Welcome!

This group began as an idea from a discussion on the Early Reviewers thread about the book The Translator by Daoud Hari. Feel free to read/reread the original thread here:

http://www.librarything.com/talktopic.php?topic=28520

Welcome to all the newcomers too! Feel free to use this thread to tell us something about yourself!

As for me, (you can call me elbakerone, elba or just el) I'm a 28 year old research scientist from the Chicago-land area. I have friends in NGO's (nongovernmental organizations) that have done lots of work in Africa, though I have never been there myself. My church group does a lot with issues of poverty and social justice so my heart has long been going out to the people of Rwanda and Darfur. I'm passionately concerned with learning more about injustice in the world and finding my place and my role in standing against it. ...I also really enjoy reading fantasy and mystery novels and young adult literature. (I can't let myself sound too serious there.) I'm fond of saying "sometimes the only sense you get out of life is a sense of humor".

Thanks in advance for checking this group out! Let me know if you have any ideas or suggestions!

Cheers,
el :)

The group name is a play on the organization "Doctors Without Borders"...I hope nobody gets the wrong idea and thinks that we're readers who don't live near the bookstore "Border's". ;)

Oooh.....great group name.

Well done my friend, well done. =)

(I'll be back later to write about me but I am at work and should work....especially since my boss just caught me on LT. DOH!)

I love the group name, and I love "saving the world one book at a time". If we do nothing much we may be able to up the sales of relevant and well written books dealing with some of the challenges the world faces today.

I am 63, retired school teacher, ex-Peace Corps volunteer in Bukino Faso (West Africa), and a life-long liberal (sort of....). In university days I was involved in Friends of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee supporting Stokely Carmichael and the ilk.

As has often been observed as one ages one may become more conservative. I am not totally sure this is true of me but I am a little bit less likely to be stampeded into supporting something. I hope I am more likely to want to know the relevant information before I decide what I actually think. So I will be looking forward to discussing books and ideas.

I also like to read Sci Fi, fantasy, historical fiction, modern literary fiction, non-fiction of many sorts. I have two dogs which I love, Check out my profile and my tag cloud and you'll see my interests range wide.

Thanks for starting this group.

Thanks for starting the group and inviting me. I think the group name is inspired, in a blink I thought of Doctors Without Borders.

I'm 62, and my life would look like a crazy quilt, which is what old patchwork quilts with a little bit of everything were called.

In the past few years I've come full circle to my childhood, back to reading and writing as my main occupations. I belong to BookMooch, review books on my blog, and I'm a member at Forward Motion - a writer's group. Joining LT and the ER group completes the picture.

My favorite genres are Science Fiction, history and also historical fiction and romance, fantasy and memoirs/biographies. I have a special interest in WWII books, both fiction and non-fiction.

The Translator arrived for me five days ago, and I'm only on page 71. This is not normal for me, but this is a book I have to walk around with in my mind, a little bit at a time. In the old words of Heinlein, I need to 'grok' Daoud's life, so utterly different and so amazingly similar, to my own. I tried to explain what I'd learned to my family the other night: "All he had in the world was his family, and tribe, the roof over his head, and his camel - he loved his camel. And they took that away from him!" Then I think of how what I value most in my world is my family, my little house in my neighborhood, and my cat - I loved my cat (since deceased of old age). How we can barely comprehend the subsistence living of the tribal lands of Darfur, but totally identify with their love of family, of pets, of their appreciation for education, and joy in weddings and celebrations and simple childhood games.

Uh, I do go on.... yes, I'm very involved in this book. I don't want to just 'know' about Darfur, I want to know what I can do to help.

I look forward to becoming acquainted with y'all here...

I just finished the book last night and will write my review of it today.

I am excited about this group and hope I can stay in involved.

I am 39 years old, the wife of my junior high school sweetheart(for 20 years now) and mom to 5 children, 4 biological and one transracially adopted. Our family has been "called" into the mission field of Tanzania East Africa and will be moving there within the next year or two. I have an interest in reading more about all different cultures and find that as I do so, my heart is constantly changing for people all over the world.

In my opinion, there are far too many people who just turn their heads to the tragedies of the world surrounding them. Educating ourselves may surprise us all to find that the reasons we thought people live like they do are not what we thought.

There is a great you tube video located at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZKLan6ea0s

Thanks for starting the group.

Welcome, so nice to greet all of you!

I just want to mention that I will be off-line for the next few days but please do not think that I am abandoning this new group in it's youngest days! If anyone finds any new topics or news articles to discuss please start new threads - I will look forward to reading all of your fabulous thoughts and ponderings as soon as I am able.

And to mix in a lighter note, I also added a "What are you reading" thread just to mix and mingle and talk about whatever's on our laps/shelves/Kindles at the moment.

(I had to mention the big K because I can't say I actually want to own one, but the rider next to me on the bus this morning was reading from one and as subtly as possible I was trying to look over his shoulder to check it out. I now understand the LTers that have discussed the phenomenon known as "Kindle-envy".)

I am cutting and pasting a post I made on The Translator Thread over in Early Reviewers. It seemed appropriate that it be over here as well.

I enjoyed the book. The author has a story that needs to be shared and I am thankful it has been recorded. I think it is extremely important and our responsibility to be educating ourselves about other cultures, countries and tragedies and that we do all we can to help change the evil in the world. No, not one of us can change the world, but all of us working together can.

Our family is preparing for a move to the mission field of Tanzania so this may be heavier on our hearts than it is on most people's. I have a lot of frustration with myself and those around me who find ourselves able to turn our eyes and pretend that there are not children dying for need of clean water while we spend money foolishly. I recently had a co-worker tell me that if "they would just quit having babies" over in Africa there wouldn't be so many hungry people. Excuse me? My response to that is if we, the industrialized nations, would quit exploiting the resources of Africa and her people many of her problems would be solved.

An example, Mwanza Tanzania, where we are moving to, is located on the second largest freshwater lake in the world yet her people are staving because a few decades ago, the Europeans introduced a fish(Nile Perch) not native to the lake. It is a voracious eater and has killed off the natural habitat of the lake. Europeans and Americans eat tasty white filets from the fish while the people gathering it cannot afford to eat any more than the heads and tails.

The situation in Darfur, is due in part to our greed for oil and the stories of pain in Africa go on and on.

I suppose I should introduce myself, after I've posted several times :)

I'm 38, a library media technician at a high school in southern California.

I enjoy reading fantasy, science fiction, historical fiction, YA fiction, biographies, popular science, history, books about language, anything about horses, natural history, and lots more.

I've been trying to read more "international" books the last couple of years. I've read books set in/written by natives of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Botwana, Nigeria, Native American reservations, Greenland, China, Egypt, etc.

Wow! Fiona, I'd say you more than 'tried' - you've read much more broadly than I have in the past couple of years, when I've been 'trying'. You could have some interesting recommendations for a group titled 'Readers Without Borders' - please mention any you've especially liked.

Thanks for joining with us and welcome.

Most of the books I've read are fiction -- I want to read more nonfiction about other countries. A few of the better ones:

Sold by Patricia McCormick -- a YA title about a girl from a mountain village in the Himalaya who thinks she is going to town to be a maid but ends up in a brothel in an Indian city -- a novel in poetry form

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie -- I have a review posted -- this one takes place in Nigeria (if I remember correctly)

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini -- you've probably all heard about this one, it takes place in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the U.S.

Chanda's Secrets by Allan Stratton -- another YA novel about the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy -- this wasn't an easy read but it is an excellent book -- takes place in India

I too have read Sold. A great read and fast since it is a YA title.

A fun, another novel, is Veil of Roses by Laura Fitzgerald. It is the story of a young woman from Iran coming to America on a visit to her sister with the main goal being to find a husband before her visa runs out. Humorous and entertaining.

Thank you for the suggestions, Fiona and saved. I ordered a used hardback copy of The God of Small Things ($1.00 for the book and $3.99 for the shipping - Amazon is amazing). They all sound wonderful but one must begin somewhere.

I stopped by the library today and picked up Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's latest novel, Half of a Yellow Sun which is about the struggle for Nigerian independence in the 1960s. I really enjoyed her Purple Hibiscus so I'm looking forward to reading this one.

I also borrowed A Buffalo in the House which looks like fun. Of course, this does nothing for the huge TBR pile on the floor next to my nightstand but at least it was the library this time and not a book shop. ;)

Fiona,
Thanks for the ideas. I just ordered Chanda's Secrets in Hardcover through paperbackswap and The God of Small things on audio cassette through paperbackswap as well. Put Purple Hibiscus on my wish list there.

Thanks for the list, FC!

Hanna's daughters by Marianne Fredriksson is a story about 3 generations of Swedish women, ending with the present generation. It is a fascinating story of historical events affecting the lives of common people, in a part of the world that isn't heard from too often.

Howdy, I'm AA1986, we may have met in Book Talk or one of the book challenge groups. I'm a college student, studying history and {insert topic here, I decided to drop my PoliSci major for something else, but haven't decided what the something else will be}, and the summer I graduate I will be spending 6 weeks in southern India volunteering at an orphanage.

Thanks for the books y'all listed above, especially the ones set in India.

Hello everyone. Sorry to join in a bit late, but I'm not online too often these days. I'm an academic librarian mostly, with great interest in most parts of the world. I've spent time in South Africa, Indonesia, India, Japan and Germany and have traveled to many other places for shorter visits. Currently I am most concerned about events in Kenya and in the Gaza strip, but my concerns about suffering do cross most borders.

Here are some nonfiction titles I've read that might be of interest to readers in this group:

mountains beyond mountains by Tracy Kidder - biography of a American doctor who saw basic needs and decided to do something about them.

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin - my sister loved this book, I was a bit sceptical of some parts.

King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild

and most anything from Zed books.

Continued welcomes to everyone joining us!

I've had Three Cups of Tea on my TBR list for ages. It's got a mile-long list of holds at my local library so chances are I may end up buying it. I've heard it's fantastic!

It is fantastic elbakerone. A little choppy at times and I could never be married to a man like Greg Mortenson (I just don't have that sort of patience and good will) but it is truly an inspiring read.

ETA: you could always buy it and then donate your copy to the library. I'm sure that they (and all those on the waitlist) would appreciate it. =)

Hello group,

I'm 37, possess neither husband nor children nor pets, and reside in the beautiful Pacific Northwest region of the United States (though I originally hail from Michigan, the mitten-shaped state surrounded by the Great Lakes).

I unfortunately don't share the well traveled pedigrees of most here, though I do hope/plan to travel to Egypt (and elsewhere) in the future. I try to make up for it by reading as much as possible. Books can be wonderful passports to far-flung lands, while also educating me and making me think. Countries I've read recently or near-recently include Afghanistan, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, the disputed Kashmir region of India/Pakistan, and a book on the "Muslim world" from Indonesia to North Africa (with focus on Middle East and Afghanistan).

I also enjoy history quite a bit, and find that a good grounding in the history of a place or an issue can be very helpful to understanding the present, so some of my books look at historical aspects rather than, or as well as, the here-and-now.

I've seen many wonderful book recommendations here so far, and look forward to learning a lot and adding to my already-overcrowded book list. :)

Welcome, Essa.

It is wonderful that you are free to travel, to go where you want to go! Already, you have been (virtually) to many places that interest me - and virtually is probably the only way I'll see them.

Ahh, books are amazing. Travel is better:)