I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai

Posted on by

 

Second Tuesday Book Group – August 2014

 

Summary

malalaI come from a country that was created at midnight. When I almost died it was just after midday.

When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education.

On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she almost paid the ultimate price. She was shot in the head at point-blank range while riding the bus home from school, and few expected her to survive.

 

Comments Continue reading →

Sinning Across Spain by Ailsa Piper

Posted on by

 

First Wednesday Book Group – August 2014

 

SinningSummary

Sinning Across Spain is the story of Ailsa Piper’s 1300 kilometre walk from the southern city of Granada to Galicia, “the bathtub of Spain”, in the far northwest, carrying an unusual cargo. Aside from 10 kilograms of practicalities, she also lugged a load of sins in her swag.

In the tradition of medieval believers, or scammers, who paid others to carry their sins to holy places, and so buy forgiveness, Ailsa asked her colleagues and friends to donate a sin. She then shouldered them across country, being taunted and tempted by them along the way, and trying to discover the mysteries of faith. What is faith? Did she have it? Could she get it? Would she know it if she saw it?

Sinning across Spain celebrates the call of the road, the possibilities for connection, and the simple act of putting one foot down – and then the other, and repeat – for more than a thousand kilometres of dusty road.

Comments Continue reading →

My God! it’s a Woman by Nancy Bird

Posted on by

 

Last Thursday Book Group – July 2014

Book Summary

Nancy Bird’s training began in 1933, at the age of seventeen, in Sydney, where she was one of Charles Kingsford Smith’s first pupils. Despite many obstacles, including being too small to reach an aeroplane’s controls without the aid of cushions. Nancy was determined to fly, and in 1935, she became the youngest Australian woman to get a commercial pilot’s licence.

My God Its a Woman spans Nancy’s flying experiences in the Outback, her travels in Europe and the USA, her association with famous aviators such as Jean Batten and Amy Johnson, and her flying comeback in the 1950s. In 1966, Nancy was awarded the Order of the British Empire in recognition of her support of charities, and in 1990 her significant contribution to aviation and her courageous work in the Outback was recognised with an Order of Australia. Qantas named its first A380 jet in her honour, in 2008.

Comments

  • Read a few chapters and found the book too crowded – too many different characters and couldn’t get into the book.
  • Hard to get into.
  • Liked the book – Nancy Bird was one of the first women pilots in Australia and did flights similar to the Flying Doctors. Found the book interesting.
  • Nancy Bird had limited schooling and then helped her father in his shop. After a couple of years Kingsford Smith started a flying school and Nancy started flying lessons and passed at a very young age. Nancy became the first female pilot to fly passengers.
  • This book is a great testament to an extraordinary person, who happens to be a woman.

The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund De Waal

Posted on by

First Wednesday Book Group  – Comments

264 wood and ivory carvings, none of them larger than a matchbox: potter Edmund de Waal was entranced when he first encountered the collection in the Tokyo apartment of his great uncle Iggie. Later, when Edmund inherited the ‘netsuke’, they unlocked a story far larger than he could ever have imagined… The Ephrussis came from Odessa, and at one time were the largest grain exporters in the world; in the 1870s, Charles Ephrussi was part of a wealthy new generation settling in Paris. Charles’s passion was collecting; the netsuke, bought when Japanese objets were all the rage in the salons, were sent as a wedding present to his banker cousin in Vienna. Later, three children – including a young Ignace – would play with the netsuke as history reverberated around them. The Anschluss and Second World War swept the Ephrussis to the brink of oblivion. Almost all that remained of their vast empire was the netsuke collection, dramatically saved by a loyal maid when their huge Viennese palace was occupied. In this stunningly original memoir, Edmund de Waal travels the world to stand in the great buildings his forebears once inhabited. He traces the network of a remarkable family against the backdrop of a tumultuous century and tells the story of a unique collection.

Comments Continue reading →