Speaking of laws, I’m still reading The Devil’s Picnic, although my cover isn’t nearly as cool. It’s an interesting quest by Taras Grescoe, which covers his quest for the forbidden foods of the world. I’m not done yet, and likely won’t be before the school crush starts, but there are a few very amusing bits:

(about the previously mentioned Singapore): “its detractors call it Princessland, a bizarre cross between a Confucian Chinese mandarinate and a British boarding school, the ne plus ultra of the nanny state” (Grescoe 57).

His section on Singapore and the laws governing, among other things, the consumption of crackers with poppy seeds, provided an interesting introduction to the concept of a Nanny state and governments – including those of San Francisco and New York – where laws govern more ‘sinister’ actions such as smoking. On a related note, he compares the War on Drugs to Prohibition and while I wouldn’t have made that connection, I can see it.

It’s also interesting to see how some things have changed since this book was written. When speaking of the then-new ban on cigarette smoking in New York City, he interviewed an Englishman who stated that, ” …in London , you would never dream of asking an adult to extinguish a cigarette in a drinking establishment intended for other adults.” (Grescoe 164). I was in London this summer but prior to when the ban took place and I have to say, the prevalence of smoke annoyed me. I thought after my time in Asia, I was immune to smoke but its presence is strong once you’re accustomed to a relatively smoke free environment.

Overall this is a really good book. I have The End of Elsewhere on Mt. TBR and hope to get to read it soon.

On another reading note, I’ve done quite a few reviews lately for Front Street:

Private Scars – Brenda Youngerman
I Hear Your Cry – Veronica Shaffer (loved that the author signed my copy of this book)
The Pawn – Steven James
A Merger of Equals – Debra James
Olga: A Daughter’s Tale – Marie-Thérèse Browne
The End of Sorrow – JV Love

and an as-yet unposted one for Spontaneous Tourism since the book hasn’t yet been officially released. I enjoyed that one, and think it’s very cool that the author is wild releasing his own book on BookCrossing.

ETA: Interesting article in the New York Times by Taras Grescoe: Catfish with a Side of Scombroid

Thanks – got it – that is a very fine, thoughtful review; would you please let the reviewer know how much it is appreciated? The author Lesley Thomas was very gratified to read it, and would like to tell her that she is working on another book about women in Lapp and ancient Norse cultures.

E-mails like this are part of why I love doing the review for Front Street Press. Although Far Eastern Press seems to be a bit bigger than Golden Quill Press/The Write Source was when I worked with them on Tell it to the Future, there’s just *something* about working with small publishers. I really look forward to reading more of the author’s work. I know even less about Lapp and ancient Norse cultures than I did about Inupiaq culture, but I look forward to the book. As I said when I first mentioned this book, it’s interesting how books, fiction or not, can get you interested in new cultures.

I found the blog via one of my usual haunts, in my All stars but it was the title: What you should know about getting a tattoo on the road that caught my attention.
Often, when travelling people make decisions which they wouldn’t usually do in their normal life back home.

Ordinarily, I’d say that was a good thing, that it’s one of the good things to do while travelling, but it really made me think about the tattoo issue. When I was in Fiji I met a lot of travelers headed ‘the other way’ aka back to the US after a semester or so in Australia or New Zealand and many had the Southern Cross tatooed on their feet. Now I’m totally for “whatever floats your boat” but it seemed there was a fair degree of herd mentality going on.

I wavered before getting my tattoo in Japan, not because I was concerned about wanting it when I got home-it was a tattoo I’d been talking about for years-but because I knew a tattoo could cause some problems while in Japan. In the end, I had my tat done here 5+ years ago and I’ve never regretted it for a second. It’s a subtle souvenir of Japan: Round I. And I was able to use onsens in Kyoto and at Fuji-san without any issue.

At other times on other trips I contemplated other tattoos. I even had the artwork done for one but didn’t have it done because I was sunburned. By the time I was no longer sunburned, I kind of forgot about it. There’s still one I’m contemplating, but if I end up getting it, it will probably be done here. We’ll see.

• Behind the Yellow Filter and its sequel Blind Spot by Stuart Held
• Beyond Peleiu by Peter D. Baird
• The Voice in my Heart by Gilbert Tuhabonye

The last one, which coincidentally was the first title I reviewed for FSR, was by far the most interesting. I can’t put my finger on the concrete reason, but I think it was because I don’t have too much awareness of Africa. I remember learning about the Rwandan genocide while in school but until I read this book I didn’t know anything of what had gone on in Burundi around the same time.

Africa for me is an odd paradox. I had a wonderful time meeting the Tanzanian delegation. Their presentation, together with the information I picked up at the Travel Show, really piqued my interest in the country but I can’t say whether I’d go. I’m interested on a variety of levels: historical because I find the story of the Olduvai Gorge and NgoroNgoro Crater to be crucial to understanding how we as a civilization came about; ecological/physical because I want to know more about Kilimanjaro and I’d love one day to climb it; and of course sheer desire to visit Zanzibar. No good reason, just because I want to.

I’d love to visit Egypt for some of the same historical reasons, Morocco for its culture and South Africa for a variety of reasons, but I don’t know whether I ever will. I remember getting a copy of On Foot Through Africa and thinking how many wonderful things she saw, but also knowing there is no way I could do what she’d done.

I have a read a few other good titles that look place, at least in part, in Africa: Take me With You by Brad Newsham, Swahili for the Broken Hearted by Peter Moore and Dark Star Safari by Paul Theroux are a few off the top of my head.

It is funny how reading about a place sparks an interest in learning more. Guess that’s the sign of a well-written book. Getting back to where I started, that was what I loved about Flight of the Goose. It was a vehicle, although fictional, for me to learn more about the Inupiaq culture, which I know very little about.

I just wish I had more time to read!