Welcome to Litsy!

I love foreign journalists‘ memoirs and this one is fantastic. Readable, vulnerable, intense and informative, Ferguson showcases her life‘s work in Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq- the beauty, the people and the tragedy. She has more courage than I could muster, and it makes me be reminded of how much to appreciate those who tell the stories of civilians in war.

In this interesting memoir, Ferguson shares stories from her time as a war reporter in the Middle East and Afghanistan. She shares the difficulties of breaking in as a freelance reporter in Yemen and her award winning coverage of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan for PBS. Her unstable home life and childhood during the Troubles in Northern Ireland gave her the fortitude to risk it all grabbing for each rung of her career. Great reflections!

Another 20th-century classic that's not well known in the West: The hostage by Yemeni author Zayd Muti'Dammaj. It's about a boy kept as a hostage and servant by a family loyal to Yemen's ruler to ensure that the boy's family does not rise up against them. I was grateful for the introduction explaining the political symbolism of the plot and characters. Without it, it would have been a creepy love story between a teenage boy and an older woman.

I am posting one book per day from my extensive to-be-read collection. No description and providing no reason for wanting to read it, I just do. Some will be old, some will be new. Don‘t judge me - I have a lot of books. Join in if you want!

#ABookADay2023

Kevin Rushby traveled through #Ethiopia and Yemen on a drug tour to sample khat everywhere he went. Some of his stories are great (including some memorable events in Djibouti), but his glorification of drugs and blindness to his own addiction are deplorable.

#ReadingAfrica2022

Day 8 #AdventRecommends April Book 2

Another book that was so unexpected and which I grew to love. Third choice out of 8 so far that came because of #ReadingAfrica2022 @Librarybelle @BarbaraBB

@emilyrose_x

I enjoyed this light read. I recommend it to anglers and those interested in politics.

A gay Yemeni living in San Francisco in the 1990s checks himself into a psychiatric clinic having lost too many friends and his lover to AIDS. In the meantime Satan is interviewing Death and the saints known as the Fourteen Holy Helpers about him.

I wanted to like this book and kept thinking it was on the verge of becoming something really good but a third of the way through I have to admit it's just not happening for me. DNF.