Reading List

February 28, 2008

Being a Peace Corps volunteer is a lot of hard work. Teaching English, speaking a foreign language, and trying not to do anything culturally inappropriate is a full time job and is physically and emotionally exhausting. Still, we do generally have a fair bit of free time in which to read or hang out. In the six months I have read several books from the intellectual to the embarrassing and I list them here because maybe even if you are not a Peace Corps volunteer you can still read like one if you want.

1. Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
2. The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis
I brought these Lewis books with me to Kazakhstan because I had never read them and I knew that I was going to Muslim nation and wanted to keep my Christian theology sharp. I found Lewis’ ideas interesting and his logic nearly flawless for the most part. Still, I found myself disagreeing with several of his ideas such as the nature of the Trinity. Lewis envisions two beings or intelligences, the Father and the Son and the love between them is the Holy Spirit. This may make me heretical, but I have a hard time with the idea of God in Three persons, even if they are of “one mind and purpose.” It just seems inconsistent with monotheistic thought. Instead I like to look at God as one looks at a regular person, one being with three different jobs or aspects. For example, just as my dad is a lawyer, a son, and a father, so too is God the Father who watches over us, the Son who died for us, and the Spirit who guides us. I would recommend Lewis to almost anyone, whether they were an atheist or a conservative Christian, because while he may not totally change the nature of your belief, he will at least make you think.
3. River God by Wilbur Smith
This was a historical novel about Ancient Egypt. In the afterword, the author seems to be making the claim that his novel is sort of a rough transcription of several ancient scrolls from a recently found temple, and its hard to tell whether he is making a joke or actually thinks that what happened. It is narrated by a brilliant eunuch in Pharaoh’s court and covers a forty-year period from the splitting of the two kingdoms and invasion of the Sumerians through the Pharaoh’s exile and counter-invasion. It is a good book, and the realistic historically rooted plot moves smoothly, but you will never mistake this book for a history lesson. This is a great airplane or travel book. It will fill the time nicely but definitely not life altering.
4. Alvin Journeyman by Orson Scott Card
5 Area 51: Legend by Bob Mayer
All right, I am almost embarrassed to admit I read this book. The basic premise is that there are evil aliens with advanced technology that resemble the sword Excalibur and the Holy Grail of Legend. The heroes of the story are trying to find these objects so that they can defeat the aliens and liberate humanity from the shadow war being waged between the aliens and even worse threat. This books one saving grace was that it was a quick read and made the train ride to Kyzylorda go faster, but if you try to make sense of all of the plot holes you will just give yourself a headache.
6. Roman Blood by Steven Saylor
7. Roma by Steven Saylor
I first read Roman Blood several years ago and since then have been a big fan of his work, especially his Roma Sub Rosa mystery novel series. I brought Roman Blood with me from home because I knew it was a guaranteed good read and I figured that I might run into a fellow classics major who might interested in reading it too. I also brought with me Saylor’s latest book, Roma, which follows one Roman family 2,000 years from the first settlers on the seven hills to the foundation of the city, through the Cataline conspiracy and finally to the death of Caesar. Furthermore, while it is fictional, there is much more history in it than River God. In fact, since Livy is pretty dry, I might even recommend that a beginning classics student might want to read this first to get a rough sketch. I look forward to seeing what Saylor comes up with next and cannot wait to read his next book that comes out in May. (Hi Mom)
8. The Brethren by John Grisham
9. The King of Torts by John Grisham
10. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
11. The Tender Bar by J. R. Moehringer
This is one of the best books that I have read in a long time, and I would like to thank my fellow volunteer for letting me borrow his copy. It is Moehringer’s memoir of growing in a very dysfunctional Irish family and how he found comfort and support with the men who worked at the local bar. Even if you have a father and your family is relatively normal, you will definitely get a lot out of this book, although being Irish definitely helps in understanding his complex relationship with his father and his attraction to bars.
12. I am America, and So Can You by Stephen Colbert
13. The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson
A story of growing up in America during the 1950s, I thought this book was hilarious not just because Bill Bryson is a great writer and very funny, but in many ways Kazakhstan is America 50 years ago. For example, from November to March, every child is wrapped up in a snowsuit that is warm and toasty is impossible to move in, and just as Bryson recalls playing with Mercury or running after the DDT truck, people here in Kazakhstan are burn their trash and blame the hot weather on the space launches in Baikanoor rather than their own and drive old, gas guzzling cars, all while blaming the space launches in Baikanor for the summer heat. Still, as much as I shake my head at such cluelessness, it is fun to read about that more innocent time. I just hope that as Kazakhstan moves forward, it takes the things that we have done well, such as technology and environmental consciousness, and leaves behind our less beneficial additions to history like Kmart and McDonalds.
14. The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
15. Remembering America by Richard Goodwin
Mr. Goodwin’s book is a powerful chronicle of one of the most important periods of American history, the 1960s. Using his own political and personal journey through that turbulent decade, Goodwin reminds everyone, even if they were there themselves, of the powerful hope and promise of the early part of the decade and the tragedy and dejection that brought it to a close. As much as I was interested in his reflections on John and Robert Kennedy, I think the section of the book that I enjoyed most was the passage about Lyndon Johnson. While both Kennedy’s loss their lives in senseless violence, it was Johnson’s life and career that was a true classical tragedy. It was heartbreaking to read how Johnson was, as Hilary Clinton recently stated, ultimately responsible for the passage of the Civil Rights Act, as well other pieces of landmark legislation such as Medicare and Medicaid, and then how it was all lost due to his stubborn refusal to leave the quagmire of Vietnam. Goodwin’s book was not just a reflection of lost dreams, however. He also reminds us that, though we have spent the last forty years in sitting in depressive apathy, complaining about the state of the world, but not doing anything about it, we can usher in a New America if we work for it. I hope that this election will usher in a new “sixties.” The last eight years have seen political process twisted, the constitution suspended, and the American Dream buried, but after reading this book I hold on to the belief that we can still turn things around.