Infidel by Ayaan Hirshi Ali

From Publishers WeeklyStarred Review. Readers with an eye on European politics will recognize Ali as the Somali-born member of the Dutch parliament who faced death threats after collaborating on a film about domestic violence against Muslim women with controversial director Theo van Gogh (who was himself assassinated). Even before then, her attacks on Islamic culture as "brutal, bigoted, [and] fixated on controlling women" had generated much controversy. In this suspenseful account of her life and her internal struggle with her Muslim faith, she discusses how these views were shaped by her experiences amid the political chaos of Somalia and other African nations, where she was subjected to genital mutilation and later forced into an unwanted marriage. While in transit to her husband in Canada, she decided to seek asylum in the Netherlands, where she marveled at the polite policemen and government bureaucrats. Ali is up-front about having lied about her background in order to obtain her citizenship, which led to further controversy in early 2006, when an immigration official sought to deport her and triggered the collapse of the Dutch coalition government. Apart from feelings of guilt over van Gogh's death, her voice is forceful and unbowed—like Irshad Manji, she delivers a powerful feminist critique of Islam informed by a genuine understanding of the religion. 8-page photo insert. (Feb.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Wikipedia has some intriguing comments on their website about this book. There should be TONS to talk about! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infidel_(book.

Definitely check out wikipedia's info. on the film she made, Submission. I will try to get a copy of it for book club. I think its only 10 minutes long. Here's the wikipedia link - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submission_(film))

Wild Swans : Three Daughters of China

Hello Bookclubbers,

Welcome to our newest members, we are all really glad to have some new perspectives, book-choosers and hosts. Please post comments to this blog by clicking on the pink comments link at the end of this text. If you send me your email, I can have the blog notify you automatically anytime someone posts a comment.

Enjoy Kristin's pick, Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jun Chang

Amazon Readers Review:

In Wild Swans Jung Chang recounts the evocative, unsettling, and insistently gripping story of how three generations of women in her family fared in the political maelstrom of China during the 20th century. Chang's grandmother was a warlord's concubine. Her gently raised mother struggled with hardships in the early days of Mao's revolution and rose, like her husband, to a prominent position in the Communist Party before being denounced during the Cultural Revolution. Chang herself marched, worked, and breathed for Mao until doubt crept in over the excesses of his policies and purges. Born just a few decades apart, their lives overlap with the end of the warlords' regime and overthrow of the Japanese occupation, violent struggles between the Kuomintang and the Communists to carve up China, and, most poignant for the author, the vicious cycle of purges orchestrated by Chairman Mao that discredited and crushed millions of people, including her parents. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Price:
$10.88 This book looks like a long one, but good one; get reading!