Book Review

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.
by Jonathan Safran Foer

2am

That pretty much sums it up.

Book Review

I have been reading an inordinate amount of books on this trip...and since my cousin Jacqui is dying for threatened to kill me if I ever wrote another book review, I thought I'd oblige irritate her.

 

What desert sunset? I'm reading.

The Poisonwood Bible

I had already read this one back in 2008 when I went to South Africa. I don't normally read a book twice, but we found it in a hostel's book exchange and I demanded that Summer read it. For lack of a book to read myself, I read it again. SO GOOD. One of my all-time favorites. About a crazy zealous baptist minister who takes his wife and four daughters to baptize the children of the Congo. Never mind their culture, of course. The story is written from the perspective of the wife and four daughters and it's BRILLIANT. My favorite parts are the mother's, as she reflects on why she never left her crazy husband, and the eldest daughter Rachel's, a prissy teenager trying to deal with the grossness that was their African village.

Holy Cow! An Indian Adventure

I picked this up at the Kochi airport upon arrival to India. It's an Australian woman's account of living in Dehli, ten years after having backpacked India as a young person and hating it. She's incredibly candid about all the stuff you can easily hate about India, (i.e. people peeing and pooping in the streets) but also educates the reader on most of India's main religions, ethnic groups and regions. Fascinating.

The White Tiger

Story about a lower-caste driver for a wealthy businessman in Dehli who strikes out and makes it rich. (After murdering the wealthy businessman of course.) Very good, and a nice peek into the caste-system still employed in India, even after it was outlawed.

The Scarlet Pimpernel

Loved this little classic, even though it was highly predictable. I got it for free on eBooks!

Norwegian Wood

Wildly popular (in its day) Japanese novel I traded out in Serbia with another backpacker. Pretty good. Explores young love and suicide in a way where you can't even sympathize with the main character because he's just really unsympathetic. I liked it.

Turning Thirty

Dumb, dumb book. Another trade out I made in the Maldives. Here you can't sympathize with the main character either, but in a really bad way. I turned thirty once and couldn't identify with any of his points, except the part where he moved back in with his parents, but he hated it and I did not. Because my parents are awesome.

One & A Half Wife

Fictional story about an Indian girl, raised with just one purpose: to get married. Her parents even move her to the United States to make this happen for her. She does get married to a rich Indian, but then he devastates her by telling her after many years of marriage that he doesn't love her, never has and that he wants a divorce. Her parents practically disown her, they're so ashamed. But she didn't really do anything wrong. Not the most amazing book, and the ending is ridiculous, but it's an interesting study of Indians and their [slowly improving] disdain for divorce and divorced people.

What Young India Wants

I'm reading this collection of essays slowly. It's very interesting, but not fluffy enough to be a page turner. Written by a columnist, it discusses the issues facing young India today and this man's opinion of why India continues to struggle in our modern world. His opinions are sometimes annoying to me, like in an essay about how Indian women are reported to be the most stressed out in the world. 87% of Indian women feel stressed most of the time, compared to only 53% of American women. *Asterisked comments are mine.*

"I may be biased, but Indian women are the most beautiful in the world. As mothers, sisters, daughters, colleagues, wives and girlfriends, we love them. Can you imagine life without these ladies? [...] There would be body odor, socks on the floor and nothing in the fridge to eat. The entertainment industry would die. Who wants to watch movies without actresses?" *All very good reasons to keep women around. The socks especially.*

"At an extreme, we abort girls before they are born, neglect their upbringing, torture them, molest them, sell them, rape them and honor kill them. [...] We judge our women, expect to much of them, don't give them space and suffocate their individuality. Imagine, if you did this to men -- wouldn't they get stressed out?" *Uh yes, I imagine they would.*

The Cellist of Sarajevo

I read this on the beach in Croatia. Fiction, but written about Sarajevo during the siege when a real-life cellist played in the ruins of the street for 22 days straight. One day for every person killed while standing in a bread line in front of his apartment. From the life-and-death struggle to get water and food to the reasons why some became snipers, a very sad look at the war from three different perspectives.

Into Thin Air

Just finished this one today. I had read Into the Wild, also by John Krakauer, and this one was definitely on my list of books to read. I thought it would be his reporting of a trip to Mount Everest (much like Into the Wild was his reporting of another man's adventure story), and was surprised to find out he had actually been on the expedition. This was his personal account of the 1996 Everest summit disaster, and it was gripping. Really gripping. Plus there's this little gossippy bit at the end where he gets into it with two other men that were also there over details of their behavior. I was just as interested in that little war of words as I was the rest of the book. Krakauer doesnt back down, man. I even did some side research (five seconds on Google, that is) about it. Quite the scandal in the late nineties. Very sad story and for some strange, strange reason, reading the account made me want to climb Everest. Even though most of his team died or got horrible frost bite.

 

I went to a book store yesterday and traded Holy Cow and The White Tiger for Flight Behavior, by Barbara Kingsolver, (who also wrote The Poisonwood Bible), and Under the Banner of Heaven (also by John Krakauer) about one of my favorite subjects: fundamentalist Mormons who still practice Polygamy and MURDER. Think Hollace Green.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Dear Ryan Gosling...

Dear Ryan Gosling, are you sure you won't reconsider my dinner date invitation? I know I probably called you at a very busy time...what with you promoting your new movie and everything...but, let's look at the facts:

• I am a very good cook
• I am trained in massage therapy
• You are very good looking:

Photo stolen from perezhilton.com

• I am very good looking:

• I would prefer not to work
• I am practically Canadian
• Some say I look just like Scarlett Johansson
• I am willing to overlook your awkward Mickey Mouse Club phase:

Ugh...you were even adorable in your awkward Mickey Mouse Club phase.

• My parents want me out of their house
• I want a baby

So, call me will ya?  My number is on your cell phone.  Repeatedly. 

Love, Kady

Book Review - Anna Karenina

So sorry, cousin Jacqui, but it's time once again for your favorite feature of my blog, the book review.  The only book I can review right now is Anna Karenina because it has taken me 3.5 months to read it.  Some friends of mine put out a facebook invite for a 'nonpretentious' bookclub and that the first book would be Anna Karenina.  They planned to have an amazing Russian-themed dinner party back home in Minnesota... (I thought that choosing what some think is the single best novel ever written a teensy bit pretentious, HA).  Anyway, I'm traveling and couldn't make it.  I was so jealous and sad and felt left out so I decided to participate anyways.  Then I started posting photos of myself reading the book on the beach, knowing how much snow my friends back home were getting.

I started by getting an 'email a day' from DailyLit.com, but found myself wanting more each evening.  Then, I just happened to see a copy at Cafe Cafe, my little coffee break place and decided to buy it.  Way too much money.  $18!  Not to mention the sheer size and weight of this thing.  Bad idea for the backpack.  GOSH.  Anyways, I decided it was worth it at the time as long as I finished it before leaving Costa Rica (which I didn't) and proceeded to bring that book to the beach with me and then not read it because I was too busy beach-ing.

This book is so...zzzzzzzz...interesting...*hic*

So, my review.  I don't really feel like reviewing the book.  I'm just going to give you some tips and some favorite parts and quotes.  Sue me.

TIPS:

This book is long.  It's a commitment to read it.  Do it in the winter when there's nothing else going on and you have to snuggle up in front of the fireplace anyways.  I had the translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky.  They did a great job translating in my opinion.  I had heard others in the book group complain that their translation was crappy so it's important to get a good one.  Don't be afraid to skim entire chapters about boring old Russian politics, if you're like me and extremely uninterested.  Tolstoy was a brilliant man, and I...am not.  The jist of it is obvious, the details, very tedious.

FAVORITE PART:

My favorite part is the names of some of the main characters include my name.  Que narcissistic!  AKA Stephan Ar'kady'ich. And Anna Ar'kady'evna.  I smiled every time I came across it, which was often.  And that just proves how I have no business belonging to a bookclub that would choose Anna Karenina for it's first pick. 

FAVORITE QUOTES:

On gossip:
"The conversation had begun nicely, but precisely because it was much too nice, it stopped again.  They had to resort to that sure, never failing remedy - malicious gossip."

On me, in an argument:
"Sergei Ivanovich [the other person] always defeated his brother, [me] precisely because Sergei Ivanovich [the other person] had definite notions about [insert whatever subject here];...whereas Konstantin Levin [me] had no definite and unchanging notions, so that in these arguments Konstantin [me] was always caught contradicting himself."
"it most often happens that you argue hotly only because you can't understand what precisely your opponent wants to prove."

On having a crush:
"At first Anna sincerely believed that she was displeased with him for allowing himself to pursue her; but...having gone to a soiree where she thought she would meet him, and finding that he was not there, she clearly understood from the sadness which came over her that she was deceiving herself, that his pursuit not only was not unpleasant for her but constituted the entire interest of her life."

"She studied his face to make up for the time in which she had not seen him.  As at every meeting, she was bringing together her imaginary idea of him (an imcomparably better one, impossible in reality) with him as he was."

On marriage:
"'You see, it's true,' said Sergei Ivanovich.  'And from now on it's good-bye to bear hunting - your wife won't allow it!'  Levin smiled.  The idea of his wife not allowing him pleased him so much that he was ready to renounce forever the pleasure of seeing bears."

On respect:
"'Respect was invented to cover the empty place where love should be.'"

On love:
"'...I've always loved you, and when you love someone, you love the whole person, as they are, and not as you'd like them to be.'"


IN SUMMARY:
Yes.  Good.  Sad.  Depressing.  Smart.  Heavy.  Literally.  Takes up too much space in backpack.  Glad to be finished.

In Just 423 Days, You Too Can Read Anna Karenina!

Click here, follow the instructions, and you're on your way toward a minor in Russian Literature!

They will email you 423 installments of Anna Karenina.  I'm doing it, and now you can too!

Here's some info from audiobooksforall.com:


Anna Karenina has been described as the perfect Russian novel. Trapped in a loveless marriage, Anna Karenina is defenceless against the power of her passions once they are unleashed by the adoration of Count Vronsky. Having defied the rules of 19th-century Russian society, Anna is forced to pay a heavy price. Human nature, with all its failings, is the fabric of which this great and passionate work is composed.

Book Review

THE ALCHEMIST by Paulo Coelho

This is a book about a boy from Spain who decides, after following his heart, to travel across the Sahara desert to the Pyramids in search of treasure.  Most people decide to quit their jobs and travel AFTER reading this book.  I didn't read it until midway through my adventure.  But it's very good.  It's a quick read...easily a one-dayer.  I read it in bed between ralphing my guts out in the Guatemalan Toilet Microphone .

Here are my favorite quotes from the book:

• "During this time in spiritual exile, I learned many important things: that we only accept a truth after we have first wholeheartedly rejected it; that we mustn't run away from our own destiny; and that the hand of God is firm, but infinitely generous."
• "The boy knew a lot of people in the city.  That was what made traveling appeal to him -- he always made new friends, and he didn't need to spend all of his time with them.  When someone sees the same people every day, as had happened with him at the seminary, they wind up becoming a part of that person's life.  And then they want the person to change.  If someone isn't what others want them to be, the others become angry.  Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own." 
• "Most people see the world as a threatening place, and, because they do, the world turns out, indeed, to be a threatening place."

BLINK by Malcolm Gladwell

This is a great book -- it's about our first impressions, and how they can be both dangerous and also pretty accurate.  He hooks you in the first chapter by talking about a statue that was unearthed and on loan to the Getty Museum.  They spent 14 months studying it in order to decide if they wanted to purhase it.  After a ton of scientists did test after lab test, they decided to spent $10 million on it.  Then they showed it to other curators and interested folk, several of whom identified it as a fake almost immediately.  Why were they able in a blink of an eye, able to identify it as a fake when other scientists felt it was for reals after 14 months of study?  Mostly it's a book filled with lots of similar scientific studies but they're infinitely fascinating.  Like, did you know that the vast majority of American CEO's are white men, over 6 feet tall?  We like our tall white men to lead us.  Did you know that 100% of people who take a split-second test will associate black with bad and white with good?  And in order to answer more correctly, you have to slow down and try to think harder?  Don't believe me?  Check out https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/Study?tid=-1

Eye opening.  I guess I'm a racist.  And I knew what the test was trying to do before I ever took it. 

The problem I have with the book is that I was expecting it to tell me how to refine my first impressions and use them to my advantage, but it never did.


GILDA RADNER: IT'S ALWAYS SOMETHING by Gilda Radner

Really really good.  About her fight with ovarian cancer and also her career and marriage to Gene Wilder.  I liked this book, because I loved her.  Remember Jewess Jeans?  "they're skin tight they're outta sight.  Jewess Jeans...She shops the sales for designer clothes, she's got designer nails and a designer nose."  ??

Or how about:
"Playing the french horn happens to be my way of coping with the grim realities of prison life."

Anyways, heartBREAKing story.  She wasn't the very best writer, but it's a super good story.  She's so honest about the toll that cancer took on her marriage and how it affected her behavior towards her friends.  Honest about not wanting to die, and yet sometimes wanting to die.  Highly recommend. Come to think about it, I highly recommend throwing the "Best of Gilda Radner" from Saturday Night Live in your Netflix queue while you're at it.

Antigua, Guatemala

Today was a nice lazy day.  I woke up just in time for the free breakfast at my hostel (rated very highly online and in the guidebooks...place is called El Hostal for those that are interested), which by the way, ends at a very healthy 10:30am.  So I was able to sleep in and still enjoy the yummy food.  And, it wasn't just a roll and some jam.  It was an eight-option full brekky to include coffee.  I ordered the huevos rancheros and it was muy yummy.  After that I read my book for a while and consulted a guidebook from the community bookshelf and set out on a walk that would take me 10 blocks out of my way, in search of the central park. 

Ah, the Parque Central, or the Town Square.  Something that every foreign town seems to have and that most American cities lack.  It's my favorite thing to do, when traveling.  Hang out in the park.  With coffee, of course.  It's pretty simple, but very serene, and great for people watching.  Today I saw lots of indiginously dressed little girls who should be in school selling wares for what appeared to be a bossman.  Though I wasn't sure if it was just an unfortunate dude who expressed an interest and then got mobbed?

Lunch, after a failed attempt to find local specialty Chuchitos.  I had to settle for this meal instead, (YUM) somewhere around $3 US.  I couldn't resist a margarita which brought the total up to $6.

Church of San Francisco, with Volcano in background...beautiful day.

Spanish-style architecture, for which Antigua is famous.  Was the capital of Central America for some time...

Today I spoke with a little girl who was trying to sell me her wares...I engaged her in conversation, though expressing that I simply couldn't buy anything from her not only because I didn't have money but more importantly, didn't have the space in my backpack.  She didn't leave my side for a very long time.  "Do you have a quetzal for me?"  I told her no, sorry I didn't.  And I really didn't, my smallest bill being a 20.  She told me we could walk to the Chicken place, Guatemala's KFC and that she hadn't had anything to eat all day.  I said, "I don't believe that, it's not true."  Can you believe what a hag I can be sometimes?  And even bilingually?  I just hate the lying. 

As if to illustrate my point, later on a man came and sat next to me on the bench where I was reading.  He interrupted me to ask what time it was.  I told him and then we started a conversation about very basic and benign topics and I kept waiting for him to drop the shoe.  And, sure enough, pretty soon I got the 411 on how he had to walk two hours just to get to Antigua, and back home due to some disaster he and his wife and four kids (whom he went so far as to name...classic LIAR) hadn't eaten in three days.  I asked him why didn't he take the bus?  He said, it's 15 Quetzales.  B.S. the bus is way cheaper.  Then I told him that I was so sorry for his problems, but had no money for him.  Then I said the best advice I could offer him is to rely fully on his faith in God and that is really our only hope, no matter what our problems are, thereby trying to engage his "Catholic guilt" and make him feel BAD FOR LYING.  Next, he apologized to me.  Go figure.

I am learning a lot about tactics used to extort money.  Because, kind reader, before you judge me too harshly, this is not the first time I have heard this EXACT STORY.  I have fallen for this approach many many many times.  And have parted with a lot of money, figuring, if this person is lying, then it's on him.  I can't be held responsible, and the way I felt personally -- I would prefer to help just IN CASE they are telling the truth.  I'm changing my opinion on this.  Maybe it's because of the white guy in Cambodia who told Summer and I the sad sad story of how his backpack was stolen, and I was very skeptical and so was Summer, but we both silently decided well IF it's true, jeez we feel for the guy.  We both gave him some money.  Neither of us gave much of course...(and realized later as we discussed it) that there was no WAY that guy had his backpack stolen.  He did look like a backpacker from the waist up, but was filthy dirty disgusting from the waist down especially the bad shoes, telling us about his valuable camera that he loved so much and his wallet and passport.  Our skepticism was confirmed when a couple dudes later told us that guy lived around there, and used the same story ALL THE TIME. 

I feel judged right now, even though I haven't even published yet.  Probably because the last few paragraphs sound like they were written by a huge HAG.  I feel the need to defend myself by sharing that I am not opposed to charitable giving, and I do it, but I ain't gonna talk about it here.

Which leads me to a new half-book-review, more to follow.  I'm reading a book recommended to me by Bridget called "blink".  It's about first impression, or intuitions.  That gut instinct is usually right.  The more information you have, the more muddled your decision will be.  Go with your gut.  It's so good I can't put it down.  Not finished yet, but will review for my cousin Jacqui because she loves my book review so much. 

AFTER my reading in the park, I started to walk back, shopped a little without buying anything, and stopped into a barber shop.  I chatted with the barber about my fear of going into a salon at this stage of my growing-out my hair (because I don't want any hairs cut on top, JUST the back), and he understood me perfectly.  He cut only the tiny section of hairs I asked him to cut, and for only $6 US.  NICE.  Then I thought I got lost trying to get home, but turns out I was heading the right direction the whole time, and that's when I realized I live only three blocks from the central park in the first place.  I walked 10 blocks out of my way to get there in a big huge circle.  My mistake was taking a right out of the hostel instead of a left.  Oh well.  I need the exercise, and Antigua sure is a beautiful city in which to go walking aimlessly.

POSTLUDE:  a note on Hostel dorm room etiquette:  Don't steal other people's beds, you stupid jerk.  If my stuff is on a bed, you are not allowed to move it to another bed and then TAKE A GROSS NAP on my bed and claim it for yourself.  I'm still trying to decide if I will confront?  Nobody does this, people.  Nobody.  It's part of the code.  The hostel dorm room code.

POST to the POSTLUDE:  If you're following my map at the bottom of the page, you may notice that I have added three more countries, upping the grand total to 42!  I get a kick out of that.  Hope you do too.

AND: FINALLY: POST POST POSTLUDE:  the dude didn't move my stuff, the maid did.  I decided not to confront because I thought in the end maybe it was the maid who moved my stuff.  She was totally here when I left, and I used both beds to get ready, since she was changing out sheets...well, anyways.  When he got back from out, he asked, "did this happen to be your bed?" and I said, "did the pile of clothes tip you off?"  He said there was no pile of clothes, we laughed and I explained how glad I was he clarified, since I couldn't believe somebody would be that much of a d-bag.  Then we talked into the wee hours about Latin American History, since he is a graduate student and that is his major.  Interesting stuff, and I had something to contribute, with my vast knowledge of Sandinista history in Nicaragua after I read that one memoir.  ha.  But I learned a lot.  Por ejemplo...his military unit ran sensors over a random ravine on the US/Mexico border and as a result apprehended just the drug runners, not migrants.  How many did they catch?  700 in three weeks.

Book Review

The Country Under My Skin.

By Gioconda Belli, a famous poet born and raised in the highest social class of Managua, Nicaragua. Married young, a new mother, she joined the Sandinistas, a revolutionist movement that eventually overthrew the harsh dictatorship government of the time, led by a bad man named Somoza. She has exciting stories of revolution, like taking crazy plane rides where she had to jump out at the last minute, breaking a heel in the process so the pilot could quick take off again without being detained, others of smuggling weapons and large amounts of cash to help the movement, and tragic stories like the time she, a true Revolutionist, checked into a community hospital instead of a private one, only to be treated like an idiot, and then had the doctor tell her that her baby is dead, no wait, he's alive! oh, sorry, dead, oops, alive again! (The baby lived.) Great way to learn the history of the FSLN in Nicaragua. For example, did you know that (according to the author) Somoza kept and sold much of the aid relief supplies that arrived in the wake of the 1972 earthquake that destroyed Managua, rather than distributing it to the people? Yep, suddenly there was an abundance of FLASHLIGHTS and PORTABLE STOVES that had been donated by other countries but were suddenly for sale at places like tobacco shops owned by Somoza's friends. Oh yah, and he also controlled all cement factories and roofing companies, and so the rebuild efforts proved to be quite a financial boon for him, his family and high-ranking officials. What I didn't like and this might just be me: as I tend to do, I get a little annoyed by the seeming arrogance of the memoirist. She sort of insinuates that all the dudes around her want her. Try to seduce her. Including Fidel Castro.  I think I just recoil from the "all men want me" mentality that some women have.  I kind of forgive her because she uses the claim to make the point that men in positions of power can use it to dominate women. She says, "Power gives [men] a sense of entitlement...That is how they avenge sad childhood or adolescent memories of rejection by demure schoolgirls on playgrounds. That is how they fight back the fear their mothers inspired in them."  Another thing: are you really a feminist if you're constantly talking about falling head-over-heels in love with this or that man? Paralyzed by his absence? Kind of like, we can all say we don't need a man when there isn't one around, but when there is one around, suddenly we're like getting his drinks and making sure he has eaten. I digress.



The Elegance of the Hedgehog.

Adorable, French, tragic. At times a little heavy on the philosophical crap, (it's written by a Philosphy professor) which led me to HATE such books as "Sophie's World", but not enough to ruin this story for me. The narration flip-flops between the viewpoint of Renee, the 'brilliant-but-can't-reveal-it-because-she's-the-concierge' concierge of a bourgeois apartment building in France, and Paloma, a suicidal 12-year-old who lives upstairs. Paloma is also way too smart for her age, which contributes to her desire to end it all. The entire book hovers around the 'will she or won't she' plot, but a glimmer of hope arrives when an intriguing Japanese businessman moves into the building.  I like the critical look inside the way people treat eachother.  Loved this book.



The 19th Wife.

Another flip-flop-narration-style book, this time flipping and flopping between a modern-day murder mystery, set on a fundamentalist Polygamist compound and the fictional [yet supposedly true but I didn't research it] story of Ann Eliza Young, one of Brigham Young's wives (prior to and possibly a big reason for the Mormon church erradicating plural marriage one hundred years ago...again I did not do further research). Good book...though I didn't love the flops over to Ann Eliza's story which I found to be laboriously long if not boring but at the same time slightly interesting from a historical fiction standpoint -- much preferring the modern-day murder mystery. I was very excited to see that Lifetime made it into a movie, but the night it was on I was at my parents' house this summer, and the TIVO was out because we were in the middle of moving, and I didn't make it five minutes because they changed the story so drastically, plus Lifetime movies suck in general. It felt "thrown-together". B for 2, I was more excited about finally having my dad's attention for the evening and so instead I forced my parents to watch the movie "Up" with me as a Family Team Bonding Experience, and so it won out. Incidentally, my mom and I sobbed and sobbed, and I think my dad liked it and at one point I am quite sure I saw a tear in his eye. But then he made sure to let us know that he didn't think it would be possible to lift an entire house with helium balloons and I was like, "DAD, shut UP and watch the movie!" Which is what I ALWAYS have to say to him when we watch movies together, because he never shuts up and watches the movie. He always asks a million questions, as if you will know the answer, even if you both saw the same four seconds of the movie. "What's he doing?", "Why'd they go in there?", "What'd she say?", etc.  There was that one time he was completely silent...the time when I was like seventeen and we turned on the TV and accidentally started watching the Piano sort of in the middle of the movie and watched for a while to figure out what it was about and then SUDDENLY there was a crazy piano sex scene and he and I both didn't have the remote but both didn't want to admit the awkwardness of the fact that we stumbled upon a sex scene on TV and we both froze uncomfortably, on opposite ends of the couch, unable to move or talk or say, "CHANGE IT!", or actually change it and then it was over and we immediately and forever pretended it didn't happen.  I'm pretty sure before that day he didn't know there was such a thing as a "sex scene", since they don't have that on Bonanza.

HA that reminds me my niece Karley posted on facebook that the other day, she was at the mall with her dad and they accidentally ended up in the bra section.  He turned to her and said, "Karley!! I found a ton of two headed hats for you!  I'll buy one if you want!", really loud and they got the heck out of there. 

Kady's Book Club

Books I have read/am currently reading on this trip:

The Thorn Birds / Colleen McColough -- Loved it.  Long amazing epic novel with all the twists and turns.  Plus it mentioned places in New Zealand and Australia where I visited.  Tragic tragic tragedy.  I cried, and then cried some more, all that good stuff.

Flannery O'Connor short stories -- What is this lady, depressed or something?  Her stories are totally bleak and I think I could have gotten more into it if I had been in my cozy basement in front of a fire, instead of trying to have a GOOD TIME on vacation.  Of notable mention was 'A Good Man is Hard to Find'...bleak bleak bleak, not Cormac McCarthy bleak, but bleak enough.

First They Killed My Father -- Super good, but a sad and gutwrenching account of a little girl whose family lived in Cambodia in 1975 when the crap hit the fan and the Khmer Rouge started killing doctors and lawyers and people with glasses and everybody who used to be involved with the previous government, including the little's girls dad who was a police officer.  Then they forced everybody to work on farms and rice fields and starved them into working extra hard so they could ship off the rice to China in exchange for weapons.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan / Lisa See -- A book about Chinese footbinding and man oh man the disgusting description of the footbinding is worth the whole read.  And at the end there's a nice lesson for anybody who has ever had a friend.  Woman-abuse at it's finest.  Thanks, China.

The Bible -- trying to read it all in one year. Not finished yet, obviously.  Too slow at times, too fast at others, but overall I give it a thumbs-up.

Bastard out of Carolina / Dorothy Allison -- sad little tale of a girl in the South whose momma marries the WRONG dude.  Seriously the wrong dude.

A Child Called It -- yikes. Hope you like abuse and neglect, and poor writing/publishing/editing.  Nuff said.  I didn't like this book.  Forgive me for saying this, but it could have been horrible-r.  If the writer was any good at writing.  I wanted to feel bad for him, really I did.  But I kept noticing editing mistakes where I should have been noticing burning on the stovetop and starvation and abusive alcoholic parenting.

Zeitoun / Dave Eggers -- A fair to middlin' book about Hurricane Katrina.  If you're a Dave Eggers fan, you'll love it, but if you're not, I feel dumb 'recommending' this book.  It's good, but not AWESOME.  Good points: great storytelling, and might help an ignorant American like myself understand what a Hijab is and why not all Muslims are what you might have thought they were. 

Sanctuary / William Faulkner -- I consider myself to be of average intelligence, but keeping all of the characters straight in this knockout of a story was difficult.  Too many characters get introduced and Faulkner will call somebody by their name in one sentence and call them 'the man' in the next and you never know he's talking about the same dern person.  Great book, not a 'light read' by any means.  Save this one for the middle of winter when you're snowed in.  And prepare to get very angry with a certain character named Gowan, and another one named Temple, though it really wasn't her fault.

Love on the Rocks / Victoria Henry -- was desperate for a book and traded for this one.  Absolute rubbish, indulgent rubbish.  Do not read this book.  Unless you want to be caught up in a naughty little light beach read that you won't be able to put down, that is.  I hated it.  And I loved it.  Don't read it.  Here's the cliff notes:

Lisa, a beautiful 5'2" curvy beauty, storms off her modeling job.  She is sick of being hit on all the time.  George, a successful and gorgeous businessman, storms off HIS job.  He is sick of screwing over the little man, and having to grin and bear it.  Turns out Lisa is George's girlfriend and the two of them decide to leave for a weekend at the oceany coast of England and end up choosing a run down hotel called 'The Rocks' because it's raining really hard and they have no other choice.  They fall in love with the place, and decide to buy it.  But Bruno, a rich local wanted to buy it.  But they buy it.  George's WIFE Victoria Snow shows up with her daughter, destitute because her boyfriend throws them out, penniless.  We didn't know George was married, and we hate this woman and her impetuousness.  But soon we realize that Victoria and George really do belong together, especially after she gets PREGNANT and then jilted Lisa falls in love with Bruno, and they buy out George's interest in the newly renovated and wildly successful 'The Rocks' hotel.  Oh, and in an annoying subplot Bruno's brother Joe accidentally dies after HE has an affair with a girl and gets HER pregnant, and she tells nobody until the baby is two years old, but everybody's happy because they miss Joe so much and now he has a SON!  The End.

Oh, and because of that STUPID INSIPID book, I have had "Love on the rocks...what a surprise....do ditty do...look in your eyes" in my head for TWO WEEKS!

Benson

I have a friend who is a waiter at the cafe next to the internet place where I am right now.

His name is Benson and he is Rasta. From Johannesburg. Anyway, he's very chill (S.A. for laid-back) and I like him. Today he told me that politics put his father in the ground. He was of the wrong party I guess and they burned down his shopping center and killed him.

I am currently reading "What is the What" by Dave Eggers. Such a good book, but very sad, about the lost boys of the Sudan. Please pick it up. Kasey and Alason, I dont know who's pick it is for book club, but I insist on butting in with this one.





Anyway, I am so over politics and governments and I'm so glad to be away from the campaigns right now!!! It's pretty refreshing not to be bombarded with it, although S.A. has it's own problems. I just feel nice not currently having a country. A lone wolf, ha!

And here is the lone wolf now: