Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey

This book gives a fictionalized account of Alexis de Tocqueville's trip to America. The book opens with an account of it's hero's (Olivier de Garmont) childhood, which reminds me a lot of Marcel's childhood in Swann's Way. Garmont's parents decide to send him to America to investigate the penal system (but really to escape the wave of revolutions and anti-aristocratic feeling in France); a British man working for a friend of Garmont's mother accompanies Garmont as his servant. Despite the vast differences between the two men, they form a friendship, as each learns more about America itself. This book is quite enjoyable.

Faulkner: A House Divided by Eric Sundquist

In this book Sundquist argues that the best way to understand Faulkner's literature is to see his good books (leaving the bad ones out of the equation) as being divided chronologically: in the first ones (The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, and Sanctuary) Faulkner develops a modernist form of his own, and in the later ones (Light in August, Absalom! Absalom!, and Go Down, Moses) he finds themes (of race and racial conflict) appropriate for those forms. Sundquist does a nice job building connections between Faulkner's characters (I particularly liked the idea that although Quentin Compson commits suicide early on, Faulkner needs him too much to let him die), and connecting Faulkner's literature to both earlier nineteenth-century American prose (as Faulkner moves from Modernist to Americanist in Sundquist's estimation) and to the history Faulkner keeps digging up. The argument was fairly convincing and articulated very well.

The Fleet Street Murders by Charles Finch

I enjoyed this book, but I am starting to get the sense that these books are as much interested in telling about the development of characters (the detective's run for Parliament, his courtship of his neighbor, his friendship with a doctor who has let success drive him to drinking) than about the mystery itself--indeed, I felt that the mystery was harder for the reader to solve along because in this case, Lenox is far more interested in getting himself elected to Parliament by a town he's never visited before in his life (and NO, the defense of virtual representation was NOT convincing) than in solving the mystery. This book was enjoyable, but it's no substitute for Agatha Christie.

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Although this book is different from the first two in the Hunger Games series in that the games have been ended and it's all about the resistance to the Capital, I found this book very enjoyable and a fitting ending to a great series. Katniss is faced with choices to make (should she accept the role of being public face of the resistance?) and consequences for those choices--and she has to determine what sacrifices should be made for liberty. This book asks big questions and answers them bravely--while it's not for the weak of heart, it will leave you with a lot to think about and a lot to ponder.

Legal Handbook for Photographers by Bert Krages

This book presented legal challenges that might face photographers from a variety of perspectives (i.e. from taking pictures, to publishing them, to defending copyrights) in a level-headed and informative way. The main messages I will be taking away from this book are that it's important to understand your rights, it's better to explain clearly what you're doing (and often to ask permission first), and that if you can avoid legal recourse, it's often cheaper and better than taking someone to court.

Invincible by Troy Denning

This book concludes the Legacy of the Force series. It was much more focused than the previous books in the series--it really boiled down to a series of confrontations between Darth Caedus and the rest of his family. I thought that the series ended correctly, for the way it was set up (although I didn't particularly like the way that Jacen went to the Dark Side--I felt it was inconsistent with his character as it had been set up in earlier books).

The Conquest of America: The Question of the Other by Tzvetan Todorov

This book uses the Spanish conquest of the New World, and particularly Cortés in Mexico, to investigate the ways that humans understand the other. I found the book particularly interesting in its history. I thought that the example of the conquest worked well for Todorov's points about the other (and found the chapter about signs and types of communication particularly helpful)--but I don't think this book would be a good way to understand the conquest on its own. I also really liked the last chapter about two different Europeans writing about native cultures.