Light read: Free Trade, by Judy Eby

If you read for enjoyment, you might like to read Free Trade, by Judy Eby, a novel informed by the author's experiences.  The protagonist, an American, is in a time of transition in her life (at midlife) and finds her way into helping out across the border in an impoverished part of Mexico, reading to children.

This book might be interesting to EAs for a few reasons:

• It depicts the tensions that occur between altruists and non-altruists (the protagonist's husband is initially not interested in what she does; her neighbors do not share her perspective).
• It depicts the diffusion of altruistic values / how it is people become altruists -- both "being led on an adventure" (the protagonist's experience, like picking up an interesting book on an idle day) and "being forced to acknowledge where someone you're bound to is headed" (her husband's).  
• It depicts middle-age and marriage
• It depicts altruism in action
• It depicts poverty
•  Cross-cultural dimensions of altruism

The book is generally good from an aesthetic perspective.  It was self-published and has some minor proofreading issues.