My Thoughts: A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo

I brought this book when it very first was released and was a feature of many reviews, it then sat on the shelves looking lonely since.
The book is a journal of a Chinese student, Z during her year long visit to England. As the book starts she is entering England and is shocked by the things around her - the expense, the food, the lack of friendliness. One night sitting alone in the cinema she is smiled at by a man, by the end of the evening she has falle in love and she has invited herself to live with him. This relationship then adds to her mix of emotions, not only does she have to fit into a new country but also a new relationship in which nothing is certain, for she has fallen in love with a drifter, a man who can make no commitment.
The language starts off in very stark broken English, but as the book progresses her English improves vastly with only a few mistakes popping up. She also has a dictionary definition at the start of each chapter and it becomes apparent how words we use everyday are not clearly defined in a dictionary - they have nuances which cannot or have not been defined.
A great read.
Challenges:
Orbis Terrarum
999 (TBR)
Rescue Challenge

Sunday Salon: Travelling from the Sofa

Africa - Sudan
Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih

A young man returns to his village after many years and finds that a stranger has moved into town and managed to work his way into the tightly knit community who are normally wary of strangers. In this place where each persons heritage is known the stranger is a rarity, it isn't even known from which village he comes from.
When he finally meets the stranger he becomes obsessed, the stranger suddenly talks to him in well-spoken English,revealing at first a small part of his past.
The past is revealed in more detail when we discover that the stranger had been taken to court and held on the charge of murdering his own wife, and being the named cause of the suicide of many of English women. When the stranger suddenly disappears into the floods one night, feared dead, the obsession doesn't end it only becomes stronger.
Challenges:
999 (tbr + Arfican reads)
Orbis


Japan
Crossing Midnight by Mike Carey, Jim Fern and Mark Pennington
This fantastic graphic novel tells the story of twins Kai and Toshi. During the mothers pregnancy the father promised a sacrifice in payment for the birth of a healthy child. Unknown to him (and the doctors) his wife was expecting twins.
Boisterous children they quickly learn that Toshi is incapable of coming to harm through knifes and sharp objects. This knowledge leads her to be brave, disobedient and confident unlike her brother Kai.
One night Toshi wakes up to find a large man, surrounded by hovering knives leaning over her, he demands that she is his, the payment for the sacrifice her father made. When she refuses to go with him her dog is dismembered into tons of pieces. The creatures keep returning and the payments for refusal get higher, Kai ends up fighting to save the whole family from the instrusion of these mythical creatures.
This is my first violent graphic novel, I tend to stick to memoirs, and I really enjoyed it. At the back of the book the author writes about Japanese mythology and folklore which has made me want to discover more.
Challenges:
Graphic Novel
Japanese Literature Challenge
Orbis Terrarum


America (and the spiritual world)
A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb

I picked up this book because the cover resembled the fantastic Siobhan Dowd novel
A Pure Swift Cry, I had no idea what the book was going to be about as the synopsis is written in a pale blue against a moss green background making it hard to read.
The ovel starts with Helen, a Light, a ghost trapped on earth. She is doomed to walk the earth following a host - a person she has chosen as a life line, if she moves away from this person she feels herself being pulled into hell.
Helen follows after Mr Brown, an English teacher and is always present in his life, unbeknown to him, until she realises that a pupil can see her. The pupil James, was also a light until he learnt how to inhabit the body of a dead soul.
The pair join up and quickly become tied to each other, they struggle with their own lives plus the lives of the host body they have come to inhabit.
I haven't done this justice at all, this is a great read - its intense, gripping and your pulled right into their world. (YA for older teens).
Challenges:
YA 2009
A-Z (Name)

Orbis Terrarum Short Story Mini Challenge: Finishing Europe

visited 7 states (3.11%)
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I've got into a bit of a rut with this so thought I needed to give myself a push and finish Europe so I can get to Africa, I have a lovely looking collection of North African stories sitting ready to be read.

After having been to France, Germany, Poland and Prague I now need to head in the direction of Africa.

First stop Austria:
Country Doctor by Franz Kafka
The local Doctor is called out to an emergency in the middle of a freeing snowy night, going outside he discovers his own horse has died from the cold. He sends out the maid to search for another horse, although no locals will lend a horse the maid brings back a stranger with a horse led carriage. What does the stranger want in return? The maid.
The story then grows strange with the doctor rushing off to the patient and everyone waiting for the diagnosis. I'll let you read it to discover how it ends - you'll find a free online copy if you click the title.

Next stop Italy:
We're taking a different route this time and reading an Italian fairytale, 'Parsley Girl' taken from Angela Carter's Book of Fairy Tales.

In the middle of the winter a woman has cravings for Parsley, none can be found any where except in the Holy Sisters' Garden. She first went and took a sprig, and then some more or the third visit she took a whole handful, it was then that she was approached by a nun who said:
' "Take all the parsley you want, but when you've had your baby you must call him Parsley-Boy if he's a boy or Parsley-Girl if she's a girl, and when your baby grows up you must give it to us. That is the price of your parsley." '
The mother thought nothing of this until one day the girl was snatched from the garden and taken by the 'nuns' to make a casserole.
The main ingredient of the casserole? Parsley-girl. The nuns were witches in disguise. As with all good fairytales the spritly child finds a way to overcome the witches and become the hero of the tale.

A quick pit-stop in France:
Take from the same fairytale anthology is the French version of 'Little Red Riding Hood.'
The traditional fairytales originally were told by adults for adults, they are bawdy and far more violent than the Disneyfied version that we know today. This version of Little Red follows that story we know till the end when Little Red takes off her clothes and jumps into bed next to the wolf disguised as her gradmother. After all the 'What big .... you have...' lines the Wolf 'threw himself upon Little Red Riding Hood and gobbled her up too.'

The final destination, Spain:
Another fairytale this is one that I found by doing a Google search The Water of Life.
Two brothers and their sisters decide to better their lives by building a palace. After a party to celebrate their beautiful palace a young man tells them the the palace is missing something: the water of life, a beautiful tree and a singing bird and the only way to get these things is to go up the mountain.
The eldest sets off leaving a knife behind which will shine if he is well and be covered in blood if he is not. Half way up the mountain he meets a giant and asks for directions, he is told:
'Many have passed by seeking those treasures, but none have ever come back; and you will never come back either, unless you mark my words. Follow this path, and when you reach the mountain you will find it covered with stones. Do not stop to look at them, but keep on your way. As you go you will hear scoffs and laughs behind you; it will be the stones that mock. Do not heed them; above all, do not turn round. If you do you will become as one of them. Walk straight on till you get to the top, and then take all you wish for.'
The next day the knife is bloody. The next brother decides to go and rescue his brother, but he befalls the same fate. Finally the sister decided to take her chance on the moutain and she is much more successful having followed the giants orders.

This challenge is still open for people to join, if you fancy reading 10 short stories from 10 different coutries come and sign up here

The Sunday Salon: Bog Child by Siobhan Dowd

One more week of school left before the holidays start - lets hope that this week my patience goes back up to its normal high level, the kids were made last week, swine flu arrived in school and the teachers were all on a short fuse.
This week I have to be observed teaching my weakest class, last week they became unbearable - they scwabble, answer back and cry at the slightest thing. I've also taught them all of the curriculum so have no idea what I will be teaching them in 13hours! Wednesday I'm off to a theme park with 300+ kids lets hope the weather improves!

I had a lazy afternoon finishing Siobhan Dowd's Bog Child, a book I was asked to read as the resisdent YA/Childrens book reader in the department - we're looking for new books to teach, I made my recommendations and then was given this to consider.
The Republic of Ireland is at a pinnacle moment in its history, bombs are going of and the political prisioners are on a hunger strike.
18 year old Fergus' brother is in prison on political charges, his mum is praying for his release and his safety, his Dad is busy drinking the town on the edge of the border is in turmoil as more and more of its young men are caught up in the troubles. Fergus has a lot going on, he is in the middle of his A Level exams and then while digging illegally on the other side of the border he discovers the Bog Child, Mel. Her body has been preserved by the marshy ground. Cora and her mother tun up to determine Mel's origins and the cause of her death and love errupts for Fergus.
I loved this novel, there does seem to be way too much going on in this boys life though, I'm not sure how he managess to stay sane. Alongside the story of Fergus Mel's voice creeps through into his sub-conscious and we discover more and more about her life.
This book just like Dowd's A Swift Pure Cry is well worth a read for both adults and teenagers.

Challenges:
YA 2009
Orbis Terrarum
999 (New Fiction)

My Thoughts: The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera

After saying yesterday that my reading had slowed down I polished of The Whale Rider in an hour last night. This kids book focuses on Maori New Zealanders, living between the traditions of their cultures and the fast paced world around them.
Kahu came into the world a girl, a fact that greatly disappointed her grandfather, he desired a male grandchild to keep the Maori language and beliefs alive with the new generations. Kahu, desperate for her grandfather's attention sneaks into the lessons he gives deliving cultural knowledge and langauge to the local boys. Despite being always under his feet her grandfather doesn't see the power Kahu inside her until fate intervenes and she is forced to act.
A great read for kids, made me want to learn more about the Maori culture
Challenges:
A-Z (Author)
999 (YA)
Young Adults 2009
Orbis Terrarum

My Thoughts: Then by Morris Gleitzman

Then is the follow up to Once, a book I read a good year or so ago, a book that I thought was amazing. Then is a good read, but not as good as the first.
The Story: Felix and Zelda are on the run, they have escaped from a train taking them to a concentration camp. Running through the Polish countryside they meet Genia, they become new people with new identities and new pasts.
What I liked: Although its a kids book the war is not softened and the truth isn't locked away.
What I didn't like: In the opening of the book I was frustrated by the amount of scenarios they managed to wiggle out of. I had to keep reminding myself theis is a book for 9 year olds.

Challenges:
Orbis Terrarum
War Through The Generations

Orbis Terrarum 2009: Short Story Mini Challenge: Prague

I'm continuing my armchair travels and have moved on to the next country on my way Prague.
An Odd Story by Karel Tichy can be found here at the wonderful Words Without Borders.
This story focuses on the transformation of families due to the persecution of the Jewish in the Old Czech Republic.
Karl is brought up in his fathers shop, successful but with a wealth that is hidden and never spoken of. His German nanny and housekeeper secretly Christians him. When the war strikes his parents are forced onto trains destined for the concentration camps, but Karl stays, changing his name, to live with his German nanny.

Where else have I been:
France
Germany
Poland


visited 4 states (1.77%)
Create your own visited map of The World or jurisdische veraling duits?

Want to join me in this mini challenge? Look here

A Graphic Novel Trio

y

Orbiter by Warren Ellis and Collen Doran
This really wasn't my cup of tea, way too sci-fi.
Venture, a space mission which went missing 10 years ago suddenly lands back on earth, one astronaut has survived the other 7 are missing. And the space ship is covered in a layer of skin!
Very random and full of science stuff that went straight over my head, I must have been suduced by the pretty colours on the cover when I picked this up because it was never going to be my thing.



Aya by Marguerite Abouet and Clement Oubrerie
Set on the Ivory Coast in the 1970's when the country was experiencing an economical boom: the city florished, education was of a high standard and life was a lot easier than it had ever been.
Aya is hardworking, she concentrates on school while her friends spend their evenings out partying trying to attract the next man. Despite Aya's warnings her friends meet their boyfriends in the 'night city' - the empty benches of the market. Parents are concerned with finding the best (richest) husband for their child.
Gorgeous illustations.

Read for Graphic Novel Challenge, YA, Olympic Challenege, Orbis Terrarum



The Wasteland by Martin Rowson
I was really concerned when I picked this up that this fella may do a disparity to my favorite poem. Luckily he stayed fairly well away from the poem.
The graphic novel is apparently based losely on TS Eliot's The Wasteland and Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep (which I haven't read). The story is about a cops hunt for his partner's murderer in the murky underground of the city.
It was okay, nothing to scream home about, odd character references and titles from the poem came into play but not in a big way.

My Thoughts: The Bonesetter's Daughter

Synopsis: Ruth is struggling in America with her life, her ungrateful step kids and boyfriend, a busy life and her mothers constant put downs. Gradually Ruth realises that her mother is becoming more and more forgetful, and a doctor diagnoses Altzimers. Whilst searching her mother's house she discovers a manuscript her mother had written in Chinese about her childhood, the husband and mother her own daughter had never known she had.

What I liked: I prefered the section in China, discovering how mothers of illegitimate children were treated and the simple tone of this section of the novel.

What I didn't like: The rushed simplistic ending, felt like everything suddenly was fixed and perfect which seemed unrealistic in the situation.

Challenges:
Orbis Terrarum
999 (tbr)

Orbis Terrarum Short Story Mini Challenge: Poland

visited 3 states (1.33%)
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So far I journeyed from France to Germany and now I'm setting foot in Poland. As the last two stories have been classics I thought I'd mix things up a little and read a modern story I found here at the wonderful Words Without Borders

The Knight by Olga Tokarczuk
This is a strange story, its about being in a relationship and both knowing that everything isn't working, that your out of synch, both alone and yet neither person is able to break the relationship up.
The couple go away to a cold cottage beside the sea, a fairly good description of their relationship, cold but locked tight trying to keep out the truth that is battering them every second they are together.
Its a simple story but worth reading for the detail, the small things that manypeople will be able to empathise with having been at that point too.

The Sunday Salon: Short Story review and other related stuff

It's been a strange old day weather wise here in England, this morning was raining so hard and cold I put the heating on, then I popped to the supermarket and boiled, the sun had dried all the puddles in a matter of hours and now the sky looks just about ready to burst again.
In terms of reading I seem to be falling really behind again, I joined a new gym and have been spending more time there than at the last one, I had a reading funk for a while and I have so many reading commitments I'm reading 4 or 5 books at one and have a massive pile that needs tackling.
This week I'll hopefully finish: an audiobook The Absolutely True Story of a Part Time Indian (fantastic), Inkheart (fantastic), The Lost Dog (mmm haven't got into it yet and its a bookring so need to speed up), The Hard Facts of the Grimm Fairy Tales (due back to the library next weekend) and The Bonesetter's Daughter (a bookcrossing read-a-long that finishes Saturday).
I also didn't realise that Carl's Once Upon a Time Challenge finished in June, I was convinced it was July so I have to finish Inkheart plus 2 other books for that in the next 2 weeks!


visited 2 states (0.88%)
Create your own visited map of The World or Like this? try: The Next President

The Orbis Terratum Short Story Mini Challenge as some of you may have read I'm hosting this mini challenge for Bethany's Orbis Terrarum challenge. Participants need to read 10 short stories from 10 different countries, between June 1st and Sept 1st. Prizes will be avaliable at the end of the challenge.
As I like to test myself I'm trying to see how far around the world I can get. Today I'm visiting Germany the second country on my travels.

How Old Timofei Died with a Song by Rainer Maria Rilke
Opening line: "What a real joy it is to tell stories to a paralyzed person."
The narrator in this tale reguarly tells stories to a local paralysed man. In this story she tells him how in the past stories where alive, they were kept alive by being passed orally from person to person, commited to memory and passed along to the next generation. The narrator claims that once a story is no longer remembered and can only be told through reading it in a book it is no longer alive.
Timofei was the villages storyteller, he remembered all the oldest stories and went through the town passing on stories to everyone in hearing distance, when Timofei had children only oe of them had the gift of storytelling, the others like the others in the village forgot what they had been told. Timofei saw it as his sole responsilbilty to pass on each and every story to his son so the community's stories could still live on.

I'm looking for more participants, so if you'd like to join a challenge that you could complete in a day or use to take you on your travels this summer see here for further details


See what I read when I 'visited' France here

A Fraction of a Whole, Steve Toltz

This is one of last years Booker Nominees which I'm still trying to read through! The novel is a sons account of living with a father who is livig in the shadow of his dead brother. Sounds confusing, huh! Terry Dean became a national hero despite being a serial killer, he took it to himself to rid the sporting world of cheats and was killed whilst in prison.
His brother, Martin, had a pretty strange life, even without the murderous brother, he spent 7 years of his childhood in a coma, travelled the world, fathered and 'looked after' our narrator, rarely worked, ended up being sectioned then tried to make Australia a country of millionaires. And then became Australia's most hated man.
As you can see from above, Martin's son Jasper had a pretty strange background he writes the novel telling his own story within that of his father's.

According to Amazon this is the book they felt should win, I still haven't read White Tiger (It's waiting on a shelf). I loved the first 500 pages, the text was fast paced and amusing but then it started to drag. Last night I decided just to skim read the last 150 pages. I still loved the characters and wated to know what happened, but I didn't need the detail - and things were getting far fetched even for this book.
I'm glad I read it, but I feel the 720 pages could be edited down by a good 200 pages. Anyone else read this? What did you think?

Challenges:
Booker
A-Z (Title)
Chunkster Challenge
Orbis Terrarum
999 (New Book)

My Thoughts: A Fraction of a Whole by Steve Toltz

This is one of last years Booker Nominees which I'm still trying to read through! The novel is a sons account of living with a father who is livig in the shadow of his dead brother. Sounds confusing, huh! Terry Dean became a national hero despite being a serial killer, he took it to himself to rid the sporting world of cheats and was killed whilst in prison.
His brother, Martin, had a pretty strange life, even without the murderous brother, he spent 7 years of his childhood in a coma, travelled the world, fathered and 'looked after' our narrator, rarely worked, ended up being sectioned then tried to make Australia a country of millionaires. And then became Australia's most hated man.
As you can see from above, Martin's son Jasper had a pretty strange background he writes the novel telling his own story within that of his father's.

According to Amazon this is the book they felt should win, I still haven't read White Tiger (It's waiting on a shelf). I loved the first 500 pages, the text was fast paced and amusing but then it started to drag. Last night I decided just to skim read the last 150 pages. I still loved the characters and wated to know what happened, but I didn't need the detail - and things were getting far fetched even for this book.
I'm glad I read it, but I feel the 720 pages could be edited down by a good 200 pages. Anyone else read this? What did you think?

Challenges:
Booker
A-Z (Author)
Chunkster Challenge
Orbis Terrarum
999 (New Books)

My Thought: Mendel's Daughter by Martin Lemelman

Well I haven't posted in a while, I'm in the middle of reading 3 books and listening to 2 audiobooks and not getting anywhere, this is mainly due to revision. I sat my exam yesterday (blah!) so now I can try and catch up with everything I need to read - I have a stack of library books and bookcrossing bookrings that have to be read asap, plus lots of challenges that need tackling.
Today I thought I'd tick a library book off the list, so I started with this Graphic Novel Memoir, which is a subgenre I've discovered in the last year and really enjoyed.

Mendel's Daughter is written and illustrated by Martin Lemelman. When his mother was nearing the end of her life he asked her to talk about her experiences of life as a Jewish person during the war, he recorded her thoughts. He created this graphic novel using those thoughts, his illustrations and family photographs.
The mother's tale is intimate and allows the reader to get a glimse at life at this time. The illustrations are lovingly produced and the use of family photographs is a touching addition. I tried to find some images from the book to share but no luck, you'll just have to go borrow a copy from the library ;)
Challenges:
A-Z (Title)
In Their Shoes 4/4
Orbis Terrarum (Poland) 10/12
999 (Non-Fiction) 33/81
Non-Fiction Five 1/5
Graphic Novel Challenge 7/12

My Thoughts: The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani

Today was a bank holiday in England so rather than doing the planned list of things that are desperately calling my name, I curled up and read this in its entirety.

The Blood of Flowers is written in the first person, the young girl tells the tale of her teenage years living in 17th Century Iran.
The book opens with the fortelling of a bad year brought by the arrival of a comet to the skies. The comet's fate leaves her father dead, and her and her mother fated to live a poor relatives in an unknown city in that vital year that she should be marrying.
After moving to the city of Isfahan the girl ad her mother are fated to servitude and compliance at the hands of distant rich relatives. Whilst their the girl is able to work on her skills as a carpet maker under the guidance of her uncle, the Shah's main carpet maker.
Being headstrong and defiant she upsets the rich relatives and has no choice but to have a sigheh - a 3 month long marriage - to a rich man. A man that helps her discover a world she never knew.
She then has to make that fatal decision stay with the rich man and gain his favours to keep her and her mother from poverty's grip or chance life as a carpet maker.
This tale is gripping and is interspresed with Iranian fables, told to explain the fates, would be good as a holiday read. My only problem with the novel was that the young girl was far too modern, she stood up to men, was defiant and bold all things which surely in 17th Century Iran wouldn't have been allowed, and would have been stopped by her parets long before she got to the age of 14.

Challenges:
Orbis Terrarum
Olympic Challenge
Chunkster Challenge

Exploration: Latin American Fiction Challenge Round Up

I've had a hectice week so this is later than expected (by a couple of days!)
I fiished my last couple of books for the Latin American Challenge this week. Firstly I read Love in the Time of Cholera, I brought this book about 8 or 9 years ago after I first read and loved One Hundred Years of Solitude. I then read a few pages of this, thought it wasn't might type of thing and it got relegated onto the bookshelves to gather dust.
This time I picked it up willing to give it more of a chance and loved it. The book starts with the death of two elderly men, both in perculiar circumstances. One of the men is the husband of the main character of the novel. As a young girl she sent countless love letters to a young man, whom she secretly agreed to marry. After her father found out about the proposal he banned them from seeing each other forever and see eventually married another. He on the other hand swore to marry her when her husband died. The love story and all that happens in their lives in between is mesmerising. I really must read more of Marquez.
Also used as a challenge book for:
A-Z (Title)
1%
1001 Challenge
Orbis Terrarum
999 (1001)
What's in a Name (Medical Condidtion)
Guardian 1000


Then I read The Aguero Sisters by Cristina Garcia. This book started off slowly but picked up after 70 odd pages. The novel tells the story of two sisters brought up seperately - because the elder child kept trying to kill her younger sibling, as her mother had emotionally abandoned her in favour of a new life. The sisters are brought together again during their mid-life crisis. One lives in poverty striken Cuba, in the middle of the revoluionary campaign whilst the other lives in New York. Their mothers mysterious death, followed by their father's suicide leaves them both unstable. Full of magical realism this is definately a good example of Latin American Fiction.
Also Used for these challenges:
Orbis Terrarum
999 (TBR)

I also read Bel Canto and The House of Spirits, I loved 3 of them and enjoyed the other - The Aguero Sisters.

Other Challengers Books:
Ex Libris
Malinche by Laura Esquivel Reviewed by Ex Libris
In the Time of Butterflies by Julia Alveraz, Reviewed by Richard
Battles in the Desert by Jose Emillio Pacheco
Amulet by Roberto Bolana
The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis


Anyone else with reviews or wrap up posts please comment here and I'll add it to the page.

Dewey's 24 hour read-a-thon: An Elegy for Easterly by Petina Gappah

Pages read total: 751 (+ 66 pages of picture books)
Books read: Finished Bel Canto by Ann Pratchett, read What I Was by Meg Rosoff, The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway, An Elgy for Easterly, Mrs Biddlebox (pic book) and The Viewer by Gary Crew
Total reading time: approx 12 hours


I woke up fairly tired this morning after 4 hours sleep but picking up this book soon had me awake and interested again.

An Elegy for Easterly is a collection of short stories all revolving around different people from Zimbabwe, people of all classes suffering from similar problems.
Presidents wifes left to suffer after the husband dies of AIDS, families cheated by neighbours who borrow money to eascpe to the Western World, women unable to have children who are judged by all, families seeing yet another young daughter marrying a man with AIDS who has already buried two wifes.
The themes are recurring: AIDS, deception, corruption, the black market and the ever increasing prices and political promises that can reck a nation.
I never read short stories one after another as I find that they merge into one another, but with this collection each character was held seperately in my mind, each life story complete in itself.
A collection I would definately recommend to others.

Challenges:
2009 Pub Challenege
100 Shots of Short
A-Z Title
Orbis Terrarum
999 (African Reads and short story collection)
Olympic Challenge

My Thoughts: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Another 1001 book ticked off the list. This tiny book, only 147 pages tells of one day in the life of a Russian prisoner. One good day in his life.
The prisoners are subjected to working outside for 11 hours a day at -11 degrees, the men have little to keep them warm and have to strive to keep every morsel of food and clothing to themselves.
The men work together like a family, constantly trying to scrape something extra for themselves at the risk of being put in confinment.
Challenges:
999 (1001)
Nobel Prize
Olympic Challenge: Russia
A-Z (Title)
1% Well Read Challenge
Orbis Terrarum
Through the Decades (1960s)
Lost in Translation
Guardian 1000 novels

My Thoughts: The Gum Thief by Douglas Coupland

I'm bogged down in Bookring reads at the moment, you sign up to read a book in the space of four weeks and don't see a bookring book for ages and then 6 appear at once, hopefully they'll fit into challenges so I don't get too far behind.

The Gum Thief, will be my second Canadian read for the Canadian Reading challenge, this would be great but the challenge finishes in July and I'm so unlikely to even make it halfway!

I read Microserf's last year so I was ready for the quirky style of this novel. Roger, a wannabe novelist, divorcee and all roud depressed guy works at Staples and spends his time drinking out in the loading bay and most importantly writing his diary. Bethany his co-worker finds his diary and starts to read, then realises that he often writes his diary entries as if he is her writing a diary. After this discovery she starts adding letters to the diary and the two form a friendship on paper. The novel is told mainly through these letters and the odd notes sent by other people in their world.
Alongside this we also have instalments of Roger's first attempt at a novel, Glove Pond , a random story about an alcoholic couple who are in a major crisis with their lives, and also Bethany's attempts to write a descriptive piece of the life of a piece of toast. Yes I said it was quirky and I meant it.

This was a nice easy read for the weekend, and while it was mainly humourous their were lots of insights into the dark side of the characters lives.

Challenges:
A-Z (Title)
Orbis Terratum (Extra list)
The 2nd Canadian Reading Challenge
What's in a Name? (Profession)

My Thoughts: Sky Burial by Xinran

At just 168 pages I didn't expect this book to include as much as it did. The novel is a story the author tells about the life of a wonderful woman she once met briefly. The Chinese women Shu Wen falls madly in love with another doctor, they marry as he is off to help the Chinese army in their trip into Tibet. Going along as the medical aid rather than a fighter doesn't seem all that dangerous, yet 100 days into her marriage and Wen's husband is dead. What is worse, the army have no body to send back to be buried or any details of how her husband died.
Wen decides to join the army herself as a medical aid, in order to be able to travel to Tibet and try to discover just what happened to her husband. Just a few days into her travels in Tibet Wen is seperated from the army and with a rich Tibetan woman she finds herself in the wilderness of Tibet, staying with a Tibetan family who survive from the land and move from place to place according to the season and their needs.
I loved the insight that was given into this society and culture, Tibet is one of those countries that I caould name on a map and know that there are problems with China but that is about it. Since reading this book I have an urge to discover more about the history, people and culture of Tibet - through both novels and non-fiction. If anyone has any recommendations share them here.

Challenges:
A-Z (Author)
Orbis Terrarum
Lost in Translation (from Chinese)