This Week In Books: #15
Jan. 22nd, 2007 11:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
akujunkanAnd with the bare minimum out of the way,
1) Fiasco - Thomas E. Ricks
This book should be required reading for everyone. Fiasco is a phenomenal look at the Iraq War: what led up to it; who deceived and manipulated us into it and how; who tried to stop it; and most importantly, the thoughts and insights of the people who are fighting the war, from the highest-ranking commanders to the youngest kids on the ground. Ricks' scope is awesome, but he manages it intelligently and eloquently. Best of all, he shows the multiple facets of the war from all angles, making this much more than a mere polemic and delving far more deeply into the various situations and events than anything else I've encountered. Pair this one with Imperial Life In The Emerald City and you'll have a second-to-none look at exactly what went wrong in Iraq and why. READ THIS BOOK.
2) Persepolis 2 - Marjane Satrapi
This is the sequel to Satrapi's Persepolis, an autobiographical account of growing up during the Iranian revolution. This volume finds Satrapi as a young student in Austria drifting through a series of identities, cliques, jobs, and residences after Satrapi's aunt reneges on her promise to open her home to her niece. While the first volume dealt with Satrapi's displacement in her own familiar world that had suddenly grown much too conservative, this volume finds her struggling (and often failing) to adapt to a completely alien culture that was prejudiced toward her to begin with. Satrapi finally heads back to Iran in order to find herself only to discover she's now as unable to adapt there as she was in Europe. That said, this book is remarkably uplifting for its heavy subject matter and definitely worth the read.
That will be all.
1) Fiasco - Thomas E. Ricks
This book should be required reading for everyone. Fiasco is a phenomenal look at the Iraq War: what led up to it; who deceived and manipulated us into it and how; who tried to stop it; and most importantly, the thoughts and insights of the people who are fighting the war, from the highest-ranking commanders to the youngest kids on the ground. Ricks' scope is awesome, but he manages it intelligently and eloquently. Best of all, he shows the multiple facets of the war from all angles, making this much more than a mere polemic and delving far more deeply into the various situations and events than anything else I've encountered. Pair this one with Imperial Life In The Emerald City and you'll have a second-to-none look at exactly what went wrong in Iraq and why. READ THIS BOOK.
2) Persepolis 2 - Marjane Satrapi
This is the sequel to Satrapi's Persepolis, an autobiographical account of growing up during the Iranian revolution. This volume finds Satrapi as a young student in Austria drifting through a series of identities, cliques, jobs, and residences after Satrapi's aunt reneges on her promise to open her home to her niece. While the first volume dealt with Satrapi's displacement in her own familiar world that had suddenly grown much too conservative, this volume finds her struggling (and often failing) to adapt to a completely alien culture that was prejudiced toward her to begin with. Satrapi finally heads back to Iran in order to find herself only to discover she's now as unable to adapt there as she was in Europe. That said, this book is remarkably uplifting for its heavy subject matter and definitely worth the read.
That will be all.