Bookcrossing - live to share, share to live

The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, Power, and Politics of World Trade by Pietra Rivoli

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


There is a prologue and a lengthy prologue to the prologue, before we get into the details of Texas cotton farming and being thoroughly educated on the history of cotton farming in the US. That is followed by a very brief chapter about China that focuses on sweatshops, giving the impression that there is nothing else there. Then follows an over-detailed and way too long chapter on trade policies, quotas and politics. At that point I nearly tossed the book, because it was not only painfully boring, but also extremely out-dated. The only part of the book that had some life to it and kept my interest, was the last chapter about the African trade in second hand clothing.

Too long, too much about cotton farming and politics in the US, very little on world trade, too many details and statistics, too many anecdotes about people that I didn't connect with. Very, very out-dated. The book could have done with an update, a revision or even a lengthy additional chapter showing the developments after the actual end of the quota system. A lot has happened since 2005.


( my read booklist with links behind cut for safekeeping )

Kitty's Greatest Hits by Carrie Vaughn

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Short stories set in the Kitty Norville universe. You could still read them, if you never heard of Kitty Norville before, but this is definitely a great addition if you are a fan.

I did not do a proper count, but I think of the 14 stories maybe only two do not contain a character from the series. Kitty is nicely snarky and sarcastic, as always.

My favourites were the stories centered around Cormac though. You get a look at his early life, when he meets Ben for the first time and the last story of the book chronicles his life in prison. That one is the longest story at about 60 pages and fleshes out his character in a really nice way.

Good fun. It reminded me why I like Kitty Norville so much!

( my read booklist with links behind cut for safekeeping )

Here is my Books Read List for safekeeping, so I have it somewhere else besides my PC. Lost it before, when my computer died on me. I used to have it on BC, but lost it there for a while as well, when the website was redone.

I'm behind with my reading challenge for this year, but I have now read one book more than in the total of 2010, so it's not bad. I would be a lot further along, if I didn't read so much fanfic in between. But it's too much fun not to.

( my read booklist with links behind cut for safekeeping )

The Summer Without Men by Siri Hustvedt

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Synopsis:
"Out of the blue, your husband of thirty years asks you for a pause in your marriage to indulge his infatuation with a young Frenchwoman.
Do you:
a) assume it's a passing affair and play along
b) angrily declare the marriage over
c) crack up
d) retreat to a safe haven and regroup?

Mia Fredricksen cracks up first, then decamps for the summer to the prairie town of her childhood, where she rages, fumes, and bemoans her sorry fate as abandoned spouse. But little by little, she is drawn into the lives of those around her; her mother and her circle of feisty widows, her young neighbour, with two small children and a loud, angry husband; and the diabolical pubescent girls in her poetry class. By the end of the summer without men, wiser though definitely not sadder, Mia knows what she wants to fight for and on whose terms."

Mia's interactions with her neighbour, her mother and her group of octogenarians and with the teenage girls in her poetry class drew me in right from the start, but halfway through the book everybody just seem to be ambling around the pages without any purpose or direction.

Thrown into that mix are Mia's inner monologues and diary entries of her earlier life before and with her husband Boris and the odd discourse on philosophy and poetry. It makes for a very disjointed book and I never managed to get into a nice reading flow.

Halfway through the book I am still struggling to tell the various characters apart, because I do not feel any connection with them. I caught myself skimming paragraphs in search of a plot and so, halfway through the book, decided to give up and move on to something else.

Reading next:
Stray by Rachel Vincent

The Summer Without Men by Siri Hustvedt

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


35% into my Kindle edition. Underwhelmed. After reading the sample chapter, I had expected a more plot-driven book with an actual narrative. I did expect some introspective soul-searching as well, but not quite as much.

Don't get me wrong, it is very well written and occasionally I enjoy myself thoroughly, but all in all it's just not grabbing me. Honestly, can't wait to finish this book to get to something more entertaining.



The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, Power, and Politics of World Trade by Pietra Rivoli

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


65 pages in. Small print, lots of info crammed onto one page. This is going to take me forever.

There is a prologue and a lengthy prologue to the prologue, before we get into the details of Texas cotton farming and being thoroughly educated on the history of cotton farming in the US in general. Being told that the US is the biggest cotton producing country in the world and that its cotton gets exported everywhere, even to China, I just went "Huh?" The graphs and statistics look nice and might even be accurate and the statement might be true, but after working for 17 years in the clothing industry and spending a not smallish amount of that time working in Asia and Egypt, I have to tell you -- never, ever have I come across any factory predominately working with cotton fabrics, that imports the cotton from the US. Just saying.

The book is still interesting though.

A few months ago I found this very useful website for tracking book series. It's called FictFact. I always had this hassle of keeping track of all the series I read, when the next book will be out and what it'll be called. This website does it for you. You search for your series, follow them and then within each series mark off which books you have read, which ones are to be read, what you want to skip and so on. The website will then tell you which book in the series you should read next (if you are so inclined to do it by order) or will inform you when the next book comes out. Makes my life very easy. Currently I have 18 series listed and it's sweet, no more trawling through Amazon or the Internet, trying to figure out on my own, when and what.... On each page listing a series the site will also recommend similar books at the bottom of the page, which so far I have ignore, I really don't need to find more stuff to get hooked on.

In an effort to diversify my reading a bit and get away from all those vampires, werewolves, witches and whatnot, I have followed a recommendation from my mum and got a copy of A Summer Without Men by Siri Hustvedt. At first I was not interested. The woman is married to Paul Auster, sounded way too artistic and heavy to me. But, praise be Kindle, I got a free sample of the first chapter and actually enjoyed it. And Amazon in Germany is having a summer promotion and reduced ebook prices on a lot of books. So this is now at the top of my summer reading pile.

Then I got sucked in. Part of the promo on the German Amazon site were three pages of book below or around 1 Euro. I trawled through those three pages and ended up buying all this:
(prices are all back up now, must have been my lucky day)

Mr Vertigo by Paul Auster -- I figured I might as well have a go at him and see what he's all about. The synopsis sounded interesting.

Open Season by C.J. Box -- mystery set in the woods of Wyoming, sounds nicely wacky.

Mercenaries by Jack Ludlow -- historic adventure, set in Normandy before the conquest of Britain. Not really sure about this one, we will see.

Blood Ninja by Nick Lake -- ok, ok, I said I wanted to get away from my usual stuff, but who could say no to blood sucking ninjas in feudal Japan? Amazon lists this under children's books, hadn't noticed when I bought it. Hopefully it's YA, the subject doesn't really sound appropriate for little kids.

The Harlot's Press by Helen Pike -- This is more the kind of book my mum would read. Historic novel set in Britain in the early 19th century, royalty, intrigue, drama, I would be very surprised if the heroine didn't meet a mysterious, darkly handsome stranger at some point...

Ill Wind by Rachel Caine -- first book of a series that has been on my wishlist for a long time, so I had to get it. Qualifies as Urban Fantasy I guess.

Does Anything Eat Wasps?: And 101 Other Questions (New Scientist) -- "New Scientist"'s 'Last Word' celebrates all questions - the trivial, the idiosyncratic, the baffling and the strange. This selection of the best is popular science at its most entertaining and enlightening. -- sounded nicely silly and who doesn't want to know how long you can live on beer alone?

End of shopping spree!

Mio, My Son by Astrid Lindgren

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


One of my all-time favourite books. I liked the Pippi Longstocking stories, but this is by far my best loved Astrid Lindgren novel.

If you like books for young adults and fairytales and/or fantasy, I can recommend this highly. I think the world she builds in this is beautiful and I still remember parts of this book vividly, although it has been a very long time since I read it.