Weekly reading meme

I hadn’t realised this was meant to be a weekly meme. /o\ Anyway, I am anyhow doing it, last time on Friday and this time on Monday (actually Tuesday).

What are you reading now?

The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down – A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures by Anne Fadiman. This is a sad book, or rather it is not itself a sad book, but it is about very sad things. It is not bad on race, but I would still be annoyed at if I were Hmong because it speaks in such broad sweeping generalisations, New York Times editorial style. I also wish she were more anthropological about the people she keeps calling Americans — meaning by this white Americans — but since it is a book intended for a white American audience, not much hope lah.

I am also reading Desolation Island by Patrick O’Brian. I got distracted because I am worried that Jack is going to lose all his money down the fake silver mines.

What did you just finish reading?

*koff* The Mauritius Command, also by Patrick O’Brian. I had forgotten what a great character Clonfert is — so tragic, absurd, obnoxious and touching all at once.

What do you expect to read next?

I shall go back to Desolation Island after I have finished The Spirit Catches You etc. I still have to read A Brief History of Britain, 1660-1851 … I hope it hasn’t expired yet, but if it has I guess I could renew it.