Current Booklist
I wrote this whole blog post while I was in Vietnam, but for some reason didn’t post it. So here it is!
I haven’t posted anything about the books I’ve been reading since I’ve been in Vietnam, but I have read 6 so far, so I’m going to list them here. Just a little FYI, I had to pay an extra $100 at the airport because I packed 12 books. My suitcase was a tad overweight… But I’m glad I did because there aren’t any bookstores in Hanoi that sell English books (or at least the type of English books I want to read). God, I miss Chapters. Can’t wait to go to that place ASAP when I get home in two months.
Okay, so this is my list of books I’ve read so far:
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
If you want an uplifting book, don’t read this.
I started reading this book before I left for Vietnam, and it seemed fitting, considering it’s about the Vietnam war and I wanted to have some sort of little history lesson before I left. It begins in 1975, and Saigon is in the midst of a war with the United States. The book tells the story of a Vietnamese army captain who is caught between two worlds. This army captain is a spy, and reports to members that are higher up in the Viet Cong. The book takes place in both America and Vietnam, as they travel back and forth. If I’m being honest, sometimes I have a hard time understanding the real nitty gritty of politics (ironic considering I’m basically studying it in school), so some of the details of the book were lost on me, but I got the jist.
This book is bloody and graphic, but there were also stories of friendship and hope and love so it balanced out (Actually, most of it was still depressing but worth the read).
2. Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
The obvious choice when you’re 21 and traveling the world. I feel like I don’t really need to explain this one since I’m pretty sure everybody is already familiar. It’s actually kind of interesting because in this book, the main character Liz, travels to Italy, India, and Bali. I’ve been to both Italy and India, and I just booked my flight tickets to Bali. So it’s kind of like I’m on a little Eat Pray Love journey myself. How cute.
But this story was so entertaining and funny, with some really good life lessons on almost every page. I was inspired, and pretty hooked on this book. I’ve seen the movie multiple times, but always hesitated about reading the book. When I left for Vietnam, I thought it was the perfect time to read it.
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
I’m pretty sure I found this book through a Google search of “life-changing books”. It didn’t actually change my life, but I did really enjoy it and find it quite interesting and thought-provoking. Basically, the whole book is an ongoing conversation between a man and his teacher, who also happens to be a gorilla. The gorilla teaches the man how the world came to be the way it is, and how we can change it so that it lasts forever, healthily and happily, without such a damaging impact from humans. In the book, the main suggestion is pretty much that we have to kill a bunch of people so that the population decreases. Okay, not actually, but the idea that the population is just waaaay too big was definitely a main point.
The main idea in the book was describing and learning about the differences between “the takers” and “the leavers” of the world. I just thought the way that the author describes these differences and gives you a little history/life lesson was really different and unique to any other way I’ve heard it described before.
The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill
I. Love. This. Book. So. Much. I’ve read it twice, and I’m not one to read the same book twice. And both times, I finished the book within a week. It’s about a woman named Aminata who was abducted in 1755 from her small village in Mali by slave traders when she was just 11 years old. The story then follows her as she is sent to a few plantations in the United States, and then to Nova Scotia, and then back to Africa, and then to the United Kingdom.
It’s called the Book of Negroes after the actual Book of Negroes, which was a record that was kept of all the freed African slaves on the British side of the Revolutionary War, which in the book, Aminata actually helped to record for the British. It was such an intriguing tale, and like The Sympathizer, it was graphic and disturbing at times, but necessarily. At the same time, it was so gripping and lovely. I feel like I learned a few life lessons from the main character.
Chakra Healing by Liz Simpson
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably have some sense of what chakras are. And in case you have been living under a rock, chakras are basically energy centers in our body that we can’t see. There are seven chakras in total: root chakra, sacral chakra, solar plexus chakra, heart chakra, throat chakra, third eye chakra, and crown chakra.
I was hoping to learn a lot about the background and history of chakras and the philosophy behind it, and although I got some of that, the book was mostly about how to heal certain chakras through meditations, certain crystals, and other forms of healing. It was interesting, and gave me the basics, but next time I think I’d like to read a book that explores context a bit more.
Where the Air is Sweet by Tasneem Jamal
My dear mother sent me this book to Vietnam for my Christmas present, and I finished it within about a week. I really enjoyed this book. Of course it’s another historical fiction novel, what a shocker.
The book begins with an Indian man named Raju, who decides to move to Uganda to build himself a life. He has many children, who then have children of their own, and so on. But, in 1972, Idi Amin, the Ugandan dictator, expels 80,000 Asians, and Raju and his family are forced to flee. The novel spans over many years, as we follow Raju and the generations that follow him.
So that’s that. My little booklist. Although I’d like to keep all the books I’ve ever read for my library when I have a house of my own, maybe I should leave some of them here to avoid that extra $100 on the way home.
Update: I sold all six of the books I read to a cute little bookstore here in Hanoi, so my suitcase situation is looking a little lighter. Except for the plan I have to go on a clothing shopping spree before I come home.
