March 31, Monday evening -- Reading Dave Eggers and a book edited by David M. Powers

Beneath the cherry blossoms in Union Square

Reading What is the What, by Dave Eggers. She read his first book, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, and didn't think much of it, but then a friend recommended this one and she's loving it. It's about one of the lost boys of Sudan.

Her favorite book of all time--1984, by George Orwell. She'd read Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley and really enjoyed that so someone recommended 1984.... The rest is history. New favorite book. She also likes Margaret Atwood's books, especially Oryx and Crake and The Handmaid's Tale. She likes books that make us think about our lives now and what could happen in the future based on our current decisions. I think I'm misquoting here....she said this (or something else) much more eloquently.

****

Reading International Monetary Power, edited by David M. Powers. A favorite book--Global Capitalism: Its Rise and Fall in the Twentieth Century, by Jeffrey Friedan.

He's writing a dissertation on why countries choose the exchange rate policies they do and the politics behind it. There's a lot of interesting things going on, he said. For instance, the China/U.S. conflict. The U.S. is angry with China for keeping its currency weak so that Chinese goods are cheaper than those made by U.S. manufacturers.

I'd already taken a picture today, but had to stop and take another one because of the cherry blossoms and green grass. They're visiting from Chicago--it takes someone from out of town to take advantage of what we've got!

In what sorts of picturesque surroundings have you been reading?