A reflection on reading while commuting

This is a topic I’ve had in my head for a long time, and then when I get home I always forget I wanted to talk about it. Well not this time!

One of the big things that changed in my life when I moved out of my country was the fact that I could now, more easily at least, read while commuting. And this is before I started to listen to audio books or even have my Kobo.

While I have always carried a book with me since I can remember, when I was living in Colombia, it was there mostly to be read when I was stationary, say at a waiting room or recess. Reading in the car or the bus was just not great. I did it, and got nausea pretty fast. Even when the “mass transportation system” Transmileno started, the buses would shake a lot, potholes were a constant and more often than not, I barely had space for me and my bag, let alone to open a book.

Fast-forward to when I moved to Montreal. Every ride in the metro or bus, unless I am with someone, I get to read. And not just me, it is so common here, it is a beautiful thing. Sure, sometimes it will get crowded, and then I won’t but compared to what it was before this is a rare event. People sometimes complain here that the metro wobbles but people, you haven’t seen wobbling, believe you me. Saying that I feel like I should clarify that I am perfectly conscious that are far worst commuting conditions than the ones I have experienced.

In January, A started his grown up job, which translated into us not going to the lab together and alternating with who gets the car. Now, if I haven’t mentioned it before, I really don’t like driving, but especially when I have to go to the lab on a weekend, it comes very handy to not depend on the bus schedule. However, because I am still a bit uncomfortable with driving (particularly in winter, my dislike has gone to hate) I cannot be listening to audio books yet. I have moved from music to podcasts, but that’s it for now.

So when I have to go to the lab by bus I get a bit more of reading time. It can even compensate for when is cold and windy and I my nose starts to numb…I am really not a winter person as you can see. But the point is that I get some extra reading time and for that I am grateful.

That’s all, hope you have a nice rest of the week.

As For Me and My House by Ross Sinclair

Format: Mass Market Paperback

Pages: 221

Series: NA

Source: Library

Genres: Canadian Literature

Publisher: New Canadian Library (Penguin Random House Canada)

Publication date: January 1st 1989 (first published in 1941)

First impression

On my "quest" to read more Canadian Literature I joined the Hello Hemlock book club and this was the first pick of 2015. Being the first time I read anything from the author I had no idea what to expect. What I found was a very raw, rather bleak image of Saskatchewan in the 1940s. This is not a bad thing mind you, I feel like the author managed to translate not only the coldness of the weather but the coldness of the people in his story. However, the story being told by the wife (she remains nameless all through the book) I was sad, albeit not surprised, to have it told in a submissive, almost weak voice that had let go of all desires and dreams.

It's a woman's way, I suppose, to keep on trying to subdue a man, to bind him to her, and it's a man's way to keep on just as determined to be free

Final thoughts

While I enjoyed the experience given by this story I did not enjoy the story itself, nor did I like the narrator. Our narrator was (in my opinion) the image of "her time" almost to the dot. Left her dreams of being a musician behind, bends to her husband's decisions even if she doesn't agree with them, and puts her down quite often. The book was originally published in the early 1940s, so I would think that she is a product of the woman image back then and the construction of a character that is meant to be sorrowful and heartbroken. As I mentioned, I haven't read anything else from Ross so I can't be sure if that's the way he always depicted women, but this fragile type of female character was pretty common for a long time, particularly when the author was male.

The narrator is a complex one, that I have to admit, but I just felt sad every time she would talk about herself. A couple of time she would try to take a stand, to afterwards either feel guilty, or just bend to others whims. Towards the end she sort of becomes determined, but for all the wrong reasons.

What did I enjoyed about the experience was mostly related to the landscape described by the author. It was very immersive; I could easily feel the emptiness of the landscape, the loneliness of the small town and more than the physical landscape, it is easy to understand the "feel" of the town: the lack any culture other than the one related to the Protestant church, the pettiness of some of the characters and off course, the dependence on appearances in such a small enclave as this small town is portrayed.

The part I probably liked the most is the cultural critique, namely: In the car, Paul said thoughtfully that that was the worst penalty inflicted by education, the way it separates you from the people who are really close to you, among whom you would otherwise belong. I chose this quote because it is something that, as any grad student has probably felt, the more specialized you become on one subject, the highest the risk to isolate yourself of other people whom, in other situation, you would enjoy immensely.

I guess I can see why this is one of the mandatory reads for many schools here in Canada. I can also see why so many readers found it heavy to read and ultimately not engaging, or boring even. I am not sure who I would recommend this book, other than to others like me that would like to learn a bit more of Canadian Literature.

Lovetorn by Kavita Daswani

Format: Hardback 

Pages: 250

Series: NA

Source: Own (Book Outlet)

Genres: YA, Contemporary Fiction

Publisher: HarperCollins: HarperTeen

Publication date: January 17th 2012

First impression

I bought this book after Book Riot recommended it in their South Asian YA: 5 titles to read post. It had a very nice premise; a whole family moving from India to the States, the elder girl has been engaged since she was 3 years old and dealing in general with being a teenager. The book does all this things but I was disappointed with the end.

Final thoughts

Shalini is the main character of this book and she is telling the story of how her father found a new job in Los Angeles. As a dutiful daughter, she acts exited and supportive, but the truth is that she is not that thrilled of leaving everything she knew behind, including Vikram her fiancé. Arriving to LA and learning a whole different culture would be hard enough on her, but as it turns out her mother isn't taking the move so well and soon Shalini is taking care of the household, trying to deal with bullies in her class and, for the first time in her life, questioning what for so long was supposed to be her life plan with Vikram, even more so, when Toby comes to the picture.

There are a lot of things I liked about this book and they are all related to Shalini and her family being in foreign land. The amusement of finding a place that sells the food you grew up with; the sort of challenge of explaining to others things that you've grown accustomed to; the fear of changing and losing your roots and at the same time, of not changing and losing your mind. All of these things are so real when you leave your comfort and yet they are so great to help you grow as a person.

Shalini's mom goes into a deep depression due to this move; her father tries to work hard but is afraid of what might have come of his family. Her little sister on the other hand, seems to adapt very well to her new life. All of these perspectives made the book even more enjoyable.

However it was the love story that made me hesitant to give this book a 4...for most of the book the only love interest is Vikram, and while I was interested in the idea of Shalini questioning this relationship now that they were no longer together all the time I wish it wouldn't because another boy. This made her look like a girl whose decisions revolve solely around boys and I can't like that, sorry. I think I would've rather her questioning the whole idea of being engage at 3 when being exposed to other views; if at the end of it all she felt that this was what made her happy, great! It is not? also great.

And then we have the ending. Don't worry; I will not give away spoilers. All I can say is that it felt extremely abrupt and rushed. What is worst, it felt like there was not conclusion at all. I still gave it a 4 because going to it gave me what it promised. To quote Book Riot: This is great because there aren’t a lot of South Asian YA novels that deal with this transitional period, coming to the United States as a teenager and trying to figure things out.

What am I reading this month: February

Hello everyone! here is what I will be reading this month...or at least what I am planing to be reading.

For my Diversifying 2015 challenge (you can sign up here), reading more in Spanish goal AND more nonfiction I will be reading: Las Hijas de Juarez (Daughters of Juarez): Un auténtico relato de asesinatos en serie al sur de la frontera by Teresa Rodriguez. An investigation about the mass murders that took place in Juarez, Mexico.

For the Sword and Laser Book Club, we will be reading Annihilation by Jeff VanDermeer, and I cannot tell you how exited I am to get to read it!

For my "reading more CanLit" goal, I am starting the MaddAddam trilogy with Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood.

Another book for my nonfiction and Diversifying count will be Is Everyone Hanging Out without me? by Mindy Kaling, and also in audio I will be finishin Lock In by John Scalzi that I started in January.

And finally, review copies: from NetGalley I have Queen Sugar by Natalie Baszile (more diverse authors); from LybraryThing I received a copy of  Every Breath by Ellie Marney; I also got a copy of The Evening Chorus by Helen Humphreys from the  publisher.

Out of those 8 books, I own 6 of them, so I am also working on my "reading more of the books I already own" goal. 

I also have to finish Death in the City of Light, that I started in January but haven't finished yet!

What about your reading for this month? what are you reading? Let me know in the comments and have a nice week.

Challenges and goals update: How did I do in January?

Hello everybody! As you might know by now, this year I organized my own challenge, I’m participating in Book Riot’s Read Harder and I gave myself a set of goals that I wanted to accomplish. So, every month I will do this update, to see how am I doing. Let us start:

Diversifying 2015:

Of the 8 7 books I read on January, 2 of them where by a nonwhite author, and 3 books had POCs as main characters. Diversity in my reading during this month was more about race, although with Imago I was tempted to count it too as sexually diverse. Anyway, so far I am happy with this part of my reading.

Read Harder:

Theoretically, you have 2 books per month in this list, but this month I manage to cross 5 out of 24. I am a bit behind on my review posting, but I have already read a YA novel (#11), a Sci-Fi novel (#12), an audiobook (#16), a book that was originally published in another language (#19) and finally a book that was published this year (#24). Keep in mind that this challenge is not telling you to only read one book that falls in in each category, so it’s not like I will not listen to any other audiobook this year!.

My goals:

Read at least 1 POC author per month: Done with Imago and Lovetorn

Read at least 1 book in Spanish per month: Done with Solo en Berlín

Read CanLit book per month: Done with As for me and my House

Read at least 1 book of nonfiction per month: half done…last t week was very complicated at the lab, and so I haven’t finished Dead in the city of light yet :S

Finished series: Xenogenesis, and BTW, you should really give that one a try.

Keeping track of my reading (Country represented, Makomori test, etc): done, but this one I will do a total update at the end of the year.

Read more already owned books: 5 of the books I’ve read so far come from my own shelves.

Read the picks of the month for each book club: done!

So there you have it, I feel happy about this so far, I thought my reading was going to slow down, compared to last year, since I’ve been having crazy hours at the lab, but maybe because I need my time down even more than before I am reading almost as much as I was last year. We will see how this continues through the year.

I hope you are all having a wonderful Sunday! Now I am going to keep reading about serial killers ;)

Solo en Berlín (Every Man Dies Alone) by Hans Fallada

Format: Paperback

Pages: 575

Series: NA

Source: Own

Genres: Historical Fiction

Publisher: Maeva

Publication date: June 2011 (Originally published in 1947 as Jeder stirbt für sich allein)

First impression

Set on Germany on the early 1940s and based on a true story, the author tells the story of the Quangels, a middle aged couple who lose their only child to war. Both were part of the Nazi party as workers but with this shock coming to their lives makes them question the whole regime. It is how they start writing post cards with anti fascist messages, questioning the Fuhrer and his actions and dropping them in places with high traffic in the hopes that their questioning might expand. The book also tells the story of their neighbours: a member of the SS forces, a Jewish widow, a pathetic tattletale with too much greed and even their post lady, who is tired of her drunken husband.

The book was actually written during the war, first published in 1946, which gave it a lot of realistic tones both in the characters and in the events going on. Unfortunately, I believe there was a lot lost in translation, particularly in the dialogues which made it hard for me to fully enjoy the read. I could feel all the important messages and nuances, but they felt buried under the effect of translation.

Final thoughts

Several members of my family read this book and fairly enjoyed it. I was not one of them. The main characters where very well constructed both as individuals and as a couple. When the book was describing what they would do and their thoughts I would be engrossed and amazed at them...but then the dialogues would come and somehow they speech seemed forced or even fake. I feel the need to point out here that the version I was reading was a translation in Spanish from Spain (or Castilian if you prefer) so my brain couldn't overlook the expressions used and the sentence construction so different from my own. Sadly, this carried all through the book and I would find myself wanting to put the book down or even wanting to skip the dialogues.

I also felt, that while the secondary characters gave extra perspectives of the war itself, there were too many of them and while the author certainly tried to give a deeper view of all of them some of them felt (to me) like a half baked idea. You can argue that books as LOTR have tons of secondary characters, and off course you would be right, but they are treated as secondary characters all along, and hence if their story ends, it doesn't feel like someone just turned off a switch all of the sudden. With Fallada's secondary characters, the feeling was that they might actually become main characters so when their parts were over I was left with an unfulfilled feeling.

The other thing that made it hard for me to engage was the pacing of the book; the first ¾ of the book felt extremely slow, while I will admit that there was a lot of build up, but more than once I considered DNF because I could not get fully engaged. My family encouraged me to continue and it is true that when I arrived to the last part of the book, the rhythm certainly picked up but it still felt a little too late.

One thing that set this book apart from other war books I've read is the keen eye Fallada had to describe human's nature, not just in the extremes moments but everyday situations.

The book was put together by the author in 24 days, a bit before his dead at age 81. It is considered to one of the first anti-Nazi novel, and it is particular not only by the fact that it is based on real facts, but because it was written by a German author, right after the war. All of this is still remarkable. However I can't in all honestly say that the book gave me more than I was expected and to a point it was limit to what I thought it would be. I would recommend this book to people that enjoy war stories with a very realistic (and sad I have to add) feel.

Spinster: Making a Life of One's Own by Kate Bolick

Format: eGalley

Pages: 246

Series: NA

Source: NetGalley

Genres: NonFiction

Publisher: Crown Publishing

Publication date: April 21, 2015

I asked and received this book through NetGalley for free. This review is not sponsored nor influenced in anyway. Thanks to Thomas Nelson Fiction for the book.

 First impression

It’s hard to say which is more exhausting: the sheer arbitrariness of knowing that her one true love could appear out of anywhere, anytime, and change hr fate in an instant (you never know who is around the corner), or the effortful maintenance (manicures, blowouts, bikini waxes, facials) that ensures she’ll be ripe for the picking when it happens

These words, set in the very beginning of the book caught my attention and with it set the tone for a book that I thoroughly enjoyed. I was afraid that the book might be a book dedicated to throwing marriage out of the window as just “bad” and how glorious it is to be single, and nothing else. I was very happy to see that Bolick, does not make it sound like being single is the only way, or that women deciding to marry have it wrong or viceversa. Rather it is the telling on how she came to find what worked for her, her inspirations, her questioning on why the connotation of single hood on a woman is immediately associated with “something missing” or why the term spinster has such bad association. Based on her own life experience, Bolick gives a very interesting view on being single for the long term.

Final thoughts

Why is it that there is so much pushing to get married? The whole industry behind weddings, engagements and at the end, marriage sometimes feels overwhelming. Instead, in her book, Kate Bolick talks about wonderful women who were amazing on their own, and at the same time tells the reader how she got to a point on her life where she is perfectly comfortable in her skin, as an unmarried woman, and why, shall it be your decision to do so, you should be perfectly fine with it too.

While women have come a long way in a lot of accounts, it would seem that the idea of you always needing someone else is almost inevitable. Not so much if you area man, although I have seen the pressure on both sides. The idea that you can be happy without being in a couple still feel foreign and somehow, unrealistic. This book make me think so much about single hood, which sometimes felt weird, considering I’ve been in a relationship for more than 5 years now and we are presently engaged. But, the question that kept coming as I read this book, was: Would I be fine if for some reason we break up? Well, off course I would be sad, but I would be ok. Even more telling was realizing how many of my friends might not be, if they would become a “spinster”.

Bolick doesn’t spend the book talking about the evilness of marriage, or even being in a couple. She has been part of a couple and has been happy in it, but she mostly shows how it is perfectly possible to be equally happy being single. With splashes of the rest of her life such as the death of her mother, the big move to New York, and a huge break up, she tells her journey as it is: the journey that took her to love her single hood.

As with any big part of one’s identity, the idea of being single and what it represents changes through her life, and that was probably one of the things I enjoyed the most in the book: how her perspective changed and grew as different moments in her life were taking place and as she met her inspirations. I learned of women I had never heard of, women who were comfortable with themselves and loved their single selves.

I would recommend this book to almost anybody. The only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars is because it can get very academic some times, and hence a bit heavy in certain passages.