Night by Elie Wiesel

Our book discussion group read Night. Elie Wiesel is going to be honored in Dayton, Ohio on October 14th for lifetime achievement by the Dayton Literary Peace Prize at the Schuster Center. We were lucky enough to have high school students and their teacher to join our group of adult women to share their thoughts on this great book. We were amazed at the clarity of the author's language and his ability to put his experience to paper no matter how difficult that was to to, especially at a time when the world was not ready to face the whole truth of the Nazi plan of destruction. The author was instrumental in helping to have the Holocaust Museum built in the united States. This discussion of ours took place on the same day that the President of Iran was denying the Holocaust in a national publicized speech in America's Columbia University in New York.

Ethiopian diaspora

Just read a book, Sweetness in the Belly by Camilla Gibb. The protagonist is a young English-born girl, Lilly, whose parents travel the north African coast as free spirits. Her life changes when her parents are killed and she is left with a Muslim religious leader in Morocco for her upbringing. As she matures she is encouraged to take a religious pilgrimage to Ethiopia with another young Muslim scholar. The story is fascinating, told back and forth between the 70's in Ethiopia and the 80's in London. At a time when the west seems fascinated with the Muslim culture this book helps readers to understand some of the motivation behind the practices. Islam may be the largest growing religion in the world, and I want to understand it more. Not to convert, but to at least have more respect for people's choices and beliefs. This book is well written and sympathetic to the Diaspora in London of the Ethiopia population. The author spent time in Ethiopia as part of her anthropology research, and her appreciation of the people shows.