New Book

We finally finished reading Wicked, and it was a lot of fun---reading it together and discussing it every so often.

The book was, um, well, interesting. It was not at all what I expected. In some ways, it ventured too far from what I had in my head from the movie, The Wizard of Oz. But in other ways, I loved the insight and depth it had as related to people and groups and issues and feelings. And that's what made reading it with friends so good; we were able to discuss all of those things and gather even greater depth from the book.

A problem, though, was that for me, we took much too long to read it. This last segment I didn't read the book at all for about four weeks because I didn't want to finish it so far in advance of when we'd discuss it---too much time would have passed for me to recall in detail things to discuss. To read something with the necessary attention to be able to discuss it, setting it aside for four weeks was too much. And admittedly, I got a little frustrated when my reading buddies read ahead; one even finished the entire book when we were only set to be two-thirds through. At first thought, it would seem that would be "no big deal," right? Yes . . . except that when big things happen in the last third of the book, when secrets are revealed, when the plot thickens, when questions are answered, it makes it hard to discuss it without giving away too much and with being able to discuss it with the same curiosity the other two of us had.

Still, over all, it was a good thing to do. And so we've chosen our next book. this time, though, we're going to read the whole thing. It's a shorter book and so it shouldn't take too long; we've give ourselves six weeks. Even though it's grading time for us all, we have six weeks and so we have the flexibility of that time to read around grading . . . or as an escape from it.

Our next book is Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez and Kristin Ohlson. It's the story of an American woman who went to Afghanistan after the Taliban had been driven out to train Afghan women. From the New York Times review:

“Kabul Beauty School” is the rollicking story of one of the strangest
foreign-aid projects ever conceived, the creation of an academy to train Afghan beauticians. A surprisingly successful venture, it gives Afghan women practical training convertible into cold cash and personal power, a radical idea in a country where women have the approximate status of dirt.

I loved The Kite Runner and the glimpse it gave me to the inside of Afghanistan, so I'm really looking forward to another book that will open those doors. And I look forward also to reading this and discussing this book and all of the issues it addresses with my friends.