Booking

Ah.

I have made myself somewhat useful this break. I have read (finished) Unto a Good Land, The Devil in the White City, 1066: The Year of the Conquest, and I am working on Reading Lolita in Tehran.

Unto a Good Land was actually an assigned book for last semester, but it is well over 300 pages long, and let's be serious. It was assigned for the last couple weeks of classes, and let's be serious. I skimmed it enough to be able to know what I needed for the exam. But it was interesting, and I did want to read the whole thing. So after the semester was over and I had nothing else to do, I read it. It's great, especially since its subject matter is of particular interest to me: Swedish immigration. There were a couple of minor discontinuities in the narrative, but someday I hope to read the rest of the books in the series. I highly recommend it...I could hardly put it down, but others lacking the same interest in the subject matter might be less enthralled.

The Devil in the White City was also very good. It unfolds like a mystery novel, even for parts that aren't about murder or anything so dark. It paints a vivid picture of turn-of-the-century Chicago and what living was like at the time. It follows both the building of the Columbian Exposition and the activities of a serial killer. One of the reviews on the cover says you won't believe you don't already know the story--and I have to agree. I highly recommend it.

1066: The Year of the Conquest recounts the events of England in that year, with enough backstory to put it in context. I had already read King Harald's Saga and of course textbook accounts of the Norman Conquest, but this book fleshed the English perspective out very nicely. It's not an entirely scholarly work, as the author takes some liberties with what might have happened or what might have influenced the players. Still, it doesn't read completely like a novel, and it took a little longer to plow through it, but it was a captivating read and I knocked it out in two days. It made me want to find out more about the facts of the events and take a closer look at the after-effects. I highly recommend this one, as well, but only to fans of the History Channel.

I just started Reading Lolita in Tehran, and so far I like it a lot. Any looks at the lives of regular people in the Middle East--and particularly women--is highly interesting in and of itself. And looking at how a group of women react to English literature and draw parallels to their own lives is especially enlightening. I can't say yet if I recommend this book, but I daresay I will.

Anyone who wants an interesting read about Iraqi women should try Guests of the Sheik, by the way. It's absolutely wonderful. It's written by an American woman who accompanied her husband to rural Iraq and took up the burqa to fit in. The story is several decades old, so it's not a contemporary look at Iraqi life, but I think it still has relevance--and insight that is valuable.

Posted by Jenelle at January 3, 2007 10:56 PM | TrackBack