The cover was perfect.

On a related note, look at what the author had to say about the whitewashing of her covers.

I loved how the acknowledgments described UAE as "futuristic ancient".

It is such a perfect description because you get this old feel when you visit the place and then there are those skyscrapers that add a futuristic shade to things. Mostly unrelated but reminded me of how a Pakistani artist imagined our country would like in SF mode! Check it out:

See more of his art here. Anyway, back to the review:

This is how YAs should go!

I mean there's this teenager who is running away from home, readying herself to face all kinds of racism, just so she can attend a university. I loved that.

Some thoughts were expressed so beautifully...

I might have been reading too much into it but I could see some parallels.

While talking about cooking fish, Binti mentioned:

they lulled the fish into a sleep that the fish never woke from

It reminded me of two things:

a) The Himba are an animist people, which is why they would be gentle towards any organisms they consumed.

b) How as Muslims we have rules upon rules that minimize the pain of an animal prior to being slaughtered for food.

I loved how Binti's love and respect for her family would shine through her thoughts. For instance, look at this quote:

Would my family even comprehend it all when I explained it to them?

 

And then, she followed it with another thought that I wasn't expecting. She didn't think they weren't smart enough to understand why she did what she did. Instead, she said:

Or would they just fixate on the fact that I'd almost died...

 

I kept imagining the Meduse as the love-child of jellyfishes and Cthulhu though I dunno why! While researching that unholy union, I came across this instead:

To summarize, YA done well, in terms of strong, sensible female lead, making it a must-read for all YA lovers out there.

There is never anything better than a trip to Lake Woebegon, I found this collection at a used book sale. It contains several favorites including Homecoming, a story of a septic tank, a parade, a man and his daughter, the Homecoming Queen.

Nine Billion Names of God contains two of my favorite Clarke stories, Who's There? and A Walk in the Dark. If you like sci-fi this is an excellent collection.

Tales from the Bark Side is a wonderful collection of mainly dog stories, the one about the young Australian Shepherd at the dog show is hysterical.

Out of Passau, which is a stand alone follow up to Against The Stream, details one woman's painful experience in trying to get a town to accept their responsibility and history during World War II. The author details how she uncovered the truths of her towns' acceptance of being one of "Hitler's favorite watering holes" during WWII. A great book that once more offers vivid evidence of the terrible suffering of anyone that the Nazi's believed were unfit to live in their Third Reich. What is so very painful, and illuminating about this book is that even present day citizens of Passau are not willing to accept the history of their city and what occurred there during WWII. It still amazes me how many people prefer to deny rather than accept what happened and where it happened. I loved this book, it was so enlightening and real. I would heartily recommend this book to anyone that is planning on visiting Passau, or anyone that would like to learn more truths of what happened during WWII.

Disclaimer: Read via Netgalley and courtesy of Open Road Media.

                There is a wonderful YouTube series called “Ask a Slave”.   The woman who started it, who stars in it, got the idea when she was working as a re-enactor at a historical site (I believe Mt. Vernon) and got asked stupid questions.  She even had people try to argue in front of students that slavery wasn’t really that bad of a thing.

                I’m surprised that she is so restrained in the series.

                I thought about that series as I read this book.  Anna Elisabeth Rasmus is a German woman who was born and raised in the city of Passau.  She was raised in the period after the war and eventually became obsessed (in a good way) with her city’s history of the war.  Her desire for truth led to conflict not only in her home city, but in her country as well.  There was even a movie about her, one that I will be tracking down.  This book is more about her journey in an abstract sense, a family history and a history of discovery instead of the discovery itself.