Books

I thought I’d run down a list of pleasure books that I’ve read recently–recently being defined as “since I moved to Germany.” There are surprisingly few of them because: (a) most of my reading is academic, (b) I treasure all of my English language books since they are hard to come by, and (c) I stopped reading books for about a month for some unknown reason.

Fortunately none of the books I’ve read have been bad.

The Hunger Moon by Suzanne Matson (Amazon: US; DE; UK) was a charming book I picked up at the American Book Center in The Hauge. The lives are three women are connected by a baby and its care. I wouldn’t call it great literature, but I did get into the book so far that I bascially read it in one sitting.

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris (US; DE; UK) really hits home for me. There are plenty of times that I feel like I am leading David Sedaris’s life, but in German instead of French. David has lots of problems with the gender of nouns in French noting that a hermaphrodite is male. At least French has only two genders—German has three–although I suppose that means hermaphrodite could actually waffle.

So Me by Graham Norton (US; DE; UK) is an extremely enjoyable autobiography by one of Britain’s funniest men. I’ve watched his British TV show (and he got on in the States just as I moved out) and read his unauthorized biography, so I knew alot about the man. The book adds a great deal of depth to this man as he recounts his life’s experiences. I found his September 11th experience to be especially funny–he was at Dollywood eating dinner with 2,000 other people. Dinner was served, but he was puzzled how to eat until he heard the song which included the rhyming couplet: “We don’t need no forks or spoons, we just eat things like raccoons!”

Adam by Anthony McDonald (US; DE; UK) is an enchanting novel about an English teenaged cello player living in France for a year. He falls in love with an older man and the story is surprisingly engaging. As you can imagine, I only bought the novel because of the title, but I have no regrets.

For the Love of Prague by Gene Deitch (US; DE; UK). Have you ever imagined being the only free American living in Prague under the Communist government? If so, here’s the answer–and it is extrememly interesting. Gene met and married a Czech woman in Prague and lived there for the duration of the Communist government. I got trapped by this book and ended up reading it straight through. (book website)

Cody by Keith Hale (US; DE; UK) is a teen novel set in Little Rock. Charming, full of expected southern behavior, I was enchanted by this book which I picked up used in Prague for 70 Crowns (about 2,30€).