For my 20th birthday last month, I had the great pleasure of spending 3 hours in Half Priced Books. My favorite thing to do is go to book stores and wander through the aisles and find books that look interesting and read the backs and then buy them. But my collection of books has expanded without me reading any. So, I’ve decided that this is the summer of books, books that I find interesting and want to share. So the first book I have finished is by Eve Ensler, the author of The Vagina Monologues, called Insecure at Last: Losing It in Our Security Obsessed World.
This book looks at how we rely on others for security when it might not be what is actually the right thing for us. Ensler travels around the world to visit different groups, predominantly women, who have suffered through intense and traumatic political and natural events. She visits victims of the Bosnian genocide, Hurricane Katrina, the Taliban, 9/11, the Tsunami in Sri Lanka, and much more. I enjoyed the content and what she was going for, but I felt that her sympathy was a bit too self-concerning. She would say how much she felt for the women and connected with them, and I would have liked to see her give more of an outside perspective and let the victims have their suffering.
Other than those things, reading about how our “security” could be a manufactured idea to better other people’s businesses or agendas gets you to really think what safety and security really are. The book also takes you into worlds that many Americans have not learned of or experienced, making you really think about what our world’s priorities are and what they should be.
So, my rating system will be donuts, and I would have to give this book
3 1/2 donuts
ENJOY!