The Other Indians: A Political and Cultural History of South Asians in America (Vinay Lal) – a short and lively introduction to the history of South Asians in the US, from the colonial era through 19th century Sikh immigration to the present. I don’t think I learned any new facts, per se, but it’s a lot less polemical book than say, The Karma of Brown Folk. Recommended.

The Mindbody Prescription: Healing the Body, Healing the Pain (John E. Sarno) – this was recommended by more than one friend as a potential way to cure my repetitive stress injury and shoulder/neck tension. Sarno’s thesis is a little complicated to describe, but basically he says “repressed anger causes many chronic conditions” and advocates a kind of cognitive-behavioral therapy for it. I found it pretty unconvincing, although there is some good advice sprinkled here and there in the book. Skippable.

The Trade of Queens (Charles Stross) – final book in Stross’s Merchant Princes series, I basically read this because I had already read the other ones and I wanted to see how it turned out. This series started out pretty interesting (although with many of the same racial blind spots as most SciFi), but I lost interest somewhere around the 3rd book. Recommended if you are OCD about finishing things.

A Fragile Power (Chandra Mukerji) – this is an interesting science studies book on how “big science” works, using two oceanographic institutes (Wood’s Hole and Scripps, thinly disguised as “Big Lab” and “Blue Lab” for IRB reasons, presumably) as case studies. It describes issues like power dynamics within the lab, tensions between engineers who make the instruments and the scientists that use them, how the government uses scientists to further their own ends, and so on. Her main thesis is that the state uses its funding power to maintain a sort of “reserve” of scientific expertise — in the case of the military, they have an interest in people who understand and can map the sea floor, and so they fund scientists to train students in the use of these technologies. Although “big science” is not “academic engineering,” many of the observations she makes in her book do seem relevant. I don’t think anyone has done a study of this sort on academic engineering, where there is a lot more industry sponsorship. A good thesis topic for… someone else. Highly recommended.

The Space Between Us (Thrity Umrigar) – a novel about a Parsee widow and her relationship with her servant, who has been with her for a long time. At times touching, and at other times melodramatic, it exemplifies a kind of middle-class sensibility about poverty and class-relations in India. The personal tragedies don’t transform into a larger critique of the system. I’m sure Amitava Kumar would have something more intelligent to say about it. Somewhat recommended (cautiously) if you’re interested in South Asian lit in English.

Unseen Academicals (Terry Pratchett) – a Discworld novel about soccer. Perfect during the World Cup.

The Beautiful Struggle (Ta-Nehisi Coates) – a touching and beautifully written memoir about growing up in Baltimore, raised by an ex-Black Panther father. Coates struggles against the expectations of his father and himself, becoming Conscious and getting the Knowledge that his father prized so much. Highly recommended.

Passport Pictures (Amitava Kumar) – a book about immigration, unheard voices, the politics of knowledge, where the rubber of theory meets the road of reality in postcolonial and transnational studies. The best part about this book is how it questions itself and how it takes what might be arch turn of phrase and actually tries to answer it. For example, “if the word ‘curry’ doesn’t have a stable referent or a fixed origin, how can its changing use by postcolonials be seen as a sign of resistance?” Recommended for those with an interest in immigration from South Asia and a taste for some postcolonial theory (but with examples! And poetry! And photography!)

Inherent Vice (Thomas Pynchon) – this was definitely not what I expected. A kind of potboiler of a detective novel but with more drugs and cultural references than you could shake a stick at. A tribute to LA in some era that I can’t recognize. Much more approachable than the monster tomes that Pynchon has put out (and I have not read), this book was also a real page turner.

The City and The City (China Mieville) – I, like others, am a bit of a China Mieville fanboy, but I think this is one of his better novels (it derailed a bit at the end for me, but I don’t want to give anything away). It’s set in a very strange city — two cities in the same place, to be precise, and it really brings up a lot of interesting questions about society divisions, (un)seeing, and global politics. The allegory doesn’t seem too far from reality. Recommended!

Mixing It Up: Taking on the Media Bullies and Other Reflections (Ishmael Reed) — This is a collection of Reed’s more recent writings, with big pieces on Don Imus, Kobe Bryant, and the John McWhorter. He also has a set of interviews with Sonny Rollins and a nice essay on Charles Chesnutt. Reed’s writing is ascerbic as ever, but I found the essays a mixed bag. For me, some of the nicest pieces were the shorter ones, but they were all thought-provoking.

Karnak Café (Naguib Mahfouz) — This is a short novella set after the war in which Egypt lost Sinai. The narrator frequents this cafe where three younger university students also hang out. The three disappear one day during a string of arrests and return months later. The narrator begins to learn of their experiences and how their lives were destroyed by the government’s manipulation. It’s a tightly written and compelling story that seems all-too-relevant these days. I highly recommend it.

Jhegaala (Steven Brust) — This is the latest in the Vlad Taltos series, and is mainly about untangling the hidden relationships in a small town of Easterners. If you like the series already (or are addicted) you will read it anyway, and it definitely will not make sense without reading the rest of the series…

Yellow : Race in American Beyond Black and White (Frank H. Wu) — One of the earlier books on Asian Americans and politics that was targeted towards a large readership. Although it feels a little dated now (if that is possible), it still makes some solid points. However, the end of the book was a bit disappointing, with its big love for Deep Springs.

Let’s Get Free : A Hip-Hop Theory of Justice (Paul Butler) — After a riveting first chapter, ex-prosecutor Butler takes us on a tour of how the modern criminal justice system is stacked and requires active resistance from the public. He’s an expert on jury nullification, which I didn’t know about before. However, the book kind of derails in the last few chapters with its discussion of new technologies feeling a bit more rambling than making a tight point. It was a quick and interesting read, though.

New Roots in America’s Sacred Ground (Khyati Joshi) — This was a study of mostly middle-class 2nd generation desis and their religious practices. The strong parts of the book came from the interviews, but I wasn’t sure if I agreed with all of its conclusions. Also the focus on professionals versus working-class people makes me feel like the picture was incomplete.

Slumberland (Paul Beatty) — A deeply weird tale of DJ Darky (Schallplattenunterhalter Dunkelmann), who moves to Berlin to find an old jazzman and complete the most perfect beat. I couldn’t put this book down, but I think it appealed to me because of the combination of Germany and jazz.

Faceless Killers (Henning Mankell) — An early Kurt Wallander mystery. People say his mysteries are more violent than the norm, but I found it engrossing albeit depressing.

Maus I and Maus II (Art Spiegelman) — This is a re-read — I had read them apart and now I read them back to back. A must-read.

Writing for Social Scientists (Harold Becker) — I’m not a social scientist, but this book has a lot of useful advice on how to write and edit, which I think would have been useful while writing my thesis but is also good for thinking about research projects in general.

Asterios Polyp (David Mazzucchelli) — It’s a pretty amazingly constructed graphic novel about Ideas about Art, incredibly controlled to the point of sometimes feeling trite, but the way in which style and substance are married on the page makes it a real delight to read.

Black Hole (Chris Burns) — Deeply disturbing and somewhat traumatic and somewhat hopeful. I’ve been wanting to read this since an excerpt was published in McSweeney’s comics issue.

Interracial Intimacies (Randall Kennedy) — The first (and largest) part of the book is a history of black-white race relations in America from the perspective of interracial relationships. Kennedy chooses historical examples carefully to advance the thesis that deep and meaningful romantic relationships existed even during slavery. He then spends the last two chapters of the book railing against any and all race-matching in adoption, including a rather stunningly misguided argument against the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). In all of these arguments, Kennedy blithely dismisses some studies as wrong because they contradict his opinion (invalid), others for having low sample counts (valid), but in all cases argues his own point via anecdote. While detailed research and example cases help bolster his points about history, they fail stunningly to make a rational case about policy, and his un-nuanced view further highlights the poverty of his own evidence. In a sense, Kennedy advances a moral argument (“race matching is bad”) by saying contrary evidence is not representative but never making the case that his own evidence is representative. Maybe lawyers shouldn’t make arguments about ethics. In any case, this book left a bad taste in my mouth, not because I think race-matching is always good, but because the argument was so bad.

IKEA populates its display units (like bookshelves or living rooms, etc.) with real books. I was quite surprised to see many copies of Vikram Seth’s The Golden Gate translated into Swedish on my last visit there.

Speaking of IKEA, HTMLGIANT will tell you what to read in your IKEA chair (h/t to Bookslut). I’m surprised they didn’t choose the ubiquitous Poäng.