The Bluest Eye

I wouldn’t be completely honest if I didn’t say what prompted me to pick up The Bluest Eye. First reason, of course, was the fabulous experience reading Song of Solomon where Toni Morrison took this external search for gold and turned it into something much more valuable and intrinsic, one’s own character, I wanted to experience that level of literature again.

But perhaps the most important reason was its description. The Bluest Eye is about a black girl who prays for beauty every day. She wants blue eyes and blond hair because she is mocked by other children for her dark skin and curly hair. I can relate to that. Growing up I was the darkest child and members of my extended family never missed a chance to tell my mother how dark I was and that I would grow up to be an ugly woman. Obviously, hurt I would ask my mother why I wasn’t pretty and she would tell me give yourself a few more years and you will be the prettiest girl in this family. Whether that came true or not is irrelevant but when my mother told me so, I was definitely excited and looking forward to growing up when I could shed this ugly duckling image and become a beautiful swan where no more could I be mocked but praised instead. Even at that age, I could see the overpowering love society has for light skin and light eyes. The conceitedness of my family was so extensive that they didn’t mind hurting the feelings of a small child simply because she wasn’t as light.

In the preface, the author talks about reasons for writing this book – one of them is her surprise admission of hatred for a young friend when she said she wanted blue eyes (she was black) and Toni Morrison couldn’t get it out of her head how ugly her friend would look with them. The biggest admission she makes in the preface is her disappointment of how the book didn’t do what she set out to do with it. When she started it in 1962, up until 1965, when she was done there was a profound “reclamation of beauty” and it was those thoughts that stirred her to think about the “necessity of this claim.” She set out to move the audience with the central character but was utterly disappointed when the reader was only touched but not moved.

I have to admit, so far I have been neither. The Bluest Eye has started very slowly and though I am not too far into it, so far Pecola has made no indication of wanting blue eyes and blond hair. But Toni Morrison did the same thing in Song of Solomon and half way through the real purpose of the book jumped out. So we’ll see how this shapes up.

Hilarious and educative

Kitchen Confidential is funny, really funny. But really, I expected no less from Tony. What I didn’t expect was for it to be educative. Not only does he give a very good insight in the restaurant business and how they function – the chapter a day in the life shows how chaotic, extremely busy and high on adrenaline, espressos and booze these chefs have to be in order to get through the day but also teaches the reader a thing or two about cooking. Most of his teachings don’t apply to me since I’m a vegetarian (he hates them – “vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter faction vegans, are a persistent irritation to any chef worth a damn”), but they are informative anyway.

For the first time now, if I look at a restaurant I think of more than the menu. I think of the kitchen, the countless cooks, the chaos, the dishwashing, the sous-chefs and all the effort that goes into preparing a meal for me. I would oh so guilty to return a dish or change an order thinking of the stress I’d put those guys through.

So what are some of things I learnt?

-          Don’t eat sea food at ANY restaurant on Monday. Why? It will not be fresh; 9 out of 10 times they are serving you leftovers from the weekend. Eeks! The best days for seafood are Tuesdays through Thursdays

-          Don’t eat mussels in restaurants. More often than not, mussels are left wallowing in their own piss. Yuck!

-          Cooks HATE brunch LOL!

-          Eating bread is fine in restaurants, although chances are during busy times you are eating untouched bread from someone else’s table

-          Don’t eat in restaurants with filthy bathrooms. Tony says you can’t see their kitchen but you can see the bathrooms and those usually are a pretty good indicator of how clean the kitchen is

-         Discount Sushi is usually made from fish sitting out in the open for hours, un-iced, leaking in crates. Oh no!

-          A decent chef knife is a must have! Global makes some good and cheap knives so one knife that cuts everything from shallots to watermelon is a must in any kitchen

-          Another must have object – plastic squeeze bottle, you know to squirt things like mayo, sauces, etc

-         Pots and pans, of course! Best place to buy them? In the classifieds section look for restaurants going out of business and then swoop down and collect your loot from them for dirt cheap. Ikea and other places are no good because the best pots and pans should be heavyweight

-         Never use anything other than a wooden/ceramic/nonmetallic spatula for your nonstick sauté pan. If you want to preserve your non-stick never let it make contact with any washing liquids. Simply wipe it clean after each use

-         Other food essentials – shallots, butter, garlic, parsley, stock, basil, mint, chives, you get the point

Surya Namaskar -- Part 2

Past few days I've been obsessing over the Surya Namaskar. This morning I went hunting for the other article I talked about yesterday (massaging the liver) and found it. So here is some more info on how beneficial this simple exercise is. This is probably the last on Surya Namaskars for a while (I promise!) but in the mean time, pay heed!

Internal massage
The benefits of doing the Surya Namaskar are deeper, compared to other forms of exercises. It aids overall well-being.  It massages the important glands -- the liver (in the ashtanga namaskar pose), stress glands and kidneys.

In the forward bend, it encourages blood flow to the brain, and therefore makes hair lush and keeps the face looking fresh and young, while tweaking master glands in the brain so that the body's thermostat is set at its healthy best.

Practice makes perfect
It is important to learn the technique well before you start pushing yourself to do more rounds. If wrongly done, it can cause cramps or pain in the back or spine. The number of namaskaras that should be done depends on an individual's current fitness level and flexibility.

Surya Namaskar is a great energy booster, and is therefore best done in the morning. Though, if one is pressed for time, it can be done any time of day. It is advisable not to do the Surya Namaskar close to bedtime, as it could interfere with one's sleep.

The Ideal workout
According to some hot-shot yoga instructors in India, the ideal routine (even when you're pressed for time) should include --

n  Six Surya Namaskars set (five minutes). Ideal set would be 12, covering right and left leg in one set so total of 24 rounds

n  Six asanas (including inversions, twists and arm balancers, which would take another five to ten minutes)

n  Pranayama practice (like anulom vilom, a few rounds of which would take ten minutes)

n  Final relaxation/meditation (five minutes with breath awareness) is best

OK, so how to do Surya Namaskar

1.       Stand erect feet together and palms joined in the centre of the chest in a namaskar and inhale. Next, exhale and push hands down straightening and lowering the arms until the elbows touch the sides.

2. Breathe in deeply and raise the arms above the head and extend the spine backwards arching the back from the waist. Let the eyes follow the hands while relaxing your neck and keeping hands straight.

3.       Exhale, bend forward from the waist and place the hands on the floor besides each foot.  Knees should remain straight. Relax with your head and neck in a bending pose. Breathe out completely. If you cannot touch the ground, then let your hands go only as far as they can.

4.       Inhale and put your weight on the hands, stretch the right leg behind and rest it on toes. Bend the knee and place it on the floor with your weight on the left foot and arch the spine backward. Lift the head and neck first up and then back. Roll the eyes up. The left foot does not move.

5.       Inhale and put your weight on the hands, stretch the right leg behind and rest it on toes. Bend the knee and place it on the floor with your weight on the left foot and arch the spine backward. Lift the head and neck first up and then back. Roll the eyes up. The left foot does not move.

6.       Exhale and bring the left foot back in line with the right. Lift the hips up high like a mountain (downward facing dog). Push the heels and head down and look at the toes with the head down between the arms.

7.       Put the knees down first and then bring the chest down. See that eight parts of the body are touching the floor including two feet, two knees, two hands, the chest and the chin or forehead. Make sure the hips are slightly raised above the ground. Inhale and exhale in this position. Keep the feet together.

8.       Lower the abdomen and pelvis to the floor. Inhale and stretch the toes on the floor. Raise your head slowly up, arch the spine and neck and look up. Keep your legs together and the elbows alongside the body slightly bent and keep the shoulders down.

9.       Exhale and wiggle your toes forward allowing your feet to rest on the soles while you raise the hips as you did in number 5.

10.   Inhale and bring the right foot forward and come into pose number 4 as earlier, but with the leg positions reversed.

11.   Exhale and bring the right foot forward (same as pose 3).

12.   Inhale and stretch up in a standing pose with your arms up and bend backwards (same as pose 2).

Exhale and stand erect bringing the hands back to the centre of the chest with palms together.

My salutations to you, oh Sun!

Yoga is a huge fad right now. Some of us understand what yoga is and how it can change your entire psyche. Others do it because it's so cool to say I'm doing yoga. Well, I 'm not really judging anyone. I'm sure the gods of yoga won't take offends that you serve them only because you think they're cool. To be honest, they should kinda like that since in the past the only people who cared enough to pay attention were sadhus with giant Amy Winehouse type bee-hives.

So yesterday I read some article on one of the countless Indian websites I visit during my busy day of work about the benefits of sun salutations. There was also some mention on how doing 50 of those a day would profoundly change your life. So when I got home, I pushed my dear hubby to cooking dinner and attempted as many salutations as possible within 15 minutes. Why 15 minutes? That's all the time I had before the pizza would be ready. I did 10.

The plan tonight is to do 50 but its past 6 pm and poor me is still sitting at my desk.

I found another article on the benefits of sun salutations today and figured two days in a row stumbling on the same info is a universe conspiracy that I must share with people who take time to read my crap. So here it goes-- (Btw, sun salutation's Hindi name is Surya Namaskar. Surya=Sun, Namaskar=saluation. Know Namaste? Namaskar is derived from that).

- You don't need to be doing yoga regularly in order to practice the Surya Namaskar. If performed correctly, this exercise does not strain or cause injury. If performed in the morning, it relieves stiffness, revitalises your body and refreshes the mind. Do it during the day and it will instantly boost you up, practice it after sundown and it helps you unwind.

- Not only does the Surya Namaskar give you a great stretch and keep you fit physically (it is extremely beneficial for your joints, ligaments and improves flexibility and posture), but is also does wonders for your mental and emotional health.

- Surya Namaskar stimulates almost every system in your body - the cardiovascular system because it keeps the heart strong and, the digestive system as well as the nervous system.

- It also makes endocrinal glands like the thyroid, parathyroid and pituitary glands, function normally.

- Practising the Surya Namaskar regularly is also known to ease stress and give you peace of mind besides increasing your levels of concentration.

One additional benefit I read yesterday was Surya Namaskar also massages the liver.

Bow and salute to the Sun and all shall be well!

Festivals galore

I don’t know how many of you are watching the new series “Outsourced” on NBC but if you are not, try and catch it. It’s actually quite funny. Set in India it’s a comedy about an all American white boy managing a call center and his experiences as he struggles to understand the language, food and culture. In the last episode, few of Todd’s employees convince him to take a half day for “Vindaloo day”, a concocted holiday. While I don’t intend to go into why they did this it did lead me to a different direction. Before I saw the episode, (I had DVR-ed it, which is a boon to my family! I don’t know how we survived without it) on the way to our hike I wished my husband a Happy Dasshera and he jokingly remarked (smart ass had already seen the “Happy Vindaloo day” episode), is this another one of your ridiculous holidays? Yes I do admit we have 864313132 holidays but really, why so mean? Anyway, I explained with a calm face what Dasshera was about, but afterward I could understand why he had a fit of laughter on knowing what Dasshera was about.

Dasshera is celebrated after 9 nights of dancing – and trust me it’s a LOT of fun! Young, old, big, small all sorts of people leave their homes to dance– in building courtyards, outdoor gyms converted into fancy mandaps – which can last until the wee hours of the morning. I too had participated in this madness for 9 nights leaving at 11 pm and sometimes not coming back home until 5 am the following morning. This 9 day dancing mania is called Navratri, which consists of garba (clapping hands and moving in a circle and dandiya, playing with sticks in a circle). “Nav” meaning 9 and “ratri” meaning nights. So the literal translation – 9 nights.

Durga Puja

On Dasshera, Ravana's effigy is burnt

During these 9 nights, the goddess Shakti/Durga is worshipped. Extremely elaborate statues of the Goddess are erected and her different forms are worshipped with intense fervor and devotion. At the end, on the 10^th day (called Dasshera) an effigy of Ravana – the ten headed monster who kidnapped Ram’s wife is burnt to celebrate the victory of good over evil. Now I know how ten headed monsters, elaborate Goddess statues, etc. can seem silly almost at the edge of ridiculous, but we must remember that whether or not these events actually took place the only intention was to tell a story using elaborate (yes extremely elaborate) imagination. The main purpose of these stories was to convey a message, prove a point and convince us that no matter what if we did the right thing, the right thing would happen to us. Satyamev Jayate in Sanskrit meaning the truth always wins wasn’t just a punch line in these stories but a motto, an abiding principle to live by.

It’s sad then how these stories are twisted and turned nowadays to serve a few people’s selfish ends. No wonder they sound ridiculous and funny!



Confidentiality et al

About 2 weeks ago my husband comes home very excited. Rupee I got you your next book! Turns out, someone he knows loaned him Kitchen Confidential and he thought I might be excited to read it. Honestly, I am not a big cook book reader but seriously, who can pass up Tony Bourdain? Still, I was hesitant. While KC sat on my bookshelf for a few weeks I finished Feast of the Goat (which is a definite read) and Adam & Eve (eh) the whole time pondering if I wanted to pick up Tony. I love Tony Bourdain but did I really want to read his book?

This past Friday I was searching for my next book but as fate had it nothing was appealing. Saturday was a beautiful day and so we took off hiking at Minnewaska state park. The leaves have all turned and the view from 1000 feet was simply awe-inspiring. Sunday rolled around and I still didn’t know what I wanted to read. By yesterday evening I knew I had to pick something up and KC seemed the only choice. So I waved the book at my husband who gave me 2 thumbs up! Alright, Kitchen Confidential it is.



View from Minnewaska state park



The preface was funny. Its started off in typical Tony Bourdain style. So there is a lot of obscenity already but as he said that’s the world of the cooks! He promises the book to be an honest representation of the life of his colleagues, nothing more nothing less. According to him it wasn’t a book he thought would propel him to stardom or enable him to have dinner with Eric Ripert. So imagine his surprise when both and many more of those things happened. Free food at the best restaurants was perhaps the biggest perk, in my opinion, he started enjoying. The best wine, cheese, gourmet meals, ahhh!! The stuff of heavens!

So for the week, I’m donning my chef hat and adventuring in the world of the culinary underbelly! Stick around for more on Kitchen Confidential.

Suprise

This book just took one of the biggest unanticipated turns! From the beginning I was wondering what was Uranita's (one of the main characters) problem with her father. So what if he supported a dictator? His income and position as President of the Senate did assure her a luxurios life. So why such abomination where she wants him to suffer a slow death? Well, now I know. And dare I say, she is justified. What an ass! Wow!

Like I said earlier, the book is about Trujillo and his dictatorship of Dominican Republic. As much as he was a tyrant after he was killed, things did fall apart for DR. So not sure if his governing was a good thing or bad. But yes, he did kill scores of people both Dominicans and Haitians.

The prose is simply beautiful -- one chapter in the past, the next in the present. Kinda like Russian Winter but this is about politics, ruling, killing and a daughter's hatred so its much more edge of the seat.

Seriously, read Feast of the Goat. (Goat is the code word the assasins had for Trujillo). Exemplary!

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilivolcanoniosis. Huh? What?

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilivolcanoniosis – believe it or not is a word. No, I’m not making this up. The longest word recognized by the Oxford English Dictionary, it is a lung disease caused by inhaling volcanic silicon dust.

I came across this and some other interesting facts about language in the trivia section the Discover magazine throws in towards the end. I also learnt that due to the placement of our voice box we cannot breathe and swallow at the same time, but you already knew that. Babies however, can because the voice box doesn’t drop to wherever it needs to be until 9 months after we are born. Bet you don’t remember breathing and swallowing. Also because of where the voice box sits, we humans have a uniquely large resonating system.

Modern technology and no doubt our lack of time for everything has spilled into our language world too. We turned “bits of eight” into “bytes”, “modulate/demodulate” became “modem”. And guess what blog’s full name is? Web log. So correct English would be, I’m web logging not blogging. But I don’t have time to say web logging! Don’t you know about the oodles and oodles of work I have to do?

Anyway let’s not get sidetracked. Moving on, Mandarin has the most native speakers on the planet. This one, I was shocked.  Wouldn’t you think it would be English? There are 2.5 times more native Mandarin speakers than English. But 70% of the web is in English and the language most spoken online is also English. Spanish Silbo is a language, composed of whistling sounds! It has only 4 vowel and four consonant sounds! It’s audible for miles and resembles bird calls! No, really I’m not making this up.

Those of you who live in New York, have you seen the bird man? Maybe he speaks Spanish Silbo!

You remember those science words back in school? Algebra, Alkaline and the one I hated the most – algorithm. Those were all loaned to English by Arabic, in which the prefix al means “the”. So thegebra, thekaline and thegorithm? Senseless but none of that made sense anyway, especially thegorithm.

There are about 6,800 spoken languages in the world and more than 1/3^rd of them (i.e. 2,266.666667) are in danger of becoming silent. We humans are a piece of work; because of us even languages are endangered! UNESCO says about 200 tongues now have fewer than 10 surviving speakers.  (If you don't have anything to do and want to sound smarter to your friends, there is more trivia here.)

Pleas from a night past

Think of all that time being wasted when I could utilize it doing wonderful things like reading feasts of goats and years of solitude. Alas! I must endure another test the universe throws at me. In a usual cycle of a slight accumulation of frustration I took to venting to my mother-in-law who said something philosophically beautiful and profoundly simple. “Be patient. Perhaps you need to develop patience for the task you are to be given.” At some level I think I knew that but hearing it from someone else jolted me to reality.

But then I also started thinking, what if my purpose is what is going on right now? I know I’ve talked about this before but what if in this life time my purpose was simply this? This meaning, to learn patience. So should I simply resign myself to my fate and live life without any ambition or should I still try to get to where I would like to be?

Krishna, an incarnation of Vishnu, part of the Holy Trinity of Indian culture said don’t worry about what should be. You can attain nirvana in what you are; no matter what life throws at you it is possible to reach salvation. Preaching to Arjun on the battlefield while reciting the Bhagavad Gita he said do your duty and don’t worry about the outcome. As a warrior it’s your duty to fight and kill. You will be held in the wrong if you don’t. If you do your duty promptly you will attain me. This, the practice of karma yoga, states to reach salvation by performing your duty in the highest regard. So if I were to apply Krishna’s teaching to my present situation, it would mean I keep doing what I am and regardless of whether I’m able to find something more fulfilling I have a shot at the glory of the soul.

Easier said than done, right? I wrote some verses correctly reflecting my state of mind. If I am to be stuck in this, yes, I need the universe to fill my reservoir with courage and of course patience.

Pleas from a night past

Oct 13, 2010

10.03 am

Last night I sat atop my bed

With my legs folded

And eyes closed

A mantram reverberating

Within my soul

Beginning a search for the

Path to the obscure land

Last night I sat atop my bed

With my hands in prayer position

And soul seeking redemption

Beseeching the might

That resides in us all

To show me the way

There are two possible paths

I argued with my self

Either grant me prosperity

And fulfillment of a better position

Or show me realization

Within my existing obligations

If my purpose is to serve

Why am I trapped within

Attitudes of profit

If my purpose is to learn

Endow me with strength

To climb that gargantuan mountain

Feeling resigned to emptiness

I opened my eyes

And hoped in the vastness of things

My pleas from a night past

Were loud enough

Feasts galore

To honor Mario Vargas Llosa I decided to read one of his books. The Feast of the Goat was highly recommended and so I started that off. When I first heard of the name, I thought of the movie men who stare at goats, which was a funny movie with the hottie Clooney. But nope, its not a comedy book. Then I thought perhaps its about a wedding where they right, feasted on a goat. But I was wrong again.

Defying all of my common sense, the book is actually a political novel set in the Dominican Republic. It's about assassination of Dominican dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, and its aftermath, from two distinct standpoints a generation apart: during and immediately after the assassination itself, in May 1961; and thirty years later, in 1996.

The first chapter, about a woman who comes back to the DR to see her ailing father, totally hooked me. I can tell with all certainty this is going to be a highly engrossing, keep me up at night sort of book. Will let you know how it goes.

Until then enjoy the gorgeous weather. I hear it starts raining tomorrow, yuck!

Prison peace

The continued assertion and propounded growth of the Chinese economy is nothing short of a marvel. But when China warns other countries if they do something the government doesn’t like there will be back lash you are forced to ask, who do the Chinese exactly think they are? Granted, they are making huge strides in economic development but when we talk about human rights, Beijing’s record is abysmal. Tibet is their catastrophic failure and their unwillingness to resolve it by peaceful means is a whole another matter.

This morning my heart gave a little woohoo on reading the news. As you know, its Nobel season and yesterday the Literature prize was announced to the Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa. Today was the turn of the Peace prize, which last year went to President Obama. Before the prize was announced today there was a lot of speculation on who would win it, because the favorite was Liu Xiaobo. Of course, in the past few weeks the Chinese government had warned the Norwegian government they would oppose the move should the prize be awarded to Mr. Lui because he is a “criminal.” Yes, for the past 20+ years Mr. Lui has been rotting in a Chinese prison for his efforts to promote democracy in the communist nation.

So I went woohoo, because defying China’s status as a rising power and the second largest economy in the world and all those other great, big tags the Nobel committee today announced the Peace prize to Mr. Lui. In their words, "The Norwegian Nobel Committee has long believed that there is a close connection between human rights and peace. Such rights are a prerequisite for the fraternity between nations of which Alfred Nobel wrote in his will."

So guess what China’s government did? Besides opposing the move, they blocked the live telecast of the announcement with all international channels temporarily blacked out and called it a “blasphemy to the prize.”   

As I said earlier, China’s spectacular growth in the past few decades is a testament to her people’s hard work and the smarts of the government to implement policies that work. But when a nation no matter how powerful starts dictating terms, bullying other nations and interfering in all decisions they don’t agree with there can be a problem. I am proud that the Norwegian government stood up to the Chinese government and sent a message that no matter how powerful you are, peace cannot be sold.

Even if your own people do not recognize you, the world commends your efforts. Congratulations Mr. Lui!

Going back in time or ahead?

For a while, I didn’t know what to expect from this book. It started off talking about life outside our planet and about a brilliant scientist who claimed to his wife to have found life outside in the universe. Then in a sort of going back to the beginning, Lucy ends up in a garden in the middle of nowhere, which is conveniently self-sufficient. Add to that Adam who is already there, thinks Lucy (whom he calls Eve – yes he is partly delusional) ended up there because he asked God to send him a mate. I know, hard to stomach but let’s go with the flow for now.

So there is this going back to Genesis track but on the other hand Lucy also has some scrolls that would apparently challenge the traditional “God created Earth” theory too. So Lucy, according to Adam, is living Genesis but she knows she holds clues to defy Genesis.

And then she has that flash drive around her neck.

I’m really not sure what’s keeping me going with this book but I feel a certain pull for it. Will definitely say that if you’re not a science buff, don’t like your imagination running all over the place and don’t want to know anything about the Nag Hammadi scrolls, Genesis and anything ancient stay away from Adam & Eve.

Religious? No. Scientific? Umm, maybe.

This weekend was phenomenal. The weather decided to be cooperative (until Sunday night) and bestowed us with abundant sunshine and the perfect temperatures. Taking advantage of the sunlight that very soon will become scarce I went hiking with some friends to Bear Mountain. 40 miles away from the city, I did not know there could be so much peace and serenity to be found! What a marvelous day to enjoy the scenery and get the heart rate thumping. Seriously, at one point in the hike, I thought my heart was going to explode and blow me to smithereens. Knowing my accident prone behavior, on the way down, I was sure to fall on my face and break a bone or two. Fortunately, nothing like that happened and I finished the hike without a scratch.



On the way to the top



View from Bear Mountain

Coming back to reading, I started Adam & Eve by Sena Jeter Naslund. I’m about 60 pages in and have mixed feelings so far. Needless to say, she is trying to draw parallels to the Bible by setting Adam in the middle of nowhere (which he thinks is the Garden of Eden) and is craving for Eve. Her prose sometimes is lyrical but also a bit foolish as she describes Adam’s attempts to name things around him. (I think he is suffering from amnesia). Somehow he ends up naming a peach as a peach and an airplane an airplane. Viola!



Eve’s name is Lucy – and she is so called because of the oldest fossil that was discovered a year or so ago. So someone who entrusts her with a codex threatening to destroy the origins of the 3 major religions says, Lucy is the evolutionist’s Eve. OK, good attempt at reconciling recent discoveries in the book.

Now Lucy has set off from Egypt en route to Europe with this codex that obviously fundamentalists will kill her for. And to add to it, she has a flash driver from her brilliant late-husband that contains proof of extraterrestrial life. Being a huge science buff I’m willing to explore this book without any judgments a bit more. Stay tuned for the final verdict.

So many to choose from

Russian Winter is on its way out, and I know I talked about reading books via a theme but I don’t know how I feel about that. Having a reading list for the next year forces me to suppress my inhibitions and unable to pick a book I really like it or am in the mood for. For now, I’ll shelve the theme-ing idea but I may go back to it for a month or so to see how it flows.

Lots of good books out right now and I’m all over the map with what to pick up next! The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver is receiving some good reviews. It’s about a man who is pulled between two nations (Mexico during the times of Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo and America during Pearl Harbor) as well as a portrait of the artist and art. Another good one I came across is Adam & Eve – yes from the Bible but this ain’t a religious book. It’s about 2 people recovering from physical and emotional injuries and they find themselves in an oasis. But Eve is secretly carrying a different version of the beginning of life that was newly discovered under the sands of Egypt, and is being sought by those who would do anything to keep it from being released. Sounds really interesting!

The Gendarme (how do you pronounce that?), sounds like the perfect book right now, about a WWI veteran suffering from amnesia because of a head wound. Now he is old with a brain tumor that’s causing long-lost memories to return. It also makes him recall an earlier life as a Turkish gendarme leading a group of Armenian refugees to the border. In the mix of despair, brutality and desperation he falls in love with Araxie, one of the Armenian refugees and begins to perceive his actions and his attitude through her eyes.

But the book I’m most excited about is Ken Follet’s Fall of Giants, which came out on September 28. It’s a mammoth 850 page story, first in a trilogy. I just want make this clear upfront that this book cannot be finished in a week, no matter how interesting, especially with my change of fate. Perhaps this might be the next one (will be buying it from Costco tomorrow) or may be one of the earlier ones. We’ll find out soon!