Recent reads

I've been quite behind in writing up my book reviews and I was going to write up one now, but I felt a bit like blabbing about things in general.

I've been noticing a weird trend in my reading.  A lot of my ARC requests or books that I've been into lately have been quite historical fiction revolving around really tough periods in history - WWII gulags, the Armenian genocide, Nigerian refugees, etc.  Before I got my library/information degree, I got my BA in history so in general I'm fascinated with historical events.

My husband asked me the other day, so why are you reading about the Armenian genocide? And I had to ponder that question.  Basically it's because we have to remember.  We have to remember that things like that happened, still happen today, and will happen again.  And usually people came up with really good excuses for slaughtering a ton of people.

While we may feel far removed here in the United States from things that are going on in, say, Syria or Libya, we have to just look at the shootings here in movie theaters or places of worship to realize that people don't just have an "us verses them" mentality in foreign countries but it's horribly alive here in the States.

So while some of my book reviews might be on terribly sad subjects, it's been incredibly interesting and enlightening.  That said, when I'm going through these types of books I have to pair them with light "bubble bath" books.

Do you read any historical fiction, memoirs, or other types of books that deal with hard subjects? If so, what kinds of books and why?