Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristof

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Kristof has long been one of my favorite columnists at the NYT, and many chapters in this book are expansions of editorials he's written for them over the years. Kristof's view of the world and how to make it better isn't knee-jerk liberalism. He offers solutions that are practical and even, at times, gritty. He points the finger of blame at governments and cultures, but cautions against top-down imposition of solutions from the West. Instead, he tells the stories of the women he's encountered and makes it impossible to discount the problem as too large to address. The reader is filled with hope, because every 10.00 donated or invested by the reader could go to help THAT woman improve her lot, and as a result, her country, and in turn the world. This is the manual, the handbook, for the Girl Effect, and they couldn't ask for a better one.

Highly recommended.

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