Two terrific books in a row. Last entry it was Dick Francis. This time it's an autobiography called Infidel by Ayann Hirsi Ali. Hirsi was born in Somalia to a strict, traditional Muslim family and upbringing. She was raised in Somalia, Saudi Arabia, and Kenya and ends up as a member of Parliament in the Netherlands. This sounds like a fairy tale come true but she is constantly under death threat by reactionary Islamists, lives under armed guard, and has been disowned by her family and clan.

I came away with immense admiration for this very strong, intelligent individual. She may not have a very good grasp of numbers and statistics (she tells of her struggles getting into courses and colleges in the Netherlands) but she thinks, speaks, and writes with clear logic while never abandoning emotion.

Her life is startling in, and of, itself but she was not generally known by the public and was certainly not an international figure until the murder of Theo Van Gogh, a film maker, in 2005. They had made a short 10-minute film together called Submission, about the life of a Muslim woman. This woman might live anywhere in the world but has no individual freedom. This movie was the final straw that put her under armed guard and required her escape to the US for a year for her own safety, and resulted in the murder of Van Gogh. I remember being shocked by the event when it happened in that small, peaceful country but only being vaguely aware of the background.

She is anything but politically correct. Her indictment of Islam is profoundly sad while scathing at the same time.

When people say that the values of Islam are compassion, tolerance, and freedom, I look at reality, at real cultures, and governments, and I see that it simply isn't so. People in the West swallow this sort of thing
because they have learned not to examine the religions or cultures of minorities too critically, for fear of being called racist.

It makes for some serious thinking about the events in the world.

I've just come across a new website that looks interesting. WhatShouldIReadNext.com. I'm pretty sure the caps aren't necessary but it helps to figure out what it says the first time you see it.

Two books this time. The first is frankly not worth the time to read-Highland Laddie Gone by Sharon McCrumb. Not a bad book, just not very good. It's set at a Scottish Festival in West Virginia. One of the review blurbs inside the cover calls it a social comedy. It's certainly more that than a murder mystery but also it wasn't very funny.

The next one is the polar opposite. Hot Money by Dick Francis. If you've never read anything by this author you're in for a real treat. He was the queen's jockey in England and knows the racing world forward and backward. Every book he writes is in some way connected to racing, however, the world of horses and racing only serves as a backdrop to the incredible writing and character development he manages to create book after book. He only has a couple of continuing characters and that worried me when I was first introduced to him (courtesy of my mom) because I enjoy following the lives of the characters. However, now I grab a new one whenever I have a chance. It doesn't matter what the dust jacket says about the plot. He could write about anything and it would be worth reading-and difficult to put down til it's finished. When you do finish there is the distinct mixture of satisfaction after finishing a really well written book and dismay that you have to leave that world.

I checked his website-DickFrancis.com and it says that his last one was published in 2000 but I thought I read in the paper that he had a new one out this last year. However, it did list 38 novels and a collection of short stories so there are enough to keep us going for a while. Francis is 88 years old so we can only hope he continues writing as long as possible.

I just read some of the posts to his site and several (dated within the last week) mentioned his latest-Under Orders-written with his son. So I was right and his blog is just not quite up-to-date. Yeah, I have another one to find!

I've been reading a book that stinks-literally. I received it from a book swap with the warning that the front cover was folded as if the book had been read in one hand with the front cover bent around the back. That doesn't bother me because I'm one of the worst abusers of books (my own-I'm very careful with others'. However, I have taught my kids the same bad habits, much to the dismay of my husband). I don't think a book is properly readable until the back has been broken and I love used books with comments in the margins. I even love an old book musty smell. However, I was not warned that at least one of the previous owners was a smoker-and obviously loved to smoke while reading (hence the folding back of the book cover? book in one hand, cigarette in the other?) I had to hold it uncomfortably far away from my face and turn the pages one at a time, slowly or I would get a waft of cigarette smoke. I would only hold it with one hand because my hand would come away smelling like smoke and I was very careful what surfaces I set it down on. I can't remember ever actually throwing a book away-not a huge fan of censorship or book burnings! However, when I finish this post this one goes straight into the recycle bin!

This is all very unfortunate because the book is Harm Done by Ruth Rendell. She writes a continuing character by the name Inspector Reg Wexford. I like police procedurals even though they are everywhere and, generally speaking, people frequently look down their noses at them-probably because they have been so prevalent in the last several years. The only thing better than an American police procedural is an English one. This one is set in Kingsmarkham-a small town in the English countryside. That's as close to locating it as I can get.

This one was a little annoying because it started off with a crime to be solved that turned out to be only tangentially related to the major crime that becomes the focus of the book. A lot of time was spent setting up the circumstances of the original crime and I kept wishing she would bring the story back into line with that until I realized that it really wasn't important except in how it set up the later episodes

I realize that I've gone on too long-again. Suffice it to say that I will continue to read Ruth Rendell. I thoroughly enjoy her characters, I like spending a little bit of time in England, and I do like police procedurals.