Foot and Fire

Ghosts by Daylight Janine Di Giovanni Memoir, 2011 When everyone at one time or another dreamed of becoming an archaeologist, thanks to Indiana Jones movies, I, dreamed of becoming a war reporter though international news is far and wide then. I was in high school when the Bosnia and Herzegovina happened and it opened my eyes to the bitter consequences of war. While I read memoirs about lives while the wars were on-going, this is the first time that I got hold of a love story between two war reporters. Their love story started in Sarajevo. What I liked about the memoir is that how the author makes her function as war reporter seem so easy and natural to her, and the settling down and creating a home as difficult as it can get for her. It all lies in her honesty.  I also liked how the author and her spouse wanted to have a child who will bring them to a state of normalcy. Both struggled to put on their new roles. The author survived the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder be...

The Translator A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur By Daoud Hari Hardbound, 179 pages,  204 pages with appendices Darfur is in Sudan. Published in 2008, this book is recommended for those who simply love personal narratives. For those interested in international politics, this is also a good background on Sudan's socio-political history. But worry not; Daoud's distinct voice is not lost in the translation. His honesty and integrity shine forth all throughout the book. This is tragedy, yes. But it is a tragedy told by a compassionate, committed and courageous man. He has the capacity to encapsulate in simple paragraph seething subjects and he can wield a good humor despite how grim the situation is. A very easy breezy read despite the heaviness of the subject and I warn you, this is an entertaining one too. Further, I appreciated the Darfur Primer as appendix 1 as it summarized the socio-political state of Sudan, very educational. This memoir appeals to the world t...

The Cellist of Sarajevo By Steven Galloway 227 pages, Novel There is nothing spectacular about this novel. I almost decided so because we all feel bad when there is violence or war; I believe that empathy is embedded in our genes. But I was wrong because empathy is not automatic in all of us, but still, I concluded that this book is spectacular because the writer presented to us many moral issues when we are placed in the middle of violence or war. While I am reading this novel, the present violence occurring in Libya, Ukraine and Syria appear in my mind; the hardship and constant fear of the people caught in between the violence. I just wish those who hold firearms would get hold of this novel too. This novel was inspired by a story of Serajevo's renowned cellist Vedran Smailovic who in real life played Albinoni's Adagio in G Minor for 22 days in honor of the 22 people lining up for bread in the market died after several mortar shell struck. But the story does not ...