thinnest – maybe she’ll disappear altogether.

Reading Wintergirls can not really be described as a pleasant experience.  Lia is a very, very sick girl who needs to come to terms with that fact and accept the help that everyone in her life wants to get for her.  But she can’t accept that.  She also can’t stop thinking about Cassie, Cassie who used to be her everything, Cassie who she didn’t speak to for several months, Cassie who called her that one night thirty-three times, Cassie who died not too long after that thirty-third phone call.  So Lia spends 99% of her time obsessing – either obsessing about Cassie, or obsessing about food.  And reading this book with Lia as the narrator, this girl who is thisclose to death, who is literally starving herself, is tough.  It breaks your heart to read her thoughts and feelings because you just want to hug her, you just want to help her, you just want her to help herself.  But she doesn’t… and you keep reading.  And the book keeps getting more uncomfortable.

Not to say that Wintergirls isn’t a fabulous book.  I actually found it to be pretty amazing.  It is kind of scary how well Anderson wrote this book… how well she could look into the mind of a girl suffering from anorexia.  From what I know of the disorder, Lia is an extremely accurate portrayal of an anorexic girl, which is probably why the book is so difficult to read.  Most of us (especially women) know someone who has, either now or in the past, suffered from an eating disorder.  If you don’t, well to be honest with you – you probably just haven’t found out yet.  I personally know several people who have struggled with various eating disorders over the course of the time I have known them.  Some of them are better now, some are not.  This book is so hard to read because it’s that same experience, that of being on the outside, of watching someone you love literally kill themselves slowly, and not being able to do a darn thing about it.  It’s  pretty terrifying.  

One thing that I especially loved about Wintergirls is how realistic the adults in the book were.  In many YA books, the parents are completely clueless and not at all good characters.  Even though Lia felt like her mom, dad, and stepmom were awful people who didn’t care about her, Anderson did a great job showing that they were kind and loving people who desperately wanted Lia to get help, but they just didn’t know HOW to help her.  The fact that Anderson was able to show this while still writing the characters through Lia’s eyes is remarkable to me, and it shows what an amazing writer she is.  

I highly recommend Wintergirls.  It is fabulously written, and even though it’s a difficult book to read, it’s got that bittersweet thing going on.  Once you begin reading it, you hope along with Lia’s parents that something will click for her and she’ll finally get some help… and you just keep reading, hoping and praying for that to happen.  Does it happen?  Well, I’m not telling… go read the book!!

More reviews -

• Devourer of Books
• Alicia at Confessions of a Bookaholic
• Shelly at Write for a Reader
• Alea at Pop Culture Junkie
• Reader Rabbit
• The Story Siren
• Natasha at Maw Books Blog
• Becky at Becky’s Book Reviews
• Frenetic Reader
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• The Compulsive Reader

Review: The Natashas

Title:  The Natashas: Inside the New Global Sex Trade

Author:  Victor Malarek

Publisehd:  September 12, 2005

Page Count:  320

ISBN:  978-1559707794

My Rating:  4/5

On the black market, they’re the third most profitable commodity, after illegal weapons and drugs-the only difference being that these goods are human, though to their handlers they are wholly expendable. They are women and girls, some as young as 12, from all over the Eastern bloc, where sinister networks of organized crime have become entrenched in the aftermath of the collapse of Communist regimes. In Israel, they’re called Natashas, whether they’re actually from Russia, Bosnia, the Czech Republic, or Ukraine, no matter what their real names may be. They’re lured into vans and onto airplanes with promises of jobs as waitresses, models, nannies, dishwashers, maids, and dancers. But when they arrive at their destinations, they are stripped of their identification, and their nightmare begins. They are sold into prostitution and kept enslaved; those who resist are beaten, raped, and sometimes killed as examples. They often have nowhere to turn; in many cases, the men who should be rescuing them-from immigration officials to police officers and international peacekeepers-are among their aggressors.

The Natashas is a very important book that is a must-read for anyone interested in worldwide social issues.  The book is researched very well, with a tight outline and great writing that makes the book (although it is nonfiction) very engaging and hard to put down.  I personally had some knowledge about the global sex trade before reading The Natashas but I certainly learned a lot of new information as well.

This book is not easy to read – especially for those of us with teenage daughters, sisters, friends, etc. – because the amount of abuse these girls suffer is unbelievable.  Malarek spends plenty of time reporting from the brothels, motels, and strip clubs where these girls live and “work”, and in his interviews the girls do not shy away from being completely candid about their daily lives.  This is good – the reader needs to get a complete picture of what the women go through every day – but it is by no means easy to read.  

A few things shocked me while reading this book.  The first is the lack of understanding most countries’ law enforcement have about the situation these women are in (including the United States).  In most cases, the girls are terrified to run – even when offered safety and transportation by Malarek himself – because the men holding them captive threaten every possible thing if they leave, most notably the killing of their entire families back home.  But for the few girls who do escape, they almost never end up as “free” as they would think… local law enforcement almost always, upon finding them or even helping them escape their captors, prosecutes them for prostitution.  These women are not prostitutes, they are sex slaves.  They have been kidnapped, taken to a country thousands of miles from their homes, and forced to “have sex” (quotations because really it is rape) with ten or twenty men a day.  I couldn’t believe when I read that in most cases, women who do escape just end up going straight to jail.  Unbelievable.

The other thing that truly shocked me is how prevalent this industry is here in the United States.  One of the examples that Malarek used is that of a small brothel that was operating in an apartment building in Mount Prospect, Illinois about ten years ago.  The brothel had five or six women from Romania, Ukraine, and Moldova that were sent on a plane, flew into O’Hare airport, and taken to this Chicago suburb to spend the next few months working at a local strip club (with a room in the back for other acts, of course).  What is shocking to me about this example is that Mount Prospect is literally ten minutes from the town I grew up in, and only about an hour from where I live now.  The book makes it very clear that this is happening all over the world, but this really hit it home for me.  These women were being held captive in my own backyard, so to speak.  Incredible.

There is a large portion of the book on the different laws that Congress has passed to deal with this issue – I’ll be honest, this section was definitely the most dry and the hardest for me to get through.  There was a lot of detail and most of it wasn’t all that interesting to me.  What is interesting is that even with all these efforts that the United States has supposedly put in to stop sex trafficking, it is still around and very prevalent.  The Natashas is an important book because sex trafficking isn’t going away unless we become educated about what it is and how it is allowed to go on.  I’m glad that I had the chance to learn more about this issue and I highly recommend reading the book.

More reviews -

• Chelsea at Book Maven  

Any others?  Let me know and I’ll add them!

Review: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Title:  Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Author:  J.K. Rowling

Published:  November 1, 2003

Page Count:  734

Genres:  Childrens’ Fiction, Fantasy

My Rating:  3.5/5

Currently, I am sloooowly rereading all of the Harry Potter books.  If you follow my blog, you’ll remember that I started doing this at least six months ago and I am being very leisurely about it (is that correct grammar?  I don’t think so.  Oh well.).  I’m going to skip the plot summary on this one since it’s right in the middle of a series and for those of you who haven’t yet read these books, I’d rather not spoil anything. 

This fourth book in the Harry Potter series is actually one of my least favorites (possibly THE least favorite), but that’s not saying too much because I love all of these books.  The main thing that I dislike about this one is that, now that I’ve read it a few times, I’m starting to feel like it’s much too long for its own good.  I definitely think that this book is a little too long and maybe too difficult for some of the younger fans of the series.  Whether or not those fans read the book anyway I couldn’t tell you.  But I think that Rowling spends too much time getting to the action in the book and too little time actually executing the action.  If I remember correctly, they don’t even pull names for the Triwizard Tournament until about halfway through the book.  For a 700 page book, that’s too long (in my opinion) to go before introducing a major plot point of the story.

There are, of course, many things about this book that I do like.  I love how mature Harry, Ron, and Hermione are becoming and how much their friendship develops in this book.  Rowling makes it seem so natural that the three of them together can figure out how to outwit the other Triwizard competitors, that together they can figure out any spell, curse, or whatever else they need to learn.  I love that about the three of them – they complement each other brilliantly.  I like how they are starting to become teenagers, to develop little crushes and get nervous around one another – it’s cute.  By the fourth book, you feel like you know these characters so it’s fun to read about them evolving into these new, more mature, more self-aware people. 

And the ending – this book has one of the best endings of all the Harry Potter books.  Even though it’s terribly sad, Dumbledore spends a great deal of time explaining things to Harry (even though there’s obviously a lot he still doesn’t know), and the book leaves a major cliffhanger.  The reader gets the sense that a great adventure is about to take place in the next book – huge things are going to happen.  Rowling does a great job making the reader excited to pick up the next book (which is also like 800+ pages). 

Anyway – if you haven’t read this series yet, I highly encourage you to do so.  They are great fun, exciting adventures with absolutely amazing characters.  They are NOT just kids’ books, whatever anyone tells you.  They are so much more than that.

Have you reviewed this one?  My google reader was being weird and I couldn’t find any – let me know and I’ll add yours!