International Literacy Day, What is it?

Organized in 1965 by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization), this day hopes to bring attention to the need for global literacy!  According to UNESCO, 776 million adults lack minimum literacy skills, one in five adults is still not literate (two-thirds of them are women) and 75 million children are out of school. International Literacy Day is September 8th.

 

Literacy Day Video Created by John Sherman (class of 2010)

Top Ten

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin “An inspirational story of one man's efforts to address poverty, educate girls, and overcome cultural divides.” — Bookmarks Magazine

Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini “To many Western readers, Afghanistan’s can be an exhausting and bewildering history. But Hosseini extrudes it into an intimate account of family and friendship, betrayal and salvation that requires no atlas or translation to engage and enlighten us.” — Washington Post

A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah “This absorbing account by a young man who, as a boy of 12, gets swept up in Sierra Leone's civil war goes beyond even the best journalistic efforts in revealing the life and mind of a child abducted into the horrors of warfare.” — Publisher’s Weekly

Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez “In Afghanistan, where war and religious oppression have long kept women socially isolated, and where displays of sensual allure became criminal offenses under Taliban rule in the 1990s, the reopening of beauty parlors after the Taliban regime fell in 2001 was a widely noted symbol of the country's democratic rebirth. But when Deborah Rodriguez, an American hairdresser, decided to contribute to Afghan women's emancipation by establishing a beauty school in Kabul, her project exposed the constraints of conservative tradition and male-ruled culture that still trap many Afghan girls and women into lives of suffering and injustice.” — Washington Post

Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali “Set against a terrifying geopolitical landscape of African wars and Muslim fundamentalism, Hirsi Ali addresses timely topics: the plight of refugees and women; the Muslim clan system; forced marriage; political asylum; and, perhaps most significantly, her own personal religious crisis. Written in descriptive, clear prose, Infidel, with its radical feminist criticism of Islam, offers a disturbing view of the modern world.” — Bookmarks Magazine


Great Reads

Snowflower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See “Snow Flower, by the author of three crime thrillers set in Communist China and the bestselling memoir On Gold Mountain (1995), explores women’s insular lives in 19th-century rural China. The novel is many things at once: a portrait of a patriarchal culture that valued sons and banished girls to a lesser sphere; an exploration of friendship in all its ups and downs, jealousies, loyalties, and betrayals; and a comment on the spiritual meaning (or emptiness) of tradition, ritual, and ceremony.” — Bookmarks Magazine

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini “Most critics agreed that Khaled Hosseini's second novel is as devastating, if not even more powerful, than his first. A natural, if not always the most eloquent or subtle, storyteller, Hosseini gives voice to two women trying to survive in a despotic household while caught up in the throes of war.” — Bookmarks Magazine

Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder “In this excellent work, Pulitzer Prize-winner Kidder immerses himself in and beautifully explores the rich drama that exists in the life of Dr. Paul Farmer...Throughout, Kidder captures the almost saintly effect Farmer has on those whom he treats” — Publisher’s Weekly

Not on Our Watch by Don Cheadle & John Prendergast “Over the past five years, youth groups, religious organizations, politicians and individuals have responded to the crisis in Sudan in increased numbers. This book is a guide for these already involved, as well as those who are interested in taking action, or speaking out against the mass killings that continue to occur in the country's Darfur region.” — Publisher’s Weekly

What is the What by Dave Eggers “Valentino Achak Deng, real-life hero of this engrossing epic, was a refugee from the Sudanese civil war-the bloodbath before the current Darfur bloodbath-of the 1980s and 90s. In this fictionalized memoir, Eggers (A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius) makes him an icon of globalization.” — Publisher’s Weekly