Okay, so including reading for a book club undermines the spirit of this list, but at the end of the day, more books get read. Starred (*) items are recommendations for your collection. Red means best book(s) read this year.
River of Doubt by Candice Millard
*Nowhere Man by Aleksander Hemon
*The Day the Leader was Killed by Naguib Mahfouz
*Dancing in Cambodia, At Large in Burma by Amitav Ghosh
*Burmese Days by George Orwell
Secret Histories – Finding George Orwell in a Burmese Tea Shop by Emma Larkin
The Vice-Consul by Marguerite Duras
*God’s Mountain by Erri De Luca
*Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh
*The Barn Owl’s Wondrous Capers by Sarnath Banerjee (graphic novel)
*The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
*The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
*Lost City Radio by Daniel Alarcon
*Travels with Herodotus by Ryszard Kapucinsky
*Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh
*A Writer’s People by V. S. Naipaul
*It’s Not an All Night Fair by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
*Brother, I’m Dying by Edwidge Danticat
Hey! Couldn’t help but notice you read Vice Consul. When I bought the book, I immediately thought of you, for its Lahore-Calcutta connections! Would be interested in your reactions.
By: kendrita on April 14, 2007
at 5:54 pm
I found it to be a painful read. The word “artsy” came to mind. It felt as if I was watching someone try and describe a French arthouse film. Lahore seemed simply a suggestion of something (I don’t know what), and not a real place. As for Calcutta, there really wasn’t a serious description of the city or an engagement with it — it seemd as if Duras just wrote about a generic, sterotyped impression of the city that hopefully other Europeans don’t share.
By: fsowalla on April 17, 2007
at 4:11 am
So I guess I shouldn’t feel so bad that I never finished it….I’m finding it harder and harder to finish books that don’t enthrall or intrigue me within the first 20-30 pages. The opening chapters of the book raised more questions than answers, and by the time I set the book aside, I was fairly certain I didn’t want to know the answers. Sounds like my own bookshelf is started to become filled with books never or only partially read, as opposed to one fsowalla’s!
By: kendrita on April 18, 2007
at 3:05 pm
I think you mistook the bookmarks that I keep in books as indications of how far I progressed in a particular work. Maybe a post on those bookmarks is in order.
By: fsowalla on April 19, 2007
at 3:19 pm