Recent Reads

23. Culture Shock! Turkey
New author #15. Read this one in preparation for an upcoming trip and found it interesting. These guides are not travel guides per se, they describe local customs and etiquette. So, I now know, in case it comes up to give a woman an odd number of flowers, and not to take wine as a hostess gift. See what I mean?

24. Gardens of Water
New author #16. I listened to the audio version of the book and really liked it. The story is set in the environs of Istanbul after a devastating earthquake. We follow the story of how a Kurdish family and an American one intersect, and how both are changed in ways they could not have imagined. The novel explores the tensions of holding on to traditions in a changing world, the effect of outsiders, political/ethnic tensions, the strain that growing up creates between a father and his daughter, the struggle of a girl to find her self-worth in a society that does not encourage self-expression. It is not an easy story, and I found myself shaking my head much of the time, but I liked how the story explores major themes in the particulars of these characters.

2012 reading goals:
Authors new to me = 12. YTD = 16. (Have decided that there is no need to continue tracking this one. Check and check.)
2 books by Charles Dickens. YTD = 0 (Currently reading Bleak House)