06 / 50 || Nelson Mandela; Fidel Castro || "How Far We Slaves Have Come!"

[ms-erupt.livejournal.com]

06. How Far We Slaves Have Come! by Nelson Mandela; Fidel Castro
Pages: 83
Genre: Non-fiction; World Politics; Diplomacy and International Relations; South Africa; Latin America
Rating: 5/10; May or May Not Recommend

( Short review and possibly spoilery review. )

Comments may contain spoilers.

1-4/50: Adiga, Strahan, Alexie, Mosley

[livii.livejournal.com]

I've been meaning to join and start posting reviews for a month, so am doing a catch-up post now. I love the idea of challenging myself to consciously read more authors of colour, and so far it's been terrific.

1. The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga: reading this one inspired me to get on the ball and start the challenge in a meaningful way. Well-written (and remarkably light on first-time-author flaws), the main character is fascinating partly for his flaws, and the setting in modern India was vividly portrayed. Pretty much deserves the hype.

2. Inside the Helmet: My Life as a Sunday Afternoon Warrior, Michael Strahan with Jay Glazer: I'm a big NFL football nerd and Strahan was one of my favourites on my favourite team, the New York Giants. I couldn't recommend this book as a prose classic (there's a spelling mistake on the first page!) but generally it's a pretty insightful look into the life of a player in the NFL, the practices, the prep work, the game day mentality, the pain. I think Glazer (a black sportscaster/writer) was likely a big help in structuring the book and together the two of them pull off something fairly readable for the genre, and it's a quick, generally entertaining read. One complaint would be the rabid homophobia that unfortunately permeates Strahan's world and comes through several times in the book; at one point I just said "yes, Michael, it's okay, you're not gay, we get it!" But this is a complaint about the NFL culture in general, really.

3. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie: I read this based on the comm's overwhelmingly positive reviews, and was glad I did. I had a few reservations about the book, mainly based on the fact I'm not generally a fan of modern YA and there were aspects in that sense that pinged against my tastes, but overall I thought the characterizations were fabulous, the story compelling, and by the end I was crying all over myself and couldn't stop.

4. Devil in a Blue Dress, Walter Mosley: this was also reading against genre for me, as I don't read much in the way of mysteries, but I was glad to have done so - this is a terrific book. The setting is fascinating, and Easy is a wonderful creation, especially the way he grows and changes as the book goes on, in a really organic way, that's sometimes a little unsettling, but in a thoughtful and challenging way. The style of how the mystery played out appealed to me, and the ending was very satisfying. A definite success.