Books I've read so far this year...

[nekosensei]

1. The human Christ: the search for the historical Jesus by Charlotte Allen.
2. Lisey's Story by Stephen King
3. Orientalism by Edward Said
4. I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb
5. The curious incident of the dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon
6. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
7. Language death: The Life Cycle of a Scottish Gaelic Dialect by Nancy C. Dorian
8. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
9. The Inferno by Dante Alighieri. Tranlated by Robert Pinsky.
10. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
11. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
12. Fray by Joss Whedon
13. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
14. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
15. Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
16. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
17. The Bone People by Keri Hulme
18. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
19. The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

20. Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko -- A man of mixed blood-- half Native American and half Caucasian-- come back from fighting in the Pacific during World War Two with severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He discovers that Western medicine is useless when it comes to combating his illness and he turns to the traditional ceremonies and customs of his people for help. At times, I thought the narrative itself was a bit annoying because it jumped around a lot between the present and the past, but it wasn't too difficult to follow. On the other hand, the book does a good job at describing the discrimination and lack of opportunities that Native Americans living on reservations typically face. It also describes the prejudices that can be found among Native Americans towards people of mixed races.