My Thoughts: Ruins by Achy Obejas

After reading After the Dance by Danticat Edwidge I thought I'd try and complete the Caribbean section of the Olympic challenge (I have a long way to go). When Ruins arrived from the library I realised I already read a book for Cuba (The Aguero Sisters) but the premise was good and the book short so I gave it a go.
Ruins is set in Havana in 1994, in the years when many Cubans were evacuating the place in anything which they could find. Usnavy, a man loyal and law abiding watches as his friends either leave or break the law to earn dollars illegally.
The place is dirt poor, houses are falling to pieces in the rain, women are selling spice and gravy soaked pieces of blanket disguised as steak to earn a few pounds and they wash in a communal area using bottles of boiled water.
Usnavy is determined that he and his family will live above the law, until he discovers ways to make money wih the discovery of a Tiffany lamp. At first he abstains from temptation, but as his wife and daughter slowly desert him he is forced to see that his beliefs are destroying his home life.
I really enjoyed this look at Cuba, we forget just how impoverished places in the Western world really are. Obejas shows the way that immigration has affected the Cubans lives, they can see what their relatives have in America and so live always wanting more, reaching in places that they wouldn't normally as a means of achieving it.

Do you have a suggestions for a Caribbean read?

My Thoughts: Funny Boy by Shyam Selvadurai

Having sat on mount tbr for a good six months this ovel had to come top of the pile for my reads for the GLBT challenge.
Set in Sri Lanka this coming of age novel tells Anjie's story. At seven he loves playing with the girls, always the lead role in Bride-Bride their fantasy game. He loves dressing up in Saris and being made much of, until the da that he is revealed to the adults in all his glory. His father quickly blames his mother and declares if he turns out a 'funny boy' it will be all her doing.

We then follow Anjie through his childhood, much of which is dominated by the Tamil/Sinhalese conflicts. He watches family friends torn from lovers, beaten for their race, and the riots spill out. He also faces being Tamil, in school and at home, but only speaking Sinhalese as his parents desperately try to give their children a chance to make something of themselves in this country of seperation.
The politics and his identity, both sexual and social and mingled side by side in the novel which deals with serious issues but is a great read. As Anjie grows older the tone of the novel becomes more serious as he begins to understand the world around him.
I'll certainly be checking out more of Selvadurai's novels in the future.

Challenges:
GLBT: The Challenge the Dare Not Speak its Name
Twenty Ten (Who are you, again?)

Other reviews:
Book Nook

Sorrow Mountain by Ani Pachen and Adelaide Donnelley

I must be on a roll today finishing two part read books in one afternoon :D

I read Sorrow Mountain for the Social Justice challenge, this month was focused on Religious Freedom. This memoir is written by Ani Pachen a Tibetan nun. Growing up the only child in the family Ani is expected to follow the conventions of a woman and also be ready to take over from her fathers estate. Early on we realise her determination and strength when she refuses an arrange marriage and runsaway from the family until her parents bend to her will. She then spends 6 months in a monastry with her mother, a place that she feels she belongs, until her father insists on her return.
Soon after her return Tibet is engulfed by the Chinese. Life changes as the Chinese try to take control of the country enforcing laws and new ways of life. The Tibetans fight back. Ani is taken along with her fathers people to fight the Chinese. Saying the she loves Tibet so much she will kill for it she is given a gun and travels through the Tibetan landscape trying to escape from the hands of the Chinese.
As the years pass Ani's father is killed and she spends 21 years in prison. Despite all of her suffering, the butality and starvation she sees and experiences in the prison one thing remains stable and that is her faith. This faith pulls her through and allows her to help others, even if all she can do is keep them alive for a few days longer.
I found that this book also fit in perfectly for the Woman Unbound challenge as Ani Prachen not only fights and overcomes the limits placed on women but also fights to save and help others.

Challenges
Social Justice Challenge
Twenty Ten Challenge
Woman Unbound

After the Dance by Edwidge Danticat

I felt particularly poignant reading After the Dance: A Walk through Carnival in Jacmel, Haiti after the recent atrocities in the country. But I already had it out from the library before the earthquake had struck and thought this may give me a better picture of a place that I know little of other than the images which filled our newspapers for days.

Edwidge Danticat lived in Haiti as a child with her religious uncle whilst her parents had emigrated to America in search of a better life for them and their child. Throughout her childhood she was warned of the dangers of carnival and never allowed to attend. As as adult she returns to her home town to experience the carnival which fills the street.
As well as looking at the carnival, which she seems to experience as an outsider with inside knowlegde, we also are give a wealth of other information. Danticat talks to various locals, threading their talk of the carnival and her sights with a brief histroy of the town. History, politics, legend and myth are layered between the glimpses of the preperation for and eventually the actuall day of the carnival.
A great little read at only 152 pages, yet one which gives a lot. I saw this on one of Eva's great challenge lists and grabbed a copy for myself.

Read for the Twenty Ten Challenge (Bad Bloggers category)

Salon Sunday: Finally found my book mojo and Reading in Colour

It's been a strange old beginning to the year. Snow. Ofsted. Disappointment (I'm not going to China, and the boy I like didn't ask me on a date, grrrr!). And I've also lost my reading and studying mojo.
So far this year I've finished just three books (1 was YA and one children's fction) and we are 24 days into the year, (I normall average 2 books a week). I'm wasting time on the net, watching dvd's and tv and generally feeling under the weather.
But, last night I finally found a book I could curl up with. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters had me hooked. I'm 200 pages in and could quite happily have picked it up as soon as I got up and spent all day reading it. As it is I had marking to do, all complete, and the next section of A Suitable Boy to read for my read-a-long, which is what I'm off to do next. I'm then off to the cinema and out for Indian food. But, I'm looking forward to curling back up with my book before I go to sleep.

Oh, and so I don't double post today here is my Reading in Colour pledge. Eva, over at A Striped Armchair blogged a wonderful post about white priviledge and our reading habbits, checking it out is a must. I do read quite a few authors from other countries but I'm nowhere near as diverse in my reading habbits as I'd like to be. I've decided to try to make at least a third of my fiction reads by POC. And half of my non-fiction reads by POC.