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Infinite Country by Patricia Engel | Thoughts

   Published : 2021   ||    Format : print   ||    Location : Colombia ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆   What was it about the country that kept everyone hostage to its fantasy? The previous month, on its own soil, an American man went to his job at a plant and gunned down fourteen coworkers, and last spring alone there were four different school shootings. A nation at war with itself, yet people still spoke of it as some kind of paradise.. Thoughts : Infinite Country follows two characters - young Talia, who at the beginning of this book, escapes a girl’s reform school in North Colombia so that she can make her previously booked flight to the US. Before she can do that, she needs to travel many miles to reach her father and get her ticket to the rest of her family. As we follow Talia’s treacherous journey south, we learn about how she ended up in the reform school in the first place and why half her family resides in the US. Infinite Country tells the story of her family through the other protagonist, El

Friday Finds -- Mar 12, 2010

Friday Finds

This meme is hosted by MizB at Should be reading. What great books did you hear about/discover this past week?

This has been one of my slower weeks. I found a few interesting books, but not too many as is usual with me.

My finds

The Prisoner's Wife by Asha Bandele

I read a wonderful review of this book over at Marce's Tea Time with Marce. She writes a much better review of this book than the synopsis will explain. So if you haven't heard of this book, or would like to check it out, head over there, and you'll find yourself adding this one to your shelf too. :)

The intensely moving story of a young black poet who marries a prisoner convicted of murder, this lyrical memoir attests to the redemptive power of love, even when it is found behind barbed wire and gun towers.

 

Stephanie @ StephTheBookworm writes how she has a class in which the students read certain books and meet the author in class to ask questions. Now how cool is that! I wish I had a class like that one. Her review of this book has interested me enough to want to read it right away!

Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You is the story of James Sveck, a sophisticated, vulnerable young man with a deep appreciation for the world and no idea how to live in it. James is eighteen, the child of divorced parents living in Manhattan. Articulate, sensitive, and cynical, he rejects all of the assumptions that govern the adult world around him--including the expectation that he will go to college in the fall. he would prefer to move to an old house in a small town somewhere in the Midwest. Someday This Pain Will BE Useful to You takes place over a few broiling days in the summer of 2003 as James confides in his sympathetic grandmother, stymies his canny therapist, deplores his pretentious sister, and devises a fake online identity in order to pursue his crush on a much older coworker. Nothing turns out how he'd expected.



This was a re-find for me. I had this one buried somewhere deep in my TBR, and noticed it again after reading Diane's review @ Bibliophile by the Sea.

From childhood, willful, intelligent Saira Qader broke the boundaries between her family's traditions and her desire for independence. A free-spirited and rebellious Muslim-American of Indo-Pakistani descent, she rejected the constricting notions of family, duty, obligation, and fate, choosing instead to become a journalist, the world her home.

Five years later, tragedy strikes, throwing Saira's life into turmoil. Now the woman who chased the world to uncover the details of other lives must confront the truths of her own. In need of understanding, she looks to the stories of those who came before—her grandparents, a beloved aunt, her mother and father. As Saira discovers the hope, pain, joy, and passion that defined their lives, she begins to face what she never wanted to admit—that choice is not always our own, and that faith is not just an intellectual preference.

Comments

bermudaonion said…
I saw Marce's review of The Prisoner's Wife, too, and now I want to read it. All of your finds look good to me.
Anonymous said…
Awesome finds! I really like the description of Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You (not to mention I LOVE that title).

My Friday Find is over at bookwanderer!
The Prisoner's Wife sounds goo. Thanks 4 the "shout out" on Writing on My Forehead--i think you will enjoy it.

Here is my link this week:

http://bibliophilebythesea.blogspot.com/2010/03/friday-finds-march-12-2010.html
Alayne said…
Great picks that all look very literary. Enjoy! Mine are at The Crowded Leaf.
Stephanie said…
It looks like we got reeled in by several of the same book reviews. :-) Great minds think alike.
I'm so glad you want to read Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You. It's awesome.

I also saw Marce's review of The Prisoner's Wife and thought it sounded excellent. That one has been added to my TBR as well!
Christina T said…
The Writing on my Forehead looks fantastic. All of your finds are interesting.

Here are Friday Finds.
Amanda Leigh said…
These all look interesting! Great finds!

Here are mine: Not-Really-Southern Vamp Chick
Carina said…
The Writing on My Forehead is definitely being added to my TBR pile!

My post is here.
Dana said…
Great finds! The Prisoner's Wife sounds really interesting - I'm off to read Marce's review right now!
Anonymous said…
These are great finds. I love discovering new books.

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