2008 Book 108: Reluctant Fundamentalist

Book #:	108
Book Title:	The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Author:	Mohsin Hamid
Publisher:	Harcourt
Pub. Date:	2007
Pages:	184
Started:	December 18, 2008
Finished:	December 22, 2008
Time to Read:	5 Days
Back Cover / Inside Flap:	"At a cafe table in Lahore, a bearded Pakistani man converses with an uneasy American stranger. As dusk deepens to night, he begins to tell the tale that has brought them to this fateful encounter... Changez is living an immigrant's dram of America. At the top of his class at Princeton, he is snapped up by the elite valuation firm of Underwood Samson. He thrives on the energy of New York, and his budding romance with elegant, beautiful Erica promises entry into Manhattan society at the same exalted level once occupied by his own family back in Lehore. But in the wake of September 11, Changez finds his position in his adopted city suddenly overturned and his relationship with Erica eclipsed by the reawakened ghosts of her past. And Changez's own identity is in seismic shift as well, unearthing allegiances more fundamental than money, power, and maybe even love."
Stars:	**
Review:	Make no mistake: this isn't nonfiction. But it could be. For any Stephen King fans out there, this story is told in the stylings of Dolores Claiborne - a narrative, unbroken by actual action - and where revelations pop out at the most unexpected times. I find the title interesting - a concept of a reluctant fundamentalist might conjure up images of someone who is reluctant to enter into a different lifestyle because they have misgivings about that lifestyle. In this case, it's because the Changez has been in love with his adopted culture - and now, instead, feels drawn back to his motherland and culture. This is an odd book, hard at many times to read, and harder to identify with Changez - at least for me. I'm glad I read it - but I don't think I'll run out to find his other works.

If you have read or are planning to read this book, please make sure to stop back by and leave me a comment to let me know your own thoughts!

From my library to yours,

Tiffany

2008 Book 57: Primary Colors

Book #:	57
Book Title:	Primary Colors
Author:	Anonymous
Publisher:	Random House
Pub. Date:	1996
Pages:	366
Started:	June 15, 2008
Finished:	June 19, 2008
Time to Read:	5 Days
Back Cover / Inside Flap:	"He was a big fellow, looking seriously pale on the streets of Harlem in deep summer. I am small and not so dark, not very threatening to Caucasians; I do not strut my stuff. We shook hands. My inability to recall that particular moment more precisely is disappointing: the handshake is the threshold act, the beginning of politics. I've seen him do it two million times now, but I couldn't tell you how he does it, the right-handed part of it - the strength, quality, duration of it, the rudiments of pressing the flesh. I can, however, tell you a whole lot about what he does with his other hand. He is a genius with it. He might put it on your elbow, or up by your biceps: these are basic, reflexive moves. He is interested in you. He is honored to meet you. If he gets any higher up your shoulder - if he, say, drapes his left arm over your back, it is somehow less intimate, more casual. He'll share a laugh or a secret then - a light secret, not a real one - flattering you with the illusion of conspiracy. If he doesn't know you all that well and you've just told him something "important," something earnest or emotional, he will lock in and honor you with a two-hander, his left hand overwhelming your wrist and forearm. He'll flash that famous misty look of his. And he will mean it."
Stars:	****
Review:	Quite honestly, the only thing that stops this work, which I am going to term "semi-fiction", from getting 5 stars instead of 4 is that I am disgruntled over how abruptly the ending comes. I could use another 100 pages or so of the political scenery Mr. Anonymous paints, the intrigue that is so absurd, and yet so real. This book makes it hard to separate fiction from reality. It seems to be based more than loosely on actual events in an actual presidential campaign - I'll let you discover for yourself which one, if it isn't already apparent. The ebb and flow of the book is phenomenal in mimicking the pace of an actual campaign. The characters are left both murky but stirringly described and there are certain points where the reader may think they're holding an issue of Newsweek instead of a "semi-fictional" novel. When I picked this up, I'd already done a once-over on my whole library and found nothing that was immediately calling my name. My husband had contributed this book to our joint library when we got married, and told me that I absolutely needed to read it - given my background and interests, he knew it'd be right up my alley. It definitely was, and now I urge you to give it a read for yourselves!

If you have read or are planning to read this book, please make sure to stop back by and leave me a comment to let me know your own thoughts!

From my library to yours,

Tiffany

2008 Book 10: Deliver Us From Evil

Book #:	10
Book Title:	Deliver Us From Evil
Author:	Sean Hannity
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Pub. Date:	2004
Pages:	338
Started:	January 30, 2008
Finished:	February 6, 2008
Time to Read:	9 Days
Back Cover / Inside Flap:	"Sean Hannity's first blockbuster book, the New York Times bestseller Let Freedom Ring, cemented his place as the freshest and most compelling conservative voice in the country. As the host of the phenomenally successful Hannity & Colmes on the Fox News Channel and The Sean Hannity Show on ABC Radio, Hannity has won a wildly devoted fan base. Now he brings his plainspoken, take-no-prisoners style to the continuing War on Terror abroad - and liberalism at home - in Deliver Us from Evil. "Evil exists," Hannity asserts. "It is real, and it means to harm us." And in these pages he revisits the harsh lessons America has learned in confronting evil in the past and the present, to illuminate the course we must take in the future. Tracing a direct line from Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin through Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, he reminds us of the courage and moral clarity of our great leaders. And he reveals how the disgraceful history of appeasement has reached forward from the days of Neville Chamberlain and Jimmy Carter to corrupt the unrepentant leftists of the modern Democratic Party - from Howard Dean and John Kerry to Bill and Hilary Clinton. As Americans face the ongoing war against terrorists and their state sponsors around the world, Sean Hannity reminds us that we must also cope with the continuing scourge of accommodation and cowardice at home. With his trademark blend of passion and hard-hitting commentary, he urges Americans to recognize the dangers of putting our faith in toothless "multilaterlism" when the times call for decisive action. For only through strong defense of our freedoms, at home and around the world, can we preserve America's security and liberty in the dangerous twenty-first century."
Stars:	****
Review:	Let me let ya'll in on a little secret: I'm a moderate Republican. Not ultra-conservative - I don't toe the party line on every issue - but definitely not liberal and certainly not a Democrat. Let me let ya'll in on another little secret: I love Sean Hannity and listen to his show daily on the radio. And I loved this book in my second reading in 2008 almost as much as I loved it in my first reading back in 2004 when it first came out. Although many of the references are now "dated" - the 2004 election cycle is most definitely over and military strategies are a bit changed now versus then - it's still an entirely relevant reading to pull back the cloak on liberal lies in America. It's all-too-convenient for certain politicians to switch positions or claim sides after the fact, but Hannity's well-researched book holds to the facts. Why well-researched? Hannity references direct quotes - in context - from hundreds of bipartisan and non-political sources throughout his book, only lending creedance to his well thought out opinions on the state of American society. No matter your political leanings, grab a copy of this book and read it with an open mind.

If you have read or are planning to read this book, please make sure to stop back by and leave me a comment to let me know your own thoughts!

From my library to yours,

Tiffany