Book Reviews

I read Siddhartha (Hermann Hesse) for my 10^th grade English class and I decided to read it again to see if it is as deep as I remember. It’s one of those books that is good to re-read at different stages of life to reevaluate one’s values. Maybe someday I’ll find Om.

Earth Odyssey: Around the world in search of our environmental future (Mark Hertsgaard): Although a bit outdated with most info from the Bill Clinton era, I enjoyed the author’s case studies collected through travels in China, Brazil, and Sudan. One thesis in the book is that people can’t care about their local environment until they reach a certain level of economic stability. Ie, poor people in developing countries prioritize finding a steady job over saving the world from deforestation. Interestingly enough, the people where I live in Panama seem to be fighting to save their rivers and water sources over the possible economic opportunities a mine could provide. Granted, they simultaneously continue with deforestation and battery littering.

The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald) : A modern classic that I could live without. I can’t blame it only on the fact that it’s a book about rich people with rich problems (thus perhaps tough to relate to with my current living situation) because I enjoy Jane Austen books.

The War Magician (David Fisher): A fascinating true story about a British magician who joined the British WWII effort in Cairo, designing complex camouflage and illusions to confuse the Nazis.

Our Lady of the Assassins (Fernando Vallejo) takes place in Medellin during its darkest drug cartel years. The story follows a middle aged writer who has been abroad for years, and returns to find his city stained by hit man murders. That doesn’t stop him from falling in love with a hitman, and letting his heart break when his lover is killed by another hitman. I appreciated my 2^nd read much more after visiting Medellin.

Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the War on the Poor (Paul Farmer): “One of the central points of this book is that public health and access to medical care are social and economic rights; they are at least as critical as civil rights”. Paul Farmer uses case studies from his work in Haiti, Russia, and indigenous Mexico to show why medical care cannot be provided to only those who can afford it. For example, during a tuberculosis outbreak in Russian prisons all patients were being treated with cheaper first line drugs. Doctors and the government were ignoring the fact that many patients were sick with multidrug resistant tuberculosis, and without access to the more expensive 2^nd line drugs, the 1^st line medicine was only wasting money and further battering the immune systems of these patients. When sick prisoners completed their prison term they were allowed to return to their family, oftentimes passing along tuberculosis to more innocent people. Like usual, Paul Farmer takes a non-negotiable stance when it comes to protecting the poor's healthcare system. Good book.