Odds and Ends

I read Les tambours noirs, by Josue Montello, a wonderful anti-slavery novel from Brazil, told in the first person in flashback. I also read a classic of Persian poetry, Nizami, entitled Chosroes et Chirin, as well as a novel which made next to no impression on me, Les oiseaux by Tarjei Vesaas. I just finished The Forsaken, by Tim Tzouliadis, about the Americans imprisoned by the Soviets, and I was riveted by the sadness and the inhumanity. It ranks right up there with the Nazi concentration camp literature I read when I was a teenager, Les medecins maudits and Les medecins de l'impossible. Apart from that, I read an issue of The New Yorker, an issue of The Economist, and two issues of Eclectic Reading, as well as an issue of The New Scientist. I also read Guided Inquiry, by Carol Kuhlthau, one of the last volumes about analogical cognition, this time written by a library scientist. It was excellent.