Reading update! #2

[heliopausa]

Or "book purchase update", really, about most of the armful of books I've bought recently

Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here: Untold Stories from the Fight Against Muslim Fundamentalism - Karima Bennoune.
This was recommended by the_emu  on LJ - thanks! I got it because I felt in myself an unease at the apparent lack of Muslim voices against Muslim extremism, and wanted to address that (in myself) before it tipped into blaming Muslims-in-general for the actions of those few who use the name of Islam as a cover for sickening things  - so a crash course in just what's happening where seemed like a good way to go - and it was. 

The author (herself a US-based Muslim from algeria) travelled to many places, mostly in the Islamic world, and gives many, many accounts of meetings with Muslims who have struggled against the various manifestations of this evil, people of amazing courage and tenacity.  Surprisingly, she didn't travel to Indonesia - the world's most populous Islamic nation - which was a big gap, but that's my only gripe; what she does provide all builds to a sobering and very challenging montage.  I'm glad I read it.

That's the only one of the new purchases that I've actually read, so far, apart from Hyperbole and a half - allie Brosh, most of which I'd read in blog form.  I bought that one because I'd read her blog so much, and shared some of its entries so often, that I felt I owed her that much.
If you don't know her already, here's a sample.

Waiting in line, unread, are:

The Just City - Jo Walton
This has been recommended by <user name="puddleshark" site="livejournal.com"> - thanks, puddleshark!  I'm currently regarding it with a mix of eager anticipation and major dauntedness - I suspect I'll be ending like Huckleberry Finn, faced with Pilgrim's Progress: "The statements was interesting, but tough."  

Hild - Nicola Griffith.
This was really well reviewed, and I'm vaguely familiar with Hilda of Whitby (princess, abbess, major regional player) and since knowing more about her can only be good, I thought I'd give it a go.  Now, though, I'm falling prey to doubt - historical RPF has gone wrong so many times in the past, and a well-written narrative can so easily the received truth about history - and getting history right (or at any rate, not wrong) matters a lot because people base their present actions (partly) on what they believe is the truth about the past. 
Ummm...not that I expect many present actions will be based on Hild - just that that's why I feel cautious about fictionalised history.  Still, I've bought it, and it's waiting on the to be read pile.

The Edge of the World - Michael Pye
This is about medieval trade and settlements around the North Sea - lots of new territory for me here!  Excitingly, after I'd bought it, news broke of the possible discovery of a new Viking settlement which fits right in!  

Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms: Journeys into the disappearing religions of the Middle East - Gerard Russell
also new territory - I'm looking forward to it.  :)  It's an on-the-ground survey of the author's encounters with and understanding of Zoroastrianism, Yazidis, Copts, Samaritans, Mandeans, Druze and Kalasha (I have no idea at all who the Kalasha are.)

 

So that's all waiting. Meanwhile, in other reading news: 

I've decided that there's just too much coming in on the New Scientist LJ feed, so I've reluctantly cut it out.  It was great, but overwhelming. 
But coincidentally, the South China Morning Post (scmp.com) has dropped its paywall! - so now I have another solid news source to check from time to time, and one which opens the world for me a little beyond Europe, North america or australia.  (Particularly useful since the Guardian seems to be getting less and less useful as a place to read analysis.  :(  )

 

Comments

[transposable_element]

Loved Hild, had mixed feelings about The Just City. Interested in what you have to say when you finish one or the other!

[heliopausa]

:D It won't be soon, I'm afraid. I'm a quick reader, but W&P is taking most of my reading/commenting energies - I've just started Volume 3, and - wow! what an opener! :)

Still, if not soon, it is at least certain. I look forward to discussing them with you. :)