Infidel

by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
5 Stars
Nonfiction: Memoir
Setting: Africa, Middle East, USA
353 pages
Published 2006

Ellie's Review
This memoir was fascinating to me! Ayaan grew up in Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Saudi Arabia and just told her life story as a Muslim. On one hand, she's just a normal person who had a typical childhood. On the other hand, she is incredible for what she's gone through. I learned so much about Muslims and the world we live in.

Book Summary
Somali-born author Ayaan Hirsi Ali is one of the most controversial women on earth. For years, she has been forced to live in hiding; her life has been threatened numerous times; an anti-Koran script that she wrote provoked the assassination of filmmaker Theo Van Gogh; and a dispute over her citizenship indirectly brought down the Dutch government. This memoir about her family's travails living under strict fundamentalist Islamic precepts tracks the evolution of a world-changing radical feminist.

The Red Tent

by Anita Diamant
3 stars
Historical Fiction
Setting: Middle East
336 pages
Published 1997

Ellie's Review
I liked the book, but it took a while to get into. This was a good read for book club as we had a lot to discuss, but I thought the author could have cut out a lot of the sexual stuff. I was interested by the possible other sides/explanation of some Old Testament verses that tell of some crazy stuff.

Book Summary
The Red Tent is the story of Jacob's daughter, Dinah, and Jacob's four wives, who all served as Dinah's mother at some point in time. Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah all bring their own unique gifts and influences to bear on Dinah's life. As Diamant explores the trials and triumphs of ancient women, she brings a foreign yet beautiful world to life as seen through the emotional filter of Dinah's eyes. This lush, evocative tale transcends time and brings new life to the Old Testament, lending a feminine touch to the mighty word of God.

A Thousand Splendid Suns

by Khaled Hosseini
5 Stars
Setting: Afghanistan
448 pages
Published 2007

Ellie's Review
This was a fascinating book that helped me understand Afghanistan a little better. I love how it shows that each culture, country, and religion has good and bad people. I am very thankful for my life and my husband!

Book Summary
A Thousand Splendid Suns is a breathtaking story set against the volatile events of Afghanistan's last thirty years, from the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to post-Taliban rebuilding, that puts the violence, fear, hope and faith of this country in intimate, human terms. It is a tale of two generations of characters brought jarringly together by the tragic sweep of war, where personal lives, the struggle to survive, raise a family, find happiness, are inextricable from the history playing out around them.