The Drowned Cities (Ship Breaker, #2)

#825
Title: The Drowned Cities (Ship Breaker, #2)
Author: Paolo Bacigalupi
Publisher: Little, Brown
Year: 2012
437 pages

Audiobook.

Good world-building, lots of action, strong female main character. There's a lot of covert commentary on civil war, child soldiers, and the difficulty of imposing peace. It certainly resonates with Vietnam and many African conflicts. The narrative is picaresque in that the plot advances because adventures happen, not because of character growth or change. As in Ship Breaker, the story ends with the hope of an escape. Less here of the caloriemen, though much more of the half-men. Tool is arguably the real protagonist.

Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America

#824
Title: Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America
Author: Robert Whitaker
Publisher: Crown
Year: 2010
416 pages

Audiobook.

Whitaker makes some good arguments that are worth considering, but confuses the picture considerably by cherry-picking the data, leaps of logic, using his case studies and comments to make unreasonably extreme arguments (the words "always," "none," and "every" are always good indicators of this), and even ending by insulting anyone who disagrees with him. It's a shame, because though many of his concerns are probably valid, he undoes his utility by presenting his case in an unreliable manner.

From Africa: New Francophone Stories

#823
Title: From Africa: New Francophone Stories
Author: Adele King
Publisher: UNP--Bison Books
Year:2004
150 pages

A collection of short stories from French-speaking Africans or ex-pat Africans in Europe. I found it interesting to read but the stories didn't grab me. The introduction was quite worthwhile, but many of the stories had more gratuitous misogyny than I'm interested in reading.

Love and Death in the Kingdom of Swaziland

#822
Title: Love and Death in the Kingdom of Swaziland
Author: Glenn Alan Cheney
Publisher: New London Librarium
Year:2012
88 pages

This report from Swaziland gives an overview of the terrible conditions in the countryside and the obstacles faced by a religious organization providing care, particularly HIV/AIDS care. I found the depiction of the Swazi off-putting and unsympathetic, which I imagine reflects the nuns' and author's frustration as they try to change traditional behaviors. I didn't get a good sense of how the author came to be in Swaziland.

Lavinia

#821
Title: Lavinia
Author: Ursula K. Le Guin
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Year: 2008
288 pages

Audiobook & paper.

Its careful language shows it to be Le Guin's, but really, I'm not used to quite so much plot from her. It's an interesting stretch and I enjoyed how she pulled it off. It's not so much that Lavinia knows herself to be a fictional character a la, say, some of the characters in The Inkheart Trilogy. Rather, she recognizes that as a person whose story is told by someone else, she becomes fictionalized, her own details subsumed in someone else's needs for the shape of a story and a plot.

The section of the book up to Aeneas's death was excellent, and the section after was good enough, and perhaps I feel the difference because until that point I was comparing Lavinia's story to the story Virgil tells. I'm reminded of other Le Guin stories in which women are best able to tell their own stories after they've ceased to be the objects of male fantasy.

A Short History of Africa (6th Ed.)

#820
Title: A Short History of Africa (6th Ed.)

Author:  Roland Anthony Oliver & J. D. Fage
Publisher: Penguin
Year:1990
336 pages

Audiobook.

A useful overview, especially until around the end of the 1800s, but the tone and focus are sometimes shockingly mushy and bland when describing events that were, by all other accounts, quite horrific. Do read with King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa and The Challenge for Africa for balance. This is the white-bread version of the seizing and exploitation of Africa.

Saturday Is for Funerals

#819
Title: Saturday Is for Funerals
Author: Unity Dow & Max Essex
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Year: 2011
218 pages

Dow provides the anecdotes, which Essex then unpacks and explains. This is a great way to hang a lot of (sometimes repetitive) facts about HIV on vivid, personal stories. A nice model for teaching.

The Postman: Il Postino

#818
Title: The Postman: Il Postino
Author: Antonio Skármeta
Publisher: Miramax Books
Year:1985/1995
128 pages

A very pleasing little novel that became in turn a pleasing film. I think I enjoyed the novel just a little more because it provides the opportunity to linger over phrases both beautiful and silly.

The Challenge for Africa

#817
Title: The Challenge for Africa
Author: Wangari Maathai
Publisher:Pantheon
Year: 2009
Country: Kenya
304 pages

Audiobook.

Wangari Maathai brings a wealth of knowledge, experience, and evidence to this sweeping critique of colonial and post-colonial policy in Africa. Though she often gives examples from Kenya, she addresses issues from many African nations and micro-nations. I don't agree with all of her arguments and opinions, but some are so persuasively made that I assume I ought to rethink the ones I questioned. I still have a strong impression that she reveals her own tension about how to validate and reclaim African history pre-colonialism. She has plenty to say about what's been problematic about colonial and post-colonial policies and practices, but little critique of pre-colonial life. This creates some over-valorization, but raises the excellent question of how to reclaim a suppressed and forgotten history.

The Collector of Treasures and Other Botswana Village Tales

#816
Title: The Collector of Treasures and Other Botswana Village Tales
Author: Bessie Head
Publisher: Longman
Year:1992
109 pages

I've been reading a lot about Africa in general and Botswana in particular this year, and the evidence for how much I've learned is that this short story collection was nicely illuminated by my previous explorations. It would have been enjoyable even without the background knowledge, but the stories, which tell tales about peoples lives in their villages (not folktales, as might be inferred), just lit up. Head is a strong writer who doesn't pull any punches. Her narratives are frank about the status of women, sexuality, violence, politics, religion, superstition, and jealousy. Fortunately, much of her oeuvre is available in Heinemann's African authors collection.

An African Awakening

#815
Title: An African Awakening
Author: Valerie Bell
Publisher: Authentic
Year: 2007
96 pages

There are a few odd factual errors, and I live in a very different world from Bell, but I was more impressed by this than I expected to be.

The Serpent's Shadow (Kane Chronicles, #3)

#814
Title: The Serpent's Shadow (Kane Chronicles, #3)
Author: Rick Riordan
Publisher:Hyperion
Year: 2012
401 pages

A reasonable end to a trilogy that also strongly hints at a second series. Riordan wraps up his dangling plot points well, including a predictable but entertaining solution to the "ZOMG i have 2 bfs what to do what to do??" trope so present in contemporary YA fiction. Riordan is clever in his weaving of contemporary disasters into his narrative as evidence of its reality.

The structure of this series has never grown on me. I don't believe the voices of teen siblings swapping a microphone back and forth.

Bored of the Rings

#813
Title: Bored of the Rings
Author: Henry N. Beard
Publisher: Signet Books
Year:1969
160 pages

I've read this countless times before, but this time I read it aloud to my partner. There are a reasonable number of parts that withstand the test of time ("Oh, the leaves are falling, the flowers are wilting, and the rivers are all going Republican"). There are others that do not, and are so far removed from the present that Google cannot recall their referents. However, it still evokes pleasant memories, and, as my partner commented, "So <i>that's</i> why you sometimes say, 'Look! The Winged Victory of Samothrace!'"

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

#812
Title: Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
Author: Daniel H. Pink
Publisher: Riverhead
Year: 2012
242 pages

Audiobook.

Well-written popular management and psychology of motivation text that is generally accurate, which is not true of all of them. Pink argues against overuse of extrinsic motivators (rewards, carrot-and-stick) and for facilitating intrinsic, internal ones. He includes an annotated bibliography and applications to settings other than business as well.

Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague

#811
Title: Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague
Author: Geraldine Brooks
Publisher: Penguin
Year: 2001
308 pages

Brooks has a beautiful grasp of description that's well-showcased here. I didn't find the last quarter as Hallmark-y as some other reviewers; a tad melodramatic, but ultimately well-rendered. Compare to Willis's Doomsday Book and Eifelheim for somewhat their similar content (plague) and tone.

Bill Bryson's African Diary

#810
Title: Bill Bryson's African Diary
Author: Bill Bryson
Publisher: Broadway
Year: 2002
64 pages

Sadly, this begs the question, "So what?" Michael Dorris, faced with the same offer/task, did a beautiful job in Rooms in the House of Stone: The "Thistle" Series of Essays, which managed to be small, brief, but filled with useful observations and understated but sincere sentiment. Bryson's account comes off more like notes about a little junket. It gives very little sense of Africa, perhaps because it tells rather than shows. As other reviewers have noted, the humor seems insulting at times. Poor Bill has to fly in a small plane. How about the people who don't even get to walk because they're in refugee camps? He could have gotten away with this if there was more to connect the reader to the Africans he interacts with, but there's little of that, and not that much about what CARE does, either. It reminds me of de Botton's A Week at the Airport: A Heathrow Diary, another sponsored gig that is info-light and seems constrained by the necessity of praising one's benefactor.

The City and the City

#809
Title: The City and the City
Author: China Miéville
Publisher: Del Rey
Year: 2009
312 pages

Audiobook.

So I was teaching a big lecture class on human trafficking today and a student made an observation about walking around in one's life and seeing but not seeing other people. I asked, "How many of you have read Miéville's The City and the City? Not a one raised a hand. I am almost recovered from my shock. 170 university students and none had read this? It's enough to make a person wish she still taught literature.

Yes, I see 9/11 in it. Yes, I see Borges. Yes, I think of Robbe-Grillet's Topology of a Phantom City. Yes, I see an okay detective story. But what I most see, and what carries this, is the enormous sparkle of its world-building, and how the world(s) created resonate with our lived experience of not seeing poverty, not seeing crime, not seeing other cultures, not seeing women, the ways we share a sidewalk while pretending we don't interact with each other. Plot aside, I found this novel playful and great sociocultural and linguistic fun. More, please.

The Compass of Pleasure: How Our Brains Make Fatty Foods, Orgasm, Exercise, Marijuana, Generosity, Vodka, Learning, and Gambling Feel So Good

#808
Title: The Compass of Pleasure: How Our Brains Make Fatty Foods, Orgasm, Exercise, Marijuana, Generosity, Vodka, Learning, and Gambling Feel So Good
Author: David J. Linden
Publisher: Viking
Year:2011
240 pages

Audiobook.

A nice pop-but-somewhat-technical book on dopamine. I found it easy to follow, but it is neurochemically focused and probably requires some familiarity with brain function.