In Which We Discuss Books I Read in my 26th Year, Week 19/52

Six books this week!

Think Like a Freak is the third book by Stephen Levitt and Stephen Dubner.  One is an economist, one is a journalist.  Together, they point out interesting things in social economics.  This one felt a bit shorter than the others, with less examples, and more commentary on how people came to have new ideas and new realisations about things you wouldn't expect.

Dreams of Joy is the sequel to Shanghai Girls.  The first book focuses on Pearl and May, two sisters who live in Shanghai in the '30s, when it was the 'Paris of Asia'.  They are sold to 'Gold Mountain Men' - men who have left China to make fortunes in America - as wives and shipped to Los Angeles.  Most of it takes place through the second world war, and it seems to have drawn quite a lot from  the experiences of Lisa See's family as documented in On Gold Mountain.

The sequel takes place in the 60s when Joy, truly believing that Mao's vision of a communist China will lead to a better world, returns there.  As well as being a good story, together, the books make up a fascinating history of Chinese people in America and China over the last century.

Chart Throb is a book I've read many times before, though this one is the audiobook as performed by Glen McCready, who is excellent.  I listened to this with my Tom in the car.  Very enjoyable.  It's about the Prince of Wales entering an X-Factor style show, with a huge focus on how it is produced and how heavily the contestants are manipulated.  Very believable, considering Ben Elton works for the BBC and can be expected to have a great deal of knowledge on this sort of thing.

The other three books I read are all part of a series by Charlaine Harris.  I read her entire Sookie Stackhouse series last year, the one which became a tv series by the name of True Blood.  In the Grave series, the main character is Harper Connolly.  After being hit by lightening at the age of fifteen, she gained the ability to read corpses, to find out what killed them.  They're basically murder mysteries with a slight supernatural twist.  There are only four books in the series, and the last one was published in 2009.  I'm currently 1/3 of the way through; I'm hoping it really does wrap up the series, rather than just trailing off.