Books read this year
18. The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts - Maxine Hong Kingston
17. The American Way of Death Revisited - Jessica Mitford
16. The History of White People - Nell Irvin Painter
15. Doctor Who The New Adventures: Love and War - Paul Cornell
14. The Outlaws of Sherwood - Robin McKinley
13. God Grew Tired of Us: A Memoir - John Bul Dau and Michael S. Sweeney
12. Why Do Men Have Nipples: Hundreds of Questions You'd Only Ask a Doctor After Your Third Martini - Mark Leyner, Billy Goldberg
11. Doctor Who The Missing Adventures: Cold Fusion - Lance Parkin
10. The Moral Underground: How Ordinary Americans Subvert an Unfair Economy - Lisa Dodson
9. Doctor Who The Missing Adventures: The Dark Path - David A. McIntee
8. When You Are Engulfed in Flames - David Sedaris
7. The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
6. Doctor Who: The Roundheads - Mark Gatiss
5. Free: The Future of a Radical Price - Chris Anderson
4. Doctor Who: The Murder Game - Steve Lyons
3. World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War - Max Brooks
2. Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book - Gerard Jones
1. Maus - Art Spiegelman
This is the book I picked to review for my Sociology of Minority Groups class. It was required reading for me in 10th grade, but I haven't looked at it since then. I'd forgotten most of the stories. It might not be too useful for learning about current Chinese culture since the family in the book immigrated in the 30s or 40s. In fact, it might not be very useful for trying to understand Chinese culture in general even then because they came from such a small village and mentions toward the end of the book that she stopped checking "bilingual" on job applications because she and the person who interviewed her in Chinese were always speaking completely different dialects. But as far as the specific culture she grew up in, it is wonderful. Kingston outs herself as an unreliable narrator for some of the stories since she is telling about events she wasn't present for and may be embellishing a bit, but I think that's part of the point. She is "talking-story" the way her mom always did. Definitely a book I would recommend and it reminds me to look up some of her more recent work.
17. The American Way of Death Revisited - Jessica Mitford
16. The History of White People - Nell Irvin Painter
15. Doctor Who The New Adventures: Love and War - Paul Cornell
14. The Outlaws of Sherwood - Robin McKinley
13. God Grew Tired of Us: A Memoir - John Bul Dau and Michael S. Sweeney
12. Why Do Men Have Nipples: Hundreds of Questions You'd Only Ask a Doctor After Your Third Martini - Mark Leyner, Billy Goldberg
11. Doctor Who The Missing Adventures: Cold Fusion - Lance Parkin
10. The Moral Underground: How Ordinary Americans Subvert an Unfair Economy - Lisa Dodson
9. Doctor Who The Missing Adventures: The Dark Path - David A. McIntee
8. When You Are Engulfed in Flames - David Sedaris
7. The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
6. Doctor Who: The Roundheads - Mark Gatiss
5. Free: The Future of a Radical Price - Chris Anderson
4. Doctor Who: The Murder Game - Steve Lyons
3. World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War - Max Brooks
2. Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book - Gerard Jones
1. Maus - Art Spiegelman
This is the book I picked to review for my Sociology of Minority Groups class. It was required reading for me in 10th grade, but I haven't looked at it since then. I'd forgotten most of the stories. It might not be too useful for learning about current Chinese culture since the family in the book immigrated in the 30s or 40s. In fact, it might not be very useful for trying to understand Chinese culture in general even then because they came from such a small village and mentions toward the end of the book that she stopped checking "bilingual" on job applications because she and the person who interviewed her in Chinese were always speaking completely different dialects. But as far as the specific culture she grew up in, it is wonderful. Kingston outs herself as an unreliable narrator for some of the stories since she is telling about events she wasn't present for and may be embellishing a bit, but I think that's part of the point. She is "talking-story" the way her mom always did. Definitely a book I would recommend and it reminds me to look up some of her more recent work.