www.freepoverty.com

I finally broke 300 on this geography game that also helps alleviate world poverty.

Memoirs

I am fascinated with writers who write about other writers. I loved Lucy Grealy’s Autobiography of a Face and was stunned at her tragic death. What was more fascinating was the look inside her life by best friend and fellow writer Ann Patchett in the memoir Truth and Beauty.


I have just finished reading Finding Iris Chang by Paula Kamen. Ms Kamen tells the story of Iris Chang the writer of the famous and internationally best selling historical work called The Rape of Nanking. Iris Chang tragically took her own life in 2004. This beautiful tribute to Iris and her work explains what she stood for and what demons may have possessed her at the end when she shot herself.

I loved Iris. I hardly knew her yet I loved the person she was. I loved how she sought out documents at archives and interviewed people so she could tell their story. I loved that she could not shut herself off from the horror and tragedy and that she let it take hold of her and shape her life and her work. Of course, I do not like where it led her in the end, but her story in all its sadness is a tale worth telling.

I suppose the allure of these memoirs by friends of writers gives us a glimmer of the truth behind the star. The other allure is the discussion of female friendship at its most complex and endearing. What woman among us does not have a best friend we could write a novel about? If we did, what would we say? What documents could we produce that would tell the world her story? What letters are hidden in our attic? What friends would we interview? What memories could we pull up from our crazy life together?

Finding Iris Chang is a story of a great woman who died too soon. It is all the more enjoyable told from an insider’s perspective.

Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach

I received an early review copy of this book and was interested to note that it was a highly sought after book. I was one of 20 lucky library thing reviewers to receive it. I thought perhaps it might be because I live in Bloomington, Indiana the location of the Kinsey Institute and one of Mary Roach’s subjects in the early chapters of her book.

Whatever the cause, I was thrilled to get the chance to read this fascinating look at how sex research is done and how scientists throughout the ages have viewed sex. What makes it imminently readable is that Roach has the perfect sense of humor and quite literally inserts herself into the science whenever she can. If research about sex seems awkward then it is so much easier to write about and read about when we picture this woman boldly going where no one has gone before, into the sex lab with microphone and notebook, ready to take pictures, make notes and even in a few circumstances participate in the research in order to see it and understand it in action.

Although I enjoyed every chapter, especially her footnotes, most notable was the chapter on MRI’s and coital imaging in which she got her husband to join her in the MRI machine. I also loved the story about the career of Middle Eastern doctor and sex researcher Ahmed Shafik who researches sex undercover. If you think finding subjects for sex research in the west is difficult, imagine trying to do it in a Muslim country.

This book is laugh out loud funny, captivating and very relevant to most of our lives and relationships.

Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh

Some of you found the short essay I submitted to the NPR "In Character Blog" on my old childhood favorite Harriet the Spy.

In case you did not--here it is: Harriet the Spy Essay


NPR did a feature this morning on the character!!! Listen here.

Although they did not mention that it was MY idea, I still feel great that they picked her. The piece is terrific. Much better than my essay. Of course they had more words to use. My limit was 150. Thanks to MKP for alerting me to this mornings broadcast.

Also I found this website paying tribute to Louise Fitzhugh: http://purple-socks.webmage.com/

Go Harriet!

The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur

The Translator: A Tribesman’s Memoir of Darfur by Daoud Hari is a beautiful and harrowing tale of one man’s attempt to bring the story of Darfur to the rest of the world. Daoud Hari tells his tale in simple precise words. His story is lyrical and very easy to read and understand. It is a primer in understanding the complexities behind the politics of this region.

In one of the final lines of the book Hari writes, "This is not a simple tale of genocide. This is a complex tale of genocide.”

One of the most obvious causes of the horrible acts of murder upon the people of Darfur is the world’s unbridled greed and avaricious consumption of oil. It is a fact we must tell ourselves daily; that one of the reasons that Hari’s tale is so complex is that the very people he is appealing to for help are complicit in the causes of the genocide. Sometimes its hard to put it all in perspective. This genocide is not just something "they" are doing to each other. In many ways, we are partners in this horror.

This book goes on sale March 18.

Try to write your life story in 6 words

NPR featured a book which compiled hundreds of life stories all 6 words long.

Check it out here: http://www.smithmag.net/sixwords/

What is your life story in 6 words?

Mine is:

She wanted to be a sleuth.

I am on an NPR Blog!

Seems like a good way to start my new sleuthing blog!

http://www.npr.org/blogs/incharacter/