mairead and I have developed this thing where every weekend we go to a new coffee shop and hang out. soon we’ll have been to all of them within 20 minutes of our house. but anyway we go there, we get coffee (in cincy it’s usually around $1.50 for a small regular coffee), I read a book and Mairead uses the wifi for unblocked internet freedom for a few hours. and we talk, talk about whatever book I’m reading (this week I’m reading one about immigration), discuss whatever hot celebrity gossip mairead’s found online, talk about life in cincinnati and how some days we just can’t stand it anymore. it gives us a break from our lives, a chance to talk about what we’re really thinking, or to just sit and read and not have to talk. it’s a good tradition. it’s one of my favorite parts of life here. and we’ve found a few nice coffee shops along the way.
next weekend, I’ll be having coffee in chicago so it’ll be a while until we get to unwind together in our javay way. but it’ll be totally worth it!
What’s the book? I can recommend you a few of my favorites if you are interested in a longer reading list. Or, you could come visit and raid my bookshelf… I’m on the way to Ecuador….
coffee? in chicago? dwah?
In a New Land by Nancy Foner. so far it’s pretty good.
I’ll be in chicago for nine hours on saturday. lots of time for coffee.
I haven’t read that one, it sounds interesting. My school was pretty South and West oriented (ideologically and physically), so we had a hard time making it to the NY writers.
Three of my favorites on the subject are: “Seeking Community in a Global City: Guatemalans and Salvadorans in Los Angeles” Hamilton & Stoltz Chinchilla, 2001 (SO FANTASTIC! I read this book several times and it’s still tagged with sticky notes and marked up with pencil, so good, so good);
“Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail” Martinez, 2001 (really excellent combination of the story of a family and the theoretical framework to place the story in context);
“Crossing Borders, Reinforcing Borders: Social categories, metaphors, and narrative identities on the U.S.-Mexico Frontier” Vila, 2000 (the best book on border theory I read while in school, it is really engaging and I highly recommend it).
Suerte!