Books...

1. In June I was reading, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. I couldn't finish it in time and now am again in queue for the book. I kind of lost the mood of reading. I just was out of it. Anyhow, I finished like 80% of it and quite enjoyed the book! It gave so much history about a country, Dominican Republic, I didn't know much about anything really about, except I have a Canadian friend from Middle School who is second generation Dominican Republican. It was a bit challenging to keep track of the time line as it jumped back and forth. But I think that fit very well with the narrator's personality. And learnt a lot of Spanglish!! The story had three different narrators and a few moments I had a tough time figuring out who was narrating. But it's a book to read!



2. After that one I got Lost City of Z by David Grann. I found this book while I was looking at things to do in Brazil. We initially did think to go see the Amazon but because of time we decided to postpone it for our next trip there. Anyhow, I put the book on hold after our return and got it just a month ago. Wow. What a read! Written excellently and put together so well you forget that it's not fiction! It was a book that was very hard to put down. You got to really compare and contrast the advances in exploration - technology and general purpose of it all. I don't think any adventure books from now can match up to this! And at the same time you realise how much we have lost of our Western Hemisphere's lungs and are in for much trouble! I would love to get the opportunity to get a glimpse of the forest/jungle someday - minus all the bugs!



3. I am currently also reading Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh. Another brilliantly written book. I still have a few more chapters to go. But it brought to my awareness a part of history that I never really learnt about, the Opium Wars (I think there was one paragraph about the Anglo-Chinese wars). And the story brings a more human aspect of history. And how the Opium industry has moved just a bit northwest, Afghanistan and the challenges these people go through.



4. And today I will also be starting to read a non-fiction item - The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. The topic seems intriguing.

Recently people have mentioned how fortunate I am that I get so much time to read. They include my husband and two mothers. One mother is taking care of a toddler, working full-time. So I can completely understand her predicament. My husband on the other hand really has no reason to say that. I read an hour and half everyday - usually it's during my lunch hour when I go to office and on evening commute.Surprisingly I don't get any reading done on the days I am at home and not working and weekends!! Funny, huh. Hence, the reason why it takes me so long to finish a book. But I am not on any competition to see how many books I can read in a year. There was a time when I was working when I also felt the same way. But I found time. I made time.

As for the other mother, she is a mother of two kids who are at an age going to activities, etc. She has time on her hands, she chooses to do other things. Her husband tells her that too as she makes this comment every time we see each other. She does so many arts and crafts projects, I wish I could do that!! :) It's about priorities and interests in life. sigh.

a sandwich or two

Today's lunch

In between the toasted bread: Avocado drizzled with lemon juice, tomato slices, mozzarella cheese slices, spinach, mustard and black pepper.