The Book Nook

[cathepsut]

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.