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Showing posts from January, 2015

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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 Strange Library by Haruki Murakami (and four other strange books I've enjoyed)

Last weekend, I was browsing through my bookstore, when I came across a copy of Haruki Murakami's The Strange Library - all shrink-wrapped and looking like a book-lover's toy. Seriously, how do you resist a book like that? Even if I didn't like Murakami, I would probably walk out of the store with that book. I love books (and food) that are interactive. It feels almost four-dimensional to me. There's the mental pleasure of being lost in the book and there's the physical pleasure of just wrapping that treasure open and wading in with excitement. The front of the book has two flaps that snap together, very much like your typical cereal box. And then you flip the pages to read. As for the plot, The Strange Library was... well, strange. A boy goes to a library to borrow some books, instead he is sent to the mysterious basement where he had never set foot in. There he meets a strange man who have some twisted devilish motivation for running that place. The boy i

The Sunday Salon: Magazine culling.. in progress

Good morning fellow readers! The apple crumble is in the oven - always a finger-licking breakfast in this house - and I'm settling down this morning to do some blog writing, reading, and housekeeping. For weeks, I have been thinking about doing some major decluttering in the house, specifically some magazine culling. I have a horrible habit when it comes to magazines. Personally, I don't really like them much. The idea of reading a magazine is something I like in theory but never really cared for in person. But every once in a while, the airlines that we have frequent flyer numbers with send us "Urgent" emails coaxing us to fly more with them or use our points because they will expire in the very immediate future. Ugh, this is passive aggression. So that takes me browsing through all the things I can buy with their points, and every damn thing worth their money obviously requires an embarrassingly huge number of points. Except for magazines. So that's how

The Martian by Andy Weir

Maybe I’ll post a consumer review. “Brought product to surface of Mars. It stopped working. 0/10." I first started listening to The Martian on a road trip with the husband in May last year. The audiobook was around 8 hours long, and our road trip was 16 hours total. We figured we will be able to finish this book, even though we were going to have extra company on the return drive. But we only managed 4 hours of audio - blame it on the traffic, the many directions by the GPS lady, and the horrible rainy weather for a good part of the drive. We loved the book thus far but never got time to go back to the audiobook. Finally, in December, I borrowed the ebook version from my library and raced through it. By now, everyone should know what The Martian is about - an astronaut, Mark Watney, is presumed dead and left behind on Mars after a freak storm sends the rest of the crew packing away. Eulogies are being sung everywhere in Earth and the remaining crew is distraught, but Mar

Announcing our little secret: There's a bun in the oven!

I've been composing this post in my head for months and wanted to just shout it out so many times - sometimes even while commenting on some of your posts. When I stayed offline for most of December, when I was complaining of feeling lethargic and unmotivated, or when I was reading similar posts on at least three other blogs, it took all my willpower to just keep a straight face, figuratively speaking. But the time has finally come and I can say it, nay shout it. We are expecting! I'm about three and a half months along, and well into enjoying my second trimester. My first wasn't terribly bad - I was nauseated all day long, right after breakfast until I hit the sack. There was not much I could bring myself to eat. I couldn't open the refrigerator without pinching my nose, or I will be gagging for some time after. I couldn't eat chicken, and even now, I am very picky about how my chicken is cooked, thanks to memory by association. Even the pregnancy book I

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

I hated being volunteered. The problem with my life was that it was someone else's idea. I've been trying to review this book in my head for a week and I always get stuck with the summary. This is not an easy book to review, not because it is deep or mysterious or happens to  have a spoiler you absolutely should not reveal, but just because this is a book more about the journey of two beautiful characters, and a journey cannot be summarized in any easy way. I had wanted to read Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe , ever since I saw this gorgeous cover and spunky title. But like many other books I want to read, it found its place in the dusty never-trodden folds of Mt TBR. Until I found myself in a rut for most of December, and remembered Jenny's review of this book. I found it on Scribd and settled down with the book, hoping it would save me from a rut. It did more than that. Aristotle, or Ari, as he likes to be called, is a somewhat-angry t

The Sunday Salon: Survived the first week of work this year!

Good morning fellow readers! It's 10.40 in the morning as I type up this post. The husband and I (or rather just I) took the liberty of sleeping in this morning. I know I'll pay for it tomorrow (Mondays are always extremely sleepy days for me), but that's tomorrow's news. For those of you who went back to work this past week, how did it ago? I had a very busy week, as only first weeks after long vacations/holidays can be. That's certainly better than a slow boring week. This week should be a lot tamer and smoother, hopefully. Today, I would like to get some chores out of the way. I have been woefully neglecting them for awhile. I have a chunk of magazines to get rid of. The master bedroom is becoming a catch-all for things that I am too lazy to put away, so those need to be sorted. I just finished cleaning up the kitchen this morning, so that's one task done. Whoo! Later in the day, the husband and I are planning to start at our new gym, so here's fin

The Sunday Salon: A little staycation and End of the Hols

Good morning fellow readers! Well, today is the last day of my two-week holiday/vacation and it pains me to think that it is a whole year before the next one rolls around. I much preferred my days of graduate school, when I had bigger chunks of holidays in the winter and the summer. Oh well, that stipend I earned then wouldn't be enough to sustain a decent lifestyle, other than to just pay bills, so no complaints. Still, it is going to be hard getting back to work tomorrow, though thankfully, everyone may also be in a similar boat. The husband and I just just got back last night from our three-day low-key staycation in Northern VA. We visited the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens in Richmond on our drive there to check out their GardenFest . They had lights set up for the holiday season, mostly decorating the trees at the garden and in places, mocked up in shapes of animals and fairy tale characters. The decorations were very beautiful and colorful, though it was also very cold

Hello there 2015!

Happy New Year, everyone!! I say this every year, and maybe every month and almost every season, but I am always frightened by how fast time goes. Gone are the days when I measured time by when my next birthday would come, and now it only gives me pleasure when there is still a lot of time left before the next one. Nevertheless, January 1st is always a beautiful day - it's the day of new promises, new hopes, new dreams and wishes, and at least in theory, the end of all the bad habits we have. Of course, January 2nd puts an end to most of that. 2014 has been a tricky year for me and also at this blog. That is the year I finally understood why many leave blogging after a few or several years of continued posting. The face of blogging has changed so much since I first started posting about books, but more importantly, what I wanted to talk about has also changed. There were days when I didn't have any interest to blog, and then days when I just wanted to holler out loud.