Springtime Books

The Jaguar Smile- Salman Rushdie
I just found this on a shelf when I was moving, having started but not finished it when I was travelling through Nicaragua. Its a series of vignettes/ essays about Nicaragua, Rushdie went down after the Sandinista revolution overthrew the Somozas, and just when the Contra war was beginning. He ends up talking to an amazing number of national political figures, poets (and the many that were both), and just local regular people in all parts of the country. An amazing time capsule of the 80's as well- so many people discussing with certainty the coming American invasion that never exactly happened. I'd highly recommend this for anyone interested in cold war era Latin American politics, or just travelling through that region. It can also just about almost be read in one sitting. Very well written, very intimate sketches of people and places during this fascinating time in Nicaraguan history.

Carnet de Voyage - Craig Thompson
A patient of mine actually recommended this to me. Its a graphic novel, or more accurately, graphic memoir of the author travelling through Spain, France and mostly Morocco. Though some parts were kind of dry (the minutae of book signings) the parts about travelling alone, the self-consciousness, boredom and anxiety, as well as the adventure. His sketches also captured Morocco, and many of the same places I've been, perfectly.

Teaching Children to Meditate: David Fontana and Ingrid Slack
So apparently I'm not the first on this bandwagon- someone has already written a book very similar to the one I'm trying to do. First let me say, this book is great, very practical, very well written very accessible. Thats exactly the problem, reading it I was horrified by the likeness to the book I'm trying to do. Well, not entirely, but certain parts are just so similar that it almost freaked me out. I suppose this is partly the nature of writing on the same topic. However, their approach is quite different overall, so I think I'm safe as far as my project goes. Anyway, if you do work with kids, this one is worth checking out- unlike most of the others I've encountered on the topic.