Books Books Books

Dear Books on Polygomous Sects, Holocaust Survivors, Prisons, Drugs, & Ex-Soldiers in Africa, and Africa in general:

I can't stop reading you. What is wrong with me? Did I have too normal of a childhood? What is it about these topics that are so intriguing to me? I think that for the sake of my own imagination and sanity, I should bring it down a notch or two and start reading books that are, let's say, a little more light-hearted and fluffy.

Love,
ME

Recently I've read three great books that take place in Africa. I just finished Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller. It's an autobigraphy of a girl who was born to English parents who recounts her experience with malaria, gypsy- farmer-alcoholic parents, and the everyday danger and adventure of living in Zambia and Rhodesia. I also read What is the What, which described the Sudanese war and the life of a boy who luckily escaped becoming a child soldier. Then, there was A Long Way Gone which retold the stories of a very unlucky but eventually "saved" boy soldier. Now I'm reading Maya Angelou's autobiography All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes, which deals mainly with an African American's ex-pat life and journey through Ghana. I'm a little obsessed about true stories set in Africa at the moment, to say the least.

Then, there's my "to read bookshelf," which looks like this:

In a Free State by V.S Naipaul
Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje
Night by Elie Wiesel
Escape by Carole Jessop
Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Meth Addiction by David Sheff

All deal with one of the subjects mentioned above. Should I say "basta" (enough!) already to these subjects or move on to say, vampires and teenagers and give Twilight a whirl? I'll give this last book a shot and then I think by then it will be time to switch gears and read from a different genre..