I loved it when I read it.. and was deeply horrified with the coolie exploitation in South America, I had not learned about that before then.
Oh boy… I need to put my nose to the grindstone and my hand on the antacids and get reading!
Finished both, and really liked 'em. The novel is a real page-turner with a satisfying ending. The memoir is very interesting and funny.
I’m now about two-thirds of the way through Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford, an alternative-history detective story in which the Cahokia culture endured into the 1920s and was strong enough to resist the westward tide of Manifest Destiny for decades before becoming part of the United States. The lead character is a Native American police detective who investigates a ritualistic murder and comes to realize it has an important political dimension. There’s police corruption, Prohibition, the Klan, labor unrest, overbearing Feds and, of course, jazz. It’s not bad.
Finished Things That Are Funny on a Submarine–But Not Really, by Yannick Murphy; and When Animals Rescue: Amazing True Stories about Heroic and Helpful Creatures, by Belinda Recio. I thought they were both excellent.
Next up: SAM: One Robot, a Dozen Engineers, and the Race to Revolutionize the Way We Build, by Jonathan Waldman; and Just Like Always, by Elizabeth-Ann Sachs.
Finished SAM: One Robot, a Dozen Engineers, and the Race to Revolutionize the Way We Build, by Jonathan Waldman, which was excellent. (The parts about bricklayers were more interesting than the stuff about the robot, though, in my opinion.) Also finished Just Like Always, by Elizabeth-Ann Sachs. Not recommended.
Next up: The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography, by Sidney Poitier; and Wall, Stone, Craft by Walter Jon Williams.