I borrowed this book from my MIL the other day when we went down to see their new place: The Nine Parts of Desire. I couldn’t put it down while I was there, and it’s one of “those books.” You know the kind I mean – books you heard about a long time ago, wanted to read, but never got around to it.

I like books where the writer has to become a part of a community in order to write about it and the people in it. That was why I liked Nickel and Dimed. I read the latter when I was on vacation in Maui a couple of years ago – the same time I read Fast Food Nation, in fact. Read together, they were pretty damning.

I don’t think “Desire” will present any damning evidence of anything, but I expect it will be enlightening.