Throwback Thursday: Bury Me Standing

In which I share vague recollections of books I read long ago that have stuck with me.

Since I've been inexplicably reading a lot of nonfiction recently, I though I'd focus on a nonfiction book for today's TBT. In my early post-college years, I surprised myself by picking up Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and Their Journey by Isabel Fonseca. The cover is striking and I think I didn't realize until I saw it that Gypsies were real, at least in the modern world. The author spent four years with the Roma people in Eastern Europe, traveling with them and learning all about their history and culture.

I think I was drawn to it because the Gypsies of my childhood were so exotic and mysterious and stereotypical, and I wanted to get the real story. It was quite a while ago that I read it, but I do remember thinking that it was very thorough (though not impossibly long or dense) and I learned a lot. Since then I haven't come across any other books on this topic so I don't know how this compares to any that might be out there, but I definitely found it interesting and think of it now and then, even if I can't remember any of the details. I've been especially reminded of it recently while reading The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, another book focused on a culture very different from mine, and which I'll tell you all about very soon.