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Friday, June 7, 2024

Weekly Book Recommendations (June 7)

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie: You all know this one, right? Well, if all you know are the myriad film and TV versions I do recommend you go back to the original and give it a read. Yes, it's full of between the wars British classism and temperament of nationality stereotypes but the writing is sharp, incisive, funny at points, and leads up to a satisfying conclusion even if you already know the ending. I'm a big fan of these stories as movies and will likely now track down more of the originals. 

NOT RECOMMENDED BUT WANT TO COMMENT ON

The Prince of the Marshes And Other Occupational Hazards of a Year in Iraq by Rory Stewart: I had put this on my wish list in 2006 under the theory that it might help me make sense of the culsterfuck/omnishambles that was the Iraq Occupation, and also that maybe it might make good fodder for a gaming setting. I only ended up with a copy of the book this Christmas, and having tried it I'm sad to say it didn't do either. At this remove there's just no sense to make of the catastrophic mess that was postwar Iraq, and Stewart, a British citizen with some experience in the Arab world and some diplomatic experience, is just too earnest in presenting things. He had nothing to do with the planning or execution of the war, and appears to honestly have thought he might be able to at first accomplish, and later salvage, something beneficial to the Iraqi people out of a mess not his making. I appreciate that, but he also lacks a journalists/storytellers instincts to make the book really engaging to me - it may be his recitation of events, but it feels dry most of the time and clearly futile - which may be more about me than him. If these sorts of books are your jam, this one is technically well written but its hard to make sense of the mess that he was in. 

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