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inulroTwo excellent books to start May off:
29. Forests of the Heart by Charles de Lint
About 10 years ago, I read de Lint's Trader, which I thought was OK, but not much more. More recently I read one of his short stories in a collection, Making a Noise in This World, which blew me away, so when I came across a couple of his books in the library recently I grabbed them.
Forests of the Heart is about what happens when the spirit beings of the Irish immigrants comes into conflict with those of the native North Americans. Which may sound a bit American Gods but it's not. It's set in de Lint's fictional North American city of Newford (which I can't help seeing as Ottawa in my mind - when you know he lives there and you've been there, it's hard not to, even though it's supposed to be much meaner and bigger). [1]
I loved this book - 400 pages of tiny print and I read it in less than five days. I loved the city, I loved the characters, and I just got swept away by the plot. Most of all (and it's what impressed me about Making a Noise in This World), while de Lint focuses on Native American spirituality and mythology, he doesn't airbrush out the poverty and social problems encountered by natives on and off the reservation.
[1] Another top tip that de Lint is writing in Canada - the goth character listens to Rhea's Obsession.
30. The Spiders of Allah: Travels of an unbeliever on the frontline of holy war by James Hider
As recommended by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
badnewswade.
Hider is a journalist who covered the Iraq war from 2003-2005.6, and before that the Israel/Palestine conflict for the Times (though Israel/Palestine only constitutes a brief chapter at the beginning). Mostly the book is about the complete breakdown of society in Iraq following the overthrow of Saddam in 2003. It's truly terrifying, and gets more out of control and terrifying as time goes on.
Hider points out that Iraq was a pretty insane place to be during Saddam's control, and explains partly why the country very quickly degenerated into a mess of centuries-old tribal feuds as soon as the lid was taken off. Additionally, none of the occupying armies thought to close the borders, so the Taleban and Al-
Quaeda moved right in and established wing-nut theocracies. Cucumbers and tomatoes couldn't be displayed together in the market, and pastoral nomads were made to put underwear on goats. Really.
Although the theme is ostensibly "look what religion makes people do to each other", he also spells out additional political, sociological and psychological factors that caused this particular mess.badnewswade describes Hider as "a more humane Richard Dawkins". While he completely Doesn't Get Religion, he doesn't hold religious people in contempt either, and has a genuine affection for many of the Iraquis of all religious persuasions that he meets.
I'm not remotely doing it justice. This should be required reading for everybody. Thanks for the heads-up, Andy!
29. Forests of the Heart by Charles de Lint
About 10 years ago, I read de Lint's Trader, which I thought was OK, but not much more. More recently I read one of his short stories in a collection, Making a Noise in This World, which blew me away, so when I came across a couple of his books in the library recently I grabbed them.
Forests of the Heart is about what happens when the spirit beings of the Irish immigrants comes into conflict with those of the native North Americans. Which may sound a bit American Gods but it's not. It's set in de Lint's fictional North American city of Newford (which I can't help seeing as Ottawa in my mind - when you know he lives there and you've been there, it's hard not to, even though it's supposed to be much meaner and bigger). [1]
I loved this book - 400 pages of tiny print and I read it in less than five days. I loved the city, I loved the characters, and I just got swept away by the plot. Most of all (and it's what impressed me about Making a Noise in This World), while de Lint focuses on Native American spirituality and mythology, he doesn't airbrush out the poverty and social problems encountered by natives on and off the reservation.
[1] Another top tip that de Lint is writing in Canada - the goth character listens to Rhea's Obsession.
30. The Spiders of Allah: Travels of an unbeliever on the frontline of holy war by James Hider
As recommended by
badnewswade.Hider is a journalist who covered the Iraq war from 2003-2005.6, and before that the Israel/Palestine conflict for the Times (though Israel/Palestine only constitutes a brief chapter at the beginning). Mostly the book is about the complete breakdown of society in Iraq following the overthrow of Saddam in 2003. It's truly terrifying, and gets more out of control and terrifying as time goes on.
Hider points out that Iraq was a pretty insane place to be during Saddam's control, and explains partly why the country very quickly degenerated into a mess of centuries-old tribal feuds as soon as the lid was taken off. Additionally, none of the occupying armies thought to close the borders, so the Taleban and Al-
Quaeda moved right in and established wing-nut theocracies. Cucumbers and tomatoes couldn't be displayed together in the market, and pastoral nomads were made to put underwear on goats. Really.
Although the theme is ostensibly "look what religion makes people do to each other", he also spells out additional political, sociological and psychological factors that caused this particular mess.
badnewswade describes Hider as "a more humane Richard Dawkins". While he completely Doesn't Get Religion, he doesn't hold religious people in contempt either, and has a genuine affection for many of the Iraquis of all religious persuasions that he meets.I'm not remotely doing it justice. This should be required reading for everybody. Thanks for the heads-up, Andy!
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Date: 2010-05-07 08:56 pm (UTC)