Skip to main content

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...

What's Reading this Week! (Nov 4, 2013)

I've had a pretty good reading week, which sort of explains my absence from here. I also picked up my half-done first knitting project (a scarf for the husband) which I had set aside a few months back, waiting for the right season. I've almost on the home stretch now and cannot. wait. for. it. to be ready!

The Warmth of Other Suns
On the reading front, I finally finished an audiobook - The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson - after two months of listening in the car. Phew - what a long book. By the end, it felt just like a saga - it was hard saying goodbye. I also finished Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist, the ending of which I found quite interesting. It did leave me wondering what it takes to make a fundamentalist and how cyclic the cause-and-effect pattern of it can be.

Next in the list
AllegiantThis weekend, I picked up Allegiant by Vernoica Roth. I was never a fan of this series because of its poor writing, silly dialogues and sappy romance, but this book made it worth sticking around. It still suffers from the same flaws but it finally brings everything to a nice circle. After this, I'm not sure which one I'll read. Mostly, it could be Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House.

Review Backlog
1. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
2. Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness
3. Quarantine by Rahul Mehta
4. MetaMaus by Art Speigelman
5. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
6. Maus by Art Speigelman
7. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
8. Can you Keep a Secret? by Sophie Kinsella
9. Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick
10. In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson
11. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Comments

Shelleyrae said…
Allegiance is a popular read right now, I hope you enjoy it!
Tanya Patrice said…
I'm not a huge fan of the Divergent series either, so I'm waiting to read Allegiance, but it's good to know it added closure to the series.


Tanya Patrice
GIrlxoxo.com
Helen Murdoch said…
My you have some good books on your review back log! I haven't bought Allegiant yet, but keep meaning to get to it
Aarti said…
The Warmth of Other Suns is the current One Book, One Chicago selection. I have wanted to read it for some times but am a bit daunted by the length and by the seemingly depressing stories that will be in it. But it has such an important theme! Would you recommend the audiobook or no?
Alex (Sleepless Reader) said…
Athina, it's funny that you liked Allegiant and were not a fan of the other two - from what I've been hearing about it, most people are feeling exactly the opposite. I like the first, felt meh about the second, and felt satisfied by reading reviews and spoilers of the third.
Athira / Aths said…
Thanks! It's going good so far.
Athira / Aths said…
It does seem to make more sense now. I didn't quite like how many loose threads there were initially.
Athira / Aths said…
I will be eager to hear what you think of Allegiant.
Athira / Aths said…
I definitely recommend the audiobook. It is long and that's partly the reason I feel the audiobook is a good option here. I listen to audiobooks only five days a week, 40 mins a day, so it does take me a long time to get through one. There are some upsetting things in this book but the author didn't write the book to make you cry. I don't think I shed any tear but there is some compelling sad stuff in here. But not so much that it will ruin your day. So you should give it a try. :)
Athira / Aths said…
I've found that happens a lot - people who liked the first book of a series end up not liking the last one and vice versa. I think I liked this one better because the world building finally makes sense. I wish the author had written the books a little differently and not used the last book as the one to explain how everything came to being, but it does bring a nice closure to the series.