![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vass posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
50books_poc21. Junot Diaz, The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
I liked this a lot. The family curse appealed to me, as did geeky, fat, Nice Guy, wannabe-writer Oscar. I hated what happened to Oscar, but it was believably told. I loved the explanation of Trujillo's dictatorship in terms of the Silmarillion.
22. Nnedi Okorafor Mbachu, Zahrah the Windseeker
I was excited when I saw this because it's young enough that I could think about giving it to my niece. I'm always looking for good books for her, and the more strong, nontraditional female characters and characters of colour, the better. Sadly, Zahrah the Windseeker is a bit too old for my niece, who's seven. I'll try her on it when she's nine or ten. This book is wonderful. I wasn't too grabbed at first, but Zahrah's character development pulled me in. She's very different at the end of the book to how she was at the beginning. And what a likeable character! I also love the concept of dadi, and the plant-computers. And, I am not surprised at all to say, it passes Bechdel.
23. Tenzin Gyatso, Dalai Lama XIV, The Art of Living (translated by Geshe Thupten Jinpa, photographs by Ian Cumming)
This is not what I expected when I put a book by the Dalai Lama on reserve at the library. It's a coffee table book. Full of lush and rather objectifying pictures of Tibetan people participating in religious ceremonies. I was hoping for some solid information on Tibetan liberation and Buddhism. Instead I got... well, there was lots of entry-level information on Buddhism, packaged so as to be as non-threatening to non-Buddhists as possible, and lots of glossy photographs. Definitely a case where I should have chosen the book much more carefully.
Request: Can anyone recommend a good book on the PRC's occupation of Tibet? Written by a Tibetan author would be ideal, but I'll take whatever's good and factual. And if it's not a complete hagiography of the Dalai Lama, so much the better.
I liked this a lot. The family curse appealed to me, as did geeky, fat, Nice Guy, wannabe-writer Oscar. I hated what happened to Oscar, but it was believably told. I loved the explanation of Trujillo's dictatorship in terms of the Silmarillion.
22. Nnedi Okorafor Mbachu, Zahrah the Windseeker
I was excited when I saw this because it's young enough that I could think about giving it to my niece. I'm always looking for good books for her, and the more strong, nontraditional female characters and characters of colour, the better. Sadly, Zahrah the Windseeker is a bit too old for my niece, who's seven. I'll try her on it when she's nine or ten. This book is wonderful. I wasn't too grabbed at first, but Zahrah's character development pulled me in. She's very different at the end of the book to how she was at the beginning. And what a likeable character! I also love the concept of dadi, and the plant-computers. And, I am not surprised at all to say, it passes Bechdel.
23. Tenzin Gyatso, Dalai Lama XIV, The Art of Living (translated by Geshe Thupten Jinpa, photographs by Ian Cumming)
This is not what I expected when I put a book by the Dalai Lama on reserve at the library. It's a coffee table book. Full of lush and rather objectifying pictures of Tibetan people participating in religious ceremonies. I was hoping for some solid information on Tibetan liberation and Buddhism. Instead I got... well, there was lots of entry-level information on Buddhism, packaged so as to be as non-threatening to non-Buddhists as possible, and lots of glossy photographs. Definitely a case where I should have chosen the book much more carefully.
Request: Can anyone recommend a good book on the PRC's occupation of Tibet? Written by a Tibetan author would be ideal, but I'll take whatever's good and factual. And if it's not a complete hagiography of the Dalai Lama, so much the better.
