Books 5.0

Lots more light reading this month.

**** Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje. I picked a rather fitting time to read this book, as it occurs against the backdrop of the war in Sri Lanka (fighting ended there this month if you haven't been following the news). I did not think this one was as good as The English Patient, and in spite of their very different lives, many characters in the two stories seemed to echo one another's sentiments. Still, the story was told well and the characters were very compelling. The book was very good at showing how destructive the war was to the whole of society, and it generally succeeded in avoiding preaching. Most of the time.

***** Fuel-Saving Cookstoves by GTZ. This manual was published by the German international development organization. I won't mention the year, but I will say that they did a few case studies in Upper Volta. Although I'm not a big cook-stoves person, the book was really well-written and presented good information in a useful manner. Most importantly, they talked a lot about attitude. They said that some projects fail, just based on bad luck, and not much can be done there. But more often, the big failure is caused by the fact that workers come in saying that they will solve lots of problems and basically impose solutions. I really liked the way talked about that.

**** Sustainable Agricultural Extension Manual by the International Institute for Rural Reconstruction. This book provided lots of 2-4 page descriptions of various projects that have been taken up successfully by extension workers in various parts of eastern and southern Africa. The book had the right balance of case studies and theory. It also emphasized very well the caveat that projects always need to be adapted when they are introduced to new sites. Also, it had a nice section on napier grass that was useful to my project here.

***** Well, it's not actually book, but a 25 page email from Amy Smith. She was describing her travels and work in Zambia and Uganda and it all sounds really amazing. I wish that my blog could be as filled with adventures as hers. It sounds like she met some really great people and accomplished some amazing things. Very inspiring stuff.

I also tried to read a book called The Beekeeper's Handbook. I gave up about halfway through because I realized that while it provides good advice on starting a beekeeping project in the US context (and the 1980s context) it is not exactly the sort of advice I was looking for to develop that kind of project here. I actually had to give up on a few of the other reference books that I got from the Peace Corps library. I am starting to worry that I have already worn down most of the best pickings. Fortunately, I have taken to reading The Economist on my phone. I usually have it finished (I don't read every article, mostly politics with less business) by Sunday (it is released on Thursday nights in my time zone) and I have been going back and reading recent special reports. I really liked the one on waste that they had back in February.