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Showing posts from April, 2016

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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 Emperor of all Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee

It remains an astonishing, disturbing fact that in America - a nation where nearly every new drug is subjected to rigorous scrutiny as a potential carcinogen, and even the bare hint of a substance's link to cancer ignites a firestorm of public hysteria and media anxiety - one of the most potent and common carcinogens known to humans can be freely bought and sold at every corner store for a few dollars. This might be the first scientific and technical book that I read for leisure. As a science student in school, I used to read books like these to help my grades along; so for the longest time, I resisted the idea of reading them for fun. After reading a lot of book reviews though (of this and other subject-focused books), I have begun to love the idea of reading technical books about a certain topic, though I haven't really gone out of my way to read them. But it took me two tries to finish this book - the first try was short-lived (just a couple of pages) and the second wa

10% Happier by Dan Harris

What mindfulness does is create some space in your head so you can, as the Buddhists say, "respond" rather than simply "react." This year, I have been on a self help kick. Mostly on topics related to mindfulness, productivity, and being happy. I think feeling overwhelmed occasionally is the reason for it. And stress of course - who doesn't have that problem? When I came across Dan Harris' 10% Happier , all my neurons were intrigued. Besides, It has a promising title. It is a story of one person's attempt to be happier rather than a general 'How to be Happy' book. Also, it sounded like a light read - something I was looking for to complement the other heavy reading I was doing at the time ( Emperor of all Maladies ). Dan Harris starts off with the story of what triggered his interest in meditation. In 2004, he suffered a meltdown in front of millions of viewers of Good Morning America. He attributes the episode to stress, ambition, a

Five picture books you should read now | Five on Friday

I decided to do a twist on the Five on Friday post by writing mini-reviews of five picture books I loved. I did read a lot more than these five picture books so far this year but these are the five that actually engaged my adult brain. The Day the Crayons Quit and The Day the Crayons Came Home : If there ever was a picture book out there so unique that you had to marvel at the author's ingenuity, then these two books are it. In both the Crayons books, a bunch of crayons have addressed letters to Duncan - in one, the crayons are so annoyed by something (not being used enough or being used too often or always being used for the same objects or playing second fiddle to another crayon) that they have decided to quit being his crayon. In The Day the Crayons Came Home , a large group of crayons have sent Duncan letters from places where they are lost (some behind the couch while others in entirely different countries) and they are all trying to find their way back to Duncan. What

Eleanor by Jason Gurley

She asks, "Are you okay?" Eleanor nods slowly, and Agnes turns to the backseat to ask Esmeralda the same question, but the words catch in her throat, because she sees the U-Haul van, and there's not even time to say, "No," not even time for Esmeralda to turn and see it coming; there is only time for Agnes to want to do those things, and then it happens, and it cannot be undone. Identical twins, Eleanor and Esmeralda Witt, don't really have the happiest upbringing thanks to their depressed mother but when Esmeralda dies in an accident, their family further unravels with no scope for recovery. Eight years later, Eleanor's parents are divorced, her mom drinks herself to oblivion every day and night, while Eleanor grows up overnight. One day, when Eleanor tries to leave the school cafeteria, she finds herself transported to a strange world - a cornfield where she comes across a younger version of herself playing with a friend. Thus begins a strange ph

Back to the Pen and Paper | The Sunday Salon

After all the time I spent on my Day in the Life post , I should have realized that a long blogging break was on the horizon. Honestly, it was unplanned. I just didn't have any posts typed up and every free minute I had, I chose to spend it reading. Until the great virus outbreak of last week. Which, I'm excited to announce is now behind me. It took three whole days. That's all. Just three miserable days when all I wanted to do was bury my head in the sand and hope that the world moved on and chores got taken care of. But enough griping for now. We are just done with lunch and settling in for a lazy afternoon. The husband is traveling to Cincinatti this week so I had just dropped him a few minutes ago at the airport. He will be sorely missed but I will gladly take these occasional and short travels over the regular weekly travels that he had to do in our first year of marriage. Besides, my dad is here so I will still have plenty of help with Shreya and food. Remember I

Is it Friday yet?

Guess who's still here? Yep, me! Me! Just barely, though, because some virus has upended our lives this week. Monday, the babe started sporting a cold. I say 'sporting' because she was laughing through it. It was quite a sight - her nose would be dripping and she didn't care. How did humans go from there to getting stressed over every small thing? By Wednesday however, that nose was still oozing stuff while both the husband and I started feeling under the weather. I called in sick both yesterday and today hoping to recover soon from whatever this thing is. Have you seen that ad where a mom/dad asks their kid for a sick leave? And then the ad ends with the tagline that says parents don't take sick leaves. Yes, that was my life for past two days. Sure, I was home from work but still watching the baby through my headache. By bedtime, I was cranky, sore, annoyed, pissed, and feeling every pain in between. This morning, the babe woke up happy even though she