March and Strength In What Remains

I am now onto some more mature reading. March by Geraldine Brooks is the story of the father of the Little Women. As a 9-12 yr. old I never cared much for Little Women. I was not into the whole period setting aesthetics - seriously, I preferred to tune into the cool 70's style of The Jefferson's. OK, despite that extraneous background info. - I am finding March to be a very intriguing fictional look into slavery in the south during the civil war from the perspective of a man from the north. I am on pg. 57 and there have already been several disturbing scenes that really stick with you - in an unpleasant way.

Last Friday I checked out Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder. A 14 day loan from the the public library - so I have to read 20 pages a day. It is all about the pace. So I set March aside for now. I consider Kidder to write books on very relevant topics. Kidder's recent book is about a man who has gone from in a place of political unrest in Burundi, Africa to the societal unrest of a very poor man with a language barrier in New York City. I recommend Mountains Beyond Mountains by Kidder (about Paul Farmer, a doctor from Boston who spends his life providing medical care to people in Haiti).