Half Life by Roopa Farooki
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
"It's time to stop fighting and go home." After reading these words by a Bengali poet, Aruna Ahmed Jones decides to leave her husband Patrick and life in London to return to Singapore and her best friend Jazz.
I don't want to give away too much of the plot – there are so many little surprising reveals throughout the book and it would ruin it to say much more. I was totally engrossed in this book from start to finish. Just when I thought I had a character or where the plot was going figured out, another layer unexpected layer was revealed. The author managed to do this in a very authentic way. The book goes back and forth from flashbacks to present day but is never confusing.
This is Roopa Farooki's newest book and the first I've read by her. I'm looking forward to reading some of her earlier work now.
(Thank you to the publisher and the FirstReads program at GoodReads for providing me a copy of this book.)
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April 17th, 2010 in
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The Bread of Angels: A Memoir of Love and Faith in Damascus by Stephanie Saldana
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Stephanie Saldana spent a year in Damascus as a Fulbright Scholar studying the role of Jesus in Islam. Along the way she also embarks upon a personal journey and learns a lot about herself as well.
I really enjoyed this book. Comparisons to Eat, Pray, Love are inevitable and I liked this book a lot more than Eat, Pray, Love (or as I call it Eat, Pray, Whine). Stephanie was not a whiner. She was a touch melodramatic at times but still likable. I learned quite a bit about Syrian culture, Arabic, Islam and even Christianity from her too.
(I received this book courtesy of the Early Reviewers program.)
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April 15th, 2010 in
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We received a foster placement on Wednesday – a sweet, three month old baby boy who I will call Bullfrog (just on this blog; not in real life). He is what is called a "medically complex" or "medically fragile" child. He has some problems due to suffering cardiopulmonary arrest. I spent Wednesday and Thursday at the hospital with him learning how to give him feedings through a g-tube. He was discharged and I took him home Thursday afternoon. A home health nurse visited us this afternoon to check on him and see how he's doing. She'll be visiting twice a week. Then his social worker visited us; she'll be visiting once a week. We will also have an occupational therapist for him and some kind of visual therapy for him as he is almost completely blind. Then of course we also have court dates, doctors' appointments and visits with his mom. He has a very full calendar for such a little guy!
Travis and the boys went fishing with Granddad at the neighborhood lake. They (Daddy) caught three fish. When they brought them back to the house to cook, I looked at them swimming in the cooler and made the mistake of muttering something about how it was a shame we had to kill them. West heard me and had a complete meltdown, sobbing about how we couldn't kill his friends the fish. Meanwhile, Cash – my budding sociopath – was dancing around the kitchen singing about how he couldn't wait to eat them after we killed them. This did not help West calm down. I finally sent Travis and West and the cooler with two of the fish in it back to the lake. While they were setting those fish free, Granddad cleaned and cooked the remaining fish for Cash. It ended up to be about four bites. Cash loved it and luckily had eaten it up by the time Travis and West got back home.
Safety first when fishing – always wear a helmet!
April 7th, 2010 in
Cash,
West |
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Granddad and MaMaw had an egg hunt for Cash, West and their cousin Lorelai in their backyard. The kids all had a blast and the boys loved getting to play with Loralai again.
April 6th, 2010 in
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West |
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Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Another great book in the Sookie Stackhouse series. This book didn't really have any romance element to it, which was kind of disappointing but the mystery element was compelling and fun. Werewolf Alcide turns into a jerk in this book and he had been so sweet up to this point. Vampire Bill is also still an ass. Luckily Vampire Eric is still smokin' and funny.
This book's fashion award goes to Vampire Eric, who we all know is VERY sexy and yet is described as wearing "a golden brown silk T-shirt and brown pleated trousers with a magnificent belt that was just barbaric: lots of leather, and gold, and dangling tassels." I'm sorry, Vampire Eric does NOT wear pleated pants or tassels. He's way too hot for that sort of thing.
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April 5th, 2010 in
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I decided to sign up to be a cheerleader for Dewey’s 24 hour Read-a-Thon on April 10. I’d love to participate in the read-a-thon but with two small boys that’s not going to happen unless I go to a hotel room! Maybe when they’re older I’ll give it a shot. I just signed up for an hour since it’s my first time – should be fun!
Cash and West LOVE to build things out of wood and are always asking Daddy to help them build things. One of the fun things about Granddad and MaMaw's house is that Granddad has a full blown wood shop in his garage. Before we got to Indiana, Granddad made a log truck kit for each boy. Then he helped the boys put them together while we were there.
Whenever the boys get two of something that is exactly the same, Cash is always concerned about "how will we tell whose is whose?" I try to tell him we don't need to tell whose is whose because the two things are EXACTLY THE SAME. That doesn't work for him. In the case of these log trucks, he taped a piece of paper to his truck with his name on it. Then he cut several strips of paper, wrote his name on each of them and then wrapped every single one of his logs with one of the strips and secured it with tape.
April 2nd, 2010 in
Cash,
West |
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Books Read (click on title for review):
Five Star Books:
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
Four Star Books:
The Late, Lamented Molly Marx by Sally Koslow
Dead As A Doornail (Sookie Stackhouse #5) by Charlaine Harris
Three Star Books:
Midnight Awakening (Midnight Breed #3) by Lara Adrian
Two Star Books:
Godmother: The Secret Cinderella Story by Carolyn Turgeon
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
Wow, eight books this month! Going on vacation and having surgery afforded me a lot more reading time this month.
Reviews Posted
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson
Challenge Updates
Amy Einhorn Books Perpetual Challenge
Added: The Help by Kathryn Stockett
What's In A Name 3 Challenge
Body of Water:
Food:
Music:
Place Name: The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker
Title:
Plant:
