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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

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (Banned Books Week)

Everybody on the rez calls me a retard about twice a day. They call me retard when they are pantsing me or stuffing my head in the toilet or just smacking me upside the head. I'm not even writing down this story the way I actually talk, because I'd have to fill with stutters and lisps, and then you'd be wondering why you're reading a story written by such a retard. Do you know what happens to retards on the rez? We get beat up. At least once a month. Yep, I belong to the Black-Eye-of-the-Month Club. Budding cartoonist Arnold Spirit, better known as Junior, was born with too much fluid in the brain, or water or grease, as he likes to explain. He is regularly picked on, even by guys 30 years older to him. But his best friend Rowdy saves him from all the bullying and even gives the bullies some of his own blows in retaliation. Now Junior wants to leave the troubled school that he attends on the reservation and instead join the all-white farm school where t

Yet another Monday! (Sep 26, 2011)

Sheila  @  One Persons Journey through a world of Books  wants to know what we're reading. I'm only too happy to oblige! The past week hasn't been great reading-wise. Blame it on the Fall shows, especially Vampire Diaries and Glee . Plus, I'm planning to add Person of Interest (Ben Linus, how I've missed you!) and Whitney . Books finished since the last update    The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie  ( Banned Books Week read - I'll talk about it this week) News from over my blog Reviews up!    The Giver by Lois Lowry  (WOW!) Other posts    Why it's okay to have robots recommend books Books on my nightstand Two of the books on my nightstand are the same from last week - both are fabulous, and I'm hoping to finish them by middle of this week. Kafka on the Shore   by  Haruki Murakami : This is my first read ( Ti's recommendation ) for my  Blogger Recommends  feature. I'm only just halfway th

The Sunday Salon: Why it's okay to have robots recommend books

The question of man vs machine, physical vs online has always been a sensitive one. Whether the topic is why we should support independent bookstores instead of Amazon , why we love a print book more than an ebook, or why recommendations from a person is better than from an algorithm, there are always a lot of strong arguments and complex issues quoted. It's funny that man invented the machine to make his life simpler and he then turns against the machine because the latter is usurping him. Which is to be expected. Heck, I'm going to be severely annoyed if they invent a machine that can write code and design software products, because that's my job. So it's not hard to see the perspective from which the naysayers come. After all, we all have bills to pay and mouths to feed, right? That said, when Goodreads announced the release of its new Netflix -style  Recommendations system, I wasn't expecting much resistance. And true enough, there wasn't any brouha

The Giver by Lois Lowry (WOW!)

“What if we could hold up things that were bright red, or bright yellow, and he could choose. Instead of the Sameness.” “He might make wrong choices.” “Oh.” Jonas was silent for a minute. “Oh, I see what you mean. It wouldn’t matter for a newchild’s toy. But later it does matter, doesn’t it? We don’t dare to let people make choices of their own.” “Not safe?” The Giver suggested. “Definitely not safe,” Jonas said with certainty. “What if they were allowed to choose their own mate? And chose wrong?" “Or what if,” he went on, almost laughing at the absurdity, “they chose their own jobs?” In Jonas' utopian world, adult males and females are matched to be a couple based on their traits so that their dispositions balance out. If their 'marriage' works out for three years, then they can apply to bring home a child. There are separate birthing females who deliver children, and these children are sent to be cared for by couples who have applied for a child. Eac

Yet another Monday! (Sep 19, 2011)

Sheila  @  One Persons Journey through a world of Books  wants to know what we're reading. I'm only too happy to oblige! It's been a while since I did this, mostly because I've had something or the other come up on the past few weekends. Not that I managed to read very many books, but at least I've been reading a bit. Books finished since the last update    Lost and Found by Shaun Tan    Irma Voth by Miriam Toews    The Giver by Lois Lowry  (WOW!) News from over my blog Reviews up!    Irma Voth by Miriam Toews    Yo! by Julia Alvarez    In the Sea There are Crocodiles by Fabio Geda BBAW posts   A toast to some favorite bloggers   The reader in my blog   The fun techie side of the blog   Grace of Books like Breathing won my giveaway Other posts   With Indie Lit Awards just around the corner, I've posted some of my favorite books this year from the Fiction and other categories   The August Reading    New Reading Project: Blogger

The Sunday Salon: So Not The End Of Year Other Favorites List (Part 2)

Yesterday, I did part one of this post - some of the favorite fiction titles I read from this year's releases . Since the Indie Lit Awards are just around the corner, I wanted to list out some of the books I loved and enjoyed, so that you may read some of them or nominate any that you enjoyed as well. Since I'm voting in the Fiction panel, I listed some of my favorite fiction titles yesterday. Today, I'm talking about some books in the other categories. Some other books that I loved reading this year are Ready Player One (Speculative Fiction), The Good Daughter (Biography/Memoir), The Long Goodbye (Biography/Memoir) and Bringing Adam Home (Nonfiction). Ready Player One (Speculative Fiction) is one of my top reads this year, and I'm still looking out for a similar read, because I just can't get enough of it. It is a science fiction fantasy novel set in a future when the conditions on the earth have deteriorated a lot and people find happiness inside

So Not The End Of Year Favorites Fiction List

Now that BBAW is over and things have hopefully settled down in blogland, there's another big event that's just around the corner - The Indie Lit Awards . You must have seen posts about this event sprouting up all over in your reader, but in case you missed it, here's the gist. Indie Lit Awards are annual awards given by book bloggers in various categories , such as Biography/Memoir, GLBTQ, Fiction, Mystery, Non-Fiction, Poetry, and Speculative Fiction. This award is now in its second year, and if you wish to see the winners of last year, go here . The nominations for this year are already open and will continue to be so all the way through December. The winners are announced next year. So if you have a book you would love to see win in any of those categories, go here , select the genre of the book and place your nomination. I am a voting member of the Fiction panel, and hence I cannot nominate. But I would love to share some of my favorite books I read this year so

BBAW 2011: The fun 'techie' side of the blog

And finally it's the last day of Book Blogger Appreciation Week  - this has been a fun week, with a break from reviews, and having a different reason to visit blogs, seeing a lot of new faces around and reading some wonderful perspectives on interesting topics. Today's topic about any tools we use for blogging is pretty interesting to me, because I can't think of very many I use. In fact, I'm pretty positive that other than this blog itself, and Photobucket for pictures, and maybe one or two here and there, I don't really use any tools. I'm pretty lazy that way - I like my job to be simple. I used to love having a ton of widgets on my sidebar. I still do like widgets, but I no longer put everything I like on my blog, since they heavily slow down the site. It took me a while to get there, but I removed all widgets that I didn't think anyone would ever look at. My rule of thumb is scroll down the sidebar quick, and if my eyes get screwed up, remove one