Three More Books Read
20. Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathaniel West
Miss Lonelyhearts is the Dear Abby of her day during America’s Great Depression. But Miss Lonelyhearts is a he, not a she, and that’s only the beginning of the ways Miss Lonelyhearts deceives her readers. Though he feels pity for his readers and their terrible lives, Miss Lonelyhearts has little to offer to help them.
Oddly, the most disturbed character in the book is Miss Lonelyhearts himself. He obsesses over the troubles of his readers but no one is able to help him. His editor doesn’t even try, regarding the whole Miss Lonelyhearts column as a joke, a publicity stunt. His fiancé suggests he quit the job, something he can’t bring himself to do. Miss Lonelyhearts tries several ways to help himself but all fail.
This is a very short novel, a novella really, but it is very thoughtful and darkly comedic. I read it twice, the second time after reading some commentary about the novel, and the second reading was a rich reading for me. The commentary says that Miss Lonelyhearts is a Christ-like figure who, in the end, sacrifices himself for his people, but to no end. The author, the commentary goes on to write, saw there was no place for the innocent, the sacrificial, in the evil modern world.
21. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Lenny and George are friends who travel together, looking for work during the Great Depression in America. George is world wise and street smart but Lenny is slow and naïve. George and Lenny have struggles finding work and Lenny, because of his limited intelligence, is always struggling to keep from jeopardizing the jobs the men find. Despite their struggles, George and Lenny have big dreams, dreams of getting their own place and living off the “fatta the land.”
Lenny and George find work on a ranch, but within hours of arriving, the men are worried about keeping their jobs. The owner’s son is a small man who is always looking for a fight. In addition, the owner’s son’s wife is a flirt, inciting her husband’s raging jealousy and anger. And it is not long before trouble comes.
A powerful story, with vivid characters and rich symbolism. One of my favorite reads of all time.
22. Nine Hills to Nambonkaha by Sarah Erdman
Erdman relates the stories of the two years she spent as a Peace Corps volunteer in a small village in the Ivory Coast in Africa in the late 1990’s. I had to look up the copyright date after I started the book; was the book taking place in the 1990’s or the 1890’s? It could have been either based on the lives of the villagers. No running water, no electricity. Mothers didn’t know the birthdates or even the ages of their children. Very little reading or writing. No knowledge of birth control or ways to combat disease. Little knowledge of the outside world.
Where should Erdman, assigned to the little village as a health care worker, start? She begins to teach the mothers about their babies, how to help them gain weight, getting them immunized, and gradually begins to help them learn about ways to avoid getting AIDS and about birth control. In the end, she feels a deep sense of accomplishment in her work in the village.
My new favorite travel story.
1 | Comment (0)Books from Every Country in the World
From The Travel Book:
AFGHANISTAN
The Road to Oxiana by Robert Byron
A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush by Eric Newby
Afghan Caravan by Idris Shah
ALBANIA
Broken April by Ismail Kadare
Biografi by Lloyd Jones
ALGERIA
Between Sea and Sahara: An Algerian Journal by Eugene Fromentin
Nedjima by Kateb Yacine
ANDORRA
Andorra by Peter Cameron
Approach to the History of Andorra by Lidia Armengol Vila
ANGOLA
Angola Beloved by T. Ernest Wilson
ANGUILLA
Green Cane and Juicy Flotsam: Short Stories by Caribbean Women
Under an English Heaven by Donald E. Westlake
ANTARCTICA
Aurora Australis by Ernest Shackleton
Shiver by Nikki Gemmell
ANTIGUA & BARBUDA
Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid
Antigua, Barbuda and Redonda: A Historical Sketch by Desmond Nicholson
ARGENTINA
A Secret for Julia by Patricia Sagastizabal
Bad Times in Buenos Aires by Miranda France
ARMENIA
The Crossing Place by Phillip Marsden
ARUBA & NETHERLANDS ANTILLES
Nights in Aruba by Andrew Holleran
AUSTRALIA
Remembering Babylon by David Malouf
Songlines by Bruce Chatwin
AUSTRIA
The Left-Handed Woman by Peter Hanke
The Nebelungenlied
Tractatus by Wittgenstein
AZERBAIJAN
Leyli and Majnun by Mehmed bin Suleyman Fuzuli
Ali and Nino by Kurban Said
BAHAMAS
Paradise Overdose by Brian Antoni
BAHRAIN
Looking for Dilmun by Geoffrey Bibby
BANGLADESH
Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore
Bangladesh: Reflections on the Water by James J. Novak
BARBADOS
Castle of My Skin by George Lamming
BELARUS
Two Souls by Maxim Haradsky
BELGIUM
A Tall Man in a Low Land by Harry Pearson
The Sorrow of Belgium by Hugo Claus
BELIZE
Belizious Cuisine
BENIN
The Viceroy of Ouidah by Bruce Chatwin
BERMUDA
Bermuda’s Story by Terry Tucker
BHUTAN
A Baby in a Backpack to Bhutan by Bunty Avieson
BOLIVIA
The Fat Man from La Paz: Contemporary Fiction from Bolivia by Rosario Santos
BOSNIA & HERCEGOVINA
The Fall of Yugoslavia by Misha Glenny
BOTSWANA
Bayeyi & Hambukushu: Tales from the Okavango
The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
BRAZIL
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The Masters and the Slaves by Gilberto Freyre
BRUNEI
Time and the River by Prince Mohamed Bolkiah
BULGARIA
Bulgarian Rhapsody by Linda J. Forristal
BURKINA FASO
The Maxims, Thoughts and Riddles of the Mossi by Dim-Dolobsom Oudraogo
BURUNDI
Burundi on the Brink 1993-95 by Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah
CAMBODIA
The River of Time by John Swain
CAMEROON
The Poor Christ of Bomb by Mongo Beti
The White Man of God by Kenjo Jumban
CANADA
Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje
CAPE VERDE
Arquipelago by Jorge Barbosa
CAYMAN ISLANDS
The Cayman Islands: The Beach and Beyond by Martha K. Smith
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
The Central African Republic: The Continent’s Hidden Heart by Thomas E. O’Toole
CHAD
Chad: A Nation in Search of Its Future by Mario J. Azevedo
CHILE
House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
CHINA
The Search for Modern Island by Jonathan D. Spence
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
Imperial Women by Pearl S. Buck
COLUMBIA
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Poetry by Jose Asuncion Silva
COMOROS & MAYOTTE
The Comoros Islands: Struggle Against Dependency in the India Ocean by Malyn Newitt
CONGO, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF (ZAIRE)
In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz by Michaela Wrong
The Catastrophist by Ronan Bennett
CONGO, REPUBLIC OF
Congo Journey by Redmond O’Hanlon
COOK ISLANDS
An Island to Oneself by Tom Neale
COSTA RICA
Costa Rica: A Traveler’s Literary Companion
COTE D’IVOIRE
Climbie by Bernard Dadie
Le Fils de la Femme Male by Maurice Bandaman
CROATIA
Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West
Café Europa by Slavenka Drakulic
CUBA
Trading with the Enemy byTom Miller
CYPRESS
Journey into Cypress by Colin Thubron
CZECH REPUBLIC
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera
Utz by Bruce Chatwin
DENMARK
Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg
Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales
Kierkegaard’s philosophical works
DJIBOUTI
Khamsine by William JF Syad
DOMINICA
Voyage in the Dark by Jean Rys
The Orchid House by Phyllis Shad Allfrey
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa
EAST TIMOR
The Redundancy of Courage by Timothy Mo
Crossing: A Story of East Timor by Luis Cardoso
ECUADOR
Huasipungo (The Villagers) by Jorge Icaza
Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut
EGYPT
Cairo: The City Victorious by Max Rodenbeck
The Cairo Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz
EL SALVADOR
Cuentos de Barro (Tales of Mud) by Salarrue
ENGLAND
The English by Jeremy Paxman
EQUATORIAL GUINEA
Travels in West Africa by Mary Kingsley
ERITREA
Eritrea at a Glance by Mary Houdek
Even the Stones are Burning by Roy Pateman
ESTONIA
The Czar’s Madman by Jaan Kross
ETHIOPIA
The Sign and the Seal by Graham Hancock
FALKLAND ISLANDS
The Battle for the Falklands by Max Hastings
FIJI
Children of the Sun by Bryan McDonald
FINLAND
Seven Brothers by Aleksis Kivi
FRANCE
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
FRENCH GUIANA
Papillon by Henri Charriere
GABON
African Silences by Peter Matthiessen
GAMBIA
Chaff on the Wind by Ebou Dibba
GEORGIA
Please Don’t Call It Soviet Georgia by Mary Russel
Bread and Ashes by Tony Anderson
GERMANY
Faust by Goethe
The Tin Drum by Gunther Grass
GHANA
Asante: The Making of a Nation by Nana Otamakuro Adubofour
GREECE
Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres
GREENLAND
Last Places: A Journey in the North by Lawrence Millman
GRENADA
Under the Silk Cotton Tree: A Novel by Jean Buffong
GUADELOUPE
Anabase by Alexis Leger
The Tree of Life by Maryse Conde
GUAM & NORTHERN MARIANAS
Micronesia: Winds of Change
GUATEMALA
Hombres de Maiz by Miguel Angel Asturias
GUINEA
L’Enfant Noir by Camara Laye
GUINEA-BISSAU
Under the Neem Tree by Susan Lowerre
GUYANA
To Sir With Love by ER Braitwaite
Nine-Two Days by Evelyn Waugh
HAITI
Beast of the Haitian Hills by Pierre Marcelin
All Souls’ Rising by Madison Smartt Bell
HONDURAS
El Gran Hotel by Guillermo Yuscaran
The Soccer War by Ryszard Kapuscinski
HONG KONG
An Insular Possession by Timothy Mo
Fragrant Harbour by John Lanchester
HUNGARY
Fateless by Kmre Kertesz
Eclipse of the Crescent Moon by Geza Gardonyi
ICELAND
Independent People by Halldor Laxness
Angels of the Universe by Einar Mar Gudmundsson
INDIA
Discovery of India by Jawaharlal
India: A Milion Mutinies Now by V S Naipaul
INDONESIA
The Fugitive by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Saman by Ayu Utami
IRAN
Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith by Gina Nahai
Persian Pilgrimages by Afshin Molavi
IRAQ
The New Iraz by Joseph Braude
Gilgamesh
IRELAND
McCarthy’s Bar
ISRAEL
Amos Oz
ITALY
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
JAMAICA
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
JAPAN
Inside Japan by Peter Tasker
Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
JORDAN
Seven Pillars of Wisdom by TE Lawrence
KAZAKHSTAN
The Silk Road by Irene Frank
KENYA
Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen
KIRIBATI
In Search of Tusitala by Gavin Bell
KOREA, NORTH
KOREA, SOUTH
Yi Sang’s Wings
Korea Unmasked by Rhie Won-Bok
KUWAIT
From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas Friedman
KYRGYZSTAN
Djamila by Chinghiz Aitmatov
LAOS
Bamboo Palace by Christopher Kremmer
LATVIA
Lacplesis (The Bear Slayer) by Andrejs Pumpurs
LEBANON
From the Holy Mountain by William Dalrymple
LESOTHO
Stories By and About Women in Lesotho by K. Limakatso Kendall
LIBERIA
Liberia: Portrait of a Failed State by John-Peter Pham
LIBYA
Ismailia Eclipse by Khaled Mattawa
LIECHTENSTEIN
Secrets of the Smallest State of Europe by Thomas Ecchardt
LITHUANIA
Balta drobule by Antanas Skma
LUXEMBOURG
How to Remain What You Are by George Muller
MACAU
City of Broken Promises by Austin Coates
MACEDONIA
Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West
MADAGASCAR
Madagascar, Island of the Ancestors by John Mack
MALAWI
The Rainmaker by Steve Chimombo
Jungle Lovers by Paul Theroux
MALAYSIA
Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
The Return by KS Maniam
MALDIVES
Mysticism in the Maldives
MALI
The Unveiling of Timbuctoo by Gailbraith Welch
MALTA
For Rozina…A Husband by Francis Ebejer
The Kappilan of Malta by Nicolas Monserrat
MARSHALL ISLANDS
Man This Reef by Gerald Knight
MARTINIQUE
The Collected Poetry of Aime Cesaire
Texaco by Patrick Chamoiseau
Malemort by ESdouard Glissant
MAURITANIA
Impossible Journey: Two Against the Sahara by Michael Asher
MAURITIUS
Paul et Virginie by Bernardin de St Pierre
Petrusmok by Malcolm de Chazal
MEXICO
History of the Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Diaz del Castillo
The Labyrinth of Solitude by Octavio Paz
MICRONESIA, FEDERATED STATES OF
Islands Islands: A Special Good by Bernadette V Wehrly
MOLDOVA
Playing the Moldovans a Tennis by Tony Hawkes
The Moldovans by Charles King
MONACO
Anything Considered by Peter Mayle
The Bridesmaids
MONGOLIA
The Secret History of the Mongols
MONTENEGRO
Wild Europe by Bozuidar Jezernik
MOROCCO
Year of the Elephant by Leila Abouzeid
Women of Marrakesh by Leonora Peet
MOZAMBIQUE
Dumba-Nengue by Lina Magaia
MYANMAR
Freedom from Fear & Other Writings by Aung San Sauu Kyi
Burmese Days by George Orwell
The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux
NAMIBIA
Born of the Sun by Joseph Diescho
NAURU
Nauru: Phosphate and Political Progress by Nancy Viviani
NEPAL
Tenzing and the Sherpas of Everest by Judy and Tashi Tenzing
NETHERLANDS
The Diary of Anne Frank
The Fall by Albert Camus
NEW CALEDONIA
Kanake by Jean-Marie Tjibao
NEW ZEALAND
The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera
NICARAGUA
Stories and Poems by Ruben Dario
The Jaguar Smile by Salman Rushdie
NIGER
In Sorcery’s Shadow by Paul Stoller
NIGERIA
Chinua Achebe
Ben Okri
Wole Soyinka
NORWAY
A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen
Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder
OMAN
Travels in Oman by Phillip Ward
PAKISTAN
Pakistan: The Eye of the Storm by Owen Bennett-Jones
Shame by Salman Rushdie
PALUA
Embattled Island by Arnold H. Leibowitz
PALESTINE
Gaza by Dick Doughty
The Bible
PANAMA
When New Flowers Bloomed
Tekkin’ a Waalk by Peter Ford
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Throwim Way Leg by Tim Flannery
PARAGUAY
Son of Man by Augusto Roa Bastos
At the Tomb of the Inflatable Pig by John Gimlette
PERU
The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder
PHILIPPINES
Great Philippine Jungle Energy Café by Alfred A Yuson
Video Nights in Kathmandu by Pico Iyer
PITCAIRN ISLANDS
Fragile Paradise by Glynn Christian
POLAND
The Heart of Europe by Norman Davies
PORTUGAL
Fernando Pessoa & Co by Fernando Pessoa
O Evangelho Segundo Jesus Cristo by Jose Saramago
PUERTO RICO
Sweet Diamond Dust by Rosario Ferre
Foreign in a Domestic Sense by Christina Duffy Burnett
QATAR
Arabian Time Machine by Helga Graham
REUNION
La Reunion by Catherine Lavaux
ROMANIA
The Hooligan’s Return by Norman Manea
RUSSIAN FEDERATION
War and Peace by Tolstoy
Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky
RWANDA
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families by Phillip Gourevich
SAINT KITTS & NEVIS
Historic Basseterre by Sir Probyn Innis
Caribbean Life and Culture by Sir Fred Phillips
SAINT LUCIA
Collected Poems by Derek Walcott
SAINT VINCENT & THE GRENADINES
Wild Majesty by Peter Hulme
SAMOA
Where We Once Belonged by Sia Figiel
SAN MARINO
Secrets of the Seven Smallest States of Europe by Thomas Ecchardt
SAO TOME & PRINCIPE
Former Portuguese Colonies by Herb Boyd
SAUDI ARABIA
Sandstorms by Peter Theroux
SCOTLAND
Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
SENEGAL
God’s Bits of Wood by Sembene Ousmane
SERBIA
The Serbs by Tim Judah
Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andric
SEYCHELLES
Aldabra Alone by Tony Beamish
SIERRA LEONE
Blood Diamonds by Greg Campbell
SINGAPORE
Foreign Bodies and Mammon Inc by Hwee Hwee Tan
Fistful of Colours by Suchen Christine Lim
SLOVAKIA
Bozena Slancikova
Ivan Krasko
SLOVENIA
Questions about Slovenia by Matjaz Chvatal
Slovenia by Joco Znidarsic
SOLOMON ISLANDS
Ples Bilong Iumi by Sam Alasia
Lightning Meets the West Wind by Keesing & Corris
SOMALIA & SOMALILAND
Aman: The Story of a Somali Girl by Janice Boddy
SOUTH AFRICA
Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela
SPAIN
Don Quijote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
SRI LANKA
Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje
SUDAN
Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih
Emma’s War by Deborah Scroggins
SURINAME
Tales of a Shaman’s Apprentice by Mark Plotkin
Suriname by Henk E Chin
SWAZILAND
The Kingdom of Swaziland by D Hugh Gillis
SWEDEN
Culture Shock by Charlotte Rosen Svensson
SWITZERLAND
Heidi by Johanna Spyri
Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner
SYRIA
Come Tell Me How You Live by Agatha Christie
TAHITI & FRENCH POLYNESIA
The Marriage of Loti by Pierre Loti
TAIWAN
Harmony in Conflict by Richard Hartzell
TAJIKISTAN
Kim by Rudyard Kipling
Taimur Zulfikarov
TANZANIA
Memoirs of an Arabian Princess by Emily Said-Ruete
THAILAND
Pan Ma Ba by Chart Kobjitti
Thai Food by David Thompson
TIBET
Tears of Blood by Mary Craig
Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer
TOGO
An African in Greenland by Tete-Michel Kpomassie
TONGA
Tonga Islands by Dr John Martin
TRINIDAD & TOBAGO
A House for Mr. Biswas by VS Naipaul
TUNISIA
Lion Mountain by Mustapha Tlili
Pillar of Salt by Albert Memmi
TURKEY
Portrait of a Turkish Family by Irfan Orga
TURKMENISTAN
Magtymguly Feraghy
Sacred Horses by Jonathon Maslow
TURKS & CAICOS
A Summer on the Borders of the Caribbean Sea by J Dennis Harris
Water and Light by Stephen Harrigan
TUVALU
The People’s Lawyer by Philip Ells
The Happy Isles of Oceania by Paul Theroux
UGANDA
The Last King of Scotland by Giles Foden
The Abyssinian Chronicles by Moses Isegawa
UKRAINE
Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Arabic Short Stories by Denys Johnson-Davies
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Underworld by Don DeLillo
URUGUAY
Tierra de Nadie (No Man’s Land) by Juan Carlos Onetti
UZBEKISTAN
Chasing the Sea by Tom Bissell
The Ruba’iyat of Omar Khayyam
VANUATU
To Kill a Bird with Two Stones by Jeremy McClancy
VATICAN CITY
When in Rome by Robert J Hutchinson
Inside the Vatican by Thomas J Reese
The Sistine Chapel by Fabrizio Mancinelli
VENEZUELA
Dona Barbara by Romulo Gallegos
VIETNAM
The Sorrow of War by Bao Ninh
VIRGIN ISLANDS
Travels with Myself and Another by Martha Gellhorn
WALES
Journals from the Antheap by Dannie Abse
YEMEN
Yemen by Tim Mackintosh-Smith
ZAMBIA
A Point of No Return by Fawanyanga Mulikita
The Tongue of the Dumb by Dominic Mulaisho
The Smoke that Thunders by Dominic Mulaisho
ZIMBABWE
The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing
1 | Comment (0)
China Road
41. China Road by Rob Gifford
Last year I traveled the Silk Road, the ancient road that cuts through China. This year, it’s my opportunity to travel down China Road, Route 312, a new superhighway through modern China. Modern China, I have found, is a mass of dangerous contradictions. For one, China is an economic superpower that continues to be ruled by a despotism that severely limits individual freedom but turns a blind eye to industrial pollution and the basic human rights of workers. The Chinese people are unhappy with this situation but nothing is done. The Chinese character seems built on acceptance of the world as unjust place; on fortitude, plugging on as best one can; on putting on a polite face, ignoring proglems and speaking banal platitudes about life. A second enormous contradiction is that communism requires strict compliance to the rules imposed on the society and a citizenry kept ignorant but the modern world, especially the modern world market, necessitates an educated citizenry. These contradictions cannot continue. This cannot go on, the author writes, and yet it must, for the sake of a strong global economy.
And China has other, terrible problems the world knows little about. Because of the one-child policy, thousands of baby girls were aborted or killed, leaving a stark shortage of wives for the baby boys who were allowed to live and grow up. Pollution of both water and air is a terrible threat to China’s immediate future. Rural poverty is slowly creating an enormous sense of injustice in the people living in the country. Many centuries of totalitarian government both from the inside and the outside have left China far behind the world, especially in technology.
The trip down China Road was no getaway vacation for me.
1 | Comment (0)
Three More Newberys
#19 Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray
“A road’s a kind of holy thing,” said Roger the Minstrel to his son, Adam. “That’s why it’s a good work to keep a road in repair, like giving alms to the poor or tending the sick. It’s open to the sun and wind and rain. It brings all kinds of people and all parts of England together. And it’s home to a minstrel, even though he may happen to be sleeping in a castle.”
Adam is a young boy of eleven, spending his time in school while awaiting the return of his father, a minstrel of some repute, and the resumption of his life with his father on the road. Adam’s father does return and together father and son head out on the road but, like all road trips, this adventure has many unexpected twists and turns, including the kidnapping of Adam’s beloved dog and Adam’s separation from his father. The fun of being on this road with Adam is seeing the people and places of another time, parsons and knights and other minstrels and other travelers.
As a librarian, I began to see myself like Roger and Adam, as a kind of minstrel, singing songs, reciting poetry, relating stories. Ah, a new epithet: “Minstrel of the Library.”
#20 Shadow of a Bull by Maia Wojciechowska
A book about bullfighting seems like the last book I would want to read, but Shadow of a Bull is not just a book about bullfighting. Shadow of a Bull is a rich book about the trials of being the son of a hero, a book about the struggles of a boy trying to find his own way in a world that is attempting to force him to take a path the boy does not want to take. Manolo is the son of a magnificent bullfighter. When Manolo’s father is killed in the ring, the people look to Manolo to become the man his father was. Manolo does not want to be a bullfighter. But he does not want to disappoint his mother and his father’s friends and all the people of his town. He is afraid, paradoxically, of both the bull and of being a coward. He can find no way out.
The author is somehow able to share with the reader the beauty and the horror of bullfighting. I was surprised to find that I could see bullfighting in a new way, as an art, as a heroic act, though I continue to feel revulsion as well.
#21 The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pene Dubois
What a peculiar story! William Sherman, tired of teaching ungrateful children, decides to travel around the world in a hot air balloon. Sherman succeeds, but not in the way he’d anticipated. Unexpectedly, Sherman crashes on the island of Krakatoa. Instead of finding a deserted island, however, he comes upon a strange community of people. The community has a source of wealth, a magnificent diamond mine, that allows the people to do anything they wish. The people have created a zany civilization founded upon the idea of restaurants, eating out at a different family’s restaurant every night. Sherman is shown novel designs for homes and odd inventions that have come from the clever minds of the island’s residents. Despite their apparent creativity and great wealth, the people choose to live on an island that, every hour of the day, threatens their lives. And, of course, as one might expect, the moment comes when Krakatoa blows. Somehow, the people are able to escape without harm and Sherman is able to return home to San Francisco.
Very, very peculiar book.
And what an odd coincidence that Twenty-One Balloons is my twenty-first book of the year!
1 | Comment (0)#15 The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
15. The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
Changez is the best Pakistan has to offer the world, brilliant, handsome, ambitious. Nothing can go wrong for him; he sprints through Princeton, best in his class, and easily obtains the best job in New York City and a beautiful American girlfriend.
And then 9/11 happens and everything does go wrong.
It’s the way this story is written that is so wonderful. The Reluctant Fundamentalist is written with Changez speaking directly to an unidentified American in Pakistan, a conversation, a dialogue really, that extends the entire length of the book. It felt like Changez was talking directly to me, the reader, confiding in me the animosities, the hurts, the frustrations of those who grow up outside America’s borders.
Changez reveals the differences between himself, the outsider, and Americans. He tells us he has come to “savor the denial of gratification.” He is irritated with Americans and the “ease with which they spent money”, their “self-righteousness”. He admires his own ability to function both “respectfully and with self-respect,” something he sees Americans as unable to do. He resents Americans, who did not even exist as a people while his ancestors were building a rich civilization.
And what an ending. It’s been a long time since I read a book with such a powerful and satisfying ending.
1 | Comment (0)Around the World in 80 Books Challenge
Around the World in 80 Books Challenge (61)
Africa (10)
The Good Husband of Zebra Drive by Alexander McCall Smith (Botswana)
Mango Elephants in the Sun by Susana Herrera (Cameroon)
Angry Wind by Jeffrey Tayler (Chad, Niger, Nigeria, Mali)
The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu (Ethiopia)
The Camel Bookmobile by Masha Hamilton (Kenya)
Glory in a Camel’s Eye by Jeffrey Tayler (Morocco)
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria)
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families by Philip Gourevich (Rwanda)
Dark Star Safari by Paul Theroux (Sudan, Ethiopia, Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, South Africa)
When a Crocodile Eats the Sun by Peter Godwin (Zimbabwe)
Antarctica (1)
Surviving Antarctica by Andrea White (Antarctica)
Asia (14)
The Places in Between by Rory Stewart (Afghanistan)
Oracle Bones by Peter Hessler (China)
Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry (India)
Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (Indonesia, India, Italy)
The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer (Iran)
Ten Thousand Lovers by Edeet Ravel (Israel)
Japanland by Karin Muller (Japan)
A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park (Korea)
Tasting the Sky by Ibtisam Barakat (Palestine)
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid (Pakistan)
Madonnas of Leningrad (Russia)
Zaatar Days, Henna Nights by Maliha Masood (Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey)
Shadow of the Silk Road by Colin Thubron (Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Iran, Turkey)
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien (Vietnam)
Australia/South Pacific (5)
Tracks by Robyn Davidson (Australia)
Shooting the Boh by Tracy Johnson (Borneo)
Getting Stoned with Savages by J. Maarten Troost (Fuji, Vanuatu)
The Naked Tourist by Lawrence Osborne (New Guinea)
An Evening Among Headhunters by Lawrence Millman (Tonga)
Europe (21)
Andorra by Peter Cameron (Andorra)
Dobry by Monica Shannon (Bulgaria)
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry (Denmark)
Small Island by Andrea Levy (England)
Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name by Vendela Vida (Finland)
Words in a French Life by Kristin Espinasse (France)
The Keep by Jennifer Egan (Germany)
My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell (Greece)
The White Stag by Kate Seredy (Hungary)
Independent People by Halldor Laxness (Iceland)
The Ginger Man by J.P. Donleavy (Ireland)
Lost Hearts in Italy by Andrea Lee (Italy)
The Greatest Skating Race by Louise Borden (Netherlands)
The Case of the Missing Books by Ian Sansom (Northern Ireland)
Dreamers by Knut Hamsun (Norway)
The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly (Poland)
One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson (Scotland)
The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo by Paula Huntley (Serbia)
Spanish Lessons by Derek Lambert (Spain)
Astrid and Veronika by Linda Olsson (Sweden)
A Child’s Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas (Wales)
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka (Ukraine)
North America (5)
Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat (Canada)
Madam Dread by Kathie Klarreich (Haiti)
Place Where the Sea Remembers by Sandra Benitez (Mexico)
A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul (Trinidad)
My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok (United States)
South America (4)
Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson (Brazil)
Portrait in Sepia by Isabel Allende (Chile)
One Hundred Years of Solitude (Columbia)
Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark (Peru)
http://myreadingchallanges.blogspot.com/2007/02/around-world-in-80-book.html
http://bookaroundtheworld.blogspot.com/
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