Iraq

Just finished "Elvis is Titanic" by Ian Klaus. This book is about classroom tales in Iraq. The author, a Rhodes Scholar spent a year in Iraq teaching English and American History in 2005. Though there were many American soldiers in Iraq, he was supposedly the very few American civilians involved in the education sector. The book showed you a different Iraq from what we often see from the news, it gave us glimpses of the aspirations of some classes of Iraqis from the eyes of an American.

I like another book "Salam Pax: The Baghdad Blog" by Pax Salam. Happened to chance upon this book when I was at a bookshop in North Thailand earlier this year. Reading books is a good way to pass time when you are travelling on the road for hours at times. I am always glad to be in North Thailand as there are often many bookshops near the backpackers district for us to buy and sell our books. Anyway Salam Pax is a Iraqi and the book is a consolidation of his blog in 2002-2003 which supposedly had a huge following as he managed to give a "lighted hearted" view of his life in Iraqi despite the war and troubled times. It is humorous yet gives valuable insights on the war and the impacts that it has on the lives of ordinary citizens. I recommend this book, his way of writing his blog is really intriguing.