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
Busy work, sick kids, barely any reading followed by a reading spree - last two weeks have been more or less the same as much of the year so far.
Life
My daughter was sick for a few days last week and considering that the winter season illnesses have the same symptoms as Covid does, she had to take a Covid test before she and my son could go back to school. Thankfully it came back negative, as we expected it to be, but it still made me nervous. Her school has even more strict policies in place than the district school - even one sick day requires a negative Covid test before the child can return to school. So while I appreciate all that and wouldn't have it any other way, I'm also wondering how many tests we may end up taking by the end of this school season.
Those two days that we had the kids home were difficult - neither my husband nor I could take the days off and since work has lately been much busier for both of us, we just had to plow through.
This coming week is going to continue to be busy but there's a long weekend (President's Day next Monday) coming at the end of it. I'm more than ready for break, especially considering that the next holiday here is only in May.
Reading
Since Friday night, I've been doing an impromptu mini-readathon with myself. I managed to finish three books and started a fourth. I may need to do this more often. I completed Ijeoma Oluo's So You Want to Talk About Race, Raina Telgemeier's Ghosts, and Syed Masood's The Bad Muslim Discount. Loved all three of them and hope to have reviews up soon.
Ijeoma's book is a must-read - if you haven't read it yet, I hope you will make plans for it. I love how well she makes her points on a variety of topics but most of all I love her thoughts on micro-aggressions (those little things that over time exhaust the soul but are also the hardest to fight because it's rarely the same person imposing it). As much as I loved her arguments, it's her personal stories that truly moved me. You cannot read this book and not want to be a part of the positive movement.
As for The Bad Muslim Discount - do not pick (or not pick) the book based on the cover. It's not a rom-com and yes, while one of the characters is the source of much of the hilarity featured in the book, there is also so much tragedy that I had to take a break from the book often to process it. Remember Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine? I was expecting that to be a rom-com and boy, did I get that wrong. Yep, same with Bad Muslim Discount.
I've read all of Raina Telgemeier's books so far and love them all but Ghosts didn't quite hit the mark for me. It's still good but I loved her Drama better.
Last night, I started reading Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice for the Indigenous category in the Read Harder challenge. In the process, I found several other recommendations that I may read as well.
Watching
We are now watching ST: DS9 - certainly very different from the other ST shows but one season in, I'm beginning to get attached. As for movies, we did watch quite a few with the kids - Big Hero 6, Hotel Transylvania, Ice Age (rewatch), Open Season.
On the blog
- Wrapping up January
- A Will to Kill / My Beijing / To all the Boys I've Loved Before - Thoughts
- February Preview
So far, February is proving to feel every bit as the shortest month it is. How has your week been so far?
Linking with The Sunday Salon at Readerbuzz and The Sunday Post at Caffeinated Reviewer.
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