brandonsears

What a weird book for me to read.

If not for Alaina, this wouldn't have even touched my radar.. at all. For starters, I'm not religious in the slightest so that alone is enough to turn me off of this book. Also, I have no fundamental knowledge of what's going on in Israel. Well, I know that there is what appears to be a conflict with no end in sight, but other than that - nothing.

Don't confuse my lack of knowledge with a lack of interest, however, as I've always been interested in "what's going on over there". When the topic comes up in any conversation (which trust me is rare), I usually refrain from giving an opinion in an effort to mask my ignorance. While I'm not a fairly political guy - and I'll be the first to proclaim my apathy towards international issues - I'd like to have some sort of basic understanding. So when this book was recommended (and combined with the attractive title), I gave it a shot.

Now, I don't want to give anyone the impression that after I put this down I declared myself an authority on all Palestinian/Israeli matters. If anything, I doubt I'll ever fully understand it. I can say that Glidden at least gave me an idea of what all this fighting is over and that's a whole lot better than what I knew before hand.

Her story is an interesting one and while at times I found her overly dramatic, I can't say that I can tell her how she should act in this kind of environment. I really respect that while she admitted to having a huge bias upon starting her journey, she ended without beating over your head who is "right" and who is "wrong".

Why the 3 stars? I guess because when you break down the star system, 3 stars translates into "I liked it". So while I thought the artwork was beautifully done, I can't see this really having an impact on me in the long term.