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3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
I enjoyed this tale of growing up in Liberia. It has humor, food, fashion, and the struggles of growing up that apply not only in Liberia but anywhere. I also appreciated learning about the political issues experienced during Mrs. Cooper's younger years.
Since I am writing a book set in Johannesburg, Soweto, and a lodge close to Kruger National Park, I enjoyed learning how different Liberia, its struggles, and customs were so different from these areas of Africa that I have experienced. Pat Spencer, author of Story of a Stolen Girl
Since I am writing a book set in Johannesburg, Soweto, and a lodge close to Kruger National Park, I enjoyed learning how different Liberia, its struggles, and customs were so different from these areas of Africa that I have experienced. Pat Spencer, author of Story of a Stolen Girl
Liked the book a lot - great info on life in Liberia. End was a little slow -- but overall a great story.
In reading this book, I not only enjoyed a great story but received a valuable history lesson. Well done! After finishing, I also learned that I'm "three degrees of separation" from the author. It's a small, small world. Thank you for sharing your story.
How much Liberian English and history can one take? Maybe other readers can take more than I could but I felt like too much of this book was devoted to Helene Cooper's childhood and not enough to how she processed this childhood as a adult. It appears to me that everything has come so easily to her in comparision to the rest of her family. Yes, she credits her mother as a strong woman, but most of this book seems like "poor me" and rarely "poor Liberia". Her digs at the foreign policy of the United States wear thin, especially as we are currently supporting operations in Haiti. She is happy to be an American because she can blend in, but rejects its policy. She does not want Americans to be in Iraq, but she thinks that they should be in Liberia. Maybe that is why I did not like this book, Cooper is a blame passer. She feels that by becoming an American, she can now criticize everything American and appear to be smarter, somehow more above the common American. She sees herself as princess like, but has no gratitude for it. She never stops to think how families like hers caused much of the heartache to be able to occur in Liberia. If she does stop to think this, then she does not convey it appropriately.
To me, Helene Cooper is another example of a spoiled child who gets to make good on the backs of others. I wanted her say, "Damn, we had it so good when I was a kid." By the time that she realizes this, she had lost me as a reader. She bored me through the first half of the book and irked me through the second half. I wish that Eunice would write her story. Really, in comparision with others in Liberia how bad or sad was Cooper's life? The way that I am reading it, it is not all that horrible. Eunice could teach me more than Helene. She could probably make me care.
I believe that this book is another example of the media creating a star from one of its own because that person happens to be slightly more unique than others. Everyone has a story but it does not mean that everyone needs to hear that story. I have a bad taste in my mouth because of the tone of this book. This is a "poor-little-rich-girl" story set in Liberia with nothing much to say after the money runs out.
To me, Helene Cooper is another example of a spoiled child who gets to make good on the backs of others. I wanted her say, "Damn, we had it so good when I was a kid." By the time that she realizes this, she had lost me as a reader. She bored me through the first half of the book and irked me through the second half. I wish that Eunice would write her story. Really, in comparision with others in Liberia how bad or sad was Cooper's life? The way that I am reading it, it is not all that horrible. Eunice could teach me more than Helene. She could probably make me care.
I believe that this book is another example of the media creating a star from one of its own because that person happens to be slightly more unique than others. Everyone has a story but it does not mean that everyone needs to hear that story. I have a bad taste in my mouth because of the tone of this book. This is a "poor-little-rich-girl" story set in Liberia with nothing much to say after the money runs out.
Never ceases to amaze me how little I really know about what's going on in the world around me. I can see where I was when these events in Liberia are taking place. I just don't remember knowing such horrors were occurring. Fortunately, Helene was not there to experience most of it but she had enough. Unbelievable to me that an entire country can not have electricity for years on end! I liked how Helene grew up for us and wove the personal with the historical. There were times I wanted more and times I wanted less. But she put herself into the story and made me want to be her friend and part of her family.
3 1/2. Memoirs are really not my thing, to be fair. This is an interesting story but the writing isn't very engaging. The first half, while they were still in Liberia, was much more compelling to me than the second half, about her adulthood living in the US. Decent enough book, if it looks like something you would like, you probably will like it.
A very interesting memoir/documentary of the political struggle of Liberia and the life of Helene Cooper.
I didn't care for this - I'd read a pre-publication excerpt in the NY Times and was intrigued, but the book didn't hold up to my expectation. I thought it was poorly edited - rambled around. I didn't finish it, which is rare for me.
Her childhood was too familiar to be too interesting to me. Growing up privileged in Liberia didn't seem so different to me. The history and her family's part in it was, however.
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
slow-paced