Ocean City Free Public Library Book Blog

Melissa Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson This fantasy story follows the main character, Vin, who is a young female thief trying to survive on the streets. When she gets saved by an ambitious leader of thieving crew, she gets swept away along with their plans to overthrow the unjust government and comes across something she never expected: people she can truly trust. The characters are realistic and the story shows how people can have hope even after experiencing horrible things. Quite simply, I loved this book. Shoot Like a Girl by Mary Jennings Hegar This is a nonfiction account of an Air National Guard’s experiences in three tours of Afghanistan piloting medevac missions. Told in her point of view, this story shows her - at times strenuous - journey to rescue her allies in the middle of a firefight despite being injured. Her story become a pilot, leading up to a intense mission where she still manages to she kept fighting for women’s rights back hom...

Another standard book club pick, this non fiction expose describes life of a fairly well off book seller and his family in post 9/11 Afghanistan. Sultan has struggled all his life (and even gone to jail) to maintain the written word in his country despite the Taliban and/or government pressures to eradicate all forms of modern culture and ancient literature. Norweigan journalist Seierstad spent several months shadowing him and his family and paints a really depressing picture for modern Afghani women. Sultan's youngest sister Leila has a particularly suffocating and bleak life. Honestly, the book was written well and has a lot of information about the political history of the country, but MAN is it a downer.