This week I read The Girl Who Smiled Beads by Clementine Wamariya. This was a memoir of Clementine's experiences during the Rwandan genocide and her eventual emigration to the United States. I went into this book knowing very little about the Rwandan genocide of 1994 and after finishing the book, I felt I hadn't learned much. She gives no background as to how the war started, what is was about, or anything like that. She alternated chapters between her moving from refugee camp to refugee camp and her life in the U.S. I found this jarring and was much more interested in her story in Africa. The chapters in the U.S. contain a lot of bad moods and lashing out at the people helping her. (obviously PTSD) In addition, these chapters seem unorganized and without purpose. I gave her book 3 stars because I enjoyed her style of writing and because she held my interest for some of the chapters.
I am reading two books now but I am only about 40% of the through so I'll include them next week.
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