Latest reads

It's been a while since I last listed what I've been reading. I believe the below list is complete. I'll be mixing Swedish and English in this post since I've been mixing Swedish and English literature.

Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States

Good timing on this one I guess since Mr. Zinn passed away last month. It's a great book by a great intellectual and a must-read for anyone wanting to understand US history and policy. I wasn't aware, but I understand now that it's required reading in a lot of US high schools and colleges. Essentially it puts US history on its head by taking a bottom-up rather than a traditional top-down approach.

Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policemen's Union

I was on the airport last fall and needed a read, had heard about this so picked it up. It's a fun read taking place in a the Federal District of Sitka, a place in Alaska that came about because Israel didn't. So the setting is a parallel history approach, and it takes off from there on a wild ride before the Reversion - after 60 years the district is to be no more and most inhabitants (Jewish of course) are looking for solutions.

Mario Vargas Llosa, The Bad Girl

I picked this up on the same trip. Had never heard of the book before, but have read him before (The Feast of the Goat) and like him. The book was a bit odd, a love story spanning four decades and three continents but quite enjoyable.

Carl-Henrik Wijkmark, Stundande natten

Julklapp från mamma och pappa, själv har jag inte hört talas om varken bok eller författare, i varje fall vad jag minns, vilket kan tyckas lite dåligt då han gett ut tolv böcker innan denna. Den handlar om döden men lyckas ändå vara livsbejakande, och det är väl ett gott omdöme? Bra bok.

Erik Andersson, Den larmande hopens dal

Samma här, julklapp som jag tidigare inte hört talas om. Den här var dock inget bra, bara ett stort "jaha, och?" lämnade mig när jag lade den ifrån mig.

Klas Östergren, Tre porträtt

Micke var snäll nog att lämna den kvar när han åkte tillbaka till Sverige i januari och jag var inte sen att plocka upp den. Gillar Klas Östergren och hans Gentlemän och Gangsters. Den här var inte i samma kaliber, men väl värd att läsas.

Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex

Emily read it when she was here visiting and I had heard a lot of buzz about it on the lit blogs I follow. She couldn't leave it behind, but I just joined an English library here (highly recommended if you by an off chance live here in Escazu or San Jose) and picked it up there. I generally don't like immigration stories, feel I've read enough of them (e.g. Wilhelm Moberg and Chris Castellani) already, and didn't particularly like that side of the story here. But there's another side, which is that of the narrator being a hermaphrodite and the challenges it poses, which I liked a lot better. Kudos also for the prose, the description of the assembly line work is spot-on (I imagine, although I've worked on the line in a factory I've never worked on an assembly line per se).