TSS: Better late than never

Hello everyone!, I'm posting a bit late today, but I just got carried away with my reading :). As you may noticed I started reading The Time Traveler's Wife last week. I was reading slowly, calmly, and then today I finally got some time in my hands and well, here's what happen:

 

So...yeah...I kind of just realized that is almost 10pm here, which is not that late, but the day was almost over, and I remembered I wanted to post today, at least something.

Anyway, reading has been good this last week, whit everything in order, I finally managed to go back into reading, without being exhausted. I finished and reviewed Cain, I posted another discussion, and we even got sometime today to go read in the park/work a bit on my tan ;). I even found this cute image that shows part of what books are according to me. 

Right now, the moment I left my chair, someone else was interested on the book I'm reading:

 I hope you guys have a wonderful weekend, the review for The Time Traveler's Wife should be up this week.

 

I just thought I should share this with you guys...

Caín by José Saramago

Book Summary (from Goodreads.com)

In this, his last novel, José Saramago daringly re-imagines the characters and narratives of the Old Testament, recalling his provocative The Gospel according to Jesus Christ. His tale runs from the Garden of Eden, when God realizes he has forgotten to give Adam and Eve the gift of speech, to the moment when Noah's Ark lands on the dry peak of Ararat. Cain, the despised, the murderer, is Saramago's protagonist.

Condemned to wander forever after he kills his brother Abel, Cain makes his way through the world in the company of a personable donkey. He is a witness to and participant in the stories of Isaac and Abraham, the destruction of the Tower of Babel, Moses and the golden calf, the trials of Job. The rapacious Queen Lilith takes him as her lover. An old man with two sheep on a rope crosses his path. And again and again, Cain encounters a God whose actions seem callous, cruel, and unjust. He confronts Him, he argues with Him. "And one thing we know for certain," Saramago writes, "is that they continued to argue and are arguing still."

A startling book- sensual, funny- in all ways a fitting end to Saramago's extraordinary career

My Review

Now, why did it take me so long to finish the book? I mean 9 days! Well…did I mention I moved? I’m sick and tired of this excuse, but is true, the last 2 books I read took me forever, but that’s just because I needed my sleep, badly! But let’s go the reviewing, shall we?

This is the third book I read from Saramago, and I think we can safely say that I like his style. I realize that the absence of paragraphs, the dialogues that are not visually separated, etc, are not for everyone, but I think once you get used to it, you can read it as any other book.

The story starts, not with Cain and Abel, but with Adam and Eve, this is the first time Saramago presents to us his version of god, one that will talk to his creations just as you and I would talk. Then, as most of us know, they get kicked out of Paradise, and after several years Cain, Abel and Seth come to the scene. 

After killing his brother, Cain is punished by god with a mark in his forehead and he is condemned to wander. The trick is that he won’t wonder just around, he will travel “in time” from biblical story to biblical situation. He will fall in love with Lilith, he will stop Abraham before killing his only son and he will be there in Noah’s Ark. 

All through the book, Cain will criticize god, for his acts, his reasoning, etc. He even points out that this god that everyone is following is a jealous god, full of anger and grudges. There is a moment when he is talking with god and the later says:

                “Some deny my existence […] they are out of my law, of my reach, I cannot touch them”.

If it hasn’t been obvious to you by reading his prior books, this should be clear enough. Saramago is quite critical of the image that Catholic Church gives people to believe in. I haven’t read The Gospel according to Jesus Christ but in Death without interruptions you can already see a lot of critics, not only to society itself (also a recurrent theme in his work) but to the church itself.  Through Cain’s voice Saramago even accuses god to be “crazy and without a conscious”

I like the book a lot. I know it doesn’t necessarily show when you consider how long it took me (again people, I needed to sleep!) It was quirky, funny, satirical…it was fun to read, even though I kept feeling my grandma wouldn’t like me enjoying the book so much (she is really attached to the church still).

I loved the following sentence:

“Progress […] is inevitable, fatal as death. And life”

 

Every time that I read one of his books, I end up with a list of sentences that stuck to me, and that’s good, that means (for me) that the book went deeper inside of you than you thought. However, I don’t think it was as good as Death with Interruptions, and that’s why this one is getting one mushroom less. I think is a lovely way to finish an amazing career, short and sweet

Hardcover or Paperback

OMG, it's been so long since I had time to write a discussion! Right now I'm still at the lab (lately is either here or at home, I swear I'm just watching the summer pass by through a window) but I have a long incubation, so I can take some time off.

I was discussing the other day with my boyfriend and some friends about our views on paperbacks vs hardcover books. Personally, I like both, but I don't mind having a paperback instead of the hardcover because it takes less space in my bag and (usually) weights less too. Also, and as a student this is something I cannot neglect, they tend to be less expensive. I think it doesn't really matter, since the story is the same, and that's what I want in a book, a good story.

My boyfriend on the other hand, prefers hardcovers. He just likes them better. But to be fair, he rarely reads outside home, and when we do, we go to a park and we just put both books in a bag carefully.

So what about you guys? Hardcover or Paperback?

TSS: Making decisions

Hello everybody, How was your week? My was busy, busy. The weather is gorgeous outside, and yet I spent 4 hours Saturday and Sunday in the lab, working...I'm grateful my experiments are going well, but why can't I make my cells take the week-end off?

Anyway, I'm reading Cain, from Jose Saramago, and I think I will be done soon, but as the end of the book approached and I was looking at my To read list of 2012 I realized I have a bunch of books in my library that should make it into that list too. And then I panicked, I thought about my reading challenge this year, and which books should I choose from the bunch to accomplish this challenge, and how I also wanted to read others, and....long story short, I realize I can't keep a steady "to read" list in a short term. I decided then to just have a "Reading Soon" list, of the books I'm most eager to read. I think I will still make it into my challenge, but I will feel less guilty (guilty with myself, but that's the worst kind) if I read outside of the list.

So that's it for the week (I know, not much, but I'm afraid right now my thesis is taking all priorities)

Have a great week,

 

The Gospel of Damascus by Omar Imady

I got this book through LibraryThing Early Reviewers and here is my review

Book Summary (from Goodreads.com)

The Gospel of Damascus is an eschatological novel that weaves sacred traditions to tell the story of eight angels who identify and prepare Yune Bukhari, a Damascene man born to a Christian mother and Muslim father, to be one of the successors to the Disciples of Christ. The preparation process is complex and entails spiritual and sensual experiences which Yune must successfully undergo. Guiding the preparation process are golden scrolls which can only be opened at very specific dates. The story appears to culminate on Christmas Eve 1999 when Yune, along with his co-disciples, believe Christ will return. Yune is shattered when Christ fails to descend on the White Tower east of Damascus. But thirty-three years later, the preparation of Yune is over and he is finally permitted to witness the event he had anticipated for so long.

My Review

I was attracted to this book by it’s summary at LybraryThing.com. The whole story seemed interesting, as its premise was an intertwined tale of several religions and cultures, a subject that I really enjoyed.

This is Imady’s first novel, but you can tell from the writing that is not the first time he writes. The rhythm is fluid and easy to follow through the story of Yune. Also, the fisrt part of the book, in which a lot of terms, facts and situations are introduced flows a bit better (in my opinion) than the parts involving dialogues or the most fictional part. 

The main character of the story, Yune is a fire horse, a boy born in the year of the horse (Chinese culture) but in a year that this will be called the fire horse, someone who will show the characteristics of this animal symbol (individualism, love of freedom, hatred to mediocrity) in a highly accentuated manner.

The story is not told by Yune, but by Raqeem, one of the 8 angels entrusted with the task of facilitating God’s design on earth. These angels come to Earth for a certain period of time, and are the guardians of different qualities such as spiritual change, balance, wisdom, etc. In this case, Raqueem is to help the formation of Yune, and all he knows is that this boy will bring a big change to the world. Every certain time, he will open a golden scroll that will contain “instructions” in the form of riddle to know what to do next.

We follow then the growth in every possible manner of Yune, from traveling, learning and falling in love, to jealousy, lost of love, and finally the forming of a covenant with 12 disciples to prepare for the second coming of the Christ. He believes it will be on Christmas Eve 99 but, as it turns out, nothing extraordinary happens then. It will take the shattering of his soul and heart, and a world-wide transformation, as well as 33 more years, for Yune to see what he was being prepared for.

Did I like the book? Parts of it, specially the beginning as I said before. However there was a lot of subject introduced at the beginning, which usually doesn’t bother me if it comes back later, but it was not really the case. Also, as I mentioned, the dialogues need more work to read fluidly. I liked the idea behind the book as well as some messages left from i: that you have to find yourself before finding anything else, that you won’t arrive to your final destination knowingly and that it will be hard but worth it once you get there.

TSS: It's done!

 

 Hello everybody!. I'm glad to tell you that is done!, We are finally done with the moving. I took long hours, not so much sleep, but is done! I'm so happy. I loved our new place, and I love the new disposition of our books. We separated them on fiction, non-fiction and academia. Why? because we now have enough space for it ;). I also love the fact that now we have a proper office (my PC was in my room before) so I can work without disturbing my boyfriend's sleep or viceversa. I'm expecting to be able to write more often now, I couldn't actually post this on Sunday, since we only installed my computer yesterday and I wanted all the rest to be done before sitting here. But I've thought a lot of my blog, it relaxes me to write here, I can take my time, no pressure, if people like it is awesome, it not, I have the space tho just share my thoughts.

Anyway, let's do a wrap up of the half of the year. I'm ahead on my reading challenge, which is good, because this last month I read, sure, but not a lot. I think so far my favorite book of the year is 1Q84, but I have a couple of books that also got 5 mushrooms. Is just that this was so unexpected as book to me, that so far is in the leading position. It gave me so much to say, then again Death with interruptions also did, but I knew I would like Saramago, so that's why Murakami got extra points.

The "worst" book...well I guess it would have to be From Adam to Noah. I have only 2 books with 2 mushrooms so far, but you see, at least The Road to Megara was fiction, not amazing fiction, but work in progress fiction. I think my biggest issue with Timmons, is that albeit he works hard in defending his thesis, he arguments are not valid to my eyes, or anyone around me (I read excerpts from the book to a bunch of my friends, to know if maybe it was just me who wouldn't find the book good...I wasn't alone :S)

Right now, I just finished The Gospel of Damascus, from Omar Imady and I intend to post the review later this afternoon.I just started Cain, from Saramago.

I believe that's all, I hope, as always, that you have a good week