The Most Beautiful Book in the World

The Most Beautiful Book in the World:  Eight Novellas by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, translated by Alison Anderson

Published:  2009 by Europa Editions

Source:  Purchased

  I am by no means an expert about books, especially about books in translation; but since I do read a lot I am often asked by friends and colleagues to suggest something to read.  If I am ever asked to suggest a book in translation for someone who has not read one before, I will tell them to pick up The Most Beautiful Book in the World.  Immediately.

  Though the title of this collection comes from one of its stories (side note: they are referred to as novellas, but their length suggests short stories to me), it is an apt description for the entire book.  Each story is quite different, but all of them are engaging and - for me anyway - take you from happiness to sadness and back again all within a few pages.  Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt does an amazing job of creating interesting and identifiable female characters as well.  Several times I found myself in a story, because I could completely relate to the situation being faced.

  I can't claim a favorite story in this book because I really and truly enjoyed them all.  The good thing about a short story collection is that you can dip in and out as you have time; but I raced through all eight in an afternoon, and I know I will return to them.

  Highly recommended.

What's in a Name Challenge - Quickie Reviews

I've been a bit lazy (ok a lot lazy) and have a stack of books sitting next to my computer patiently waiting for me to compose review posts.  Several of them are for reading challenges so to kill two birds with one stone I am going to do quickie reviews for my remaining books of the What's in a Name Challenge 4:

The Monster of Florence  by Douglas Preston with Mario Spezi.  This is a bizarre true crime story about a serial killer in Florence.  Preston, a fiction writer, moved his family to Florence to research a book when he discovered that his home was near the scene of one of the murders.  With Spezi, a prominent journalist who had followed the case since its beginning, he describes the crimes and the bizarre, seemingly inept search for the killer/killers.  I normally don't read true crime but I did find this story quite interesting and would recommend it to those who enjoy thrillers.

Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea.  This is a wonderful novel about a young Mexican girl, Nayeli, who with three friends makes an expedition from their small village to the United States to convince the village's men - and specifically for Nayeli, her father -  to return and help protect them from the drug-dealing gangs that are harassing the residents.  The issue of immigration - legal and illegal - is the underlying theme of this novel and as a result there are some not-pleasant moments, but unlike such books as  The Tortilla Curtain, to me the tone of this book was uplifting.  If you enjoyed The Tortilla Curtain, then I would definitely recommend this novel as well.

Woo hoo!  I've completed a challenge!

Summer at Tiffany

Summer at Tiffany by Marjorie Hart

Published:  2007 by Avon

Source:  Purchased

Do you remember the best summer of your life?

     So begins this wonderful memoir of an era that could easily be viewed as the best of times and the worst of times (apologies to Charles Dickens).

     It is 1945.  At the end of their school year at the University of Iowa, Marjorie Jacobson and her closest friend, Marty Garrett, head to New York City for the summer with high hopes.  Some of their sorority sisters have landed coveted jobs at the big department stores, and the girls want to join their ranks.  Turned away from them all ("Come back in the fall" they are told), in a very bold move they decide to call at Tiffany, one of the hallmarks of luxury then as now. 

     Thanks to the still-ongoing war in the Pacific, young men are scarce for filling positions, and the girls are hired as pages for the store's sales floor.  It is not the most glamourous job, but for Marjorie and Marty it is the opportunity of a lifetime.  They are provided dresses from Bonwit Teller (one of those much admired department stores) as uniforms, at times act as models of the jewelry in the showroom, and catch glimpses of celebrities.

     Outside of work, the girls have an active social life; their apartment in the city is party central for their sorority sisters coming in for the weekend from the outer boroughs.  And they meet new people as well that have the potential to change the course of their lives.  Marjorie, an aspiring cellist, meets a Yale music professor at the home of the girls' landlady who encourages her musical ambitions; and she meets a Navy sailor, Jim, who might be more than just a summer acquaintance.  

    

     What I truly loved about this book is that it re-created the time and the place so well.  I often say that I was born in the wrong decade and would love to go back in time to live in the 1940s and this book put me back there.  The innocence of these 20 year old girls -- "Good Night!" "Judas Priest!" "Oh my gosh!" were the harshest phrases coming out of their mouths -- and the simplicity of the era (despite the war raging overseas) is just wonderful to experience.  It's also entertaining to see how much prices and the value of money have changed over the years -- who wouldn't grab a dozen etched cocktail glasses from Tiffany for $12 these days?

     I also loved the element of suspense contained in the memoir -- at the end I found myself exclaiming "NO!" out loud, totally surprised at the outcome.

     Highly recommended.

 



Fabulous Small Jews - Stories

Fabulous Small Jews:  Stories by Joseph Epstein

Published:  2003 by Houghton Mifflin Company

Source:  Purchased

  After reading a few pages of the first story of this collection, I immediately thought of one of my favorite writers of all time:  Mordecai Richler.  Though writing about different eras for the most part, both he and Joseph Epstein have made older, grumpy Jewish men characters with whom we can all identify.

  Epstein's collection, Fabulous Small Jews, is comprised of eighteen stories that to me all had something to do with loneliness.  The main characters in the stories -- those grumpy old men -- have all led fairly successful and prosperous lives, but in their retirement it appears that they truly begin to understand what has been missing.  Not all of them are likeable, but they are relatable -  even though all of the men are Jewish, religion plays only a small part in any of the stories.

  My favorite story of the collection is "Don Juan Zimmerman", a story about rediscovering love at any age.

Recommended

The Battle for Spain

The Battle for Spain:  The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 by Antony Beevor

Published:  2006 by Penguin Books

Source:  Purchased

  Back in university (many many years ago) I wrote a paper in my 1st year international relations class about the Spanish Civil War.  Since the focus was only on the diplomacy (or lack thereof) surrounding the conflict, though,  I did not do much research outside of that topic, but I retained a curiosity of that war and tried to learn more about it over the years.  Some wonderful novels, Guernica by Dave Boling, and The Return by Victoria Hislop provide emotional images of the war and its effects on the civilian population, but I hadn't read a good non-fiction account of it; so when I was browsing a bookstore in a college town and saw Antony Beevor's book The Battle for Spain I picked it up.  It took me about two years to finally read it (thank you 2011 TBR Pile Challenge) and I still don't know if I understand the Spanish Civil War any better.

  It's not that the book isn't good -- it is thorough, but perhaps too thorough for a "general" reader like me.  Beevor provides a lot of detail about the two sides of the conflict - the Republicans and the Nationalists, and though there is an index of abbreviations at the beginning I still found it difficult to keep track of all of the organizations that fell under the two sides, and in fact to keep track of which side was which (The Republicans were the government of Spain at the time and received support from the Soviet Union and Communist/anti-fascist volunteers from around the world; the Nationalists were led by General Francisco Franco and were supported by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy).  The book also goes into a lot of detail about specific battles and I have to admit that my attention waned during these descriptions.  Beevor is an objective writer, though, and his account of the war is balanced;  he shows the good and bad of both, which I believe exists in any war.

  If and when I read another novel set during the Spanish Civil War, I think I will have this book at my side as a reference for any actual events depicted.  For me, it was not a book that I enjoyed reading as I normally do, but I appreciate its value as a resource for detailed information.

The Europa Challenge

  I am very excited to be participating in The Europa Challenge, which I found out via Indie Reader Houston.  As I've mentioned before, if I could claim to have a favorite publisher, Europa Editions would be it;  I've enjoyed every book I've read from their list, and I have several more waiting on my shelf as well as more on the to-read list.  Their distinctive covers make them "stand out" to me when I'm browsing the bookstores and in the mood to make a purchase, but it is ultimately the quality of the books they publish and the exposure they give me to world literature (mostly in translation) that makes me return to them again and again.

  I aim to become a Europa SuperFan, and read their entire list (here), but for now I will start with the books I already own and have yet to read.  I am aiming to qualify as a Conoisseur at the Europa Haver level by reading 7 books by the end of 2011.  I currently have 10 Europa Editions titles on my to-read shelf, so the lack of books will certainly not hamper me in my effort!

  The books I currently have (in alphabetical order by author) are:

• From the Land of the Moon by Milena Agus
• Broken Glass Park by Alina Bronsky
• The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine by Alina Bronsky
• The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante
• In a Strange Room by Damon Galgut
• Old Filth by Jane Gardam
• Cooking with Fernet Branca by James Hamilton Paterson
• Hygiene and the Assassin by Amelie Nothomb
• The Most Beautiful Book in the World by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt
• First Execution by Domenico Starnone

Titles I have already read include:

• The Homecoming Party by Carmine Abate
• A Kind of Intimacy by Jenn Ashworth (link to review)
• The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
• Gourmet Rhapsody by Muriel Barbery
• A Novel Bookstore by Laurence Cosse  (link to review)

This is going to be a lot of fun -- stay tuned to The Europa Challenge blog for reviews from other readers across the blogosphere (including yours truly!)

Canadian Book Challenge 5 -- I'm In!

 
  Ok, folks, I'm doing my patriotic duty and signing up for The Canadian Book Challenge 5, hosted at The Book Mine Set.  Don't you love this awesome logo?

  So I fell down on the job and did not complete the 4th challenge, but as I was a newbie to blogging and to challenges last year I did not have a plan.  This year, I have compiled more than half of my reading list so far, just from the books patiently waiting on my shelf or on my nook:

1. The Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan
2. The Free World by David Bezmozgis
3. The Bishop's Man by Linden MacIntyre
4. Beyond the Blue by Andrea McPherson
5. The Factory Voice by Jeanette Lynes
6. Doing Dangerously Well by Carole Enahoro
7. King John of Canada by Scott Gardiner
8. The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence
9. The Diviners by Margaret Laurence
10. The Road Past Altamont by Gabrielle Roy

  In addition I hope to pick up:

1.  Irma Voth by Miriam Toews
2. Practical Jean by Trevor Cole
3. Stanley Park by Timothy Taylor

  I also heard a rumour that Rohinton Mistry will be coming out with a new book soon and if that is true I will be purchasing that and reading it immediately.

  Any other Canadian books (fiction or non-fiction) that I should add to my list?

East of the Sun

East of the Sun by Julia Gregson

Published:  2008 by Touchstone, a Division of Simon and Schuster

Source:  Purchased

  East of the Sun tells the story of three young women travelling from England to India in the late 1920s in search of new lives.  For two of the women, Rose and Victoria (known as Tor, which seemed like an absurd nickname to me), this meant finding and marrying a good man; for their shipboard chaperone, Viva, it meant returning to the country of her childhood, uncovering family secrets, and making a fresh start as a writer.

 

  I suppose Viva is meant to be the main character of the novel, as she takes on chaperoning Rose and Tor (as well as a disturbed schoolboy, Guy Glover) to India in order to pay her own passage to retrieve a trunk of her parents left with a family friend.  However, Rose and Tor's stories receive almost as much attention -- Rose preparing for marriage to a British military man and Tor trying to line up her own betrothal in order to avoid returning to England -- and it felt to me that their narratives overshadowed that of Viva's.  It's also interesting to me that Guy Glover didn't receive his own narrative; he appears throughout the novel, but he is never truly explained and remains a mysterious character.

  There is a bit of everything in this book -- romance, mystery, violence -- and it does provide a sensual portrait of India in the 1920s and 1930s (my favorite aspect of the book) -- but to me it doesn't seem put together well, making it difficult to follow at times.  If I hadn't selected this book as one of my 2011 TBR Pile Challenge choices, I probably would not have finished it. 

Between the Assassinations

Between the Assassinations by Aravind Adiga

Published:  2009 by Free Press

Source:  Purchased

    Between the Assassinations is Aravind Adiga's second work of fiction that I've seen published in the United States.  His first novel, The White Tiger, won the Man Booker Prize and was a tale about the not-so-pretty side of India; and while not as harsh, in Between the Assassinations Adiga still describes a brutal reality of Indian life that is uncomfortable to us in the West.

    The book is a collection of linked short stories set in Kittur, India.  The stories describe the interesting characters who inhabit the town and the hardships of everyday life that most of them must endure only to just barely survive.  Set in the period between the assassinations of Indira Gandhi in 1984 and of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 (though Rajiv Gandhi is not mentioned at all in the book), the conditions described are not of ancient history; as in his first novel Adiga portrays India realistically, with its beauty and sensual delights along with the poverty and squalor.

   I didn't love this book, but as I am fascinated with India and hope to one day visit, I did enjoy reading it.  Again, its realistic description of life in the country is eye-opening.

 

Molly Fox's Birthday

Molly Fox's Birthday by Deirdre Madden

Published:  2008 by Picador

Source:  Purchased

  This novel is similar to James Joyce's Ulysses because:

• It is set in Dublin (though there are some scenes in London)
• It takes place over the course of one day
• Something else that if I mention it, it would be a mild spoiler for this novel (I don't think there are opportunities for spoilers in Ulysses!).  It's not a spoiler in the truest sense, but if I knew about it I think I would have had a different experience reading the book.

  This novel is different from Ulysses because:

• It's readable (yes, I have slogged through Ulysses so I know of what I speak)
• It's about 500 pages shorter (probably contributing to the readable point)
• The main character is female

  It's funny how the first thing I thought about after finishing Molly Fox's Birthday is the similarities to Ulysses.  And a bit weird, I know.

 

  So it's Molly Fox's birthday (specific date unmentioned -- another departure from Ulysses), but the main character is actually one of her oldest and closest friends:  A playwright who is staying in Molly's Dublin home (and who frankly I can't remember being named at all in the book) while Molly, an actress, is in New York.  As she goes about her day, the friend thinks back on her relationship with Molly and with others that have walked through her life, as well as encountering people who call at the house to wish Molly well (her birthday has been announced in the newspapers).

  The inside flap describes the novel as "... about a turning point - a moment when past and future suddenly appear in a new light."  I didn't get this, but apart from that I found it to be an enjoyable book.  I didn't love it, but I'm glad I read it.

The Tortilla Curtain

The Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle

Published:  1995 by Penguin Books

Source:  Purchased

  I am at a loss to explain this book.  It is well-written, but difficult and disturbing; and despite being published in 1995, the story feels like it could have been written right now.

  The story follows two couples:  Delaney and Kyra Mossbacher, living in an exclusive community in the Los Angeles area; and Candido and America Rincon, Mexican immigrants who live (camp out, really) in the surrounding canyons, surviving day to day with whatever they can scrounge.  Both couples are ultimately working toward the same thing - the "American Dream", whatever that may be - but the author dramatically describes how different the paths are.

  Illegal immigration is the underlying theme in this novel, and it was frankly difficult for me to read both the passages of what the Rincons endured to try to make a better life for themselves and of the narrow-mindedness of the middle-class represented in this novel.  Sadly, I believe that what was described is closer to truth than to fiction and T.C. Boyle does not provide any answers to the problems encountered (rather, he does not provide lasting solutions)  At the same time, the descriptions of the Southern California landscape are quite beautiful, even for me who is not a nature-type person and frankly not a fan of life in Los Angeles (based on my few business trips to the area)

  With the right group (i.e. one that can promote civilized discussion) I think this would be a wonderful book to talk about with others. 

   Recommended.

Breakfast with Buddha by Roland Merullo

Breakfast with Buddha by Roland Merullo

Published:  2007 by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill

Source:  Purchased

  This is a great book to read when you want or need a little laugh and a some philosophizing at the same time.

  After the tragic death of his parents, Otto Ringling must head to his hometown in North Dakota to settle their affairs.  Planning to take the trip with his off-beat sister Cecelia who is afraid of flying, he drives from his home in suburban New York pick her up at her place in New Jersey; only when he arrives she lets him know that she is not going but her spiritual guru, Volya Rinpoche, will accompany him and would Otto mind showing him some of the United States along the way?

  It's a bizarre pair of travelling companions, and the metaphorical journey they take is predictable (I thought it was, anyways) but that didn't make the story any less entertaining.  I loved this story and how Otto learned from Rinpoche, and Rinpoche learned from Otto; and the adventures that they had on the road. 

  This is one of my books selected for the 2011 TBR Pile Challenge.  I picked it up two or three years ago at The Norwich Bookstore in Norwich, Vermont, essentially just to purchase something.  I wish I would have taken it off my shelf before now, because it is a wonderfully enjoyable book to read.

Recommended.

  



The Gathering by Anne Enright

The Gathering by Anne Enright

Published:  2008 by Vintage Books

Source:  Purchased

  I purchased this book in 2009 while visiting Dublin (and thus is one of my selections for the 2011 TBR Pile Challenge).  Despite it being awarded the Booker Prize in 2007, I had not heard of it, but since it's an Irish novel and I was in Ireland, I picked it up.

  The back cover synopsis interested me as well:

  The nine surviving children of the Hegarty clan gather in Dublin for the wake of their wayward brother Liam.  It wasn't the drink that killed him - although that certainly helped - it was what happened to him as a boy in his grandmother's house, in the winter of 1968

The Gathering is a novel about love and disappointment, about thwarted lust and limitless desire, and how our fate is written in the body, not in the stars

  After reading the novel, I find that this blurb is very misleading (but, hey, it did its job and got me to buy the book).

  The primary voice of the novel is Veronica, Liam's younger sister and his closest sibling (chronologically and emotionally).  While there is a wake for Liam and there is a revelation of what happened to him at his grandmother's house, these points of the story to me seemed secondary.  Veronica is the main character.

  Veronica is the one to break the news of Liam's death to her mother.  Veronica travels to England to claim his body and return it to Ireland.  As she goes about these solemn duties, she is remembering her brother and the good and bad times; remembering the incident at her grandmother's house (which, by the way, though tragic, did not seem to be enough to affect Liam so dramatically) and visualizing the life of her grandmother as a young woman, all the while realizing that her marriage is in trouble.

  I have to say that I did not like this book; partly because it wasn't what I expected, but also because I couldn't like any of the characters.  I couldn't feel sorry for Liam, there wasn't much to Veronica even though she dominates the novel, and there weren't any aspects to anyone else to draw attention.

  Another disappointing impulse purchase.  I wish I could say that I've learned my lesson, but we all know otherwise......

  Have you read this novel?  What were your thoughts on it?

Five Quarters of the Orange

Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris

Published:  2007 by Harper Perennial

Source:  Purchased

  Framboise Simon returns to the village of her childhood to live in her family's farm and with the recipes of her mother is able to create a successful restaurant.  What the residents don't know is Framboise's link to the town and she would like to keep it that way.

  The story is told at two different periods -- in the present, where Framboise works to keep to herself while her nephew and his wife attempt to coerce her into giving them the recipes Framboise's mother passed on to her for use in their own restaurant; and during the war, where Framboise continually battles with her mother and makes friends with a German soldier in the area.  The narrative seems rather seamless and to me shows once again how much the past has an effect on the present.

  And although I didn't really get a true feeling for most of the characters, I both loved and hated Framboise.  As a child, she really was rather cruel to her mother -- triggering her migraines so that she could take off to the town with her older siblings, for example -- but at the same time as an adult she was strong and feisty and stood up to her nephew's efforts to ruin her business.

  For someone like me who is interested in both World War II and in French history/culture I enjoyed this book very much. 

  I have read this book for the "book with a number in the title" selection of the What's in a Name 4 Reading Challenge.
 

A Woman in Berlin

A Woman in Berlin:  Eight Weeks in the Conquered City, A Diary  by Anonymous (translated by Philip Boehm)

Published:  2005 by Picador

Source:  Purchased

   The woman who wrote of her experience in Berlin in the eight weeks following the city's fall to Soviet troops at the end of World War II is nothing short of amazing.  We hear so many stories about victims from the war, but rarely if ever have I seen a story of an innocent German citizen and what they were forced to endure. 

   The beginning of this diary, April 20, 1945, is the day that Berlin started seeing and hearing the war up close.  The Soviets were advancing on the city and everyone is anxious; stories from areas already "liberated" by the troops describe terrible acts against women. 

    When the Soviets do arrive, the horror becomes reality.  Young girls are hidden away to prevent their "violation" but very few other women were spared repeated rapes.  The author of this diary is no exception, but she lays claim to a few officers (at separate times) who at least provide her and those with whom she is living food and other essentials.   Some might question her actions, but who is to say how we would react under the same circumstances?

    This diary is difficult to read at times but to me really proved that there were innocent victims on both sides of the war.

    This book meets the "Book in a Wartime Setting" requirement for the Back to the Classics Challenge 2011.

February Reading List

  February started in Chicagoland with a blizzard -- my neighborhood got about 15 inches of snow; on the bright side, my office was closed for the day and after my husband and I dug out our driveway and sidewalk to the front door, I had some extra reading time!
 
  It's a short one, but here is what's on my reading agenda for the month:

          For book groups:

• The Quickening by Michelle Hoover
• Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell

          For Reading Challenges:

• Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris
• The Gathering by Anne Enright
• Of Hockey and Hijab:  Reflections of a Canadian Muslim Woman by Sheema Khan
• The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian

          Just Because:

• A Corner in the Marais:  Memoir of a Paris Neighborhood by Alex Karmel
• The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom
• The Emperor of All Maladies:  A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee

      (plus a few more if I can squeeze them in)

  What are you reading this month?

The Whole Five Feet by Christopher Beha

The Whole Five Feet:  What the Great Books Taught Me About Life, Death, and Pretty Much Everything Else, by Christopher R. Beha

Published:  2009 by Grove Press

Source:  Purchased

  I seem to be drawn to these "project" memoirs, where someone takes on some grand goal over the course of a year and then writes about it.  Some of them have been more interesting than others (A.J. Jacobs is the best, in my opinion), but at the very least I find it admirable that one has the discipline to carry out such undertakings.

 

  I am especially impressed with Christopher Beha's quest to read over the course of one year the entire Harvard Classics, a selection of great books of literature intended to fit on a five-foot shelf.  While a challenge in itself, it is compounded by the illness and death of a close family member and Beha's own health emergency which, as a cancer survivor, he does not take lightly.  Heavy on Greek and Latin works, and with a seemingly appropriate volume on medical-themed texts, the Classics provide Beha a respite from all that was going on in his life and in a way gave him some comfort:

Reading these words that others had set down while they suffered and before they were gone made things easier for me.

  This is a serious memoir, and also encouraging.  Not all of us have the time to undertake an entire collection of great books, but Christopher Beha does make a good case for reading them.

  I read this book for the What's in a Name Challenge 4, for the category "Book with a size in its title".

The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis

The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis

Published:  2007 by McLelland & Stewart

Source:  Purchased (the Canadian edition, eh?)

  I'm a Canadian girl, and my one complaint about Canadian literature is that most of it is frankly quite depressing and bleak.  Granted, I enjoy reading depressing and bleak, but I wish there were more books available that were well written and that provided a laugh or two (or even a few smiles).  The Best Laid Plans is a great start.

  Daniel Addison has been a political aide in the Liberal Party but after a personal shock, he decides to leave Ottawa and head into academia at a university just outside of the capital.  Canada is just about ready for an election, so the Party asks him to find a Liberal candidate in the university's riding.  Said candidate would be running in an overwhelmingly Tory riding against the incumbent Member of Parliament Tory Finance Minister Eric Cameron; who is extremely popular around the country.

   Daniel finds his sacrificial lamb --  his landlord, Angus McLintock, who is also an engineering professor at the university -- who after some negotiation agrees to have his name on the ballot with the understanding that he has no chance of winning.  But of course, things happen..... 

   I wasn't sure if non-Canadians would appreciate/understand the political discourse in the novel, but after reading it I think that its description of politics is pretty universal.  And that is only one part of the story; there is romance, adventure (trust me, it's there!) and a very quirky cast of characters that make it all work.   And it's funny -- again I don't know if you need to be Canadian to get some the jokes but I've been out of the country for 11 years and I still found myself laughing out loud.

  It's only January, but The Best Laid Plans is already on my favorite reads of 2011 list.  Highly recommended.

  And it counts toward my progress in The Canadian Book Challenge 4 !

Travel as a Political Act

Travel as a Political Act by Rick Steves

Published:  Nation Books, 2009

Source:  Purchased



   I am really not sure how I feel about Rick Steves -- I watch his programs on PBS occasionally to vicariously fulfill my European travel wishes, but there is just something about him that I find off-putting.  Maybe I'm just jealous.

   I haven't read any of his travel guides, but I did pick up his book, Travel as a Political Act, because I was interested in its premise -- how travel provides the opportunity to be better local and world citizens.  Drawing on his own travel experiences, primarily in Europe but also in El Salvador, Turkey, Morocco, and Iran, Steves provides a picture of the world that is not necessarily seen by stereotypical tourists only looking for fun and the "name" attractions.  As well, especially with his visit to Iran, he shows the places in a light rarely if ever displayed in American media outlets -- not everyone is anti-American, and most of the world's Muslims are peaceful, law abiding citizens, for example.

  I have not travelled nearly as much as I want to, but I appreciate the sentiments that Steves expresses in this book.  Seeing the sights is of course an important part of the travel experience, but just as important is interacting with local people and immersing oneself in the culture even if only for a short time. 

  Some of the more overtly "political" statements he makes felt out of place to me, but aside from that, as an aspiring world traveller (alas, doing most of my travelling through books these days) this book is informative and enjoyable. 

   This is the first book off of my list for the 2011 TBR Pile Challenge.

The 2011 TBR Pile Challenge

 
  I think the book blogging challenge gods are really trying to help me deal with my overwhelming TBR shelves (and save my husband from the heart palpitations he gets everytime he sees how many books are on them).

  Adam at Roof Beam Reader has created a challenge for 2011 that seems catered exclusively to me:  a TBR Pile Challenge.  The goal of this challenge is to read at least 12 books from your to-read pile(s) that have been there for at least a year and that have a publication date prior to January 1, 2010. 
 
  So here's my list:

• Fabulous Small Jews stories by Joseph Epstein  Completed!  Reviewed here
• East of the Sun by Julia Gregson Completed!  Reviewed here
• Between the Assassinations by Aravind Adiga Completed!  Reviewed here
• The Gathering by Anne Enright  (side note:  this is a book where I distinctly remember when & where I purchased it -- I bought it during a visit to Dublin in February of 2009)  Completed! Reviewed here
• The Clothes on Their Backs by Linda Grant 
• Breakfast with Buddha by Roland Merullo  Completed!  Reviewed here
• Ornament of the World:  How Muslims, Jews and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain by Maria Rosa Menocal  Completed!
• The Battle for Spain:  The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 by Antony Beevor Completed!  Reviewed here
• Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford
• The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work by Alain de Botton
• Travel as a Political Act by Rick Steves  Completed!  Reviewed here
• Ghost Soldiers:  The Epic Account of World War II's Greatest Rescue Mission by Hampton Sides

  My two alternate books are:

• The Ground Beneath Her Feet by Salman Rushdie
• The Most Beautiful Book in the World by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt  Completed!  Reviewed here

  This should free up some space on the shelves for some new books (but don't tell my husband!)

  What do you think of my list?