THE OTHER SIDE OF THE SKY: A MEMOIR (FARAH AHMEDI)

 

 

Story Description:

 

Simon & Schuster|2005|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-1-4169-1837-0

 

Farah Ahmedi’s poignant tale of survival chronicles her journey from war to peace.  Equal part tragedy and hope, determination and daring.  Ahmedi’s memoir delivers a remarkably vivid portrait of her girlhood in Kabul, where the sound of gunfire and the sight of falling bombs shaped her life and stole her family.  She herself narrowly escapes death when she steps on a land mine.  Eventually the war forces her to flee, first over the mountains to refugee camps across the border, and finally to America.  Ahmedi proves that even in the direst circumstances, not only can the human heart endure, it can thrive.  The Other Side of the Sky is a remarkable journey, and Farah Ahmedi inspires us all. 

 

My Review:

 

Farah was seven-years-old and had overslept one morning.  Worried that she was late for school she decided to take a short-cut through a field, saving her two or three minutes but little did Farah know that decision would turn out to be the worst of her life.  Sadly, Farah stepped on a land mine!  Quickly a crowd gathered around her but no one seemed to know what to do until a neighbour came along, hailed a taxi and put Farah onto the back seat and delivered her to the hospital.  Farah was in so much pain that every time they had to move her leg or change bandages, she would scream.  The pain, needless to say, was excruciating. 

 

The hospital in Afghanistan was ill-equipped to deal with injuries as devastating as Farah’s and all they could offer her were bandage changes and most of the time didn’t even have them at the hospital, it was up to her family to run around the city buying bandages from wherever they could. 

 

Once a month a group of doctors came from Germany to choose seriously injured children to fly back to Germany for treatment.  Thankfully, Farah was chosen to go but at seven years of age, she had to go alone, no family or friends would be allowed to travel with her.

 

Once in the German hospital where Farah remained for two years, she learned she lost her right knee and “…some of the bone just above and below the joint, and they fused my thighbone to my shinbone, holding them together with a metal rod that extends six or seven inches into both bones.”  Farah can no longer bend her right knee as she doesn’t have one and can only move her foot up and down as her ankle joints are intact.  Sadly, her entire left leg was amputated. 

 

At age twelve, Farah and her mother were living in a refugee camp in Quetta, Pakistan.  It is now winter and Farah’s mother is suffering frequent bouts with her asthma from living in an unheated tent in the cold and wind.  Farah has become her mother’s caretaker at the age of twelve. 

 

Farah exhibits such maturity beyond her years in age.  She is a studious and intelligent girl who stood up for her and her mother’s rights.  In dealing with some under-handed people, they thought, Farah, at age thirteen, was too young and ignorant to know any better about adult decisions, but they were sadly mistaken. 

 

Farah is an inspiration to all of us that even in the direst of circumstances and pain that we can survive and endure.  It takes a deep faith and commitment to deal with what Farah did but she is now a beacon of light for many. 

 

This was an amazing memoir which I would recommend to anyone and you’ll be amazed at what Farah and her mother went through after Farah’s two year hospital stay in Germany.  Well done!!

 



SOME GIRLS: MY LIFE IN A HAREM (A MEMOIR) JILLIAN LAUREN

 

 

Story Description:

 

Plume|April 27, 2010|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-0-452-29631-2

 

A jaw-dropping story of how a girl from the suburbs ends up in a prince’s harem, and emerges from the secret Xanadu both richer and wiser. 

 

At eighteen, Jillian Lauren was an NYU theater school dropout with a tip about an upcoming audition.  The “casting director” told her that a rich businessman in Singapore would pay pretty American girls $20,000 if they stayed for two weeks to spice up his parties.  Soon, Jillian was on a plan to Borneo, where she would spend the next eighteen months in the harem of Prince Jefri Bolkiah, youngest brother of the Sultan of Brunei, leaving behind her gritty East Village apartment for a palace with rugs laced with gold and trading her band of artist friends for a coterie of backstabbing beauties. 

 

More than just a sexy read set in an exotic land, Some Girls is also the story of how a rebellious teen found herself – and the courage to meet her birth mother and eventually adopt a baby boy. 

 

My Review:

 

Whoa!  This book was NOT what I was expecting at all and wasn’t really enamoured with it whatsoever.  Perhaps I’m a bit too old-fashioned with too many old fashioned morals to be reading a novel such as this.  I can never understand why young girls would want to parade around in the nude in front of men they don’t even know, spend days having sex with men they don’t know and then being paid off in cash and jewellery.

 

Perhaps someone else will enjoy this memoir much more than I did because it certainly wasn’t my cup of tea.



THE RECIPE BOX (SANDRA LEE)

 

 

Story Description:

Hyperion|July , 2013|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-1-4013-1083-7

 

From New York Times bestselling author Sandra Lee comes her debut novel, a heartwarming story about food, family, and forgiveness. 

 

Grace Holm-D’Angelo is at her wit’s end, trying to create a new life from broken pieces.  Newly divorced, she is navigating suddenly becoming a single mother to her fourteen-year-old daughter.  Emma, resentful about being uprooted from Chicago to LA and still reeling from the divorce, is generally giving her mother a hard time. 

 

Then Grace’s best friend, Leeza succumbs to breast cancer after a long battle, and Grace realizes that you don’t get a second chance at life.  She returns to her hometown of New London, Wisconsin, to try to reconcile with her own mother, Lorraine, with whom she’s been estranged for longer than she cares to remember. 

 

Over the course of the summer, Grace rediscovers the healing powers of cooking, coming to terms with your past, and friendship, and learns you can go home again, and sometimes that’s exactly where you belong. 

 

The Recipe Box celebrates mothers, daughters, and friendships, and also features Sandra’s delicious original recipes. 

 

My Review:

 

Grace Holm-D’Angelo is divorced and getting used to being a single Mom to her fourteen-year-old daughter, Emma.  Grace and Emma live in Los Angeles although Grace originally hails from New London, Wisconsin.  Grace worked on a television show called “The Lost Ones.” 

 

Poor Grace was absolutely exhausted.  Since last fall she had been running through airports flying from Los Angeles to Wisconsin and back.  Her very best friend since high school, Leeza, was fighting aggressive, stage three breast cancer.  Together the two women were scrabbling their way through tests, radiation, surgery, chemo, and more surgery including a grueling bone marrow transplant. 

 

It was hard for Grace to watch her friend go through this but, Leeza had a supportive husband in Jonathan and a beautiful two-year-old little girl named, Sara. 

 

Grace and her mother, Lorraine have been estranged for about sixteen years now.  When Grace went back to Wisconsin she didn’t stay with her mother but with Leeza and Jonathan for she considered them her family now. 

 

Grace was finding it increasingly difficult to maintain some sense of sanity.  She had part of her in Los Angeles where she is trying to make a new life, and the other part back in Wisconsin for, Leeza.  She didn’t know if she was coming or going and most days didn’t think she was doing anything very well.  If she was with Emma, she felt she should be with, Leeza.  If she was with, Leeza she felt she should be with Emma.  If she was with either of them, she felt she was letting the people at work down. 

 

After Leeza passes away, things begin to change for Grace.  Old friends from her past begin to materialize and set about a whole new change of thought patterns for Grace.  Then she discovers a secret inside the “recipe box” that shocks her to her core but in the end, it comes to have more meaning than she ever dreamed. 

 

Leeza’s death reminded everyone how short and fragile life was.  Now her friend, Ken was gone, Leeza was gone, Brian her ex was gone, and she’d pushed her new beau, Mike away.  Aside from Emma, Grace was more alone than she’d ever been in her life.  But did it really matter?  Were work and Emma enough?  What will Grace do now?  What about her estranged relationship with Lorraine? 

 

The Recipe Box celebrates the joys and boundaries of storytelling.  This was a deeply satisfying read – elegant, funny, forgiving, and insightful.  A pure joy to read. 

 



THE NEVER LIST: A NOVEL (KOETHI ZAN)

 

 

Story Description:

Pamela Dorman Books|July 16, 2013|Hardcover|ISBN: 978-0-670-02651-7

For years, best friends Sarah and Jennifer kept what they called the “Never List”: a list of actions to be avoided, for safety’s sake, at all costs.  But one night, against their best instincts, they accept a cab ride with grave, everlasting consequences.  For the next three years, they are held captive with two other girls in a dungeon-like cellar by a connoisseur of sadism. 

Ten years later, at thirty-one, Sarah is still struggling to resume a normal life, living as a virtual recluse under a new name, unable to come to grips with the fact that Jennifer didn’t make it out of that cellar.  Now, her abductor is up for parole and Sarah can no longer ignore the twisted letters he sends from jail.

Finally, Sarah decides to confront her phobias and the other survivors who hold their own deep grudges against her.  When she goes on a cross-country chase that takes her into the perverse world of BDSM, secret cults, and the arcane study of torture, she begins unraveling a mystery more horrifying than even she could have imagined.

A shocking, blazingly fast read, Koethi Zan’s debut is a must for fans of Karin Slaughter, Laura Lippman, and S.J. Watson. 

My Review:

I couldn’t put this book down.  It is one of the best thrillers I’ve read in quite some time.  Packed full of suspense, mystery, terror, thrills, and the unknowing keep you right at the edge-of-your-seat throughout the entire book.

Sarah and Jennifer had a list called “The Never List” where they recorded every possible scenario of danger that they could possibly imagine and vowed to never get caught up in any of those situations.  They made a pact to always remain safe in their world as they went about their day-to-day business.

Unfortunately, for the two girls, this just didn’t pan out the way they both thought it would when they accepted a cab ride and then found themselves being held captive by a perverted, sadistic, torturer who held them chained in a cellar for three long years.  There were other girls down there with them and the conditions were deplorable. 

Struggling from day-to-day was difficult at best and with no sunlight coming into the cellar they were pale and sickly looking.  The chains that bound them were heavy and cumbersome and difficult to drag around any time they needed or wanted to move zapping what little strength they had.  The torture they endured was horrendous and I couldn’t imagine myself enduring what they had to on a daily basis.

Now ten years later, Jack, their torturer is coming up for parole and Sarah wants to make sure he doesn’t get out so sets out on a journey to rally the other people involved in the hope of garnering enough information to give to the parole board to force them to keep Jack in prison.  What Sarah and the others go through will have your heart racing and pounding with each turn of the page. 

Koethi Zan set out to pen a ‘thriller’ with her debut novel The Never List and she accomplished her goal very well.  I’ll definitely be keeping this as part of my permanent library collection to be read again. 

 

 



A TAP ON THE WINDOW: A THRILLER (LINWOOD BARCLAY)

 

 

Story Description:

DoubleDay Canada|August 6, 2013|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-0-385-66959-7

It’s been two months since private investigator, Cal Weaver’s teenage son, Scott died in a tragic drug-related accident.  Ever since, he and his wife have drifted apart, fracturing a once-normal life.  Cal is mired in grief he can’t move past.  And maybe that has clouded his judgment because he made a grave mistake driving home on a very rainy night.  A drenched young girl tapped on his window as he sat at a stoplight and asked for a ride.  And even though he knew a forty-something man picking up a teenage hitchhiker is a fool, he let her in the car – she was the same age as Scott and maybe she could help find the dealer who sold his son the drugs that killed him.  However, after a brief stop at a roadside diner, Cal senses that something’s not right with the girl or the situation.  But it’s too late.  He’s already involved. 

Soon Cal finds himself mired in a nightmare of pain and suspicion.  Something is horribly wrong in small town of Griffon in Upstate New York.  There are too many secrets, too many lies.  And Cal decides to expose those secrets one by one. 

That’s his second big mistake.

My Review:

Cal and Donna Weaver’s teenage son, Scott, committed suicide two months ago by jumping off Griffon’s furniture roof.  It has been said that he was high on drugs, ecstasy at the time.  Cal, a private investigator has vowed to never give up trying to find the person responsible for giving Scott that fatal dose.  His wife, Donna, who worked at the local police station and whose brother, Augie was the Chief of Police, spent her spare-time sketching head shots of their son, Scott.  Donna had a file folder full of them and said she wouldn’t stop sketching until she felt she had drawn the best one, the one that caught the true essence of their beloved son. 

As a couple, their marriage had obviously suffered a great deal.  You don’t go through something like this and not have if affect you.  With, Cal out every single day working as a private eye and Donna with her work at the police station, it seems like the two of them are ships passing in the night.  Cal knows that when he tip-toes to bed each night that, Donna is really awake but pretends to be asleep to avoid having to talk.  Cal just goes along with it because he doesn’t know anymore what to say to her. 

Cal has been making a bad name for himself around their small town of Griffon.  He is relentless in his search of the person who sold, Scott his fatal dose of ecstasy and in the process has roughed up a few people.  Folks are very leery of him and avoid him when they can.  He is so mired in a grief for his son that he can’t move past that he makes his first huge mistake. 

Driving home one night in the pounding rain, a girl soaked to the bone ‘taps on his window’ and asks for a ride as he sits at a stoplight.  Cal thinks about the fact that he is some forty odd years old and picking up a young, female, teenage hitchhiker alone may not be in his best interest.  But when she taps on his window she says: “You’re Mr. Weaver, Scott’s Dad.”  With that he lets her into his car thinking that maybe he could help him find the dealer who sold, Scott the drugs that killed him.

As they’re driving, the girl, Claire, asks Cal to pull over to a roadside diner as she feels sick to her stomach and doesn’t want to vomit in his car.  After she is back in the vehicle, Cal notices that something just isn’t right with this girl or the whole situation, but it’s too late for Cal, he’s already involved. 

After driving a bit, the girl demands to be let out of his car in the middle of nowhere.  Cal pleads with her to let him drop her off at the safety of her house but she adamantly refuses and tries to jump out of the car while it’s still moving.  Cal has no choice but to pull over to the curb and let her out.  Claire hops out into the pouring rain and begins to run.  Later that day she is found murdered not far from where Cal had let her out of his car – he was the last person to see her alive. This isn’t going to be good for him.   

 Cal decides something is horribly, horribly wrong in this small town of Griffon – too many secrets, too many lies, and too many cover-ups.  He decides he’s going to investigate on his own leaving no stone unturned.  What he doesn’t realize is just how much he is going to uncover and whether or not he’ll make it out alive!

A Tap on the Window was a heart-pounding, rollercoaster ride of suspense like I’ve never read.  The thrills, the suspense, and the mystery kept building and building and building until I felt like I was going to explode if I didn’t soon read the answer to what I wanted to know.  At 500 pages, I still read it in two days and just couldn’t put it down.  There were parts in the book were I actually felt afraid and sort of kept looking around the room for a minute to get my mind off the feeling.  Mr. Barclay has outdone himself with this one.  Please don’t miss out on this thrilling thriller, you won’t be sorry!!

 



ELLIS ISLAND: A NOVEL (KATE KERRIGAN)

 

 

Story Description:

HarperCollins|2011||Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-0-06-207153-8

Sweethearts since childhood, Ellie Hogan and her husband, John, are content on their farm in Ireland – until John, a soldier for the Irish Republican Army, receives an injury that leaves him unable to work.  Forced to take drastic measures in order to survive, Ellie does what so many Irish women in the 1920’s have done and sails across a vast ocean to New York City to work as a maid for a wealthy socialite. 

Once there, Ellie is introduced to a world of opulence and sophistication, tempted by the allure of grand parties and fine clothes, money and mansions…and by the attentions of a charming suitor who can give her everything.  Yet her heart remains with her husband back home.  And now she faces the most difficult choice she will ever have to make: a new life in a new country full of hope and promise or return to a life of cruel poverty---and love. 

My Review:

Ellie and John had played together since they were very young children.  They spent their days running through fields, laying in the grass and climbing trees.  Ellie loved being at John’s house as his family was so very kind to her and treated her like a daughter.  Her own mother was a cow of a woman without emotion and didn’t pay any particular attention to Ellie.  Ellie felt alone and abandoned.  When they were just eighteen they ran off and got married which displeased her parents very much.

John was a soldier and received a serious injury to his leg thereby preventing him from walking.  There was an operation to correct his problem but their lack of money prevented him from taking advantage of the opportunity.  Ellie’s deep love for, John propelled her to board a vast ship and cross the ocean on her own to work in New York City as a maid for a wealthy socialite.  The hours were long and the tasks arduous but Ellie was committed and sent money home to John every month to save for his operation. 

During her time in New York, Ellie discovered new friends, a new way of dressing, got herself an updated haircut and for the first time in her life felt that she really fit in somewhere.  Then, she met a wealthy man who was more than willing to marry her.  He even got her out of maid work, paid for her to a take a course and got her a better paying job.

Finally, John had enough money to have his operation but, Ellie didn’t want to leave New York.  She wanted John to come to America and live there so they could have some semblance of a normal life.  John, being a solider and having fought for his homeland was not willing to concede and remained in Ireland.  What is Ellie going to do?  Will she stay in America and marry her new wealthy man or will she return to Ireland to be with John and go back to just subsisting on a meager budget and a difficult life?

Ellis Island was a beautifully written story and I read it in one sitting.  I just couldn’t put it down.  There is also another book that continues this story titled: “City of Hope” but I haven’t yet been able to get a copy.

 



UNDER THE HOLY LAKE: A Memoir of Eastern Bhutan (KEN HAIGH)

 

 

Story Description:

The University of Alberta Press|June 4, 2008|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 0-88864-492-2

Inaccessible for most of its history, the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan has long fascinated the West.  Today, wealthy travelers are admitted in small groups, but in 1987, when Ken Haigh arrived as a volunteer to teach in a small high school, foreign travelers were as hard to find in the kingdom as telephones or toilet paper.  Under the Holy Lake describes a two-year sojourn in the valley of Khaling in eastern Bhutan.  Ken learns to cope with leeches, rabid dogs, and culture shock, and in return finds his life transformed.  He rents a small cottage next to a Buddhist monastery and quickly settles into a pattern of existence that is hundreds of years removed from the world he’d known in Canada.  He finds his students are polite and eager to learn, his neighbours warm and welcoming.  Under the Holy Lake is a love song to a mountain valley and its people, a story of youth, and discovery, and, ultimately, of loss. 

My Review:

A most compelling read!  Ken Haigh’s memoir had me from the first page until the very last.  Each page brought new scenery, new people, new things to learn and see.  The descriptions were so clearly laid out that I felt as though I was truly trudging along with Ken as he climbed the steep embankments through the thick jungle.  I could feel and see the giant leeches as they clung to my clothing searching for spaces in my clothing to gain access to skin where they could attach themselves for a few hours of blood sucking.  The rabid dogs with their foaming mouths seemed especially frightening as did the giant rats that Ken was forced to live with. 

The students were so well-mannered and polite for a culture so far removed from where we are here in the west.  I don’t honestly know how Mr. Haigh managed to stay for two years living in this dilapidated place that seemed like something out of a horror movie.  The students he and others taught there were fortunate to have volunteers such as Ken and the others to come and impart their knowledge.

I took my time reading this as I didn’t want to miss a single word of this memoir.  This would make for a great book club read.  There are so many aspects to this memoir and so many things to discuss.  I wish I knew someone else who had already read this so I could discuss it with them.

Thank you, Mr. Haigh for sharing your adventure, it was the most entertaining, informative, and educational piece of reading I’ve done in a long while.