The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

I had read this book in high school and only remembered there was a character named Daisy. Forced to read it in a small window of time I didn't squeeze much out of it. I skimmed it to pass a test and didn't have the patience to give it a try.

After hearing it was the favorite book of a friend and since I love the Hemingway, Fitzgerald era, I thought I'd give it a second chance. I was happy I did.

It really is beautifully written with a great style. I think the movie The Great Gatsby brings the book to life and I especially enjoyed dressing up for opening night. The Baz Luhrmann style shouts itself from the screen reminding me of exact scenes from Moulin Rouge but the script comes through as exact verbatim from the book. Not my personal favorite but can appreciate the book, story and movie.

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard Feynman

This book was recommended to me forever ago and I finally gave it the time it deserved. If you have appreciation for science and a great scientific mind, then you might enjoy the 'adventures of a curious character'. An autobiography of funny life moments, from building the atomic bomb, to learning how to pick locks as a hobby, to picking up girls, this is one interesting scientist. Feynman has a broad range of interests that always bring him to better ways of explaining physics in layman's terms. I was happy to read it and was thankful for the recommendation. There really is no better way to explain this work than 'adventures of a curious character'.

The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins

 

I thought I would never read this series, but got enough coercing and when it was finally placed in my hand I couldn't put it down. I read the whole series in a week and realized what all the hype was about. Even though it is a teen read, it blows Twilight out of the water. Love reading about a female lead character who kicks ass with a bow and arrow. It was fun to read and I even liked the last book in the series. I definitely will think of Katniss whenever I rock a braid. Looking forward to the next movies!

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt

Wow, what an awesome book! The best I can compare it to is the Coen Brother's movie: True Grit. It's a western adventure, with each page taking you along a well told story. You're going to want to buy a copy to pass along to all of your friends. The author does an amazing job of making every part of the journey interesting and unpredictable with well defined characters. If you haven't picked up a book in a while or know someone that needs something good to push them into reading, then this is the book. Canadian-born author Patrick DeWitt has won six awards for this novel and it absolutely goes on my top-reads list. I want to recommend this to everyone who loves an engaging story.

I caught a pike, but let it go...

The hiatus is over and so is the fishing trip. I caught a pike, but let it go... There's a lot more fish in the sea from what I hear.

So before I get into all the craziness of what I've been up to these last three months I'll divulge why I stopped in the first place. Things were as close as paradise gets when I was living in Panama and Bocas will always have a special place in my heart. Unfortunately though it was where the straw broke the camel's back on the relationship with my mom (who stayed there). I didn't know what was too much information, and really didn't know how to explain, and was super angry and didn't want her to know anything about my life so I just froze and stopped writing on the blog and poured more into my books. The short story is I've tried everything I can think of and I have no more left in me to make the relationship functional and not hurtful.

I miss blogging though and the feedback to start up again has been great! It's such a fun way to explain what I'm up to, so I'm going to play catch up for the next few days. Wow, that was way easier than I thought, maybe a bit clandestine but at least I'm back at it, right?

Posts to come:
- books books books
- Tree planting
- moving to Thunder Bay (yeah, that's not a typo)
- road trip in the states (starting in Aug)