Eat, Pray, Love - Elizabeth Gilbert

This is basically my new favorite book.

Depressed Liz divorces the husband who is making her unhappy, losing everything. She falls in love with another man during this time, but he can't keep her out of depression all the time. Learning Italian has made her feel better, so she wants to go to Italy for a few months. She loves Italian because it sounds beautiful, not because there is a practical reason for knowing the language. She has been following a yogi guru, and want to explore her spirituality at the ashram. She had been to Indonesia once before, and a medicine man told her to return and stay with his family for four months. So she decides to spend the year abroad in those countries. She gets an advance for the book she plans to write.
In Italy, she learns the art of pleasure. She gains a lot of weight, takes Italian classes, uses her favorite word to cross the street a lot, and meets people. She also goes off her mood-altering medication. Food is basically what these 36 chapters are about.
In India, she meditates for hours, does selfless service, and does yoga. She finds it hard to meditate at first, but the more she does it, the easier it becomes. She becomes comfortable with her thoughts, and occassionaly has experiences where she transcends this world. She befriends some Indian natives, and also Richard From Texas. These 36 chapters have a completely different feel from the Italy chapters.
In Indonesia she manages to find her medicine man, Ketut Liyer, and she witnesses how much he gives. She loves how cheap and beautiful everything in Indonesia is. She still meditates a lot, as she is looking for balance. She meets Wayan, who she starts spending a lot of her day with. Wayan prays for her to find a man. Wayan discovers she needs to move out (she is a divorced mother), and doesn't know what to do. So Liz raises $18,000 to buy a house for her. Unfortunately, land is super expensive in Bali. Liz meets Felipe, an older Brazillian man. They spend a lot of time together. Wayan is being slow about buying land, but after Liz threatens to take the money back, she buys it. Felipe and Liz sleep together. She found balance in Bali.

And the best part is that it is a true story! Looks like you can have a good time when you don't have to do real work for a year. It's being made into a movie with Julia Roberts.

A Necessary Engagement: Reinventing America's Relations with the Muslim World - Emile Nakhleh

This book has a purpose.

First, it identifies political Islam and the factors contributing to "Islamization". Nakhleh writes with years of experience working for the CIA as a scholar. He talked to hundreds of scholars, imans, religious men, government workers, everyday people, and some radicals to come to the conclusions he has come to. He discusses Islamic political parties, and how they gain voters by focusing on "bread and butter" issues, not by enforcing holy law (Sharia) on the land. These politicians are often willing to make deals and compromise. Mainstream activists and jihadists can not be put in the same category.

Most Muslims are open to democracy, however, they can not believe that America stands for these ideals when they support corrupt governments, and don't recognize legitimately elected governments (Hamas in Palestine).

Education in Islamic countries is focused on the accomplishments of Muslims and their maps don't recognize Israel.

Shia vs. Sunni fighting and activism were discussed. Traditionally, Iran was the only Shia country, but there is a lot of tension in Iraq.

There was a lot of talk about Sunnis and Shia trying to convert and recruit people to their "division".

The CIA briefed all the senior policymakes on major developments, but they were often ignored. The CIA was accused by the White House of being anti-security and against the grain of the government. The CIA was gaining knowledge about the Middle East through scholars. The CIA tried to coroporate with college professors who were hesitant to deal with the government because there had been bad experiences in the past. These conferences went very well.

The country is more at risk now than it was on the eve of September 11 because there are more radicals now. The War is not keeping Americans safe. Many Americans desired Sadam Hussein to be out, but didn't want the Americans to say. Most Arabs are conflicted. They want American help, but do not want it, all at the same time. Opinion polls of America in the Middle East are incredibly low. The invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan have increased sectarianism and terrorism.

Salafi Wahhabi (conservative Saudis) - Look to the pious ancestors, the first four Caliphs for faith guidance, conservative thinking.

Muslims all over the world are speaking Arabic to connect them to fellow Muslims and so that they are "as good as" their Arab counterparts. Many non-Arab Muslims dislike Arab Muslims, but they still learn Arabic.

To succeed, phrases like "The Global War on Terror" should not be used, and instead, the war should be portrayed as Americans and Arabs going after criminals.

There are many suggestions to make the program better:

• It has to be easier to get a job with the intelligence because the people who have traveled the most in the Middle East, know important Muslims and speak the languages find it a cumbersome process to get the necessary clearance.
• Appoint an ambassador to the Muslim world.
• Recognize and deal with mainstream Islamic political parties (Hezbollah, Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, AKP)
• Moral and financial support for democracy.
• Parliamentarians exchange program so that our senators and their senators can see what works and doesn't in senates.
• Expand programs so that students, teachers, and professionals can learn Arabic and more about countries with significant Muslim populations.
• American universities could build campuses in Muslim countries. These universities are well attended and respected by Muslims who live in the countries where American universities are already present. There have been occasions where university presidents have been killed, but also the people have protected the universities at other times when they have been under attack.
• Establish a Imamate University in the United States. This way, not all imams would have to be educated abroad. Open "American Houses" with libraries, language classes, andevents on American holidays.
• Get every level of government involved in homeland security.

Part 1 of Black Boy - Richard Wright

Wright's autobiography of his childhood-

• At the beginning, he burned his house down accidently. His mother often beat him severly, yet at the end, he has affection for her.
• He writes about how he was always hungry.
• He sneaks into saloons and drinks. He spys on men and women getting it on....
• Basically a bunch of stuff happens, his mom can't take care of himself, he gets into violent fights with his overly religious extended family, he gets a job to be a skilled worker at an optic shop, but is run out, and blah blah blah, it wasn't my favorite book.
• Not too many fond memories.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer

• The story was told through three narrators- 9 year old Oskar Schell, and his paternal grandparents. Oskar is very eccentric but intelligent, many think he is autistic. His grandfather is mute and left his grandmother.
• Oskar carries around a heavy secret, that his father called five times before the towers fell, and Oskar listened to the messages and never told his mother.
• He finds a key of his father's in an envelope that is labeled Black. Oskar goes on a quest to find what the key locks.
• Oskar's grandfather Thomas loved Anna, who died in the Dresden firebombing. He stopped speaking, but has Yes and No tattooed on his hand, and communicates through writing. When Anna's sister sees Thomas in New York, she knows she has to marry him. He connects her to Germany and her family. Letters of theirs reveal some of their lives before the bombing in Germany. Thomas leaves her when she is pregnant with their child.
• The grandmother's life has been tragic, and Oskar is her light. She's a survivor.
• Oskar is dealing with his pain in his own way. He is the normal nine year old in some ways; fighting with his mother over her friend who is a boy, wishing for his dad back, not fitting in with his school mates.
• There are oddities in the book. For instance, the grandfather's pages are often blank or only have a few words. Artistic. There is typing that overlaps each other. At the end, Oskar is trying to see if his dad jumped out the building, and zooms in on a picture of the falling man. The last pages are a flip book of the man going back up, reversing time, so that Oskar's life could be complete again.
• The book got some high reviews, and some lower ones, but I found it confusing at times. Two smart people can have completely different interpretations of an event just because they can't quite figure out what is going on.

A New Job for the Blog

People often ask me, "What was the last book you read?", and I know I read a book recently, but I can't remember its title, or who wrote it, or what it was generally about, let alone the individual characters or specific scenes. In an attempt to keep the knowledge in my head longer, I am going to do a post about each book I've read. This is for my own personal gain, and I doubt that anyone would read more than a few sentences, because it will be poorly written, like notes hurredly jotted down in the few minutes before the bell rings. From now on, I will make these notes between three and seven days after I finish it. The notes will consist of plot summaries and anything that stood out to me.

Much Ado About Nothing reveals many stereotypes that were common beliefs at the time this was written. Balthasar sings, "Sigh no more ladies, sigh no more,/ Men were deceivers ever (II.3.57-58). A stereotype about men was that they all cheated, but that was a stereotype about women too, and that was one of the reasons that Benedick didn't want to get married. Benedick asked Claudio, "In faith, hath not the world one man but/he will wear his cap with suspicion?" (I.1.154-155). What Benedick asked means, Aren't there any men who will suspect that all women cheat? So it is a stereotype that both sexes hold that their spouses will commit adultry. This was probably common in Shakespeare's day, and he is just reflecting that in his play. This fear of the people shapes the book through Benedick's hesitance to marry, and Claudio suspecting Hero. Another stereotype, is that being colored is worse than being fair-skinned. Although Denzel Washington is The Prince in the movie, I don't believe that Don Pedro is black in the play. Before Claudio sees his future wife he says, "I'll hold my mind were she an Ethiope" (V.4.38). He says that he would marry her even if she was a black woman like it was some extreme thing. Once again, I believe that this is a result of the world Shakespeare lived in. When he was alive, slavery was still legal. The mindset of the people was different. Despite these stereotypes, Much Ado About Nothing can still be read by a modern reader without troubling them too much.

At many times lying is ethically justified. Although it may say in the bible that you shouldn't lie, lying is neccesary in real life to protect people's feelings. It isn't right to lie to cover up something you did wrong, but if you answer a question with a lie it's alright. The main thing is that you're not trying to hurt anyone. For instance, if Margot says, "Jen do you like my sweater?", and all day long I have heard kids talking about how ugly it is, and I think it's disgusting, I might answer, "Yes I love it. In fact, will you let me borrow it?" Margot will oblige and then I would take it and throw it in the garbage, tell her I lost it, and buy her a cute sweater. That way, people won't make fun of her, she'll feel good about herself, and I won't have to look at her ugly sweater, and she'll have a pretty new one that people will compliment her on. It's a win-win-win-win situation. Everyone will be happy. If I told Margot that I disliked her sweater, she might feel bad about her clothing choices, and about herself in general. For the rest of the day she'll walk around embarrassed about her sweater.
Many characters in Much Ado About Nothing also lie. Their reasons for lying are to deliberately hurt someone and to make people happy. In one passage, Borachio and Don John try to make Claudio believe that the Prince is stealing his woman:
DON JOHN
Signor, you are very near my brother in his love. He is
enamored on Hero. I pray you, dissuade him from her. She
is no equal for his birth. You may do the part of an honest
man in it.
CLAUDIO
How know you he loves her?
DON JOHN
I heard him swear his affection.
BORACHIO
So did I too, and he swore he would marry her tonight. (II. 1. 134-140).
They are just lying to mess with Claudio, and that is not okay. In doing so, they are also making the Prince look bad. Yet in other cases, lying is perfectly okay. Don Pedro says, "Come hither, Leonato. What was it you told me of today,/ that your niece Beatrice was in love with Signor Benedick?" (II.3.72-73). Leonato told him no such thing, but Don Pedro isn't saying it to be cruel to Benedick, he is saying it to make him love her (love is never a bad thing after all). Don Pedro loves Benedick, and he wouldn't try to actually hurt him.