He was a wannabe gangster and a high school dropout who got tattoos, drank and smoked, and sold drugs on the streets of Jordan. His mother was so concerned, she sent him to Muslim self-help classes. There, Ahmad Fadil found a new path. By the time he was killed in a U.S. airstrike in 2006, Fadil-by then known as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi- had lead a new terrorist insurgency in Iraq and Jordan that resulted in tens of thousands of civilian deaths. That group was ISIS. […]
Maybe it’s me?
I’m not having a great week when it comes to book club picks. Come tomorrow, I’ll be sitting with my coworkers as they gush about the Nyquil-on-a-page memoir Comma Queen (at least that’s my bet. They love all the books I hate). And next week, I’ll be with you excellent Cannonballers, talking about another book that I tried so hard to like, Bollywood Bride. Ria is a Bollywood star, known for playing the ingénue who usually gets married by the end of the movie. She’s known […]
Confessions of a Comma zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
I try really hard not to be “that guy” when it comes to grammar. I don’t have enough friends to play with fire and correct every grammatical mistake that flies out of their mouths. But like most voracious readers, I notice when these errors pop up. These days I work at a publishing company, where we pore over every minute detail. It’s pretty common here to see a production assistant with her face practically buried in a draft, searching for any errant commas to vanquish. […]
If you don’t mind crying in public, pick up this book
I’m not being dramatic. I burst into tears during my lunch break reading Åsne Seierstad’s devastating and chilling account of the 2011 terrorist attack in Norway. I thought about closing my book and pulling myself together, but I was too invested. Instead, I just let my hair cover my face and hope no one noticed. One of Us starts with two teenagers running for their lives. They’re being hunted by a strange man in a police officer’s uniform on a small Norwegian island. Unable to find […]