Book Review | Book Chatter

Technically, I did not finish Redemption Falls, by Joseph O’Connor. After wrestling with the writing style, I decided to “divorce the book” after 200 pages. This is the sequel to Star Of The Sea, which I thoroughly enjoyed and although the writing style is very similar, I never understood who was talking.. or what was going on. I felt as if it was written in some cryptic language. I hate, hate, hate divorcing a book. I feel as if I have let the author down personally. Silly, I know.

Actually, if you Google “giving up on a book” all sorts of stuff comes up. Mostly advice from professional readers (my dream job). Most of them give up on a book after 50 pages. I gave up after 200..so there!! No, seriously, I really wanted to enjoy this book but I am at a point in my life where wasted time peeves me more than divorcing the book.

Anyway.. I just went to the library to pick up my next book club read.. A Long Way Gone, by Ishmael Beah. I am looking forward to a weekend of reading. Hope you can enjoy some reading time as well.

I was home with my sick daughter yesterday and actually had some time to finish Banker To The Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty, by Muhammad Yunus. This is a fascinating look at the “true” poor in Bangladesh and how a professor of Economics, changed the world of lending one small village at a time by creating Grameen Bank.

The concept is simple. Small loans, as little as $27, are provided to the poor so they can create small businesses. This enables the poor to help themselves by generating income for food, education, etc. In addition to being able to raise themselves above the poverty line, the members of the community that choose to become members of Grameen also find that there is a vast improvement within their villages in the way of support and social responsibility once people begin to understand the value of “self worth”.

The second half of the book discusses programs within the U.S. and the mindset that the poor will never help themselves as long as there are active welfare programs that support them.
I found this section especially interesting.

Check it out.

Chatting with friends about books and life…