What book would you recommend?
Our 2022 Fellows share what’s on their bookshelf.
As we approach the end of the year, it’s a time of reflection, celebration, generosity, and hopefully a time to recharge. One of the many ways we like to recharge is through reading.
“What better occupation, really, than to spend the evening at the fireside with a book, with the wind beating on the windows and the lamp burning bright.” – Gustave Flaubert
In the spirit of curling up on the couch and losing one self in a good book, we asked our 2022 Fellows to share their book recommendation. Each story takes you to a different country, much like the Fellows themselves.
Parth Nikil: I recommend the book: The Last Heroes: Footsoldiers of Indian Freedom. It is written by senior journalist P Sainath. He has profiled lesser-known freedom fighters of India, who sacrificed a lot but didn’t get recognised because they mostly lived and fought in remote villages.
Anastasia Valeeva: Being loyal to my fellowship placement, I recommend What’s prison for?, a recent book by Bill Keller, a Pulitzer Prize-winning former New York Times journalist and the founding editor-in-chief of The Marshall Project, a news organization that focuses on U.S. criminal justice, where I was a data fellow. It is a concise yet powerful meta-narrative of the changing role of prisons and an argument about how we can do better.
Nitu Ghale: I suggest a Nepali book Sherpa: Stories of Life and Death from the Forgotten Guardians of Everest.Sherpa was written in English by Nepali journalists. It tells the story of Sherpa who are expedition leaders and workers, indigenous and live in the Himalayas in eastern Nepal. This is very interesting if you are willing to learn about Nepal.
Chencho Dema: I recommend The Last Fools: The Eight Immortals of Lee Kuan Yew by Peh Shing Huie. because it is the perfect book to know the in-depth history of civil servants who were behind building Singapore and what it is today. Once a rejected country and how it converted itself to one of the fastest growing economies in SouthEast Asia.
Who are we without the stories we share?
“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.” – Charles W. Eliot
How we tell the stories of the world, wether it be through books, newspapers, television interviews, or new online media platforms. Journalism and Journalists have an important role in the telling of these stories, especially in countries where corruption, censorship, and bias persist. The Alfred Friendly Press Partners Fellowship’s mission is to lift up journalism around the world, by training young journalists with the tools and skills to share the stories of their communities, people, and culture, to change the world with their words.
You can be part of their story, with your help, we can train more young journalists from countries where press freedom has the potential to grow.
