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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

2011 Challenge Fiesta

I'm sure I'm not alone when I say that one other reason I love this last month of a year is just to look at all the wonderful challenges being hosted. They really endear to the list-obsessed side of me although I rarely complete any of the lists. Looking at the new challenges also save me from going through the ICompletedAnotherChallenge posts that keep popping up all over the blogosphere. (My 2010 stats are that miserable!) Anyways, I had a lot of fun choosing among the tons of amazing challenges for 2011; this time, though, I decided to be more practical - to take on a challenge that I would have fun doing, and to drop out of one if it begins to feel like work. There - I just took my first (and probably only) 2011 resolution. So, without any more meaningless rambling, let me start listing them, shall I? One challenge that I signed up for in 2010 but never got to doing is the Orange Prize Project , which luckily/unluckily for me, is perpetual. There are some really amaz

It's Monday! What are you reading? (Or the post in which I plan my vacation reading) -- December 20, 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. I haven't done this meme in a long time, due to certain personal events. I was initially planning to resume next year, but then I wanted to write a post about my reading for the next couple of weeks. So eventually, I decided to post some of the books I managed to find time to read in the last two months, while also trying to decide what to take on my vacation, starting this week. (There's nothing like writing down things to help clear your mind, as many claim. Of course, I just needed an excuse.) Books completed in the last couple of months   Room   by Emma Donoghue : I am yet to review this book, as I read it just before I disappeared temporarily from my blog, and now I'm trying to find time to review it. In short, I enjoyed

Review: A Secret Gift by Ted Gup

The Depression is one of the periods of this century that I know very little about. Other than reading about it in passing in some books and coming across the tons of references and side-jokes when the current recession hit, I knew almost nothing about it. Sure it was a hard time, a lot of people lost their jobs, but that's probably the limit of my knowledge. Ted Gup's book, A Secret Gift , is a memorial to his grandfather, Sam Stone, whose simple act of reaching out monetarily to a few families during the Christmas of 1933, made Christmas so much more merry for most of them. Ted Gup accidentally came across a briefcase of letters, when his mother was clearing out a cupboard. Inside it, he found letters upon letters, and 150 canceled checks, in addition to other memorabilia. Reading these letters took him back seventy-five years to an unsolved mystery when a certain B. Virdot promised to send money to 50-75 families. His only condition was that they write to him about their

Review: Everything I Never Wanted to be by Dina Kucera

How often do you complain that you wish life was better? I've thought it every time I get stuck in the doldrums, but I know that it's just a minor blip. What if your whole life is one big never-ending blip? What if you wake up every day only to find that the nightmare of last night is not really over? That pretty much sums up the sentiment expressed in Dina Kucera's memoir, Everything I Never Wanted to be . When I first received this title, I was expecting a depressing read about a family's battle with alcoholism and drug addiction. It doesn't help that the cover conveyed the same impression. I couldn't have been more wrong. Dina Kucera's life is a mess. I don't think she will mind that I wrote that, because she uses more intense words in the 204 page memoir. When I say mess, I mean, she was an alcoholic, though sober for a few years now. Her husband was a pot-addict, also sober for a few years now. Her mother has Parkinson's, her grandmother wa

The Sunday Salon (Anticipations) -- December 12, 2010

Do you ever feel that you are so looking forward to something, but you also don't want that something to come by, because it will be over soon, and life is going to go back to being as boring as ever? Which doesn't make any sense, because why would you not want that delightful something to happen? Or is the whole pleasure in the waiting and not in the actual happening? Someone once told me this - she was planning for an exciting event for days and weeks and just couldn't stop talking about it. Until the day came and she wanted to go back to the beginning. Now that it was here, she could no longer feel any excitement in it. It was going to end soon, whereas when she was preparing for it, it felt so good waiting for the day. It's almost like a little kid saving up a piece of chocolate because he doesn't want it to get over. Or tasting a tiny portion every hour, until the delicacy is lost. For instance, I can't wait for my Christmas vacation to come. For tho

Review: The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

I wish I could remember whose review compelled me to read this book - so much that I still remember snatches of that review. When I saw this ebook for under six bucks on the Barnes and Noble website, I had to grab it. It was the perfect read on the 30/45-minutes-to-anywhere NY public transportation system. Sometimes, I read it on my nook, and sometimes on my phone (I'm beginning to completely appreciate the utility of the ebook). The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien is actually a collection of essays, set during the Vietnam war, and focusing more on the experiences of the other members of Tim's platoon. It starts ostensibly as a list of the men's possessions, intriguingly tied with their own habits, preferences and beliefs. Henry Dobbins, who was a big man, carried extra rations; he was especially fond of canned peaches in heavy syrup over pound cake. Dave Jensen, who practiced field hygiene, carried a toothbrush, dental floss, and several hotel-size bars of

Book retail therapy

Whoever first talked about retail therapy really knew his/her stuff. There's something about shopping that makes you want to grin from ear to ear. While your troubles won't exactly elude you, for a change there's something that suppresses certain emotions and keeps you going, maybe even appreciate that all's not lost. Retail therapy makes me happy first, guilty later. The only catch is that someone has to drag me to a store. In full consciousness, I would never even consider that option to evade my troubles for a while. When I first heard of my brother's hospitalization, I listlessly packed everything that came into my mind, which wasn't enough. I didn't pack enough winter clothes, or even enough clothes. I calculated that I should be back by the weekend, which was just four days away. And here's the thing - I didn't take a single book. Deliberately. I knew that I wouldn't be in mood for reading. Moreover, I felt inexplicably guilty even thi