Ines of my soul - Isabel Allende

My bookclub picked this historical fiction about Ines Suarez, a woman who played a big role in the conquest of Chile by the Spaniards in the 1500s. The historical aspects of the book in regards to the indigenous cultures is interesting because of the role the hierarchy of the indigenous societies played in their downfall. However, some historical facts such as the endless wars and the cruelty of both Spaniards and Indians get tedious. Ines is imagined as a superhuman who doesn't seem to need sleep nor food and can do anything from amazing cooking to astonishing healing and adventurous lovemaking. Hm. Her life and relationships with powerful men seem romantisized and Allende's style with an element of magic realism makes the story of Ines more fictionlike than realistic. I did appreciate some of the man-bashing; at one point Ines states that all men are only interested in three things: fornicating, drinking, and killing. 6?

Skinny Bitch - Freedman & Barnouin

Foul-mouthed and straight up is how the dish is served in this book. Gotta love two women who disguise a vegan lifestyle book behind a clever title. Since I have been a vegan myself for about two years right before my first pregnancy and a vegetarian for many years up until recently, the information is not new to me. However, it is dished out differently. How about, "Soda is liquid satan?" This book is sometimes funny and sometimes crude. Nevertheless, it is helpful reading; it is good to be reminded of these things again. These things = treatment of slaughterhouse animals, antibiotics and hormones in livestock, and the mis-directed interests of incestous government agencies that are supposedly protecting the general public while all along taking money from corporate America. Nothing new, but a good reminder. I will be more mindful of what I eat. Besides, vegan food is good. I love veggies! 9.

High Latitudes : An Arctic Journey - Farley Mowat

Farley Mowat describes his journey in 1969 across Canada's frozen North. It seems like village after village is filled with disillusioned and unemployed Inuit people, or Eskimos as they were called at the time. The Inuit have been more or less forced by the Canadian government to give up their traditional way of life. They don't hunt anymore and they don't live in tents anymore. Their children are sent far away to go to school for a traditional education. Their environment is filling up with garbage--abandoned oil drums and plastic debris. Despite Mowat being an excellent writer, it is a pretty depressing picture. A few positive developments are revealed as well: the encouragement and success of traditional art for sale as well as grocery and goods cooperatives. This was a pick by one of my reading groups and I struggled to get through it. 4.

Stealing Buddha's Dinner - Bich Minh Nguyen

Nguyen's memoir of her family's escape from Saigon in 1975 to the U.S. and their/her subsequent adjustment to American culture. She came to love American food, which seemed more exotic than her grandmother's traditional Vietnamese dishes. Her father married a Mexican woman, Rosa, who introduced even more diverse food into Nguyen's life. The book deals with her longing to be just like the blue-eyed, blonde-haired Americans. In the end, as a young adult, she travels back to Vietnam and realizes that it is not her home anymore; she is American. Also, the book chronicles how she, as an adult, reunites with her mother, who didn't emigrate with them in 1975 but arrived much later. I enjoyed the book from a cultural perspective as well the nostalgic details of food items. Maybe a 6.