This book is rather poorly named -- it has almost nothing to do with the private life of Islam at all, other than a few tidbits that creep in around the edges -- it is, in fact, about a hospital in the Kabyl region of Algeria that's run largely by doctors and nurses from Eastern Europe ( Read more... )

"It's not about the sex", my ass: confessions of an ex-Mormon, ex-polygamist, ex-wife by Joanne Hanks, as told to Steve Cuno. I do so admire people who can not only correct their mistakes, but laugh about them afterwards. I cannot make either claim for myself ( Read more... )

The Motorcycle Diaries: notes on a Latin America journey, by Ernesto "Che" Guevara. This book reminded me vividly of what it was like to be in ones early 20s, that weird mix of brainless adolescent and responsible adult ( Read more... )

This is an absolutely marvelous book, funny and charming from beginning to end. Like the book, The Big Year, it follows the adventures of three avid bird-watchers (birders, in the vernacular) as they spend a year chasing after birds they haven't yet seen. They do this as a group thru most of the book, tho there are occasional individual forays ( Read more... )

This book has made it very clear to me why I could never be an explorer: never mind the deprivation, the hardship, the weather, the hundreds of miles of walking, never mind the large animals that can eat you or the small fish that can eat everything, I would be undone by the endless clouds of tiny stinging and biting and burrowing-into-skin insects ( Read more... )

Fussell is a food writer, one of the first I’m assuming, and this book, published in 1999, is her memoir and a very interesting one it is too, despite my occasional feelings of overload.

Fussell was born in 1927 to a desperately poor, Fundamentalist family with problems that outstripped either of those handicaps. Her mother, who had a history of ( Read more... )

I don't know about this book, I really don't.  It's written by a 30 yr old man with Asperger's Syndrome, giving a very frank and detailed account of his life with its assorted challenges, difficulties and even, sometimes, rewards.  I will say right off the bat that it's very well written and Saperstein should consider becoming an essayist -- he ( Read more... )

I have very mixed feelings about this book.  On the positive side, Lessing is an excellent writer (as anyone not living in a cave is well aware) and her affection for cats is unquestioned, particularly her willingness to spend tremendous time, effort and money nursing sick cats, even when they're strays ( Read more... )

Shakespeare Saved My Life: ten years in solitary with the Bard, by Laura Bates.  This is a memoir of Professor Bates' program to introduce the study of Shakespeare's plays to prisoners (including those in solitary confinement) as part of an educational program to rehabilitate them.  My immediate reaction to this was "you're kidding, right?" but the ( Read more... )

I would ask why it took me so long to discover this writer, but I think I know the answer -- I'm an American, my mind doesn't get out that much.  Anyhow, I'm currently reading two of his books and very happy to have finally met him.

His The Library at Night is my bedtime book.  I initially borrowed this book from the library but it quitely became ( Read more... )