I Am Malala
by Christina Lamb, Malala Yousafzai
Rating: 5.0 / 5 · Read · Finished 2017-12-03
Amazing story, and it taught me a lot about a region of the world I didn’t know too much about. The first third or so is pretty dense history. I definitely recommend keeping Google or Wikipedia handy to look up names/places, and also to keep notes. After that, it becomes more of a first-person narrative. The last third is the most exciting and quick to read.
The book paints the picture of Pakistan as a battleground that world powers have used to fight their own battles. There’s also a large conflict between socially conservative Islam more progressive Islam. The Taliban take socially conservative Islam to the extreme (no school for girls, women need escorts and leave house as little as possible) and do it militaristically (bombing schools, shooting activists). As with most of history, a lot of it is probably about gaining and keeping power. To my surprise, the book makes the military of Pakistan look a lot better than the civilian government, which is not something I’m used to thinking about.