Pie Fight

The Blank Slate

A New Yorker critique from 2002.

The unfogged reading list

Non-fiction version.

La Bella Vita

I wasn't expecting anything more than a self-indulgent and eventually unreadable memoir of life with the quaint natives, but La Bella Vita by Vida Adamoli turns out to be a pretty damn good case study of the effects of big time tourism on a small, once isolated town. The changes that sweep over her pseudonymous Neapolitan coast town of Torre Saracena are immense. They are happy for some - grinding poverty looks colourful to visitors, but the stunted physical stature of the older residents of the village is testament to how much it rules the poor's life. At the same time, they have community, and when that is lost, much good is. If I were ever teaching a class on tourism, this would be one of the easy reads I'd require.

Books what I read in 2006

I'm gonna cheat a touch and start with the first book I read once the Lent 2005 school term ended. (And I'll say that, to count, I need to read at least 2/3 of any academic text.) In the interests of saving time and not driving myself crazy, I won't bother listing scholarly articles.

Nonfiction books

1. Promises I can keep: Why poor women put motherhood before marriage

Fiction

Kevin Drum's reading list

His top ten political books of the year, plus all the books he's read over the year. I tried starting a list like this last year and didn't. I need to get off my ass and do it this time round.