Books!

I've read 35 books since I've come to Ukraine, not counting the National Geographic Movie Version of Guns, Germs and Steel and the audio version of Obama's The Audacity of Hope , and I thought I would summarize at least my most recent reads. The last five books I've read are:

--Lenin's Tomb by David Remnick. This book is AMAZING and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants a thorough account of the last few years of the Soviet Union.

--Brainiac by Ken Jennings. Ken Jen was my desktop background during the Summer that he was on Jeopardy, so it's no surprise that I would love his book on trivia--a very easy and interesting read.

--Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris. A hilarious book, and a great read for anyone who's struggled with a foreign language while living abroad, though it's less of a novel as it is a loosely connected series of short stories. Still, really funny.

--Theodore Rex by some great author I can't remember. This book got me hooked on Presidential Biographies--it was really, really good. It's also the 2nd in a 3-part series on Teddy--the first, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt , won the Pulitzer Prize, and I'm going to try and get a copy of it when it comes out. Also, if any of you have a copy of The Reagan Diaries, send it my way, I want to read it.

--The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. Mock me if you want. Go ahead. I still liked it.

Now I'm reading A Thousand Splendid Suns by the author of Kite Runner and so far it's amazingly depressing but very well written. I should finish it in the next week, and then I'm going to start in on the thousand-page epic, Roots, that my folks sent me. I feel like I should read that one if only becuase I love Lavar Burton and "Reading Rainbow" was my favorite show growing up. Butterfly in the skyyyyyy!