The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2008, which is why it was in my pile of books to read. I also went to a book club discussion about it.
The book is really difficult for me to describe. It is basically the story of Oscar, a hugely obese "Dominican ghetto-nerd" who is a character you love to root for, but at the same time he is incredibly pathetic and hopeless (and thus frustrating!). Oscar's family is from the Dominican Republic, although he and his sister Lola mostly grow up in New Jersey. Their mother's family did not survive the Trujillo dictatorship, and she herself fled to the United States as a teenager. Most of the story, including the history of the family, is told by Yunior, a sometime-boyfriend of Lola's who tries to help Oscar out of his depression in college. Two of the sections are told by Lola, but she only speaks of her own view of the situation, and she seems to be writing to Yunior, though it is difficult to tell.
What I liked best about this book was the writing - it was so much fun to read, even if it was hard to follow at times. Yunior throws in a ton of Spanish, as well as a tremendous amount of nerd-slang that I found really amusing. Most of it you can figure out from context, because it is certainly not explained for you at all. Yunior's voice is entrancing, in a way that I would not have expected.
As one of the 12 Mini-Challenges that I am doing this year, I went to a book discussion (#10). It was really interesting to discuss this particular book, because it is difficult, and sometimes inaccesible. There were seven of us at the meeting, I think three of whom had not finished the book. We brought up some topics that we thought were interesting, though we did not delve very deeply into any of them. It was more of a sharing of our thoughts, rather than really digging into the book. One thing that we didn't talk about much was the mysticism in the book, the presence of the golden Mongoose and the Man Without a Face. But it was otherwise a good book chat. I also read the book for my 999 Challenge, for which I am reading all prize winners (my list for this one is here). And, not to leave out anything, I am also reading this for the New Author Challenge and the A-Z Challenge.

The Fearless Fish Out of Water by Robin Fisher Roffer

I have not been keeping up with the 2009 Mini-Challenges, so I thought I would use this book for one of them. There are twelve mini-challenges, and while it would make sense to do one a month, I obviously haven't done that. So I'll do a couple a month to catch up. This book is for challenge # 3 - read a non-fiction book.
The Fearless Fish Out of Water: How to Succeed When You're the Only One Like You is a book about using your uniqueness to do well in your career. The idea of the book is that many of us feel like fish out of water when it comes to corporate settings, or maybe just in particular situations. Roffer suggests that we use that outsider feeling to our advantage. There are seven chapters, each one with an overarching theme, like "Go Fishing For the Real You" or "Swim in Their Ocean Your Way". Obviously she keeps up the fish theme throughout the book.
This would be a really good book for anyone who fears losing their individuality in a corporate setting. Roffer advocates being true to yourself, while still maintaining good business relationships. She does not want her readers to stand out just for the sake of standing out however. She makes it clear that you should always be true to yourself, and not try to force or emphasize difference just to make a statement. And she counsels conformity up to a point, in cases where it shows respect.
As someone who would definitely be a fish out of water in a corporate world, this book made a lot of sense to me. However, I think I would rather eat my shoes than go back to a job in an office, so I won't be trying this advice out in that realm. It does apply to other types of jobs as well though - this advice could be useful in many fields. In the library field, at least where I work, uniqueness is a strength, and it is encouraged. Roffer's suggestions would still work well even in a field that embraces the fish out of water.