I don't know where I've been lately. I haven't been too busy to blog, just too lazy I guess. I haven't got a whole lot to say, so here's some books I've read recently or am currently reading.
California: A History by Kevin Starr
Very informative and interesting. Can be dry in spots, but is overall pretty detailed considering the man is taking on like five hundred years of history. He includes not just facts and figures but also cultural events, popular novels, paintings, social movements, architectural styles etc. that figure in to California history. The best part is, you figure out who all our streets are named after- Pico, Sepulveda, etc.
Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss
(So, do I leave that comma there?) This is a very entertaining book on punctuation, believe it or not.
The Devil's Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea
This one is SO good. It's a true story of thirty illegal immigrants who walked across the Arizona desert in search of a better life and got lost in the desert where half of them died of thirst in the 130 degree heat. It doesn't sound very inspiring but it's really vividly and beautifully written.
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond
I'm less than halfway through. The first section deals with problems facing Montana today, which are interesting but not half so much so as those outlined in the next few chapters, which discuss the collapse of societies in Ancient Polynesia (Easter Island/The Pitcairn Islands), the American Southwest (the Anasazi), and South America (the Mayans). I can't wait to get to the next chapter!
1 comment:
interesting post. regarding luis alberto urrea's book, i agree...it is a powerful statement regarding the human desire to feed one's family and make a better life for oneself even in the face of a potentially deadly journey. one of the remarkable aspects of the book is that urrea does not demonize the border patrol; he makes all of the players in the drama fully three dimensional. i blog for la bloga each monday and we have covered urrea's books on various occasions. come by and visit: http://labloga.blogspot.com/
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