Word of the day:
ekphrasis- a description of a piece of art, possibly imaginary.
...Self-knowledge is limited. Only a few remarkable people can sense the way early experience has built models in their brain. Later in life, we build fictions and theories to paper over the mystery of what is happening deep inside, but in childhood, the inexplicableness of the world is still vivid, and fresh and sometimes hits with terrifying force.
The Social Animal, David Brooks
"If nothing matters, there's nothing to save."
Jonathan Safran Foer's grandmother, Eating Animals
73. A Civil Action- Jonathan Harr
An interesting look at one of the first major cases in environmental law, which questions the legitimacy of how both sides of the case worked. More philosophically, it examines whether legal proceedings can ever really uncover any sort of truth.
74. Dreams from my Father- Barack Obama
This book gave me really conflicted feelings. I'm proud to have a president with such an incredible story and diverse lineage. At the same time, it's sort of scary. How could someone so aware of the concept of "power" from a sociological and anthropological standpoint have made the kind of (not liberal enough) decisions he has made in power? The book left me really cynical about the ability of anyone to change institutions from the inside. But at the same time, it's amazing to see where he ended up.
75. 2666- Roberto Bolanos
One of the saddest and yet most creative, fulfilling and profoundly human books i've ever read, and certainly out of the books I've read in Spanish. Divided in 5 parts, the book is as immense in its pages as in its subject matter, taking the reader from Europe to America Santa Teresa, Mexico, a stand in for the town of Juarez, while loosely exploring forms of desire and existential questions about our responsibility to others. Undoubtedly, the most difficult section to read was about the murders of women. Every woman is given a matter of fact description of how she was found, like a slightly more detailed police report, no matter how little information existed. Every description listed the items the women were wearing or not, which I think this was intentional on his part, given the way Latin American culture is (generally) very focused on making judgments about people based on their appearance. In the way, Bolanos brings to mind the cynicism of societies that say women are expendable and got what they deserved for being putas, whores, or poor women who worked in maquilas, enslaved by something much larger than themselves. Bolanos protests the sinisterness of modernity, from Nazi war crimes committed in the name of following orders to maquilas to drug crime. He also exposes the absolute rule of machismo in institutions like the police, the impotence of a government women's organization, til it comes to be reflected in culture, down to the jokes that policemen tell about women.
One thing I did find a little disturbing is that almost all of the women in the book, even the strong female characters (and arguably there were many) became tied into the story as men used them for pleasure. I don't know if Bolanos was doing this to make a point or because he doesn't write female characters well.
A harrowing, but worthwhile read.
76. The Social Animal-David Brooks
While I didn't always agree with Brooks' cultural commentary, he created a very enjoyable story anchored by the life span of two fictional characters, while exploring two hypotheses: that we are more greatly influenced by our unconscious than we realize, and that modern life is leading people to be increasingly estranged from each other and a larger purpose in life.
I didn't appreciate how Brooks basically blamed Erica for being more "successful" and not having children, because that seems extremely blase and lacking in empathy for women who are trapped in a culture that doesn't give them a lot of flexibility. I also don't know how much I agree with Brooks' hypothesis that we've fallen out of contact with each other. Living in a society now where there is relatively little non- religious social organization, maybe i'm seeing things in a favorable light.
77. The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper and Fairer Health Care- T.R. Reid
A simple, eloquent and moral global overview of different health care systems, presenting a simple understanding of the trade offs different systems have decided to make and how differently the concept of medical care is understood in different cultures.
78. Eating Animals- Jonathan Safran Foer
With a title doubly exploring what it means to be animals that eat, but what the practice of eating animals means. The book features similar arguments to those I've read elsewhere (ie Michael Pollan), but they're constructed in classic quixotic Safran Foer style, dealing with central philosophical difficulties and bringing interesting characters to the conversation like vegetarian ranchers, vegan slaughterhouse designers, his Holocaust survivor grandmother and his young son. I think the best part of the book is the Words/Meaning (essentially a dictionary) which is hilarious, horrible and dead on. After reading it, I had a commitment not to eat meat, which lasted for like a week, until my values were sacrificed for some "table fellowship" at the fritanga stand (grilled meat) with my sitemate. Oops.
79. The Arsonist's Guide to Writer's Homes in New England- Brock Clarke
Oh Massachusetts, how I miss you. Funny characters, and themes that cut deep without detracting from National Bestseller type readability.
80. Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead- Sheryl Sandberg
Preach. I think men need to read this book more than women do. It's nice to think about how far we've come (which is very evident from my perspective on life here) but it's a little depressing how much farther we've got to go for equality in the workplace to be meaningful.
81. The Marriage Plot- Jeffrey Eugenides
Exploring a love triangle of recent Brown University graduates in the 1980s, I found this a hilarious and just slightly painful jab at how completely lost modern relationships can make us. Do well educated women get in love triangles hoy en dia though? Because I know plenty of sexy, self assured, liberal arts major ladies who can't find one equally educated guy interested in them, never mind 2! Ah, the wonderful world of fiction.
82. The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time- Jeffrey Sachs
Finally got around to reading the "optimist" version of economic development, in the very simplified Sachs vs. pessimist Bill Easterly debate. I didn't agree with everything in the book (ie role of governments or international organizations) and his sole focus on extreme poverty, but I do think that Sachs is dead on about one thing: we shouldn't let the supposed lack of money in the world keep us from stopping extreme suffering. There is plenty of money, just as there are plenty of hardened hearts that can't bother to think outside of a very small circle of caring.
83. The Vagina Monologues- Eve Ensler
Not everyone's cup of tea, certainly, but I'm so glad this book (theatre piece?) exists.
84. The Better Angels of our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined- Stephen Pinker
I pity the underlings who probably looked up all the information for the probably at least 100 graphs that appear in this book. While Pinker's argument that violence has declined is intriguing and probably right on some counts, it was way too Eurocentric, full of contradictions, and made some very big statistical leaps.
This was what we had decided in one of my classes last year when he was invited as a guest speaker, but I still read the book anyway, because I was a little down after 2666 and wanted to believe the species is capable of better. Pinker sort of kind of convinced me that maybe we are, even though his arguments weren't very scientific.
85. The Bean Trees- Barbara Kingsolver
Clearly this was Kingsolver's first novel, but a very moral and heartwarming story.
86. Fire from the Mountain (La Montana es Algo Mas de Una Imensa Estepa Verde)- Omar Cabezas
Really wish I had read this is Spanish because it was very clear a lot of the poetry was lost in translation. I mean look how much cooler the title is in Spanish: The Montain is Something More than An Immense Green Expanse...so much better!! Describing Omar Cabeza's journey from student revolutionary in urban Leon to his time as a guerrilla in the mountains, this book is full of honesty, although not without poetic moments or attempts to connect with a bigger struggle.
87. Even Silence Has an End: My Six Years of Captivity in the Colombian Jungle- Ingrid Betancourt
This very different jungle odyssey blew me away. Harrowing, heartbreaking and reflecting on the best and worst of human nature, this was definitely a page turner, full of intrigue, surprising pettiness, horrible cruelty and small victories. On a literary level, having read Gulag Archipelago a few months ago, I found the language of jungle imprisonment really fascinating, in terms of the euphemisms and convictions of righteousness.
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