Saturday 30 January 2010

A Thousand Dogs - beautiful dogs, amazing photography...

I borrowed this book from my boyfriend, and if you like dogs or photography I can highly recommend it.

It's got some stunning pictures and it's done chronologicaly, tracking the development of photography, changes in society and the close relationship between dogs and humans over the years. It would definitely appeal to anyone who enjoyed the Horizon programme, 'The Secret Life of Dogs' on the BBC, (you can still watch it here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00pssgh/Horizon_20092010_The_Secret_Life_of_the_Dog/) which was one of the best things I've seen on TV in ages.

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Monday 25 January 2010

Stillness: Stories of Life in War-torn Yugoslavia by Courtney Angel Brkic

I started reading Stillness by Courtney Angel Brkic this morning on the train. It's a collection of stories about the war that followed the break-up of Yugoslavia and I think it's really outstanding.

Brkic worked as a forensic archaeologist in Bosnia after the war, and in the prologue she speaks of photos she found, rendered a foggy white by water damage. The book seems to be trying to restore the detail to these 'photos of the dead' - the people killed, displaced or scarred by the war, even the animals left starving in the zoo. If you're interested in literature about the Balkan conflict, I can highly recommend Sarajevo Marlboro by Miljenko Jergovic, Sarajevo Blues by Semezdin Mehmedinovic and for a completely different take, Joe Sacco's Safe Area Gorazade and The Fixer. I'd be grateful for any other recommendations of books by Croatian, Bosnian or Serbian authors - it's not something I seem to stumble upon often.
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