DEE'S CORNER

What do you like to read?

Sometimes it’s easier to say what you don’t like: I don’t care for historical novels (“bodice-rippers”) or gory murders although I enjoy a nice detective story , e.g. Sue Grafton. I like books with a foreign/exotic setting (“Wild Swans”) or where you learn something about another culture (“When the Spirit Catches you, you fall down,” about the Hmong people,) dancing, English teaching (“Iron and Silk” Mark Salzman) the middle ages (Ken Follett’s “World without End”). It has to be well-written, of course. 

Here are some of my recent favorites:

Stasiland by Anna Funder

This book really made an impression on me: Stasiland by Anna Funder
The author, who is Swedish, spent many months in the former East Germany, interviewing East Germans who had suffered—mightily—at the hands of the Stasi intelligence apparatus. These first-person accounts are chilling and enlightening….a very important part of Germany’s recent history.

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

I loved “Lonesome Dove” so much that I while reading it I took down my U.S. atlas to follow the rangers, the Indians, the settlers as they hunted ,fought and settled the vast prairie lands of the old West. Now I am reading a sequel, “The Streets of Laredo.” Wonderful.