Book Recommendations

I think I spelled that wrong . . . the past couple of weeks I have immersed myself in reading again. I spend my evenings and Megan's naps laying on the couch with books and it is wonderful. But after going through Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park again, I decided I needed to read books that I have but haven't read. I have a tendency to collect books that I intend to read and then don't get to.

The first of that nature is Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi. It's a memoir of life in Tehran by an Iranian woman who tells the stories of her experiences during the Revoultion and war with Iraq through the novels that she teaches as a professor. I know memoir can be tedious but this was SOOO good. It was fascinating to read about these experiences -- events I had known about in fact but never in detail. It gave me a whole new perspective on Iran and Islam. It can be so frightening and angering to see on tv the anti-America demonstrations and extremist actions but this book helped me remember that to ascribe that kind of behavior to all Iranians or Muslims is prejudicial and wrong. It also made me want to teach again -- or at least talk about literature. Sometimes at church there are book clubs but they seem mostly to revolve around church literature. That's well and good and I probably should join one but I also want one that reads classic literature or young adult literature or something . . . Aside from those things, the book is beautifully written. She has a wonderful way of saying things and describing things. I highly recommend it.

Now it's back to the book shelf . . .