Thursday, June 2, 2011

Reading outside the box

Which books are you reading now?  I am reading Barbara Kingsolver's The Lacuna, Tom Standage An Edible History of Humanity,  and several other books, all at the same time, as usual.

I love The Lacuna, even if it is a slow read.  It is about a boy that grows up to be a man working for Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo and helps protect Trotsky when he lives in Mexico. The book is in the form as long letters and a diary, so it is an unusual format, but it is a great read.

Tom Standage's book shows too clearly that he is a conservative historian (he loves to write about communist famines, but doesn't mention the Depression in the US in the 1930s), but it has some great information about the beginning of canned food (to feed troops in the Napoleonic wars) and the old spice trade.  Generally a good read, but watch for what is not included.

So, what are you blogger-readers enjoying, reading-wise?

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