book reviews
After my last book review about child prostitution I decided to present a book that doesn't have anything to do with the darker sides of our society. It's another book currently only available in German, but I would suggest it will be translated at some point. It's a new book, published in 2008 and it's called "Greenomics".
This is a book for marketing professionals and anyone interested in market trends (for the record: I studied marketing.) It talks about a new group of consumers - the LOHAS. These are people who follow the Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability, which according to the book now over 30% of consumers belong to.
The LOHAS are interested in sustainability and "green lifestyle" and they buy accordingly. However, these are not the "hippies" from past days - they want the best design, the best quality and the best enjoyment out of their purchases.
The problem with living in Germany and being a patron to the local library, and blogging in English is that I get to read really interesting books - which are available only in German. I usually then just leave them be and blog about something else, but recently I've read two books which I really want to write a review about. Maybe they will one day be translated, or you will get interested in the theme and find some books on the issues in English / your own language.
The first book is called "Kinder auf dem Strich" by Cathrin Schauer. The title translates to "Children on the game" and it talks about child prostitution on the German-Czech border. The author has worked in the region as a social worker for years. The book discusses the views of the different parties involved - the children, the pimps, the adult prostitutes, the buyers, the police and the general public.
Read this book. Seriously, if you are a woman and haven't read this book, you should. It wouldn't hurt men either. It's such an eye-opener to the theme beauty and how it's not at all as it's usually percieved. The book is almost 20 years old, but it's still current and important.
The book is called "Alles zuviel" in German, which ist just the translation of "It's All Too Much
I usually only review books that are available in English language, but this one was so interesting I decided to write a few lines even though it's apparently only available in German, Italian and maybe Portuguese... let me know if you find it in English.
It's called "Das 11-Minuten-Mädchen" which means "The eleven minutes girl", written by Sonia, who goes by the artist name Mariana Brazil.
She's a former prostitute, originally from Brazil but she came to Europe to work and stayed even after her "career" was over. It's a very interesting biography, where Mariana tells about her day to day life, her friends and collegues, all women with personalities and different histories. She pictures the life in a very down-to-earth way, not making it prettier or more terrible than it actually is.
This time I'll use my Darfur Friday to make a book review. I devoured such a strong, impressive, emotional, raw and honest biography this week I have to share it with you.
It's called Tears of the desert by Halima Bashir, a Darfurian doctor who did all she could for her people, was hunted down for it, but could escape to Great Britain and survived.
She witnessed the mass rape of 40 school girls (age around 10) which the Sudanese regime allowed. She herself was raped and abused for 2 days, raping and cutting and burning her until she lost conciousness. Her village was destroyed by helicopters and Janjaweed. Her father was killed. She doesn't know where her family is, if they're alive or not.
Finally a book review again! I have been reading a lot, but mostly German books where I dodn't know if there's an English translation available or not. This book I know is originally in English, so even though I read it in German I can blog about it in English.
Geisha, a life is the true story of Gijon geisha Mineko Iwasaki. She was the person who helped the author Arthur Golden in writing the Memoirs of a Geisha, a book that claimed to tell the truth about Gijon geisha life. However, Golden had made some things more "interesting" so Ms. Iwasaki decided to write her own book, with her own name.
It's been a long time since my last book review. Not that I wouldn't have read in the meantime, but somehow nothing inspired me to write a review. Now this book I read, no - devoured, gets me back on the writing track. I read it in a few weeks, but remember it was in German and has over 600 pages.
The previous resident of our current apartment had left this book behind, so I picked it up in search of something to read before I could get a library card. I quickly became fascinated with the four adult sisters that have only their father in common. After the father has a stroke and is paralysed, the sisters come together and live for a while in their childhood home, not looking for companionship but finding it anyway in their sisters. The women become close again, and past secrets are revealed. All this time the father lies in coma in a hospital.
Kitty Knits: Projects for Cats and Their People by Donna Druchunas is a great knitting book for a cat lover! It's filled with beautiful and useful knits for cats and the cat owners. I have already knit the mouse and am impressed. Such an easy and small pattern, but very clever! Possibly the best written pattern I've ever made (not counting the first confusion about the bobble, which was to become the mouse's ear... I knit the bobble first, then started the mouse!
Even though this posting is called Knitting, it is a book review. The title of the book just happens to be Knitting . It's written by Anne Bartlett, and is her first novel. One can notice that when reading the book. The storytelling is exquisitly good at some points, but very quickly plummets to an average level, and back throughout the book.
The story is about two women who meet in a surprisin situation, and become friends even if they are very different. Martha knits, Sandra works in literature. They start a project together, which reveals weaknesses in both of them, but also strengths and the capability to heal from loss.
