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...
So who's going to or already attending the Virginia Festival of the Book? The VABOOK started yesterday at Charlottesville, which is just an hour from my place. I can't however head there during weekdays, so Saturday is probably the first day that I can make it. Unfortunately I'm not decided yet. Since I'm also missing BEA, I want to not miss this one at least, considering the proximity to my place. But there's a lot going on this weekend at home, so I'll probably decide only at the eleventh hour.
Did you hear about the movie adaptation of Lisa See's book Snow Flower and the Secret Fan? I read this book last year and loved it so much, so I'm really excited about it. Here's the trailer if you're interested in it. It looks good, doesn't it? I'm confused by the modernity that I see in it. Maybe that's reflective of the present, in which the protagonist, Lily is narrating the story, but this story is set in the 19th century and even when Lily is 80 years old, it can't have been the late 20th century, right? Unless China advanced pretty early.
Did you see the Orange Prize long list? There are few titles there that I'm really excited about.
- Lyrics Alley by Leila Aboulela
- Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch
- Room by Emma Donoghue
- The Pleasure Seekers by Tishani Doshi
- Whatever You Love by Louise Doughty
- A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
- The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna
- The London Train by Tessa Hadley
- Grace Williams Says it Loud by Emma Henderson
- The Seas by Samantha Hunt
- The Birth of Love by Joanna Kavenna
- Great House by Nicole Krauss
- The Road to Wanting by Wendy Law-Yone
- The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht
- The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer
- Repeat it Today with Tears by Anne Peile
- Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
- The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives by Lola Shoneyin
- The Swimmer by Roma Tearne
- Annabel by Kathleen Winter
I know some of you read books on the long and short lists in anticipation of the awards, so I'd like to hear if you are considering it? I can probably live vicariously through you.
Comments
I have read a few from the Orange Prize longlist and added the rest to my TBR.
I think I only have heard of Room by Emma Donoghue. I keep seeing it at the bookstore.
I haven't read Lisa See yet. I hope to read the book and/or watch the movie.