Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

December 31, 2009 by Christina

Fiction — print. Penguin Books, 2002. 103 pgs. Library copy. I’ve been afraid of Steinbeck’s classic novel for so long; the title alone always put me off because I never could see the connection between the two. Yet, when I went to retrieve Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath from the library, I was completely surprised to see how short Of Mice and Men really is. Right then and there I decided my fear was completely irrational — after all, I’ve […]

Categories: 2009 Reads, AP Literature, Classics, Fiction, North America, United States • Tags: John Steinbeck

The Long March by Sun Shuyun

December 29, 2009 by Christina

Nonfiction — print. Anchor, 2008. 255 pgs. Library copy. Part memoir, part examination of history, The Long March: The True History of Communist China’s Founding Myth follows Sun Shuyun as she retraces the steps of the Long March and explores the real truth behind the founding of Communist China with the Long March. Shuyun interviews survivors from all walks of life — men and women, those who entered as children and as adults, conscripted and enlisted — and is shocked […]

Categories: 2009 Reads, Asia, China, Nonfiction • Tags: Sun Shuyun

Auschwitz by Debórah Dwork and Robert Jan Van Pelt

December 28, 2009 by Christina

Nonfiction — print. W. W. Norton & Company, 2002. 445 pgs. Library copy. I was lucky enough to have Debórah Dwork, a world-renowned Holocaust historian,  as one of my professors this past semester. She was quite possibly my best professor as she told stories that illustrated history instead of lecturing on the facts. Her two-day lecture on the development of Auschwitz, why Auschwitz was chosen as a place for a concentration camp, and how it became the location of mass […]

Categories: 2009 Reads, Chunkster, Europe, Genocide, Holocaust, Nonfiction, Poland • Tags: Debórah Dwork, Robert Jan Van Pelt

Miranda’s Big Mistake by Jill Mansell

December 23, 2009 by Christina

Fiction — print. Sourcebooks Landmark, 2009. 475 pgs. Received from PaperBackSwap. Miranda is not the only one who made a big mistake; Mansell makes her own by including too many characters in her novel. The blurb on the back cover would lead you to believe that this novel centers around Miranda’s big mistake of dating Greg, who abandoned his wife, Chloe, upon being told she’s pregnant. Yet, there is also Miranda’s boss, Fenn; Bruce, Chloe’s boss and the son of […]

Categories: 2009 Reads, Chunkster, Fiction, North America, United States • Tags: Jill Mansell

The Cage Keeper and Other Stories by Andre Dubus III

December 22, 2009 by Christina

Fiction — print. Vintage, 2001. 206 pgs. Received from PaperBackSwap. A collection of short stories by the author of House of Sand and Fog, The Cage Keeper and Other Stories delve into the actions, thoughts, and motives of criminals, ex-cons, and those who work in the criminal justice system, and into the lives of those who fall between in the cracks of society. In the title story, a halfway house worker is kidnapped by one of the inmates, Elroy, and […]

Categories: 2009 Reads, Fiction, North America, Short Stories, United States • Tags: Andre Dubus III

Comparative Politics by Michael J. Sodaro

November 16, 2009 by Christina

Nonfiction — print. McGraw-Hill, 2007. 848 pgs. Purchased. Divided into two parts, Comparative Politics delves into the concepts and methods of different political systems and uses different countries as case studies. The first part uses the scientific method (question, hypothesis, observation) to explore and understand political realities while the second part takes the scientific method and applies it to major countries (Germany, Brazil, China, France). For example, in the chapter about China, the scientific method is applied to Mao and […]

Categories: 2009 Reads, Asia, China, Chunkster, Europe, France, Germany, Nonfiction, North America, Textbook, United Kingdom, United States • Tags: Michael J. Sodaro

All But My Life by Gerda Weissmann Klein

November 13, 2009 by Christina

Nonfiction — print. Hill and Wang, 1995. 272 pgs. Purchased. At 9:10 a.m. Gerda Weissmann’s life ended; the Nazis invaded Poland and red, black, and white flags with swastikas hung from her neighbor’s windows. Uncertainty turns into upheaval first with the deportation of her brother and then with the loss of her family’s home. Her ill father becomes listless; her mother withdrawals into herself. And almost as quickly as it begins Gerda finds herself in the Bielitz ghetto where she […]

Categories: 2009 Reads, Europe, Genocide, Holocaust, Nonfiction, Poland, Textbook • Tags: Gerda Weissmann Klein

Unholy Trinity by Richard Peet

November 12, 2009 by Christina

Nonfiction — print. Second edition. Zed, 2009. 287 pgs. Purchased. The first edition of Unholy Trinity was co-written and titled by students who took the same class I’m currently taking. This edition, though, is definitely all Professor Peet. While it’s not nearly as confusing as Geography of Power, this book goes off on tangent after tangent. Unholy Trinity delves into what Peet considers to be undemocratic, American-dominated organizations that operates more as corporations than organizations committed to every member country’s […]

Categories: 2009 Reads, Economics, Nonfiction, North America, Textbook, United States • Tags: Richard Peet

Digging to America by Anne Tyler

November 10, 2009 by Christina

The title arises from a child’s simple question: if American children are digging to China, are Chinese children digging to America? Interesting, no? The questions continue: what does it mean to be American? What does it mean to be a foreigner? And what does it mean to be a family? These are the questions I thought Digging to America was going to ask, and in the beginning, Tyler’s seventeenth novel set out looking for answers. It’s when the Donaldsons and […]

Categories: 2009 Reads, Asia, China, Fiction, North America, United States • Tags: Anne Tyler

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

October 31, 2009 by Christina

Fiction — print. Seal Books, 2004. 443 pgs. Purchased. Oryx and Crake was an extra assignment given to me by my Political Science Fiction professor after I went to her and told I was “under-stimulated” (her words, not mine) by my classes. At the time we were about to start The Handmaid’s Tale, which I read this past May and enjoyed, and upon mentioning this fact, she instructed me to read Atwood’s finalist for the 2003 Booker Prize and the 2003 […]

Categories: 2009 Reads, Dystopia, Fiction, Man Booker Prize • Tags: Margaret Atwood

Longitudes & Attitudes by Thomas L. Friedman

September 13, 2009 by Christina

I had the distinct pleasure of being able to hear Friedman, the foreign affairs columnist for The New York Times, speak at the World Affairs Council in Dallas last Fall. An eloquent speaker, Friedman was there to promote his new(est) book, Hot, Flat & Crowded, and discuss how America needs to undergo a green revolution. My mom had read The World is Flat when it first came out, but Longitudes & Attitudes was the only book available on PaperBackSwap and […]

Categories: 2009 Reads, Middle East, Nonfiction • Tags: Thomas L. Friedman

Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen

August 26, 2009 by Christina

As several of you have commented on, I make a point of reviewing the textbooks I’m forced to given the opportunity to read. It’s something I only started this past school year, so I never did review my textbook for United States’ History, The American Pageant, but I can assure you it would not have garnished high marks from me. Loewen seems to have the same idea; The American Pageant is one of the twelve most popular textbooks Loewen uses […]

Categories: 2009 Reads, Nonfiction, North America, United States • Tags: James W. Loewen