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Showing posts from February, 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

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

We took away your art because we thought it would reveal your souls. Or to put it more finely, we did it to prove you had souls at all. Growing up, Kathy lived at a private boarding school in Hailsham, along with several other students - all secluded from the outside world and made to believe that they were special. Often though, they came across hints that there was more to the picture than met the eye - for instance, when a certain teacher always asserted vehemently that the kids need to know what was coming. Right from the beginning of the book, Kathy, now in her thirties, talked about Donations and recovery centers as if they are the norm, so as the reader, we know there's something not quite right with this world. Kathy is now a "Carer", someone who looks after "Donors", and during her stint as a Carer, she comes across two of her closest friends from school - Ruth and Tommy - from whom she didn't exactly depart on the nicest of terms. But now, sh

On my Nightstand #2

Right now, I am sort of in the middle of some good books - one audiobook in the car, one print at the gym, another print for evening reading. It's nice to be on a reading roll and have multiple distinct books going at the same time. This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki: Lately, I have been seeing this book on many blogs. It has been on my TBR since I first heard about it last year, but I picked it up at the library this weekend after reading so many good reviews about it. I have been saving graphic novels for weekday evenings, so I'm hoping to get this one started today and maybe even finished tonight. Another of Mariko Tamaki's books is also on my wishlist - Skim - so I'm hoping to get hold of that one next. Every summer, Rose goes with her mom and dad to a lake house in Awago Beach. It's their getaway, their refuge. Rose's friend Windy is always there, too, like the little sister she never had. But this summer is different. Rose's mom and dad won'

The Sunday Salon: A hopefully good reading year

I've had a great reading week. I finished Calling Dr. Laura early in the week and Anatomy of a Disappearance mid-week. I'm also almost done with Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things , which is turning out to be one of the best research-oriented nonfiction books I've read lately. Yesterday, I figured I could start another book, Family by J. California Cooper, and before I knew it, I was done with that book as well. From my excitement, you can probably guess that this doesn't happen often. I think this past week being a snow week helped - we had to skip the gym (not cool), our dinners have been mostly soup (yum), there was nothing of importance trying to get my attention (yay), and so books got read. And they have all been good books. Family was beautiful to read, though not as striking as several other books I've read on slavery by African American authors. Anatomy of a Disappearance was mostly poetic to read, but the plot wasn't too imp

Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuckoff

In every immediate way, the natives had the upper hand. They outnumbered the survivors by more than ten to one. They were healthy and well fed. None suffered burns, head injuries, or gangrene. Towards the end of World War 2, a transport plane takes off from a base in Hollandia, New Guinea, with 24 passengers, on a sightseeing trip to the Shangri-La valley, where an isolated and primitive tribe was said to live. Unfortunately for them, the plane crashed, killing 19 instantly. Of the remaining 5, 2 succumbed to their injuries almost soon. The last remaining survivors, suffering  from rib fractures and gangrenes, trek through the treacherous mountains, hoping to find some sanctuary but soon come across the natives, who are as fascinated at these strangely attired white people as they are at the near-naked natives. Once the news of the missing plane reaches their base, a search plane and later a rescue party is dispatched. But rescuing three wounded people from the thick unmapped j

The Sunday Salon: Ugh, these hormones!

Good morning fellow readers! I hope the weather is pleasant wherever you are because we have another week of sub-zero temperatures and nasty winds beleaguering us this week. I am so ready for the winter to be over. Being pregnant during winter is so not fun - my jackets don't button anymore, and wearing layers isn't easy. The famous hormones finally claimed me about two weeks ago. I now get teary at the smallest matters, and annoyed at anything not going my way or anyone annoying me. It's funny when I think about it in retrospect. Last week, it was because my French Toast got ruined. It wasn't even that big a deal. We have plenty of food accidents around here and they rarely ever bother us, but this time, I just wanted to cry. The husband, quite diplomatically, managed to keep a straight face and even offered to buy it for me from a restaurant. But the instant I began to feel better, he promptly burst out laughing. I had quite a laugh out of it later, but I promise

On my Nightstand #1

Last weekend, I headed out to the library to get three books for the husband and brought home an additional three books for myself. So much for my one book out at a time from the library rule. In my defense, two of those books were graphic nonfiction, which don't count, simply because one sitting is all I need to get through them, and then it would be pointless to keep going back and forth for the next three days. Not that a library visit is unpleasant. Marbles : It certainly took a long time for this graphic book to show up at my library. Ever since I heard about this one a year or so ago, it has been on my wishlist. I am a fan of first person narrative stories by people who are suffering from a mental disorder. It's a strange thing to be a fan of - it is certainly unpleasant to be the one suffering, it's also rarely cheerful. Also, with books like that, it helps to know in advance that the narrative could be unreliable, at least some times. Marbles is about Ellen

Quick Short Thoughts - The Bookshop and Letters in the Attic

The Bookshop  by Penelope Fitzgerald I chose to read Penelope Fitzgerald's The Bookshop almost on an impulse. I was browsing through Scribd and came across this title. I find it always difficult to resist books with bookish titles - The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry , Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore , The Strange Library ,  The Bookshop , just to list some of them. In The Bookshop , Florence Green risks everything she has to open a bookshop in the seaside town of Hardborough, which does not have any other bookstores. Despite many expecting her to fail, she actually succeeds and makes more money than she expected to, enough to hire an assistant and start a lending library. But her prosperity invites a lot of negative attention from the owners of nearby stores - none of them happy about the smaller number of people coming to their stores - all content to blame Florence for their woes. Florence also ends up crossing Mrs. Gamart, who, as soon as she becomes aware of Florence

The Sunday Salon: It's the Super Bowl weekend... NOT!

Good morning fellow readers! Seems like everyone I come across is gearing up for the Super Bowl today. The husband and I, not being any kind of football fans, will probably just do the same things we do every weekend - grocery shopping, him watching TV or playing Far Cry 4, while I will try to read, blog, and not think about going back to work tomorrow. Both of us have grand plans to clean our house today, but we'll see how that chore is going to get squeezed into the day's todo list. This week has been mostly the same as ever - busy some days, slow other days. Couple of days I was too beat to do anything in the evenings but fall asleep on the couch. We have been going to the gym most days for three weeks now and I'm totally feeling the difference in energy thanks to that. When it's warmer outside, it will be nicer to just do some outdoorsy stuff, but for now the cold has to pass. I just hope that we get at least one good snowfall before that happens. It will be a