When I was in the airport over Thanksgiving I came across a copy of “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” . . . I didn’t buy it, but made a note to check it out later.

Amazon says it’s the “classic, eloquent, meticulously documented account of the systematic destruction of the American Indian during the second half of the nineteenth century.” . . . . “Using council records, autobiographies, and firsthand descriptions, Brown allows great chiefs and warriors of the Dakota, Ute, Sioux, Cheyenne, and other tribes to tell us in their own words of the series of battles, massacres, and broken treaties that finally left them and their people demoralized and decimated.”

So it’s not exactly a feel-good-charmer, but I’m adding it to the stack of books I hope to read sooner than later.

Melissa.. I will I don’t think you could have picked a more different country to live in than France. I look forward to your observations on it. I hope to eventually go and do lots of the history tours of America. I really want to go to Mount Rushmore despite everyone always tells me there is nothing there other than the mountain. I also plan on going to DC to see the Lincoln Memorial etc – that would be wonderful.

As for recommendations, go to Williamsburg and Monticello (Jefferson’s home) if you’re ever traveling through Virginia. It’s been a long time since I was in Wiliamsburg, and it might be a whole lot hokier than I remember, but the grounds are pretty, the buildings old, and you can get a decent feel for one of this country’s older seats of government. Jefferson’s house, though, is likely just as interesting now as it was then.

First though, I must comment on how perfectly you summed up the feelings that accompany the ex-pat experience for me… Never have I felt more a part of America than I have since I left America. And we are biologically designed to remember the good stuff, which I think is okay, as long as we do remember without ‘bad’ there can be no ‘good.’ I know that my idea of America differs from what my experience was and what it will be when I go back, but that’s okay too… just have to keep those pesky expectations in check or else I will have to run off to some other foreign locale as a response in no time at all.

Now… what to read?

Please start with Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States: 1492-Present.” It is the book I use for AP US History and reads like a novel. He has a wonderful variety of source material that will also send you on tangents of your own.

Then, in the spirit of Presidential elections (one of my very favorite times in the states… I actually still get all emotional about it in spite of the fact that my vote seems to be the kiss of death…) read HST’s “Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail, 1972.” I had my seniors read this when the last “election” occured in the US and it was amazing to see them identify all the parallels and the pitfalls of political campaigns and elections, because we are all so human after all. [Further bolstered by "All the President's Men"...]

If you are ready for more…. Alex Haley’s “Autobiography of Malcolm x, as told to Alex Haley” (and Haley’s “Roots” is also awesome.) Steinbeck’s “Travels with Charley” or of course, “The Grapes of Wrath” are really good… Bill Bryson can get a bit, well, Bryson-y quite frankly, but his books “A Walk in the Woods” and “The Lost Continent; Travels in Small Town America” are great fun. Then there are others like “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” or “Helter Skelter” or “In Cold Blood” for a little bit of the underbelly….

I could go on… and on and on…. but I will let you tell me if you want more….