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maribouPalestine, by Joe Sacco
Intense and cogent and beautifully executed. I note that for some odd reason, while I am perfect willing to accept any amount of personal stories as really-really-for-true (even as rational brain suggests they may be conflated, etc., for journalistic reason), my irrational brain rebels against figures & stats when presented in graphic novel form (though my rational brain sees no particular reason to doubt them) ... so I ended up reading this as a collective biography / polemic I guess, rather than the act of journalism it's meant to be (and, rationally, is). It works very well my way.
(214/300)
The Laughter of Dead Kings, by Elizabeth Peters
Hm. This was fun, but I didn't enjoy it as much as many of her other novels... it felt a little self-indulgent and/or fan-indulgent I think. However, still ripped through it, laughed out loud several times.
(215/300)
The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan
Great, great, great. The deliberately pedantic nature of some parts of this made it kind of clunkier than the other book of his that I've read, Botany of Desire (one of my alltime favorites), but it was still incredibly tasty and interesting. It had the fine distinction of seeming shorter than it actually was ... as opposed to SOME books that drag on and on until you can't believe you're still reading them.
(216/300)
The Country of My Skull, by Antjie Krog
This book was brilliantly written and very important. And informative. And oh holy cow, it's so sad and hard to read and I had to put it down about a million times. (Subject: South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the author's experiences reporting thereon - the subtitle is Guilt, Sorrow, and the Limits of Forgiveness in the New South Africa.)
(217/300)
The Cambridge Companion to Travel Literature, edited by Peter Hulme and Tim Youngs
Yum. Unlike some of the tv-criticism-fluff I've been reading lately, this is a SOLID critical and historical overview of one of my favorite genres. The huge reading list of wow-that-travelogue-looks-damn-interesting that I've accumulated is a pleasing bonus.
(218/300)
Intense and cogent and beautifully executed. I note that for some odd reason, while I am perfect willing to accept any amount of personal stories as really-really-for-true (even as rational brain suggests they may be conflated, etc., for journalistic reason), my irrational brain rebels against figures & stats when presented in graphic novel form (though my rational brain sees no particular reason to doubt them) ... so I ended up reading this as a collective biography / polemic I guess, rather than the act of journalism it's meant to be (and, rationally, is). It works very well my way.
(214/300)
The Laughter of Dead Kings, by Elizabeth Peters
Hm. This was fun, but I didn't enjoy it as much as many of her other novels... it felt a little self-indulgent and/or fan-indulgent I think. However, still ripped through it, laughed out loud several times.
(215/300)
The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan
Great, great, great. The deliberately pedantic nature of some parts of this made it kind of clunkier than the other book of his that I've read, Botany of Desire (one of my alltime favorites), but it was still incredibly tasty and interesting. It had the fine distinction of seeming shorter than it actually was ... as opposed to SOME books that drag on and on until you can't believe you're still reading them.
(216/300)
The Country of My Skull, by Antjie Krog
This book was brilliantly written and very important. And informative. And oh holy cow, it's so sad and hard to read and I had to put it down about a million times. (Subject: South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the author's experiences reporting thereon - the subtitle is Guilt, Sorrow, and the Limits of Forgiveness in the New South Africa.)
(217/300)
The Cambridge Companion to Travel Literature, edited by Peter Hulme and Tim Youngs
Yum. Unlike some of the tv-criticism-fluff I've been reading lately, this is a SOLID critical and historical overview of one of my favorite genres. The huge reading list of wow-that-travelogue-looks-damn-interesting that I've accumulated is a pleasing bonus.
(218/300)
