Sunday, January 13, 2008

reading list (so far) - 2008

so i'm wild about the books i have stacked on my nightstand, and i want to tell someone about them. ready?

The Year of the Turtle, by David M. Carroll - natural history of turtles and other new england riverine flora and fauna. lovely ink illustrations.

The Road to my Farm, by Nora Seton - about a woman with a harvard degree in Classics who decides to become a farmer and grow some chickens.

Lying-In: A History of Childbirth in America, by Richard and Dorothy Wertz - fascinating stuff on midwives, birth pain, corsets, and i don't even know what else.

Crimes Against Nature: How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy, by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr - can't wait to glean more information about repealed environmental laws, and see where things stand (or stood, in 2004).

Making Hay, by Verlyn Klinkenborg - i am just so into pastoral memoirs and meditations on farming these days. a curious subject that really takes me away from my day-to-day life.

Chocolate: A Journey of Dark and Light, by Mort Rosenblum - a fine writer, excellent journalist, and proven gourmand, rosenblum does his thing with chocolate in france and all around, with meso-american history included.

Women of the Pleasure Quarters: The Secret History of the Geisha, by Lesley Downer - inspired by Arther Golden's fictional Memoirs of a Geisha, the author takes her own journalist's look into the nearly-impervious world of the modern geisha. plentiful history lessons, cultural non-sequiturs, and excellent writing.

The Solace of Open Spaces, by Gretel Ehrlich - meditations on wyoming, landscape and people. i love erhlich's writing, by the way. i thought her book This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland was superb. she also has another book about her experience being struck by lightning(!), called A Match To The Heart(!!!).

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