Friday, March 18, 2011

The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad

Cover


Here's a book that's generated a lot of buzz.  I can't wait to start reading it!
This will be a good companion to Hosseini's The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns...


From the Publisher: With The Bookseller of Kabul, award-winning journalist Asne Seierstad has given readers a first-hand look at Afghani life as few outsiders have seen it. Invited to live with Sultan Khan, a bookseller in Kabul, and his family for months, this account of her experience allows the Khans to speak for themselves, giving us a genuinely gripping and moving portrait of a family, and of a country of great cultural riches and extreme contradictions. For more than 20 years, Sultan Khan has defied the authorities-whether Communist or Taliban-to supply books to the people of Kabul. He has been arrested, interrogated, and imprisoned, and has watched illiterate Taliban soldiers burn piles of his books in the street. Yet he had persisted in his passion for books, shedding light in one of the world's darkest places. This is the intimate portrait of a man of principle and of his family-two wives, five children, and many relatives sharing a small four-room house in this war ravaged city. But more than that, it is a rare look at contemporary life under Islam, where even after the Taliban's collapse, the women must submit to arranged marriages, polygamous husbands, and crippling limitations on their ability to travel, learn and communicate with others.



The Week in Rap 3/18/11

Friday, March 11, 2011

The Death of Jayson Porter by Jaimie Adoff

Cover
Summary
Sixteen-year-old Jayson Porter wants to believe things will get better. But the harsh realities of his life never seem to change. Living in the inland-Florida projects with his abusive mother, he tries unsuccessfully to fit in at his predominately white school, while struggling to maintain even a thread of a relationship with his drug-addicted father. As the pressure mounts, there?'s only one thing Jayson feels he has control over?the choice of whether to live or die. In this powerful, gripping& novel, Coretta Scott King Award?winning author Jaime Adoff explores the harsh reality of a teenager?'s life, giving hope even in the bleakest of hours. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.


The Week in Rap 3/11/11

March 11th - The Week in Rap from Flocabulary on Vimeo.

Friday, March 4, 2011

The Good, the Bad, and the Barbie : a Doll's History and Her Impact on Us by Tanya Lee Stone


Our sophomores are in the middle of their Cultural Response project-how an event, person, or phenomenon has affected American culture.  I think Barbie fits the bill- She was the first doll that wasn't a baby doll.  Every girl that I know had one, including me, and I was a tom boy that played with my brothers' Matchbox cars!!

Summary
During her unparalleled fifty-year history, Barbie has been the doll that some people love and some people love to hate. There's no question she's influenced generations, but to what end? Acclaimed nonfiction author Tanya Lee Stone takes an unbiased look at how Barbie became the icon that she is, and at the impact that she's had on our culture (and vice versa). Featuring passionate anecdotes and memories from a range of girls and women, a foreword by Meg Cabot, and original color photographs, this book explores the Barbie phenomenon in a brand-new light. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

The Week in Rap 3/4/11

World News in Music - March 4th from Flocabulary on Vimeo.