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at Should be reading,
this meme asks you what great books did you hear about/discover this
past week?
I had one of the slowest weeks possible. Just when I thought my days were getting better, boom! more work lands on my plate.
I had been hearing of David Sedaris' works for quite some time now. I wasn't sure if they will work for me. But this time, I saw this one book on Oprah's website whose cover looked so entertaining I decided to add it to my list. Anyone read Sedaris?
Sedaris' fourth book mines poignant comedy from his peculiar childhood in North Carolina, his
bizarre career path, and his move with his lover to France. Though his
anarchic inclination to digress is his glory, Sedaris does have a theme
in these reminiscences: the inability of humans to communicate. The
title is his rendition in transliterated English of how he and his
fellow students of French in Paris mangle the Gallic language. Every glimpse we get of Sedaris' family and acquaintances delivers
laughs and insights. He thwarts his North Carolina speech therapist
("for whom the word pen had two syllables") by cleverly
avoiding all words with s sounds, which reveal the lisp she
sought to correct. His midget guitar teacher, Mister Mancini, is unaware
that Sedaris doesn't share his obsession with breasts, and sings "Light
My Fire" all wrong--"as if he were a Webelo scout demanding a match."
As a remarkably unqualified teacher at the Art Institute of Chicago,
Sedaris had his class watch soap operas and assign "guessays" on what
would happen in the next day's episode.
Isn't that cover intriguing? I came across this book through
Aarti's review. I found the theme of this book interesting enough to add it.
Just when her family should be arranging her marriage, Kathmiya
Mahmoud, a young Marsh Arab maiden, is sent from her home in Iraq's
idyllic countryside to the unfamiliar city of Basra, where she must
survive on her paltry earnings as a servant. Her only asset—her
exquisite beauty—brings more peril than peace. Worse, her mother appears
to be keeping a secret about her own mysterious past, one that could
threaten Kathmiya's destiny forever. In this lost Iraq of the
1940s, a time of rich traditions and converging worlds, Kathmiya meets
Shafiq, a Jewish boy whose brotherhood with his Muslim neighbor Omar
proves that religion is no barrier to friendship. But in a world where
loss of honor is punishable by death, the closeness that grows between
Kathmiya and Shafiq becomes dangerous as a doomed love takes root. When
British warplanes begin bombing Iraq and the country's long-simmering
tensions explode, the power of an unbreakable boyhood bond and a
transcendent love must overcome the deepening fractures of a collapsing
society.
Although I am no expert in the kitchen, I love reading books that deal with food. Here's one from a food critic which I came across in Oprah's website.
Garlic and Sapphires is Ruth Reichl's account of her experience
undercover in her position as food critic for The New York Times. She
throws back the curtain on the sumptuously appointed stages of the
epicurean world to reveal the comic absurdity, artifice and excellence
there, giving us (along with some of her favorite recipes and reviews)
her remarkable reflections on role playing and identity.
Comments
My finds are here.
1. Eat and tell my opinion for a living
2. Travel and tell my opinion for a living
:)
Great finds!
He can be a bit rich - I think that's the word - and definitely not for everyone.