Getting Smart

I've finished Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick yesterday (it took me less than a week to read the engaging book!), and today I will start This is Paradise, the account of one boy's childhood in North Korea. That will not be the end of my study of North Korea, as The Aquariums of Pyongyang is next at bat. It is almost impossible to complain about anything in our lives, when most North Koreans are adding grass clippings and tree bark to their soup to give the illusion of substance. The atrocities are unimaginable. These are not the kind of books you feel comfortable reading while you're sitting in the sun with your feet propped up, sipping on your iced mocha. These are the kind of books that make you pause after each paragraph and thank God for your home and family and your freedom, and pray for the people who are living under this failed communist regime.