War reads

Maybe it is all this political talk going on right now, but for some reason I wound up listening to two and reading one book dealing with war in some fashion or other.  All very interesting reads/listens.

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin chronicles how Greg Mortenson got started building schools for children, especially girls, in Pakistan and Afghanistan. And he is still doing it. Amazing. Truly inspirational. Gives hope to the world.

Skeleton at the Feast (novel) by Chris Bohjalian tells the story of the end of WWII through a well-to-do German family, their Scottish prisoner of war working as a farm laborer, and a young German Jew scraping by and trying to find any remains of his family. Puts faces on the people involved in the conflict and the atrocities.

A Case of Exploding Mangoes (novel) by Mohammed Hanif goes into detail about the possible reasons the Pakistani leader Geniarl Zia ul Huq’s airplane crashed on August 17, 1988. The story includes references to the Russian conflict that the US helped the Pakistanis with, the CIA involvement, interior struggles and the journey one young soldier takes to clear his father’s name. Not finished with this one yet, but very well written and read.

And that’s what I’ve been up to – other than making some blank journals, getting ready for a gut mask workshop with teens tonight and preparing to exhibit work at the local FCN bank for the month of November.

And waiting for my incision to heal fully.