From January to August of this year I did a fellowship on the Senate Finance Committee. This fellowship was through the Government Affairs Institute at Georgetown University in DC. In addition to the fellowship I also had the opportunity to earn a certificate in Legislative Studies. It seemed simple enough – just take a few classes and I would earn the certificate. While I was on the committee I was able to take all the classes except for one.
I decided I would take whatever the next course was just to get it over with. The course that is currently being offered is entitled Congress and National Security Policy. Now, I like politics and I try to stay up to date with current events but the only things I know about national security policy is what I get from the news. I can take the class Pass/Fail but I need to write a 20 page paper about Congress's involvement with national security (topic of my choosing). This topic is so foreign to me but I keep reminding myself that this is a new experience. I think I have decided my paper topic will be the ability of Congress to set timetables in Iraq through its FY 2007 war supplemental spending bill. How sexy is that!
The class also had two assigned readings (Wastrels of Defense: How Congress Sabotages US Security and Friends and Foes: How Congress and the President Really Make Foreign Policy). I finished Wastrels of Defense this past weekend (painful!) and finished Friends and Foes last night. I have realized that as the season is changing and the temperature is dropping there is nothing more I want than to curl up with a book of my choosing. But since I can’t do that right now I thought I would share some books I have read this year that I really like and what books are sitting on my bed side stand just waiting to be read.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy – Now I know my Aunt Denise does not agree with me on this one but I found this to be one of the most thought provoking books I have read in a long time. I was actually very disturbed as I was reading it but once I was done I could not get it out of my head. I read it last month and I still think about it. The message and emotion of the book was very unique.
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri – I was at the movies last January and saw a preview for this movie but also learned it was based on a book. The story line looked so interesting and since the book is always better than the movie I checked it out from my library. I love this book! It is about a family from India who moves to the US and has a son. The story follows the son's life and concentrates more on his young adulthood. This author also wrote Interpreter of Maladies, which won the Pulitzer Prize. I have read that book as well but liked The Namesake better.
Something Borrowed, Something Blue and Baby Proof by Emily Giffin – Each of these books to me a day to read! I guess they are considered chick lit. If you need an easy fun read these are it.
Books I want to read:
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini – The Kite Runner is one of my all-time favorite books. I can’t believe I haven’t read this one yet. My mom sent me this book I need to read it before the holidays so I can give it back to her.
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez – I am ashamed to say I have never read a book by Gabriel García Márquez. I just bought this book at Costco last weekend and can’t wait to sink my teeth into it. I am always a sucker for a good love story.
So even though writing about books is not the same as snuggling in a blanket on a cold fall afternoon with some hot tea and a book, this will have to do. It may even give me incentive to finish my paper early so I can spend an entire weekend reading a book!
JLo: This is the first thing I can really relate to on your blog. I don’t know anything about swimming, running, biking, marathons, triathlons, baking, the senate finance committee, national security policy, etc. Yes, I sound like Butterfly Mcqueen--Prissy-- ("Oh, Miss Scarlett, I don't know nuthin' 'bout birthin' babies"). For me to comment about the aforesaid subjects I would have to tread very gently and check every step lest I put my foot in a cow-pat prior to inserting it in my mouth and exposing myself as a charlatan.
ReplyDeleteBut to the point: I too continually find myself longing for a chimney corner and a book. Although I have not read all the books you mention, I have read The Kite Runner (a dangerous profession) and I did enjoy it, so A Thousand Splendid Suns is on my long list to read. I am not a fan of Cormac McCarthy oddly enough, even though his style (ominous, oppressive, brooding, gothic? forsaken lands, struggles, deprivation and death) is right down my ally. The Crossing is the only thing of his I have read, and while I did like it and find it intriguing, the reviews of The Road make it sound much the same if not even more bleak. I may well read The Road sometime when I am in a more clement period.
Sorry I will pass on the Emily Giffin, but it sounds like you enjoyed it, so bon pour vous!
I have only read Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Marquez, so I am not much better than you, but I do have One Hundred Years of Solitude in my book queue. And I am unfamiliar with Jhumpa Lahiri, and only semi-ashamed to admit it. There is so much good literature out there, one cannot keep up.
My most recent good reads:
The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay (a very unorthodox book for me to read I admit; in my careless moods I often feel optimistic.)
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt (why not, I grew up impecunious, Catholic, and Irish)
The Blue Afternoon by William Boyd (He and Robertson Davies are two of my favorite authors no one has heard of.)
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan. (This is the only book I am not going to recommend to you right now.)
And i recently re-read Umberto Eco's Focault’s Pendulum. Not an easy read, none of his books are, too cabalistic, but i got a lot more out of it this time.
Thanks for sharing.
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