In which I return to the interwebs...

Hello everyone! My, it's been a while...apologies all around! My reading time has been lacking lately due to some fun things (the return of football tailgate Saturdays, an OAR concert, and spending time at the lake cottage) and some not so fun (painting around the house, chores, and the like). But I have managed to finish one book and hopefully will finish A Prayer for Owen Meany this weekend since it has taken me WAY longer than I anticipated and I must start the September book club book ASAP. Anyway, on to the review.

Gifts of War

by Mackenzie Ford

350 pages (in ARC)

Isn't the cover of this book beautiful? It's really what first drew me to request this ARC. Then, I read the book description and I knew that I would be hooked.

Hal Montgomery is a British soldier on the front during WWI and on Christmas in 1914, there was a truce between the British and German soldiers for a whole day. They came out of the trenches, shared cigarettes and stories of home, and buried their dead. It was there that Hal met Wilhelm, a German soldier who had a fiancee in England who he was not even able to say goodbye to, due to the war. Wilhelm gave Hal a picture of himself in uniform and asked him that if he ever had the opportunity to please find her and give her this picture. A few weeks later, Hal is shot and discharged from the military. Once recovered, he goes to find Wilhelm's fiancee, Sam, to tell her about Wilhelm but of course, he falls in love with her.

So, since Hal is in love with Sam, he decides not to tell her about Wilhelm and his picture that he's carrying around with him. Even though, she continues to talk about him and HAS HAD WILHELM'S BABY! Seriously, this whole I'm-going-to-keep-this-secret-and-hope-that-it-goes-away thing NEVER works. Didn't work for Bill with Sookie in Southern Vampire Mysteries series, and didn't really work for Marcus in the Jessica Darling series, so it is definitely not going to work for Hal. Sorry buddy, but secrets don't make friends! (or lovers for that matter!) But, regardless of how much I really wanted to grab Hal by the shoulders and shake the living ba-jesus out of him, he really made up for it in the end and it was just so sad and so beautiful and I literally had just one little tear fall as I closed it...and I loved it. I clutched the book to my chest and wiped away the lone tear and just said "wow."

So 8.5 out of 10 stars.

Book Review: They Poured Fire...

They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky: The true story of three Lost Boys from Sudan

by Benson Deng, Alephonsion Deng, and Benjamin Ajak

311 pages

You!!! Yes, You! Go read this now. It's amazing and moving and oh-so-profound. and I loved every minute of it.

Benson, Alepho, and Benjamin are three boys (Benson and Alepho are brothers, Benjamin is their cousin) that were born in Sudan. In 1987, when they were very young, ages 5 to 7, the Civil War arising in Sudan reached their village and they were forced apart from their parents, other family, and each other. They were forced to cross deserts with only the rags on their backs, no shoes, and no food or water for months. Most of the time, they were starving or injured or sick with no food or medical treatment. They lost friends and family members along their journey but never gave up hope of being reunited with their family.

Each chapter is written by one of the boys, who are all in their mid twenties at the time the book was published. The chapters go in roughly chronological order from their times in the village before war struck their lives, up until they landed in America in 2001. That's fourteen years of traveling thousands of miles on foot, of having little to no food, and living in refugee camps. The writing is simple yet eloquent and the stories really make you realize how much you had growing up, and now. I have a feeling that I'm going to be recommending this one to a lot of people. It's just a very touching story and would be SUCH a great upper high school or college classroom discussion book, so teachers definitely check this one out!!! If you want more info on this book and the authors check out http://www.theypouredfire.com/

10 out of 10 stars. Just loved it. Oh, and there's some Michigan State University love on the website since it was last year's One Book, One Community book!

Teaser Tuesday 4/14/09

• Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
  
• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser:

"Three hundred teachers had to help twenty thousand boys. The women and children from Panyid, combined with the Itang and Dima refugee camps, meant our group numbered more than sixty thousand. The front of the walking line could be two days ahead of the last exhausted people who lagged behind with hunger, disease, and wounds."

p. 141 from They Poured Fire on Us From The Sky: The true story of three Lost Boys from Sudan.

This book is SO good and SO sad! I'm enjoying reading it because I hadn't known much (if anything) about the wars in Sudan before picking this up. Also it's going to be my first In Real Life Book Club book!