Book lovers and people groups

[SippinTea]

To you fellow book lovers:

What books have you read that gave you a clearer perspective on another people group than your own? And how has it impacted your relationships with other people?

(People group being another nationality, a subculture within your culture, etc.)

[nicolejoy]

Oh oh oh!! There's this book that I REALLY want to buy - it's called "One couple, two cultures" and it's about Chinese/Western interracial marriages - but it's about US$30 and I don't like paying that much just for a book!! But I keep looking at it every time I go to the bookstore to see if it's on sale, but it never is It's awesome though, and I can REALLY identify with it!!

That said, I haven't really read THAT many books that really taught me about other "people groups"... not specifically anyway... not that I can think of... *shrugs*

[JoleneHeather]

Wow there have been so many That I can't even remember.  Most of them are books my mother read to us as kids about slavery and world war II.  My mom exposed us to some serious stuff at a young age.  LOL

[AmberMarie]

I'm with Jolene.  Also, Alexander McCall Smith has a bunch of books on Africa, Botswana in particular. I read those before my trip...it really helped!

Also, I've read some stuff involving Amish people that really opened my eyes.

[newkris]

i have read so many it would take all day to tell you  . . .  and you'd be  by the time i was done.

however, that said, a couple come to mind that you might rather like . . . Russka is the story of Russia as if it were a fictional land.  it's told like several stories in one book that starts at the dawn of time and continues to modern times.  each part of the story is just fabulous!!  it traces, in some loose manner, a family tree.  very well done . . . i guess the same author has done one for England, but i'm not sure.

another author who goes into american history in an odd twist is louis l'amour.  Jubal Sackett, for example, is really the story of frontier explorers that made it to the west coast "before history".  apparently, there were several who made it without actually journaling their discoveries.  the story of Jubal Sackett is purely fiction, but follows the "what if" scenario of a frontier traveler.

best story i have ever read about the Arab culture as it relates to women is Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail by Malika Oufkir, Michele Fitoussi.  true story, fabulously told.

hhhmmm . .  .let me think if there are others i would so highly recommend.

you know me and books . . . i just can't say enough!

[MelodyB]

Seeing Voices: A journey into the world of the Deaf

AWESOME read! Really gives understanding into Deaf culture

http://www.oliversacks.com/voices.htm

[nicolejoy]

I read Nelson Mandela's autobiography... that book is a BRICK - but it was really good too!!

[newkris]

that would be a great autobiography.  nelson mandela led quite a life.  i remember very vividly his imprisonment and the whole freedom movement.

going into that subject, there is a book called The Magic Lantern that is about the fall of communism in the Eastern Block countries that is just phenomenal!!  it's a little dry to read, but this author was a photographer that just "happened" to be at the meeting where Lec Walensa and the other Solidarity leaders decided it was time to take action and then . . . this photographer was in those countries for the next 18 months as one after another the Iron Curtain fell.  he was an unwitting eyewitness to history and it's a really good read. 

in that vein, a book that would help someone understand the mindset of communism and why the Russian people fell for it, honestly, is Dr. Zhivago.  but we already know that's one of my all-time favorites.  hhhmmm . . . i think it's on the shelf begging for attention . . . .

[nicolejoy]

I always wanted to read that book called "Desert Flower" - anyone ever heard of it? It's another autobiography, but I forget her name... some African woman...

[nicolejoy]

I found it - http://www.amazon.com/Desert-Flower-Extraordinary-Journey-Nomad/dp/0688172377 - here's the "blurb" of it...

"By age 6, Waris Dirie was herding her family's sheep and goats, fending off hyenas and wild dogs as the family carved a path through Africa. She was just twice that age when she ran off into the vast furnace of the Somali desert to escape an arranged marriage to a much older man. Traveling for days without food and water, she made her way to Mogadishu and later to London as a servant to her uncle, the Somalian ambassador. There she wrestled with culture shock and got her first taste of the modeling life that eventually brought her into the public eye. Dirie is resilient, having survived drought, hunger, and the ritual female genital mutilation that marks a step toward womanhood among some traditional Moslems but, argue critics, steals or ruins many girls' lives. "As we traveled throughout Somalia," says Dirie, "we met families and I played with their daughters. When we visited them again, the girls were missing. No one spoke the truth about their absence or even spoke of them at all." As a special ambassador to the United Nations, Dirie has spoken out loudly on this subject and championed environmental causes, too. How much of her sometimes breathless story is gospel truth and how much embellished is hard to say. Like Dirie herself, though, the combination is intriguing, powerful, and unique. "

[SippinTea]

Oh, you mean that book! I've heard of it, put it on my mental book list, and then forgot about it.  It sounded really interesting....Maybe I need to go check it out.

[nicolejoy]

It's been on my mental list for 5 years or so lol - I need to go get it from the library or something like that!!

[SippinTea]

Did you buy a copy of One Couple, Two Cultures, yet?

I tried looking it up at B & N, and would you believe they don't have it!?!? What's wrong with them, anyway? 

[newkris]

http://www.alibris.com/

try this website for hard to find books.  that's where i found the book about the tolstoys (which i have yet to order for myself) and a couple of others that i thought were out of print.  they seem to be reasonably priced . . . .

let me know what you think.

[SippinTea]

Oooo, I know about them, and forgot to check that. 

You're right, they're pretty decent for finding tough-to-find stuff. 

[newkris]

 
One Couple Two Cultures: 81 Western-Chinese Couples Talk About Love and Marriages
by Waters, Dan  other copies of this book
        price: $49.45                   Ships within 3 weeks 

Binding: Paperback Publisher: MCCM Creations, Hong Kong Date Published: 2005 ISBN: 9889761009 Description: New. 276 p.; 22 cm. Includes Bibliography and Index. One Couple Two Cultures highlights information provided by eighty-one Western – Chinese couples whose views on codes of conduct and lifestyles vary considerably. Whilst some believe that a successful marriage can depend as much on smelly gorgonzola cheese  read more
 
seller information:
Name: Mary Martin Booksell , INDIA


Found it.  $50 for a paperback?  wow . . must be some book! 

[SippinTea]

Gracious! There has to be a cheaper copy than that!    .....I hope.

[nicolejoy]

Well it's cheaper in Hong Kong than over there then it's US$28 over here. I could make a profit on it!! Still, I was thinking that even THAT was too expensive for a soft cover book!!

I think I'm just going to end up buying it - because I really want to read it!!

[SippinTea]

I'll let you buy it....and then I'll borrow it if/when I get to come to HK.   

[nicolejoy]

IF?!!??!?!??!?!??!

I thought you were coming, it's a sure thing You promised!!!

[newkris]

yeah, sippin', for you it's just barely over the water.  for me, it's a horse and buggy ride over the mountains and past the desert and THEN over seas. okay, maybe not the horse and buggy . .  .

[SippinTea]

 

Alrighty then...I'll just hop into my rowboat and start paddling away. 

Seriously, Nicole, I'd love to come. But there're two small matters to figure out...1) A time frame when Kim will be off work to give me the grand tour, (and you, too, for that matter!), and 2) Can I honestly afford to come this year? 

There's also this matter of very much wanting to go to Italy. Preferably in this lifetime.... 

So...providing I work out those issues and end up in HK, do I get a turn at reading One Couple, Two Cultures?

(Oh, looky there! I put us back on topic! Points for me!) 

[nicolejoy]

Alrighty then...I'll just hop into my rowboat and start paddling away. 

Seriously, Nicole, I'd love to come. But there're two small matters to figure out...1) A time frame when Kim will be off work to give me the grand tour, (and you, too, for that matter!), and 2) Can I honestly afford to come this year? 

There's also this matter of very much wanting to go to Italy. Preferably in this lifetime.... 

So...providing I work out those issues and end up in HK, do I get a turn at reading One Couple, Two Cultures?

(Oh, looky there! I put us back on topic! Points for me!) 

Come at easter time - she's got a month off then!! Or at Christmas, if you need longer... OR I can be your tour guide while she's gotta work!!

And of course you can read the book, as long as I actually buy it

[SippinTea]

A month at Easter?....

That's tempting! If I was gone at Easter, then I couldn't very well be the director for any Easter programs, now could I?   

[MelodyB]

shame shame