Girls like us by Sheila Weller

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Started reading 18 August 2008         Finished reading 25 August 2008

A revelation for me, Engrossing to say the least since the book involves three women singer, songwriters that are in my good books – Carole King, Joni Mitchell and Carly Simon.

A common thread seems to be the man in their lives. It seems improbable that a few of the men that they encounter were linked in one way or another to the three women. I guess being in the music circle, the chances of that happening is quite high. But the three seem to be drawn to almost similar traits in their companions.

Aside from that, their diverse backgrounds belie the struggle that they had to go through to make a name for themselves in the music industry. Women in the 1960s and 1970s were still appendages to men and for these three to make it to the top on their own merit is testimony to their talent and creativity. A wonderful gift, tunes that strike a chord in the listener’s mind from a woman’s perspective. We owe them a lot for those moments.

 

Iran Awakening by Shirin Ebadi

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Started reading 1 June 2008                             Finished reading 23 June 2008

“It so happened that I believed in the secular separation of religion and government because fundamentally, Islam, like any religion, is subject to interpretation.”

“The last twenty-three years, from the day I was stripped of my judgeship to the years doing battle in the revolutionary courts of Tehran, I had repeated one refrain: an interpretation of Islam that is in harmony with equality and democracy is an authentic expression of faith. It is not religion that binds women, but the selective dictates of those who wish them cloistered. That belief, along with the conviction that changes in Iran must come peacefully and from within, has underpinned my work.”

Those two extracts from the book highlights the author's life long work and conviction. She is still there in Iran, but we are not sure how long she'll be allowed to continue as the ruling clique will always try to obliterate independent voices like hers. She has not given minute details of every facet of her life as I'm sure in that way, she is protecting others from facing the wrath of those in power.

May she continue her good work and hope against hope is able to see some of the fruits of her labour during her lifetime. Future generations must continue in her footsteps or even go beyond what has been achieved. That is the only way.

The problems of philosophy

by Bertrand Russell

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Started reading 1 May 2008

Finished reading 14 May 2008

A step by step primer on why we need philosophy. Starting from his first sentence “Is there any knowledge in the world which is so certain that no reasonable man could doubt it?” until the last page, the author provokes and cajoles the reader to go beyond his customary comfort zone.

Lucid with many clear examples, we go through the problems faced by all of us. Us, the homo sapiens, the questioning life form.

The last paragraph in the book says it all:

Philosophy is to be studied, not for the sake of any definite answers to its questions, since no definite answers can, as a rule, be known to be true, but rather for the sake of the questions themselves; because these questions enlarge our conception of what is possible, enrich our intellectual imagination and diminish the dogmatic assurance which closes the mind against speculation; but above all because, through the greatness of the universe which philosophy contemplates, the mind also is rendered great, and becomes capable of that union with the universe which constitutes its highest good.