Her Book Self

When I started this blog, I liked the phrase "Book Self" (which many still mistakenly read as bookshelf) because I feel that the books a person reads can sometimes give a snapshot peek at revealing their personality or occasionally their life circumstances. Since I don't often post a lot of personal information about myself on this blog, I thought it might be fun to post about a few books I've been reading lately, which do reveal quite a bit about me.

The first is a book I received for Christmas.  It's not a cover-to-cover reading but rather a reference one that's better digested in portions according to applicable information in it.  This is the latest edition of it, but I know it's been around for a long time and came highly recommended.  

What to Expect When You're Expecting

The next was given to me by a coworker.  It had been sitting on her shelf and she figured it would come in handy more as a resource to me than collecting dust at her house.

The Pregnancy Book: Month-by-Month, Everything You Need to Know from America's Baby Experts

The third was a gift from a sweet friend in my Bible study group.  It's not as factually heavy as the other two and takes a lighthearted and Christian perspective with a great emphasis on both humor and prayer - two things I always try to incorporate plenty of in my life!

The Christian Mama's Guide to Having a Baby: Everything You Need to Know to Survive (and Love) Your Pregnancy

And finally, this one may be my favorite for it's sheer level of hilarity and absurdity and was also a gift from friends. My husband and I began reading the opening chapters together and our reading was often interrupted by laughter breaks. 

Let's Panic About Babies! How to Endure and Possibly Triumph over the Adorable Tyrant who Will Ruin Your Body, Destroy Your Life, Liquefy Your Brain, and Finally Turn You Into A Worthwhile Human Being

As with every BIG step in life - whether it's graduation, new job, new home, new relationship - it's great to have good books to with you.  I've been bouncing between these titles pretty often in the past few months (which explains some of my recent blog-neglect) so I don't have reviews of any of them yet, but I look forward to sharing my thoughts on them in the future.  If anyone has a great or not-so-great experience with any of these titles, I'd love to hear your opinions.  Or, if there's a book I haven't listed that you consider a MUST read on the subject, I'd love that advice as well!

Tales of an African Vet is a fascinating series of vignettes from the life of author Roy Aronson. The stories follow his real life experiences as a veterinarian in South Africa and his patients range from elephants and lions in the wild, to snakes and squirrel monkeys brought into a clinic for treatment.

Dr. Aronson shows a depth of passion for his work and for all the animals he treats that reveals a sense of compassion as great as his intelligence. The book is amazing for its details of science and medicine - and the logistics behind treating incredibly large and dangerous wild animals - as well as the knowledge and interesting facts about the variety of animals encountered (from rhinos to alligators to hedgehogs to koi).

The book was well written and the format of stories rather than a single narrative provides a sweeping coverage of the grand scale of Dr. Aronson's work. This is a wonderful book for anyone interested in African animals, exotic veterinary medicine, or just a great biography of a man with an extraordinary job.

My "adopted chimp" reading Nim's story

I have a heart for great apes.  I love stories involving gorillas, chimpanzees, and orangutans and I think these amazing animals can provide valuable lessons of compassion and conservation for humans to learn.  Last year I spotlighted one of my favorite young adult novels, Hurt Go Happy, which features a fictional chimpanzee who speaks sign language, and this year I encountered a book dealing with the same subject from a nonfiction perspective. 

In Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would Be Human, author Elizabeth Hess chronicles the awkward but innovative experiment in which a chimpanzee was raised as a human in order to test the long held ideal that language is a uniquely human trait. Named in parody of linguist Noam Chomsky, Nim Chimpsky is the center of "Project Nim" and thus the book surrounding his life.

Delving into the details of the primate facility in Oklahoma where he was born to the home of his foster family and the research university in New York, Hess unravels a story that fluctuates between humorous, sweet, appalling, and unbelievable. I found myself exceptionally interested in the scientific side of this story but was shocked at the lack of ethics and standards in raising Nim. Though expected to learn ASL, the family he lived with was not fluent in sign language and few of his numerous handlers were intent on keeping records of his progress. Also, when the project began very little thought was given to the long term ramification of teaching a chimpanzee to behave as a human and predictably, the adolescent Nim quickly becomes too much to handle. The tragedy of the personable chimp left without a home or a purpose - and the greater story of research animals in general - is ultimately the most stunning part of Hess's work.

It's impossible to approach this book without falling a little bit in love with the precocious Nim. The photographic documentation of the tiny baby chimp who dresses in toddler clothes; growing into a midsized animal with enough sense to wash dishes and play with pets; and finally a full grown ape with a deep intelligence in his all-too-human eyes reveal the closeness of chimpanzees to homo sapiens in a way that statistics about genetic similarity will never match. Though it may not conclusively answer the questions of animals' ability to use language what Nim's story does is raise even more questions about our compassion towards other species. This is a book for lovers of animals and fans of science and anyone who enjoys an out of the ordinary biography. 

 I read this book with my husband (a lover of great apes as I am) earlier this year after stumbling upon it at a used book store.  Despite the occasionally tearful read, we were both fascinated by the story.  Last month we also had the privilege of attending a screening in Chicago of the film Project Nim based on the same story.  The documentary is an excellent companion to the book and offers a unique series of first hand accounts from those who lived and directly interacted with Nim himself.  Though I enjoyed the deeper details and background given in Hess's work, the movie was exceptionally well-done and is a great summary of the full length text. 

You too can wear Katniss' pin!

I tend to be a bit of an avoidest when it comes to reading popular fiction.  I was unimpressed with The Da Vinci Code, I'm turned off by Oprah's Book Club labels, and I  have yet to touch Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy.  I don't really think of myself as a book snob, I just try to avoid things that come with a lot of hype.  My reading is pretty expansive so when a certain work garners a lot of mass attention, I usually figure that my lone voice won't add a lot to the discussion.  People generally love it so does it matter if I do or don't? But sometimes a book that captures the critics praises sounds right up my alley.  Even though I don't always enjoy being part of the crowd, occasionally I'll be a bandwagonner.  So it was with The Hunger Games.  I devoured Suzanne Collins' young adult dystopia series last year (see my reviews of The Hunger Games and Mockingjay) and like many, I've been eagerly buzzing around rumors and announcements about the upcoming movie.

So the question is, why, after reading this series almost a year ago, am I still so captivated by it?  Why do I still reflect on the culture and world Collins created in her books?  Why is Panem - with all its inhabitants - remaining on the fringes of my thoughts?

Because the books are good.  That's the simple answer.  The more complex response?  Because great dystopia creates a world that not only speaks of a dark and distant future but also reveals the nearness of that darkness in existing society.  Because Collins wrote books that provoke thought and challenge the reader beyond the story.  Because all the best books stay with you after you read them.  And a group of young adult authors realized this.  They took their thoughts and compiled a series of essays exploring why and how The Hunger Games series managed to capture the hearts and minds of a generation of readers both young and old.

The book is The Girl Who Was on Fire: Your Favorite Authors on Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games Trilogy and it's a nonfiction compilation edited by Leah Wilson.  The essays range in scope from exploring the popularity and general appeal of the series to exploring some of the deeper and more mature themes of politics and society within Collins' writing.  As with any conglomerate work, some are better than others, but overall the book makes an excellent read for any Hunger Games aficionados.  The works included in the book are:

• Why So Hungry for the Hunger Games? Or the Game of Making Readers Hungry for More, Why Readers' Imaginations Caught Fire, and My Sad Inability to Come Up With a Wordplay for Mockingjay by Sarah Rees Brennan
• Team Katniss by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
• Your Heart is a Weapon the size of your Fist: Love as a Political Act in the Hunger Games by Mary Borsellino
• Smoke and Mirrors: Reality vs. Unreality in the Hunger Games by Elizabeth M. Rees
• Someone to Watch Over Me: Power and Surveillance in the Hunger Games by Lili Wilkinson
• Reality Hunger: Authenticity, Heroism, and Media in the Hunger Games by Ned Vizzini
• Panem et Circencses: The Myth of Real in Reality TV by Carrie Ryan
• Not So Weird Science: Why Tracker Jackers and Other Mutts Might Be Coming Soon to a Lab Near You by Cara Lockwood
• Crime of Fashion by Terri Clark
• Bent, Shattered, and Mended: Wounded Minds in the Hunger Games by Blythe Woolston
• The Politics of Mockingjay by Sarah Darer Littman
• The Inevitable Decline of Decadence by Adrienne Kress
• Community in the Face of Tyranny: How a Boy with a Loaf of Bread and a Girl with a Bow Toppled an Entire Nation by Bree Despain

One of the brilliant things about Collins' books is how she brought heavy topics to young readers in an easily accessible manner.  This collection of essays is the book for those readers that want to dig deeper into these topics and delve into a further analysis on the trilogy.  The Girl Who Was On Fire is perfect as an addition to a book club, for the casual philosophy fan, or anyone who just can't get enough of The Hunger Games. 

I confess I had never heard of Hardwick, Vermont before picking up Ben Hewitt's book The Town That Food Saved. The anecdotal nonfiction work tells about the history of the town, built upon the industry of granite, that suffered a severe economic downturn and looked to a local stimulus of food and agricultural business to provide jobs while promoting healthy food, organic farming and sustainability.

It's hard to describe the width and depth of food related businesses that this book covers, but I found the whole work remarkably fascinating. From exploring the simple but profound work of banking seeds to the impact of hormone use in the world of dairy farming, this work is one that will make anyone think twice about the everyday food we buy, prepare and eat.

It is the people of Hardwick, as well as their strides towards a system of local food production, that make Hewitt's book an engaging and entertaining read. The various interviews of farmers, businesspeople, restaurateurs, and politicians - many classified by Hewitt's invented portmanteau "agripreneurs" meaning agricultural entrepreneurs - lend a charming readability to the narrative. Hewitt presents the problems and conflicts openly and admits that there are not concrete solutions to the dilemmas Hardwick (and many towns like it) faced yet the positive economic and environmental strides being made are heralded.

Overall, The Town That Food Saved is an interesting book for anyone whose curiosity is piqued by the origins of the meals on their plate.  Ben Hewitt could just have easily switched the last two words of the title because this deeper look at the ingenuity of Hardwick's people may just have an impact on the food culture of an entire nation.

Laura Hillenbrand, author of Seabiscuit, relates another gripping and emotional biography in her latest book Unbroken. Subtitled A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, Hillenbrand's work is exactly that.

Unbroken tells the story of Louis Zamperini. With humble beginnings as a neighborhood troublemaker in Torrance, California, Louis rose to the national spotlight as a runner in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Barely missing a medal, he set his sights on the next Games, but like many, he delayed his dreams in order to serve his country and enlisted in the Armed Forces as a bombardier. His duty turned nightmare when his plane went down and survival on a raft drifting through the Pacific was only a sliver of torment compared to life as a POW in Japan.

Despite horrid and dehumanizing conditions, Zamperini survived, and his story is chronicled along with details of his family and fellow servicemen. Hillenbrand relies on primary sources and unfolds the story with an expert pen. Powerful, amazing, dramatic and inspiring barely scratch the surface of describing Zamperini's journey. I was captivated throughout the book and really enjoyed delving into this biography of an American hero of whom I was previously unfamiliar. This is a story of history and survival, but even more so it is a testimony to the power of the human spirit which in Zamperini's case, through the darkest times, remained Unbroken.

Driver's Education is a teenage rite of passage for many in the United States, and like most, I can recall an anecdote or two of the successes and mishaps from my first times behind the wheel.  However, I never gave much reflection to the people who accompanied me on those first perilous driving trips: the driver's ed instructors.  This perspective changed when I picked up a great new book.

Thomas M. Sullivan opens the door to the life of a driving instructor in his nonfiction memoir Life in the Slow Lane. From the bureaucracy of the company he worked for (and argued with), to the past-their-prime cars he used, and the unpredictability of a job centered around teenagers overly-confident or excessively nervous; Sullivan takes a direct and witty approach to his narrative. The appalling stories of demands placed on him by his employer are juggled with hilarious anecdotes and observations from his time with his students.

For anyone who ever wondered what a teacher was thinking when they stepped on the instructor's brake, Life in the Slow Lane offers a unique glimpse through the eyes of the passenger in a driver's ed car. Cleverly crafted and highly entertaining, Sullivan genuinely captures the humor of the mundane. Whether you fondly recall "Student Driver" as a rite of passage or a terrible teenage travesty, this is a book that will shed a green-means-go light on the world of driver's ed.

I'd highly recommend this book to readers who enjoy humorous memoirs.  I'm always trying to incorporate more nonfiction in my reading repertoire, so Life in the Slow Lane was a delightful discovery!

Stay tuned this week for my interview with author Thomas M. Sullivan!

Shauna Niequist, author of Cold Tangerines, returns to writing and her signature style of simple but poignant observations on faith in everyday life in her latest book Bittersweet. Subtitled thoughts on change, grace, and learning the hard way, Niequist does not shy away from discussing her own personal struggles and pain. Her candid honesty and conversational tone connects the reader to her words and her life making her message stronger, clearer, and more profound.

Each of the small chapters works as a stand-alone essay, but they all tie together smoothly. Whether reading one passage at a time or several in one sitting, the book has a smooth pace. Niequist is ultimately quotable, too; and I found myself dog-earring multiple pages knowing that there were several lines I wanted to come back and reflect on at a later time.

The title of the book comes from Niequist's idea that a full life requires both bitterness and sweetness. She says, "When life is sweet, say thank you and celebrate. And when life is bitter, say thank you and grow." In a later chapter about friendship and the trap of always trying to appear perfect she explains, "We slip into believing that it's better to strive for perfection than to accept and offer one another grace." And among many brilliant thoughts on writing she offers the insight, "Writing wakes me up, lights me on fire, opens my eyes to the things I can never see and feel when I'm hiding under the covers, cowering and consumed with my own failures and fears."

Niequist is not ashamed to share her "failures and fears" with the reader but it is obvious that what she states about writing is true. In the written word she truly does shine, and her words are perfectly chosen and powerful, creating a work to be reread, reflected on, and ruminated over long after the final page is turned.

Sweet Mandarin is a great biography/autobiography of three generations of Chinese women and their stories of working as restaurateurs in England.  Subtitled The Courageous True Story of Three Generations of Chinese Women and Their Journey from East to West, the book does tell an inspiring story of courage as each woman grows, adapts, and changes with the world around her.   Helen Tse is a great writer and the family memories she shares are interesting, poignant, and quite captivating.

With her vivid descriptions, sights and sounds jump off the pages and the book is equally filled with smells and tastes that leave readers as hungry for Tse's recipes as for her prose. I would highly recommend this book to fans of Amy Tan's novels (The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God's Wife, etc.), as the multi-generational story is similar to much of her work, but I enjoyed Sweet Mandarin all the more because it is nonfiction. I felt a deeper connection to the characters knowing that they were actual members of Helen Tse's family rather than just her creations.

Mercy Rising by Amber Robinson is true to its subtitle and involves Simple Ways to Practice Justice and Compassion. Aimed mostly at women, Robinson discusses practical ways of serving in everyday life including educating readers about organizations, opportunities, and websites that deal with combating poverty and other social justice issues, locally and internationally.

Drawing from her experiences as an advocate for Compassion International - a Christian child sponsorship organization - Robinson points out easy ways to help better the lives of others. Some of her suggestions seemed rather obvious (donating clothing) but others were new to me (searching websites that report on companies agreeing to stop human rights violations). Mercy Rising is a book that could be a valued resource to those taking the first steps towards justice around them as well as to those that have been making strides for years.

A friend of mine is fond of saying that to start serving others, people just need to get off their "buts" (But I'm too busy, But I don't have money, But I'm not good at that). Robinson takes this philosophy one step further and centers her book around the idea of each person starting with just "one thing". For anyone who's ever been overwhelmed at injustice in the world but doesn't think that one person can make a difference, Mercy Rising is a great place to look to have a change of heart and realize that even small steps can have a positive impact in the world.

Well I suppose I should say something about the NBA and LeBron's big decision, but with the World Cup finals just around the corner, I thought it appropriate to highlight a book about soccer.  I haven't really read any books about basketball (or Miami) and I can't say I've read many books about soccer (or should I say football?) but this was a one that I really did enjoy!

Outcasts United - the story of The Fugees, a soccer team of refugee children from a small town in Georgia - at first look seems to have all the makings of a Disney movie.  The story unfolds by introducing readers to Luma Mufleh, a Jordanian woman driven to make a life for herself in the USA while missing the family that disapproves of her new home.  But Luma is no Disney heroine, she is a rough-edged, straight-talking, disciplinarian and her new job as soccer coach to The Fugees is much more than the plot to a family movie.  Taking on leadership of three age groups, Luma's life becomes entwined with those of the players.  Often she is called upon to be much more than a coach and enter into the roles of friend, mother, confidant, provider, chauffeur and counselor to her young charges and their families.

Warren St. John writes the book in a distinctly journalistic style.  At times, this causes choppiness to the story, but ultimately it is an effective way to narrate the various facets of the lives of The Fugees' players, their experiences, and the various effects of refugee resettlement on the town of Clarkston, Georgia.  St. John tackles the issues of racism plaguing the town as well as the challenges faced by the resettlement aides and adjustments of the longtime town residents.  One of the strengths of this book, also, is that Clarkston, Georgia paints a portrait of refugees on a global scale.  Though some parts of the United States have been havens for newcomers from a single country, players on The Fugees bring stories of war-zones, famine, and political unrest from all over the world.

From Iraq to Sudan, Kosovo to Burundi, Liberia to Jordan, Outcasts United is truly an international story.  Luma Mufleh's life in particular is worthy of great admiration for her discipline and dedication in coaching three teams of children facing some of life's greatest challenges.  With post-traumatic stress, poverty, language barriers and the luring threat of gang life, it is Mufleh and the game of soccer that bring the group together as an oddly mixed family.  Together they must discover that even above winning and losing, what really matters is how you play the game.

Anyone else have any good books about soccer/football to recommend?  Anyone really stoked about the World Cup?  Who are you cheering for or against?  Personally, my favorite summer sports events are Wimbledon tennis (Congrats Rafa!) and Major League Baseball's Home Run Derby.  How about you?

With the USA celebrating Independence Day this weekend, I want to spotlight one of my favorite nonfiction books.  A true master of dramatic nonfiction, David McCullough recounts climactic events of the Revolutionary War through varying perspectives in the book 1776.  Relying heavily on primary sources such as letters and council notes, history unfolds humanistically under McCullough's artful pen.  American heroes such as Washington, Knox, and Greene - as well their British rivals - come alive as never before. 

And since I'm always striving to learn more through reading, does anyone have good recommendations for other interesting and engaging books about history?  I've heard McCullough's John Adams is also a great work, but I'm all for branching out to other eras of history.  (And not just US history, I love to learn about other countries, too!)

Happy Fourth of July!  Wishing everyone a safe and wonderful holiday!

I don't travel much.  I wish I had the time and money to explore more of the world - and even more of my own country - but for the most part, I don't go very far from home very often.  I think because of that, I love to read about foreign countries and different cultures.  I suppose my love of nonfiction stems from my overall love of learning, but I also feel that books are akin to mental passport stamps - a way to visit far off places without leaving the discomfort of my bus seat.  My most recent literary vacation was to Kabul, Afghanistan in Deborah Rodriguez's book, Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil.  The map at right is courtesy of CNN.com and shows where Kabul is in Afghanistan, and the inset shows the country's location in relation the rest of the middle east.  I've read several other books set in this part of the world, but anytime I read a book about a country that I'm unfamiliar with I like to look it up on a map to better orient myself with the geography of the setting.  (That's super nerdy, right?  Oh well, I'm comfortable with my braininess.)

Back to the book.  Deborah Rodriguez is a hairdresser from Holland, Michigan who trained as a relief worker and traveled to Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban in 2001.  Originally feeling that her talents were not as crucial as those of the doctors and nurses in her company, Rodriguez spent much of her time exploring her surroundings and befriending the people around her.  When she discovered that the Westerners in the area and many of the Afghan women she met were desperately seeking her services as a beautician - an idea was formed to begin a school to train and develop local women to start their own salons.  With corporate sponsors and the hard work of dedicated individuals, the Kabul Beauty School opened its doors and Rodriguez became a teacher, mentor and friend to women whose country had forgotten them.

I loved how this book explored the culture clash between American and Afghan society.  The story was well told and it was inspiring to see how Rodriguez changed the lives of the women she worked with and the powerful impact that their stories and friendship had in her life as well.  The book was also a good example of community development done right.  Rodriguez hired her first graduates as teachers and along with giving them a means to support their families for a better quality of life, she set up a cycle of sustainable serving for those who had learned to continue on in teaching others.  It is a model of giving a hand-up rather than a hand-out; the former being ultimately much more productive.

Cross Posted From Blogger Arrow:

My friend Ellen recommended a book to me called Cold Tangerines by Shauna Niequist. I didn't admit to her (until now) that I cringe a little at book recommendations. There's a certain amount of pressure that comes with reading a book that someone else really likes. Maybe the book spoke to them in a way that it just won't talk to you; perhaps something in a person's life resonates with the book and they only imagine that you share that sonorous quality. Whenever someone recommends a book I find myself reflecting on the quote that, "In literature, as in love, we are often astonished at what is chosen by others."

However, Ellen is someone that I trust and admire so her recommendation didn't dare go into the "perhaps, maybe before I die" pile of books on my mental shelf. Instead, Cold Tangerines showed up on my library hold queue and jumped quickly to the top. I started it this week, and (as of my train ride home today) I have just a few chapters remaining. It's the kind of book that speaks to a reader - I suppose I mean female readers - and I almost wish I could Xerox off different chapters and press them into the hands of family and friends and say "You need to read this!" or "This is SO what you are going through!"

And, of course, with a book that relevant to my loved ones, there were to be found several passages that seemed to be written directly at me. In a chapter called "Prayer and Yoga" she laments that both are decidedly good for her yet she doesn't stick to either as often as she should. (Sound like anyone you know??) I also really liked her thoughts on writing. As I contemplate another looming November with NaNoWriMo, I find myself pondering if I want to embrace - unleash - my identity as a writer once again. I've wavered and flip-flopped about taking on the chaotic novel-in-a-month challenge this year and then, this afternoon, I read this:

"Sometimes when I'm writing, if I try really hard, I can move more slowly, like a dancer or a mime, and taste things more vividly, and see not just the trees and the grass, but the individual leaves and blades. Things are richer and brighter than I thought, now that I have slowed down enough to see them."

~Shauna Niequist, Cold Tangerines p. 137

I don't think NaNoWriMo is quite the atmosphere for slowed down perception that Niequist is speaking of, but I understand her need for the reflective introspection that comes from times of writing. It's where I spent a lot of time in the days when I was a prolific journaler - heck, even when I was a more prolific blogger. I look with some shame on my sparse posting of this year. I see it not as sad because I missed sharing inane thoughts with friends and family but rather, sad that I was living my life without reflection.

There's a famous quote that says "We must live life forward and define it backward," but I think most of us fall into the trap of too much forward motion on that one. Not that it would be good to over-define life to the point of not spending one's time living it. When we can find the place between rushing out to live each day and poignantly reflecting on our journey as a whole, that's where a well paced life will be. Neither hurried nor bored, that will be a balanced life indeed.

Cross Posted From Blogger Arrow:

Last month I got another pre-realease book through Library Thing's Early Reviewers program. There's something ultimately fun about reading a book before it's even hit the bookstores and I figure since the whole purpose of publishers giving out these delicious freebies is to drum up publicity for their product I might as well at least mention the really good ones here as well as on LT. The book I just finished is a nonfiction work called Honeymoon in Tehran: Two Years of Love and Danger in Iran. Here's my review:

Honeymoon in Tehran is a memoir by Iranian-American journalist Azadeh Moaveni chronicling two years of her life living in Tehran and dealing with the complications of a government that restricts the freedoms of women and journalists (and especially women journalists). The book is a resource of world politics as Moaveni presents an insider's view of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's rise to power. The story is even more compelling as Moaveni tells her own tale of falling in love. As she navigates Iranian wedding customs and the issues of pregnancy before marriage, the story becomes a personal one and her balance between factual and emotional writing is exceptional.

In many ways Moaveni's story is a wake-up call to be aware of things that Americans and other citizens of Western countries can take for granted - choice of dress, public playgrounds, sattelite TV, choice of children's names, uncensored internet access, freedom to associate with members of the opposite gender - and yet she paints a fair picture of Iranians in Tehran and refrains from playing the victim despite dire circumstances for her family and career. As a book that both educates and entertains, Honeymoon in Tehran is an excellent book club choice or a great read for anyone seeking a literary trip to Iran.

I got to thinking about this book a lot this week with the monumental inauguration on Tuesday. I won't deny that I'm an Obama supporter. Since meeting him in 2005, I've gained the impression that as a senator - an hopefully now as president - he sees himself as a public servant and I feel that is a role that comes across as more of a rarity in Washington these days. With that said though, I'm not one of the many celebrating January 19th as "Bush's last day in office". I don't think Bush was the villain that many have painted him as. I won't defend his decisions, but I won't criticize them either. Going back to the subject of Honeymoon in Tehran, I'm really grateful to be an American citizen. As I mentioned in my review there are so many freedoms we have in this country that people take for granted. Even those who hated Bush knew that they would have to deal with him for a maximum of eight years - and throughout those years they were able to enjoy the freedom of speaking their mind about him openly, loudly, vehemently with no penalties. Yes, I'm glad to see President Obama in office but I have a healthy salute to former President Bush for his service to our States. Republican or Democrat, Inauguration is bigger than the man in Oval Office - whether you support the current administration or not - this country is one that I'm exceptionally thankful to be part of.