CC-- Reading Lolita in Tehran was like peeking in through a magic window. Lives of women we'd otherwise never know anything about. Ah, I just remembered, The Hemmingway Club of Kosova, something like that...I must've given it to somebody...similar book, but an American who lives in Kosovo during the Balkan war, and teaches English via The Old Man and the Sea.

You have a strong stomach, by the books you read. Have you read Rising Up and Rising Down, Some thoughts on violence, freedom, and urgent means, by William T. Vollmann? I bought it, but haven't brought myself to read it yet. It's a 705 page abridgement of his 3,500 page, 7 volume work on the history of violence.