The Librarian's Lounge: Kenya Needs Your Unwanted Books

Recently Devoured

Hillary Carlip: A la Cart: The Secret Lives of Grocery Shoppers
Really, the makeup jobs this woman put herself through - some of them are fantastic. But this was not what I hoped the book would be - my fault for judging the book by its title and expecting an anthropological look at shoppers.
Jill Price: The Woman Who Can't Forget: The Extraordinary Story of Living with the Most Remarkable Memory Known to Science--A Memoir
After reading this, I'm a bit more at ease with my own faulty memory. Her description of having to constantly live her memories over and over again without being able to control them sounds very unpeaceful to me.
Susan Nathan: The Other Side of Israel: My Journey Across the Jewish/Arab Divide
A profoundly eye-opening book about what it is like to live as an Arab in modern day Israel, as experienced by this Jewish author living in one of the Arab towns. Highly recommended.
Janet McDonald: Project Girl
Very absorbing story about a woman who grows up in the New York projects through many hardships but manages to pursue higher education and escape the life that many people from the projects never do.
Vince Smith: A Chimp in the Family: The True Story of Two Infants--One Human, One Chimpanzee--Growing Up Together
What makes this story unique compared to others of hand-reared chimps living in human families is that Sophie was allowed to return to the wild in Africa and learned how to be with other chimps. Ultimately, however, it was still because of human interference that she died.
Jorge Ramos: Dying to Cross: The Worst Immigrant Tragedy in American History
Another horrifying story about a bunch of people who attempted to cross illegally into the U.S. and the tragedy that occurred.
Luis Alberto Urrea: Across the Wire: Life and Hard Times on the Mexican Border
Touching, heartbreaking.
David Sedaris: When You Are Engulfed in Flames
Anything I read that makes me laugh aloud gets my stamp of approval. Sedaris scores again!
Luis Urrea: By the Lake of Sleeping Children
Interesting and sad, particularly about the people who live in/off the dump.
Teresa Rodriguez: The Daughters of Juarez: A True Story of Serial Murder South of the Border
What the heck is going on in Juarez that already 400 people have been murdered this year alone? This is a good book for anyone wanting to get familiarized with the history of the "femicides" happening in this border town of Mexico.
Luis Alberto Urrea: The Devil's Highway: A True Story
A horrifying account of what a group of 30 immigrants went through when crossing the border into Arizona through one of the most inhospitable desert regions in the world.
Sabine Kuegler: Child of the Jungle: The True Story of a Girl Caught Between Two Worlds
Very unique memoir of a german girl's childhood spent in Papua New Guinea with her parents and siblings while they researched the language and customs of local tribes and how the author integrated back into European culture in her late teens.
Yasmina Khadra: The Attack: Novel
Gripping and realistic. My favorite of the three novels I've read by this author as of late.
Elizabeth Hess: Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would Be Human
Wonderful. I feel like I gained a lot of insight into the relationships and happenings behind the scenes of the various ape language studies that have always been a big source of interest to me. Eye-opening.
Meri Nana-Ama Danquah: Willow Weep for Me: A Black Woman's Journey Through Depression
Depression through the eyes of a black immigrant in America. I couldn't relate to the author's argument that depression is primarily seen as a "white person's" sickness. Otherwise, it was a well-written memoir of a life with depression.