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Showing posts from June, 2013

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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 Sunday Salon: Summer!

I know, I know, summer (and a scorching too) has been going on for a good one month for most of us in the Northern Hemisphere. In fact, I'm not sure how those in Southwest US are faring right now with their 110+ temperatures. I hope you guys have been keeping safe. It's been 80-95 F on this side of the country as well - so not too bad but not exactly my cup of tea. But to me summer is mostly July and August. That's when I spend four days very tired after working 10 hours a day and then get three days off. This week has an added bonus - only 3 days of work with Thursday off for Independence Day. Our darling friends from Raleigh are going to be with us during this long weekend and we are excited. It's also my birthday on Wednesday (I like to pretend that the fireworks are in my honor) so all in all, it could be a really good week. Summer also makes me think about reading plans. It's that other time of the year when there are all kinds of reading lists and cha

Light Reading and Quick Thoughts: The Vampire Diaries #1 & #2

( Photo credit ) Lately, light reading is what I've been trying to do quite a bit. It makes it easier to get back into reading when I feel that I'm finishing books. But reading a silly fluffy book wouldn't help either because they tend to wear my brain down with all the cringe-worthy or cheesy stuff they may contain. I picked up The Vampire Diaries for some quick reading, even though I guessed that it was likely going to be very silly, because at least I knew the story (the TV version of the story, that is). And besides, I've been meaning to read the books at some point to find out how different the books were from the TV show. As it turns out, very different, while still very similar. To me, The Vampire Diaries books are super-boring, tiring and so like the Twilight series that I'm surprised they are not the same story. Book Elena is such a pain in the butt and so very "I will never leave you Stefan" and "I will die for you Stefan"

The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters

The dream that I've been having, about my high-school sweetheart, is not really about my high-school sweetheart, when you get right down to it. It's not a dream about Alison Koechner and our lost love and the precious little three-bedroom house in Maine we might have built together, had things gone a different way. [...] When I'm dreaming of Alison Koechner, what I'm dreaming of is not dying. If you knew that the world will end in a few months, this time for real, and you had all the proof, evidence and confirmation needed from the scientific community, what would you do? Would you quit your job so that you can focus on your bucket list? Would you keep working so that your family can be well-off during those last few months? Would you give in to the stress, worries and depression that engulf you and your family/friends and commit suicide? Or would you try to do something positive, something spiritual, something rewarding for every single remaining day of your l

The Sunday Salon: World War Z and more

Good morning everyone! It's a quiet overcast day here in my neck of the woods - perfect weather for being outside, if you ask me, so long as it doesn't rain. It's been mostly sunny this past week so I'm glad for a little coolness. Egg and kale cups are slowly baking in the oven for breakfast while I settle down with my cup of tea in front of the PC. After breakfast, we are hoping to get started working on our backyard. I've mentioned in the past that we have a big backyard project waiting for us. The front yard is in much better shape but the backyard is a whole different story. When we bought the house, we did ask the previous owner to seed the yard. He seeded only the front yard because we didn't specify that we wanted the entire yard seeded ( Hello?? Which part of the word 'yard' didn't you understand? ) In hindsight, we're glad he didn't do the backyard too because since we didn't specify what seed to use, he used some wild une

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

Though all three men faced the same hardship, their differing perceptions of it appeared to be shaping their fates. Louie and Phil's hope displaced their fear and inspired them to work toward their survival, and each success renewed their physical and emotional vigor. Mac's resignation seemed to paralyze him and the less he participated in their efforts to survive, the more he slipped. Though he did the least, as the days passed, it was he who faded the most. Louie and Phil's optimism, and Mac's hopelessness, were becoming self-fulfilling. By now, Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken has been on countless award lists and reader best-of lists. It has even won quite a few awards and after reading Unbroken , it isn't hard to see why. I waited a good three years before trying to read Unbroken because of the tremendous hype that followed this book (for good reason). I listened to the first quarter of this book in the car by myself and caught up with the rest of it w

The Sunday Salon: Garden excitement

Yet another Sunday Salon from me. It's getting harder for me to blog, not least because of time constraints, but also because I rarely sit on my computer after getting home from work. 8+ hours of coding at work tires me enough that all I like to do after getting home is watch TV and sleep. Those weeknights get even more perfect when the husband volunteers to make dinner. Whining aside, I am not close to giving up on reading or blogging and just probably need to work out a routine that works. This past Thursday we had a close repeat of the Irene aftermath last year. Whichever thunderstorm that was that passed through town - wasn't even that strong - knocked out our power for a day. At least, it wasn't like last year, when we didn't have power for a week (and I had to do the icky task of cleaning the freezer of all those melted gooeys). Still, no power is no fun, considering how every damn thing runs on electricity. Friday, I could go to work, where there was power

The Sunday Salon: Where I try to bore you talking mostly about work

Does anyone ever get Sunday blues? I'm sure many of you may have the Monday blues but Sunday blues? There's one thing I don't like about Sunday at all - and that's the fact that it comes before Monday. Just the knowledge that the weekend is ending can make the mood around me feel very somber on a Sunday morning. It is a lot better now - I actually love going to work nowadays after how my career direction changed more than a year ago. But there used to be a time when I brooded at home from Sunday AM already dreading the return to school or work the next day. Still, even now, it's no fun thinking I can't stay in my pajamas one more day. Speaking of work, I was thrilled to learn that we will be enjoying summer hours again this year. It's my third year doing it and even though it can be hellish working 10 hours a day, it feels all worth it when Friday rolls around and there's a long three-day weekend ahead of me. I hope the husband and I make some goo

What I'm Reading Now (June 3 2013)

Hello all ye wonderful readers and bloggers! Did you go to BEA this year? I didn't catch up with any of that buzz this year, so I hope you had fun, either at BEA or ArmchairBEA or both. Since I haven't done my weekly housekeeping Week In Books post for a while, I thought I'll talk randomly about the books I'm reading now. I had been poring through John O'Hara's Appointment in Samarra for quite a few weeks. It's certainly a fast-paced book but it's moving way too slow for me. I think the characters aren't intriguing me in any manner, making me not so interested in the book or it could be the slightly jarring pacing of the story that's making me disoriented. Either ways, I have put it down for now, and may return to it some other time. Couple of days ago, I started reading The Travel Auction by Mark Green. While not exactly the type of book I would pick at a bookstore, Judith's review convinced that it is probably one that I would e