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Who is reading what? MICHAELA MUSCAT has a look at what’s on peoples’ shelves and bedside tables
Dolores Cristina
Fittingly, Malta’s Minister for the Family and Social Solidarity’s favourite book this year is former US Secretary for State Madeline Albright’s memoirs ‘Madame Secretary’. “She is an outstanding female politician and in all humility I find an affinity with her,” Cristina says. The controversial first female Secretary of State, appointed by Bill Clinton, was always in the limelight in the 90s, particularly during her stint as ambassador to the United Nations when she was against intervention in the Rwandan genocide. The memoirs also appeal to the teacher in Cristina. “This woman quietly made history and that also resonates with the history teacher in me.” The five Mafia widows who join forces to exact revenge on their husband’s killers in Lynda La Plante’s fiction ‘Bella Mafia’ has also intrigued the Minister, completely on a different wavelength from Albright’s memoirs.
Joe Friggieri
The subjects tackled by Friggieri’s favourite books for the year 2005 could not be further apart. Nevertheless both works “go against the grain of conventional wisdom,” the head of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Malta says. Eliot Weinberger’s ‘What I Heard About Iraq’ is in diary format, and includes diverse accounts of life in Iraq during the war and the American occupation. “This is also a book about American politics in another country. And full of facts concerning the propaganda about the war.” ‘What Good Are the Arts?’ is a controversial John Carey book. “Interesting because it is not usual,” Friggieri says, and also an apt choice for the former chairman of the Malta Council for Culture and the Arts: “it raises important questions about art and also questions the distinction between high and low and why the state should spend so much money on high art.”
Toni Abela
William Shirer’s journalistic account ‘The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich’ is probably the first definitive history of Nazi Germany in English and is currently being read by lawyer and TV presenter Toni Abela. “Why is it my book of the year?” asks Abela somewhat astonished, “As a profound documentation of the evils of Nazism it gives a fascinating insight into the psyche of the Third Reich and serves as a political study of dictators.”
Bishop Mario Grech
The newly-appointed, articulate Bishop of Gozo is unhesitant about his choice this year. “Jesus the Liberator, by John Sobrino,” he says. “It explains how theology can be lived in a concrete manner, and outlines a society built on values fit for all humans. The piety of Jesus can ultimately save mankind,” Grech says.
Michael Asciak
Nationalist MP Michael Asciak’s selection was written five hundred years ago by a Spanish mystic. St John of the Cross’s mystical ‘The Dark Night of the Soul’ has been hailed as a spiritual masterpiece in both prose and poetry, even by agnostics. “It is a book that I have wanted to read for a long time,” Asciak says. “This book maps a spiritual voyage, highlighting the ups and downs of life. It makes you understand how the downs are just as important as the ups.”
Marisa Micallef
A quick glance at the books on her shelves is all that is needed by Marisa Micallef to mention Gina Nahai’s “moving and well written” ‘Cry of the Peacock’. “An unusual book about a Jewish woman living in Iran. Life in Iran – let alone of a Jew in Iran – is a total mystery to most of us Maltese. Its poignant tale of the persecution and intolerance of Jews in Iran only goes to show that history repeats itself,” the chairperson of the Housing Authority says.
Helena Dalli
Labour MP Helena Dalli says she just cannot pick one book: “there are too many. It is impossible and I won’t do them justice, there are too many books.” Dalli later allows herself to be cajoled in mentioning “a couple of books on her bedside table,” including Mark Montebello’s book about the father of Maltese socialism, Manuel Dimech, entitled ‘Dimech’. On the other side of the political spectrum is former Tory prime minister Edward Heath’s biography. She also reads a lot of work related and academic books and journals as she is reading for a doctorate degree at the University of Nottingham in political sociology.
Sonia Camilleri
Unfortunately Commissioner for Children Sonia Camilleri doesn’t “really have time to read books for leisure,” preferring to browse through “several magazines including National Geographic… a work-related publication that comes to mind is by Prof. Paul Cooper, a new book called ‘Positive Alternatives to Exclusion’. It’s a well-researched book that reports a research study on positive alternatives to school exclusion.”
Marlene Mizzi
Former Sea Malta chairperson Marlene Mizzi ops for the thinking man’s (or rather woman’s) equivalent of the Da Vinci Code – Umberto Eco’s ‘Foucualt’s Pendulum’. Crammed with conspiracy theories and stretching throughout history it serves as a “heavy and interesting read,” Mizzi says. On the other her light bedtime reading comes in the form of ‘The Da Vinci Hoax’. “The antidote to the Da Vinci code, it broke down any doubts that I had fostered.”
mmuscat@mediatoday.com.mt
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