The history of women's rights in America fascinates me.  I am impressed by my predecessors fight for equal rights, the right to vote, and how they stood up for their beliefs.  Their strong dedication to these causes allowed me (and the majority of American women) to pursue educational and employment opportunities, and achieve success.

I recently finished Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, written by Pulitzer Prize winners Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. This book talks about current international issues in women's rights.  Most chapters detail a specific woman's struggle for financial security, good health and overall well-being.  Kristof and WuDunn illustrate how small investments in these women, including education and microfinance, can have enormous positive impact on their lives.  

How cultures view women's traditional gender roles vary significantly throughout the world. Parts of this book may be disturbing, especially the statistics on sex trafficking, genital mutilation, and mortality rates from preventable health conditions.  But these are important issues to know about, and they have not received much coverage in our national media outlets.  This book has been getting a lot of praise from Melinda Gates, George Clooney, Greg Mortenson (the author of Three Cups of Tea) and many prominent activists. 

This book definitely shifted my perspective on how modern life can vary for women, all depending on where in the world you were born and live.  It provides inspiration and hope for dire situations.
 
http://www.halftheskymovement.org
 
This book, along with its website, provide a lot of good starting points on various humanitarian groups.  They give pointers on researching charities working on these important causes.  Half the Sky is now available in paperback, and may be found on our Choice Reads shelves. 

You've probably already heard of Malcolm Gladwell; he's written three books about society that have raised some eyebrows and given us much food for thought - The Tipping Point, Outliers, and Blink.  What the Dog Saw contains choice articles written for The New Yorker magazine, and again gives us much to ponder.

My favorite of these essays is "True Colors", about the history of hair dye advertising in the 20th century and how it's changed as our culture has changed.  But which changed first, and why?  Or how come we have so many types of mustard on the store shelves, but only a few types of ketchup?  Why is it so difficult to create a new ketchup people will like? Or, on a related note, when did all those spaghetti sauces appear?  Chunky, meaty, spicy, veggie...we're only recently spoiled for choice, mainly because of one meticulous and creative man you can read about in "The Ketchup Conundrum".  There's a fascinating biography of "The Pitchman", Ron Popeil, famous cooking gadget magnate, and an attempt to understand what makes him so successful at filling our kitchens with ever more sophisticated machinery that we may or may not need.  Or how about the catchy title?  Look into the mind of Cesar Millan to discover a dog's point of view.

It's difficult to describe this book because it covers many subjects, from those listed above to the high social cost of the homeless, the conflicted creator of the birth control pill, and why you can't profile pit bulls.  It's all interesting and it all makes you think differently about subjects you thought you know.  Mr. Gladwell quickly makes you realize you don't, at least not the whole story.

Nonsense has never made so much sense! When I saw Jon Agee's book of palindromes I knew I was looking at something strange and wonderful, as though I had stumbled on a patch of four-leaf clovers. A palindrome is a word or phrase that says the same thing spelled forward or backward. Sound boring? Not when you pair one up with one of Jon Agee's hilarious drawings. "Too bad I hid a boot," is a hoot when you look at the drawing that goes with it. I was so taken with the idea of these things that I tried to make my own palindrome. It took me a whole afternoon to come up with a good one. A waste of time? Maybe. But no more than a crossword puzzle or Sudoku. Jon Agee is a master of all things silly when it comes to language. In addition to his several collections of palindromes, including Palindromania, Jon Agee has written a collection of tongue twisters, a book of riddles, and more than a dozen other books involving word-play. His books are great for adults, kids, and everything in between.

The setting is the same fictional English city of Kingsbridge and the characters are the decedents of those we met in the earlier novel. The progressive politics of the city of Kingsbridge clash with those of the more conservative monastery; finally however Kingsbridge is granted a borough charter.  A future of open commerce and prosperity seem assured.  As so often happens with history fate steps in.  The characters in the novel face catastrophes, wars, bubonic plague, deceitful ambitious noblemen and women, rapists, murders, and accusations of witchcraft.  There is also great human kindness, compassion for those in need, love, demonstrations of strength of character and heroism.  All of this against a vivid backdrop of historical England makes World Without End one of Follett's best.

In The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks and Giants of the Ocean, Casey sits in on a big wave scientific conference, where chaos theory, nonlinear dynamics and quantum mechanics crunch down to the disappointing conclusion that we just don't really know exactly how waves work.

She also follows big wave riders around the world, particularly big wave big man Laird Hamilton.  Shunning much of the commercial hype, Hamilton and cohorts are at their best when ocean conditions are at their worst.  I got pummeled once by what was probably a 5 ft. wave, and I thought I was a goner.

After reading this tale of decapitated container ships, drilling rigs gone missing, stranded cruise ships, and horrific wipeouts I'm just glad to be a landlubber. 

Full of inaccuracies, misspellings and grammatical errors this book is another highly offensive masterpiece that parents will hate and kids will love! Ook and Gluk are caveboys from Caveland, Ohio who travel to the future, learn kung-fu, save a village from evil robots, grow facial hair, beat the post industrial mega corporation into dust, and finally get the girls. Take that SUCKAAA!

Watch out for "graphic violins" not suitable for sensitive grownups.

This book has all the right elements that kids will love (fight scenes, graffiti, dinosaur puke robots, kung-fu). AND it's likely to end up on the banned book list for next year... a sure bet for any reluctant reader.

Fortunately for Rachel she has what it takes to make it big, it just isn't going to happen overnight.  Her best friend Elizabeth, who just happens to be the daughter of one of Rachel's idols in the photography world, has conncected her with the right people and Rachel works long hours putting her heart and soul into her photography. 

Unfortunately for Rachel, her family doesn't take much notice of Rachel's ambition and hard work. Instead they are much more taken with Elizabeth who has married one of Rachel's brothers and has managed to produce grandchildren.  

This turn of events is most definitely a sore spot for Rachel who feels she should still merit respect and acclaim from her family for her successes and continue to be their beloved daughter whether or not they are the traditional type her family wants and expects. 

Overexposed tells Rachel's story in a fast-paced, funny, and engaging manner.  You feel Rachel's disappointment when her family doesn't give her credit for a job well done and you root for her to find her way in the world and feel at peace with the path she's chosen to take despite her family's wishes.  

In Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich, a book of monster-friendly poems, Frankenstein's not the only one with problems. The Phantom of the Opera can't write music because he has some annoying song stuck in his head. (His poems can be sung to the tunes of "It's a Small World After All," "Pop Goes the Weasel," and a few other stick-in-your-head favorites.) As for the Invisible Man, you tell me how he's supposed to get a haircut when nobody can see his hair. Poor smarmy Count Dracula has been walking around all night with spinach stuck in his teeth, but nobody is brave enough to tell him about it. And don't get me started on what Godzilla did.

As if these hilarious poems aren't enough on their own, the artwork is a spectacle to behold. Illustrations range from paintings that look pulled from an old black-and-white movie to glossy zombie comics. And the level of detail assures that you will find something new each time you page through this book. For a special treat, try finding the zombie limerick hidden in one of the illustrations.

A family posing for their family photo hopes to put their best face forward to the world. These are the pictures that will be sent out during the holidays, tucked away in photo albums, perused by future spouses, and hung on living room walls as permanent family records. But there's also something worthwhile in the honesty of our not so perfect depictions. Though some of the people in this book are posed bursting into tears, holding their pet possum, or wearing a sign that says "I hate this", it's good to know they all have the perspective to now say, yes, that was me and, yes, that was awkward.