My weird Menocal reading experience story... I got her new book, Ornament of the World, out of the library at Berkeley. It is a general interest book. Not an academic book. Shards of Love seems to be something in between those two. Ornament of the World, according to jacket copy, "tells of a time and place--from 786 to 1492, in Andalucía, Spain--that is largely and unjustly overshadowed in most historical chronicles. It was a time when three cultures--Judaic, Islamic, and Christian--forged a relatively stable (though occasionally contentious) coexistence." The copy I had had been read by an enemy reader. The reader had written extensive notes in the margins, in pencil, that took endless issue with the book. The notes were funny and sometimes weirdly pretentious. Often using "we," as in "aren't we assuming things?" And constantly asking for footnotes. But it was this great reading experience b/c I know nothing about 786 to 1492 so I had no idea who to trust--Menocal or pencil-note-writer. Menocal wants to argue everyone got along. The pencil-note-writer felt that the Muslims were mean. Some of these same issues can be seen in the reader comments on amazon to this book.