I first learned about Bolivia in second grade. One of the priests at my parish had served as a Maryknoll missionary in Bolivia, and he visited our classroom to tell us about it. Bolivia had two capitals, La Paz and Sucre, and the women wore bowler hats. To second graders, these were things that made… [Read More]
Blog
Category: Rest of the World
Spain: An Englishman in Madrid
I suppose my ongoing Velvet recaps could count as reviewing culture from Spain, but I went with a book in the spirit of reading around the world. And that brings me to An Englishman in Madrid, a spy novel set in pre-Franco Spain. The protagonist, Anthony Whitelands, is an English art historian. In 1936, he… [Read More]
Luxembourg: The Expats
I got a little behind in my world reading project. The problem isn’t the reading so much as writing up the reviews! The Expats, by Chris Pavone is a thriller about an expatriate family living in Luxembourg. The country has a population of about 650,000, about half of whom are expats. This creates a tension… [Read More]
Detroit’s Cathedral of Finance
On a recent trip to Detroit, I checked out the Guardian Building, which is also known as The Cathedral of Finance. It was built in 1929 for the Union Trust Company, a bank that claimed 25% of Detroit’s deposit market. It’s absolutely gorgeous, with ceramic brick and Pewabic tiles. The pictures tell the story better… [Read More]
Denmark: Mirror, Shoulder, Signal
Mirror, Shoulder, Signal by Dorthe Nors is a coming of middle age story, and maybe the world needs more of these. Sonja lives in Copenhagen and translates Swedish detective stories. She’s feeling stuck. She is also trying to learn to drive (hence the title) while dealing with vertigo and trying to figure out the next… [Read More]
