Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from June, 2010

Featured Post

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

Month in Review - June 2010

  Boy, we are really halfway through the year, isn't it? Soon, 2010 will be history. When I thought of this, I suddenly remembered that it has been six months since I started book blogging! I am shamelessly as bad now about time management as I was when I started, so far as blogging and catching up with the blogosphere is concerned. I still feed my reader more blogs, as I come across a new interesting one. I'm shaking things a bit in this post. I had a slow first half of June, but caught up with reading in the second half. So here's what my reading this month looked like: In spite of a slow first half in June, I did read quite a lot more during the second half. It's nice to end a month joyfully! I also got a nook this month and had an awesome weekend getaway to DC ! I'm still doing 12 challenges (one perpetual, and one my own summer challenge ), and I am finally coming to terms with the possibility that I will not complete all of them by the end of

Review: My Name is memory by Ann Brashares

Daniel has been looking for the same girl for centuries. He first saw her in 541 AD. Since then, he has come across her in several of their future lives. He remembers her; she doesn't. In their current lives, Daniel and the girl, Lucy, attend the same high school. She is smitten by him but they do not get a chance to talk until prom night, when an incident at school puts the two of them in the same room. That night when they kiss, Lucy is frightened both by the images that come to her mind and by Daniel's insistence in calling her Sophia. I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed this book quite a lot. It is not exactly my usual genre, and there were some aspects that did turn me off. But in the end, I am truly glad to have read this book. At the outset, this book accepts that when people die, their souls come back as a different person. Not exactly something I would believe in, so you can see why it is not my usual genre. I find it easy reading science, or steampunk, or

It's Monday! What are you reading? -- June 28, 2010

This is a weekly event initially hosted by J. Kaye at J. Kaye's Book Blog , now by Sheila @ One Persons Journey through a world of Books , to celebrate what you are reading for the week as well as books completed the previous week. Books completed last week - Based Upon Availability by Alix Strauss - The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer - Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See - Still Alice by Lisa Genova - Saving Max by Antoinette van Heugten (Unfinished: I wasn't impressed by the writing, plus the detective work was too lame for me) Books reviewed - Read, Remember, Recommend by Rachelle Rogers Knight - Based Upon Availability by Alix Strauss Also, check out my interview with Claire Avery . The sisters, who cowrote Hidden Wives , talk about writing this book, the next book they are cowriting and also about their favorite books and authors. Books on my nightstand The Lion's Game by Nelson Demille : I am gla

Look at what just arrived! - June 28, 2010

This meme is hosted by Marcia @ The Printed Page . It is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week (checked out library books don’t count, eBooks & audio books do). I had a pretty slow week, and in fact, I hardly know where this week went. It's been so busy! The Life O'Reilly by Brian Cohen came to me from the author. I had won this book at Cat's Tell Me a Story . I have read mostly mixed reviews of this book, so I'm not sure yet about what to expect. The premise is indeed fascinating - about a well-off lawyer, Nick, who has everything he wants, professionally, trying to understand about his life choices, through a pro bono case. Nick is asked to represent Dawn, a domestic violence victim, who is fighting for custody of her son, Jordan. I am more in love with the cover of this book. There's memories, reminiscences, choices and relationships chalked all over that picture. Mary at Bookfan was kind enough

The Sunday Salon -- June 27, 2010

I have been reading Still Alice by Lisa Genova for the past couple of hours, and just took a break to type up this post. It's past 1 am. It's not often that I feel willing to give up my sleep to finish a book - including books I rate high and recommend. For a book to really make me compromise on my sleep, it needs to have more than punch, intrigue, suspense and wonderful writing. Alzheimer's hits close to home in my case , so there's more than an emotional connection I feel while reading this book. Moreover, although it is written in third-person, it is told from the victim's perspective, so I can actually see the disease eating into Alice's mind. This week hasn't been as productive as I hoped it to be, where my thesis is concerned, but I did have some awesome coffee every day of this week at my favorite Bollo's . I have hit a writer's block again. I do have some 40 pages typed up, but I am hoping to add another 20. Things have reached a stag

Friday Finds -- June 25, 2010

Hosted by MizB at Should be reading , this meme asks you what great books did you hear about/discover this past week? I spent two solid days looking through Graywolf Press' catalog , for the upcoming Spotlight Series tour. So most of my finds are from that catalog. Since many of you may have done the same, I included only one such book in this week's finds. The rest I found during my innocent hikes through the webosphere. :snort: The Dream of Perpetual Motion by Dexter Palmer Last weekend, Kai and I read Leviathan together, and I realized that I was actually enjoying steampunk fiction more than I expected to. So when I read about this book in Omnivoracious , I just had to add it! Plus, its ebook version is available, and Hobbes (my nook) just may be adding one more to his kitty. Imprisoned aboard a zeppelin floating high above a steampunk metropolis, greeting card writer Harold Winslow is composing his memoir. His companions are the only woman he has ever lo

Interview: Claire Avery talks about their new book - Hidden Wives, their next book and what's on the nightstand

Two weeks ago, I read and reviewed Hidden Wives by Claire Avery (Read my review here ). (Claire Avery is a pseudonym for the sister-pair of Mari Hilburn and Michelle Poché.) I was moved by this book and shocked that something such as polygamy and underage marriage could happen in 21st century America. This book got me very interested in polygamy as a religious practice, and I have recently checked out more books running along the same theme. If you haven't checked out this book yet, you need to! I don't know about your place, but it has been raining heavily here today. So, with a hot cup of tea (or coffee, if you prefer), let's find out how they came about by the idea for this book, why they chose "Claire Avery" and what their new book (that's right!) is going to be about. Hidden Wives is about polygamy, underage marriage, and religious fanaticism. How was this idea born? As children, we were raised in an extreme form of Catholicism. Our father wa

Review: Based upon Availability by Alix Strauss

Morgan, the hotel manager of Four Seasons, still misses her sister, who died almost twenty-four years ago, and is contemplating breaking up with her methodical boyfriend. As she meets with her clients and customers, interviews applicants and does room searches, she comes across several interesting women, each with her own story to tell. Some of them are not who they appear to be, and most, like her, are looking for some closure to their problems, some happiness and human connection. Through it all, the Four Seasons hotel bears witness to the most trying moments in their lives, as they piece together their issues with family, love, sex and ambition. Based Upon Availability is a very character-oriented story, featuring eight apparently unrelated or unconnected women, sharing only two common things - the Four Seasons hotel and a disappointment with their life. This book holds testament to the adage that there is more than meets the eye. In the end, a rich and intricate web of life is