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Showing posts from August, 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 Sunday Salon: My nightstand over the past one month

One thing I was worried about while pregnant was how much my reading was going to suffer after baby arrived. It may seem like the least significant thing to worry about (and some have told me so); and post-baby, I did (and do) have bigger things to worry about, such as SIDS, weight gain, head shape (my mom has made me paranoid about this one), nanny or daycare?, why is she spitting up?, how will I leave her and go to work?, and countless others that any mom could probably relate to. To even mention books or reading when there is a new baby in town seems somewhat selfish. Heck, there is even an expectation that you shouldn't be entertaining yourself (reading, phone browsing, watching TV) while caring for a newborn. But I wanted to continue reading as well as I could after having a kid. The best way to pass on a love for reading to your kid is by you reading. Read with her, but also read for yourself when you can. I found that there was not much I could do while

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman

Every seven-year-old deserves a superhero. Thus begins Fredrik Backman's latest novel about a little girl named Elsa whose grandmother is essentially her superhero. Elsa and her grandmother are very close, so close that her grandmother has built a whole fantasy world called the Land of Almost Awake and the two would head there every night at the moment they are almost asleep. She has conceived fairy tales from this land that sort of mimic real-world experiences involving Elsa and some of the people they know in real life. Elsa has been getting bullied at school and these tales and this fantasy land is a way for her grandmother to teach Elsa to be strong and how to battle real-life demons. But her grandmother is ailing of cancer and dies soon, leaving Elsa very heartbroken and angry. But she has been left a last task by her grandmother - a treasure hunt that involves finding some letters she has written to be delivered to some people in their building. For there are several

The Evening Sunday Salon: It's been a month!

Wow, I've been writing this post since this morning. So much for a yay, I'm blogging  post. On the plus side, as someone commented on this blog a month ago, I am discovering a new normal around here. I can't say the current routine (or lack thereof) is making me super happy, since I am a creature of routine and predictability and babies scoff at routine and predictability. But, I'm finding comfort in being able to spend even a minute doing something I always took for granted, be it taking a shower or brushing my teeth (yes, this!), or even reading blogs or writing a blog post. The only thing I've been able to do without any trouble is read. Shreya at her naming ceremony Shreya turned one month old last week. I said this before and I say it again - time is flying too fast when I don't want it to! Maybe I'm enjoying a vacation, or having a great time with friends or family, or it just happens to be the weekend - but the Time God makes sure that it goe

A Window Opens by Elisabeth Egan

I'm not sure of your belief system - Georgie says she is "Half Jewish, half Christmas." A Window Opens isn't exactly my kind of book. I generally try to stay away from books focusing on the do-it-all or have-it-all kind of woman, because they can be quite depressing and unrealistic to read. But for some reason, I accepted this book for review - maybe my pregnancy hormones contributed to that decision or this was just the read I was looking forward to. Alice is living the life she loves. Mom to three kids, she worked part-time at a magazine and was heavily involved with her kids' school lives. Her husband, Nicholas (never called Nick or Nicky), was working at a law firm, hoping to be made partner someday. However, the partnership doesn't work out and Nicholas quits his job to start his own law firm. This would involve a few months of no pay while he established his reputation and client-base, so they were going to be short on cash for a while. To mak

The Sunday Salon: Currently...

Happy Sunday! It's been a little more than three weeks since my last regular post though it doesn't feel that long. The last three weeks have been a blur of sleepless nights, a ton of feedings, and trying to get some rest whenever I can. Shreya will be three weeks old tomorrow and I'm amazed that she's even been here that long, especially considering how impatient I was during the last few weeks of my pregnancy waiting for this perfect bundle to arrive. I wrote this blog post yesterday, when I was running on a productivity high and had plenty of time to do a lot of things. That was a good thing because I didn't sleep a wink last night, and only just now got a few minutes to load this post into Blogger. We had a looooooooooong feeding session going on and Shreya was wide awake through the night, which was both exasperating and frustrating. But funny, in retrospect. I managed to catch up on some zzz's a while ago, so I feel a lot refreshed now than I did th