If you are reading and watching American news in the last few weeks, you are probably simultaneously seeing a lot and very little about Islam in America today. The conversation surrounding Park51, the Islamic community center slated to be built in Lower Manhatten, is often very shallow, with little explication of terms and nuance. Words are being thrown around — Muslims, freedom, the Muslim Brotherhood, jihad – as though they are self-explanatory and monolithic. Here are a few titles I have reviewed recently that might give a deeper understanding of the issues behind this politicized debate: Read more on Deeper Reading: Recent Titles on Islam around the World…
Category Archives: world
Where will you be on June 7?
Southern California friends, I’d love to see you at this event. If the chance to hear from Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ian Johnson doesn’t convince you, maybe this cool poster from Maritess Santiago at the UCI Humanities Collective will:
My Worlds Collide: Global Conflict and Public Health
After years of writing about Asia and globalization, politics and conflict, I’ve taken on a new gig as the community manager and frequent blogger at ReportingonHealth.org. Certainly, there are a lot of new skills and background to pick up as I learn more about health in America, but, as it turns out, my dual interests are also not that far apart.
Read more on My Worlds Collide: Global Conflict and Public Health…
Weekend Reading
If you are looking for downtime reading, here are a few of my favorite, most enjoyable nonfiction choices from my reviews for Zócalo Public Square:
Life at the Speed of Books
I’m spending most of this month and last looking over the Hudson River, from Jersey City to New York. It’s a good vantage point to be an observer of global interactions and politics. It is from here that I have read most of the books I have reviewed so far for Zócalo Public Square.
Three of those books have been about American foreign policy in the Middle East. To be sure, the three were very different in style and content, but in so many ways they all underscore the simple need for context. It is a desperate need in these days of information overload and soundbite news. While the foreign policy histories and opinions in the books that I reviewed are essential for thinking about monumental existential issues like national security, the act of consistently reading books is a reminder to take more time to think about, well, everything. Sometimes it’s best that life move at the speed of books.
Here are some excerpts and links in case you’re interested. Read more on Life at the Speed of Books…
website update: the big switch
Ok, maybe not so big to you, but big to me.
After struggling with bugginess and hand-coding for years, I finally made the switch from Movable Type to Wordpress. Let me know what you think and if you find any broken links. RSS feeds and permalinks should still work properly (fingers crossed).
iPhone: Cracked but still good
Last week I impulsively tweeted (twittered? I think that’s more clear) about the unfortunate accident my iPhone met with my bathroom floor. I guess it’s lucky that the damage is superficial, but I was floored by the outpouring of support I received from friends and strangers. So here’s the update: Everything still works and a smooth plastic cover is preventing me from cutting my finger when I play FS5 Hockey.
In truth, I don’t play games on my iPhone all that often, unless you consider Facebook and Twitter games. I have a friend who scrolls through the applications I’ve downloaded every time we meet, looking for new tools and tricks to help her make the most of this very expensive little device. I thought I’d post some of my favorites here. These are the applications that I think make my life much more efficient — they’re helpful for me, a Los Angeles-based writer who travels often, particularly in Asia.
more than politics
This week I’m revisiting one of my favorite books, the famous fictionalized account of the last months in the life of South American liberator Simon Bolivar by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I cannot recall the first time I read The General in His Labyrinth except that it was early in my college career and it opened my eyes to world literature. My notes in the book seem completely unfamiliar — I appear to have fact-checked the book, not just against history but also to spot the moments which are fantasies of the character Bolivar’s troubled mind. Now, I read the book differently. I am drawn to Manuela Saenz, whom the General loves with an incomprehensible depth. What is more incomprehensible is the way that she loves him, despite his pride and his descent, or maybe because of those things. Here is one of Garcia Marquez’s earliest introductions to Manuela:


