Getting Crispy

This is the first weekend in months that felt like pre-promotion times. I read like crazy and enjoyed every minute of it. Perhaps it’s that nip of fall in the air (it’s still stiflingly hot during the day, but gets somewhat crispy at night), but the brain is ON.

I started with a book edited by Helen Small called The Public Intellectual.  It was really disappointing in that I could barely trace the relevance of several of the essays contained therein. A volume I picked up last year, I am annoyed at myself for buying it rather than taking it out of the library.

The second book was a text by Gwynne Dyer, whom I heard speak years ago when I was in CEGEP (that’s college, for those of you who have no clue what I’m referring to). A Canadian journalist living in Britain, this volume, entitled Future Tense: the Coming World Order, was really insightful. Even though it was published a couple of years ago, it is still most relevant. He talks about the present US leadership vis-à-vis the rest of the world, especially the Middle East. I appreciate his viewpoint, which is neither American, nor fully Canadian, nor quite British. It’s recommended.

Going along the theme of war (fun fun!), I read the absolutely brutal Swallows of Kabul by Yasmina Khadra. I love this author’s novels, but they are really heavy and always disturbing. Since reading The Attack, I’ve had this book on my radar, and only just got to it last night, finishing it this morning, at 2 a.m. It takes place in Kabul and focuses on two couples and their response to a Taliban-dominated existence. Khadra writes about mental unraveling in an eerily accurate way. One must read total fluff afterward to balance the cosmos a little.

And so I shall. In truth, I should be doing some prep for my upcoming book club, but I’m tired and have a crazy day ahead tomorrow. Since my muffins are out of the oven (carrot-bran this week), I think I’ll just go to bed. G’night.

Comments

[Mike Sowden]

Swallows of Kabul sounds like what I need right now - something a little bit jolting.
....
I had a look at the Amazon entry for The Public Intellectual - a weighty, scholarly tome, if the price is anything to go by. ;)
So you found it unfocussed and incoherent in places? What did you get from the reading despite this?