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Showing posts from January, 2012

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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 Silent Land by Graham Joyce

Zoe's face clouded over. "This can't be right. This just can't be right." "What?" Her face registered her alarm. "Look at that hotel. And look at the church at the top of the hill." "What about it?" "The tower. It's the same. Same as the one in our village." "Similar." "Not similar, Jake. Not similar at all. It's the same. So is that hotel. We're back in Saint-Bernard. We haven't gone anywhere!" Jack and Zoe, a young married couple are enjoying a beautiful day skiing along the French Pyrenees when they are buried under a flash avalanche. Somehow, they both manage to crawl their way out of the snow and decide to return to the hotel to help in any rescue efforts. They arrive back at the town to discover that there are no people about - it looks as if the entire town was evacuated. They decide to wait a while before trying to leave town. While they wait, they notice that they are

The Sunday Salon: Long hauls

After more than a month of awesome fun and incredible changes, my visa issue finally got resolved 3-4 days ago, and hubby and I left for the US the very next evening. Talk about last minute plans, especially those involving travels between different countries. Because of how quickly we made the return plans, I haven't had the chance nor the time to feel sad about leaving my parents. When we first got out at the New York airport to chilly wet and foggy weather, we both felt so good at finally being back. 37 hours after we left hubby's parents' home in India, we reached our home in Virginia! I should be jet-lagged now, but luckily I just have dull aches all over my body from being on the move for so long. Long flights suck, even if you are sitting in the most comfortable airplane ever! I spent most of the flight either sleeping or watching some of the movies they had on catalog. One of the movies I watched was One Day , based on David Nicholls' book . While I&

The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka

Most of us on the boat were accomplished, and were sure we would make good wives. We knew how to cook and sew. We knew how to serve tea and arrange flowers and sit quietly on our flat wide feet for hours, saying absolutely nothing of substance at all. A girl must blend into a room: she must be present without appearing to exist. Julie Otsuka's The Buddha in the Attic tells the story of a group of young Japanese women who were brought to San Francisco as picture brides in the early 20th century. Their journey starts by boat, where they discuss their many expectations from marriage, exchange photos of their husbands whom they haven't met yet and share their deep fears about the unknown future towards which the boat chugged forward. What they arrive to in San Francisco was mostly very different from what they set out expecting, but going back to their lives in Japan was not an option as they wouldn't be welcome there either anymore. But the women somehow manage to lead

Yet another Monday (Jan 23, 2012)

Sheila  @  Book Journey  wants to know what we're reading. I'm only too happy to oblige! So far this year, I've been reading slower and been more thoughtful while reading. I like it this way, because I appreciate the time and thought I've been putting into choosing a book to read. They may not turn out to be five-star reads (In fact, I've only had 1 four-star and two 3-star reads so far), but all three books left me feeling satisfied at the end, a feeling that doesn't always come to me. Moreover, since I'm not planning my reading in advance anymore (at least I haven't so far this year), I probably have only one book going at a time. Right now, it is Tayari Jones' Silver Sparrow , a candidate for the Indie Lit Awards in Fiction category. I'm enjoying it, but there won't be any of my thoughts published on the blog until the winner is announced. Which pages were turned...   Lately, I've been in mood for some short fiction, a

The Sunday Salon: A potpourri of random thoughts

I woke up today morning to the thought that I'm finally going to post my first Sunday Salon of the year. Then I remembered that it's Jan 22nd today. Where did this month go? After the very hectic weeks that I had over the last month, I have the sensation of time having stopped for everyone while things settle down for me. It's strange realizing that not only have I gone many days without reading much, rather the first month of 2012 is almost over as well. Weird! Anyways, since I have a month's worth of Sunday Salon-ish thoughts, I'm going to simply write down whatever comes to my mind. I completed my two years of blogging a month ago! I've missed my blogiversary twice already now - since it always comes during the winter vacation, I seem to always be missing it. My google reader is beginning to look tamed. One of the last things I did before I disappeared on my vacation was to really organize my reader according to how it makes sense to me. I'm gla

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (Short Fiction review)

Charlotte Gilman's  The Yellow Wallpaper is a work I have seen on and off on many blogs and websites but never really got to read until now. Mental illness is a topic that I tend to gravitate towards reading about, so when I finally finished reading this short story, I wasn't disappointed. The woman in the story is suffering from a mental illness that her physician husband has diagnosed as temporary nervous depression. He doesn't listen to her suggestions or wishes but instead forces his opinions on her. She believed that working, socializing and writing would help her recover faster, but her husband worried that those activities would stimulate and excite her condition unfavorably. He therefore takes her to a summer mansion and keeps her in an airy upstairs room, and persuades her to stick to a rest treatment, in hopes of curing her. Over the next three months, we get to see the effect of this treatment on her, through her journal entries that she writes in secret.

Back with some updates

Whew! A whirlwind two weeks later, I'm finally somewhat less busy. I'm still in India, but slowly getting back to some form of a routine. After two weeks off the grid, I find myself even reluctant to get back online, because of everything that's pending and needs attention. The wedding went great! It was very tiring by the end of the day, but still fun. I still haven't uploaded the photos yet, but I have one photo available on PhotoBucket (click the link). A few things that happened during my absence from the blog. - I had guest-posted over at Alyce's blog, At Home with Books , on the Best and Worst of Marjane Satrapi . Satrapi's Persepolis was my introduction to the graphic novel medium, and it's still one of my favorite graphic books. - The shortlist for the Indie Lit Awards is up! Since I'm judging in the Fiction category, I can't wait to read the titles! These are the books shortlisted for the Fiction category: Dance Lessons by

A Year in Reading (Challenges and Reading Plans)

Happy New Year, all! It feels really weird saying 'last year' to mean the last 12 months rather than 2009. Time sure does fly like crazy! One of the best parts of any new year is starting on a fresh slate and making plans for the next 12 months. I tend to make a lot of far-fetched and ambitious plans, that all fizzle out within a month. This year, I'm going to try not making any plans, except to listen to serendipity more often. Challenges At the beginning of this year, I signed up for a few challenges, but eventually got rid of all but one. The  Graphic Novels Challenge  is possibly the only challenge I ever finished in my two years of blogging. I don't plan to do the challenge again in 2012, because I've been automatically reading more graphic books lately and know that I will be reading a lot more in future. I had signed up to read 10 graphic books this year, and eventually read 20. I have my full list of graphic books I read  here , in case you are interes