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Reading roundup

I haven't done one of these in a while. Partly because during the schoolyear, I rarely read anything that doesn't have to do with either law or babies.

Currently reading: Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje. Not liking it all that much.

Books I've read recently:

Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. An amazing book. It's a retelling of the Mahabharata by Panchaali, the wife of the five Pandava brothers. Having grown up with the Mahabharata and the Gita, it was eye-opening to hear the familiar stories from a new perspective. In the intro, Divakaruni writes about how she would spend hours poring over the huge leather book in her grandfather's study, and how the women were treated as mere instruments in the lives of the men. She remembers thinking that one day, she would write about the women in the story. She has done that, bringing a personal dimension that I've never seen to the sometimes baffling story that seemed so far from my reality as a Bengali girl growing up in America. She weaves in events small and large from the text while putting them all in the context of Panchaali's life. My father's birthday is coming up and he is getting this book.

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. "That's a self-help book, right?" said my mother-in-law. "I saw it on Oprah!" I'm glad I heard the words "self-help" and "Oprah" when I was already halfway through, because I enjoyed the book. A lot of the Amazon reviewers complain that she's self-absorbed, but it's really a mini-memoir of her own journey to find herself, so of course it's self-absorbed. I don't see it as universal truth and would hate to think of it as a self-help guide, but as a memoir I found it entertaining and insightful. The structure -- three sections about seeking pleasure in Italy, enlightenment in India, and balance in Bali -- made all the stuff about spirituality and meditation and being in the palm of God much easier to take, since you get to know her before she starts in on that.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See. Not bad. Starts off with a stomach-turning description of footbinding. Goes on to review the friendship of two women, matched as lifelong friends when they were children. Kept me interested, but I didn't love it -- the characters never seemed that real to me.

Beyond Reason by Roger Fisher and Daniel Shapiro. A worthwhile read -- doesn't have as much filler as some negotiation books. Talks about how to deal with negative emotions and foster positive emotions in a negotiation by paying attention to five core areas: appreciation, affiliation, autonomy, status, and role. I'll write a more detailed review later unless I'm too lazy.

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. I couldn't help comparing this to "The Tipping Point," and it's not as good. Gladwell's strength is the interesting case studies, but beyond the stories this book is a little incoherent. It starts out by saying that we tend to make good decisions quickly, because lots of unconscious thought goes into those decisions and with limited time we're forced to focus on what's really important. But our biases can mean they're actually bad decisions. And sometimes we focus on the wrong things. But with lots of deliberate study, we can become experts and understand how to overcome our biases and which things we should focus on. So... at the end, I'm not sure what the take-home message is, if any.

Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman. I read this book when I was stuck on the couch with a sprained ankle. It contains vampire poems. That's all I have to say.

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. Okay, I'm not the biggest Neil Gaiman fan. But this book was enjoyable, a nice mix of fantasy, mythology, and caper -- at times it reminded me of Dave Barry's novels, where all the characters converge and chase each other around at the end.

Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson. I got this book from the library by accident -- I meant to get "What Color is Your Parachute?" for JW. But I read it anyway. It literally takes 15 minutes to read. It's a story about mice and little people who live in a maze and look for cheese. When the cheese moves, the mice adjust and adapt and go looking for more cheese. The people get upset, and are afraid to go anywhere else, and wait for the cheese to come back. Eventually, one strikes out on his own, while the other stays stuck, unwilling to accept the change. In case you don't get it, there's a chapter at the end where a group of friends discusses the story and how it applies to their lives. I'd say I got 15 minutes worth of wisdom to justify reading it.

Karma and Other Stories by Rishi Reddi. I wrote about this a little before. I liked the book -- a bunch of intertwined short stories about people in an Indian community in suburban Boston, so I could relate.

The Book of Vice by Peter Segal, the host of NPR's "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me." It's funny, like he is on the show, but ultimately unsatisfying. He doesn't reveal much that I hadn't already heard, and he wavers between trying to be part of the scene he's in (whether it's a swinger's club or a casino) and a detached "can you believe that people actually do this?" attitude. My personal favorite vice is gluttony, so I had an extra beef with that chapter: it was about Grant Achatz's restaurant Alinea, and I see his food as more art than gluttony. (If I'm ever in Chicago again, I am heading straight there.)

Swapping Lives by Jane Green. I'm kind of embarrassed to have read this, because I hate the inanity of chick lit. But this was a fun read during finals. Plot: British magazine editor and rich suburban American mom switch lives. You can imagine how it turns out.

On my reading list:
Reread Difficult Conversations
3D Negotiation by James Sebenius
Ask For It by Linda Babcock
Something by John Gottman
Something by Joan Didion
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
Not a lot of inspiration on this list, not a lot of fiction, and virtually no new books -- I could use some help here. Any recommendations?

Full post as published by Magic Cookie on June 02, 2008 (boomark / email).