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Showing posts from December, 2011

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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

A Year in Reading (Favorite reads of 2011)

Like any other year, 2011 was a mixed bag of sorts for me. I read about 85 books this year (15 short of my original target) - but many were books that I enjoyed at so many levels that I'm not too fussed by the number. There were a few I could have done without, but overall, it's been a good year in reading. Of the 85 books I read, 36 were 2011 releases. I'm quite impressed with that because I imagined I read far less 2011 books. Depending on which side of the bed I wake up from each day, I either like reading more current books or not. It's a fluctuating thing - sometimes I wish I read more classics, but the very next day, I'm all into the new releases. Still, 36 isn't a huge number, so I'm going to list the books that made an impression on me, without looking at their publication dates. I read a total of 62 fiction titles, so I'm listing 10 titles that I would gladly recommend to you. Favorite fiction reads The Night Circus by Erin Morgens

A Monday Salon for a change

Before it becomes too late - (Belated) Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it! I hope all of you are having a great holiday season. After almost two weeks of running around like a headless chicken, I've finally got a morning to myself. I'm typing up this post from India, where I arrived early morning yesterday. It's been more than 2.5 years since my last visit, and I was curious about how much this place has changed since, or most importantly, how much I have changed. There are a lot of things that once used to be familiar, which now surprise me. It's kind of refreshing that way, considering how many things I used to take for granted. But by the time, everything just settles down, I will be back in the US. I had very optimistic illusions of doing a lot of blogging during my last week in the US, but as I expected, there really wasn't any time. I'm not going to assume the same thing again, now that I have a lot of family (extended, included) around me. Of c

Good Neighbors by Ryan David Jahn (WOW!)

Had she continued straight, she might have seen the Fiat moving toward the next intersection. She might have seen the intersection's green light turn yellow. She might have heard the RPMs kick up a notch as the driver of the Fiat strained the small car's small engine further, pressing the gas pedal to the floorboard. She might have seen the yellow light turn red. She might have seen the Fiat fly into the intersection despite the red light. She might have seen a green pickup truck entering the intersection at the same time from the right. Kat Marino was returning to her Queens apartment from her shift at a local bar at 4 AM in the morning, when she was attacked by a man, who was hiding beside a tree nearby. Kat had never met the man before and is completely taken by surprise and shock. A few of her neighbors whose apartment windows face the courtyard, where the action was unveiling, hadn't yet gone to sleep and were watching dazed, having been interrupted from whateve

The Sunday Salon: A November review

I had a great November in reading. Not so much in blogging. It appears as if whatever time I didn't or couldn't spend on blogging ended up being used as reading time. I hadn't read more than 8 books in a month since April - I'm not sure how I managed 9 books in November, since it was crazy busy, but the two long train trips probably helped there. Better still, I found it really hard to decide which the best books of the month were. I kept going back and forth between 5 of them! The bad news (for me) is that I am many reviews down in the pit! Books of the months Notable Mentions (As if I'm giving away Oscar awards!) Other Reads Reviews posted Happy Accidents  by Jane Lynch The Wasp Factory  by Iain Banks (My September Blogger Recommend , which I loved) Green River Killer  by Jonathan Case and Jeff Jensen Repeat it Today with Tears  by Anne Peile The Secret of Lies  by Barbara Forte Abate Other posts Blogger Recommends - October

My favorite 2011 books .... that I haven't read yet!

Between now (seriously, people, it's actually too early now) and the middle of February (sometimes, even that late), we'll be seeing a ton of Best-Of lists jumping out at us from every corner of the book industry. In fact, didn't Amazon decide to have an early year-end party a month ago when it released its Best Books of 2011 list ? Now that's something I can understand if this were 2012, because the world might be ending soon and everyone wants to get the word out already. So, while being forced to reckon with deciding the books that made the most impact on me this year, I keep getting distracted by the books that I didn't get to. The one book I wish I had stood in lines for on its release date and hunkered down in my bedroom for hours with is Murakami's 1Q84 . This book has been receiving a lot of buzz since months earlier, and while that had made me very curious, I didn't exactly share that fascination then because I hadn't read any of his books.

The Secret of Lies by Barbara Forte Abate

Eleanor had no use for the card catalog, firm in her opinion that a novel was only as good as its cover. Roughly translated, it meant that any book featuring a portrait of a wildly handsome couple with untamed hair and torn clothing on its jacket more or less cinched its assurance as world-class literature, and she missed few opportunities each summer for cramming her mind to saturation with such classics. When The Secret of Lies begins, we find Stevie Burke abandoning her home, husband and a contented life heading to nowhere specific - she hasn't figured that out yet. All she knows is that she has to address the demons of a past that is slowly but surely overwhelming her. A past that begins from when she was thirteen, and culminates to a horrible tragedy when she turns fifteen. Every summer until that tragic year, Stevie and her sister Eleanor would travel to her uncle and aunt's summer house in the North Atlantic coast for a fun-filled summer. It is during one of thes

Yet another Monday! (Dec 5, 2011)

Sheila  @  One Persons Journey through a world of Books  wants to know what we're reading. I'm only too happy to oblige! Yikes, it's December already! After a long two weeks of some medical drama, busy work weeks and apartment shifting, I'm finally back to reading for what few free days of this month I have. When we were busy shifting, my  friend  stacked all my books from the shelves against a wall so that he can taunt me about how many books I collect and not read. Of course, he "steals" a few books from me every time he visits, so he shouldn't tease. Besides, I keep telling him that I don't have as many as some of you! Books finished since the last update    Before I go to Sleep by S.J. Watson  (Engrossing, but not very memorable)    Cabin Fever (Diary of a Wimpy Kid, #6) by Jeff Kinney  (Hilarious as always!)    The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern  (I really loved this one! Very atmospheric)    The Silent Land by Graham Joyce  (Ha