5 books from students

The first book I chose was, ZeYu Chen’s, and the title of the book is “The Opium War, 1840-1842”. The first sentence on page 15 read this “The south China city of canton lies in the latitude of Calcutta, Mecca, and Havana, on the left bank of the Canton River seventy-five miles from the sea.” (1) Just by reading this sentence, this book doesn’t seem very interesting to me.

“The Development of Nigerian Foreign Policy” was my second book I chose.

This book is about Nigeria's foreign policy. On page 15 it says: "But it would be wrong to assume that Nigerian political parties, at the beginning of the election campaign, had definitely formulated policies for the nation to follow in world affairs." (2) I do not know much about Nigeria and I find it somewhat interesting.

The third book I decided to choose was How to talk Minnesotan, which actually is really interesting for people to me because I am born and raised in Minnesota; it gave an overview of how people talk here. It read on page 15, ”Many cooks substitute pickled herring for the hamburger and use cream of mushroom soup instead of Cheese Whiz as a topping”. (3) I actually would read this book, it sounds comical.

"U.S. Economic Policy Toward Africa” is the fourth book I chose. "For instance, the foreign aid appropriations legislation for 1991 declared in part that the purpose of DFA was "to help the poor majority of men and women in sub-Saharan Africa to participate in a process of long-term development through economic growth that is equitable, participatory, environmentally sustainable, and self-reliant." (4) Is the quote that was on page 15.  I don't know anything about economic policy in Africa and I am slightly interested in it, but I would find a different book, this one doesn’t seem interesting to me.

My fifth and final book I read was “Horse Thief”. On page 15 I found: "Only merriment as they nipped and nuzzled one another." (5)This book also does not interest me, because the first sentence confuses me on what this book is actually about.

1.  Fay, Peter Ward. The opium war 1840-1842. The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill 1975.

2.Cloud, S.P. (1964). The Development of Nigerian Foreign Policy, New York, USA: Northwestern University Press.

3.Mohr, Howard. (August 4th, 1987). How To Talk Minnesotan: A visitor's Guide. New York, USA: Penguin Group.

4.Herbst J. (1992). U.S. Economic Policy Toward Africa, New York, US: Council on foreign relations press New York.

5. Peck, R.N.. Horse Thief. New York, USA: Harper Collins Publishers, 2002.