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Title: Tears of the Desert: A Memoir of Survival in Darfur
Author: Halima Bashir with Damien Lewis

Thoughts: This was a very moving and touching memoir that made me cry at several points. Prior to reading this novel, I knew little about what has been happening in Darfur, something I am ashamed to admit. This book certainly educated me a lot.

Also I found the traditions that Bashir grew up with interesting to read about and it was obvious how much she loved her family in her descriptions of her childhood and of when she returns to her home village.

There were a lot of disturbing events in the book, but they are there to inform, not to sensationalize them. The part that sticks out the most in my mind was the female circumcision that she had to go through. I had never read an account of it before and being female myself, I know how much of a violation that could be. I can’t begin to imagine the pain or the betrayal she felt, but I can understand.

Bashir is a very brave and strong woman and I think she should be considered someone to look up to as she never stopped fighting in her own way with her care of the injured and speaking out.

(Written for LibraryThing)

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Title: Cybermancy
Author: Kelly McCullough

Thoughts: This is the book that follows directly after WebMage and I liked it, especially as it dealt with the concept of Chaos and the nature of it. It also explains a lot about who or what Necessity is.

Ravirn in this novel becomes a much more interesting character to me when he finally acknowledges the new nature that his new name, Raven, had given him. Now that he’s been disowned by the House of Fate that he was born to, he is no longer a force for Order, but for Chaos as the trickster nature of his new name would suggest. Not that he was all that orderly in the first place, especially compared to Cerice, Ravirn’s girlfriend.

It was a fun book to read and I can’t wait until I get around to reading the third book, Codespell.

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