A House in the Sky / Amanda Lindhout / 373 p.

Amanda Lindhout escaped the problems of her troubled childhood by reading National Geographics.  The pictures and stories about exotic places fascinated her. As a young adult she was filled with wanderlust and Amanda soon became a world traveler. Earning just enough money as a waitress to fund her traveling, she eventually decided that she also try to make money as a journalist. Continuously pushing boundaries, Amanda eventually decides to try to cover a story in one of the most dangerous places on Earth--Somalia.  She is accompanied by a former boyfriend.  It is hard not to judge her foolishness in putting herself in such a dangerous place. But this memoir is an interesting study in why we make the choices we make, how strong the will to live can be and how desperate the situations are for people living in impoverished, war-torn areas.