Read this!!!

I love books. Not only do they help to pass the time but they are informative too 🙂 Please let me know of your faves so we can spread the news about the wonderful world of reading. Since I was an International Relations major, you’ll definitely see a trend in what I read so please, broaden my horizons by suggesting others in other fields.

ALERT, ALERT, I don’t read much in DN. Once I move to SG, I’ll be starting up a book club like in the good ‘ol days 🙂 hahhah I didn’t read much in SGN either. Vietnam was too stimulating and I was OUT A LOT.

Book reading for me slides with whatever else I’m doing. I’m really not that consistent but hey, when there’s time, I read.

THE LIST: what do u like? Share please!

27. The DaVinci Code. I reread the illustrated version ten years after my first go and you know what, I still love it. Dan Brown is NOT my fave author but this one is really good. Angels and Demons, not so much though I was told to reread the part about CERN 😛

26. The Guardian, newspaper or online. Such a great newsource with a whole range of articles. I LOVE IT!

25. Chris Hadfield’s memoir, autobiography. He’s the Canadian Astronaut that went to the International Space Station and sang that David Bowie song with his guitar. Fantastic stuff! READ IT!

24. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a Nigerian writer. WOW it is long but seriously I read through it like hotcakes. Breathless, real emotion with a love tale to boot. Great look into Nigerian culture and what is ‘blackness’ in America.

23. UM I LOVE JHUMPA LAHIRI! Read her books please. Start with the short stories or The Namesake and go onwards to her more recent books. Poignant, meaningful, chilling tales.

ORDER RESTRUCTURING: DESCENDING ORDER FROM NOW ON.
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1. King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild : a great tale about a Belgium king and colonialization in the Congo.

2. Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser : the history of fast food in the USA
3. Blue Gold by Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke : water facts and capitalism

4. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini : fiction about two young boys growing up in Afghanistan

5. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, esp. chapter 22!

6. When Heaven and Earth Trade Places by Le Ly Hayslip and Jay Wurts : story of a Vietnamese girl during the war

7. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
8. 1984 by George Orwell : a classic
9. Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner : the best econ I’ve read in awhile
10. Paris To the Moon by Adam Gopnik (thanks Liz H!)
11. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck : Chinese story in the early 1900s

12. The Girl in the Picture: The Story of Kim Phuc, the Photograph, and the Vietnam War by Denise Chong

13. Garfield en francais
14. those Lil Miss and Mister books
15. Le libraire a Kabul de Asne Seierstad (also translated into English)
16. anything by Francois Mauriac and Jane Austen and Oscar Wilde
17. Frommer’s tour books BUT actually, I think Lonely Planet’s even better 🙂

18. How could I forget “Silent Spring” by Rachel Carson? It’s the environmental must-read of our lives!

19. I’m just starting Jeffery Sach’s “THE END OF POVERTY Economic Possibilities for Our Time” and it’s looking pretty good : )

20. No list is complete w/o Harry Potter! I love the Goblet of Fire (#4) but the series is soooooo fabo! 🙂

21. Leaving Microsoft to Change the World by John Wood, founder of Room to Read: inspiring to those in development and business and hopefully to all 🙂 Twas my airplane company from SFran to HCMC on the way back to DN and kept me outta trouble 😉

22. The English Patient is a 1992 novel by Sri Lankan Canadian novelist Michael Ondaatje. OK so I stole that off the Internet but it’s a good book. One of my penpals (HI ALYSON!) loved it and so I always meant to read it b4 I watched the movie. NEVER watch the movie first!!!! IT’s not advisable.

These days, I’m stealing book ideas from friends. I have to read what I can when ppl send me things, well at least that is how it goes in VN. The day I live in a place with a public library again, I’ll be camping out! Bonne lecture mes amis!