After coming down from the great high of Barack Obama being elected the 44th president of the United States of America, I finished the book from Pulitzer Prize writer of 2008, Junot Diaz, for his work The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.
This book was not a typical read for me. I had no expectations nor did I know what the book was about before I started. I enjoyed the colloquial voice of the narrator and it made me feel more attached to the characters involved in the story. The story is about a Dominican boy named Oscar and his somewhat unusual life. It was sad and a bit uncomfortable to read at times but I felt very sympathetic towards the characters. I’m not even quite sure how to describe the book without giving it away. It talks about life in the U.S. and in the Dominican Republic. There are interesting footnotes throughout the book. Some of them I skipped (I must confess). Can’t say it was my favourite book but the writing was very good and effective. Still a recommended read. Judge for yourself.
The book previous to Oscar was a great little, quick read called Sway: The Irresistable Pull of Irrational Behavior, by Ori and Rom Brafman. A fascinating book about how irrational humans can be in different situations. There are lots of crazy examples of people doing irrational things and making silly irrational decisions and how we are affected by our culture and state of mind. I know that there are a lot of books similar to this out there. It seems to be the new trendy thing to read and write about. Still with that being said, I found it to be very enjoyable and it certainly has made me realize just how crazy the most rational people can become. A very fast read (finished in a couple of hours). Check it out.