Recently I’m a lazy blogger. Not writing a lot and my online output seems on the other side where I write for our campaign on youth participation. Besides that I’m not doing anything on my phd application.
However on Thursday I will be leaving for Indonesia and I got a nice book that I will most certainly finish before I leave: The Two Georges – A Novel of an Alternate America available not easily only from Amazon.
Its a really nice plot: America remained in the British Empire, the symbol of this union is a paininting depicting the the two Georges. Washington and 3rd. Now this paining has been stolen and investigators from the Royal American Mounted Constabulary are traveling the us and searching for it.
Some words to the books I have been reading in the past weeks, despite the heavy preparations for the exams, but of course some of the books I will use for my exams anyway.
State of Mind – „Where will the 99%, America, and the world be in twenty years? “State of Mind” is a future thriller that is relevant today.“ says the LA Times, the book is using cross media heavily. What would happen if chips for the mind would be available? Not only for accessing the internet but for controlling our bodies as well? Well written and a good thriller.
But to some more serious reading:
Pakistan: A Hard Country: A Hard Country – a very insightful book about one of the most troubling and interesting countries on the globe, which will be important to our future.
War of Words: Language Politics and 9/11 – How did the use of language prepare the (american) nation (or us) for the post 9/11 wars? Why did we hear phrases like „Global War on Terror“? A very interesting book.
Skateboarding, Space and the City: Architecture and the Body, Iain Borden – writes about why skateboarding is important, why it is a counter consumerist discurse and why skate spaces in the city have to be built. I hope we can manage to get Mr. Borden to the city of Freiburg for a lecture, the city planners would love him.
The written English exam is over – yeah! I have mostly good feeling although I mixed up the Miliband Brothers and said that David was the leader of the opposition – of course it is Ed. Unlike other people in my study group I had read all the books in the reading list. Some were interesting and very insightful, and I wish to highlight those here:
Marr, A. (2009) A History of Modern Britain, London: Macmillan Publishers Ltd. Andrew Marr is a very accomplished journalist and he writes well. Of course that is his job. I enjoyed reading the book which I got as an ebook for my kindle. You need some general previous knowledge about British history and current events to understand it, but the black series of the Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung is a good starting point for that.
So before the holiday season begins and some of the fellow man do not have had time to go for shopping, because acidently and surprisingly christmas came, here are some book recomendations you might want to give as last minute presents, especially if the reciever of the present has a kindle:
Following the Wrong God Home by Cathrine Lim, She is a Singaporese Author and I’m half through the book by now. Chronicles the life of a young woman in Singapore and negotiates politics, religion and the perils of society. Niece read espiecally if you want somehting from outside the west for christmas.
Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour – An English antropoligst explains the rules and grammer of life in England to us. Finally a book every student of English culture should read and keep in mind. Makes interacting with the Angloes so much easier. Also a good read.
The Afrika Reich Another book on the English or so, not the true christmas read, but I’m always in for some good alternative history fiction. And fighting fictional Nazis in their African Empire seems to be a worthwile task. Was on the the Economists List of best Fiction of 2011. Slows down during after the first half of the book a little.
When I travveld to America, I read a very good book about 9/11 it might actually become more and more important in the recepiton of 9/11 and its aftermath and the current American thought climate: „The Submission“ by Amy Waldman. What happens when a muslim American gets choosen to built the 9/11 memorial? There is a good review in the Atlantic. As horrible as the attack was,“ Waldman writes in The Submission, „everyone wanted a little of its ash on their hands.“ Also see the guardian article down for it.
The other book that dwells on the aftermath of what happend in America is well written, action packed book that tries to describe some of the worst aspects of the war in Afganisthan. „War“ by Sebastian Jungner. A book about the life of American soldiers in some dead forsaken valley.
Another wellwritten book is: the 9/11 Wars by Jason Burke. The book tries to give an insight into the policies and failures of the Western and largely American campaigns after 9/11. As to quote from the Guardian: „For those wanting to know why it often went so grimly wrong – and why it may yet do so again – Burke has now penned a solid reference tome, charting the fallout of 9/11 beyond the Manhattan dust cloud and across the Islamic world. It covers the struggles in all their many bloody theatres: the toppling of the Taliban and Saddam Hussein regimes, the horrific insurgency and civil war in Iraq, the al-Qaeda bombings in London and Madrid, and returning, with depressing circularity, to the resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan five years later“ Nothing I can add to that, except that I was really adicted to reading it.
There is an intresting aricle in the british daily the guardian about writers response towards 9/11: „After 9/11: our own low, dishonest decade – The world changed on 9/11, or so the cliche goes. How have writers responded to the challenge of representing this new reality?“
Man liest ja viel weil man als nur Student nicht so viel zu tun hat, und ich kann die folgenden Bücher empfehlen. Ich habe die Bücher für eine BSC Studentin gelsen, der ich gerade beim schreiben ihrer BSC Thesis helfe.
Was ist Politik?: Fragmente aus dem Nachlaß. Herausgegeben von Ursula Ludz – Papier aus dem Nachlass von Hanna Arendt. Damit man auch immer was intellektuelles zu lesen hat im Sommer oder so.
