2009 Reading #30: The Translator
Books 1-10.
Books 11-20.
21. Hmong and American: Stories of Transition to a Strange Land by Sue Murphy Mote.
22. Meet Me In the Moon Room by Ray Vukcevich.
23. Children of Rondo: Transcriptions of Rondo Oral History Interviews edited by Kimberly K. Zielinski.
24. The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry.
25. The Cowboy and His Elephant by Malcolm MacPherson.
26. Voices of Rondo: Oral Histories of Saint Paul's Historic Black Community, gathered and edited by Kate Cavett (Hand in Hand Productions).
27. Letters From Attica by Sam Melville.
28. Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson.
29. The Hmong Refugee Experience in the United States: Crossing the River by Ines Miyares.
30. The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur by Daoud Hari. I knew this was going to be a tough book emotionally, in much the same way that We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families was; I wasn't wrong. When I read a book like this I believe in good and evil, at least for a while, and I came out of this one (and my other recent readings) thinking that if there's a higher purpose for free nations, it's to prevent genocides and take in refugees. Idealistic, maybe, but go back far enough in any person's family and you'll find someone who had to flee their home because someone was trying to kill them. We shouldn't forget that. We shouldn't be so covetous of our securities as to begrudge others just a little peace of mind.
Books 11-20.
21. Hmong and American: Stories of Transition to a Strange Land by Sue Murphy Mote.
22. Meet Me In the Moon Room by Ray Vukcevich.
23. Children of Rondo: Transcriptions of Rondo Oral History Interviews edited by Kimberly K. Zielinski.
24. The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry.
25. The Cowboy and His Elephant by Malcolm MacPherson.
26. Voices of Rondo: Oral Histories of Saint Paul's Historic Black Community, gathered and edited by Kate Cavett (Hand in Hand Productions).
27. Letters From Attica by Sam Melville.
28. Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson.
29. The Hmong Refugee Experience in the United States: Crossing the River by Ines Miyares.
30. The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur by Daoud Hari. I knew this was going to be a tough book emotionally, in much the same way that We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families was; I wasn't wrong. When I read a book like this I believe in good and evil, at least for a while, and I came out of this one (and my other recent readings) thinking that if there's a higher purpose for free nations, it's to prevent genocides and take in refugees. Idealistic, maybe, but go back far enough in any person's family and you'll find someone who had to flee their home because someone was trying to kill them. We shouldn't forget that. We shouldn't be so covetous of our securities as to begrudge others just a little peace of mind.