Light Years

So I sat down to read Light Years (my choice novel), telling myself that I was only going to read a little bit, but before I knew it I'd finished half the book. In other words: spoiler alert!!!

One of the things that stuck out at me most was the fact that all israeli kids join the military. It's as expected as going to high school. I just thought that was interesting. I also thought it was interesting that women were constcripted for military service alongside the men, though they are much less likely to serve in active combat or officer duty. I looked it up and according to Wikipedia (which is always reliable) "As of 2002, 33% of lower-rank officers are women, 21% of Captains and Majors, and 3% of the most senior ranks" Apparently, in more recent years, women are serving more and more equal combat duty. Here's the link to the article, by the way: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Defense_Forces#Regular_service


I was also highly entertained by Maya's description of American college students, with their floral skirts and high ponytails. Maya wondered how her roomate knew how to dress like everyone else. She thought that maybe it was a college thing, or an American thing.

I think it's a high school thing.