(I’m writing this while sitting in my grant writing class, hence the guilt. That’s right: we have weekend classes here! They’re called workshops, and they’re usually just for a single weekend and geared towards something very specific. It turns out grant writing is very boring, and the professor had us download the powerpoint that he’s currently reading off of. So, um, I decided to write a Sunday Salon post! hehe This is my first time participating, but now that I’m busier and need more structure in my blog, I’m looking forward to many more Salons!)

So it turns out being a full time grad student takes more work than being a nanny (especially when you’re hired as a graduate research assistant working 20 hours a week)! As a direct result, my fun reading has been severely curtailed. In case you’re curious, I’m going to briefly list the school reading I did this week, before moving on to the fun stuff (feel free to just scroll down to the pictures!).

For nonproliferation: Deadly Arsenals by Joseph Cirincione; Jon B. Wolfsthal; Miriam Rajkumar, “Proliferation Rings: New Challenges to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Regime” by Chaim Braun and Christopher Chyba, “Thinking Proliferation Theoretically” by Sujeet Samaddar, and “Acquisition of Technology Relating to Weapons of Mass Destruction and Advanced Conventional Munitions, 1 January Through 31 December,” an unclassified CIA report to Congress.

For Russian: two interviews with Putin and Medvedev’s speech outline the five principles of Russia’s new foreign policy.

For Intro to Public Policy: “The Policy Process: Politics and Technics” by Turner and Hulme, Public Policymaking by James Anderson, and Governance, Administration and Development: Making the State Work by Turner and Hulme.

For Intro to Terrorism: Political Terrorism by Schmid and Jongman.

Do you understand now why my book count has dropped so drastically? I’m definitely reading as much as ever, it’s just in a different track.

So, what ‘normal’ books have I been perusing this week?

Well, I’m right in the middle of The Last Queen by C.W. Gortner. I’ll be reviewing it later this month, but it’s been a wonderful break from all that other stuff I’ve listed! It’s a historical novel based on the life of sixteenth century Spanish princess Juana. Juana is an interesting character; she often frustrates me, because despite her obvious intelligence, she seems to have no political intuition at all. I want her to start holding her own in court intrigue! I have a feeling this book is going to be a tragedy, and that’s Juana’s fatal flaw: her inability to manipulate things. That being said, it’s very interesting to read this since I’m still in the middle of Mary, Queen of Scots: a (nonfiction) biography set in the same time period, about another doomed royale. I love reading nonfiction and well-researched historical fiction with the same general setting; it makes the reading experience so much richer.

I’ve also been moving, very slowly, through Nadine Gordimer’s A Sport of Nature. I haven’t read anything by her before, and apparently this is her most difficult novel, so that makes me feel better. Set in South Africa, it centers around the life of Hillela. But there’s a curious detachment in the narrative tone that makes me not really care what happens to Hillela. Many of the secondary characters are more symphathetic! I’m not sure if this is a deliberate technique, and I’m trying to reserve judgement until the end. But it does make me hesitate to pick up the book.

Finally, I’ve found a lot of refuge in audiobooks since life has gotten so crazy. Right now I’m listening to City of Masks by Daniel Hercht. It’s a ghost story set in New Orleans, and while it’s interesting, Hercht needs to find himself a new editor. He gets carried away with his own descriptive powers a tad too often. (Something I remember from this morning “She could almost feel it…it was like a tangible string…” Tangible=almost feel it; we don’t need both!) Because of that, the narrative drive suffers; it’s a really long audiobook too (14 CDs) and the narrator’s voice kind of grates on me. All of that being said, obviously it’s still compelling enough for me to keep listening to!

Well, I suppose I should really start paying attention to class again. I hope you’ve enjoyed learning more about the books I’m currently reading! And aren’t you jealous of my assigned reading? hehe: I thought not. (Although if you are interested in nonproliferation, Bomb Scare by Joseph Circione is a very short, good introduction.) Well, enjoy your Sundays for all of you not stuck in class!