Three books that I’m excited to read:
- Love in the Time of AIDS, by Mark Hunter. It has been acclaimed as the best book about HIV/AIDS in South Africa, and I’m not surprised. I was in South Africa when Mark was doing his fieldwork, working within a community over the course of years, trusted enough to be given access to love letters. When he presented his findings, it was always dynamite.
- Consuming Mexican Labor by Ronald Mize and Alicia Swords. With a Republican House on the horizon, we can expect the anti-Latino rhetoric to step up a notch. And yet, as Mize and Swords show, there has been bi-partisan support for the idea that the US economy ought to rest on the backs of its poorest neighbours.
- The Wind-Up Girl, by Paolo Bacigalupi. A biopunk set in a future South East Asia run by Monsanto’s corporate children. Bacigalupi’s latest has been shortlisted for the National Book Award, but this is the book that, deservedly from what I’ve read so far, has launched him into the stratosphere.
I ran across “The Windup Girl” in a B&N, thought the title was interesting. I was blown away by the concept.
For a person deeply involved in anti-corporate food issues the scenario laid out here was validation for all the effort I am putting into stopping the corporate takeover of this most vital part of living.
I would vote for The Windup Girl for the Book Award any day.
i just finished the windup girl. best book evarrrrrrrr.
seriously. i hugely enjoye it.
i especially liked the way things weren’t over explained and the use of thai expressions.