The Best of the Best: My Top Ten Books I read in 2014

Hello dear Readers,

Today, I would like to talk about my Top Ten Books I read in 2014. 

This year was an awesome reading year for me. Actually, it has been the year I read the most, a total of 58 books. This is great, comparing to the years before when I was lucky if I read 5 books a year. 

Yes, a fantastic and productive reading year. Something else I feel proud of is I went out of the box and read genres I did not use to read. Novels and Poetry were the only two genres I read since I started reading. Then, I came to the USA and my reading range was expanded to YA, Fiction, NA, Dystopian, Memoir and Non Fiction, which was the most amazing genre I discovered this year. I read a lot of funny, inspiring and well written memoirs which has helped me a lot in writing my own memoir.

I also bought and read a lot of e-books on my kindle and checked out a lot of books from the library.

2014. I will remember this year as the year I read the most. The year I started working in a Library.

The year I completed my first Goodreads Challenge. The year I discovered all these amazing people in You Tube, the Booktubers. The year I gave a better use to my Instagram account and I was introduced to this amazing Book Community and the year I started this blog. All these things have helped my reading experience to be a better and exciting one.

Finally, my Top Ten Books I read in 2014:

1. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

2. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

3. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

4. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

5. Adultery by Paulo Coelho

6. My Side of Life by Shane Filan

7. I Work at a Public Library by Gina Sheridan

8. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

9. If I Stay by Gale Forman

10. Divergent by Veronica Roth

Wen

Book Review: Stolen by Lucy Christopher/Fiction-Young Adult-Thriller

Hello dear Readers,

With this year almost gone, I wanted to take the time to acknowledge some of the awesome books I read this year. On one of my previous posts, I talked about what for me was the best book I read in 2014: All the light we cannot see by Anthony Doerr. I still feel overwhelmed every time I mention or talk about this book because it's a fantastic one. In the other hand, we have Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn which is my second best book of the year. I won't talk a lot about this book in this post because I will do a review of it pretty soon but I will recommend it a 100%. The twist of events is mind blowing. I also read and heard good comments about the movie which I will see once it comes out sometime next year.

To continue with this specific post, today I would like to do a little review of a book that was very interesting and different from all the books I read this year: Stolen by Lucy Christopher.

Title: Stolen
Author: Lucy Christopher
Genre: YA/Thriller
Publisher: Chicken House
Language: English
Paperback: 320 pages

Book Description

A girl: Gemma, 16, at the airport, on her way to a family vacation.
A guy: Ty, rugged, tan, too old, oddly familiar, eyes blue as ice.

She steps away. For just a second. He pays for her drink. And drugs it. They talk. Their hands touch. And before Gemma knows what's happening, Ty takes her. Steals her away. To sand and heat. To emptiness and isolation. To nowhere. And expects her to love him.

Written as a letter from a victim to her captor, STOLEN is Gemma's desperate story of survival; of how she has to come to terms with her living nightmare--or die trying to fight it.

My thoughts
*I gave 4/5 stars on Goodreads

I saw a few booktubers talking about this book on their channels and it sounded good. I decided to buy it on my kindle. I remember posting a picture of it on my Instagram account and some of my fellow bookworms mentioned how awesome this book was. That motivated me more to read it.

The first thing I want to say about it is the point of view on this book is fantastic. Gemma tells the story, is her point of view but told in a letter to her captor.

Stolen is the story of Gemma, a sixteen year old girl who was kidnapped by Ty, a 25 year old man. She was at the airport in Bangkok with her parents and while she was waiting for the plane to leave, Ty approached her and started talking to her and using a coffee which he offered to buy her, put some sort of drug and that is how he could kidnapp her.

When Gemma regained consciousness, she woke up to this house in the Australian desert. Nothing else there but this house and this place that Ty claims he built himself. 

At this point we could think the story is not that interesting or that cannot get any better but it does. Ty tells Gemma that he has been obsessed with her since she was a little girl. He has been whatching her since she was a child and now that he finally did kidnapp her, he plans  to keep her with him forever.

Gemma hates Ty and the place she is. She hates how quite and calm it is. She hates the idea of not being able to escape because everyday she spends there she can see there is nothing else there. She tried to escape once but the heat and the desert were too much for her. When she wakes up she is back in the house. Ty had rescued her and she hated him even more because of that.

However, the time pass by and Gemma starts feeling symphatetic for Ty. She is confused. She knows what he has done to her is wrong but at the same time, deep inside, she feels attracted by him. 

One day, Ty was trying to capture a snake and Gemma gets bitten by it. Gemma starts feeling sick so Ty has no other option but to take her to this mine where she can get medical attention. At the mine, they take care of Gemma and Ty turns himself to the police.

When Gemma wakes up, her parents are there but the only thing she cares about is to make sure Ty is ok and that people do not see him as a monster. He saved her life, she thinks to herself.

Gemma starts talking to a pshycologist who is convinced Gemma is suffering the Stockholm Syndrome and she suggests Gemma instead of talking she writes about the whole situation and her feelings. That is why Gemma is writing the letter and deciding what kind of testimony she will give during Ty's trial.

In general, I liked the book. I never read a story like this before and even there was a moment when the book got really slow for  me and I think in some parts the description was unnecessary but is a well written book, with an interesting plot and the twist of events which for me was when we discover Ty has been watching Gemma since she was a child, that was something I was not expecting at all.

Stolen, a perfect read if you are looking for something different, written in an unique format and with interesting characters.

Wen

What I am reading for Christmas

Hello dear Readers,

Hope you all are having a great day and enjoying the Holidays. 

A few weeks ago I shared on my Instagram (thecostaricanwriter) what I was going to read for Christmas this year. That book is Christmas Stories by Paulo Coelho. His short Christmas Stories is what I usually read for the Holidays but if I'm not wrong this year was the first time they actually put the stories together on a book. I read it a few days ago and probably will read it again next week. I loved the book. I loved the fact it was a fast read, enjoyable and above all, stories with powerful and great messages, perfect for this time of the year when people always talk about love, helping other people, sharing, caring, spreading the Christmas's spirit. Each story with its own moral but with one thing in common, love. 

I recommend this book for all the Paulo Coelho followers out there and for those interested on reading something different for Christmas. The book is available in Amazon and iTunes in 5 different languages.

That was going to be my only Christmas reading this year, however, thanks to the Instagram Book Community, I discovered another book that I will be reading for the Holidays, My True Love Gave to Me. They are short stories as well, compiled in one book. Stories from different authors: Stephanie Perkins, Rainbow Rowell, Laini Taylor, Gayle Forman and more, which I have noticed people like a lot and I am just curious to see how this reading goes for me. I borrowed the book from my local library, the US version of it. I have seen the UK version and the cover is gorgeous.

Once I finished the book, I will be sharing my thoughts.

Wen

Title: My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories

Author: Various

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (October 14, 2014)

Language: English

Hardcover: 336 Pages

Nanowrimo is over, now what?

Hello dear Readers,

As many of you know, last November was NaNoWriMo 2014 (National Novel Writing Month). One novel, 50000 words, in one month. This was my second year and my second win, however, this year I feel better about my work. I feel more familiar and more attached to my story (Memoir), know the characters and their situations better and that makes me feel more accomplished. It is really hard to write 50000 words in one month. There were a few days when I did not want to write at all and because I worried that I was going to fall behind in my word count, I did not even want to read which is the other thing I love doing the most. I just could not concentrate these few days but that is part of a writers life and I have learned to deal with it. In despite all of these situations, I was back in the game and my writing got better. I also had the opportunity to go to a few write-ins. I met wonderful people, writers like me and it was an amazing experience. They shared their knowledge and also I felt I was part of a very strong community of writers which I never experienced before. Needless to say, the write-ins are a win-win situation: you get to meet awesome people and you get a lot of writing done which at the end not only helps with the word count but also it adds a sense of belonging to a community, a group of writers and friends.

It was a very busy month but it does not mean is over. The month is but not the work. For me, the next months will be filled with a few more chapters before I finish my first draft, a lot of editing and hopefully by next year, a revised-finished manuscript and why not a published book.

Reading and the first book I read

Hello dear Readers,

I've been reading a lot lately, which feels awesome. So many great books out there waiting to be read Others may be not that great but at the end, is reading. I believe reading is magic. Reading can take us to so many wonderful places. Reading can help us when we are having a bad day, to relax. Reading can make us laugh, cry, feel angry, upset. Can make us feel the happiest person in the world. Something that can make us feel all those things, that has to be magic and the good thing is that we do not necessarily need money to read the books. With a library card we can check out books at the library. We can even use a computer or an e-reader and read books for free.  Reading is a privilege. Reading can make us free.

Reading has been present in my life since I remember but it was not always something I did because I liked it. I read all the books I had to read in school and high school but it was always out of obligation, because I had to. Though there were some books that I liked and still do, there was always that "if you want to pass the class, you have to read it" thing that never let me enjoy reading as much as I do now.

With all the reading going on in my life right now, I started thinking about the first book I read not because I had to but because I wanted or like most people say "the book that got me into reading".

In my case, that book was the Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.

First published in 1988, in the Portuguese language, it has been translated into 56 languages. The story follows the shepherd Santiago in his journey to Egypt, after having this recurrent dream of finding a treasure there. The main theme or message in the book is finding our destiny, our Personal Legend.

When I first read the book, I did not own it. I borrowed it from my sister. One day I was at her house and while taking a look at her personal library, I saw it, read the first pages and it interested me. My sister also said it was a great book and that I should read it and that is what I did. I loved it and not only was the first book I read because I wanted but it was also the first book I bought with my own money. Since that first time I read the Alchemist, Paulo Coelho became my favorite writer. I have read all his books, including a few he wrote before The Alchemist was published and he was not that famous. 

In my case, his books, specially the Alchemist, have been an inspiration. Every book, every story teaches us something. Finding and understanding our Persona Legend, our destiny. Teach us about love, wisdom, about pursuing our dreams, about character, but they also teach us about fighting our demons, sadness and loneliness, which though those are feelings always perceive as bad but we can learn something good from them if we really try.

Not a day pass by that I do not feel thankful that I read this book because it opened my eyes to the wonderful world of reading. Every time I hear somebody saying what this book means to them and how the book has impacted their lives in a good way, I feel lucky because I can relate to it. It not only started my love for reading but it also started my curiosity and my willingness to find my Personal Legend, my purpose in this world.

Have a wonderful reading and a happy reading.

Wen

Book Review: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr/Historical Fiction

Hello dear Readers,

Today, I'm doing my book review on All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.

Title: All the Light We Cannot See
Author: Anthony Doerr
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Scribner, First Edition (May 6, 2014)
Language: English
Hardcover: 544 Pages

Book Description

From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, the beautiful, stunningly ambitious instant New York Times bestseller about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.

Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great-uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel.

In a mining town in Germany, the orphan Werner grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, then a special assignment to track the resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure’s converge.

My thoughts

*I gave 5/5 stars on Goodreads

I do not usually describe a book with one word. Books can make me feel so many different things that is always hard to come up with one word. However, like everything in life, sometimes we can make exceptions and that is what I am doing with this book, an exception, because if you ask me for one word it would be Perfection. 

I would like to start my review by sharing  two things on why I liked the book that much and how I knew about it. First, and you do not necessarily have to agree with me on this one, but a book that has the power to grasp you from the beginning to the end, through 530 pages, that has to mean something. And the second reason is, I have always liked reading about World War II.  Any book or story that has to do with it, in one way or another has always interested me.

I did not know about this book. I did not even know the author lives in the same city I do. One day, I went to my local library and I saw they were having him for a reading and a book signing on his newest book. I love going to readings, specially if it is at the library. I decided I would look for the book and see what was it about. All the books were checked out so I did not have the chance to see it but that made me realized one thing, the book must be really good. They had a lot of copies and all checked-out plus 44 holds. Since I could not do anything about the fact that all the copies were checked-out, I asked if there were any other books written by Anthony Doerr and they had one copy of his Memoir: Four Seasons in Rome. I was really excited about it because I love reading Memoirs. I read it and liked it. When I got home that day, I took a look at the book All the Light We Cannot See on the internet. The cover is beautiful, the colors. Then, I read about the book, I wanted to have an idea on what was the book about and it immediately captured me. A few days after that, the library purchased more copies of the book. I was able to borrow a copy and when I actually saw the book, I felt in love with it. 

I wanted to finish the book before the reading but it was impossible. A few hours before it started, I was on page 100.  When I got to the library, it was packed. Another sign for me that it was going to be good. And it was. It turned out to be one of the best readings I have ever been to. Except for the fact that one of the ladies there spoiled us on how one of the main characters ends (we did not like that at all but I guess, things like that happen), I still think it was a great evening. Anthony Doerr prepared this presentation to explain when the idea of writing this book came from, how the writing process was, a little bit of the story behind it and I particularly liked that because I was just expecting him to introduce himself, do a little talk about the book, do the reading, then the signing and leave. He did read a few pages but that presentation made the whole thing different, made me want to go home and keep reading the book, non-stop.  

Now, lets talk about the book. Anything you are looking for on a book, this one has it. A well written book, well developed characters, the story, how well organized it is. One of the things I liked the most about it was the short chapters of alternating characters. In my case, it helped the reading process to be smooth. Alternating characters in that way can be confusing for the reader but I think the author did a great job on maintaining the events very well organized, the flow of the story is so well structured that I never got lost or confused with any of the character's stories. 

There is a lot of description. That can be dangerous if the the writer does not know how to use it but again, in this case, it helped me to better understand the characters, what they were going through, how they were feeling. I wanted to read it slow, so I would not miss any detail. The power of description and what can be accomplished when a story is well written, it was almost like I knew what it was like to be blind or what having such passion for something can be like. I felt like I was there, literally, I felt that way through the whole book, like I could touch the characters.

The characters. The main two characters. Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History. He works as the master of all the many locks are there. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind. Her father decides to build a miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris so they have to leave their house and went to this city called Saint-Malo. This is where Marie-Laure's uncle lives. 

 Then we have Werner. He is an orphan who lives in Germany with his younger sister Jutta, fascinated by a radio and an expert on how to fix them, his talents got him a place on this academy for the Hitler Youth. They both have something in common, a radio, and because of his talents on reparing them and tracking the resistance, that is how Werner ends in Saint-Malo  and his story and Marie-Laure's converge.

There is more on the history of course but I do not want to spoil it for you. I just want to say, one of my other favorite things on this book, that really touched me, were the letters that Marie-Laure's father sent her when he ended in Germany and Marie-Laure had to stay with her uncle Etienne and Madame Manec. How his father always tried his best to protect her, to assure her he was fine and nothing bad was going on. How much he loved her and how much she loved him. I will share one, the one I liked the most:

Dearest Marie-Laure-

The others in my cell are mostly kind. Some tell jokes. Here's one: Have you heard about the Wehrmacht exercise program? Yes, each morning you raise your hands above your head and leave them there!

Ha ha. My angel has promised to deliver this letter for me at great risk. It is very safe to be out of the "Gasthaus" for a bit. We are building a road now and the work is good. 

My body is getting stronger. Today I saw an oak tree disguised as a chestnut tree. I think it is called a chestnut oak. I would like very much to ask some of the botanists in the gardens about it when we get home.

I hope you and Madame and Etienne will keep sending things. They say will be allowed to receive one parcel each, so something has to go through eventually. I doubt they would let me keep any tools but it would be wonderful if they would.

You absolutely would not believe how pretty it is here ma cherie, and how far we are from danger. I am incredibly safe, as safe as I can be.

Your Papa.

Perfect, amazing, beautiful, heartbreaking. All these words describe this book. Anthony Doerr shows us through the characters, through the story, how, even in the most difficult, horrible times, when we think there is no hope, that there is no meaning or purpose in life, there is that unseen light that can in a moment, easily, make everything better.

If you decide to read this book, hope you enjoy it

Wen

NaNoWriMo 2014 (National Novel Writing Month)

Hello dear Readers,

I was not able to post much in the last weeks and I apologize for that. I have been busy taking care of my husband who recently had a knee surgery and we recently adopted a dog. His name is Ike, a golden retriever, one year and a half. He is adorable, handsome, sweet and smart. Yes, he has been keeping us busy but we love him very much. He has brought so much happiness into our lives in such short period of time and of course I felt like I needed to write about it. Some of the pages I wrote in the last few weeks will be included in the draft I am finishing of my Memoir and speaking of writing, yeahh, NaNoWriMo 2014 is coming very soon. 15 days and the fun will be back.

Sometimes I feel kind of crazy and ask myself: "Why am I so excited about this?" Then, I remember, hey, is NaNoWriMo, this is about writing, having fun and getting things done.

I discovered NaNo last year. I did not even know it existed. One day checking the web site of my local library, they had a post about NaNo. It talked about how people were getting ready for it and what activities were planned for people here in Idaho. write-ins, the launch party, etc. I clicked on the link included on that post and that is how I learned what NaNo was about. All this happened like 3 weeks before it started.

At the beginning I thought I was not going to be able to do it. 50000 words in one month, meaning I had to write at least almost 1700 words a day, it sounded totally insane at the moment. I was struggling to write 500 a day, not every day. Why I would want to add almost 1200 to the struggle? I asked myself. Then, I realized how wrong I was. First of all, I was looking at writing as a struggle, something bad, and not something I was passionate about. It was a period in my life that I did not know what I wanted to do. I had been writing poetry for too long and for a long time I thought about writing a fiction novel but every time I started it, it was a disaster. I was writing because I felt like I had to not because I wanted to. And that is something I always will thank NaNo for. It made realize that even if I dont feel like doing it, writing does not have to be a struggle. I understood that if I wanted to write and not just "want to be a writer", I needed to write, at least a few words a day. Writing is hard, its true, but it can be fun. Winning NaNo is awesome. Having your winner certificate, your winner T-Shirt, all that is great but even if you do not wing, knowing that you wrote at least a few words every day, for 30 days, I can tell you, right there is what makes you a 'I'm a writer" and not just a "I want to be a writer".

I won last year. It helped me to start what today is my first draft and hopefully, I will be able to finish it this year. I am very positive that it will happen.

I had so much fun doing NaNoWriMo last year. I can't hardly wait for November. Last year I went to some of the write-ins they organized, met new people and at the end of the month we even had a celebration party. I really enjoyed it.

Thanks to NaNo I discovered Scrivener, an awesome computer's software for writers which has made writing on the computer much easier and organized for me.

If you want to know more about NaNoWriMo and how to participate, click in the link below.

http://nanowrimo.org/

Have fun guys and keep writing, reading, and living.

Wen

Book Review:The Book of the Unknown Americans by Cristina Henríquez/Novel-Fiction

Hello dear Readers,

I had an awesome long Labor Day weekend Camping at the Yellowstone National Park. I did not read as much as I wanted neither write. However, while camping and going places we could see many people looking at all the beautiful things this place offers. This weekend in particular, we saw a lot, a lot Oriental and Indian people which made me think of all the diversity of people living in the United States. You can literally see all kinds of people in one place because there were also German people, Mexican people, I was there, a costarican girl. We also met this girl from Bulgaria, she is working in one of the restaurants we had lunch one day. She is going back to Bulgaria next month. Don't you think is amazing to be able to be around all this massive cultural experience.  I was very happy. I wish I could speak their language and talk to them.

After the first time we saw all this people from Indian and which we think was Japan or Korea, I remembered of my recent reading, The Book of the Unknown Americans.

Title: The Book of the Unknown Americans
Author: Cristina Henríquez
Genre: Novel/Fiction
Publisher: Knopf, First Edition June 3, 2014)
Language: English
Hardcover: 304 Pages

Book Description

When fifteen-year-old Maribel Rivera sustains a terrible injury, the Riveras leave behind a comfortable life in Mexico and risk everything to come to the United States so that Maribel can have the care she needs. Once they arrive, it’s not long before Maribel attracts the attention of Mayor Toro, the son of one of their new neighbors, who sees a kindred spirit in this beautiful, damaged outsider. Their love story sets in motion events that will have profound repercussions for everyone involved. Here Henríquez seamlessly interweaves the story of these star-crossed lovers, and of the Rivera and Toro families, with the testimonials of men and women who have come to the United States from all over Latin America. The Book of Unknown Americans is a stunning novel of hopes and dreams, guilt and love—a book that offers a resonant new definition of what it means to be Americans.

My thoughts
*I gave 5/5 stars on Goodreads

The reason why I read the book was because it was on the list of book recommendations I use to check to pick books when I do not know what to read next and again, I am glad I read it.

I enjoyed and liked this book a lot. I related to the characters in a way that I know how does it feel to come to America and have a life here. The reasons and the circumstances why people come to this country can be different but one thing I think is the same for everybody is the fact that you are coming to the greatest country in the world. You want to see everything, experience all the things you used to watch on TV back home. Go to Disneyland, have a Starbucks drink, go to New York, see how a dishwasher works. Can be anything you can imagine.

For some people, like it happened to a few characters in the book, coming to America was a way to escape from their lives in their countries. They wanted a better life, they wanted to see their dreams in life coming true and they knew if they stayed in their countries that was not going to happen. For some of them, their dreams came true, for others, their lives turned out to be completely different of what they expected, however, just the fact to try to come to America, in the conditions they did, for me, it makes them human. Pursue what you love, what you want in life. This may be a fiction book but the situations described on it are not. They are things that happen everyday, everyday millions of people try to come to the United States, like I said before, for different reasons. This book reminded me of how lucky I am to be here. My country will be always my home, like the book says, I will always love it but I am lucky that people do not ignore me or do not pretend that I do not exist here. This book reminded me of how we need to remember everyday to treat others good, to be nice, to love each other, no matter where you are from, to help other people whenever you can. Like this book says, the characters were not unknown because they were illegal or didn't have the documents but because people didn't want to know them.



Wen

Book Review:The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie/Young Adult

Hello dear Readers,

I am so behind on my blog. I apologize for that. But have to say, I have read some amazing books lately and want to share my review of one in particular. It was one of those books that I did not want it to end.

Have to confess, I got the book a couple of months ago but it was not until one week ago that I finally read it.

Title: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian

Author: Sherman Alexie
Genre: YA

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; Reprint Edition (April 1, 2009)

Language: English

Paperback: 229 Pages

Book Description

Bestselling author Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.

Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is based on the author's own experiences, coupled with poignant drawings by Ellen Forney that reflect the character's art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he was destined to live

My thoughts
*I gave 5/5 stars on Goodreads

One day I was watching the local News Channel and they were talking about this book and why the School District needed to check and consider if the book was going to be included in the Reading List. Parents and people at school were concerned because of the explicit vocabulary used by the Author in some of the chapters, which I completely understand because you as a parent are always concerned about what your children are learning in school, what they are doing, etc. If I had a child I would be too. However, after I read the book, I can say that the vocabulary and the situations described are not as bad as what other really bad stuff our kids see on TV nowadays or the Internet. The author talks about situations (and I do not mention those here so I do not spoil the ones who have not read the book) that are completely normal and that happen in really life. Personally, I think the author talks about the reality of these situations in a funny way and is not offensive.

They also mentioned on the news that day that our local library was going to give free copies of the book. I decided to go and get one. That is how I ended up going. I was happy to go to the local bookstore which I love to get some other books and that one. At the end, I am glad I did because The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian is one of the best book I have read in my entire life (that is how awesome it was for me). I actually read the book in one day. Once I started, I could not stop. Made me laugh, made me happy because the main character, Junior, goes through really difficult times, its like his life is destined to be one way, the way everybody else expects it to be but he is determined to have a better life, a different life. He knows people do not like him but he does not let that to ruin his life. He has a tremendous sense of humor and that is the main reason why I love the book. He faces all these terrible situations but I never felt sorry for him or sad, he made me laugh.

I definitely recommend this book. It teaches about friendship, about not giving up on our dreams, it teaches about life and how we can either let the bad things break us or use those in order to be better people. The rest on this book, is real life things, can we learn from a character on a book? Yes, we can. I did.

Wen

Newspapers, Magazines and TV News

Hello dear readers,

I few months ago I attended this Poetry workshop, writer Diane Raptosh visited one of the Public libraries here in Boise, Idaho. I had such a great time and learned a few new techniques for writing poetry.

One of the techniques she taught consisted on picking any book from the library, read the first or last sentence on the first chapter and write a poem using that sentence. The other technique consisted on writing a poem using a headline from a newspaper.

For my poem I chose the book technique. I went to look for a book written by one of my favorite writers, Paulo Coelho and was lucky enough to find one of his book. You could pick any book but I just thought of him.

What was very interesting for me was that I never thought of using a newspaper as a source of writing poetry. When I write poetry, I usually just write it, without any help, just my notebook, pen, or computer, me and my thoughts. The inspiration comes from situations happening in the world, in my life or things I read in books or things I see on TV but never came from the headlines on a newspapers. I mean, I never read the newspaper purposely thinking that I was going to use a headline to write a poem.

It was amazing to perform this task because when you have a specific piece or title to write about, I think something magical occurs and in my case it was that my creativity just flowed better. Yes, I had to write about something in specific but at the same time it made me think of some other things, made me write with more creativity and developed the story I was telling.

I remember when I was in school, one of the assignments was to read the newspapers for one week and collect the articles that interested us the most and put those all together in a folder and write what we learned or why the article was important to us, why we liked it. At that moment, I wasn't that conscious of my writing like I am now, I just did it because I had to, because it was an assignment for school. Now, I am completely sure, in some way that helped to develop my writing.

Since the workshop, I have to confess, I haven't written much poetry. I've been focused on writing my Memoir but last night watching the news and all the things going on in the world right now, I remembered about this and I made me realize how much I miss, how much I need to write poetry again. So lets do it, but this time what about if besides headlines and TV news, we try it with magazines too. You can try the book technique as well, and see where our poetry takes us.

Enjoy the reading.

Book Review: My Salinger Year by Joanna Rakoff/Memoir

Hello dear Readers,

Since I started working on my new project during NaNoWriMo ( National Novel Writing Month) last November, I was determined to read as much Memoirs as I could (this is my project right now, I am writing my memoir). Have to say, I do not regret my decision because I have read amazing, inspiring and well written books which has motivated me more and more to keep working on my own book. At the same time, this experience has showed me a part of me as a reader that I did not know and is to enjoy reading in a different way and what I mean by this is not just reading because I like it or because it brings me joy but also give more appreciation to the work all these writers I have been reading put on their writing, not just thinking about me and what I am getting from them but feel happy for all they joy they must feel as well.

However, with my last reading, I could not help but have such a wonderful time and I could not stop thinking how much I was enjoying it.

Having said this, I do not pretend to change how I feel about reading or feeling different ways with each book I read. This is what Nonfiction has done to me the last months, made me realized something I did not know about myself. I will love reading for the rest of my life.

The book which I refer in this post is My Salinger Year by Joanna Rakoff.

Title: My Salinger Year

Author: Joanna Rakoff
Genre: Nonfiction/Memoir

Publisher: Knopf, First Edition June 3, 2014)

Language: English

Hardcover: 272 Pages

Book Description

Poignant, keenly, observed, and irresistibly funny; a memoir about literary New York in the late nineties, a pre-digital world on the cusp of vanishing, where a young woman finds herself entangled with one of the last great figures of the century.

At twenty-three, after leaving graduate school to pursue her dreams of becoming a poet, Joanna Rakoff moves to New York City and takes a job as assistant to the storied literary agent for J. D. Salinger. She spends her days in a plush, wood-paneled office, where Dictaphones and typewriters still reign and old-time agents doze at their desks after martini lunches. At night she goes home to the tiny, threadbare Williamsburg apartment she shares with her socialist boyfriend. Precariously balanced between glamour and poverty, surrounded by titanic personalities, and struggling to trust her own artistic instinct, Rakoff is tasked with answering Salinger’s voluminous fan mail. But as she reads the candid, heart-wrenching letters from his readers around the world, she finds herself unable to type out the agency’s decades-old form response. Instead, drawn inexorably into the emotional world of Salinger’s devotees, she abandons the template and begins writing back. Over the course of the year, she finds her own voice by acting as Salinger’s, on her own dangerous and liberating terms. 

Rakoff paints a vibrant portrait of a bright, hungry young woman navigating a heady and longed-for world, trying to square romantic aspirations with burgeoning self-awareness, the idea of a life with life itself. Charming and deeply moving, filled with electrifying glimpses of an American literary icon, My Salinger Year is the coming-of-age story of a talented writer. Above all, it is a testament to the universal power of books to shape our lives and awaken our true selves.

My thoughts
*I gave 5/5 stars on Goodreads

The first thing I would like to say is after I finished it, I immediately went to the Internet to see if she has written other books and she has.  This is on my TBR List already.  I knew about this book because I read the Book Page Magazine every month to look for recommendations on what to read. When I read their review I wanted to read this book so bad and I finally finish it.

Meeting J.D. Salinger changed Joanna’s life in a way that I admire. We love reading, we love writing but what an amazing experience is when what others write can change ours lives, they way we see the world, the way we read or write or in her case, something deeper, her life, once she read Salinger, something changed forever.

My Salinger Year is not about Salinger the person, is about Salinger the Writer and how his writing, his books affected other people’s life.

I always appreciate a well written book, a book where you do not get lost or confused. Joanna tells her story in a very soft and cute manner. It was really easy to understand and to keep up with the story, with the characters but most important, is a story told in a way you can relate with it. All of us, in different ways, with different circumstances, we are looking for something bigger, for something extraordinary. We all have a story to share, a story other people can relate, learn something and eventually bring a change to our lives.



Wen

How social media is affecting the way we write

Hello dear Readers,

I wanted to do my first post about something that has been on my mind for a few days. The other day I watched this interview and this guy said that social media is what we are, that we have became what we post. After I listened to this I was a little confused and immediately I thought that this is not necessarily true because we don't know if what a person posts is true all the time and to me that means a Facebook page doesn't necessarily show who a person is but then I remembered  of a time when I heard this writer saying that writers are what they write. Then I couldn't  help but think and question myself on how social media is affecting the way we write. I;m not talking about how social media helps your writing (promotion, marketing, sharing) but when we are actually writing. Do we think more the things we "post" on Facebook for example, are we more concern of what we write? What are your thoughts on this?