#alongwaygone

[burgundyblazerguy]

Yesterday Kim Phuc, today Ishmael Beah. 🙌🏼 Ishmael was a child soldier during the civil war of the 90's in Sierra Leone, West Africa. Absolutely incredible to hear him tell his story. #ishmaelbeah #alongwaygone #hope #nevergiveup (at Shanghai, China)

[bhavan1]

This is how holidays are spent... good books, rocking chairs, inji happy in the sand... . #sierraleone #trueaccount #biography #reading #nonfiction #holidays #ALongWayGone #IshmaelBeah #books (at Velsao Pale)

[skittles-arizona-blog]

A Long Way Gone

On my second time reading this book, I am on page 77. Last week I read a total amount of 31 pages. I fell behind a lot on my weekly goal, because The week before I wanted to read at least 50 pages. 

“When I`m alone in my room sometimes I stare at the wall and in the back of my mind I hear my conscience call” 

 I chose that quote, because the character was reciting these lines from a LL cool J song and I thought it was so interesting because he was singing it to this old man and the older man was trying to figure out what he meant. It kind of reminds me how my granddad tries to figure out what the raps songs I listen to mean. 

[skittles-arizona-blog]

A “Longer” Way gone

I think my author wrote this book to ask the world basically, Why are people so cruel, and, are the results of the cruelty worth it? The rebels were so cruel that they forced a 12 year old boy to become a heartless killer in order to protect himself from them. Sometimes people get so caught up in their actions that they forget the possible side affects of what could happen. 

I am reading this book for the second time because I wanted to get a better understanding of his trials and tribulations throughout the book, and also to see what I pick up from the text that I did not quite get the first time.  

[inthemindofthepen]

A Long Way Gone (Natasha Somji)

It has been years since the last episode. Every day, I add one more tally, expanding the distance between your anger and my recovery. In the beginning, my feet dragged through the broken pieces of my soul that you had carelessly left strewn around the room, my body too bruised to stand itself upright. Now, I walk with a steady rhythm, gaining pace everyday. I have stooped down to pick up the pieces and sewn them gently back together. They will never be whole again in the same way, but perhaps the stitching makes them that much stronger.

And you are still by my side, a haunting reminder of the past that we have both tried so hard to leave behind. In the Beginning, you would sit by the window with your back turned toward me, too ashamed to look at me, too angry at yourself for the bruises you had inflicted. While I lay crumpled on the floor, unable to stand or even murmur a sound, imploring you with a gaze that you wouldn’t meet. It was only after my will to survive had gotten me through the Beginning, that you met me in the Middle. You gave me your hand as a crutch, a way to forgive yourself for the pain. And I held onto you, the only one who really understood at all. Sometimes there are no easy answers, no way to simplify our complex intertwined lives.

One day, we will get to the End, and cross the finish line hand in hand.

[inthemindofthepen]

A Long Way Gone (Mary Elise Lynch)

She sits here - trapped in a land where the snow falls constantly and this time of year, the sun graces you with her presence but only on brief occasion as a tease - when she used to surround herself in fields speckled with poppy flowers and sit outside in dusty courtyards entertaining long conversations with family and friends

She lights a candle and stares longingly - her son strikes the ebony and ivory keys in an attempt to rekindle a simple moment that existed - with scents of fattah, kibbeh lingering in the air the laughs of an older uncle the smile radiating from a young cousin the comfort of a father and husband - with hardly an inclination that it would all become a distant memory with the advent of an Arab Spring

[inthemindofthepen]

A Long Way Gone (Vijay Parameshwaran)

The train tracks stood in silence.  A long time ago, flashing passenger commuters, lumbering freight cargos, the occasional engineer in a standalone car, all flashed by on the steel rails.  Since the advent of the jet planes and the super-highways, those in power saw no need to continue what they viewed as an archaic method of transport.  Now, the only indicators of life along the tracks were the rustling of leaves falling, wildlife crossing the metal bars during migration, and the gang of kids pretending of times a long way gone; times when the whistling of the locomotive was as much a constant in the town as the other sounds.

[yomswalsh]

Multimedia video and audio clips for A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier.