On the Pile

I've added a few readers (and chased away quite a few, too!), so I thought I should reiterate my disclaimer for the weekly On the Pile listing: These are the books that have made it from the general stacks and into the pile next to my bed. Being on this list does not guarantee that the book will be read. Or opened, for that matter. Many of the books will be sampled, put down, picked up again, and so forth over the course of years.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
I finished The Magician's Nephew last week and keep planning to start this one. Except that I've found that it's very hard to read when lying on your back with your legs up the wall and when doped up on super-doses of ibuprofen. And my bathtub is not a comfy, lie-back-and-read-in-the-bubbles bath. If I ever get my own place, the very first thing I'm doing is renovating the bathroom.

Machete Season by Jean Hatzfield
Justice on the Grass by Dina Temple-Raston
Yep, I'm back to my depressing reads on genocide. Machete Season tells the story of the genocide in Rwanda from the point of view of the people doing the killing. Justice on the Grass looks at the trials of three journalists who helped incite the genocide and asks the question, What is the limit of free speech?

Note: Temple-Raston also wrote A Death in Texas about the murder-by-dragging of a black man in Jasper, Texas.

The War on Choice by Gloria Feldt
Being read for background material for an op-ed on creating a progressive---and effective---agenda to reduce abortions without eliminating a woman's choice. I'm finally coming out of the closet as a pro-choice Catholic. Let's see what happens. Speaking of which: Huh?