I remembered that I was keeping track of what I’ve been reading. As best I can recall, this summer I’ve finished reading the following:
1 The War of Don Emmanuel’s Nether Parts – Louis de Bernieres – which, taking place in a fictionalized Latin American country, gives a summary of the general pattern of politics in many Latin American countries (as best I understand Latin America, which admittedly is not well), and is also engaging and hilarious
2 Going Alone: Women’s Adventures in the Wild – Ed. Susan Fox Rogers – on this book I have already written
3 The Sea Around Us – Rachel Carson – Carson wrote Silent Spring about DDT. This is her take on Oceanography, circa 1955
4 Elizabeth Costello – JM Coetzee – about Coetzee I am still thinking

Then, of course, I am in the middle of a number of books:
1 Why We Get Sick, The New Science of Darwinian Medicine – Randolph M. Nesse, M.D., and George C. Williams, Ph.D. – I have been most of the way through this book for a year, but to be fair for eight months it was in Alaska while I was not
2 Galapagos – Kurt Vonnegut
3 Archy and Mehitabel – Don Marquis
4 A Story Like the Wind – Laurens Van der Post
5 Rowing to Latitude – Jill Fredston – I have read this book several times, and am perpetually in the middle of it. It doesn’t matter where I start, I know what is going on and I am interested in what she will do next.

6 The Fundamentals of Oceanography – I’ve been stuck on salts in chapter five since June; I may need to just return it to the library and come back to it in the winter, when there is more time for literary pursuits.