Reading Reviews Vol. 6

"There is nothing more animal- like
 than a clear conscience
on the third planet of the Sun.
Wislawa Szymborska, "In Praise of Self Deprecation", as quoted in Pathologies of Power

"Where do people earn the Per Capita Income? More than one poor starving soul would like to know. In our countries, numbers live better than people. How many people prosper in times of prosperity? How many people find their lives developed by development?"
Eduardo Galeano, "Those Little Numbers and People," as quoted in Pathologies of Power

"Como la mudanza es nuestro hogar, cuanto mas baja e indefensa sea nuestra situacion, tanto mas hemos de guardar interiormente la integridad." / "When movement is our home, as low and defenseless as our situation may be, so much more must we guard our integrity inside." Peregrinatio (Pilgrimage), Mathilde Asensi

Word of the Day:
insolito/a- unusual

Soooooo basically with all of the insane bus rides, lack of school, and rain afternoons, I have read a bazillion things of late.

72. Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech- Edward Sapir
 This is a free book for Kindles from Project Gutenberg! It was really interesting to think about what language actually consists of, and the examples from varied languages around the world were really cool, but linguistics is really not for me. 

71. La Fiesta del Chivo (The Goat's Feast)- Mario Vargas Llosa
Re-read, although I understood way more than when I had to read this in a literature class my sophomore year of college. A really intense, but well-written book following a wide set of characters connected to Trujillo, dictator of the Dominican Republic for over 30 years. Graphic depictions of torture and rape though, reader beware.

70. Slaughterhouse Five- Kurt Vonnegut
I think I read this when I was in high school, but certainly appreciated it way more this time around. Just the right amount light without making light of its subject matter (the firebombing of Dresden).

69. Song of Solomon- Toni Morrison
What an amazing and complex book, on every level. Floored. Can't believe I made it until Peace Corps without reading any of her work.

68. Little Bee- Chris Cleave
Really mixed feelings on this one. While Little Bee is an incredibly unique and feisty protagonist, I felt uncomfortable with the way Cleave uses Nigeria as a scary playground in which to challenge his white protagonists with ethical dilemmas. I'm being a little bit unfair with that assessment, but I think if Cleave had toned back the drama slightly, and created a more fleshed out depiction of oil conflict in Nigeria, he might have nailed it. This is unfortunate, because he had so many great things to comment on: inhuman immigration policies, rampant racism in places that are supposedly oases of multiculturalism, and our obligations to our fellow human beings. I also thought he did a realistic job writing from the perspective of two women convincingly.

67. Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor- Paul Farmer
Re-read. This is one of the most passionate books I've ever read. Paul Farmer makes an incredibly compelling case for economic and social rights.

66. Peregrinatio (Pilgrimage)- Matilde Asensi
Another re-read. I love this weird little book that my college Spanish teacher assigned us in an upper level grammar course. A father writes his son instructions for how to complete a pilgrimage, and throws in some nuggets of wisdom about life along the way. It's also got some really cool medieval illustrations.

65. Blood of Brothers- Stephen Kinzer
A good, journalistic introduction to Nicaragua's tumultous recent history. While it doesn't give the most panoramic view of the Contra War, I really appreciated that he went into detail about the Sandinista and Contra hierarchy and the impact of the war on the Atlantic Coast. Kinzer also gives a lot of details about Nicaraguan culture, many of which are still relevant, amusing, or interesting (juice in bags, timeliness, giving directions in a city without numbered buildings, etc.)

64. The Open Veins of Latin America- Eduardo Galleano
I have to say that I was a little bit disappointed by this one. A leftist classic by a Uruguayan journalist decrying the causes of underdevelopment in Latin America, I felt it was a little bit dry in a lot of parts, particularly because other things I've seen by Galleano are incredibly poetic and quotable, and because it's nearly 40 years since its publication and the majority of the statistics are now pretty irrelevant. Although I'm sure some of the figures he cites on malnutrition and such are not as outdated as they should be. However, still a powerful book.

63. Jardin del Invierno/Libro de las preguntas/el mar y las campanas/ defectos escogidos- Pablo Neruda poetry collection
Re-read. Some of my favorite Neruda. Written in the two years before his death, Neruda's at his outspoken, wisest and most biting. Yet still beautiful.

62. The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable- Nassim Nicholas Taleb
As with the above, grumpy older men are the best. Taleb brings up some really trenchant points about how blind we are in the way we view the world. Sometimes along the way, he's insufferably arrogant, but it's worth putting up with.

61. The Poisonwood Bible- Barbara Kingsolver
A really important book to read if you're going to do work abroad. I think it's an easier trap to fall into than one might think to be a "Nathan Price" character, ie one who goes about wanting to impose his/her will on the savages. I thought Kingsolver did a really good job researching the book, although I'd love to have a Congolese opinion on that.

60. Jesus Land- Julia Scheeres
In case you were considering it, you don't want to go to Christian reform school in the DR. At times, Scheeres' 17 year old self is a little wearisome, but she's got quite a crazy tale to tell.

59. High Fidelity- Nick Hornby
I have a fear that this book is scarily accurate about modern relationships. Basically, you should just stay with the next person you end up with, because the world is terrifying and messed up, and it's too complicated to do otherwise. Somehow, though, Hornby communicates that message in a hilarious and occasionally profound way.

58. Estrella Distante- Roberto Bolanos
Re-read. Deals with the post 1973 coup aftermath in Chile, as it affects a poetry collective. So nice to see Chilean vocab again!

57. The Lacuna- Barbara Kingsolver
A really cool book. For me, the form of the novel, with a lot of letter writing back and forth, detracted from the overall panorama, but overall, a really powerful at the gap between individual lives and national truths.

56. The Awakening- Kate Chopin
Never had to read this in high school. 2 comments: 1) After reading the book on mental illness, it just sounded like her "Awakening" was the onset of manic depression. 2) The US is and always has been such a multi-lingual country! Why do we so easily fall for the lie that it is not?

55. A First Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links between Leadership and Mental Illness- Nassir Ghaemi
This book had a fascinating premise, but I think it got a little bit carried away with causation vs. correlation. Was Lincoln's decision making ability really enhanced by his depression? Regardless of the validity, however, it's a really interesting take on historical figures.

54. The Sex Lives of Cannibals- J. Maarten Troost
A man lacking much direction in his life follows his love to the Pacific Island of Kiribati. I only read the 2/3 of this that were left in the Peace Corps office, but this was pretty funny and managed to not be too offensive to locals. Mostly. So glad I'm not a PCV in the South Pacific.

53. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks­­- Rebecca Skloot
Researching the life of Henrietta Lacks, a black woman whose cells become immortalized as the He-La line, now used in research all over the world, I think this book would have been better if it had gone a bit wider and been more willing to deeply and critically engage with the ethical issues in science research and health care provision. Not to say that Skloot does not in some parts, but I just wish she had taken it a bit further.

52. A Visit from the Goon Squad- Jennifer Egan
Critics raved, but this book fell flat for me. The characters weren't fleshed out enough for my liking, and I'm not old enough to relate to the mid life crises everyone was having.

51. Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith- Jon Krakauer
Exploring a murder of a mother and her infant by Mormon fundamentalists, I think that Krakauer managed to create a relatively fair picture of the Mormon religion from its origins, including its titillating fringe elements. There are tons of Mormon missionaries here, which I find fascinating. I wonder how they get around the pretty explicit racism in the book of Mormon...

50. My Horizontal Life- Chelsea Handler
It's comforting to think that most people don't have their love lives together even a little bit.

49. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas- Hunter S. Thompson
I read this on a bus ride back from a conference in Managua, and I'm pretty sure the woman sitting next to me was horrified by the completely insane illustrations in the book. I decided that if she asked, I would tell him it was a book about hell, which wouldn't have been too much of a lie. I was almost a little sad when she didn't ask.

48. Marcel Mauss- The Gift
Man, anthropology has sure gone a long way in the last 50 years! While the premise, looking at ways in which giving cements social and economic relationships was brilliant, I found the writing pretty insufferable due to poor organization and clumsy phrasing. Maybe it was just an especially unwieldy translation from ze French.