MY ALL TIME FAVOURITE BOOK THAT CHANGED MY LIFE AND EMBODIES ALL THAT I BELIEVE IN: "Me to We: Turning Self-Help on its Head" by Marc & Craig Kielburger. It's awesome. I just can't say enough about it. It's mandatory reading for anyone who takes on a leadership position in LEAP, but it's something that EVERYONE should read, period. There's also a website: www.metowe.org Pass it on! In May 2009, I read Red China Blues by Jan Wong. What a fascinating book! Wong is a Canadian citizen of Chinese heritage. In the heydey of the 1960's, she decided to go to China to join Mao's Cultural Revolution. Believing that communism was the best political system, she threw herself into the life of a true revolutionary, only to find that...well, I won't spoil the book. Let's just say that things don't quite go as she expected. The book follows her through the 70's and 80's and right into the 1990's, including the Tiannamen Square Massacre. A great book if you want to understand recent Chinese history, or if you're interested in the life story of one of Canada's most respected journalists. During the winter, I read Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. It's about a mountain climber who becomes a philanthropist. I loved it! Here's a summary from the website, www.threecupsoftea.com "In 1993 Mortenson was descending from his failed attempt to reach the peak of K2. Exhausted and disoriented, he wandered away from his group into the most desolate reaches of northern Pakistan. Alone, without food, water, or shelter he stumbled into an impoverished Pakistani village where he was nursed back to health. While recovering he observed the village’s 84 children sitting outdoors, scratching their lessons in the dirt with sticks. The village was so poor that it could not afford the $1-day salary to hire a teacher. When he left the village, he promised that he would return to build them a school. From that rash, heartfelt promise grew one of the most incredible humanitarian campaigns of our time." FUN FACT: every summer, I ask Mrs. Fry for her recommendations and I let her tell me what to read. She's never given me anything I didn't absolutely LOVE. For summer 2008, I specifically asked her to send me to far away places--I wanted to read fiction that would take me to other times, places, and cultures. I loved the books she recommended! First, I read Their Eyes were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston. This is my top pick for a black history month-inspired book. It's a rare book--the female heroine totally defies all that was expected of her and choses a remarkable life for herself, against some pretty remarkable odds. The language is fascinating too: she writes phonetically, forcing you to listen to the sounds of the words, which helps you pick up the accent of the times. For example, characters say "tuh" instead of "to" and "Ah" instead of "I" (Ah went tuh the store.) You'll read about love, marriage, race relations, the founding of the first all-black town in the US, a hurricane and a murder trial. The book has plenty of critics, but I enjoyed it. I could not put down "The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B." by Sandra Gulland! In this book, I was transported to the courts of France before and during the French Revolution. Beautifully written, the author paints vivid mental pictures of exciting events from the past and allowed me to re-unite with an old love: historical fiction. I can't wait to read the next book in the triology! The Kite runner, by Khaled Hosseini, absolutely broke my heart. Set in Afghanisan and later in the US, it is the haunting story of a boy who grows up watching his country as it falls apart. In many ways, he falls apart with it. It's also about love--between father and son, between brothers, and between husband and wife. It's about cowardice, guilt, and injustice. It's beautifully written and has been made into a film. It was also the first book I "read" by listening to the audio version, which was quite the experience! What a great way to pass the time while driving! I was very disturbed by but really liked "Stonelight Tour: The Last, Lonely Night of Neil Stonechild." (authors: Susanne Reber, Robert Renaud) It's about an Aboriginal teenager who was picked up by the police in Winnipeg, driven to the outskirts of town, and left to walk home in the dark. He froze to death. Initially, it was covered up by the police but when two more aboriginal men died under similar suspicious circumstances, an inquiry was opened. That inquiry blew the lid off of one of the dirty little secrets in Canada's legal system--that Aboriginal Canadians are consistently denied justice and are the targets of systemic discrimination at the hands of those who are supposed to "serve and protect." Over the winter break 2007, I read "Infidel" by Ayaan Hirshi Ali. It blew my mind, and challenged what I thought I knew about Islam (which, admittedly, wasn't a lot.) Ayaan was born in Somalia into a traditional Muslim family. She spent time living in Saudi Arabia and Kenya before running away from her family to avoid an arranged marriage. She wound up in the Netherlands as a refugee. While there, she went to school, renounced her faith, began speaking out about how Islam oppresses women, made a film, was elected as an MP, began receiving death threats, and found herself at the centre of a political firestorm over immigration, religion, freedom of expression and the rights of women. This is hand-down the most incredible autobiography I've ever read. In the summer of 2007, I read a beautiful novel called "Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold. If you've ever thought about life after death, it's a must read. I didn't want it to end. I also enjoyed a non-fiction book called "Queen Bees and Wanna Bees" by Rosalind Wisemean. It's about the ways that girls bully each other as they organize into cliques--wonder if this happens at Cawthra? Hmm. It's also the basis of the film "Mean Girls." My favourite new books related to autism are "Born on a Blue Day" by Daniel Tammet and "Send in the Idiots" by Kamran Nazeer. My all time favourite novel about autism is "The Speed of Dark" by Elizabeth Moon. Another classic, of course, is "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night" by Mark Haddon. If you're ever working on a comparative novel study involving either of these books, come and see me! I really enjoyed "How to Change the World in Your Spare Time," by Elizabeth May. She's the leader of the Green Party of Canada and was our keynote speaker at Social Awareness Day in April 2007! Great book. I also liked a book by Malcolm Gladwell called "The Tipping Point." It's about social and economic trends that somehow go from slightly popular to massive trends. If you're interested in creating social movements or suceeding in business, it's worth a read. Then check out his next book, "Blink" which is all about using intuition to make decisions. It also has a fascinating section on the police and race issues that will really make you think.