Congratulations Elysium, I’m sure you will enjoy the book as much as I did. I have sent you an email, please send me your mailing address and I will forward it to the author.
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On another note, I am going home for a month…yayyyy. My cousins wedding is in mid-July and I’m really excited. I’m going to miss my husband though
I will blog of course but not for a week more. I hope you all are doing well.
Title: The Road of Lost Innocence
Author: Somaly Mam (Translated from French by Lisa Appignanesi)
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau; First Edition first Printing edition (September 9, 2008)
Genre: Non-fiction(Autobiography)
Source: Library
Set in: Cambodia Rating: 5/5
My thoughts:
This was one of the most difficult books I have ever read. We all know that prostitution and human trafficking is million dollar business that seems to continue to grow over the years. But most of us probably don’t know the extent of this problem and how it affects lives of young girls. All over the world and especially in underdeveloped/ developing countries, this is a problem that is quickly getting out of hands.
The Road of Lost Innocence is a story from Cambodia. Ms. Somaly had a very horrific life, 100 times more horrific than you can guess from the synopsis of the book. The worst phase was her life in the brothel. She describes the desperate and dirty living conditions in the low-end brothels where one girl had to sometimes service 10-15 men in one day. She says Cambodian men are very violent people, the years of Khmer regime has left a mark on them. She describes how the prostitutes are forced into the trade by their family members, by their own mothers and fathers. Poverty drives them to do this.
When she left the brothel for good, she married a Frenchman who was a social worker in Cambodia. After that she decided to use her status as a white man’s wife to help girls like her. She started a center that housed women rescued from brothels. Her center also provided health care and a way for these girls to build their life again by teaching them various skills. She also initiated an educational program which educated men into what prostitution was really like for those girls. Cambodian men seemed to treat women like commodities and she tried to speak against that by showing them that they were after all human beings.
The most shocking part was the ages of these girls in the brothels. There are as young as 5-6 year old girls. Some men seem to believe that having sex with a virgin will cure them of AIDS. To ensure that the girls were virgins, they bought in girls as young as 5.
I have such immense respect for Ms. Somaly and the work her organization is doing instead of the constant threats they get. In Cambodia, big brothels are controlled or owned by powerful people. Even policeman have a share in the brothels earnings. When the system that is supporting you is going against you, people like Somaly Mam provide a beacon of hope.
I had watched a documentary on these very children of Cambodia but I guess the documentary masked some of the horrific details. This book tells you things as they are. And even when sometimes things become too difficult to read, I just had to keep going on. If we cannot help these girls, we at least owe it to them to be informed about their fate and know that there are people like them who suffer endlessly for no fault of theirs.
Note: The paperback edition contains some pictures, whereas the hardback doesn’t.
Some of the links:
Internet links:
It gives me immense pleasure to welcome Mary Sharratt, the author of Daughters of the Witching Hill (review), to my blog today. I’m sure this guest post will shed light on the Pendle witches and also give you an idea on how beautiful her writing is.
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The wild, brooding landscape of Pendle Hill in Lancashire, my home for the past eight years, gave birth to my new novel, Daughters of the Witching Hill, which tells the true story of the Pendle Witches.
In 1612, seven women and two men from Pendle Forest were executed for witchcraft, but the most notorious of the accused, Bess Southerns, aka Old Demdike, cheated the hangman by dying in prison. This is how Thomas Potts describes her in The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster:
She was a very old woman, about the age of Foure-score yeares, and had
been a Witch for fiftie yeares. Shee dwelt in the Forrest of Pendle, a vast
place, fitte for her profession: What shee committed in her time, no man
knowes. . . . Shee was a generall agent for the Devill in all these partes: no
man escaped her, or her Furies.
Reading the trial transcripts against the grain, I was amazed at how Bess’s strength of character blazed forth in the document written to vilify her. Bess freely admitted to being a healer and a cunning woman. She lived as a matriarch with her family at Malkin Tower and instructed her daughter and granddaughter in the ways of magic. Her neighbors called on her to cure their children and their cattle. What fascinated me was not that Bess was arrested on witchcraft charges but that the authorities turned on her only near the end of her long, productive career. She practiced her craft for decades before anybody dared to interfere with her.
Pendle Hill: Source-Author's blog
Cunning craft—the art of using charms to heal both humans and livestock—was Bess’s family trade. Their spells, recorded in A Wonderfull Discoverie, were Roman Catholic prayer charms—the kind of folk magic that would have flourished before the Reformation. Yet she also drew on an even older source of power: Tibb, her familiar spirit, who appeared to her in the guise of a beautiful young man.
Other books have been written about the Pendle Witches—both nuanced and lurid. Mine is the first to tell the tale from Bess’s point of view. I longed to give Bess Southerns what her world denied her—her own voice.
History is a fluid thing that continually shapes the present. As a writer, I am obsessed with how the true stories of our ancestors haunt the landscape. No one in Pendle can remain untouched by the witches’ legacy. As contemporary British storyteller, Hugh Lupton, has said, if you go deep enough into the old tales and can present them in a meaningful way to a modern audience, you become the living voice in an ancient tradition. Mother Demdike’s voice deserves to be heard.
Long after their demise, Bess Southerns and her fellow witches endure, their spirit woven into the land, its weft and warp, like the stones and the streams that cut across the moors. This is their home, their seat of power, and they shall never be banished. By learning their story, I have become an adopted daughter of their living landscape, one of many tellers who spin their unending tale.
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Please do have a look at the video docudrama that was shot on location around Pendle Hill.
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And now, the contest details:
Thanks to the author and the publicist I have one copy of this book to give away. It’s international. The contest will be open till 25th June. I will announce the winner the next day. To enter the contest, just comment below. Don’t forget to mention your email id.
Title: Daughters of the Witching Hill
Author: Mary Sharatt
Source: Review copy
Set in: Lancashire, England
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 1 edition (April 7, 2010) Rating: 4.75 out of 5
My thoughts:
I have read quite a few books on Witches and witch trials but I don’t think there are many written on the 1612 Pendle witch-hunt trial, at least not as beautiful as this one. The author, Mary Sharratt, has focused on the story of Bess Southerns or Mother Demdike as she was known around that part.
Bess Southerns is a poor, old widow who lives in the Malkin Tower with her daughter Liza and her grand-daughter Alizon and grandson Jamie. Bess is a healer, she is known as a cunning women for her healing skills. She uses her old Catholic faith to pray for others even though it’s a banned faith and the retributions could be high. One small mistake, one small rumor and she could be hanged. Bess always tries to tread the right path and not harm anyone, to always use her gift for the good.
She teaches her healing charms to her best friend from childhood, Chattox. But in poverty and helplessness, she turns to dark magic. What this does to their friendship is indeed very sad. When Bess tries to teach her granddaughter Alizon some of her magic, she refuses. She is scared and runs away from the power that could be hers, which eventually lead to the Pendle witch trials.
Mary Sharratt’s writing is as beautiful as her descriptions are vivid. What I loved most about this book was the sense of place. She brings this time in Lancashire, England alive for the readers. She has used some excerpts from the book written by court clerk Thomas Potts which makes it even more real.
Since it is based on a true story, I knew what was going to happen in the end, but that didn’t stop me from biting my nails and wishing and hoping that it did not. Another thing that is very striking about this book are the strong female characters. In spite of their poverty and desperation, these women shine. They fight for their existence and try to keep their head high in the worst possible situations.
This is one book that will stay with me for a long time. For those who like to read about the witch hunts, definitely read this book. But even if you are not interested in them, you will definitely like this book. The daughters of the Witching Hill is so much more than just another witch-hunt story.
Is your wishlist as big as your TBR pile? What books are topping your list? Are there any new releases that you are counting down the days for? Share a handful of titles and be sure to share why you want to get your hands on these books! And if another blogger is responsible for that book being on your wishlist, consider sharing a link to their review!
Where do I start???
Yes, my Wishlist is as big as my TBR, if not bigger. I have a wishlist on my goodreads account. Currently there are 109 books there. Obviously I still want to read all but the ones that stand out the most are:
Because they are non-fiction-memoir and travelogues, both of which are my favorite sub-genres. The Sewing Circles of Herat by Christina Lamb is based in Afghanistan and it is a travelogue/ memoir written by a journalist. First they killed by father by Loung Ung is based in Columbia. I found it while browsing Amazon and have been wanting to read it ever since. Apparently the author has come up with a second book. Hitchhiking Vietnam by Karin Muller is obviously based in Vietnam and it’s a travelogue. Love the cover of this book.
Briar Rose by Jane Yolen is one of the first Young Adult books I added to my Wishlist back when I had not read even a single one. But today when I love YA, Briar Rose is one book that I’m still dying to read. I loved Anchee Min’s Orchid books and I can’t wait to read more by her.
I found Ghost hunters by Deborah Bloom and Complications by Atul Gawande on Eva’s blog. (GH review | Comp review)
Sometimes I do go through my wishlist and remove the books that I don’t feel like reading anymore, mostly because I might have read another book with a similar premise. That happens a lot with travelogues.
Apart from these books, there are many other books that are on my Wishlist but I don’t need to note the names down because I tend to remember them. Nora Roberts recent Bride Quartet series, any of the Lisa Kleypas books, books by Stephen King and all these books I keep seeing on blogs.
I could go on and on but I wont.
Have you read any of the books above? What did you think of them? How many books are on your wishlist?
Title: Children of Dust
Author: Ali Eteraz
Genre: Non-Fiction (memoir)
Source: Library
Set in: Pakistan, U.S, Kuwait
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: HarperOne; 1st edition (October 13, 2009) Rating: 4.5 out of 5
My Thoughts:
I almost feel inadequate reviewing this book because I’m sure I haven’t understood everything the author wanted to convey. But I loved what I grasped from it. That’s not to say the book is a difficult read, far from it.
Children of Dust is not merely a “memoir of Pakistan”, although the time the author spent in Pakistan, up-to the age of 10, was a large part of what constituted his religious outlook.
The book is divided into parts. The first part, when the author is a child, takes place in Pakistan. Here he describes living in a small town in Pakistan and going to a Madrasa which was a very traumatic experience. His parents were very religious and they wanted him to be a follower and a servant of Islam. When the family migrates to the US, the author starts to neglect Islam and concentrate on issues more important to teenagers-like fitting in, sexuality and finding ways to watch ‘Boy meets World’. It was refreshing to read first hand how a Muslim boy had to struggle with fitting in and also trying to follow his religion.
When he went to college far from home, although he struggled with same things he did before, he does become more friendly with people from his own community and gradually acquires a fundamentalist outlook. Without getting into too many details, he returns to Pakistan to find a pious girl and also to find out more about his ancestors. But instead of finding what he expected, he finds his ideas of an Islamic nation shattered. Here’s what he has to say after his visit to Pakistan.
Iwas sneered at by the very ones who were supposed to embrace me. I was rejected by the ones who were supposed to be purer-in character, in culture, in chivalry-than Americans. The brilliance that I’d associated with Islam just a few months earlier had now turned black. After a period of mourning and melancholy, I craved vengeance. I sought to undermine all that the presumably purer Muslims held sacred.
I found his shift in religious opinions very unsettling. It could be the result of blindly following what he had heard from his childhood and then finding out that not everything is what it is supposed to be. You would think a book about the authors religious journey will be boring, but it’s not, far from it. It’s fascinating, interesting, funny and most of all entertaining. And honest-very honest.
‘Children of Dust‘ is definitely unlike any memoir I have read before and I have read quite a few. Highly recommended.
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