Guest House for Young Widows: Among the Women of ISIS | 
pickWomen from across the world—Europe, Africa, North America & Asia—travelled to Syria in search of a dream: an Islamic homeland. Journalist Azadeh Moaveni, with an interest in the intersection of gender & armed conflict, interviewed many. She focused on the experiences of four British high school girls plus a few others. Why did they go there? What will they do now that the caliphate has crumbled & their home countries won‘t allow them to return?
…a sour, salty smell wafted up from the sheep brain restaurant on the ground floor of the apartment.
AND, an almost identical phrase is in the epilogue: “a sour, salty smell wafts up from the sheep‘s brain and tripe restaurant on the ground floor of the building.” Once is enough!
#audiowalk home from the bakery this morning... snow and -4 C at 9 AM.
pickIf you are a non-Muslim American, this book will work your empathetic muscles. Told from a variety of ISIS women‘s stories, you are taken on a journey from their religious beginnings to how they ended up in ISIS territory. It was possible to detest them AND have sympathy for them. I learned a lot of history and about Islam. Very good read but it makes me even MORE worried about the refugee camps and how we treat people who are different.
pickThis was a well-researched and engagingly written look at why young women from many Western countries were persuaded to move to Syria and join ISIS. Like many extremist groups, young and marginalized people were persuaded by propaganda and charismatic leaders. The author tries hard to put herself in the mindset of these young women and is very sympathetic towards them, but this may be the biggest drawback of the book. 👇🏻
pickThis book challenges you to see these wives of ISIS fighters as humans, not monsters, subject to the same foils as the rest of us. So many of the young people in this book were frustrated by broken promises of radical change. Are there lessons we can learn here, say, for the Climate Strikers that politicians have failed to mollify? Perhaps. Extended review for subscribers at http://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/new-releases/ #NewBooks #NonFiction
