Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction

Beautiful boy is a memoir by David Sheff. In it he talks about his journey in dealing with his son's addiction to Methamphetamine. The story takes you all the way from Nick's(the author's son) early childhood to the present time. Throughout the book you see the downward spiral Nick's life takes, as well as the emotional toll it takes on his father. This book was both extremely sad and emotionally moving. Although I am not a parent myself, and am far from being so, Mr. Sheff's writing allowed for me to easily empathize with his painful experience. Another thing that I found striking about this memoir was the honesty it was written with. David makes seemingly little effort to try and portrait himself in a more positive light, and rather reflects honestly and openly on the mistakes he made as a father. These mistakes include such things as agreeing to do drugs with his drug-addicted son. The one issue that I had with the book is the reading level. I found that this book was not very challenging, although that is more a criticism of my reading choices than of David Sheff's writing I suppose.

Half The Sky

Half the Sky is a non-fiction work written by Nicholas D. Kristof and his wife, Sheryll WuDunn. Half the Sky is somewhat of a crossover between a journalistic expose and a long persuasive essay. The book focuses on women's rights violations and how they have effected the world. Throughout the book, Nick and Sheryll share the stories of persecuted women from around the world. They speak to women from a variety of situations; from women who had been forced into prostitution to others who have been dishonored and outcast from society because she was raped. Nick and Sheryll use these stories as a tool to explore the depths and extents of female persecution as well as its effects. Nick and Sheryll then go on to disscuss how liberating women from persecution could be the answer to the economic and social troubles of many countries, citing such examples as China, where a once second class group of women are now leading the way to economic growth. None of this, however, was my favorite part of reading this book. What I enjoyed most was trying to figure out whether Sheryll or Nick was writing at any given time. Having read Nick's column and blog frequently, and had dinner at their house several times, it was interesting for me to try and pick out each author's voice specifically in their writing.