Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from October, 2011

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

Yet another Monday! (Oct 31, 2011)

Sheila  @  One Persons Journey through a world of Books  wants to know what we're reading. I'm only too happy to oblige! Because of the unexpected weekend at home that I had, I've finally managed to finish another Blogger Recommends read and am excited about my next choice. Books finished since the last update    The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks  (The creep factor of this book will make it qualify for Halloween even though it isn't truly horror)    Green River Killer by Jonathan Case  (A really well-done graphic nonfiction!) News from over my blog Reviews up!     A Thousand Lives by Julia Scheeres Other posts    My harrowing start to this weekend Books on my nightstand I have one book going now, but I haven't yet decided what I am going to read next. I was tempted to look at my stack right now, but I'll let myself be surprised. The less time I have to think about my next book, the better. Repeat It Today With Tears   by  Anne Peile :

An early Sunday Salon: Which I'm writing out of necessity, because I have to rant big-time

Once again, I had to turn to writing to help me grapple with the enormity of a mess I faced yesterday. Writing is therapeutic to me in that way, and putting down my thoughts on paper (or screen) works wonders. There wasn't a blogging plan on my radar for this weekend, because my friends in Raleigh and I were supposed to be in Asheville now, enjoying the last few leaves holding out this Fall. Unfortunately, that didn't happen, or I wouldn't be typing this out. Instead, about an hour out of Lynchburg, on my way to Raleigh via US 29 S, with cars blazing at 60-70mph on the highway, a massive west-bound truck-trailer combo (I sadly never saw what the vehicle was, this is what the witnesses told me) FRIGGING pulled in front of me at an intersection, with no lights on and not even looking at the busy traffic. I saw the back of the vehicle, 2 seconds before I would hit him. I was flying at 60mph, he was dragging at 15mph. Can you imagine being 2 seconds away from a deadly cr

A Thousand Lives by Julia Scheeres

There were worse punishments: when Tommy failed a class, Jones sentenced him to fifty whacks with the board of education, and Brian got fifty whacks for refusing to attend services in Los Angeles. It was humiliating, as a macho-posturing teenager, to be spanked in front of the entire congregation, to have a whimper of pain escape your mouth as a microphone was held to it. In 1954, a pastor named Jim Jones opened a new church in Indianapolis called the Peoples Temple. Being charismatic and fully aware of how to influence people, he began preaching his idealistic beliefs and managed to quickly gather a good number of followers. Over the next twenty years, as the church moved from Indiana to California, and ultimately to its deathbed, Guyana, Jones would amass a huge number of followers, many willing to follow him to the ends of the earth, in the hopes of making the world take heed to their socialistic beliefs.  Their temple did make history in 1978, but for its role in the larges

Yet another Monday! (Oct 24, 2011)

Sheila  @  One Persons Journey through a world of Books  wants to know what we're reading. I'm only too happy to oblige! We're almost at the end of October, and I'm scrambling to try and get more reads in before the end of the year. A funk had better stay clear of me now. Books finished since the last update    Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami    A Thousand Lives by Julia Scheeres    Happy Accidents: My Gleeful Life by Jane Lynch News from over my blog Reviews up!     Goliath (Leviathan, #3) by Scott Westerfeld     Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk and Naked by David Sedaris     Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami Other posts    Shelving a read book (and fretting about it)    Blogger Recommends (September Finds) Books on my nightstand I have two wonderful books in my pile whose subject matter is strange and unique, in addition to another book that I'm reading during my lunch hours. The Wasp Factory   by  Iain Banks : This very graphic bo

The Sunday Salon: Shelving a read book (and fretting about it)

I am one of those nuts who have to categorize a book. I don't need to find 10 possible categories for a book, just one is enough. One is necessary. So, every time I finish a book, one of the first things I do is figure out which shelf it goes to. To me, this is about as exciting as even reading a book, because deciding a shelf is the ultimate way to find which concept of a book made the most impact on me. Was it its fantasy elements or the women power? Or was it its young adult focus or its literary style of writing? Most often, it's an easy task, almost intuitive and requires no pondering for longer than 2 seconds. But sometimes, a book comes along that can easily fit into 3 or 4 categories and none of those individually describe the book well. I had one of those moments last week. I had just finished A Thousand Lives by Julia Scheeres, which is about the Jonestown murder 33 years ago. Many of you are probably familiar with the event behind the book - how 900+ adults a

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

"Closing your eyes isn't going to change anything. Nothing's going to disappear just because you can't see what's going on. In fact, things will be even worse the next time you open your eyes. That's the kind of world we live in, Mr. Nakata. Keep your eyes wide open. Only a coward closes his eyes. Closing your eyes and plugging up your ears won't make time stand still." Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore primarily follows fifteen-year old solitary Kafka Tamura, who runs away from home because he can no longer stand the presence of his malevolent father. His father had prophesied that Kafka would fulfill the Oedipal curse - that he would murder his father, and sleep with his mother and sister. His mother had run away with his sister when he was four, so he had no memory of how they looked. To escape the curse, he leaves Tokyo and travels down to Takamatsu, where he whiles away his time at a private library and the local gym. In alter

Listening to David Sedaris (Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk and Naked)

This summer, I was on the lookout for audiobooks to listen to during the few road trips I had planned, when I finally decided to listen to David Sedaris' titles. Although I had a print copy of his Naked on my shelf, which I started reading sometime last year, I couldn't appreciate his self-deprecating humor too well then. I had also heard it told that Sedaris' books are best appreciated on audio than while reading, and after listening to two of his books - Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk and Naked - I have to agree. Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk was his first title that I listened to. That was the shortest audio my library had of his and since my drive wasn't going to be too long, I wanted to be done with the book before I reached my destination. In retrospect, this probably wasn't the best decision I made, because from what other readers told me, it wasn't his typical fare, and I didn't enjoy it too well either. Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk contains several fables

The Sunday Salon: Blogger Recommends - September Finds

Last month, I talked about a new feature that I planned to do - Blogger Recommends . Every month, I bookmark some of the strongest book recommendations that I come across. Most are books I hear about for the first time, others are books I've previously not been interested in, but this particular blogger has managed to convince me otherwise. Then, I choose one title from the list and read the book. I know I still haven't reviewed my last month's choice for Blogger Recommends - Kafka on the Shore , from my list of August finds. But, I'm still grappling the ohmygodliness of this book and trying to figure it out on a lot of levels, so once I have a pattern emerging, I'll hit the Post button. But for now, before it becomes too late to still say 'October', I wanted to highlight some amazing titles and reviews I found last month, while I debate which one to read next. My Top Five Finds   1 .   Last month, Amy of Amy Reads reviewed A Million Night

Goliath by Scott Westerfeld

When she reached the prow of the ship, Deryn raised her field glasses to scan the horizon. A moment later, she saw the trees. "Barking spiders." The words coiled like smoke in the freezing air. "Down," Bovril said. Ahead of the airship was an endless fallen forest. Countless trees lay on their sides, plucked clean, as if a huge wind had blown them over and stripped their branches and leaves. Strangest of all, every stripped-bare trunk was pointed in the same direction: southwest. At the moment, straight at Deryn. The final book of the Leviathan trilogy by Scott Westerfeld finally released a few weeks back and I was glad to receive my book right away from the library. I'm not going to provide a plot summary here because it will be spoiler-ish for anyone who hasn't read the first two books and also because if you have read the first two books, I suppose you will be reading the third book as well, with or without synopsis. So I'll just talk abo

Yet another Monday! (Oct 10, 2011)

Sheila  @  One Persons Journey through a world of Books  wants to know what we're reading. I'm only too happy to oblige! I didn't realize how long I've been missing from here until I checked my blog front page. I ended up doing a Houdini act for a week! First, it was an injured finger that made typing a chore. And then it was a good reading rhythm that I didn't want to break. From my almost-two years of blogging, one big lesson I've learned is if you're in a mood to read, drop everything and do just that. Books finished since the last update    Brave New World by Aldous Huxley  ( Banned Books Week  read)    Goliath (Leviathan #3) by Scott Westerfeld  (Another wonderful series is over) News from over my blog Reviews up!     The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie     Brave New World by Aldous Huxley  (Ugh) Other posts    When I feel like throwing a book Books on my nightstand I'm finally finally going to

When I feel like throwing a book

Early this week, I settled in to read a book, which let's call "The Book of Errors" for the moment. I was unsure initially, because the principle theme of the book is that of religion - something I rarely read about and am barely curious of other than for checking some specifics or tragic happenings in Wikipedia. But then The Book of Errors is about extreme obsession with religion and about a major tragedy related to it. So I was piqued, I was curious about the said incident because apparently everyone had heard about it and I had no idea. Of course, I could still wiki, but when there's a book on it, who needs wiki? ( Picture credit ) So then I settled down to read it, found it to be a really fast read for a nonfiction, and an engaging one too, until I came across a typo. Okay, never mind, I told myself. After all, I'm reading an ARC. Typos are expected in ARCs. That's why they are ARCs! Knowing that, I kept reading, but before soon, another typo jump