All these books and two chocolate malts

Right now I am reading "The Prince of the Marshes and other occupational hazards of a year in Iraq" by Rory Stewart. I think Rory Stewart is my celebrity/literary crush. The last crushes of this variety were David James Duncan and Tom Robbins. He is young, energetic, pragmatic, funny, and dead-focused on improving conditions for the local Marsh community without getting sidelined by red tape, protocol or machismo.

I have a geeky tendency to naturally tie together every book I have read in a weird "six degrees" sort of way. For example, prior to "The Prince of the Marshes" I was on a weird Civil War/Reconstruction/western expansion kick. Donald McCaig's writing of the American West and moments leading up to the Battle of Little Big Horn, descriptions of how the US government managed the stolen American West painfully foreshadows the Mideast wheeling and dealing. Tim Egan's "The Good Rain" about history and resources in the PNW similarly documents the ongoing plunder.

I can do some more dot-connecting between the last six months of books, but I would benefit from a pencil and paper to draw a visualthesaurus.com thought-mapping graphic.

Here is the book list (Feb-July 2008):
The Gun Thief
The Alchemist
Spook Country
The Pale of Settlement
The Ghost Map
The Emperor's Children
Her Last Death
The Road
The Inheritance of Loss
The Road to Wellville
The Yiddush Policeman's Union
The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Rhett Butler's People
Jacob's ladder
Caravans
Gentleman of the Road (a.k.a. Jews with Swords)
The Good Rain
Canaan
Unaccustomed Earth