Current Reading

My life is always filled with books, both for work and for pleasure.  This sometimes, but not always, has the result of making work pleasurable.

Currently on the docket:

In the middle of discussing The Myth of Jose Marti with my colloquium, exploring Cuban nationalism through its foundation myths.  We're also in the midst of Que Vivan los Tamales, a fun and useful book that looks at Mexican national identity through food.  Up soon: Unequal Cures, which is a fabulous book on public health, race, and gender in early twentieth-century Bolivia.  Okay, all pretty heady stuff, but hey: it's a capstone course on nation-state formation in Latin America.  This is what you get.

In my modern Latin American survey, we're set to discuss Guevara's Motorcycle Diaries.  I presume much of the class will enjoy it.  I find Che annoyingly sexist and bourgeois in it.  Later in his life, I find him annoyingly sexist and an ongoing intellectual elitist despite his commitment to revolutionary principles.  

At home, the fare is lighter:
I am almost done with The Orchardist, which I've found an absorbing read.  Not the best novel of my life (or even year), but definitely engaging.  Next for me: The Christmas Kid and Other Brooklyn Stories.  Hopefully that will be good.  

I'm also liking the simplicity of Terry Walters, Clean Food, which I bought last summer.  

The kids and I just started the the last School of Fear book, and I am looking forward to the next Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place book.  I'd like to find a good book on CD to listen to with them as the nights grow longer and colder.  

Anya just finished her first Molly Moon book, and she's looking forward to more, while Samuel finally finished Under Wildwood and is now reading Winter Dance--a nice little book about running the Iditarod.  

As far as I know, Howard is still reading drek.  

What are you reading these days?  Any suggestions on books I might want to give a try?