I’m back from Indonesia! I’d hoped to have another video about books I received while I was gone, but I lost my voice somewhere in the jungles of Borneo.

Nom de Plume: A (Secret) History of Pseudonyms by Carmela Ciuraru
Wow, Ms. Ciuraru, with a tongue-twisting name like that I can see why you’d be interested in pseudonyms! This book looks fascinating, though; the author examines the lives of authors such as Mark Twain, Lewis Carroll, and George Eliot, “plumbing the creative process and the darker, often crippling aspects of fame.”

Next to Love by Ellen Feldman
I’ve recently become interested in the forgotten stories of World War II; I’m currently reading Mitchell Zuckoff’s Lost in Shangri-La, and I received Stefan Merrill Block’s Storm at the Door recently as well. I’m planning to review this in mid-July with TLC Book Tours, so I’ll get started on it soon!

The Rules of the Tunnel: My Brief Period of Madness by Ned Zeman
I didn’t even have to read the description of the book before I knew I wanted it. I’m very interested in mental health, especially personal accounts of anxiety and depression. It’s not a good memoir if it doesn’t leave you feeling emotionally ravaged, right?

Kode Pos Art Project
In Yogyakarta, the cultural capital of Indonesia, street art isn’t banned. In fact, the mayor provides urban artists with paint to create the amazing images splashed across the metal grates and concrete walls of the city. This book is a collection of such murals, and the editors focus in particular upon themes of corruption. The book is in Bahasa Indonesian, so it’s unlikely that I’ll be reviewing it for literary merit any time soon, but it’s a very interesting art book.

On God and Other Unfinished Things by Goenawan Mohamad and translated by Laksmi Pamuntjak
The evening I left for Indonesia, an expert on the country met with our group to provide a broad sketch of Indonesia’s challenges and accomplishments. He praised the writing of Goenawan Mohamad, a columnist for Tempo, as being articulate and thoughtful. After meeting with several members of Tempo‘s staff in Jakarta, I became even more curious about this man. I was given this book by that staff on the day we left, and I’m excited to read it!

That’s it for me; what books have you brought home lately?