Category: Reads

If you are not touched by the video above, I don’t think we can be friends.

Books finished in the past month:

I am Malala : the girl who stood up for education… by Malala Yousafzai

“I told myself, Malala, you have already faced death. This is your second life. Don’t be afraid — if you are afraid, you can’t move forward.”

The fault in our stars by John Green

“The world is not a wish-granting factory.”

“Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book.”

Takedown Twenty by Janet Evanovich

“Babe,” Ranger said, “you need to make some decisions.” “I made decisions. I’m just having a hard time sticking to them.”

Books added to my “to read” shelf:

Quesadillas: a novel by Juan Pablo Villalobos , trans. by Rosalind Harvey
Why: Shelf-awareness says: Like Villalobos’s first novel, Down the Rabbit Hole, Quesadillas is a child’s skewed vision of life, but this time the story is much funnier, with an economic vision of Mexico from the bottom up that’s alternately heartbreaking and hilarious. When the five-year-old twins go missing, 15-year-old Aristotle becomes convinced they’ve been abducted by aliens and takes Oreo with him to burglarize the neighbor’s pantry for supplies and then set out on a quest to rescue them.

See Jane Run by Joy Fielding
Why: The Guardian says: A woman finds herself in a shop wearing nothing but a coat, the pockets of which are stuffed full of money. She has lost her memory and has no idea who she is, so when a man comes forward claiming to be her husband, and armed with plenty of proof, she has no choice but to let him take her home … This is the archetypal Everywoman-plunged-into-a-nightmare novel.

The thirteenth tale : a novel by Diane Setterfield
Why: When her health begins failing, the mysterious author Vida Winter decides to let Margaret Lea, a biographer, write the truth about her life, but Margaret needs to verify the facts since Vida has a history of telling outlandish tales.

How to Be Invisible by Tim Lott
Why: The Times Higher Ed says: Strato Nyman couldn’t be more of an odd-one-out. He’s the only black kid in Hedgecombe-upon-Dray, he knows more about particle physics than his teacher, and he’s constantly picked on by school bully Lloyd Archibald Turnbull. It’s only at home that he blends in to the background – his parents are too busy arguing to notice he exists.

The Righteous Mind Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt
Why: Times Higher Ed says: fascinating attempt to apply moral psychology to politics. It descibes cutting-edge research research in an entertaining accessible manner.