A Couple of Books

The Weight of Sand was first published in French and is now be available in English. Edith Blais discusses her captivity -- by Islamic extremists for over a year in West Africa -- mixing in some poetry. She actually managed to escape with the guy she was kidnapped with, an opening finally arising, though it surely still was a major risk (if one that went down quickly). It's obviously some story though I was really into her account to read the thing straight thru.

I read three books by Kristin Ghodsee and in one she references the autobiographical account (about the author's family in East Germany; he was born in 1970), Red Love. We basically learn about three generations of his family with an added bit about her mother's grandfather. Some parts are more interesting than others, and it is not really a full fledged account of life under communism (in part since his family is not quite typical). Still, it's a good read.