Read This Book!

I used to be an active member of a really great book club. It was so laid back that most of the time people came having half read the book (or not at all) and somehow the flow of wine and conversation covered for it. The book club has since gone the way of many of my other social activities post-mommyhood, but I still enjoy reading a book here and there. Whereas I used to read one a month, now I'm down to more like one a quarter or six months. Usually magazines are a little more my speed (and I flip through the photos, mostly).

I found a particularly fantastic book, while wasting time on Good Reads, called What is the What, written by Dave Eggars. This book is one of those that, once you get over disbelieving that this could have really happened to a single person in a single lifetime, you realize that you are forever changed. It was so exciting, so terrible and terrifying and yet utterly inspiring that you MUST read it. But, if I can put on my "book club member" hat for a second, I must say that at times the writing and style in this book drove me nuts. I thought that the way the story was told inside of a "day in the life" of the "main character" got a little tiring and jarring. But the story of growing up in Sudan, and living for a decade in a refuge camp in Kenya...agh! It's a story worth reading.

I was so moved by this book that I'm hoping to find a way I can take some action. I've decided to begin to help fundraising for the foundation that was started by the man the book is about, Valentino Achak Deng. He's co-founded a foundation with author Eggars (who donated all proceeds from the book to the foundation) in part to build some schools in his home country Sudan. I know I can't do it alone. That's where you come in. My thought is that I'd like to solicit donations of handmade items and open up a little shop to sell them, with all proceeds going to the foundation. My question is, would you donate? Would you help me spread the word?

If you haven't already, get this book at the library or buy it. It's worth it. My copy is currently being lent out, but when it comes back you're welcome to borrow it!