≫ Read A House In the Sky Amanda Lindhout Sara Corbett 9781451651690 Books

A House In the Sky Amanda Lindhout Sara Corbett 9781451651690 Books

Download As PDF : A House In the Sky Amanda Lindhout Sara Corbett 9781451651690 Books

A House In the Sky Amanda Lindhout Sara Corbett 9781451651690 Books

This is not a book that I'd normally pick up but when it was chosen for our local One Book, One Community read I thought I'd give it a try. Going into it, all I knew was that it was about a hostage situation involving a young Canadian journalist in Somalia. What I didn't expect was how riveting a book could be even though I already knew the outcome.

A House in the Sky starts out showing Lindhout's childhood with her sometimes turbulent family life in Alberta, Canada. As a child she eagerly spends her meager pocket money on old National Geographic magazines and fantasizes about traveling to the far reaches of the world. At the age of 19, she earns enough money waitressing to spread her wings and make her first trip to Venezuela. There her love of travel is sparked and she continues to travel to far-off places including Pakistan, Ethiopia, Syria, Burma ... The more she travels the more dangerous some of her destination choices become, especially for a woman often traveling alone. While in Kabul, Afghanistan, and with no formal training, she decides to take up photography and journalism as a way to fund her passion for travel. In order to get bigger, more newsworthy stories she decides to go into more dangerous regions which leads her to Mogadishu, Somalia in 2008 - an area rife with danger and where most reporters choose not to venture.

Accompanying her to Somalia is her former boyfriend Nigel Brennan, an experienced photographer from Australia. Shortly after arriving in Somalia they are taken hostage and, in total, they are held captive in Somalia for a staggering 460 days. During these months they are tortured - both physically and mentally, starved, beaten and worse. Many scenes aren’t for the faint of heart and knowing that this wasn’t a work of fiction caused me to be much more emotional than I had anticipated.

Admittedly, some of Lindhout's decisions are naïve and impetuous and I had heard from other readers that witnessing her make these decisions frustrated them. I didn't have the same reaction. Instead, I thought she described her thought processes (and past experiences) well which enabled me to understand why she made those decisions. Still, it wasn't easy to read. I knew she'd be captured (and live through it). I knew there would, most likely, be violence and abuse and yet even though I knew generally how things would pan out for her I found myself on the edge of my seat for the majority of the book (and often hoping she'd somehow miraculously make different decisions).

Lindhout endured repeated horrors, deprivation, starvation and torture - both physical and psychological. And yet what will stay with me is her compassion and forgiveness towards her young tormentors (many of whom were teens and young men) and even Nigel, her friend and fellow prisoner, who made some decisions that didn't sit well with me. Lindhout showed compassion and forgiveness far surpassing anything I think I could manage if I were put in the same situation.

The fact that Lindhout survives is astounding but what is even more amazing is how, through months of pain and torture, she was able to keep her wits about her by imagining her House in the Sky - a place she could go to in her mind to get away from the horror she lived with on a daily basis. She is a testament to the power of the human mind, soul and the desire to survive.

This well-written book will pull you into Lindhout’s small world and while you may not agree with some of her decisions, you will be captivated by this book. Readers will witness vulnerability, strength, compassion and the strength of the human body and spirit. They will experience the roller coaster of emotions with Lindhout - from fear, despair, anger, horror but always with a glimmer of hope. Even though she had such a devastating experience in Somalia, Lindhout has proven that we have a choice in how life's events will affect our future. She has chosen to bring something positive to the people of Somalia via her organization, Global Enrichment Foundation which provides university scholarships to Somali women.

This is a book that will stay with me for a very long time. I am eager to meet Lindhout this fall when her book tour comes through my area. It will be a privilege to meet her and I hope that she realizes how much her tragedy has impacted others.

I highly recommend this book and give it my rare 5 stars.


Tags : A House In the Sky [Amanda Lindhout, Sara Corbett] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. A House in the Sky is a 2013 memoir by Amanda Lindhout, co-written with journalist Sara Corbett. It recounts Lindhout's experience in southern Somalia as a hostage of teenage militants from the Hizbul Islam fundamentalist group.,Amanda Lindhout, Sara Corbett,A House In the Sky,New York, NY: Scribner,1451651694

A House In the Sky Amanda Lindhout Sara Corbett 9781451651690 Books Reviews

This book documents the kidnapping of Amanda Lindhout and a fellow journalist in Somalia, but the first part of the book also details the author's childhood and other travels. The background is essential to the main story because it gives the reader a sense of who the author is, her curiosity for the world, her adventurous nature and makes you relate to her and empathize with her during her kidnapping.

There has been some criticism of the author and her naiveté in going to a place like Somalia, but there are two things I would like to mention that made this book incredible and different

1. At no point does the author indulge in self-pity, which considering her circumstances, is an incredible feat. She describes her kidnapping in vivid detail including the emotional and physical abuse that she suffers, but there is no under-lying attempt to gain sympathy or self-pity. She comes across as incredibly strong and that one does feel immense sympathy for the horrendous circumstances that she was in is due to the nature of what she underwent.

2. The author also has incredible control over her portrayal of Somalia and its people. Somalia is a foreign country to most people, considering that it is not a tourist destination and any news coming from the country generally tends to be about violence and war. In that situation, it is very easy for unaware readers to make vast generalizations about Somalians and the country itself based on Lindhout's experience. But she makes sure to never make any generalization about the country, and goes as far as to attempt to understand the reasons behind her kidnappers' actions. After the reading the book, I got a sense that Somalia is a dangerous country due to its political circumstances but I made no other assumptions about it.

Above all I really recommend this book as a story of human survival and resilience amidst the harshest of circumstances.
I finished this book in a couple of days, mainly because it was so hard to put down. Then I decided to wait several days before writing this review because I wanted to be fair to the author, Amanda Lindhout. I won't spend a lot of time covering the events of the 15 months Lindhout was in captivity since many reviews have done that. While I read the book, I alternated between disgust at what was happening to Lindhout and anger at her for putting herself in that position. I would love to know what credentialed journalists think of her and what she did. She fantasized about being a war reporter, took a flying short course in photography, and then immersed herself in one of the most dangerous parts of the world. For all practical purposes, Lindhout was completely unprepared for what she did. This book reminds me a lot of Cheryl Strayed's book Wild. This story has almost become a genre people putting themselves in difficult situations with little or no preparation. All of that said, no one deserves what happened to Lindhout, and I admire her ability to mentally overcome the abuse she endured. I also admire what she did after she was rescued building a foundation rather than merely running out to the speaker's circuit to profit from her spupidity. To say this is a great story seems a bit unseemly since it is so brutally violent. This I guarantee you will be riveted while reading Lindhout's story.
This is not a book that I'd normally pick up but when it was chosen for our local One Book, One Community read I thought I'd give it a try. Going into it, all I knew was that it was about a hostage situation involving a young Canadian journalist in Somalia. What I didn't expect was how riveting a book could be even though I already knew the outcome.

A House in the Sky starts out showing Lindhout's childhood with her sometimes turbulent family life in Alberta, Canada. As a child she eagerly spends her meager pocket money on old National Geographic magazines and fantasizes about traveling to the far reaches of the world. At the age of 19, she earns enough money waitressing to spread her wings and make her first trip to Venezuela. There her love of travel is sparked and she continues to travel to far-off places including Pakistan, Ethiopia, Syria, Burma ... The more she travels the more dangerous some of her destination choices become, especially for a woman often traveling alone. While in Kabul, Afghanistan, and with no formal training, she decides to take up photography and journalism as a way to fund her passion for travel. In order to get bigger, more newsworthy stories she decides to go into more dangerous regions which leads her to Mogadishu, Somalia in 2008 - an area rife with danger and where most reporters choose not to venture.

Accompanying her to Somalia is her former boyfriend Nigel Brennan, an experienced photographer from Australia. Shortly after arriving in Somalia they are taken hostage and, in total, they are held captive in Somalia for a staggering 460 days. During these months they are tortured - both physically and mentally, starved, beaten and worse. Many scenes aren’t for the faint of heart and knowing that this wasn’t a work of fiction caused me to be much more emotional than I had anticipated.

Admittedly, some of Lindhout's decisions are naïve and impetuous and I had heard from other readers that witnessing her make these decisions frustrated them. I didn't have the same reaction. Instead, I thought she described her thought processes (and past experiences) well which enabled me to understand why she made those decisions. Still, it wasn't easy to read. I knew she'd be captured (and live through it). I knew there would, most likely, be violence and abuse and yet even though I knew generally how things would pan out for her I found myself on the edge of my seat for the majority of the book (and often hoping she'd somehow miraculously make different decisions).

Lindhout endured repeated horrors, deprivation, starvation and torture - both physical and psychological. And yet what will stay with me is her compassion and forgiveness towards her young tormentors (many of whom were teens and young men) and even Nigel, her friend and fellow prisoner, who made some decisions that didn't sit well with me. Lindhout showed compassion and forgiveness far surpassing anything I think I could manage if I were put in the same situation.

The fact that Lindhout survives is astounding but what is even more amazing is how, through months of pain and torture, she was able to keep her wits about her by imagining her House in the Sky - a place she could go to in her mind to get away from the horror she lived with on a daily basis. She is a testament to the power of the human mind, soul and the desire to survive.

This well-written book will pull you into Lindhout’s small world and while you may not agree with some of her decisions, you will be captivated by this book. Readers will witness vulnerability, strength, compassion and the strength of the human body and spirit. They will experience the roller coaster of emotions with Lindhout - from fear, despair, anger, horror but always with a glimmer of hope. Even though she had such a devastating experience in Somalia, Lindhout has proven that we have a choice in how life's events will affect our future. She has chosen to bring something positive to the people of Somalia via her organization, Global Enrichment Foundation which provides university scholarships to Somali women.

This is a book that will stay with me for a very long time. I am eager to meet Lindhout this fall when her book tour comes through my area. It will be a privilege to meet her and I hope that she realizes how much her tragedy has impacted others.

I highly recommend this book and give it my rare 5 stars.