Baghdad Burning II: More Girl Blog from Iraq [Library Binding]

Riverbend (Author), James Ridgeway (Introduction), Jean Casella (Introduction)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1435276000 | ISBN-13: 978-1435276000 | Publication Date: May 9, 2008

“Riverbend,” the Iraqi woman whose “articulate, even poetic prose packs an emotional punch” (The New York Times), continues her dispatches from her native Baghdad.

Interweaving commentary on major events since October 2004, with compelling stories about her own life as well as her family’s daily struggles, this is journalism from ground zero recording both occupation and insurgency.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The distinctive voice of pseudonymous Riverbend shines through this continuation of her blog, from October 2004 through March 2006 (2005's Baghdad Burning won a Lettre Ulysses Award for the Art of Literary Reportage). Now 27, she offers an invaluable description of life in a middle-class, secular, mixed Shia-Sunni family. Alternating reports of attacks seen on TV and raids in her neighborhood with the mundane details of fuel shortages and infrequent electricity and water, Riverbend also offers astute analysis of the Iraqi draft constitution and American media, widely available through Iraqi TV and the Internet (her suggestion for a reality show: "Take 15 Bush supporters and throw them in a house in Fallujah"). She emphasizes how gender has become an issue when it never was before, e.g., election forms are all stamped "male." Riverbend's dry wit leavens her anger: after watching the 2006 Oscar ceremonies on TV, she proposes Iraqi Oscars ("Ahmed Al-Chalabi in 'Disappearing Act' for his magnificent evaporation from the Iraqi political scene"). Throughout, the blog insists that most Iraqis are tolerant; prefer secular to religious government; fear civil war; and vehemently want the occupation to end. (Riverbend's blog continues at riverbendblog.blogspot.com.) (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Booklist

Riverbend has chronicled the U.S. occupation of Baghdad since July 2003. The first collection of her blog posts, Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog from Iraq (2005), was an intriguing, wide-ranging document, exploring both the mundanities of daily deprivation and the complexities of Iraq's political predicament. In this update, chaos has become the routine, and Riverbend's good humor is almost exhausted. She reports growing repression by Fundamentalist Muslims and predicts the impending death of Iraq's secular society. Worse than the fear of public chastisement is the fear of violence from Iraq's security forces, which she claims now act as religious and political militias. Simmering with righteous anger, she writes of nighttime raids, of dead friends, of shortages of water, power, and food. And news accounts--and Riverbend's own blog--tell us that violence in Baghdad has become even worse since the book went to press. Riverbend's opinions may be off-putting to supporters of the war, but her experiences transcend politics. This invaluable account should be read by all voting-age Americans. Keir Graff
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Library Binding: 190 pages
• Publisher: Paw Prints 2008-05-09 (May 9, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1435276000
• ISBN-13: 978-1435276000
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Baghdad Burning II, February 17, 2007

By 

A. D. McCreery (Palo Alto CA.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Baghdad Burning II: More Girl Blog from Iraq (Women Writing the Middle East) (Paperback)

This is a journal by a twenty something educated Baghdad woman writen almost daily from the time of the invasion and a picture of what has happened to her city and her family and how they cope - the lack of electricity, water and safety, the constant explosions and the troops breaking into homes and the loss of women's freedoms. She started out (See Baghdad Burning I) being encouraged but the horror of the last years has changed her outlook. She tells of women now having to be scarfed, wear long dresses and not drive and being terrorized by the fanatics and the military and police.
Emotionally, It is hard to read in great gulps but for a full understanding of what is happening to the daily lives of people of Baghdad I highly recommend it.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Powerful Voice About The Truth In Iraq, April 9, 2007

By 

Mr. Fellini "Fellini" (Orange County, California United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Baghdad Burning II: More Girl Blog from Iraq (Women Writing the Middle East) (Paperback)

The collections of blogs written by the Iraqi woman only known as "Riverbend" in what has become the "Baghdad Burning" series, is the best source of information to read to know about how the actual Iraqis are living and dying in the occupied country. More than "The Assassin's Gate" or "Fiasco," "Baghdad Burning" and "Baghdad Burning II" tell the truth about the Bush junta's imperialist war in Iraq and how it has affected the lives of its inhabitants. With grace and fine detail we learn about the loss of basic resources like water and electricity, the fear Iraqis live under with the threat of militia violence and U.S. commando raids on their homes. We get here a portrait of a nation descending into civil war as an occupying foreign force only makes things worse. Conservative pundits and pro-war screamers should read the sections where Riverbend begs the American people not to re-elect George Bush and where she describes the carnage and outright war crimes that took place with the destruction of Fallujah. What will be striking to many is how easily one can put his or herself in Riverbend's shoes as she describes her battles with the internet and her TV-viewing habits. It is poignant to read an Iraqi attacking Fox News for it's obvious distortion of the facts, of course Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity will claim they know more about what's best for Iraq than the actual IRAQIS. "Baghdad Burning II" is even more heartbreaking than the first volume because here the nation has descended into the deep abyss in which we are still mired, the terror has arrived in full spectrum and now the streets are truly not safe, the invaders and guerrillas roam the streets and sons and daughters are being slaughtered. What people should find disturbing about reading this collection of blogs is that indeed, our government has decided to raid a nation it does not understand at all, just read Riverbend's comments on the Iraqi elections and on how as the months pass, the people begin to see their government more as a puppet regime, read here about the basic misunderstanding of Iraqi culture and language, customes and tradition. These are not backwards people we can just push around, nobody is. "Baghdad Burning II" is a powerful, important document for the world, for everyone to read and understand what the consequences and effects are of colonialism, of imperialist war. It is written with a depth and insight priceless for those of us living on the other side which is usually the side that doesn't understand. In the years to come "Baghdad Burning" will be seen as one of the definitive accounts of life inside Iraq during the war, no doubt future generations will be just as moved, and find it just as important as our generation should.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Americans need to wake up, August 10, 2007

By 

Angela Brown "angiebrown" (Louisville, KY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Baghdad Burning II: More Girl Blog from Iraq (Women Writing the Middle East) (Paperback)

That anyone could read this woman's sensitive, heartfelt assessment of what is happening to her country and not be touched by it, is just another example of how this country is continuing to digress instead of make positive progress. How many people have to die in this mindless, spindless war before we all wake up and demand that our government pull our soldiers out and make some attempt to salvage the damage we have done to our reputation and the state of this country.

We have not improved the conditions in Iraq, Riverbend's blog is evidence of that. We have not found the "supposed" Weapons of Mass Destruction. And we have not made Iraq a safer Iraq by killing Saddam. For all of the atrocities Saddam did in his lifetime, we have sadly, put our men and women of the Arms Services in a no-win position so that they too are being forced by their government to cause more chaos than peace.

They should never have been sent over there in the first place, and the fact that we as citizens have buried our heads in the sand and allowed ourselves to easily become sidetracked by stupid, ignorant "news" stories (who cares if Brittany, Nicole or Paris self-distruct?!?)instead of asking, "Why won't our government allow us to see the Baghdad that Riverbend discusses in her blog?" Or "Why is the war being sanitized to the point that our dead are reduced to numbers instead of names?" Or bigger why, "Why is Bush and his cronies being allowed full reign to do whatever they want and no one is investigating them or demanding some type of hearings?"

I mean, we were forced to sit through hours after hours of hearings about Clinton's sexual behavior in the White House. One would think that thousands dead on Bush's watch would be worth some type of investigation. I am so tired of people acting as if what is going on in Iraq is for anything other than the personal gain of Bush and those who are in his inner circle. Let's call a spade a spade. When all of the lines and dots are connected, it will become abundantly clear who came out on top in this war, and it wasn't the Iraqi citizens, or the American Armed Forces or the American people. Could it be U.S. Defense contractors? Could it be Oil Contractors?

America has a long-time habit of glossing over or simply rewriting history so that we can sleep easy at night. I say, bring on the nightmares. We need to experience restless sleep or no sleep until this horrendous mission of Bush's is done. We shouldn't find peace in our dreams until the killing has ceased. Maybe if we toss and turn a few nights like Riverbend has had to,we will begin to make some thoughtful and unselfish demands of our government and the self-appointed leader of the world, Bush. We will demand that Bush (I refuse to call him president) bring our soldiers home, help in whatever way the Iraqis need us to rebuild their country, and fully acknowledge his wrongdoing in all of this craziness. For good measure, he would admit he is incapable of running this country even one more day and will step down...followed by his band of idiots (Condi, Chaney and the gang).

My one hope for Riverbend and her family, now that they have hopefully left Baghdad,is that they are all finding a peaceful place to lay their heads and are finally getting some much deserved rest.