akashiver | State of the Reading Union: the year so far

Oh, hell. Given that I've done one book review, and I'm officially Taking the Night Off from Work, why not do them all?

According to my google books record, I've read 48 books for pleasure so far this year. These are the best of them:

Non Fiction

1) The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

A gripping page-turner that made me contemplate African-Americans' relationship to medicine in a new light.

2) Zeitoun by Dave Eggers (Audiobook)

Oh, this book made me so mad! It's an astonishing and poignient account of a) Hurricane Katrina, b) what it means to be Muslim in America, and c) reasons why you should not trust your government. The audiobook was brilliant. I recommend it.

3) The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz ... by Deborah Blum

An awkwardly written but fascinating account of how one man turned the office of city coroner into a respectable (and effective) crime-solving unit. I'd never heard of cases like the New Jersey Radium Poisoning before, so they provided entertaining and sometimes frightening insights into early 20C America. After reading this book I stopped being blase about household chemicals and started wearing plastic gloves while cleaning.

4) In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson

The second half of this book was disappointing, but the first half was a very compelling account of what it's like to be standing in the path of history, unaware that the light ahead is an oncoming train.

Memoir (aka "Might be Fiction for all I know")

Lit: A Memoir by Mary Karr (Audio Book)

I didn't like "The Liar's Club" so I didn't expect to like this memoir. However, I found Karr's meditation on spirituality very compelling. It helped that she herself was reading the audio book; it made the "voice" of the narrative make more sense, and made Karr herself seem less obnoxious.

Next up: fiction